A/N: The film (one of my all time favorites) Rogue One inspired me to first write this fic, and it inspired me to passionately resume this fic, so I threw in a few nods and homages. I'm loving this story again the more I write it, and I cannot apologize enough for giving up on it. I'm happy with how this chapter came out, I enjoyed writing it, and I hope you enjoy reading it. The next update is underway!

Chapter Ten: Rebellion

In their prison on Zuko's ship, Azula and Katara have little to do but wait. Azula's plan requires access to the weak link she intends to exploit and that has yet to present itself. They avoid looking at each other as the tension swells and swells.'

As Katara sits and watches with curious eyes, Azula knocks on the metal door. "Ty Lee," she calls when she sees a flicker of the jailer's chestnut braid, "Ty Lee!"

"Yeah?" Pain crosses her lovely face as she walks up to the cell and peers through the barred window.

"I want to talk to you."

Ty Lee bites her lip softly. "Okay."

"This is hard for me to say," says Azula, laying it on quite thick in Katara's personal opinion. "I doubt I have ever done this in my life. Apologized. But I should have at least said goodbye to you before I set off."

Ty Lee stands agape for a moment before uttering sweetly, "Thank you."

"That's it?" snaps Azula. Katara inhales sharply. Of course the pretender princess would lose her cool at the worst time possible.

"Princess, what do you want from me?" whispers Ty Lee, shaking her head.

"I want to speak with Zuko. I want to see if we can work something out. I've met Lu Ten. I've seen who he is and I was wrong to disbelieve my father. Cuff me. Do whatever you need. I'll talk to him on his terms. I need help, not captivity."

"Princess…"

Azula steps closer, forcing her gilded gaze to lock with that of her ex-girlfriend. "You have my dragon. I wouldn't do anything to risk her life or safety. Isn't that leverage satisfying enough to Zuko?"

"I don't know."

Azula stares deeply at her for a moment before quietly inquiring, "Do you love me?"

"Princess?" Ty Lee blinks several times.

"Do you love me?"

The silence lingers for ages.

"Yes."

Azula puts on her best impression of someone truly weak and helpless, convincing enough that even Katara believes it for a moment. "Then please take me to him before it's too late for me to explain myself."

Ty Lee hesitates. "I'll help you."

"You don't know how much that means to me. Almost as much as it means to me to see your face again. I've lived a nightmare since the shipwreck. I want to go home. I want to go home with you."

"The waterbender has to stay locked up, but I can take you to Zuko."

Ty Lee opens the door as Azula holds out her wrists to be cuffed. After shackling her, Ty Lee takes her out of the cell and locks Katara inside.

Katara stands up. "Are you betraying me that easily?"

"Of course I am." Azula winks at her, and then turns to Ty Lee. "Thank you."

She presses her lips fiercely against those of her captor. Katara's stomach churns as the kiss deepens and deepens.

As it begins to break, Azula whispers in Ty Lee's ear, "I cannot tell you how genuinely sorry I am for what I am about to do."

She grabs her, cuffs be damned, and kicks her against the wall. Azula cringes as she hits the head of the shocked girl against the metal.

Katara narrows her eyes as Azula desperately checks her captor's pulse before breathing a sigh of relief and grabbing the keys to the cell.

She rushes over and fumbles with her bound wrists as she unlocks the cell and sets Katara free. When Azula tosses Katara the key ring, she flips her way through until she finds the one to unlock the cuffs.

Azula takes a deep shuddering breath and briefly glances over her shoulder at the girl she knocked out before declaring, "Okay, time to find Mizu and Kimiko."

Katara could never argue with that. She missed and feared for Mizu more strongly than she could describe. Azula felt the same of Kimiko.

Katara holds the discarded handcuffs in case they need them as the two girls set off through the bowels of this ship to find their dragons.

[X]

It does not take long sneaking through the ship before they hear the frantic mewling of the baby dragons. The girls stop at a door and see their babies and bags locked up inside the large cell.

Without a moment's pause, Katara whips out the water from the dank floor and freezes the iron doorknob. She does not even glance at Azula as she grabs the metal cuffs and starts smashing them against the frozen metal. She takes three marginally successful whacks before huffing.

Turning to Azula, she snaps, "You can't make me do this by myself!"

Azula smirks. "Can I?"

Katara clenches her fists and snarls, "That's it! You selfish, evil…!"

Azula just smirks. "Sticks and stones, Katara, sticks and stones."

Katara finally crushes the doorknob and opens the door glaring the entire time. But her expression softens when Mizu struggles against her chains and chirps desperately to her mother.

