Gladiator

by Seyary-Minamoto

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

353. Chapter 353: Downtime-Defenses 4

Downtime/Building defenses

4

The door creaked when Renkai pushed it open, slipping into the meeting room once again, head bowed in clear remorse: Princess Azula ignored him, busy speaking with another member of the Third Squad.

"… Then this means we should expect more aerial support for the enemy? Would you take down any balloons with your lightning if need be, Princess?"

"I would, but I'd prefer not to, if it's not necessary. Too much would ride on long-ranged attacks like lightning unless Pohuai Stronghold is successful at dealing with their aircrafts," Azula was saying, shaking her head. "Colonel Shinu understands just how crucial his position is, but he also has been made to understand the importance of his troops: not a single soldier at our disposal can be thrown away and wasted. Every small action in the defense of Yu Dao can go a long way."

"Of course, Princess," said the same guard, nodding promptly.

"I cannot presume to predict if the Mechanist has had the chance to come up with other weapons to defeat ours. I would like to believe he hasn't had the time, or the refined resources for it," Azula said, before finally glancing in Renkai's direction. "And look who's back, just as we were about to wrap up the meeting. Have any questions, Captain Renkai? For I certainly have quite a few for you."

"I… I apologize," he said, bowing his head remorsefully. Azula scowled.

"You certainly should," she said, harshly. Renkai winced. "I'd leave you in the dark as punishment for your behavior if this situation weren't as serious as it is. You're staying behind once everyone else leaves and I'll try to get everything across far more quickly in your case. Understood?"

"Yes, Princess," Renkai nodded, submissively.

"As for the rest… any other questions?" she asked. A few shook their heads. "You understand your duties and what's expected of you, then?"

"We do, Princess," said the same guard as before, nodding. "You can count on us."

The man was strangely submissive, showing nothing but loyalty towards the Princess even when the Fire Lord's daughter would be the first to question the veracity of such a sentiment. She didn't betray her own disbelief, but she stared down the soldier without any hints of friendliness, hoping they'd know better than to attempt to draw any closer to her. She meant to offer no ground for Shaofeng's troops to exploit against her.

"We may hold other briefings over the next weeks, should any crucial information about the upcoming battle change," Azula said. "Very well, then, you're free to go… save for you, Captain Renkai."

He nodded submissively as the others began filing out of the room. It was likely that their conversation would be eavesdropped… she suspected the guards weren't here only to defend Yu Dao. Their actual boss surely had demanded that they kept an eye on her, constantly. She dreaded she'd wind up stabbed in the back, a fear induced by every guard present aboard the Barge save for Renkai…

He sighed once the door closed behind him and he approached the Princess, bowing his head in visible remorse: that wasn't a good sign. No one could see them anymore, why was he still putting up a visual act of regret for her?

"Well?" she said, with an authoritarian, commandeering voice, loud enough to be overheard by whoever might have stayed lurking outside. "How did your visit to the loo go, exactly? Was it productive?"

"I… I am deeply sorry for having excused myself as I did," Renkai said, gritting his teeth.

"That would require you having excused yourself indeed, which you did not. You merely whispered something to another guard and walked away. What is it, a year in my direct service has convinced you that you're untouchable, by any chance, Renkai? That your job is that secure?" Azula asked, raising her eyebrows as she crossed her arms over her chest. "I've grown used to you, that doesn't mean I can't toss you aside if you can't do the job properly. So… will you do better, going forward?"

"I will do my best, Princess," he said, bowing his head again. Azula frowned. "But I'm afraid I came across… a slight problem on my way to the loo."

"A… problem?" Azula repeated, her brow furrowing. "Do I want to hear this?"

"I suspect you might," Renkai said: Azula's scowl deepened, her heart racing as the wildest, darkest possibilities took wing inside her mind.

"Then I suppose we shall leave your briefing for later," she said. Renkai nodded.

"Please… follow me."

The words chilled the blood in Azula's body: he wasn't about to lead her to the hideout, was he? Had he failed, for some reason? Were Hotaru, Rei and Song safe or not? She wanted to ask the question bluntly, but she couldn't do it. She couldn't risk it.

Footsteps of lurkers, eavesdroppers, echoed hastily down the ship's corridor, once Renkai pulled the door open.

Azula snarled, following Renkai as she glared about herself in frustration: nowhere was safe. Nothing was safe. And something clearly had gone wrong in Renkai's mission: her fists trembled as she followed him, a deep, threatening scowl across her features as they proceeded downwards, climbing to the lower levels of the ship until...

Until they reached the Barge's brig.

Azula's feet almost halted outright: she seldom visited this area of the Barge, mainly because she hadn't needed to. Only a handful of people had ever been transported as criminals here… including Sokka. The flooring realization struck her with bursts of regret far too late in the making: she hadn't even checked on him once when she had taken him from the South Pole. So lost in her own glory and delusions of grandeur, having captured the rebel leader, that she hadn't laid eyes upon him once after declaring he would become a slave, so long ago.

She breathed deeply, stilling herself before restarting her march after Renkai: he was opening the door, leading her into the ship's cellblock, head still bent. He continued to glare over her head, confirming that they weren't being followed.

Azula marched into the brig once the way was clear: there would be no one in this place, ideally… but it was far from a logical meeting location for the sake of secrecy. Renkai could have very well brought her to her cabin if he simply wanted privacy… so there was someone here. There had to be…

Azula gasped, her horror equal to her fury once she laid eyes upon one of the two occupants of the jailcells within her Barge.

"U-uh… we meet again?"

Chan's awkward words and smile outraged and confused Azula even further: she turned towards Renkai, who closed the door and sighed as he removed his helmet, head still bent.

"Explain this. Now," she commanded him, her voice ringing with fear she failed to withhold. "Where are they? Did you manage to…?"

"The mission… was almost completely successful," Renkai finally explained, glaring at Chan fiercely. The army captain shrank in place, pouting. "Everything is as it should be, save for the fact that we were followed. By two different people."

"And one of them was… you?" Azula turned towards Chan, doing nothing to hide her distaste towards him. He huffed.

"You don't have to say it that way, for crying out loud…" he grumbled. "If anything, I'm the one who should be judging you because you're up to some sketchy, corrupt shenanigans and I caught your people red-handed!"

His stubbornness saw Azula's eyes growing colder still. Chan grimaced, inching back and against the wall, knowing he had nowhere to hide from her wrath, should she choose to unleash it upon him.

"What, exactly, did he see?" Azula asked, turning her attention to Renkai again, before glaring at the other occupant of the brig: he lay against the wall of another cell, apparently unconscious… but if he were a spy, that could very well be a pretense. "And that one? Who is he?"

"A sailor, I believe. Most likely associated with who we expect…" Renkai answered, glancing at Chan anew. "Him, however… I don't know who he is. He took down the sailor just as I was chasing him, so I'd think he's not on their side, but… it could be an act."

"He… he couldn't be," Azula frowned, glancing at Chan again. He raised an eyebrow.

"I couldn't be… what, the one who caught the guy?" he asked. "Still underestimating my…?"

"You couldn't be associated with who we're talking about," Azula said, staring at him disdainfully. "It's obvious that you can't keep a secret for ten minutes, you're the worst possible spy anyone could have sought…"

"I… hey!" Chan winced, offended, as Azula glared at him intently.

"What were you doing tonight? And why?" she asked, point-blank. "How did you wind up exactly where you were, Chan? Answer me, now."

"Woah, no need to be so aggressive, damn…" Chan grimaced, running a hand over his hair. "Okay, so… I was on duty, patrolling on the walls, when I noticed something sketchy, shadows outside the city, and as any guard should, I said 'oh, that's danger! That's a bad guy right there, waiting for you to catch him, Captain Chan!', and so I followed my training and in doing so, I followed the sketchy people all the way to the port! They didn't notice me at all, no sir, I've learned a lot after all, and so I hid and watched and then these other sketchy folks showed up and joined the first ones! But when I started following their whole group, what'd you know? Another one turned up! Oh, but this one was spying too. So, you know, they were a rival for me, see? A very inexperienced rival, though: one blow and that was it, loser down for the counting, haha!"

His amusement echoed in the prison cells to no response: Azula's disgusted expression brought an awkward smile to Chan's face.

"A-anyway, I beat the guy and then this guy showed up, and I was like 'yo, so how do I spin this?', and I figured out that maybe I could threaten him…! And then, uh, I realized it was an Imperial Guard! A corrupt Imperial Guard, maybe doing sketchy business, or maybe sent by you on sketchy business… and then I noticed Lady Morishita was there too. And I was so confused and that's uh, where I forget what happened? I figure I blacked out and then I woke up here. Right?"

"Right," Renkai said, curtly. Azula's irritation didn't seem to have diminished in the slightest upon hearing that explanation.

"You didn't notice you were being followed?" Azula asked Renkai.

"I did, but… he hid well. Better than the sailor did," Renkai said, glaring at the other man next.

