Pre-Chapter A/N: Happy Holidays Everyone. Here's this week's chapter right on time for your enjoyment. The next two chapters are up on pa-treon as always. There's a handy little December discount on both monthly and annual plans. If you just want to read complete chapters and not my work in real-time then feel free to purchase this story as a collection on my pa-treon page- nice way to support this story, and me while you're at it. Enjoy!

"Tell him what you told us" Toji said, turning to Captain Kai of the Wicked Wench. I turned to the man as well.

"I heard whispers that Long Feng and General Kali captured some Fire Nation big shot and numerous generals. They got plenty of soldiers as well" He said.

My ears perked up at those words and I just knew that Toji had been thinking in the same direction as I had. He knew what this news could mean for me and my future. All our futures if I was being honest.

"You think the Princess-"

"Well if she surrendered then that would be the only way to explain them taking so many soldiers as prisoners. If the Fire Nation Princess had been killed in battle or anything of the sort then they would have fought to the last man. Honour would have nothing less from them".

"I agree. But then it's a jump from assuming she was taken alive to assuming she remains so".

"Well, there's only one way to find out. But I also bet that she is. If Ba Sing Se wants to survive after perpetrating the greatest act of mass slaughter that the Fire Nation Army has ever been dealt, then they will need a bargaining chip.

"So that's what you think the Princess is being used as. A bargaining chip?" I asked.

"It makes a lot more sense than them killing her" He said, and I nodded at his words. He did have a point to his words. Long Feng as a smart man. He would see Azula's worth.

"So your plan is for us to rescue her and then the soldiers and somehow use this to take the city?" I asked, and he nodded instantly. Toph as well, bless her heart, nodded from her position pressed against my stomach. Of course.

"I feel a plan coming" I said, making smiles spread.

"Do you know where the Princess would be held?" I asked, turning to the Pirate captain.

"Definitely not in that makeshift complex. It would be within the city, for sure. She's a valuable hostage, and they probably intend to trade her back to the Fire Lord, so there's no reason for her not to be in the Earth King's palace." He said.

I nodded at his words while thinking on my own. Lake Laogai. The Earth King didn't even know there was a war going on. Long Feng would not risk having the Princess of the Fire Nation in such close quarters. Azula herself was a dangerous threat, the kind that also presented opportunity. The Dai Li had brainwashing facilities. And those were in Lake Laogai. If I was Long Feng, that was what I'd do. That was certainly what I'd do, now that I thought about it even more. There was no other option.

"And the soldiers themselves? The rank and file?" I asked.

"They've made cells that run miles deep to contain the entire army. Word is that they surrendered without a fight, so there's a lot of them alive for now" He said in reply.

"Are you aware that helping me, moving forwards, would expose you to betraying your countrymen? I would see this city taken and placed under my rule" I told him. The Pirate shrugged with an easy smile. "You said enough gold for ten ships, aye? I won't mind retiring after that" he said instead and I nodded.

Gold was one hell of a motivator and I had it aplenty. It made sense that this man and his crew would capitulate in face of that.

"So, what do you want to do?" Toji asked.

I closed my eyes for a few seconds. Azula was beneath Lake Laogai. Everything in my body told me that was the truth. We could not waste time infiltrating the Palace for disappointment. That meant we had to head straight there. But then how would I explain that away? It was at that moment that a thought hit me.

"You told me a man named Long Feng oversaw the defence of the city and was the one that captured the Princess. What role does he serve? Is he some sort of General in the Army?"

"No. He's the head of the Dai li. That's the earth king's secret police".

"Not very secret if we know about them, then" I said instead.

"Natsu, your plan" Toji asked again, beginning to sound impatient.

"I've read about this Dai Li. My ancestors had encountered them in their dealings with the Earth King before the Great Schism" I started, lying through my teeth, but certain none would question me. I had already discussed it with Toji, and his ancestors had not kept journals, and he was not a big student of history, so all he had to go off on were my words. The others were similarly afflicted with ignorance.

"They have a headquarters separate from the Earth King's palace. I don't think a powerful bender like the princess would be imprisoned in the same space where the Earth King eats and sleeps. They'd have put her somewhere else. My gold is in this headquarter." I said, and breathed a sigh of relief when the response to my words was not a unanimous call of bullshit but approving nods.

"Yeah, but the problem with this plan is that we have no idea where this headquarters is, unless your ancestors happen to know where their headquarters is"

"They wrote about a place called Lake Laogai. I assume you're familiar with it" I said, replying the pirate captain. His eyebrows were lifted, and he seemed to be thinking to himself for a few seconds before he nodded.