"I'm here," whispers Katara, dashing to her baby. "Mizu, oh, Mizu, I'm here."

Azula runs to Kimiko at the same time and unhooks the chains. She pulls Kimiko into her arms and feels their heartbeats unite.

Still holding Kimiko in the crook of her left elbow, Azula seizes the two leather bags. She throws one to Katara with her free hand and they both soothe their babies as they ease them in and sling the bags over their shoulders. The dragons know by now to keep still, quiet, and alert in their hiding places.

They begin to rush down the halls before they slow in a row of cells, filled with several weary and abused prisoners.

Azula tries to usher her companion along, but as Katara slowly approaches one cell, the haggard man grabs the waterbender weakly by the wrist.

"Please, please help us," he begs, tears dripping from his muddy green, weary eyes.

Lips parted, she takes two steps towards Azula, whom already stands several paces ahead of her. She closes her eyes as another prisoner begs and cries before she freezes in place and draws in a deep, pained breath. Azula stops and whips around.

Katara turns over her shoulder. "I can't do this."

"Do what? Save our lives? Save Kimiko and Mizu?" Azula snorts and sneers.

"I can't just leave the people who plead for help. I tried but… I can't live with myself."

"I can." Azula shrugs and laughs. Katara restrains herself from punching the pretender princess in her smug face.

"I'm unsurprised," she coldly says, glaring with the force of a wicked empress. "Look, I have to rescue the other prisoners. You can go or you can come with me. I don't care, intertwined destinies or not."

"They aren't your responsibility. They don't matter in this war. It's a war we need to win."

"They do matter. Every life matters. It's not worth winning if we let scores of people die at the hands of the enemy." Katara advances on Azula, prepared to fight her if she must. But Azula stands her ground.

"You're wrong. It's something people in the Fire Nation are taught from birth. If just one person is left standing when the fight is over, then it was worth it. But your people always want to save everyone."

"Perhaps saving everyone is one of our weapons."

Azula shakes her head and eyes Katara with genuine pity. "Mercy is not a weapon; it is a weakness."

"I'm saving these prisoners, and I'm keeping Mizu with me. You can leave the ship without me or you can help me get them to the lifeboats with us."

Azula grinds her teeth as she weighs losses against benefits. Katara waits with a severe expression until Azula at last makes her decision.

"For Mizu. Not for you."

"I'll take it."

Katara turns and uses Ty Lee's keys to open the cell, and then swiftly and silently she and Azula lead the way through the ship towards the lifeboats.

But, predictably, the two remaining of the three enemies cut them off as they reach the deck. Zuko and Mai, one in a firebending stance, the other holding two knives.

Without a second thought, Katara takes on Zuko. Azula goes up against Mai. The five prisoners leave them to the fight and hide, waiting for another chance to escape.

In the midst of the battle, Azula calls out to Mai, preparing a blade in her hand, "We're still friends, aren't we?"

Mai throws a knife in response, but misses, and Azula knows very well that she has better aim than that.

Zuko throws several balls of flame at Katara and she deflects them with dodges and fleeting shields of water. Azula narrowly - perhaps intentionally - misses Mai with a bolt of lightning. Zuko lunges at Katara as one of Mai's knives in response to the lightning slices open Azula's arm. Katara hears Azula scream in pain and knees him in the groin. He stumbles with a yelp of pain and as Azula staggers towards Mai, barely avoiding the throwing stars, Katara takes her opportunity to seize the placid ocean water surrounding the ship.

She pulls it up in two waves, grabbing Mai and Zuko in it before twisting her wrists to freeze them in a prison of ice.

Azula smirks as she rubs her arm. Katara tugs on her companion and turns to the prisoners, waving for them to follow.

They flee, enemies subdued for now, and help the prisoners make it to the edge of the ship where several lifeboats hang ready for use.

Katara helps them into the lifeboats one by one, and after aiding the last prisoner onto a lifeboat and then begins to wrangle one for herself and the pretender princess.

But Azula seizes Katara by the arm and turns her to lock their gazes. "If you ever push me into a situation like that again, I will roast you alive."

Katara narrows her eyes, expression steely and teeth half-bared. "Please. Try."

Azula sneers as she releases her.

[X]

At last on the lifeboat and a fair distance from the ship, Katara ceases propelling them and decides to ask Azula the question burning in her mind.

"I've never seen you cringe at hurting someone. You actually looked worried about that girl. Ty Lee."

"I didn't mind hurting her. I just didn't want to kill her."

"You've killed scores of people. What's one more on your pathetic excuse for a conscience?"

