Disclaimer: I'm back! I'm aware that, due to the extremely long break, many readers may have forgotten what was going on. While I'll do my best to briefly summarize key past events, I will ultimately write this chapter with the aim of having it be entertaining to someone reading the entire fic straight through. I apologize for any confusion. See the author's note at the end for explanation of the delay.

Special thanks to my former betas Lavanya Six and Devon, and my current beta Aurelia Le!

The Right to Rule

An Avatar: The Last Airbender fanfic

Chapter 16

The Drill

The silence stretched on; Azula had to focus to avoid fidgeting. This was one time when she really missed her eyes—without seeing Long Feng's expression, she had no idea what he was thinking. Was he worried about being in her debt? Suspicious that she had ulterior motives? (That would be ironic, if so, since this was the rare time she didn't.) Trying a power play, making her wait? Or was she overthinking things, and he was just being cautious?

Finally, mercifully, Long Feng said, "I very much appreciate the offer, Avatar, but I assure you, our forces have this 'drill' situation well in hand."

Azula didn't respond to that. She just continued to stand in silence, facing him.

Soon, Long Feng spoke again: "However, if you insist, of course I won't turn you down." There was a slight edge in his voice. "Thank you, Avatar, for helping to save my city."

Azula bowed, partly to be polite, but mostly to hide her relief. "It is my duty, Grand Secretariat." "Your" city, indeed, she thought. Some free advice: asserting your authority so directly betrays a fundamental insecurity. She had been somewhat worried about Long Feng, both now and post-war, but if this was the kind of man he was, controlling him was going to be child's play. Her muscles loosened and she breathed a bit easier.

"Just make sure to keep this battle a secret from Ba Sing Se's residents," Long Feng said. Azula thought she detected a bit of concern in his voice.

"It goes without saying," she said, rising from her bow with a friendly smile, "that I would never betray our agreement."

"Of course, of course. Merely a reminder." Long Feng cleared his throat. "General Sung is in charge of the Outer Wall. I'll ensure he allows you to fight under his command."

Way too obvious, Grand Secretariat. She let it pass, though. Some two-bit Earth Kingdom general could never order around the Avatar anyway.

Sung paced in front of her. "Normally, I would insist that we Earth Kingdom citizens defend our city with our own hands," he said. "If their silly 'drill' were our only problem, my elite Terra Team would take care of it quite handily. But there are a large number of enemy troops in the field supporting it, and fighting both them and that machine will be rather challenging." He stopped pacing, turned to her, and said, "So I am thankful for your assistance, Avatar. Together, we will ensure Ba Sing Se remains impenetrable forever more."

The wind currents told Azula he was bowing. She matched it and said, "No need for thanks, General. I am merely preserving the balance." Whatever that means.

"...Yes." Sung didn't seem to understand the meaning either. "Shall we discuss strategy, then?"

"Lead the way." Sung left his office. Azula followed, Toph and Sokka trailing behind her. She had let them attend this meeting because she was far less concerned about Sung than Long Feng, but told them beforehand to let her do the talking. For once, they seemed to be obeying her.

The four of them entered another room. Azula casually created a few small vibrations in the ground with each footstep, and saw a table in the center topped with figurines; presumably, that was one of the maps used to represent the positions of military forces. Sung walked to it and placed his hand on the largest figurine. "This is their drill, and—" He paused, then turned to her. "Er…"

Azula was tempted to take off her eye covering, but she just smiled at him. Sokka had run to the map and seemed to be paying the figurines a lot of attention. Toph was hanging back.

"Right," Sung eventually said, turning back to the map. "This is their drill, and these," he lightly tapped on a number of other figurines, "are their forces. Like I said, my Terra Team can take out the drill." He took a couple of figurines from elsewhere on the map and pushed them toward the big 'drill' one. "We just need you to protect them while they do so." He drew a circle around the 'Terra Team' figurines.

Sokka, who had been playing with one of the figurines, suddenly looked up. "Actually, earthbenders can't—"

Azula turned her head to face him. She couldn't glare anymore, so she did her best to radiate malevolence. It seemed to work; Sokka shut up.

"Understood," she said to Sung.

Sung glanced at Sokka, but interestingly, Azula didn't detect any offense in his tone when he next spoke: "We have defensive fortifications arrayed on the wall, so we'll wait until the drill gets here before we make our move. Our scouts estimate that will be in three days. Give me your address, and I'll contact you when the time comes."

At least Sokka waited until the three of them were back at the house Long Feng was loaning them before he began complaining.

"Why did you cut me off? From what Guang told me—"

"Who?"

"The mechanist!"

"Ah." For some reason, Azula could never quite keep his name in her memory.

"He explained the blueprint to me," Sokka went on. "That drill is virtually impenetrable—"

"Please use a different word."

"—to attacks from the outside. It's, like, a perfect anti-earthbender weapon!"

Azula shrugged. "I didn't expect his troops to be very useful either, but there was no reason to argue with Sung. That man has no way to control us once we're on the battlefield."

Toph, for the first time since they arrived in Ba Sing Se, spoke up. "What, so you just lied to one of the Council of Five?"

Sarcasm was hardly unusual for Toph, but there was a bitter undertone to it this time that annoyed Azula. "They'll have to learn not to give orders to the Avatar eventually."

"You think the Avatar is above the law?" Toph's bitter undertone became stronger.

"What do you think the Avatar is?" Azula responded.

The house was silent for a while.

Eventually, Sokka cleared his throat. "Um. If we're going to be attacking the drill ourselves, we should probably talk about how to do it."

Azula turned to face him. With Naya heavily injured at the Northern Air Temple and Kalu staying behind to hear her, she was now stuck alone with these two imbeciles. She'd never appreciated the two Water Tribe barbarians more (or, well, at all). "That's easy," she told Sokka. "Machines are tools; the problem is the people who wield them. We just have to infiltrate the drill and take out its operators."

Sokka coughed.

"...Do you have an objection?" Azula asked icily.

"Well, the Fire Nation was worried about that too, apparently, so they had Guang install some failsafes."

"Failsafes?"

"Redundant mechanisms. Er, basically, there's a main control room, but also a bunch of minor ones, all of which need to sync for the drill to stop once it's in motion."

Azula cursed under her breath. Perhaps she could try persuading their leader to order a halt, but that was risky; he might not agree, even on pain of death, and even if he did, the smarter or more daring underlings might not obey him. That craven mechanist kept making things unnecessarily difficult for them. Sokka's smug tone didn't help her mood either. "Do you have any ideas, then?" she asked, laying the sarcasm on thick.

"Actually, I have two!"

She raised an eyebrow.

"You can't see the blueprints, so I'll just explain them to you." Azula gritted her teeth as Sokka's tone got even more smug. "There are actually two parts to the machine: the drill itself, and the outer shell that protects it. They're connected by a series of braces, which gives me my first idea: Destroy the braces, and BAM!" He swept his arm dramatically. "The entire drill will collapse."

Azula thought about that a bit. "Those braces are made of metal, I assume?"

"Yup! Pretty much the entire thing is. It's really a fascinating piece of machinery. It moves by—"

"Then how do you suggest we destroy them?"

The air seemed to go out of Sokka; when next he spoke, he sounded subdued. "...Well. I've seen people in my tribe cut things up with waterbending."