"Heh, see? So much for thinking I'm some incompetent nobody, Princess, but I actually pulled that off!" Chan smirked smugly, hands on his hips. "I proved myself, just as I meant to, and now you have no choice but to acknowledge that I did something… good. Right?"

"Oh… you certainly have proven yourself abundantly as it is, Chan. I salute you for it," Azula said, her voice charged with danger as Renkai sighed next to her.

"I truly am sorry. But I believe he didn't see… well, them. Any of them. Especially…"

"Good. At least this wasn't a complete failure if that's the case," Azula said, breathing heavily. "What, exactly, are our choices here?"

"I… I wish I could say I'm thinking clearly, but I'm not," Renkai said, gritting his teeth. "The only reason why I… why I held back from being lethal is because he's a member of the armed forces. A captain?"

"Indeed," Azula said, glaring at the skeptical Chan.

"What's that supposed to mean, you 'held back from being lethal', huh?" he asked. "You literally saw me take down that guy…!"

"In one blow. And then I did the same to you. Your point?" Renkai hissed. Azula huffed.

"I'm a well-known enjoyer of banter, Renkai, but this isn't the moment to humor this moron," Azula told him. Renkai gritted his teeth and nodded.

"I apologize…"

"Heh, so servile…" Chan said, with a mocking smirk that faded from his face quickly once Azula's golden glare bore against him anew.

"You'd stand to learn some respect from him, if anything," Azula said. "Not to mention… how terribly astute it is of you to hope for a commendation or approval of any kind from the very person you're attempting to sabotage. You want to prove yourself by causing me unnecessary trouble? To take your revenge by being the perfect soldier in my service? Nothing you say makes the slightest bit of sense, you damnable… ugh!"

Chan winced as a streak of blue flames accompanied the Princess's hand as she moved it downwards, in an arch. She started pacing inside the prison block, covering her face with her hands in a most unexpected display of despair… Chan blinked blankly, perplexed by her reaction, as well as by how the guard seemed to take it entirely seriously. His instinctive assumption was that the Princess would have been manipulating the situation somehow, that acting emotionally would be for the sake of lowering other people's defenses… but the Imperial Firebender didn't seem to believe that.

"We need to keep all attention as far away from that ship as possible," Azula recited. Renkai nodded. "This idiot… would likely just run to anyone with the tale of what he saw or even elaborating on what he didn't see. If word reaches Shaofeng, it won't be long before whatever allies he has in Yu Dao storm the port looking for… for them. So, clearly, either we kill him…"

"WHAT?!"

"Or we keep him imprisoned," Azula said, turning towards Renkai and ignoring Chan's exclamation completely.

"We have no real excuse to put him behind bars, though," Renkai pointed out. Azula nodded. "But what about the other spy? You won't just keep him here without anyone learning about it, will you?"

"No… no. I… I guess outing him as a spy could be fine," Azula said, glancing at the unconscious sailor. "Just… we could say he's a White Lotus spy instead."

"A White Lotus spy?" Chan repeated, eyes widening. "Woah! I caught a White Lotus spy?"

"I said…! Oh, curses, can you just shut up for ten minutes?" Azula snapped, exasperated. "You don't have any clue of what's going on here, and the decisions we need to make are serious! So stop interrupting, stop rambling, stop… saying anything stupid! Because if you keep it up, I'll say you were a White Lotus spy as well and see to it that both of you are executed!"

"Huh… that's not a bad plan, I'd dare say," Renkai said, and Chan yelped.

"Of course it's a bad plan!" he exclaimed, jumping to his feet and clasping the metal bars of his cell. "Don't you even think about having me killed! I'm a captain of the army! I've been working for five years to get to where I am now! I'm competent, I'm strong, I showed you I can be stealthy and smart about protecting the city, which, by the way, is all I was doing! I didn't do anything wrong! Killing me, though? Now THAT would be wrong! And you…! Y-you… would do something wrong. Because you've always done wrong things. Uh… shit."

Azula's skeptical glare bore into the suddenly insecure Chan: unbeknownst to him, though, his words certainly struck Azula in an unpleasant place…

"Being in the wrong place at the wrong time is… not a crime," she said, through gritted teeth. "But I wish it were one. A lot of people ought to pay dearly for causing me as much trouble as they have for that exact damn reason."

"Well, maybe stop getting up to sketchy business and scheming so much, and nobody will be an issue for you…" Chan mumbled. Azula's deadpan glare made him smile awkwardly. "U-uh, I mean… sorry about that, I wish I hadn't been there either, I'm a good guy. I swear I'm a good guy…"

"He's going talk about this to the first bastard who listens. Worse, to the first one who pays him for it," Renkai scoffed, hands on his hips. Chan pouted at him now. "Whatever we do, we cannot leave him unchecked. I know there could be a fallout for accusing him of betraying the Fire Nation without justification, but…"

"But I'm not betraying it at all!" Chan squeaked, huffing. "That sketchy person you're so scared of? Don't you think that dude might just hear of what's going on here, think 'hey, that's kinda odd', and then look for me and break me free and question me about what I know? Yeah, he could do that! I'm sure he could!"

Azula snarled: he wasn't wrong, even though Chan was clearly seeking any possible chance of salvation for himself. Shaofeng's reach, though, might prove wide enough for that to be possible…

"So… don't you think you're better served by not risking it at all?" he asked, before grimacing. "And by that I mean, no, don't kill me. Like, I'm saying, don't kill me, don't imprison me, and I'll do whatever you want…!"

"I have no reason to trust you, Chan," Azula said, bluntly. He grimaced. "No, our shared history is no reason for it, considering every single occasion on which we've crossed paths has ended in misery for either of us: I've done more than my share of trusting people who did not deserve it, I've believed in the good nature of those who never earned that faith, and I certainly do not care to offer any of it to you. Promising me that you'll do whatever I ask is meaningless when you could very well turn on your heels and betray me as soon as a better offer arrives. And it will."

"I… okay. Okay, I have no idea what's going on here," Chan sighed, shaking his head and looking at Azula pleadingly. "Look… if you want me to keep quiet, I will! But I don't know what I'm supposed to be giving away to begin with. What was there on that ship, and what…?"

"Shut up," Azula snapped: Chan scowled. "You're already in an unpleasant enough position as it is, Chan: don't make it worse. The less you know, the safer you will be. And I'm not about to put myself or anyone associated with me at greater risk just to satisfy your ego and your curiosity. Am I clear?"

Her voice rang with such determination and authority that Chan could only shrink and grimace, no matter if he was over a head taller than the Princess. He grimaced, lowering his gaze.

"Okay, but then… what do you want from me?" he said. "I get it, I barged into something I shouldn't have, and you… you don't trust me at all? But you need every able and willing soldier to help you in the battle to come, and I'm both of those things. You can't just throw me in your ship's brig and forget about me, can you?"

"I've certainly done it before," Azula said, unthinking: even Chan noticed the streak of regret that crossed her eyes, and she glared at him pointedly. "But you're not wrong to say that's not convenient. It… it would give away, to any other spies, that you're in trouble with me for some reason. They'd seek to learn why. They'd… try to recruit you?"

Even when she had said the words, Azula grimaced as she pondered that possibility: it truly didn't seem likely that Shaofeng would ever want someone like Chan in his personal troops and spies. A man as prone to boasting and carelessly bumping into secrets would be too great a liability for him.

"I wouldn't be so sure of that…" Renkai said, and Azula hummed.

"Yeah, I heard myself as I said it and I realized that's not very likely," she admitted. Renkai smiled a little.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Chan pouted, glaring at her.

"I hardly know you… but I don't think I need to know more to suspect that you're not the type of person he would hire for spying," Renkai said, bluntly. Chan scoffed.

"What, tall, handsome and strong? Then that's his loss, whoever 'he' is," Chan huffed, shaking his head. "But then, if you don't think he'd recruit me, what's your big concern?"

"That he might not recruit you but torture you for information, which you would readily give, without knowing what you're doing, because you have no idea what's at stake," Azula answered, with a dry grin. Chan's jaw dropped. "You're not safer just because they wouldn't recruit you, frankly. And if you're not safe, then… neither are the rest of us."

"Does that include you?" Chan asked, perplexed. "Honestly, what kind of shady stuff did you get mixed up with that you'd have enemies that scary, Princess? In over your head, are you?"

"And you must be in over yours, if you think you can talk to me that way and get away with it," Azula said, all humor gone from her face. Chan huffed, lowering his head. "Frankly… this is ridiculous. He's not even wrong, if he's truly done everything in hopes of protecting Yu Dao, then…"

"I did!"

"Then it means he's not someone we should remove from this equation when we have no idea how bad the upcoming battles might be," Azula said, rubbing her brow. "One soldier could tip the scales of war. He could prove useful…"

"Or he could fail to do so by tipping the scales in the wrong direction," Renkai said, sternly. Azula grimaced.

"Oh, please! If you two tell me whatever it is that you want from me, I'll do it! I'm not joking about wanting to prove myself, Princess, so whatever you need, I'll be ready to deliver! I'm a soldier, trained and prepared for this job, and I'll do such a great job you'll be sorry for ever rejecting me!" Chan squealed.