"What? Are you jealous?"

"No. Mainly because that kiss was real. It wasn't to save our lives. It was real."

"So what if it was or wasn't? My plan worked."

"Do you miss her?"

"Maybe. Maybe not. I just know I have a destiny now, I'm a mother now, and she can't follow me down the path the spirits have given me. I don't want to look back on the life I led before finding the dragons with you."

"We have a saying in the Water Tribe; let old ghosts rest."

"Then perhaps the savages have some wisdom. I am surprised."

"We aren't savages. Just because we're different than Fire Nation people doesn't make us savages."

"If you say so," purrs Princess Azula. She looks back at the ship they escaped. "They'll follow us. They'll follow us wherever we go. Zuko would go to the ends of the Earth for a pat on the head from our father."

Katara replies, "But they won't catch us."

Both girls stare out at the ocean as Katara resumes bending their way towards the nearest shore.

[X]

After hours bickering at sea, the two dragon mothers make it to the docks of an Earth Kingdom fishing village occupied by Ozai's forces.

As they wander the streets, they find a peaceful and abandoned park.

Katara smiles up at the lonely trees. "Those birds are lovely. I've never seen a red like that in nature."

"I think you're forgetting we're in enemy territory." Azula jabs her finger upwards at the innocuous wildlife. "Those are enemy birds."'

"You're impossible," groans Katara, pointedly rolling her eyes.

Kimiko leaps from her hiding place, and before Azula can grab her, takes down one of the birds and roasts it alive. Katara clamps her hand over her mouth as Mizu breaks free and does the same. They both tear into the flesh of the animals Katara admired moments ago.

Azula looks at her companion in disdain.

"They're dragons," she says. "It's what they do."

Once Mizu and Kimiko return to still silence in the leather nests slung over their mothers' shoulders, the girls resume their walk.

Within moments, something far different from wildlife captures Azula's attention.

She dashed to a bulletin board, Katara at her heels.

"Look," says Azula, eyes shimmering eagerly. "Ruthless Sun recruiting posters."

"I guess new recruits will be easier to handle than the ones I faced."

"The golden egg. Avatar Roku said three children of serpents. We can get the golden egg!"

"They'll know it's us!" hisses Katara, livid at this very idea. Livid that she feels tempted by it.

"As fresh recruits we won't meet anyone important until it's too late for them. We find the location of the golden egg and we bolt."

"Our bending will give us away."

"So we pretend to be unable to bend. Surely you can handle that."

"All this for the golden egg?"

"Come on. You know it's not just a rock anymore."

Katara grits her teeth. She wants to be able to disagree but she cannot.

"We can find another way. I want the golden egg too but I don't—"

"What other way? If you can tell me a better plan right now, by all means, do so."

"And how do you propose we hide Mizu and Kimiko?"

"I have a plan for that."

"Oh, because your plans are so great. I'm considering creating an alphabetized list of times your grand plans have almost gotten us killed."

"I could say the same of you, and we're not dead yet, are we?"

"Fine, but if this goes wrong, I'm ditching you."

"And where would you find such a talented ally as me as a replacement?"

"I'll check the local sewer."

"Just follow my lead and save the attitude for someone who cares."

Katara huffs and adjusts the bag that holds Mizu on her shoulder.

[X]

Katara cannot believe she has found herself at a Fire Nation mercenary recruiting office.

Azula confidently purrs to the man in charge, "My friend — using friend in the loosest possible terms — and I are looking to join up with the Ruthless Sun."

"Names?" tiredly asks the recruiter.

"Mizu and Kimiko. I'm Kimiko."

"Any combat experience?"

"We're both ex-military."

"Why'd you quit?"

"Rules were too much for us. We wanted some freedom. We requested our discharge for proper paperwork and began looking for work elsewhere. Fishing didn't suit our strengths."

"Fine. Fill this out, get your physical exam and we'll find you a platoon for a trial mission. You don't get your cut if you die or fuck it up so don't get your hopes up. Very few manage to make our ranks. Good luck."

"Thank you, sir."

[X]

As they wait for the required medical examination by the local healer, "Why is it so easy for you to kill?" asks Katara.

"Skipping the small talk, are we?" purrs Azula, examining her sharp nails.

"I just happen to be more interested in your opinions on murder than your opinions on the weather."

Azula shrugs. "The more you kill the better you like it."

"That's sick." Katara grimaces, stomach churning,

Azula shrugs one shoulder and then elaborates, "At first you're just surprised at how easy it is, even though you feel sick after. The first few can be difficult. But eventually you do it just to watch the expressions change."