"Do you have any idea how long that would take?"

"...Maybe melt them with firebending?"

"Sokka." Azula spoke slowly and deliberately. "That drill, as we've established, is made of metal. That means Toph," she pointed at the girl in question, "won't be able to see or earthbend inside of it. In other words," she pointed at herself, then raised her pinky at Sokka, "it'll just be us two in there. If, say, an enemy detachment were to show up while I'm trying to melt giant support beams," she smiled at him, "do you propose to fight them off by yourself?"

After a few seconds, Sokka mumbled, "You're hurting my feelings again."

Azula sighed. "What about your second idea?"

"Um, right. Right!" Sokka returned to his default state of unending exuberance. "I actually came up with this on the flight here, while I was going over all the stuff Guang told me about the drill, and before you ask, it definitely wasn't just 'cause it's so cool. Think of it like this: The purpose of the drill is to destroy Ba Sing Se's walls, right?"

"Sure."

"Where do you think all that broken rock goes?" He spread his arms wide. "There's a bunch of pipes that run all throughout the drill, filled with water. The rock mixes with the water, becoming slurry, and flows through the pipes until it's expelled out the back of the drill." He punctuated his speech with vigorous hand gestures.

"...Okay. So what?"

"So, Guang realized that if he needs to make that slurry anyway, he might as well use it for something. Smashing against rock makes the drill heat up really quickly, and if it gets too hot, the entire thing will break down."

Azula paused and considered Sokka's surprisingly helpful explanation. "Then, if we destroy those pipes…"

"The drill won't cool down, and the heat will destroy it!" Sokka punched a fist into his palm. "And because of the failsafes, they won't be able to stop it in time. The reason the drill works at all becomes the cause of its destruction. It's poetry!"

She considered the proposal. Despite being Sokka, Sokka had actually come up with a fairly good plan, she decided. She was almost impressed. "Not bad. I approve."

"Yes!" Sokka pumped his fist. Azula desperately wished she could still roll her eyes.

"Now then," Azula said, making her voice authoritative, "here's the plan. On the day of the battle, we go out with Sung's troops, but Sokka and I eventually ditch them and infiltrate the drill by ourselves. For reasons already stated, Toph stays outside; take out any enemy forces in the area, and if there are none, do your best to slow the drill down. Sokka and I will find the pipes, destroy them, then escape. Mission accomplished. Any questions?"

Sokka shook his head. Toph, like she had done throughout the conversation, just lay on the ground.

"Very good. Sung said they expect the drill to be here in three days, but be ready to leave at any time. Dismissed!"

"Alright!" Sokka shouted. "Team Avatar is going to save this city!"

"Never call us that again."

Over a week had passed since Jun's death, but the others still weren't back to normal. Mongke didn't know if that was to be expected; all his emotions were muted, but grief especially so.

Despite his team's despondence, though, Mongke was fairly confident about this mission. He had been there when the Dragon of the West breached Ba Sing Se's walls. The Fire Nation would already be occupying that city if the treasonous former General hadn't lost his will to fight. And this time, they had the drill. The sheer crafts- and workmanship that must have gone into making such a device made even Mongke feel a touch of awe when he first saw it.

In addition, the commander of this operation was one of the few high-ranking military men Mongke held some degree of respect for. War Minister Qin was a coward, to be sure, but he was also quite intelligent in his own way—well, as long as he didn't have a superior breathing down his neck. Which he didn't this time.

Finally, the plan itself was more thought-out than Mongke had assumed. When they met, Qin had explained that the Fire Nation high command was tracking the Avatar's movements, and decided to strike Ba Sing Se once she was too far north to make it back in time. Mongke and his team, after all, had only made it back by running their komodo rhinos into the ground.

Overall, as the five of them (minus Suzue, who had wandered off somewhere) walked back to their tent, Mongke was feeling good about this job. It was a great opportunity to get their rep back after the failure of the last one.

Then, as soon as they entered the tent, Otori slunk to his back, shoved him to his knees, and placed a knife under his throat.

"What. Are we doing?" she seethed.

Mongke felt an urge to gulp, which he suppressed. "What do you mean?" he asked evenly.

"We're here because the Avatar isn't? Just when will we get our revenge on her?"

Oh, right. He probably should've expected this. This happened sometimes, his muted emotions making him mispredict what people would do.

Feeling a bit nostalgic with the metal at his neck, he said, "The Avatar should be in the north for a while. If we demonstrate our skills here, Qin will put a good word in for us with the high command, and we'll have our pick of the litter for jobs. Zhao's opinion of us won't matter if we're hired by the Firelord himself."

Several seconds passed. Then Otori grunted, removed the knife (nicking his skin in the process), and stalked out of the tent.

Mongke glanced at Hiro and Hina, who had been watching the scene with intent expressions, looking almost as lively as they had been before Jun's death. They didn't say anything, though. After a short pause, he stood up and ran out of the tent himself.

"Otori!" he called after her retreating figure.

"I'm not going to apologize," she said, not turning around.

"I know," he said, catching up to her, "but—"

Before he could blink, she turned around, grabbed his wrist, pulled him down, and kissed him on the lips. Her green eyes were open wide. They were even murkier than usual, like a dense forest, or a deep river.

After a few seconds, they pulled away, Otori smiling her 'pleasant' smile. "I want to be alone," she said. "We'll play again after dinner."

"...Okay."

Otori's smile changed. This one was unfamiliar; it wasn't really pleasant or malicious. She flicked the fresh cut on his neck, making him flinch a little. "We learned you like pain yesterday. I like it too. Want to switch roles tonight?"

His mind was hazy, and it took him a second to clear it. "Huh?"

But she was already strolling away, whirling a knife on a string in each hand.

Their first full day back in Ba Sing Se, Sokka begged Azula constantly to let him go out into the city. Her desire for peace and quiet eventually overwhelmed her commitment not to reward bad behavior, and she let him go out after nightfall. It didn't really matter anyway—the Fire Nation never attacked without the sun in the sky, so as long as he was always ready to leave during the day, it wouldn't be a problem.

Now it was the following night, right before the date when Sung had said the drill would reach the city walls. Sokka was out again (Azula had zero desire to know what he was doing), so it was just Azula and Toph left in the house. Azula was trying to get a good night's sleep after a long day practicing her bending. Toph, as far as Azula could tell, hadn't been doing much of anything. They hadn't talked since their first night back.

No, we haven't really talked since the battle at the Northern Air Temple.

Azula was just about to drift asleep when she heard Toph speak.

"Where does the Fire Nation get its soldiers?"

Azula sat up in her bed. Both the air currents and direction of Toph's voice indicated she was standing in the doorway.

"What do you mean?" Azula asked.

"I mean, are they volunteers?"

Azula was wide awake now, and thought quickly. She could lie; as much as Toph boasted about her lie detection skills, Azula had slipped a few falsehoods into their conversations over the past few months, and Toph hadn't caught them. But...no. Maybe it would be helpful for this battle, but it would surely come back to bite her down the line.

Instead, Azula said, "There's a conscription quota every year. The number of volunteers varies, but they almost always have to draft a fair number to meet the quota."

After a pause, Toph asked, "Why do people volunteer?"