Azula scoffed… though she noticed Renkai's tension beside her: a grimace of distaste, even more pronounced than Azula's, decorated his face. She winced.

"Don't… don't misunderstand," she told him. Renkai's eyes flickered between the two of them, and Chan raised his head haughtily. "He's… someone I was supposed to be engaged to marry, years and years ago. That's all there is to it."

"Oh. So, a parasite who intended to marry you and spend his life being pampered and making nothing of himself. I see," Renkai sentenced harshly, and Chan gasped.

"Hey! That's not…! Well, not quite right, and that's precisely the point of me proving myself! This way, the Princess will see what she missed out on!"

"I… think it's safe to say that she didn't miss out on anything," Renkai said, with a deep sigh: despite everything, Azula smiled slightly at his words. "What, though, shall we do? If keeping him imprisoned isn't going to work…"

Azula's smile faded as she stared at the confused, desperate Chan for another moment. As foolish as he was, even she couldn't deny that there was no actual malice in his heart: even if she failed to understand how he'd ever prove himself through his nonsensical plan, she didn't doubt that he was genuine about doing so. What he'd done was terribly inconvenient, though, that much was true… she sighed, hands on her hips.

"Renkai…" she said, biting her lower lip. "I may have to ask something of you that you might not forgive me for."

"Princess…" Renkai said, puzzled. Chan's eyes widened.

"Hey, now… don't kill me. I didn't…"

"Shut up," Azula cut him off, rubbing her brow with her fingertips. "I already decided you're not going to die. You'd be even more trouble dead than alive, and you're trouble enough as it is."

"Heh, thanks. That's… wait, not a compliment," Chan grimaced. Renkai rolled his eyes.

"But we can't leave him unsupervised either. Whether in prison or anywhere else," Azula said, glancing at Renkai anew. He frowned. "Thus… I may have to give you a most unpleasant command."

"Princess…?" he said, his voice heightening with fear.

"I need you to be Chan's personal supervisor whenever I'm not around," Azula concluded: Renkai's horror-struck face was more expressive on that moment than ever before. "Obviously, if I'm around, you wouldn't need to be there too… but whenever I can't keep an eye on him, you'll have to do it yourself."

"Wait… how, exactly, is that supposed to work?" Renkai asked. "You're thinking he'll just… be with us constantly, for no apparent reason? At least, no publicly known reason…?"

"Well… I could very well grant him the privilege of being our guide, so to speak, in Yu Dao," Azula said. Chan blinked blankly, perplexed. "I could select him as a local officer that I would like to work with to prepare all matters of defense of the city. I could even spin it politically: he's a respected military leader, at least respected enough to be a captain…"

"I am respected!" Chan squeaked, nodding promptly.

"And as he should have enough insight on his troops and Yu Dao itself, I want him to work with us. So much so that he's going to be with us… constantly," Azula said, with a sigh. Chan smiled, though the grin waned quickly.

"Uh, wait. Does that mean I can't even go to the bathroom unsupervised?" he asked. Renkai looked at Azula in despair, and the Princess sighed.

"You'd stand guard outside until he's finished," she said. Renkai groaned, rubbing his forehead with his fingertips.

"That sounds like a nightmare," Renkai said.

"It might, but you're not leaving Chan out of your sight unless someone trustworthy is there to relieve you from duty, Renkai," Azula said, bluntly. The man grimaced. "What? Contesting my orders now, are you?"

"N-no, I… no. It's only… that sounds terribly inconvenient and unpleasant. But if you're sure, Princess, I… I'll bear with it," Renkai sighed, hanging his head in defeat. Chan winced.

"B-but then… I'm, uh, not exactly free, am I?" he asked. Azula shook her head as Renkai stepped forward, unlocking his cell door.

"From now on, Captain Chan… you're stuck with us. And you will be for a long time," Azula said, with a dry grin. "At least, until I'm sure I can trust you. And who knows how long it's going to take for me to believe that's the case?"

Chan's awkward smile soured further as the truth dawned on him fully: as much as he had looked forward to meeting the Princess again, as much as he had hoped the chance would arise where he would show her just what a competent and impressive soldier he had become… this certainly was far more than he had ever signed up for.

"Y-you're sure about this, Princess?" Chan asked. "I mean… you don't like me. And I don't like you. And now we're… stuck together?"

"Reap what you sow," Azula said, harshly. Chan's eyes widened. "Think twice about it the next time you try to play hero by spying on me or the people I'm close to."

"I had no idea that the people I was following had anything to do with you! It could have been the White Lotus!"

"And they would have killed you if it had been them, so be grateful you're saddled with this unpleasant situation rather than death, will you?" Azula said.

The door slid open, and Chan grimaced as he stood in place: crossing that threshold would signify no more freedom than what he'd had behind bars…

But what choice did he have? What choice did the Princess have, too?

"You, uh… you will be nice to me, right?" Chan asked, eyeing Azula apprehensively: her irritation only seemed to increase upon hearing the question. "I mean, no threats to burn me, or my belongings, or…"

"I will treat you with the same amount of respect you offer me. How about that?" Azula said, with a dry grin. Chan grimaced.

"That sounds… uh, fair. I think. I hope," he said. Azula breathed deeply.

"Then… we have ourselves a deal."

Chan breathed deeply, still unsettled as he stepped out of the brig's cell, aware that life as he knew it was about to take a turn… and not for the better, considering who would be the puppeteer handling his strings, going forward.

"Okay… so now what?" Chan said, eyeing Azula apprehensively.

The Princess still looked as skeptical of him, as unwilling to trust him, as expected… but her gaze, and that of her guard, shifted in the direction of the man who was stirring in another of the ship's cells…

---

"Heavens, what a nefarious situation! Princess, I cannot believe a White Lotus spy infiltrated your ship's crew!"

Mayor Morishita appeared to be genuinely anguished by the situation: the gagged, restrained, bearded sailor groaned as he attempted to speak, surely intent on clarifying his actual loyalties, but his fate had been sealed as soon as the Princess had claimed his association with the enemy faction. He would be taken to Yu Dao's prison soon, having been led all the way to the city from the docks by morning.

"To be quite honest, I wasn't surprised," Azula sighed, shaking her head. "The enemy lurks everywhere. We can never be too cautious. The faster we annul all traitors in our midst, the stronger our defense of Yu Dao will be."

"Of course, of course!"

The spy whimpered, eyeing Renkai pleadingly: the guard captain remained stoic and silent, unwilling to meet his gaze. Next to that guard, however, a most awkward brigade captain eyed the spy with uncertainty, no doubt dreading that his own fate might match that of the alleged White Lotus spy before long.

"We shall keep him locked up, Princess. There's no need to worry, this man won't bother your crew or your mission ever again," said Morishita, bowing his head towards Azula. She nodded gratefully. "It speaks well of the efficiency of both Captain Renkai and Captain Chan that they captured him, however!"

"Ah, yes. An accidental, but most fortuitous twist of fate brought them to work together. Fascinating, isn't it?" Azula said, with a sardonic smirk. Chan's eyebrow twitched, and Renkai grimaced under his helmet. "I admit, I did not have high expectations of Captain Chan, but I'm happily surprised and impressed. I've taken him into my personal service now, until the time comes for me to return to the Capital. I hope this is alright…"

"Oh! Why, that's marvelous! I did believe Captain Chan had performed his duties quite well so far, but perhaps he needs a more challenging position to prove his true mettle!" Mayor Morishita declared, smiling at Chan, who returned the gesture with an awkward, toothy grimace. "Congratulations! Most soldiers must envy you for having been chosen by the Princess in such a way."

"R-right. I'll do my best to prove, uh, worthy of her trust…?" Chan said, raising his eyebrows at Azula: she was clearly leaning towards giving him a snappy response, but she only smiled unpleasantly at him.

"Ah, we all hope you'll succeed at that," she said, simply. Chan swallowed hard.

The Princess hadn't slept that night: dealing with the situation concerning the spy hadn't been easy. Not only had they needed to keep the man unconscious for as long as possible, but for good measure, the Princess tasked Renkai with finding a White Lotus tile they promptly presented to the Mayor as evidence of the man's membership of the Order. His attempts to speak out to clarify his true loyalties were quickly muffled by his gag – Azula had asked Renkai to question the man thoroughly in the prison cells later, once he had time for it.

That remained the problem to sort out, though: time. There wasn't enough of it, not when so much rode on the success of every mission in Yu Dao, be it the ones Ozai had tasked Azula with, or her self-imposed ones. She proceeded to excuse herself from the conversation with Mayor Morishita upon establishing that Renkai would be the one to thoroughly question the captured spy eventually, and she demanded for Chan to help her unravel every weakness and strength, every military possibility, in the harbor once again. That excuse would only work the one time, naturally: no one would need to tour the docks multiple times for the purpose of basic strategizing. Nevertheless, it served her in figuring out the layout of the port, unraveling what few advantages she would be able to exploit in the coming days, whenever she visited the port stealthily for her personal purposes.