Katara sits speechless.

Thankfully, the elderly healer enters the room before she must figure out a reply.

[X]

The same tired recruiter states, "We're setting you up for your trial with a group of eight decently talented rooks. They got the briefing this morning. You're hunting down a defector from Fire Lord Ozai's army with a massive bounty on his head, dead or alive."

Azula and Katara nod.

[X]

At dawn, after a night of finding food and water for themselves and their dragons, the two girls meet the group with whom they have been placed.

A gaggle of rowdy young men are finishing preparing the bags and provisions for the journey on foot to the city where the defector is said to be hiding. Thankfully, two of them seem to have situational awareness and stride up to meet the new girls in the crew.

"I'm Mizu and this is Kimiko," says Katara, suddenly uncomfortably awake of the dragon lying inert in her leather bag.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Haru, and this is Li. I imagine you'll get to know the other guys once they settle down a bit."

"Nice to meet you too," says Katara.

When she shakes his hand Azula purses her lips. There is something there and she does not like it one bit.

"So, do you two have any specialities? Bending, weapons."

Azula replies, "No bending, but we are versatile in combat."

"Most of us are benders. I'm an earthbender and so are two of the other guys. Li here is one of our three firebenders. The rest are good at ranged combat most of all."

"You're an earthbender? In the Ruthless Sun?" asks Azula, bewildered and not caring remotely about manners.

"Most of us are Earth Kingdom," explains Haru, "but there's not much work anymore since the occupation and they won't let earthbenders into the army. I wouldn't want to fight directly for them, anyway. The Fire mercenaries pay well, and the Ruthless Sun offers a stipend to our families.

"That's generous of them."

"It's small, but better than what we get in other jobs." Pause. He turns to look at Azula. "While we're being blunt, I've never seen a Fire Nation girl so close with someone obviously… not."

"Oppression makes for unlikely friends," says Katara, semi-truthfully, albeit, as Azula said earlier, using 'friends' in the loosest possible terms.

"I'd be careful throwing the O word around, but if you look at me and Li, I guess you're right."

Katara offers a small smile.

Azula scowls.

Li states, "We better get moving. It's a long walk."

Haru, Azula and Katara nod.

[X]

They travel through the woods, hauling heavy items through ravines, stumbling over roots, struggling to keep the stressed dragons silent, still and contained. Rainfall begins and Katara slips and slides on the mud, barely catching herself on a tree.

She grunts. Azula turns to face her.

"How much further before we set up camp?" complains Katara.

"Farther," corrects Azula.

"What?" demands Katara, steadying herself and beginning to walk again.

Azula turns up a palm as she strides again. "Farther describes actual distance; further is more figurative."

"Are you a dictionary now?" snarks Katara.

Azula mockingly bats her eyelashes and smirks. "I'm sorry I'm smarter than you."

"Could you two just kiss and be done with it?" requests Li with an exasperated sigh.

"Excuse me?" vehemently snaps Katara.

"The bickering is getting exhausting," he complains.

"I'd sooner kiss a spider-snake," says Azula.

"Yeah. That would suck for you. The mirror would be pretty cold on your lips."

"Oh, effing spirits," groans Li.

The march continues.

[X]

At dinner, Katara sits down beside Haru at the edge of the meadow where they settled in for the night. After the labor of setting up camp, Azula subtly took
Kimiko and Mizu to hunt and stretch their wings, and now Katara is alone with the mercenaries, unsure what to do with herself.

"Hey, Mizu." Haru sounds distant, looks that way too.

"Hey." Katara picks at her food for a moment before looking up. "What's wrong?"

"Just thinking." Haru shrugs.

"About what?"

"The defector, I guess. I don't like what I do. I respect a person who realizes what he's doing is wrong, and what they're doing is wrong."

"Then why do you do this for work?"

"Three years ago, my father was taken to the slave mines. I have to do this to take care of my mother, no matter how much I hate it. It's the only way I can use my earthbending for something close to good, even if it makes me feel selfish."

"I understand how you feel." Katara hesitates. "The Black Snow came when I was a little girl."

"The Black Snow?"

"It's what we call it when the Fire Nation raids the South Pole. Their ships turn the snow black. They came for us, and they killed my mother."

"I'm sorry."

They sit in silence for some time before Haru plucks a flower from beside his feet and places it behind Katara's ear.

Katara dismisses her pain in response. "Everyone has a story like that, though."

"Yeah. Everyone in this group has stories like that about the Fire Nation. But that doesn't make any of them matter less."

Katara softly smiles.