"Various reasons. Some believe in the cause, are loyal to the nation, or just want to feel strong. For others it's the family business, or a means to launch their career. A not inconsiderable amount, I think, just want to fight and kill without getting arrested." She shrugged. "But for many, it's the only way open to them for making money."

A long time passed. Azula had no hope of falling asleep now. Her breath was coming in short spurts, and her heart was beating a shaku a second. Maybe she should've taken Toph out into the city earlier, to remind her of what she was supposed to be protecting. Maybe she should've lied after all. Maybe…

Toph said, "Alright. I appreciate the honesty, Azula, so thanks. Really." She left, closing the door behind her.

She didn't slam it, at least, Azula thought. It was rather cold comfort.

"I have to say, it really sets our minds at ease having the Avatar help us out!"

Azula felt a hand slap her back. "Well. That's good to hear, Captain," she said.

"Just 'Chang' is fine," the captain of the Terra Team said. Then he lowered his voice. "To tell the truth, Avatar Shen was my hero growing up. He's actually the reason I joined the army in the first place. So fighting alongside you is a true honor."

Huh. Convenient. Even if he was lying and was going to report her actions to Sung, or Long Feng for that matter (Is the Earth Kingdom incapable of coming up with names that don't end in ng?), that was fine with her. As long as he didn't get in her way today. "The honor is mine, I assure you."

The captain slapped her on the back again, seemed about to say something, then looked out onto the future battlefield. After a second, he shouted, "It's here! All forces, prepare to deploy immediately!"

The army soon got to work, bringing men (yes, everyone here except her and Toph was a man) from the top of the wall to the ground using rock platforms. Azula, Toph, and Sokka did the same.

"Remember the plan," Azula said as they descended. "We need to wait until it gets close; the drill won't overheat unless it's in the process of digging through the wall. Once it does, I'll dig a tunnel to its underside so Sokka and I won't be seen. We'll infiltrate the drill and take it out as fast as possible. Toph, you take care of the situation on the ground while we're gone." She paused. "Ready?"

"Y-Yeah," Sokka stuttered.

Toph didn't say anything.

They hit the ground, and immediately ran in formation alongside the Terra Team. Azula extended her seismic sense with each step.

The enemy force was much the same as the battalion that attacked the Northern Air Temple, just larger in scope; the Fire Nation really was going all-out on this battle. She could count over 30 of those large machines—Kalu had called them "tanks," she remembered—and more than 500 foot soldiers; altogether, they were almost twice as numerous as the Earth Kingdom army opposing them. However, the numerical advantage wasn't going to help them as much as it normally would, since their entire plan revolved around the single drill. The army's only purpose was to protect the drill, so they'd have to concentrate on a single location anyway. As such, Azula decided to just concentrate on protecting the Terra Team until the drill reached the wall.

As they charged the drill, the Terra Team moved their arms and legs in synchronized katas, shooting volleys of rocks at the soldiers guarding the drill, one after another, such that the enemy received no respite. When their firebenders counterattacked, those in the back quickly responded by bending up earthen walls, while those in the front kept up the stone deluge. It was fairly impressive work; the Fire Nation detachment there was soon routed, and some of the earthbenders got to work attacking the drill while others tried to ward off reinforcements.

A tank started moving toward them. Toph made a motion at it, but Azula waved her off. She had entered the Spirit World during the long flight to Ba Sing Se and held several extensive training sessions with Aang. Among other things, they covered a major airbender strategy of using the opponent's strength against them, and it had given Azula an idea.

While the tank approached, sending fireballs at Azula that she casually deflected, she focused on a spot in the tank's path, concentrated, and moved her fingers in slow, deliberate motions. A series of cracks appeared in the earth, small enough that someone without seismic sense couldn't notice unless they looked closely. Azula kept moving her fingers, deflecting the fireballs with her legs now, and the cracks multiplied.

The tank reached the spot, and Azula violently raised her arms as high as she could reach.

A large disc of earth broke off and rose quickly, taking the tank with it. It was just large enough to fit the tank on, so the machine couldn't stop in time. It rolled off the disc, fell, and crashed in a heap.

Azula grinned. She turned around to brag at Toph, but Toph was already running away, moving to engage one set of foot reinforcements. Sokka, of course, was hanging back with the Terra Team, doing nothing.

Azula sighed.

The next few minutes were spent in intense yet mindless battle. As Sung had said, there were several fortifications on Ba Sing Se's walls that allowed soldiers to harass the Fire Nation army unimpeded, reducing the number that could assault Azula and the Terra Team. The Terra Team was making no progress on the drill, as expected, but they were skilled and coordinated benders and successfully chased off many Fire Nation soldiers while losing only a few of their own members. These distractions gave Azula and Toph—by far the most powerful benders on the battlefield—more than enough leeway to easily dispatch every enemy that came close. It wasn't enough of a challenge for Azula to truly have fun, but she was feeling satisfaction as the drill approached the wall.

Then she felt an all-too-familiar intense wave of heat rush toward her, and the air in her lungs grew heavy.

So they're here, too.

She stuck her hand out, and the blazing-hot lance of flame stopped in front of her. Last time, she had been exhausted from a long battle and her strength had been drained by a fast-acting poison. Now she was near full strength, and had practiced a move with Aang for just this situation. She brought her other arm back, and with a ferocity matching that of the strongest firebending katas, slashed it in a semicircle around her, creating a veritable tornado that weakened the fire enough that she could shunt it into the ground at her side.

The firebending attack had come from a tank several dozen shaku ahead of her. Two people exited the tank and started advancing, one with light and snaking feet, the other almost shaking the ground with each step they took.

After the battle at the Northern Air Temple, Azula had gotten as much information from Kalu and Toph as she could regarding the enemies that almost killed them. Naya thankfully seemed to have killed or at least severely injured the archer, which the absence of arrows now all but confirmed. The small woman with knives was apparently quite skilled, but as a non-bending short-range fighter she wasn't a huge concern. The firebending tandem was a different story; they didn't seem to have much technique, but their sheer power far outclassed even Azula's. And the giant…

If Toph and Kalu's memories were to be believed and the giant had taken zero injuries during the battle, Azula frankly had no idea how to defeat her.

As she deflected a huge volley of dozens of fireballs from the firebenders in the tank, Azula yelled, "Toph! Dust cloud, now!"

Fortunately, Toph didn't argue. A fountain of earthen debris soon covered her. Coughing, Azula ran back toward the Terra Team, adding to the dust cloud as she went. By the time she reached Sokka, it was covering almost a hundred soldiers.

"Avatar," the Terra Team's captain said, "what's going on?"

"No time to explain," she said. She grabbed Sokka's wrist, then frowned when he clung to her arm. "We're going to infiltrate the drill."

"But we're—"

"Have you even succeeded at slowing it down?" She let him stew on that for a moment. "Precisely. I'm relying on you to handle the situation out here." With that, she dug a hole and jumped in, dragging Sokka with her.

"We've still got almost eight minutes before it hits the wall," he said as Azula dug a tunnel toward the drill.

"You saw our battle at the air temple, right?" Azula replied.

"The end of it, yeah."

"Those extremely strong enemies showed up here, too."

Sokka groaned. For once, Azula didn't blame him for his cowardice.

