12

"Leave us alone!"

Nearly a century of war had reaped a heavy toll on The Earth Kingdom. Whatever food and resources could be spared had been snapped up for the war effort, slowly but surely bringing poverty and famine to the land. With times so desperate, and most of the strong young men and women recruited for the front lines, crime flourished like rot across the continent. Travelling along the roads was just asking for trouble, but some people didn't have a choice. Caravans of refugees fleeing the towns recently conquered by the Fire Nation made easy prey for the bandit gangs.

Seven men dressed in rags and furs, each brandishing a rusty yet sharp sword, surrounded an old wooden wagon pulled by an aged ox. Inside, two girls no older than ten huddled fearfully into their mother's sides, her arms cradling them protectively as she prayed to whatever spirits might be listening for aid. The father stood by the ox, a pitchfork in hand and whatever courage he could muster gripping his chest, trying to scare the bandits off. Yet one scrawny farmer could do little to intimidate seven armed thugs.

"Lookie here lads. We've got ourselves a fighter." One of the bandits; the largest of the group with an old, mis-sized earth army chest plate strapped to his torso, laughed mockingly. "What are you gonna do, little guy?"

The way the pitchfork shook in his hands betrayed that the farmer was a stranger to violence. When he couldn't so much as stammer together a reply, the bandit shot him an ugly sneer. "Pathetic. Don't know what I expected from a coward who isn't serving in the army."

"I- I don't see you on the frontlines." The farmer stammered back.

All traces of humour washed off the bandit's expression, replaced by pure, murderous intent. "What was that!" He hissed. "What are you trying to imply, little man?!"

"That-... That you're the real coward!" The farmer replied, shoving his fear down as best he could and standing up to the thugs. "Times are hard for all of us, you know! We're all having to tighten our belts and give what we can to the war effort! We're all hungry! But we grit our teeth and do our best to make do!" For a moment his trembling stopped, his anger igniting a desperate resolve, and he glared with true outrage at the leader. "But people like you, who turn on and steal from their fellow countrymen, rather than face the difficult work head on, drag the Earth Kingdom down! You're all a group of leeches in human skin!"

The lesser bandits seemed momentarily taken aback by the display of courage, but not the leader. He stormed forwards, raising his crude blade high above his head and letting out a vicious, wordless snarl. The farmer raised his pitchfork to block, yet even he knew the simple tool would do little to stop the weight of hard metal. He heard his wife scream with terror as the sword came swinging down and closed his eyes, bracing himself for the pain.

Yet it never came.

Metal rang out against metal as the crude sword was intercepted by another, and the bandit leader's shocked grunt trailed off into a high-pitched wheeze as a foot crashed between his legs. He keeled over in pain, and a second later found his face planted directly into the dirt as a heavy weight perched upon his back and pushed him further down. The remaining bandits let out exclamations of fear and anger, and the farmer hesitantly opened his eyes again just a crack to take a peek at what had happened.

A strange man was standing upon the bandit leader's back, using him like a podium to look down on the other bandits. He was clothed in plain, dusty brown robes, with pale skin and short black hair cropped close to his skull. In each hand he held a niuweidao blade; cheap iron ones, yet sharp and obviously well cared for. Though he had his back to him, the farmer could see the edges of the blue mask we wore peaking around his cheeks. One of his daughters let out an awed gasp from the wagon, and as the stranger turned his head slightly to look at the source of the noise, the farmer caught sight of the mischievous, manic grin carved into the mask's face.

"The Blue Spirit." He whispered reverently.

Word travelled faster than horses, and for the past month rumours around these parts had told of a wanderer in a terrifying blue mask walking the road to Omashu, preying upon thieves and bandits. Wanted posters issued by the Fire Nation named him The Blue Spirit, and the price upon his head left no doubt that he was a dangerous individual. Some said he had slipped like a shadow through to the heart of a fully-manned Fire Nation fortress all on his own, then fought his way out side-by-side with The Avatar. Others said that he was a spirit incarnate, here to seek revenge on The Fire Nation for their atrocities against the spirits. It sounded like a load of gossip and nonsense at the time, yet to see the masked man standing before him now, his posture straight yet relaxed in an almost regal display of confidence, the farmer couldn't help but wonder if there was some truth to the rumours after all.