They walked to one end of the port first, opposite to where the Morishita family's personal ship was anchored. Numerous sailors bowed their heads towards her, as did any army sentries who appeared thrilled to learn that the Princess wasn't taking the port's safety for granted either. Even some of the soldiers in the Communications Tower watched her from the window, shirking out of sight when they noticed she had seen them. She would speak about theoretical defenses of the area with Renkai, who nodded at her every remark, and Chan's interjections mainly went ignored –Renkai never failed to notice if he was falling behind as they walked, or if he tried to strike up any conversations he wasn't supposed to with total strangers, dragging him back to the Princess forcefully if need be.

By the end of the trip, Azula's heart was pounding as she approached the Morishita family's yacht. Arms crossed over her chest, she wandered between the ships, walking across the full pier, feigning that her interest wasn't the ship itself, but rather, the horizon beyond them. Renkai and Chan continued to follow, and the brigade captain sighed, hanging his head.

"What are we doing here again?" he asked. "Isn't this the sketchy ship?"

"It's the Morishita family yacht, so I'd advise you not to speak of it quite so carelessly," Azula said. Chan winced.

"You really involved them in whatever weird stuff you're up to, huh?" he said. "The Morishita family is pretty great, as far as I can tell. I don't know what you've convinced Kori of, but…"

"I haven't convinced her of anything she didn't already believe, well before I got here," Azula said, cuttingly. Chan grimaced. "Must I remind you that you'll get the respect you offer in return, Chan?"

"I… w-well, am I supposed to respect whatever you're doing right now when I have no idea what it is?" he pouted. Azula sighed, turning to glare at him.

"Renkai?" she called. Chan winced: she wasn't about to make her hound throw him off the pier, was she? He could swim! Maybe not too well, in this armor, but he certainly could, and he wouldn't hesitate to tell everyone exactly what was going on if… if he could give her the slip for a moment. But she wouldn't let him do that, would she? "Take this annoyance and check if anyone's lurking nearby. I'm going inside the ship now."

Renkai bowed submissively: Chan scoffed at her command, but he couldn't protest before Renkai yanked him back to the very base of the pier. From there, the two men were able to confirm that the coast was clear for Azula to climb the ramp when she was ready – though Chan certainly didn't seem to want to confirm it at all. Azula breathed out slowly, and while she crouched slightly, she ran as fast as she could, inside the yacht.

Her pounding heart seemed to reach for her daughter's as she marched into the ship's corridor: Sneers sat before a door, brow furrowed. He was alert immediately upon hearing her approach, but he calmed down upon recognizing the Princess. Without a word, he nodded in her direction before pulling the door open for her: Song and Rei gasped inside the cabin before Azula stepped up to the threshold, her surging emotions plain across her face.

"Oh, finally," Rei smiled, relieved, as Azula rushed inside, hugging both her companions tightly.

"You're both alright? Hotaru?" she asked, immediately.

"Hotaru's fine too. She cried a little, but… she's okay," Song smiled, glancing at the child's basket: Hotaru whimpered, with soft coos that seemed to call for her mother.

Azula's heart seemed moments away from breaking upon reuniting with her daughter: she rushed towards her, collecting her in her arms and pressing a kiss to her brow.

"I'm here now, dear… I'm back," she whispered: Hotaru wiggled in her arms, and the despair in her voice shifted to what might have been relief, even happiness. "I'm so sorry I was gone for so long. I…"

This truly was too challenging: the very notion of being away from Hotaru for most hours of the day, of not knowing what was happening with her daughter, filled her with an apprehension that nearly rendered her unable to function. She needed to figure out other excuses, other ways to see her child as often as possible…

"What happened last night? Do you know?" Rei asked, inching closer to Azula, a hand upon her back. Azula sighed, offering Hotaru to her sister before unbuckling her armor.

"Unfortunately… the worst possible person has learned that I'm hiding something," she said. Song frowned.

"Is it a spy for the General of the Guards?" she asked. "Or is it someone else?"

"I don't believe Shaofeng would ever be quite so foolish as to hire this one as his spy… but I suppose weirder things have happened," Azula sighed, shaking her head. "The person I'm talking about is a brigade captain of the army. He's a man… whose life I ruined. Long ago."

"What…? Really?" Rei gasped, looking at Azula in astonishment. The Princess tugged her clothes open, allowing her to nurse Hotaru safely, and she took the child from Rei's arms to do so. "You ruined someone's life…?"

"I thought I was justified back then. I still have enough resentment towards him to somewhat feel justified… and yet I objectively know I wasn't," Azula said, with gritted teeth. "Well… at least not the first time. I suppose it's debatable whether I was fixing his life instead of ruining it, the second time around…"

"Then you ruined his life… twice?" Song said. Azula offered her a guilty grin. "Is this someone I know? Or know about?"

"Honestly… not really. Neither of you should know anything about him," Azula sighed. "Maybe Sokka mentioned him to you, but I doubt he would have emphasized on it much? But, uh… he used to sponsor the very first gladiator Sokka defeated in the Superior Gladiator League."

"Oh…?" Song blinked blankly: she had no doubts Sokka had talked to her about that, but it had been so long ago that she didn't remember much, if anything, about what he'd said. Rei, naturally, was even more clueless about it than Song already was.

"Chan and I have… a history. Sort of," Azula said, through gritted teeth. "I first met him when I was a teenage girl. And as such, I… wanted to test my luck at certain things I probably shouldn't have. Such as catching the eye of a boy."

"Uh-oh," Song said, with an awkward smile. "That does sound like ancient history, though. I can't imagine you being reckless about romance until you met Sokka, frankly…"

"Well, I learned not to be quite so reckless from Chan, in fact," Azula said. "He had no idea who I was, and I wanted to keep it that way to find out if he might like me for myself rather than… well, for my title. Which seemed to be the likeliest way in which I'd ever find a romantic partner in the future. So, out of sheer curiosity, and a need to prove something stupid to myself, I pursued him for a single evening. After an initial apparent success, I said something out of place, scared him by it, and he rejected me. Fourteen-years-old as I was, I… may have reacted excessively to the rejection."

"Did you hurt him?" Rei asked, puzzled. "That's hard to believe…"

"Well, no. Chan was unharmed, physically: I simply set his house on fire."

"WHAT?!"

Both Song and Rei stared at her with disbelief: Azula sighed, hanging her head as she held Hotaru tightly against her chest, shame swirling inside her as her face heated up.

"I… I admit, the more I think about it, the less proud I am?" she said. "I wasn't exactly used to rejection or, uh, basic social decency at the time. Princess wants, Princess gets, right? So, well, by my heinous crime, I made it very clear that I wanted nothing to do with him anymore… though I certainly could have gotten the point across differently. Still, I was a mess back then. See how much of a good influence Sokka was now?"

"Well… you kind of burned our house a bit, once," Song acknowledged. Azula grimaced, eyeing her with despair. "Just kidding, just kidding, we all know you've made strides, Azula…"

"I had no idea you would have done something so… extreme," Rei said, blinking blankly. "And you were younger than me, too?"

"Yep," Azula said, sighing. "The more I think about it, the more mindboggling it feels in retrospect. Sure, I proved I wasn't someone to be trifled with and I stood my ground…! But, uh… yeah, it really wasn't a good thing anyway. Still, that's just the first encounter: our second encounter followed many years later. Seven years later, actually."

"So, you weren't a volatile teenager anymore," Song concluded. Azula shook her head.

"No… I was a volatile, very frustrated young adult instead," she said. "Two years before I met Chan again, I had been with his father in this particular, localized meeting that my father sent me to, as his representative. Chan's father was an Admiral, and an obnoxious asshole. So much so that, when a group of Water Tribe warriors attacked the meeting and I defended the South Pole settlement, Chan's father took advantage of the situation and ran to my father with the tale of how he had saved me from the very scary southern threat… that I had taken down myself."

"Wait…" Song's eyes widened: this story certainly was much more familiar. Azula sighed, shaking her head.

"Admiral Chan and the others cowered like morons while I fought Sokka," she said. Rei's eyes widened. "That was how I first met him… and after defeating him, I took him to Hui Yi so he'd become a slave there. A house thrashing may be terrible… but I don't think I could ever regret that as much as I regret what I did to Sokka. At any rate… I arrived home to find my father praising Admiral Chan for his great deed, saving the day as he supposedly had. I held my silence, bitterly… but I figured I'd be able to blackmail the man, perhaps to treat this as a favor for him that he'd have to pay me back for, somehow. Two years later I realized I should have acted far more quickly: Admiral Chan wanted his son to marry me."

"Oh… oh, shit! He's the guy you were supposed to marry back then?" Song gasped. Azula smiled awkwardly, and Rei covered her mouth with her hands. "But… they had no idea you were the one who burned down their house, right?"