[X]

When Katara returns to her tent, Azula waits for her, looking incredibly irritated. She hands Katara the bag containing Mizu and crosses her arms.

"What's your problem now?" Katara demands, rolling her eyes.

Azula says coolly, "I don't care how soft and sensitive Haru is. We have a mission and I refuse to let you get distracted by a boy."

"He's just a friend."

"We're not here to make friends." Azula takes the flower from Katara's hair in one sharp move and burns it to ashes.

Katara's hand twitches to slap her but she restrains herself.

"You're not in charge of me or this operation. Try to remember that."

"He doesn't even know your real name. Try to remember that."

Katara adjusts Mizu's bag and straightens her back.

"I'm not going to tell you that I'm not interested in him again. I play for the other team, after all," tosses out Katara as she begins to walk away. Azula cocks an eyebrow. She opens her mouth to speak but Katara turns to look over her shoulder. "No need to seize the last word, Azula. I'll assume it was something clever."

The fire princess's jaw drops.

[X]

The group arrives at the small city where the defector last was seen in early afternoon the next day. The streets, while busy, seem uncomfortably quiet and grim.

"This city is on the verge," explains Haru in a hushed tone. "Too many people have been taken to the slave mine just outside of the borders. Rebellion is stirring over it, but no one has been brave enough or stupid enough to try to attack the mine itself."

Soldiers patrol the streets, harassing citizens here and there. Beggars with small children at their sides plead for scraps in the streets. The houses and roads are crumbled and in utter disrepair. The fruit in the vendor stands is rotting, but people still scrounge in weathered purses for dirty coins to buy the only food they have.

"I can't say I blame them," murmurs Katara.

Even Azula does not disagree with that, although she certainly does not admit it.

"I'm going to talk to our contact about the defector. You guys wait here."

They obey the order, expecting this mission to finally come to a close, but when Haru at last returns, he announces with an irritated expression, "He's not in the city but he left a note to his girlfriend, the poor guy. We know where he is but he's not here."

"Fuck," murmurs Li.

Before Azula or Katara can say a word, the earth shakes and crumbles in a blast beneath their feet, throwing them to the ground.

"Rebels!" cries out Li as the earthbenders in masks reveal themselves.

It takes less than two seconds for the riot to break out in the dirty streets.

Azula's impulse is lightning, but she remembers herself. The powerful firebender and powerful waterbender cannot use their strengths to protect themselves and their temporary allies. They cannot risk revealing their true identities.

Fuck.

Katara has the same revelation as the princess and they exchange the same panicked glance as their companions and the soldiers patrolling the street launch into battle with the rebels.

A child garbed in rags begins to wail, alone in the crossfire as Azula and Katara begin to race towards cover. Katara sees it and Azula reaches out to grab her, just missing as her partner runs desperately to the crying child. Azula's eyes flash.

"Katara, no!" she screams, but the other dragon mother ignores her, wrapping her arms around the child and shielding it from the next earthbending blast.

Azula starts to move towards Katara but Kimiko begins to struggle in the bag and the princess must stop to hold her dragon back, pinned against a crumbling wall as she does so.

"Mizu!" screams Haru as the child's mother weeps and profusely thanks Katara, taking her child and leaving the waterbender alone with flames and rocks flying near her from all sides. "Mizu! I've got you!"

The street tears from the stone below again and holds him back, and so Li pushes him aside and starts running towards Katara. She jumps to her feet and grabs a staff from the arms of a dead soldier to pull the best moves her brother taught her out on the rebels advancing on her, grabbing, bending, slashing with blades as she beats them all back and to the ground.

Azula cocks an eyebrow. Mildly impressive.

The street rumbles and roars and a rock collides with the side of Li's face, just as he reaches the panting Katara.

When his mangled corpse hits the ground, Katara freezes. Haru releases a wordless cry of agony at the death of his best friend.

Chaos be damned, Katara sinks down, eyes wide. But Azula runs out of cover, into the battle,n and brutally seizes her by the arm.

"I'm not going to die here!" snarls Azula, "and I'm not going to let you die here either! Get up! Get up!"

She tugs on Katara roughly by the shoulder and drags her to her feet.

They run. They fight. They barely keep their bending and dragons under control.

But they survive, Azula holding Katara tightly by the arm the entire time.

As soon as the situation is under control and the patrolling soldiers finish making their arrests and clearing the streets of remaining civilians, Azula violently shoves a bruised Katara away from her. The waterbender huffs and rubs her arm.

"You sure know how to show a lady a good time!" she quips fiercely.

Without bothering to respond, Azula wipes sweat from her face and turns away.