With a wild cry one of the bandits lunged forward, swinging his blade in a wide arc. Yet the Blue Spirit parried with effortless ease; simply catching the sword with one of his own and lazily spinning it around in a half circle that forced the bandit to let go or twist his wrist. The discarded sword flew through the air towards another bandit, causing him to dive out of the way and onto the dusty ground.

Two more bandits came in together, each from an opposite direction, and stabbed towards the Blue Spirit's torso. Yet the Blue Spirit spun on his heel, digging it further into the bandit leader's back and making him groan in pain. Both of his swords snaked out to each deflect one of their swords just enough to miss him, yet did nothing to arrest the momentum of the charging men. Then, with a spritely backflip, he leapt off the bandit leader's back and spun over one of the charging bandit's heads. The two bandits collided into each other face first, and tumbled down to collapse in a heap upon their own leader.

Only three armed bandits remained, and after seeing their fellows be taken apart so easily for their recklessness they approached cautiously; spreading out to surround the Blue Spirit in a triangle formation. The Blue Spirit gave his swords a lazy twirl and lowered his stance, settling into a pose that reminded the farmer of a tiger waiting to pounce. When it became clear that he was waiting for them to make the first move, the three bandits charged in unison.

It was obvious that these three were used to working together. Their weapons were crude and their forms sloppy, but they all followed a rhythm that could only be born from fighting side by side many times. The Blue Spirit's blades snaked out to counter each of their strikes, yet before he could counterattack he was forced to intercept another strike from a different direction. Added to the fact that he held his swords with only one hand, whilst the bandits held theirs with two, and it became clear even to the untrained eye that The Blue Spirit would not be able to keep up the pace for long.

Yet The Blue Spirit himself did not acknowledge this. A minute passed, then two, and yet the niuweidao blades continued to whirl around him like a hurricane of steel. Whether through stamina or pure tenacity, the masked man's arms never lost their strength. It was the bandits who grew tired first, their swords slowing with each swing as a lack of proper training and poor nutrition caught up with them.

Eventually the strikes came slowly enough that The Blue Spirit spotted an opportunity. With a jolt he threw himself down to squat under a swing from behind to decapitate him, his swords still extended out like wings to lock down the other bandit's blades. The attacker, who'd grown used to the feel of his blade being deflected, overextended and stumbled forward at the lack of resistance, and The Blue Spirit leapt up like a jumping frog to headbutt him beneath the chin without even turning to look at him. A bony crunch rang out as the bandit's teeth clacked together, and he dropped his weapon to stagger back, cradling his possibly broken chin in his hands.

Now only two remained, and those odds were far more favourable for a master of the twin swords. Advancing on them like a leopard stalking its prey, The Blue Spirit lashed out, forcing them both back, and quickly pounced on one before the other could regain his footing. He brought the flat sides of his swords to clap against both of the bandit's ears simultaneously, disorienting the man's sense of balance so badly he fell to the floor like a drunkard, and turned to the second, spinning his blades in a quick flourish.

The last bandit looked around at his defeated comrades, looked back to The Blue Spirit, then promptly ran for his life.

Some of the earlier bandits were starting to recover, but it was clear that all the fight had been scared out of them, and all they dared to do was take their more recently fallen comrades and shuffle away as hurriedly as possible. When they were all gone, The Blue Spirit brought his swords together into one and carefully slid them into the sheath on his back. He turned back to the road, fully intending to walk away, but let out a small yelp of surprise as he was suddenly glomped by a pair of arms around his leg.

"Thank you! Thank you so, so much!" One of the farmer's daughters gushed, hugging his leg as if it was the pillar holding up the sky. "They- they were gonna-... and da' was-..."

"What my daughter means to say," interjected the farmer, stepping forward to place a comforting hand on his daughter's shoulder. His voice still had a little shake to it as the after-effects of fear shook his system, but he powered on through. "Is that we owe you a debt we can never repay, Blue Spirit. Please accept our most humble thanks, and know what we will do whatever we can, however small, to repay you."