"There's nothing there, but I don't think we lose anything by giving it a shot. It's in the Agrarian zone, so it's not like it's going to be well guarded by any means. So that's your plan, then? Make it to this secret headquarters and rescue your princess?"

"Not even close to it. The plan needs as many prongs and moving parts as we can spare. I don't just plan to free Princess Azula. I plan to take Ba Sing Se. To achieve that, I require an army, and thankfully we know exactly where I can find one" I said to him.

"Where's the rest of your crew?" I asked him next.

"Below deck with the cargo. I run a tight ship, so there's only four of us. Ming wants nothing to do with you lot, but will take her share of the gold to keep quiet. Ping and Ling don't care much-gold is gold, and work is work to them. They won't fight earth benders for you, though. None of us will" He said.

"You will do whatever is necessary to get your gold, Captain Kai. That is the kind of man you are, or did I see wrong?" I said, squinting at him.

"Yeah, you've got me. But if you want us to fight for you, we'll take double the rates." He replied, instantly beginning to haggle.

"Don't worry about that. I won't need you lot to win this. I have all the firepower I require, right here" I said, tapping Toph's head from where the little girl had still yet to let go off me. I knew part of it was comfort, and part of it had to do with her discomfort from being on a wooden ship of all things.

"Okay then." He said with a shrug.

"So what do we do, Natsu?" Toji asked.

"We wait. I'm not yet at 100%, and I'd prefer we take the time to recover rather than rushing in and getting ourselves killed".

"For how long?"

"Two days. Subsequently, we begin. We split ourselves into two groups. Captain Kai, Toph, and I will head to Lake Laogai and free the Princess. You, Maki, Amara, and the rest of his crew will infiltrate that prison camp they have outside the walls and free as many loyal men as possible. Amara can heal those who need it to get as many of them battle ready as possible. I will see the gates of Ba Sing Se opened from within and the city will be ours" I said, and Toji honored the incredibly basic plan with a round of applause that I will not admit made me blush.

XXXXXX

Toph was antsy up until the second she put her feet on solid ground once more. The second she did so, she was almost jumping in joy. Her sigh of relief at being able to see again made me make a decision that as much as it could be avoided, I would not be subjecting that child to the torture of a wooden boat ever again.

"So, how do we get into the city?" I asked our escort, who so far had proven reluctant to let go of the secret of the time we'd spent aboard his ship. I'd allowed him his secret because I was certain that even if he ended up disappointing us, Toph and I were more than enough to make our way into this city. It was the early evening, just a few hours before the sun would be replaced by the moon. The perfect time for sneaking around. Instead of replying with words, the Pirate Captain walked up to a section of the walls that looked much the same as any other before pushing against one of the bricks seemingly at random.

"Here it is. This section of the wall is hollow. If your earthbender could do us the favour" He turned to me, and I turned to Toph. Happy enough to be back on the ground, Toph did not even question the orders, and instead just stepped forward and planted her hand against the wall.

"Just tease it open, nice and gentle. If you affect any of the other sections, he guards will-" he was cut off as the entrance parted before us in a rush of grinding stone. I smiled at Toph and gave her a pat on the head as I walked into the city. Kai followed, and she brought up the rear while closing the wall up behind us.

"So who made that?" I asked.

"They say it's existed for as long as the walls themselves. I wouldn't know about that. All I do know is that some smugglers I used to run with showed me how to use it. One can't do it without an earthbender and since Ming wanted nothing to do with this, it's lucky that yours is so skilled" I just nodded at his words as we began to blend in with the crowd and make our journey to the agrarian zone.

Amara had proven to be a skilled seamstress as well as a healer and she and Toji worked together to amend some of Kai's clothes to fit Toph and I. For Toph, a pair of trousers had needed to be cut almost at the knees to fit her and half the fabric in the tunic had to be taken out. That was good. The extra cloth had been used to expand Kai's clothing to fit me. He was broader at the shoulders than I was, but I stood over a head and a half taller than he was.

"Come, the Agrarian Zone is this way" He began leading us to the other side of the city.

XXXXXX

"I told you there was nothing here." He said as we walked into the gorge that held one of the city's many internal lakes. Ba Sing Se was not a city. Not by any definition of the world. I had no idea why we had to stick with the convention that it was. For all intents and purposes, this was a kingdom on its own. That's why Iroh's siege had accomplished nothing. They had farms that spanned miles, as well as nearly a dozen internal lakes, to ensure that all the water and food needs of the city were satisfied for the long and short term. Even when it came to trade, the city was self-sufficient. As Kai told us while we made the walk, almost everything the city demanded was produced within the city itself. In fact, the only things not produced in the city were the things that the Earth King had banned, and that was where "Pirates" like him came into the picture.