"Exactly," she said. "So we need to end this battle as soon as possible."

She dug in silence for a bit. As she reached the drill's underside and began digging upward, Sokka asked, "What about Toph?"

"...She can take care of herself." Worst comes to worst, Azula ruminated, she can do what she's likely wanted to do since the beginning: run away.

Mongke left the tank when the dust cloud dissipated and the fighting resumed. Minus one notable combatant.

"The Avatar's gone," Otori said, appearing suddenly at his side.

"Yes."

"Where is she?" Otori was twirling knives in both hands. At least they're not at my neck this time.

Mongke surveyed the battlefield. There weren't many places to hide on this barren stretch of ground. Either she had retreated back into the city, or… "She's probably gone inside the drill."

Otori looked at the drill in question, then nodded. "Hiro, Hina!" she barked at the tank. "Come with me. We're going Avatar hunting. Suzue!" She turned to their strongest member, whose face was impassive as always. "You're not fast enough to chase around an Avatar in there. Stay out here and make sure these bozos don't lose to a bunch of Earth Kingdom peasants. Oh, and," she elbowed Mongke in the chest, "keep our fearless leader alive, too."

He shook his head. "I'm going with you."

She looked up at him, grin as sadistic as he had ever seen it. "You can't even beat me, but you want to face down the Avatar?" Then her expression shifted, just a bit, and she kissed him, just for a second. "You might not notice, but Suzue kind of detaches from reality sometimes," she whispered. "Keep her grounded, and wait for us. I'll bring you the Avatar's head."

Mongke should have been offended by the insult, but he wasn't. He just watched as Hiro and Hina left the tank, and the three of them ran to what, with any luck, was not going to be their deaths.

Toph didn't need to ask why Azula was speeding up the plan. She had seen those earth-shattering footsteps often enough in her nightmares.

"You're with the Avatar, right?" Chang, captain of the Terra Team, asked her. "Do you know what her plan is?"

Yeah, leave me to fight the unstoppable monster. Her chest still hurt; her ribs weren't fully healed yet. "Yeah, but that's not important right now. You need to be worried about that." She pointed at the monster, who was standing still as the other members of her group went toward the drill. Guess they figured out our plan, Toph thought. Oh well, no time to warn Azula now. "That woman could defeat your entire army by herself," she told Chang.

"Little girl, this is no time for jokes."

The monster still hadn't moved. Someone was near her—talking to her? Toph stomped her foot hard, scooping up a huge patch of rock, then sent it flying directly at the monster's head. As far as Toph could tell, the monster didn't move a muscle, before or after the boulder smashed into her.

"...You fought that before?" Chang eventually asked. Anyone could've heard the tremors in his voice.

"Yeah," Toph said.

"How'd you survive?"

"Extenuating circumstances."

"...What should we do?"

The monster took a step toward them. Every hair on Toph's body was standing at rigid attention. "You all should avoid her notice and fight the other enemies."

Chang gulped loudly. "And you?"

Toph tried to encase the monster's feet in earth, the way she'd "won" last time, not really expecting it to work. Sure enough, the monster's strength and momentum let her easily break out. "Guess I'll have to figure that out."

Azula finished putting on the shoes she'd had Sokka bring—walking barefoot on cold metal would not have been a bright idea—then stood up.

For the first time in a long time, she felt blind again. Without the seismic sense, she had to rely on air currents buffeting her skin to "see"; in other words, she could only detect moving objects, they had to be relatively close by, and since she'd had to develop it herself without any instruction, it was still raw and unreliable. So to navigate this giant machine, she'd have to rely on Sokka.

She missed Kalu and Naya with an intensity that matched the shame flooding her bloodstream.

"Lead the way," she told Sokka, and they were off.

Mercifully, they encountered no enemies by the time Sokka stopped. Azula did too, and waited.

For a second. "Well?" she demanded.

"...I can't see the pipes," Sokka said.

"What!?"

"Well, you can't foresee all the problems in advance so they probably made some changes to the blueprints as they built—please don't burn me!"

Azula belatedly realized she had created a small flame in her hand. She snuffed it out, feeling even more shame at the lapse of self-control, then said, "Where are you certain the pipes match the blueprint?"

"I guess, um, they have to be where the drill itself connects to the rest of the machine, since that's where they'd have to collect the rock."

"Let's go there, then."

He didn't move. Azula made a large hand gesture and said, "Well?"

"...That's also where the main control room is," Sokka said weakly.

Azula cursed under her breath. "No helping it. Let's—"

Suddenly, a loud voice echoed all around them: "Intruders have been detected within the drill! They were reported to be near sector D4! Move to engage!"

They faced each other. Azula whispered fiercely, "I hope you've gotten better with that boomerang."

Mongke finally caught up to Suzue. "What are you doing!?" he yelled.

A couple more rocks slammed into her, but she didn't even flinch, much less break her stride. "That girl is one of the Avatar's companions," she said, pointing at the girl she was chasing. "She's also the strongest earthbender here."

"And she's leading you around like you're a dog-bull."

Suzue blinked, then stopped. Mongke bent down to catch his breath. At least she was "attached to reality" enough to listen to him.

"I thought I'd catch her when she got tired," Suzue said. "Not much energy in that tiny body."

"There's a more efficient method," Mongke replied. He jabbed his thumb at the earthbender who'd been giving orders to the others. "That one seems to be their commander."

She turned her neck to stare at him. That feeling of sublimity, of looking at something not truly of this world, returned. If he didn't know better, he could've sworn her gray eyes were glowing.

Then she nodded, and the sensation passed. "Makes sense."

Suzue pivoted, raised her warhammer high, bellowed, and charged at the large group of earthbenders surrounding their ostensible leader. Mongke, ears ringing, did his best to keep up.

Sweat was pouring off of Sokka like rain, and it wasn't because he was getting tired. He'd been in some dangerous situations during this adventure, but never anything close to this—alone in an enemy base with Azula, who was several steps slower than normal without that earthbending sight thing she and Toph did. He was really jealous of the others' ability to bend...but, he now realized, he had also sort of let them do everything. Until now.

I can prove I'm not useless here, he tried to tell himself. It wasn't working.

They encountered a pair of Fire Nation soldiers on the way to the control room, but Azula incapacitated them quickly with a few bursts of flame. By the spirits' serendipity, that was it for the next few minutes.

"Alright, we're close," he said as they approached a three-way intersection. "Just go left here, and it's on the right."

Suddenly Azula grabbed his arm, stopping him. "There's a group of soldiers over there," she whispered.

Sokka glanced back. Unlike him, Azula seemed as calm and serene as always. Well, as calm and serene as she had been since she started airbending, at least. "Are you sure?" he asked. "You can't, um…"

She frowned, and gestured at her ears.

"...Oh." So she just heard them. He looked at the intersection as she let go. "We have to get past them, though."

Azula stepped in front of him, opened the pouch at her side, and drew out several streams of water, which she sharpened into ice daggers. "It's a large group," she said, "but if I distract them with these, I should be able to suppress them with airbending before finishing them off with fire. Since my perceptions are dulled in here, it would be quite a help if you could contribute something of value. Ready?"

Sokka gripped his boomerang tightly and focused on keeping the stutter out of his voice. "Yeah."