"Nope. Chan most likely just told his father that some crazy firebending girl set the house on fire. I never told him I was the Princess," Azula said, with a shrug. "When I realized who I was supposed to marry, though, I… I refused. I didn't want to repeat my parents' mistakes, marrying someone I didn't love, someone who wouldn't be able to keep up with me, only to wind up miserable for it. So… I started a scheme. The scheme that changed my life forever, actually."

"You hired Sokka… because this Chan guy had a gladiator of his own, was it?" Song asked. Azula nodded.

"It was Chan's only noteworthy venture. I wanted to find a gladiator that could beat his… and when I went to Hui Yi, I found Sokka was still there, still alive. I hired him, even if he didn't make matters easy for me, since he had every reason not to trust me… and then I told my father that I believed Chan wasn't a good match for myself. He actually agreed, but he said… that no man would be worthy of marrying me anyway. I remember telling him that it should be up to me, then, to choose the unworthy man in question. That… well, amused him back then. Surely it wouldn't amuse him so much anymore…"

"You did choose him, anyway," Song said, softly.

"I did… though the questionable part, when it comes to Sokka, is the whole 'unworthy' thing. I'm pretty sure I'm far more unworthy of him than he ever was of me," Azula sighed, with a sad smile. "Anyway, the point is, I had Sokka train with the best sword master in the Fire Nation, I set the stage to challenge Chan in such a way that he would be unable to resist the challenge, constantly goading his ego: when I entered the sponsors' balcony, he nearly shat himself when he realized who he was dealing with."

"Well… can't blame him. Must have been satisfactory to see for you, though," Song smirked. Azula shrugged.

"It was, but… he had no idea, even then, that the girl who set his house on fire and the Princess he was trying to marry were the same person. When it finally hit him, he surely should have started rooting for Sokka instead… though, even if he didn't, Sokka won, and I left Chan behind, thinking I'd never see him again. Hoping that I wouldn't, even. But, uh… the story doesn't really end there. Upon returning home, I told my father of the outcome of that fight, and he summoned Admiral Chan for a meeting. I very casually brought up during that meeting that Chan's favor with my father was based on falsehoods… and as I had Sokka within my reach now, he could have attested that I was the one he had fought rather than Admiral Chan, should it have been necessary… but my father didn't deem it necessary. He considered Chan's lies a slight against the Fire Nation and the Royal Family, and he punished him for it by stripping him from all his titles and noble standing, even taking away his military rank entirely, which meant that all his stipends and payments for his years of service were slashed quite violently…"

"Woah," Song's eyes widened. Azula shrugged.

"Honestly? As someone who paid a hefty price for lying to the Fire Lord, too, I can't pretend Admiral Chan was all that bright by doing it when he did. He should have known what the consequences would be if he carried out that scheme. Staying put, with his false credit, would have been enough: trying to shoehorn his way into the Royal Family through me? That wasn't going to work out for him, no matter how he went about it, when I had so much damning evidence to hold over his head. But anyway, the thing is that I didn't give either Chan or his father any thought since then. Apparently, though? Chan has spent all those years thinking a lot about me. He joined the army, rose through the ranks, and wound up assigned to serve in Yu Dao. So, he's spent all these years dreaming about how he's going to destroy me, defeat me, prove himself to me, you name it…"

"Uh… and he's going to do that now?" Rei asked, uncertain. Azula shrugged.

"I wouldn't be too surprised if he intended to," she said. "I've given him no reason to trust me, after all. He's made his intentions clear multiple times, but I would have been happy to ignore him if… if he hadn't seen this ship. He apparently took to tracking down Sneers and Kori when they left Yu Dao to help you switch locations, and then he took down a spy that had been following Renkai. But when Chan saw this ship, and that something was happening aboard… well, things got more complicated."

"How complicated?" Song asked.

"So complicated that I've burdened Renkai with keeping watch on Chan at all times, so that he won't run to someone with the tale, whether by accident or deliberately, about the fact that I'm doing something here," Azula sighed, shaking her head. "He has no idea about the three of you. I haven't told him anything. I can't even begin to fathom trusting him… especially when he has a strong grudge against me. So… he's a loose end. One we can't let go of, one we can't let out of our sight."

"And that complicates your opportunities to come here… doesn't it?" Song asked, frowning. "Then… how about what we talked about? The tunnel… if Kori helps you build one that goes all the way to her house, we can meet halfway, maybe, if you accept their offer to stay at their place?"

"I could try doing that," Azula said, grimacing. "But Kori's already going to have a lot of work to do, leading the city's earthbenders. I don't know if I should impose even further than I already have."

"It sounds like she really cares about you," Song said. "I don't know… maybe you don't have any other earthbender of your confidence here, but if you did, maybe ask them? But…"

"The only other one I knew in Yu Dao is no longer there. Aonu…" Azula said, though she frowned. "But… wait. Aonu might stop by. He wanted to involve himself in the defense of Yu Dao, he might just do that when the new weapons arrive. Maybe."

"Then, if he did, you could ask him to help building that tunnel?" Rei asked, with a slow smile. Azula bit her lip.

"It's worth a try," she said, eyeing them with uncertainty. "For now, though, I… I'll try to find a way to sneak in here tonight. I'll stay here for a little longer. The excuse I used to come to the port should last long enough that I can… that I can feed Hotaru fully and keep you all company for a while more."

"Good," Rei smiled, leaning in to hug her. "We love you, Mom. No matter if you burned down houses in your youth…"

"I've learned better, Rei, I have…" Azula groaned, pressing her face to her daughter's hair – the young woman laughed at her apologetic response.

Azula would have wanted to stay for the whole day, but she couldn't afford to: an hour after her arrival, she bid farewell to Song and Rei once Hotaru fell asleep, cheerful and full after a proper meal. The Princess attempted to steel herself, to set aside the motherly concerns, to put forward her hardiest front upon returning to Renkai and Chan… but a hint of melancholy accompanied her as she put distance between herself and her daughters once more.

"Done with your, uh, business?" Chan asked, unable to mask his bitterness: Azula shot him a harsh glare.

"We have a lot to do. Let's go back to the city," she said, curtly. Chan huffed, shaking his head as he and Renkai followed the Princess across the port.

"Funny how I'm stuck with you guys, but nobody here trusts me and I don't trust any of you either, and everything just sucks," he said, pouting. Renkai sighed, shaking his head beside him.

"What's funny about that?" Renkai asked. "Besides, have you given us any cause to trust you?"

"Have you given me any to trust you?" Chan responded, his voice mocking. Renkai rolled his eyes.

"Grow up," he hissed. Chan responded to that with a stuck-out tongue. "The Princess has a lot of complications to worry about right now. Countless pressures, numerous threats to field, and you've made an unnecessary mess that she also needs to deal with. Informing you of what's happening isn't even close to something she wishes to do… and she has no time for it, to begin with."

"Well, apparently she has time to head into that ship to do hell knows what," Chan huffed. "What's she keeping in there, huh? Some super powerful secret weapon with which she'll destroy the entire world? She wanted to conquer it, last I knew, but still…"

"It's none of your concern," Renkai said, firmly. Chan pouted.

"You're so annoying," he said. "Both of you are. I deserve to have some idea of what I'm aiding and abetting, don't I?"

"No," Renkai said, pointedly. Chan pouted anew.

Azula overheard their conversation, even if she walked several paces ahead: the way Chan spoke proved that his understanding of her was frozen in time. She couldn't quite blame him for still seeing her as the fourteen-year-old destroyer from their first encounter… but something told her that Chan hadn't even reasoned with the fact that she couldn't possibly be the same person she used to be back then. Her fists tightened, and she resolved not to worry too much about him, at least while Renkai was around: by nightfall, she would find some way to reach Hotaru anew, whether it meant bringing the irksome man along or not.

Preparations of the defenses in Yu Dao had begun: the earthbenders, particularly, started digging the ditch Azula had requested, and they also intended to craft an underground maze from where they would be able to control the battle. Soldiers trained in formations and dueling, but most of all, they worked on their archery and ranged attacks: no one would need to fight their foes with blades or spears as long as they were held off and attacked from afar.

The Princess had a chance to speak with Kori privately, who apologized profusely over what happened the previous night – Azula dismissed her concerns quickly. Together, they oversaw the building of those defenses for most of the day, and by night, Azula returned to the Morishita home to announce that, after that night, she would begin preparations to move into the room they had set up for her, to Mrs. Morishita's delight.

Unbeknownst to her parents, Kori began working that night on the plan Song suggested: the tunnel began inside a shed in the Morishita house, and it would slowly progress all the way out of the city. Azula impressed upon her that she shouldn't overwork herself, but it appeared that Kori felt responsible for Chan's unwitting discovery of Azula's secret – he tried to greet her positively, only for Kori to speak very briefly with him, constantly looking at him remorsefully.

That night, the Princess stopped by the Morishita family yacht before heading to the Barge, once the port was empty enough for her to risk it. This time, though, her visit to her daughter wasn't as simple as she had hoped it would be…

"What the heck was that?" Chan frowned: Renkai froze as Chan, standing by the pier, glanced in the ship's direction. "Sounded like… a baby? Or is it some sort of weird animal that makes that kind of noise?"