[X]

Once the madness dies down and the small group sets up camp in the forest on their route towards the defector's new hiding place, they hold a burial for Li. Neither Azula nor Katara have seen an Earth Kingdom funeral before, and they watch, rapt, as Haru puts a stone into Li's mouth.

"This fleeting world," says Haru quietly. "Life passes as quickly as the morning star, as a rumble of thunder, a gust of wind over the grasslands. This fleeting life, brief as a spark, ephemeral as a dream… soon enough we are ghosts upon the mountains."

Maybe the people of the Water Tribe, the Earth Kingdom and the Fire Nation have one thing in common.

They all understand the sorrow of loss.

[X]

That night, Azula and Katara share a dream, a vision produced by their connection to destiny and dragons.

A misty swamp surrounds them as they pursue a golden dragon. It flies, fragments of glistening gold egg shell still stuck to its bioluminescent scales. It leads them to a short girl, perhaps a little younger than the two approaching her, with closely cropped black hair, milky mint eyes and a flying boar beside her. She reaches up and touches the dragon, and it settles comfortably on her shoulder as she strokes the winged boar.

As soon as she notices Katara and Azula, the dream fades away and they wake.

They both come to the same conclusion before even opening their eyes.

A third dragon mother.

Azula turns to her companion without even acknowledging the dream and hastily shares her most urgent thought. "We need to get the golden egg. And fast."

"I have an idea for that," says Katara. "You're not going to like it."

"Well, that's nothing new."

Azula smirks as Katara rolls her eyes.

[X]

In the morning, after Katara explains her plan, Azula's jaw drops.

"This is your idea?" she exclaims in utter disbelief. She nearly drops the breakfast they are eating privately out of earshot of the other mercenaries, away from the loud conversation and warmth of the roaring fire. "All out rebellion against my father? He will take this an act of war."

"He already sent your brother and those crazy chicks after us, and you said they aren't done with us yet. What more can he do? This is not only my plan to get the golden egg; it's our responsibility as dragon mothers."

"I don't see liberating a slave mine with seven poorly trained wannabe mercenaries as our only aid anywhere in my handbook for being a dragon mother."

"Mizu and Kimiko were born to us because we were born to change the world. That change involves breaking the chains on these innocent people."

"I disagree. I signed on to end the civil war. This does nothing worthwhile."

"It will bait the higher ups. We can play damsels in distress and then get the information about the golden egg. And we help these people too."

"My plan was to join them and then get that information. It is far less idiotic than your plan."

"Your plan takes time. The flowers of spring are already beginning to bloom. Sozin's Comet is approaching and we don't even know who the third dragon mother is yet. We have to act now."

Azula licks her teeth and contemplates the situation before huffing and crossing her arms. She has taken deadlier risks than this, and striking at last after hiding so long is admittedly tempting.

"I will do it. But only for the sake of the golden egg and the third dragon mother, whom will hopefully be a more tolerable human being than you."

"That's good enough for me. Now, let's rally these misfits and do this thing."

Katara strides to the campfire and glances around at the puzzled faces of the mercenary rooks. She takes a deep breath and then slowly exhales.

"I have an important and difficult confession to make," she announces. "My companion and I lied about who we are and why we're with you. My name is Katara, and I am the last waterbender of the Southern Tribe. This is Azula, the last Dragon Queen of the Fire Nation. We're here to save you."

"Save us?" snorts one of the men.

Katara opens the leather bags and releases the two dragons. The reaction of the mercenaries when they see Mizu and Kimiko changes something in Azula. She sees the hope on their faces, the wonder, the incredulousness, and thinks perhaps the gift of the dragons may have been what she truly sought when she decided to flip sides. Before she met Katara. Before she became stranded on that island.

She was meant to win the war, and she always knew it.

This her opportunity to begin.

"Yes. Save us," says Katara. "These dragons were born to me and Azula. We were given the materials and the command to stop the civil war from burning everything to ashes. We're going to liberate the slave mine and drive the Fire Nation out."

"What chance do we have?" sighs Haru, shaking his head. It is so evident that he wants to believe that it wounds Katara's heart. But he cannot. The hope has been beaten out of everyone standing around this fire.

Azula steps forward. "The question isn't what chance. It's what choice. My father, the pretender Fire Lord Ozai, will destroy you all to get what he wants. We need to fight back before that happens."

Katara declares confidently, "I know some of you are scared. And that's okay, because I'm scared too. But we can do this. I know we're not as trained as they are, as equipped as they are, as organized as they are, but my father's friend Bato used to say that one fighter with a sharp stick and nothing left to lose could take the day. And we are going to take the day."