Azula stepped into the intersection, turned, sent the ice blades flying—

Then rolled back as a huge inferno engulfed the entire corridor ahead of them.

Sokka just stared at the roiling torrent of flames while Azula pulled herself to her feet. "Is that…?" he asked.

"The extremely strong enemies," she said, with a weirdly wistful tone. "Has to be."

The inferno stopped, and now Sokka too could hear the group of soldiers as they marched down the corridor. "What do we do?"

Azula turned to face him, and her smile made him step back involuntarily. "What we need—what I need—is a distraction."

Otori spun knives on strings in both hands. They kicked up more air than a dying man's last breath. "I can't hear them running away," she whispered.

"You were right, then; the Avatar really is aiming to assassinate War Minister Qin," one of the guards they had met up with whispered back.

"Hm. We've got her in a bind. But a cornered prey is the most dangerous. Cautiously approach, then strike like lightning." Otori stalked toward the intersection, followed closely by Hiro and Hina. The guards nervously took up the rear.

After the air temple battle, she'd felt like half her skin got torn off. Not just because Jun died. Though that did really hurt. More than it should've. It was the first time Otori had failed so miserably. Since fleeing her parents, at least. To make sure that didn't happen again, she'd developed some tactics with the others. This was one of them. She would point out the enemy's location. Dodge any attacks. Hiro and Hina would annihilate the target.

Otori accelerated, the three of them dashed into the intersection—

Then she slipped, fell, and hit her head hard. Her knives clanged against the walls. She placed her hands on the floor to stand up, then flinched. It was ice cold. Looking down, she saw why: the floor was coated with ice.

Waterbending. Shit.

She stood up, head hazy. No, that was wrong. The corridor was hazy. The ice was melting, then evaporating into mist. Otori withdrew more knives on strings from her sleeves. She spun them, clearing up some of the mist.

Just soon enough. A fireball came screaming at her. She ducked and threw a knife. A blast of wind knocked her back down to the ground. She stood up. Then barely avoided someone hurtling toward her. The person turned and dashed left, away from the command room.

"After her!" one of the guards shouted. They all followed the retreating figure. Otori was about to join them, then hesitated.

The mist was clearing up. Hiro and Hina were standing next to her. They weren't used to this. To life-and-death battle. To feeling a blade at one's neck. To seeing blood flow like wine. They were waiting for her instruction.

"Stay here and guard the command room," she told them. "Just in case. You're fine by yourselves. Even the Avatar can't match your power. Trust me." She smiled at them, then joined the guards.

There was a good chance they weren't chasing the Avatar. But that was fine. Better, even. It might've been the waterbender that killed Jun. Or the one that pulled a feint on her at the temple. Either way, she was going to gut them. Like the fish their people loved so much.

Toph cursed when she saw the monster turn and start heading toward the Terra Team. Then she cursed again. The Terra Team was busy fighting a large detachment of Fire Nation troops; they didn't have the leeway to do a hit-and-run tactic like she did. A few of them tried to shoot rocks at the monster, then bent up earthen walls to slow her pace, neither of which accomplished anything.

It felt like her brain was a slab of granite. She hammered at it relentlessly, trying to chisel it into something useful.

There are three basic strategies. It was something Azula had said while they were setting up camp, over a month. First, target your opponent's weaknesses. But the monster didn't seem to have any exploitable weaknesses. Second, focus the battle on your own strengths. Toph could fight long-range and manipulate the terrain; could she do anything with that? Third…

It wasn't an idea, exactly. More like a feeling. But it was enough to give Toph a fleeting sliver of hope, which impelled her to pick herself up and chase the monster.

Third, turn your opponent's strength into a weakness.

"Nowhere left to run, boy."

Sokka slowly turned was on top of a long metal bar. Behind him was one of the large braces that connected the drill to its surrounding shell. In front of him was a group of six or seven Fire Nation soldiers, standing in a line on top of the bar, the one closest to him in a firebending pose. Below him was a long drop down.

"Surrender," the one in front said.

Seventy seconds, Sokka thought. "You know," he said, "in the South, traps are our main weapons."

The soldiers seemed confused.

Then Sokka's boomerang returned from the long arc he'd thrown it in and slammed into the soldier at the far back. He stumbled into the one in front of him, who stumbled into the one in front of him, and so on, until they all fell screaming off the metal bar.

Sokka whooped, and ran to retrieve his boomerang.

Just in time, he swayed his head. A knife flew by and cut his cheek. He gasped in pain and staggered back.

"Not bad," someone said with a rough, almost sultry voice. It belonged to a woman sauntering toward him on the bar, whirling a knife on a string in each hand. Sokka backed up until he hit the support beam. He put a hand on his wound, and felt blood oozing out of it.

The woman kept walking slowly, pausing only to casually kick his boomerang off the platform and into the depths below. Her long, bushy hair covered one eye, but the other didn't blink as she stared at him. She was short, shorter than Sokka, but that didn't reassure him, not when her grin was that ecstatic. "Have any other traps?"

Remain calm at all times, he reminded himself. Just thirty more seconds. He drew his club from his belt, focusing all his attention on his opponent's knives.

Blood dripped onto the metal beneath him.

The woman flung her knives at him. He blocked the one aimed at his head and tried to sidestep the other, but it sliced into his thigh. Sokka gasped in pain and fell to one knee; the woman's smile grew even wider as she charged at him, two more knives already in her hands. He stood up and swung his club in one motion, but she stopped instantly, and the club passed a hair's breadth from her face.

She was right in front of him, knives pointed at his neck and heart.

He jumped backward and let go of the club at the same time. She batted the club down and off the platform, but that gave him time to draw his machete, his back right up against the vertical metal brace.

Ten.

The woman tilted her head, then giggled. "Your form is awful," she said, sounding almost chipper.

"I've barely practiced with it," Sokka said. He grinned weakly. Five.

"I wanted to skin one of the waterbenders," the woman said, twirling her knives casually. "But you'll do for an appetizer."

One. He raised his machete high, screamed, and jumped at her. She stepped forward and positioned her knives to skewer him as he came down.

But right at the moment the woman raised her foot, the drill made contact with the wall, and shuddered. Not by much, but enough to make her lose her balance, only a little bit, but enough for him to avoid the knives and dig the machete into her shoulder.

The woman grunted and stepped back quickly. It was only a shallow cut—she'd managed to dodge just in time—but she was still off-balance. Sokka carried his momentum forward and slammed into her with his shoulder. The woman's knives slashed his arm and side, but the woman herself was pushed far back, feet slipping onto the corner of the platform. She gave him one more look, her smile gone.

Then she fell off. Unlike the others, she didn't make a sound as she tumbled down.

Sokka collapsed, breathing heavily. He wondered if he had just killed eight people. The fall probably wasn't long enough to be fatal, but he couldn't be sure.

He sat up, sighed, and applied first aid to his wounds. "I guess Father was right," he said to the air. "Math really did save my life."

Toph's present goal was simple: somehow stop the monster from killing Chang and the rest of the Terra Team. The problem was, she had no idea how to do it.

Maybe I can delay her, at least. She stopped running, then held still for a moment, concentrating.