"Surely that. A firefly," Renkai said, bluntly. Chan scoffed.

"A firefly? Fireflies don't make noise! I mean, the fluttering wings noise, sure, but a wail like that? What the hell, dude… you're just so weird," Chan said, shaking his head. "Why didn't the Princess hang out with a more fun guard than you, huh?"

"Because I'm the one she was stuck with."

Chan blinked blankly upon hearing those words. He raised an eyebrow, and Renkai recoiled.

"Forget I said…"

"What's that supposed to mean, that she was 'stuck' with you?" Chan asked. Renkai sighed. "She… didn't trust you? Or didn't like you? Maybe no more than she likes me?"

"It's more complicated than you realize," Renkai said. "More than you need to know. Suffice to say…"

Another cry silenced Renkai: Hotaru was upset, and it seemed that soothing her wasn't going as well as it usually did. Chan winced, turning his head towards the ship anew.

"Yo… that's a kid crying. Like… shit, did she capture someone's baby and is keeping it as her captive in there?!" Chan asked, eyes wide with despair. Renkai scoffed.

"What the hell is that supposed to…?! Who do you even think the Princess is?!" Renkai asked, disgusted.

"Someone who burns down people's houses when she's mad at them?" Chan said, with a shrug. "Might as well have stolen the child of, I don't know, some person she wanted to court! Maybe he rejected her too, and she just took revenge once he had a baby with someone else and…"

"You… you've got a very active, and yet very weak imagination," Renkai said, astounded. Chan gasped.

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean, weak?!" Chan winced. Renkai shushed him, and Chan pouted as he mumbled: "Answer the question, damn you. And my imagination is perfectly healthy!"

"I beg to differ," Renkai huffed. "You've built an entirely ridiculous image of the princess in your head, and you'd sooner believe that she's kidnapped someone's child and brought it here than…? Wait. How is that the very first thing you thought?"

"What do you mean, how?" Chan huffed. "She's up to no good, she's been up to no good for as long as I've known her… I've got a good brain right here and I'm using it. Quit pretending otherwise."

"I… don't think you are," Renkai said. "Or maybe it's not that good, to begin with…"

"Hey!"

"Did you not read a single Fire Lord announcement in the past year?" Renkai asked. Chan blinked blankly. "You… you know nothing of what's happened to the Princess as of late?"

"I… w-well, I mean, I have been busy!" Chan exclaimed. Renkai remained silent – unbeknownst to Chan, his jaw had dropped within his helmet. "I had a lot to worry about when I was in the military academy, after all…"

"For how long have you been in active service rather than in the academy?" Renkai asked.

"U-uh… two years?" Chan said, with an awkward smile. "But I mean, they made us graduate early, the ones with the best performance! Because, you know, there's not enough soldiers, gotta bolster the army's ranks and all that. But, uh, I've still been busy with a lot of things! No need to be so judgmental!"

"I beg to differ," said Renkai, eyes wide. "Then… what's your excuse for not reading the announcements over those two years? Or are you about to tell me you don't know how to read…?"

"Of course I do!" Chan exclaimed, flustered.

"Then why?" Renkai asked. "Have you not even spoken to people who do read them? It makes no sense that you wouldn't do it yourself, but even so…"

"I mean, I have a lot going on, and I never thought he'd be talking about her in those announcements, you know? She's the Princess, he's the Fire Lord, why would she be part of any of the announcements?" Chan mumbled, blushing still.

"You… you really don't know, then," Renkai said. "You're not joking. You don't know that… that she was married to Zhao, do you?"

Chan seemed ready to counter Renkai's likely next insults when his words gave him pause. A lot of pause. Renkai had to wait about thirty seconds before Chan's wide, horrified eyes, were finally followed by the man's next words.

"Zhao. Like… Admiral Zhao, the guy my dad hated but invited to dinner when I was a kid because he wanted to build bridges there for his benefit?" Chan asked, with an awkward smile. "Zhao, who's old enough to be… my dad? Or her dad? She had to marry… him?"

"You really don't know," Renkai sighed. "Why? How did you avoid learning about any of this?"

"I… well, I didn't really go out of my way to avoid it, I just wasn't paying attention!" exclaimed Chan.

"Then you don't know, either, that Zhao is dead now?" Renkai asked. Chan's disgust froze into horror.

"W-what…? Wait, did she…?!"

"Could you stop assuming she's the culprit for everything nefarious that has ever happened in the world?" Renkai groaned, a hand on his helmet. Chan winced. "He died in the warfront. Nobody knows for sure how it happened, it just did. He was Crown Prince."

"Oh, shit. I do remember people talking about a Crown Prince sometimes?" said Chan, tapping his chin. "I kinda thought they were talking about that other guy, though. The Princess had a brother, didn't she?"

"She does: he's fighting alongside the rebel army," Renkai said, deadpan: Chan jumped, astounded by the revelation. "How do you not know…? I saw wanted posters about him in the city already, it's…! Oh, curses, you're inexplicable. You live by your own rules, in your own world, denying reality as it suits you, or just overlooking it entirely…"

"W-well…! I mean, I just didn't think anything that weird was going on!" Chan said, grimacing and glancing back at the ship. "B-but then, if she didn't kidnap some random kid, are you trying to say that…?"

For once, Chan seemed to reach a correct conclusion on his own. One that he still didn't quite understand. His jaw dropped at first… and he closed his mouth without saying anything to Renkai. The silence was welcome… though confusing for the Captain of the Third Squad. How much, or how little, did Chan understand about the Princess? His self-assured behavior, the strange levels of confidence, the certainty with which he spoke… all of it suggested to Renkai that Chan's relationship with Azula certainly was personal, on some level. But the more he reasoned with Chan's ignorance, the clearer it became that there was, in fact, no relationship whatsoever to speak of…

Chan genuinely knew nothing. He had only just learned that Princess Azula had a child.

"Please… learn your place," Renkai said. Chan's eyes widened. "You don't… you don't know any of what the Princess has faced over the past years, let alone the very last one. Whatever resentment you hold for her, as justified as it might be…"

"You… you think it could be justified?" asked Chan, raising an eyebrow.

"I'm no fool as to believe the Princess is incapable of cruelty," Renkai said. "You may be surprised to hear it, but I expected nothing good from her either, for a long time. I was… a problem for her, rather than a supportive ally. I know her harshness, her steel, her mercilessness just as well as you do, if not better. But I learned that she was more than that… because she proved it to me well before I realized she had. If you can't accept that, the least you can do is keep your mouth shut rather than accusing her of utterly nonsensical, insensible things she didn't do. Understood?"

"I… I guess so. Ugh, okay, fine," Chan sighed, shaking his head. "I'll, uh, do better. Or try to. I think. It's just… is that kid, well, hers?"

Renkai remained silent. Chan would be free to interpret that silence as he pleased…

He didn't really know why he had hoped to hear Renkai answer his question negatively.

He frowned as they waited, perplex by the information, by his own reactions to it, as the crying voice of the child dimmed gradually. He glanced at the ship over his shoulder, a gnawing, unpleasant feeling eating away at him: he didn't know her. He didn't know the first thing about her. She had been married to a man over twice her age… she had birthed a child. A child by that marriage, most likely.

Why did that make him feel at a loss, when he didn't want anything to do with her?

After about twenty minutes of silence, the Princess emerged on deck anew: Chan glanced in her direction, apprehensive, finding someone was standing with Azula. An unknown woman, a total stranger… someone the Princess spoke with quietly. Much like Kori Morishita, much like Renkai… she was someone who knew Azula in ways Chan never had.

"Don't take it to heart, Azula… it's normal," Song said, as the Princess stepped out on deck, with her head bent slightly. She gritted her teeth. "She'd behaved far too well for all this time, we know she had…"

"Doesn't make it any easier, though," Azula said. "I… I should be with her. She needs me right now, but… is it stupid that I worry that she might not need me at all, when push comes to shove?"

"What?" Song raised an eyebrow.

"It is stupid, yes," she concluded, covering her face with her hands. "It's just… paranoia, I guess. The nagging, pestering feeling that I'm making a mess when I can't get her to calm down… that maybe I'm not half as good a mother as any of you believe I can be."

"Well, you're free to ask your other daughter what she has to say about that," Song said. Azula sighed. "There's always going to be difficult days with kids. I think… I think she's just scared and confused when she doesn't see you for too long. Maybe… maybe she was crying because she doesn't want you to go away, rather than anything else."

"I don't know. I don't know," Azula sighed.

Song eyed her compassionately, though her eyes drifted past Azula to find two men standing at the pier: one of them flinched, turning around quickly upon realizing he had been noticed.

"And I take it that's… the Chan guy?" Song asked. Azula grimaced.

"Having to put up with him rather than staying with Hotaru must be some manner of divine punishment for all my sins and mistakes of the past year," Azula said.

"Has he been too much trouble?" Song asked. Azula huffed.

"He's just annoying. Feels like he expects me to go berserk at any moment and set the entire city on fire," Azula said. "It's not that I want him to trust me, but his attitude certainly can be grating."