The Blue Spirit froze, the rigidity of his posture suggesting that he was unsure of himself, and the farmer idly wished he could see what sort of expression the young man wore beneath his mask. At last The Blue Spirit shook his head.

"Oh come now, surely there must be something we can do for you." The farmer's wife insisted, coming to join them with their second daughter cradled protectively in her arms. "The road is long, and you carry no supplies. Surely we can at least share some food and a cup of water with you? What little we have becomes all the bigger when it is shared with good company."

Despite the mask, it was pretty obvious that the Blue Spirit was finding the whole situation a little awkward. The girl clamped around his leg like an anchor prevented him from running away, and it was hard to ignore the farmer's family when they looked at him with such honest gratitude. Eventually he resigned himself to defeat and nodded slowly.

Tanya looked around at the array of colourful tents with the pinched, ever-so-slightly sour expression of someone trying very, very hard not to judge someone else for their poor life choices.

"You know Azula…" She began slowly, shooting a quick glance over to her friend, and finding a small measure of relief in the fact that she wore a similar expression. "When you said that Ty Lee ran off to join the circus, I didn't think you meant it quite so literally."

A good friend was supposed to respect their friends' life choices and support them, no matter how ill-advised said life choices may be, and Tanya really did want to be a good friend to Ty Lee. Yet, to her shame, no matter how many times she told herself that "Yes, Ty Lee should do what she loves, " and "Of course, Ty Lee is a responsible young lady who has the right to make her own choices," a large and very loud part of her wanted nothing more than to drag her wayward friend back home, place her under house arrest and have a long, long talk about acceptable career choices! Ty Lee was the daughter of a noble, and one of the closest friends of the heir to the throne. She was also a master of chi blocking: one of the few martial arts capable of bridging the power gap between benders and non-benders, during a time period where The Fire Nation would bend over backwards for more soldiers capable of combating bending armies. Opportunity had quite literally thrown itself at her feet! She could open a dojo, get paid a king's ransom to spend three hours a day teaching a select few students her moves, and buy her own private circus if she enjoyed it as a hobby so much! All it would take was a little more wisdom than her childhood friend seemed to possess.

Azula did not sigh in response, for it was not dignified for a princess to do so in public, but the flash of weariness across her gaze betrayed that they were thinking along the same wavelength. "Well, you know Ty. Any chance to set herself apart from her sisters, she'll snap up in a heartbeat." She shot her a snide glare. "It didn't help that you never once failed to mistake her sisters for her whenever we visited their house."

Tanya groaned in exasperation. Ty Lee's complex about standing out as an individual among her seven identical sisters was a cause of all sorts of headaches. "She's not still upset about that is she? In my defence, they all have the exact same hairstyle, wear the exact same style of clothes, and act the exact same way as each other." She paused, then tapped her chin thoughtfully. "Except for that one who's kind of a bitch. Which one was that again?"

"Ty Woo."

"Yeah, that's the one. My point is, couldn't she have tried a new look or something before skipping straight to running away from home?"

Azula frowned sternly. "You would think so. After I heard that she'd gone, I asked myself why I hadn't spotted the warning signs earlier. I could have talked to her; reminded her that her place will always be by my side, and disabused her of these silly ideas before they could take root."

Tanya's eyes widened as the realisation struck her. Of course, how could she be so blind! A good friend would support you in your bad decisions, but a true friend was one who wasn't afraid to sit you down, talk to you, and help you realise when you were making a mistake, even if it wasn't what you wanted to hear. That Azula had realised such almost instinctively was just another sign of what an amazing friend she was.

"Do you think we'll be able to get her to see sense?" She asked, willing to follow Azula's lead when it came to deal with social matters.

Azula's reply was a sharp, predatory smirk. "Oh, don't you worry. I know just how to… enlighten… our old friend."

… Okay… because that didn't sound at all ominous. Azula really must have been spending too much time learning from her father in recent years. Did all Fire Lords teach their heirs how to speak like they were foreshadowing something? Before Tanya could ask for elaboration, Azula strode off with the unspoken expectation that she was to follow her.

It didn't take much searching before they spotted their target.