During their earthbending training sessions, it had quickly become apparent that Azula couldn't learn anything without intellectually understanding it first. This was incredibly annoying, since Toph had gotten very little formal instruction in earthbending. Almost everything she knew, she had figured out by herself through trial and error. It took a long time to put into words things she only knew by instinct. But, eventually, she did manage it.

Earthbending was about courage. Or pride, stubbornness, and hard-headedness (so to speak). It was about staking your position and never moving, come what may; it was about refusing to bend, even in the face of a hurricane. Which perhaps was the reason everyone in the Earth Kingdom was constantly at each other's throats.

Regardless, that was why the trick she was trying to pull was one of the most difficult earthbending techniques there was. It required stubbornness in flexibility.

Toph slowly drew a circle in the ground with her foot, then stomped the center of it.

The monster stepped down, and the earth beneath her feet melted, becoming like mud—or quicksand. Her strength and momentum carried her down, and Toph dug her feet into the ground, making the muddy hole deeper, and deeper still. The monster stretched out her arms and slammed them on the ground to stop her fall. Toph, sweat pouring off her now, viciously stretched her legs in response. She cut her feet on some rock, but ignored the pain; she had to focus. The earth that the monster's arms were resting on melted too, and soon her entire body was sinking into the earth.

Toph smiled. She knew this wouldn't take care of the enemy permanently, but it would at least give her time to—

The man who was running next to the monster knelt down and started dragging her out of the sinkhole.

Toph cursed and shot some rocks at the man. A few of the Terra Team members did, too. But it was too late; the monster grabbed onto a patch of solid earth and hauled herself out.

Biting her lip, using pain to suppress her fear, Toph balled her hands into fists. This next technique would've been difficult even if her bleeding feet weren't making her vision spotty. She had to remember where the melted earth had clung to the monster's body as she left the sinkhole, and guess their present locations based on the monster's current movements. She did her best, and squeezed her fists tighter.

While Toph couldn't see it, she could feel some of the mud harden again, turning into earth once more. Slabs of rock now coated the monster's body. Toph swept her arms down, slamming the rock—and the monster with it—onto the ground hard.

The monster started to stand up. Toph raised her arms, lifting the monster into the air, then stomped her foot, sending her crashing down once more. Then she did it again. Toph was panting hard, her feet were really starting to hurt, and her chest felt like it was on fire.

She raised an earthen wall just in time to avoid getting really burnt to a crisp.

The wave of fire was from the monster's ally; he had advanced toward her while Toph wasn't paying attention. The monster used the opportunity to break the stone slabs off her body. Toph couldn't feel them anymore.

Her mind was starting to chip away. She was back where she started, except now she was winded and wounded. That firebender, she thought angrily. If it weren't for him—

Her thoughts ground against each other, hard enough to almost cause her pain.

Azula had told her the reasons people volunteered for the Fire Nation army. She couldn't—didn't want to—remember the details, but the overall point was clear. People in the Fire Nation were more or less the same as they were in the Earth Kingdom. They just happened to be trying to conquer the world.

As the Terra Team harried the monster and her ally, Toph knelt down, laid her palms on the ground, then brought the fingers on each hand together. Two wedges of earth rose from the ground. Toph stood and slashed her arms, breaking off pieces until the ends were sharpened into large spikes.

She waited a meaningful second, then sent the spikes flying at full speed toward the firebender. He ran. Toph's entire body felt pulled taut as she made the spikes follow him.

The monster jumped in front of them at the last second. The earthen spikes crumbled as they crashed into her indestructible body, and Toph almost stumbled as she felt a surge of relief.

But she also had two more spikes at the ready, and sent them flying too.

The monster started moving toward her, while the firebender was running to the right—away from her and the Terra Team, in the direction of the drill.

You should rethink that, Toph thought, and stomped her foot, raising up a huge boulder right next to the firebender. She faced the monster, did her best to hide her exhaustion, smiled, and pointed at the boulder.

The firebender ran faster, but the boulder matched his pace, getting a bit closer with each passing second.

Earthbending required hard-headedness, but Toph was feeling strangely soft-headed right now. The monster could very easily come at her and smash her skull into pieces within seconds. All it would take was sacrificing the firebender. He could've even been a stranger to her, as far as Toph knew.

Another second passed. Toph sent the boulder closer.

The monster turned around, ran, and smashed the boulder with her warhammer just before it crushed her companion's head.

This victory uplifted Toph, but the prospects still looked bad. Her feet were bleeding steadily, and her sight was becoming increasingly blurry. Sweat covered her entire body, and she was breathing so harshly it felt like her ribs were about to crack again; each breath sent shivers through her body. She didn't know how much longer she could keep this up.

Then she saw something impact Ba Sing Se's outer wall, so big and strong she might've been able to sense it even without earthbending. The drill had finally made impact.

Toph's earlier, vague feeling of how to defeat the monster hardened into a concrete plan.

Azula retreated down the hallway and around the corner, and heard many loud footsteps race after Sokka the Distraction. But she couldn't determine whether anyone had stayed behind. So she waited for the opportune moment to strike.

Eventually, it came: a small shudder reverberated throughout the machine as the drill entered Ba Sing Se's walls. Azula crept down the hallway, ready for the worst.

And sure enough, she had barely taken a step into the intersection before she heard a roar like a waterfall, felt a heavy blanket of heat, and smelled the telltale scent of burning air. She blew herself back with a gust of wind just in time to avoid getting engulfed in a column of fire that filled the entire hallway.

Weaknesses and strengths, she told herself as her breathing became quicker and more ragged. She was far more skilled than the enemy duo, but their sheer power made that almost irrelevant; in a straight-up firebending contest, she frankly didn't see a way to win. She was without access to earth inside the drill, and had used up all her water on the distraction plan. As for air...

Air was still her weakest element, by far. Aang had tried to teach her several advanced airbending techniques that sounded immensely useful, such as running at high speed or levitating on a sphere of wind. But she could never implement them in the Material World, no matter how hard she tried—and she'd tried extremely hard. It was not something she enjoyed thinking about.

Azula leaned against the wall, waiting for the fire to die down, and focused only on her breathing. She came up with a number of airbending strategies, then discarded them all immediately. Was there anything else? There was the seismic sense, which was useless here; the air current sense just let her semi-function. Was there anything—

Typical firebender tactic, pressuring your opponent with constant attacks. Sometimes, precision and seizing the initiative can overcome pure power.

The wall of flame petered out. Azula started rotating her arm, and thought grimly, You'd better be right, Bumi.

She jumped into the intersection again and created a bubble of raging wind all around her, protecting her from the third firebending assault. The problem was that she could only keep this up for so long before her arm became too tired to move—or until the intense heat within the bubble became unbearable.

Why am I doing this? Risking my life to defend people I hate, to fight against what was my home?

She'd gone through so much, her life had changed so drastically. But the one thing that had always been by her side, her only constant companion, was firebending. Since she was little she'd practiced it constantly, hours a day until her muscles gave out. Yes, it was to please Ozai; yes, it was to feel powerful. But there was more to it. Fluidly transitioning between katas, balancing forceful aggression with calm poise...training your body to balance speed and power, training your mind to balance hot anger and cold calculation...her dancing flames, blue as the endless sky…

It was beautiful.