The man spoke a lot and that gave me a good picture of the city I was about to take. Especially because he'd been very useful for explaining how the city's walls worked. They were one single large mass of rock that was nigh-impossible to bend in any area that did not include the designated gates. But on the brighter side, Ba Sing Se had been in a period of de-escalation and disarmament since the Siege, so the actual guardsmen were few.

"Toph, if you would," I said to my little apprentice, and she stepped forward and slammed her foot on the ground, lifting a little land bridge that led up to a hatch.

"And you were saying?" I asked with a smirk back before we moved to the hatch.

Even for the headquarters of the earth kingdom's secret police, the lake laogai base was quite dreary. The place was barely lit by a sort of luminescent crystal that had been spread along the space in sparse qualities. Enough to see where one was going, but not enough to qualify as well lit. Of course, the darkness worked to their advantage as much as it did to their detriment. While Kai and I were essentially blind, none could compare to Toph in terms of visibility in this space. We walked past a corner and the blind girl merely drove her foot into the ground with vim, and a man that neither Kai nor I had been able to see before then sunk into the ground up to his head. I smiled at her before walking forward and stomping down on his head with my full strength while he was still struck mute by shock. I was unaware if he was unconscious or dead, but the lack of reaction from Toph hinted at the former. The rest of his body sunk into the ground a second later, to avoid someone running into him and sounding the alarm.

I nodded at her in pride, and it might have been a trick of the sparse light, but I could have sworn she sent a full-blown smile my way in return. We continued to make our way into the base. Toph's senses were of the utmost utility as they were what allowed us to pass several locked doors without any difficulty as we did not need to stop to check who was within. She would be able to tell the Princess apart from empty rooms or even rooms with other prisoners. I had her take not of those rooms, just in case we needed to know where to open if we wanted to create maximum chaos.

We ran into two other dai li agents before we arrived at a doorway. "There's a lot of them in there. And there's a prisoner in the middle. Someone light weight, female, facial features like yours" Toph said, and I nodded at her before turning to Kai who gave me a nod in return.

There had been no doubts in my mind that we would end up fighting our way out of this place, but I had at least hoped to have Azula in my custody by that point. Still, what did it matter? All who stood in my way were just dead bodies that hadn't been told yet.

I pushed the door aside and walked in with my head held high, almost like I was taking a leisurely stroll. It was a complete lie, of course. Within my body, my blood was practically boiling as I concentrated so much heat within myself. The room was better lit than all the others and so that meant it was easier to spot Azula from where she was, chained to a pillar.

It also meant I could easily see both Long Feng, and the woman who had to be the Earth Kingdom General that had almost put an end to my military career by handing me my first defeat. All around the room were Dai Li agents dressed in their customary outfits.

"What is the meaning of this, Long Feng?" The woman asked, turning to the man who, I assumed, was her partner in all this in anger.

"While your plan was good, it ran the risk of losing the fire nation General at sea. That could never be tolerated. Why would I let a tool with such potential go to waste? No, instead it would be much better if I took such a tool into my own hands and used it to secure the future of Ba Sing Se. That is the role the Princess here has already begun to serve. Is that not so, my dear Azula" He said next, and as if that were a cue, the chains around Azula fell away and the girl's head snapped up in full awareness.

"Yes Father" She said, and I resisted the urge to facepalm. Of course. Of fucking course. Murphy's law in full fucking force.

I turned to my side, not even slightly surprised to see Kai unsheathing his sword and leveling it at me.

"Surrender, General. You are surrounded and outmatched" Long Feng said, and I could just smell the smug in his voice.

"Toph?" I called.

"Yes Dancy feet?"

"Don't hold back" I told her as I rushed forward. Kai's attempt to swing his blade at me failed as I ducked underneath it and stomped on his foot with my full strength. Distracted by the pain, there was nothing he could do to stop me from folding my body around his and cradling his head between my hands. A sharp tug snapped his neck and I heaved and tossed the body so it landed right at Long Feng's feet.

"One. I wonder how many shall die before you realize how stupid you've been," I said.

A/N; Well, I think this was a good one. We're entering what I expect to be one of the most divisive parts of the plot yet. As always, the next two chapters are up on pa-treon. There's a handy little December discount on both monthly and annual plans. If you just want to read complete chapters and not my work in real-time, then feel free to purchase this story as a collection on my pa-treon page- nice way to support this story and me while you're at it. Enjoy!