"Well… good luck dealing with that," Song said, with a sigh. "There's always bad days, okay? Maybe tomorrow will be better. She's your daughter… she wants to be with you, above all else. You're her safety, you're her peace, you're her happiness… she's bound to cry and throw tantrums here and there, but ultimately, she's your baby. Doesn't matter if you can't be with her as often as you'd like, the bond you share is unbreakable. Please don't forget that."

"I… I'll try," Azula whispered. "Relationships are never easy anyway. I'll do my best not to spiral… especially when you and Rei aren't around to keep me grounded."

Song stepped forward, hugging her tightly. Azula sighed, gritting her teeth as she returned the gesture: she had grown to rely all too much on both Song and Rei. It wasn't a bad thing, she knew it… but not having them around, after spending the better part of a year with the two of them, often was terrifying.

"Stay strong. We'll wait for you here," Song whispered. Azula nodded.

"I'll be back in the morning. Somehow," she said, gritting her teeth.

She marched away, heart troubled and turbulent, head bent until she reached Renkai and Chan by the pier. Her feet slowed to a halt, and she leveled a cold glare at the flinching brigade captain.

"Let's move," she said, curtly. "Back to the Barge now."

"The Barge? With… with him?" Renkai asked, grimacing.

"You wouldn't expect him to be left wandering the city instead, or would you?" Azula asked, pointedly.

"I'm just wondering where, exactly, he will sleep. The brig?" asked Renkai: Chan winced.

"Wait, that'd be suspicious! I'm not a prisoner, I'm just stuck with you two!" he said.

"Call it a plan B in case plan A proves not to work," Azula said: Chan gazed at her in outrage. "For now… I'd rather keep him closer than that. The cabin below mine will do."

"The… actual cabin," Renkai said. Azula rolled her eyes.

"Evidently," she said, curtly.

"Can you trust that he'll stay put there all night?" asked Renkai, glaring at Chan, who glared right back.

"Unfortunately not," Azula replied. "Hence, you'll be staying there too."

Suddenly, the two men who had been at odds constantly appeared to agree on one thing, and one thing alone.

"No way," Chan winced.

"You can't…! No!" Renkai grimaced, stepping away from Chan. "I have my own quarters below deck, I…!"

"You can't make me bunk up with… Grumpkai!"

"What the…? Don't call me that! Princess, please…!"

"The two of you… are soldiers," Azula said, curtly, her voice giving away that she was in no mood for dealing with disobedience. "You'll follow your orders, as were given by your superior officer. As in, me. Is that quite so difficult to understand?"

"Princess, there has to be a more reasonable choice to be made…" Renkai said, shaking his head.

"Well, I'm not asking you to shackle yourself to him, am I?" Azula said, with a dry grin. "That'd be worse than simply sharing rooms, I'm sure. Find a futon, maybe, there's only bound to be one bed in the cabin after all. Or take turns on the bed, that's a possibility too…"

"I… no. I'm supposed to keep watch over him to ensure he won't be up to anything nefarious," Renkai grimaced. Chan scoffed.

"Of all people around here, I'm sure my track record is the cleanest, as far as nefarious deeds go…" Chan huffed.

"Probably true, doesn't change that Renkai has a point…" Azula said, begrudgingly. "You intend to watch him all night? You haven't slept for well over a day by now… I remember that Rui Shi said that guards are trained to serve even after three days without rest, but…"

"I'll have to ask you to watch him during the day so I can replenish my energy, on occasion," Renkai said. Chan scoffed.

"Why does this sound like I'm some unwanted kid that you two are pawning off on each other whenever you can get away with it?" Chan grimaced. Azula actually smiled slightly at the comparison.

"I don't quite know, but it's certainly amusing that you'd put it so eloquently…" she said. "Then… if I agree to keep tabs on him tomorrow, you'll rest for a few hours while I do?"

"I promise, Princess," Renkai said, bowing his head towards her.

"Very well, then," Azula said: she cast one last glance at her ship, regret gripping her chest for another moment before she shook her head, leading the way back to the Barge by avoiding detection, slipping through the darker alleys of the port instead of returning to the ship through the more exposed areas of the harbor.

Within an hour, all preparations for Chan to rest in his new cabin had been made: he seemed flattered upon receiving a considerably fancy room, but he was far more tempered about his excitement than Renkai expected him to be. The Imperial Guard sat by a small table near the window, scowling at the sea as Chan slipped under the covers, dressed in the sleepwear he had been able to find among the sailors' spare clothing. It wasn't very comfortable, quite tight around his chest and arms, but where he usually would have boasted about his physique to anyone who listened, right now, Chan was immersed in deep thoughts he wasn't sure what to do with.

Though an idea of what to do with one of them certainly crossed his mind before long.

"The kid is hers," he concluded. Renkai's scowl grew more prominent as he glared at him: Renkai had shed his helmet, even if he remained clad in his armor. "I mean… I still don't get it. I don't know why she has a kid in the Morishita family's ship, but… if she was married, then she, uh… had a kid. That's what you thought I should know about. Right?"

"The Fire Lord released announcements regarding the Princess's marriage… regarding her pregnancy, too," Renkai stated. "It's genuinely difficult to fathom that someone might not know of any of this when it was public knowledge since long ago."

"Well, excuse me for not being in the loop and for focusing on my career as much as I have," Chan pouted.

"It's one thing to focus on your career… it's another to obsess with someone without knowing a single thing about them," Renkai huffed. Chan winced.

"Hey! I didn't… obsess with her. I just… was really upset. I think it's fair to be upset when your life gets turned upside down in the blink of an eye and suddenly you have to do things you never had to before just to get by, right?" Chan said. "My dad used to have multiple villas in Ember Island: all of them were taken from us, you know? My mom sold her jewels for us to stay afloat for a time. I decided to join the military academy when it was obvious that my dad wouldn't be accepted in service again and wouldn't be likely to start his career from scratch. So, you know, it was a shitty situation for us. I'm allowed to resent her for it."

"No one said you weren't," Renkai responded. "But as far as I understand… you have spent years waiting to prove yourself to her as some manner of revenge. Isn't that how it is?"

"W-well… yes," said Chan. Renkai hummed.

"Do tell… what was this fantasy you imagined?" he asked. "You would have been promoted to general of all the Fire Nation forces, maybe… and she, the Princess, would have been utterly distraught to realize what a great man you truly proved to be? She would resent you for succeeding… she would regret that she did terrible things to you that she could never make amends for. And in the meantime, you would have been, perhaps, swarmed by all sorts of attractive women while the Princess stemmed in rage over having lost all her chances with you… perhaps, if you're more decent than I give you credit for, you imagined you would find a proper wife and have kids of your own while the Princess remained stuck in an obsessive mindset where she would long for you desperately, while at the same time wanting to destroy you but not knowing how…"

Renkai rambled with a sarcastic undertone, and he fell silent simply to judge Chan's reaction to his words: the man's wide, panicked eyes told him he had been spot-on in his guess.

"Figures," he said.

"W-well, maybe I imagined it that way, but…!" Chan huffed, folding his arms over his chest. "I realized things aren't that simple, sure, I came across her well before I could secure a better promotion than captain in the army. I haven't finished proving myself and restoring my family's honor. But… but I guess the truth is that I didn't really expect a few things. Or a lot of things, rather. That she was married and had a kid is… a little wild."

"It's the first time you've allowed yourself to fathom that the Princess had a life outside of destroying yours, isn't it?"

Chan winced, and Renkai sighed, shaking his head.

"You wanted her to be obsessed with you… to be the thorn in your side, because that meant you'd have power over her that she would never be able to overcome. Whatever your shared history might have been, and please, don't elaborate on it… you never imagined she could have moved on because you weren't ready to do it, either."

"Well, I was more than ready the first time around! I mean, it was bad enough that she burned down my house because I rejected her, but…"

"You… what?" Renkai grimaced, eyeing him in disbelief.

"Look… it happened a long time ago, alright? Like ten, eleven years ago or something," Chan said. Renkai's jaw dropped.

"You… you thought the Princess, at fourteen or fifteen years of age, would have obsessed with you, and never moved on from whatever you said to reject her, for which she… burned down your house?" Renkai said.

"Well…! Sure?" Chan grimaced. "That was pretty important to me!"

"And maybe it was once, for her. It sure stopped being that way when her life became far more hectic than I'm sure you ever knew it was," Renkai said, shaking his head.

"Like I was saying, after the first few years, after we salvaged things from the fire and restored what could be restored, me and my family went back to a normal life!" Chan huffed. "And as she wasn't from Ember Island, unlike me, I had no fear of bumping into her again. I thought I wouldn't. So, you know, I thought about her sometimes, but only on occasion, and I mostly just focused on getting things back on track, you know? My best friend left and moved to the Capital, we barely kept in touch after that… there were things going on in my life, too! But then she went and challenged me to that fight, and everything went downhill ever since…"

"Huh," Renkai said, tapping the windowsill with a finger. "And after she ruined your life a second time around, you wanted revenge at all costs. Down to finding out whatever shady business she's up to these days and ruining her life right back?"