Azula concentrated on her anger, her hatred, her resentment. She let them grow and expand, filling her mind, filling her lungs. Then, with her next breath, she sent them out.

And she saw the fire.

It was a cone. Their massive attack started as a tiny point, rapidly expanding to fill the entire hallway. She focused on that point, pried at it. Then, with her arm screaming for relief, with her skin starting to blister from the heat, she made it explode.

There was a shriek of pain, and all the fire dissipated.

Azula immediately swept her other arm in a large semicircle, turning the bubble of wind around her into a huge gust that went flying down the hallway. She heard either one or two bodies crash to the floor; she immediately followed up with a barrage of fireblasts.

Seizing the initiative was one thing. Keeping it was another. The fire perception trick had made her mind hazy, and she wasn't sure if she could do it again. So her only choice was to ensure she didn't have to. Azula stomped forward, all her senses primed, sending fire and wind wherever she detected motion.

Sometimes, pressuring your opponent with constant attacks is what works, she reflected, a broad smile on her face. She kept advancing, maintaining her assault until she felt a difference in air pressure to her right. An opening—to the control room, presumably. Azula dashed inside.

Then she hit her foot on a stair and almost fell down. She barely avoided that disaster and ran up the stairs, a feeling of intense heat distressingly close behind.

Azula erupted into the control room, greeted by a chorus of gasps and shouts. A few small blasts of fire came from the front, easily repelled; the danger was the duo behind her. The challenge now was to find out where the pipes were. She did have an idea for that, but it was shaky. Her mind was focusing so intently that she almost felt like the world was moving in slow motion as she sent large gusts of wind in all directions, deflecting the fireballs that came her way.

Toph's seismic sense wasn't just about "seeing" the vibrations in the earth that were already there. It was also about creating vibrations yourself, and "seeing" based on how they were reflected back at you. This was the same, just with airbending.

The fog that had clogged her mind since her fire perception trick thinned slightly when a small difference in the pattern of wind suggested a series of huge metal cylinders.

Then she felt that narrow, white-hot flame attack coming her way again.

Azula stuck out her hand to block it. She heard and felt people running toward the stairs. Maybe they thought this would delay her, allowing the drill's staff to escape. If so, that was a mistake. She only needed one hand for this last step.

For obvious reasons, Azula had learned to water- and earthbend without sight, merely through her knowledge of where the water or earth must be. There was a raging torrent within those pipes, she knew; it was filled with rock from the wall, she knew. She reached out her other arm, and slashed the air.

The pipe emitted a nasty groan. Azula held her breath, and slashed again.

A snap as loud as a thundercrack reverberated all around her as the drill broke. The water/rock slurry poured out, and Azula directed some of it to the duo's attack. The fire dissipated with a hiss that drowned out the sounds of screaming and stampeding panic.

Not enough, she thought. This time, using both arms, she destroyed a second pipe with one move. Then a third, a fourth—and the slurry knocked her off her feet. Still she continued, destroying two more as she swam in the slurry.

Now all she had to do was escape. She'd heard a number of windows break from the heavy slurry smashing against them. Using all four elements, she directed herself toward one of those openings, and let the river she created carry her away.

For Toph's idea to work, she needed three things. First, her completely unfounded assumption—or hope—had to be correct. Second, she needed to have near-perfect execution. And third, she had to trust Azula.

Though as her feet burned with every step she took, trailing blood behind her, she realized there was a fourth thing: Her body needed to avoid falling apart.

She was running toward the drill, and the monster was following her, was gaining on her. (The monster's firebending companion appeared to be fighting Chang.) Toph focused all her attention on the monster's footsteps. They were getting faster and stronger with each passing second, while Toph's own legs were so heavy she could barely move them.

But she waited until the last possible second, right before the monster got close enough to smash her spine to bits, then stopped suddenly and swiped her feet, grimacing just a little as her injured soles scraped against the ground.

The earth under the monster flowed like ocean waves, and her own superhuman strength and speed carried her crashing into the drill.

Toph wavered. She could barely stand right now, much less start running again. But she was nowhere near done. With every cun of her body shivering, she stomped one foot, raising a rock from the ground, and shot it at the monster, sending her crashing back into the drill. The monster stood up, and Toph moved the earth under her, tripping her and knocking her head against the drill another time.

Toph's lungs were burning; her chest was screaming for relief; sweat was leaking from her skin in buckets; her feet were practically numb; she could barely think anymore. This isn't going to work. I'm going to—

Wait. Sweat?

She paused. She had trained with the badgermoles until she fainted, and had never sweat this much. It wasn't just because she was exhausted. It was because she was hot.

The drill was getting so hot she could feel it from dozens of paces away.

And that wasn't all. Now that she was paying attention, she could see that the monster's movements were becoming more and more sluggish.

Toph could almost feel energy refilling her bones, skin, and brain. She jutted a small column of rock into the monster's chest, extending it until it held her against the drill. It only took the monster a second to break the hold, but by then Toph had already encased her lower legs in rock. The monster spent several seconds freeing her legs, only to be met with another large rock that sent her crashing into the drill again.

Now the monster was significantly hampered. She lay on the ground for almost ten seconds before slowly pulling herself up. This gave Toph plenty of time to fashion four small earthen crescents, and when the monster had almost finished standing up, Toph sent them flying. Two landed on the monster's wrists, two on her ankles, and they punched into the drill, pinning her to it.

The monster struggled. Normally, she'd probably be able to break those slapdash shackles apart instantly. Now, they barely budged.

Turn your opponent's strength into a weakness. The monster's greatest strength was that she didn't take damage or feel pain. But while Toph had thought of her as indestructible, it seemed that—like the drill—that was only true for outside attacks. She had guessed (hoped) that the inside of the monster's body was vulnerable. And precisely because she didn't feel any pain, the monster wouldn't know she was taking damage until it was too late.

The monster stopped moving. Her muscles had probably been burnt to a crisp.

As Toph's legs finally gave out and she collapsed to the ground, she tried to think of what to do. Would the monster die if she left her there? Hard to say without knowing what gave her such strength and "indestructibility," but it was definitely possible.

Should I save her, then?

Before she could answer that question, Toph felt a new source of heat, this time at her back. She barely raised a wall in time to block it, but the effort almost made her topple over. The air was getting hot enough to burn her skin. Every breath sent searing pain through her body now, except for her feet, which were completely numb. She could barely even see anything anymore. She tried to focus her crumbling mind on the firebender, readying for the next attack.

But it didn't come. The firebender just ran past her.

Then she felt a pair of strong arms grab her shoulders and lift her up, off, away from the earth.

"Thank you, friend of the Avatar," Chang whispered. "The battle's over. We won."

"Well?" Mongke asked.

The doctor shook his head. "Honestly, I'm baffled. She has no obvious injuries, which should be impossible, given how close she was to the drill while it was overheating. Yet her physical condition appears abysmal. This is clearly a spiritual issue, and those are for the Fire Sages, not me."

Mongke nodded. "I appreciate your time."

"I do apologize for not being of more help."

But you won't give back the gold I paid you, Mongke thought. However, he said nothing as the man left Mongke's private tent.