Azula expects dissent, but instead witnesses nods and murmurs of agreement.

Maybe they do have a chance, if a slim one.

[X]

The gang of heavily armed defectors announce themselves at the mine entrance with a tsunami of cerulean flame. Ice, earth, arrows and orange fire flood in from not far behind.

Soldiers scramble in response.

The dragons soar forward, roaring rivers of flame that rain down on the soldiers and slave masters whom prepare weapons and bending to fight back.

Within moments, the alarms ring and the crew becomes outnumbered ten to one. But that does not stop their steady march forward, led by dragons and dragon mothers.

Azula breaks down the gates as Katara and the others begin a brief clash with a burst of soldiers, only a fraction of those they must fight to win this battle.

The short victory invigorates them and they burst into the mine, meeting soldier after soldier as the slave masters run to try to protect their property.

Although injuries add up on their way to the slave barracks, the dragons and the anger of every defector mercenary make seven fighters seem like seventy.

They free the slaves, they slaughter the masters, and they win the day.

[X]

After a few hours deep in the woods caring for the former slaves and the injuries of the combatants, Haru runs to the group with a messenger hawk in one hand and a crumpled letter in the other.

"The leaders of the Ruthless Sun are coming for us at Ozai's request. We need to get as far away from here as we can."

"All of you run. Hide. Do whatever you need to do. Haru, make sure to get everybody out of the area safely. I'm trusting you. Azula and I will handle the soldiers."

Azula nods. She does not need Katara to say it aloud to know that this is their chance to find the location of the golden egg.

Haru steps forward and sets his hand on Katara's shoulder. "It's been an honor knowing you. Thank you for this."

He kisses her and she blushes.

Azula clenches her fist irately as he steps back and starts helping the slaves to their feet.

As soon as their companions leave, Azula turns to Katara. "We need to hide Mizu and Kimiko."

A light of panic hits her cobalt eyes. "Where?"

"Somewhere safe and near here. I'm not keeping them on us in case this goes south."

"Okay."

The girls rush to conceal their dragons, comfort them, and try to instruct them to remain hidden.

They abandon the hiding place after the painful goodbye, and walk towards the heavy bootsteps of the Ruthless Sun.

[X]

It is not much of a fight before the two girls find themselves in the chi blocking shackles, chained to metal stakes in a makeshift encampment, watched by guards as they wait for the leader to interrogate them.

Katara struggles against her bonds yet again before turning to Azula. "I'm getting sick of you constantly getting us captured."

"We are not constantly getting captured," snaps Azula haughtily.

Katara huffs and rolls her eyes. "Please, we come with our own ransom note."

"It was your idea to liberate that mine."

"It was your idea to find the golden egg."

The leader, a muscular woman in painted armor, approaches before the childish argument can continue further.

"Let's cut right through it, ladies," says the brusque woman. "Where are the dragons? We know you can't have hidden them far from here."

But before a snarky remark can be made, a male voice chillingly familiar to Azula interrupts, "That is not the right question.

"Commander Zhao, I had no idea you were with the Ruthless Sun now. How the mighty have fallen."

"I could say the same of you and your water slut bedfellow," he smoothly says, the edge of his upper lip twitching.

Azula leans forward, straining against her bonds. "Watch your tongue or I'll have it out. You are speaking to the rightful Princess of the Fire Nation…" Azula glances over her shoulder and then looks back at the man. "And the Princess of the Southern Water Tribe."

Katara suppresses a smile.

"So, pretender princesses, you haven't told me why you're here yet."

"Where is the golden egg?" demands Azula, and Zhao's eyes briefly flash in anger.

"Far from here," he says at last. "We're working on hatching it."

"It won't hatch without a mother," snaps Azula in earnest.

"Thankfully, we have two to choose from." He clears his throat. "Well, I only need one of you. So who's ready to die tonight?"

Azula declares loudly enough for every mercenary to hear, "If you kill me, I will return as lightning. And when I strike you down, you will know it was me."\

But Zhao laughs. Laughs. Katara swallows, knowing Azula's reaction will be remarkably unfortunate.

"Don't worry about dying, pretender princess. The highest paying buyers all want to keep you breathing."

"I am not a pretender," snarls Azula, eyes and soul aflame. "My father is a pretender, and so is my cousin. But not me. The dragons of old have marked me, as has Avatar Roku. I am not a pretender princess, General Zhao. I am a Dragon Queen."