"Uh… w-well, I wouldn't have been against doing that, I guess, but…"

"That's why she doesn't trust you. That's why she doesn't want to tell you anything. It's why I'm here now… and it's why you're screwed," Renkai said, folding his arms over his chest too. "If you had left well enough alone, she wouldn't have had to resort to extreme measures to keep you around, constantly watched. But you didn't."

"I had no idea what was going on, I was just doing my job," Chan huffed. "And maybe I thought I'd get a chance to take a greater revenge on her than ever before, sure! But… I didn't really mean to do anything that harmful. Is that so hard to believe?"

"For someone who has been betrayed and double-crossed by those close to her as often as she has been?" Renkai said: Chan's eyes widened. "Yes, it is. I can't blame her for it in the slightest."

"Betrayed…" Chan said. "So… what, until I prove that I won't betray her, I can't go free?"

"Why would you ever prove that, when your entire purpose is to destroy her and take revenge?" Renkai asked.

"Because… w-well, it's not my entire purpose. It's… the first step, I guess? I was going to get my life together afterwards. Get a better home for my parents, to say one thing…" Chan said. "And yeah, you know, maybe… maybe find someone. Once I was sure that the Princess wouldn't be a problem anymore, I…"

"Why would she have been a problem?" Renkai asked. "As far as your potential future bride is concerned, I mean…"

"Well…! Because she liked me," Chan pouted. Renkai chuckled. "What? It's true! It's not a joke, you Jerkai! Stop laughing!"

"You're at your funniest when you're not making jokes. Your life certainly is miserable," Renkai said, laughing still. Chan huffed, flinging one of his pillows at the guard, who simply punched it off trajectory.

"Bastard. She did! She kissed me when we were young, you hear me?!" Chan huffed. "And we were supposed to get married! Well, my dad set that up, I didn't realize it was the same girl who burned down my house, but…"

"Your, uh, rejection… was a romantic rejection?" Renkai asked, still amused. "You were quite so clever as to reject Princess Azula, of all people…?"

"I had no idea it was her!" Chan squirmed. "She didn't say she was the Princess, if I'd known…!"

"Ah, if you had known, the opportunistic streak would've taken hold and you would have faked being the perfect gentleman, even if you didn't like her," Renkai concluded: Chan winced. "Which… is probably the very reason why she didn't tell you the truth, then. Guess she wanted to know what you were actually made of, and you proved you were worthless. A funny story."

"I… what? That's not what happened, I…!" Chan said, panicking. "Wait, was that what happened?"

"Knowing her? Most likely. Unless you're making this up, but… the Princess did acknowledge you had a history. And the way she treats you… it does suggest she resents you, on some level," Renkai said, with a shrug. "That being said… you would be terribly self-centered if you thought your slight against her in her teenage years has any bearing on her life at this point in time."

"Well, if that's how it is, why does she treat me like that?" Chan pouted.

"Because you were picking a fight with her from the very moment you met again?" Renkai shrugged. Chan froze. "Because you've done nothing to prove to her that you have changed for the better. One day, maybe, you'll succeed at persuading her of that. I… I know I did, somehow, even when she used to think I was scum. But you won't do it by annoying her… you certainly won't do it by failing to understand that her life is a lot more complicated than you thought it was. She has far bigger, more important things to worry about than obsessing with someone like you."

"Okay, well, I get that, but…" Chan said, frowning. "But I don't really understand half of those complications. You don't think I matter that much, but I was her first love…"

"That… that's a stretch," said Renkai, eyeing him in disbelief. Chan pouted.

"Fine, I was her first… crush?"

"Her first experiment, at best."

"Curse you… fine! Whatever you want to call it, surely after her husband died, me being around could be a source of complications for her in ways she didn't expect. Like… if that's their kid? The kid might need a father. And isn't it possible that, due to our history, she might be thinking…?"

"That child has a father. And she would never want you, or anyone else, to take his place."

"But the father is dead! Wouldn't it be better if…?" Chan started, perplex.

"The child's father… is indisputable. As usual, you don't understand what you're talking about," Renkai repeated. "Even if you're still playing the opportunist, and you hope to charm her somehow, you're fated to fail. She… she is not meant for you. I'd dare say she never was."

"What…? What's that supposed to mean?" Chan blinked blankly. Renkai sighed.

"Have you still not understood that, in all those years in which you never let go of your resentment and need for revenge, she certainly did let go of you?"

Chan blinked blankly: again, that strange, unpleasant feeling of loneliness gnawed at him. He frowned, pulling his legs up to his chest as he analyzed Renkai's latest words.

"I… I didn't let go because I wanted to take revenge, sure, but…" he said. "Was I nothing but a momentary diversion, then? Like…?"

Like the girls he had met in Ember Island, the ones he had humored on occasion… the Princess, herself.

He wasn't important. Where he had clung to the belief that the Princess would never move on, that girls would always cling to old relationships, seething and raging as the man they once wanted moved on to greener pastures… the situation had been reversed on him:

She had moved on.

She had found someone new.

"Then… was there someone else?" asked Chan: the feeling of foolishness encroached around his heart only gained more strength as reality came crashing down, destroying the fantasies he had unknowingly crafted around himself. "Was it Zhao? I can't believe it… it couldn't have been him all along. Someone else, not him…?"

Renkai sighed, drawing his gaze away from Chan. His silence, again, was telling: Chan had finally reached the right conclusion.

"Wait. How serious was it, if she did?" he asked. "If she had someone else… but, damn, she was the Princess! She couldn't have a real relationship unless she got married, and she only married Zhao, and…? Is the child Zhao's? Or of that other guy? Dude, I… I don't get it."

"You don't have to. I've run my mouth enough as it is," Renkai admitted, eyes dark with concern and regret. "Point is… the Princess is no longer the girl who set your house on fire, or the one who beat you at your own game years later, as far as I understand. She has duties to her nation that supersede anything else. She has a family. She has an entire nation to protect. So, the next time you want to fill your mind with delusions about how you were such a formative experience for her? Maybe look in the mirror. Maybe think back on the fact that you've only come as far as you have motivated by her. And if you're happy for it? Then thank her for what you've achieved, even. Or just shut up and do your job. Ultimately… she has a thousand concerns to busy herself with. Don't be a bigger problem for her than you've already been, and maybe she will be able to trust you. Or respect you, at least. Is that too much to ask?"

"It's… it's not. I, uh, I'll try to be better," Chan said, though he spoke as a scolded child might. Renkai didn't give his words much credit.

He was right to, of course: Chan sighed as he sank in the bed, unable to shut his eyes: the Princess he had written off as a lost case of vindictiveness, resentment, as one of the conquests he had even enjoyed telling people about, in the years between their two encounters – she had been such great evidence of how attractive he was, for he could boast about how that one crazy girl had been so violent upon facing the fact that she hadn't become his girlfriend…

She had found someone else. Moreover… someone who had, potentially, reciprocated the feelings Chan had found utterly terrifying back when they had been teenagers.

The notion perplexed him: who could ever be strong enough to keep up with a powerhouse like Princess Azula? He still remembered how terrifying she had been in Ember Island, the cutting cruelty of her words, the way she had done everything to ensure their marriage could be prevented… and he had been grateful for it, even. Until his family had lost everything, of course…

In that time, had she found someone who had loved her too, someone she had preferred over him?

Chan wasn't the center of her universe, that much should have been obvious from the start. She wasn't a crazed scorned woman, even if her behavior during his party so long ago had certainly led him to think of her that way. She had grown out of that mentality, perhaps even because she had found someone who could keep up with her. Because she had built friendships, like with that mysterious woman on the ship, or with Lady Morishita… because she had found true loyalty in people like Renkai, too.

Chan had known nothing about that. Chan had known nothing about her at all.

He grimaced, feeling utterly self-aware… feeling he should have moved on, too. He could have married someone by now, then the Princess could have been jealous, maybe? Or… or she might not have cared. Because the one she loved, whoever he might be…

Chan gritted his teeth, turning in bed and trying to ignore his conscience's unwanted messages: he hadn't wanted the Princess to himself… not in the sense a suitor would have. But he had wanted her to be his long-lasting conquest, the one he got away from… and now, she was the one who got away, instead. She had found someone else… and Chan couldn't hope to ever catch her eye again, even if he wanted to.

Did he want to? He wasn't so masochistic as to answer that question positively, of course not…! But suddenly, it became far too clear that he was out of place. That she had made choices different from his expectations… that she had chosen to grow, to change…

To become a mother. To raise her children.

To fight a war as a commanding officer.

Who was Princess Azula? For once, the question seemed to elaborate in his mind… and he finally acknowledged that he didn't know the answer.

But someone out there did. Someone out there had been strong enough to stand by the Princess's side… and as much as that twisting loneliness in his heart wouldn't recede, Chan resolved to unravel the truth of who that unknown, mysterious lover, the father of the Princess's child, truly was…