The other three were in the large hospital tent with the other injured. Hiro and Hina were pretty banged up, and had a few nasty burns on their hands, but nothing too major. Otori was worse; she broke a couple bones in a fall, and had some fairly severe burns on her feet—she said a firebender with her had managed to melt open an escape hole soon after the drill started heating up, but not before the floor she was standing on got white-hot.

And then there was Suzue. Mongke himself had gotten burned badly just by being near the overheating drill. Suzue had been pressed right up against it.

But that wasn't why he was staying here with her. It was because he couldn't stop remembering the moment when she had a clear shot at the Avatar's companion, and chose to save him instead.

His reverie was broken when he heard sounds coming from her bed. He dashed up to it, then flinched; there was still heat emanating from her body.

"...How are you?" he asked.

Suzue's mouth moved, but it only made unintelligible sounds. Mongke waited.

Finally, she said, "I will...make...a full...recovery."

His mouth gaped. "How do you know?"

"My spirit...is not...here. It is in...the other...world. I am...reconstructing my body...from there."

Mongke's mouth gaped even larger. He had no idea what to think.

"You do not...believe me," she said.

"N-No, I do. I mean, after everything I've seen you do, of course I believe you. I just don't..." He gulped. Being around her was making his emotions more intense than they had ever been before. It's what he'd always wanted, but with fear and apprehension inflaming his mind, he wasn't sure he liked it now that he had it. "I don't understand you," he finally said.

"Do you have to?"

"I want to." The words left his lips before he could think them over.

Suzue didn't respond. The silence grew thick.

Finally, when he couldn't stand it anymore, Mongke said, "Why did you save me?"

Slowly, like a puppet, Suzue turned her neck to stare at him. Her gray eyes were flat and lifeless.

"Otori would be very upset if you died," she said.

Mongke sat on the ground next to her bed for the rest of the night.

After the three of them boarded the war balloon and started flying back to the Northern Air Temple, Sokka excitedly related every second of his "solo adventure." Despite herself, Azula got swept up in his mood and dramatically told the story of her own fight; Sokka was surprisingly a very good audience, clapping and cheering at all the right times.

Toph told her story in a monotone. Sokka tried one token cheer, which tapered off quickly.

Much later, when they landed the balloon to camp for the night but Sokka's snoring was preventing her from falling asleep, Azula heard Toph whisper, "Are you awake?"

She was tired, but not tired enough to lack awareness of the potential importance of this conversation. "Yes."

"If that firebender hadn't interfered…should I have killed her?"

Not an unexpected question. "It likely doesn't matter," Azula said. "She probably isn't going to be in a condition to fight ever again."

"Probably?"

Azula lay on her back, listening to the buzz of the cicada-bees, trying to imagine what the night sky looked like right now.

"She's such an anomaly, we can't know anything for certain about her," Azula said, then yawned. "Let's say she does recover, and then proceeds to kill dozens of Earth Kingdom soldiers. Killing her would've saved more lives in the end. Does that mean you should've done it?"

"That's what I'm asking you."

"You're asking me for ethical advice?"

Toph snorted, then was silent. Sokka had finally stopped snoring, too, so Azula focused on her breathing in an effort to fall asleep.

"This wasn't what I expected."

That snapped Azula wide awake. But she didn't respond.

Toph went on: "When I joined you guys, I wanted to...have an adventure. Fight strong enemies. Save the world. Not…"

Normally, Azula approached her conversations—especially the important ones—like she did her battles. Methodical, calculated, planning out every contingency ahead of time.

But for some reason, this time, her mouth moved before her mind did. "'Saving the world, one incinerated village at a time.' That's what you said, right?"

"I'm being serious!" Toph hissed.

"So am I." Azula put zero inflection into her tone. "This war started with a genocide. Do you think every single Fire Nation soldier who participated in that genocide was an unfeeling monster like me? Of course not. So why'd they do it?"

"...I don't know."

"Well, if they disobeyed they'd be killed, of course. But that wasn't the only reason, I'm sure. Whether it was because they agreed with Sozin's mission, or merely thought obeying the Firelord was their duty, many truly believed they were doing the right thing. Sozin himself certainly did. Saving the world, as you put it."

"Alright, I get the point. Don't need to hammer it in."

Azula rather doubted that. To be honest, she didn't even know what her point was.

Zhao paced.

That cockamanie plan to conquer Ba Sing Se failed, of course. So many in the Fire Nation had come to trust soulless machines over their own firebending, the legacy of their people. Hopefully this latest failure would teach them a lesson, but Zhao doubted it. Regardless, the disaster at Ba Sing Se finally convinced the Firelord to approve his invasion of the Northern Water Tribe, since conquering that country would do wonders for the army's steadily flagging morale.

No matter the reason, this was the opportunity Zhao had been waiting for, and that was cause for excitement—but also worry. The Avatar had defeated him at the air temple, and was apparently the main factor behind the defeat at Ba Sing Se. In retrospect, Zhao had severely underestimated her. This wasn't some Southern barbarian or Earth Kingdom layabout; she had been a member of the royal family, with Amaterasu's blood flowing in her veins. The Avatar Spirit, curse its name, had chosen its most recent vessel very well indeed.

And Zhao was certain she'd face him at the North Pole.

Ever since he discovered that library in the desert, Zhao had known his destiny: the Moonslayer, the one who would destroy the Water Tribes like Sozin destroyed the Air Nomads. But now, he knew he had an even greater destiny. He would be the one to kill the Avatar, once and for all.

So, in order not to underestimate her again, Zhao had decided to play the last card in his deck.

Finally, he heard a loud clang behind him. He turned around.

The man before him was large, tall, and well-built. His most striking feature was his metal arm and leg. His most important feature was the eye tattoo on his forehead.

He was a nameless bounty hunter, well-known for being extraordinarily competent and effective. Still, the military almost never hired him. He was infamous for rarely obeying orders; he would always accomplish the job he was given, but the collateral damage he caused was usually worse than the problem he was hired to solve. Hence, only the desperate or the foolish were willing to hire him.

Zhao was desperate.

"We're going to invade the North Pole," Zhao told him. "When we conquer it, I'll be one of the most powerful men in the Fire Nation, second only to the Firelord. Name your price, and I will be able to pay it. I require from you only one thing:

"Kill the Avatar."

End Chapter 16

Author's Notes: Well, that was an...incredibly long hiatus, almost two years, and I'm really sorry about it. There were several reasons. Now that I'm into the completely new material, writing chapters is harder, especially since I'm cognizant of how they all have to fit into the broader story, which is rapidly approaching its climax. After procrastinating on that, I had to spend a lot of time on my dissertation, and once I finished that (yay!) I had promised to beta my friend's fanfic novel. (It's the newest book in the Alexandra Quick series; definitely check it out if you like Harry Potter.) Then, once I finished that, I started attending a programming bootcamp. There were some other, more personal reasons too. But I finally got it out!

I hope this was an enjoyable reward after the long wait. It's certainly a doozy, at least; this is, I believe, the longest chapter I've written. As a reminder, 'shaku' is an ancient Japanese unit of measurement, while 'cun' is an ancient Chinese one (roughly equivalent to an inch).

This was a challenging chapter to write in a number of ways, but I think it came out well. Let me know if you agree-and please, do stay safe.

(And I have every intention of finishing this fic, no matter how long it might take.)