Zhao shrugs. "You aren't a Dragon Queen. Not without the dragons you hid that will soon be in my custody, or that darling golden egg or yours that is already making its way by caravan to the shipyards of Jianhui. So choose, come with me to your father and be the pretender princess you are or come with me to your cousin and be nothing at all. Well, nothing either way, I suppose."

"I am not nothing," says Azula, striding towards Zhao. He does not move, but his fingers twitch with a small puff of smoke. "I have never been and never will be nothing."

His laughter shakes birds from trees.

Azula struggles against her bonds, gnashing her teeth.

The moment he pats her head condescendingly, he makes the worst mistake of his life.

Two petite but quickly grown dragons swoop onto the scene, having abandoned their hiding place. They sensed the distress of their mothers.

The dragons light the encampment aflame within seconds, and slay several soldiers before advancing on those holding their Mother's captive.

Zhao and the woman easily block the flames and begin fighting back with firebending, but the tables turn when a blue blast of crackling lightning erupts from Kimiko's jaws, striking Zhao in the chest. His eyes flash wide during his last moment of life before he collapses to the ground, a corpse.

The woman scrambles past the flames to liberate Azula and Katara from their shackles in hopes of saving her own skin. She spins to face the dragons and holds her hands up in surrender, but despite the pause of Mizu and Kimiko, Azula strikes her down with a bolt of her own lethal lightning.

"We have to find that caravan," says Azula.

Katara nods sharply. "Well, wonders never cease because I agree."

Azula orders, "Put out the fires. I'll look for something that can tell us where the caravan is."

As Katara beats back the flames with water, Azula races around going through papers and questioning mercenaries. At last, she finds luck: correspondence to the caravan and a map to the rendezvous point.

Both girls grin, grab their dragons, and start the journey, leaving a smoldering ruin behind them.

[X]

Once they make the two-day trek through ravines and rainfall to catch up with the caravan, a sprawling line of wagons loaded with soldiers and supplies, the girls wait until nightfall to make their move.

Katara whispers, "So where do your dragon queen instincts say the golden egg is? This caravan is huge."

"My pretender princess shoved into the military before her tenth birthday instincts say it will be in the most defensible and central area. It has to be the most priceless item on them."

They try three doors near the center of the caravan before at last seeing what they have sought for so painfully long and risked life and limb for.

Mizu and Kimiko burst from their hiding places in the leather bags the moment they smell their unhatched sibling. Azula and Katara do not bother to coax them back, too overwhelmed by this moment.

Azula bolts forward and grabs the egg, cradling it softly in her hands. But fleeting moments after she picks it up, a security measure snaps into action.

Wooden barriers smash down over the door and the one window in the caravan. Katara jumps to her feet and Azula almost drops the egg. The dragons wail in fear and despair.

Katara tries the doors; Azula rushes to help her.

They have no luck.

Katara summons water from a bucket beside where the egg was held and starts slashing against the wood to no avail until Azula grabs her. The princess kicks the door and curses under her breath.

"We're trapped," says Katara. "What do we do? This is thick."

"It's made of wood. I'll set it on fire."

"That really has to stop being your solution to everything."

"I mean it! We have to do something fast and I'm doing it whether you like it or not! The egg will be fine! Or hatch! Screw everything and everyone else!"

"Are we included in everyone else?"

"You're a waterbender, aren't you? Make a shield."

As Azula immediately sets fire to the locked wooden door, Katara creates a water barrier around them, silently praying to Tui and La that it will work.

The fire Azula started sets the entire caravan ablaze within minutes, sending countless merchants and mercenaries running out into the night to either gawk or try to put out the flames.

Finally, the door burns enough that Azula and Katara escape, the cracking egg still in Azula's hands as a small nose begins to poke through the golden shell.

They step out and every set of eyes present fixated on the strange girls emerging from the fire.

Mizu and Kimiko flutter around the girls as they step through the smoke, the caravan burning in roaring flames behind them.

The water barrier breaks, drenching them both, but neither girl cares because they are alive.

Because they are alive and a tiny bioluminescent golden dragon chirps inquisitively up at Mizu and Kimiko beside their feet.

Azula reaches down and gently picks up the golden dragon. It sniffs at her and then rests in her arms.

Katara looks up and watches the people of the caravan, scores of them, kneel in reverence.

"Well, go on," says Azula, and Katara shoots her a quizzical glance. "You so love those passionate speeches about hope. Give them one that makes them believe in us. We are not princesses. We are dragon mothers, and if we are to stop the civil war, we will need supporters."

Katara furrows her brow. "Them?"

"They are a start."

They girls cannot help but exchange a smile.