Her acrobatic friend had grown a little since she'd last seen her, but otherwise Ty Lee was just as she remembered her: radiating cheerful, energetic and unfailingly positive vibes like some kind of sunshine and rainbow styled lightbulb. Her hair was still braided into the ponytail she and her sisters always wore, though she seemed to have switched up her old, more reserved, noble's clothes for the simpler apparel of a tightrope-walker; albeit with enough of the shirt cut away to expose her midriff.

"Ty Lee, could that possibly be you?" Azula called out, and Ty Lee's head shot around to look at them, splitting into a wide grin.

"Azula! Tanya!"

A spin and a flip later, and Tanya let out an "off" as Ty Lee crashed into them both with the force of an intercontinental missile. Oh right, how silly of her to forget how much of a hugger Ty was.

"It is so good to see you two!" Ty Lee gushed into their shoulders, before taking a step back.

"Please," Azula replied. "Don't let us interrupt your…" She raised a critical eyebrow at their surroundings. "Whatever it is you were doing."

Ty Lee, still smiling, fell casually back into a backflip that ended with her lying on her stomach; one foot hovering over her head, the other pointed up at the sky.

Tanya cleared her throat. "Listen, Ty, it really is good to see you again. Though I can't help but wonder at why we found you…" She too glanced around at the circus. "… here of all places."

"Indeed." Azula continued. "Certainly our parents didn't send us to the Royal Fire Academy for Girls to end up in places like this."

Nearby, a platypus bear let out a low groan and sat up, revealing that it had just laid an egg on the ground. Azula shot the dirty beast a quick look of disgust, while Ty Lee seemed happy for it. Tanya, however, looked mildly alarmed, as she questioned who in their right minds was letting a pregnant bear wander around the camp unrestrained. That was a workplace hazard just waiting to happen.

"I have a proposition for you." Azula continued. "I'm hunting a traitor. You remember my cowardly brother, don't you?"

Ty Lee grinned at a memory. "Oh yeah. He was so sweet."

Tanya snorted. "He's grown up a little since those days. And not in good ways."

The corner of Azula's mouth curled upwards slightly. "We would be honoured if you would join me on my mission."

A complicated look; somewhere between distraught fear and flat-out panic, flashed across Ty's face for a second. "Oh-... I-... uh-... would love to…" She did not, by any stretch of the imagination, sound like she would love to, but it would have been in poor taste to call her out on it. "But the truth is, I'm really happy here. I mean, my aura has never been pinker!"

Tanya raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"Pink means she's happy, Tanya." Azula translated.

"Oh, I see." She did not see at all, but she'd long resigned herself to the fact that she'd always have no idea what all the aura talk was supposed to mean. "But Ty, surely you can appreciate how fortunate we were to study at the world's foremost school, when most people don't have the opportunity to get a formal education at all? I understand wanting to follow your passion, but surely there's a way to reconcile it with a more… economically beneficial profession?"

Ty Lee looked confused. "A what?"

"She means that you should get a real job." Azula translated.

"I wouldn't put it quite so bluntly." Tanya added hastily, shooting Azula a quick scowl at the flicker of hurt that crossed Ty Lee's face. "I just think that it's a waste to not use your education to aim for a position with a bit more financial security. You know, theatre companies that target more elite audiences have been adopting elements of circus into their acts recently. You could be the leading lady of the Royal Opera House with our support. I'm sure you could even be running the place after a few years."

But Ty Lee didn't seem like she was considering Tanya's words. In fact, each one seemed to just make her more uncomfortable. "I-… I don't know Tanya, it's just not the same. I want to travel the world and have people cheer for me. It's about the joy, y'know? Money and status… that's just not me."

Not me? How could money not be for anyone? Fiscal wisdom was an essential skill for anyone living in a world of currency and trade! Money bought you food, shelter and all the other basic necessities of life! It was the chrysalis of human effort itself! Even the most tortured artist sold their paintings to secure their next meal! Tanya was not suggesting that Ty Lee needed to be some money-grubbing fatcat, but if she could just get her head out of this teenage wanderlust phase, she'd surely come to see that-…

"We'll take your word for it." Azula suddenly cut in, interrupting Tanya's train of thought. "I wouldn't want you to give up the life you love just to please me."

"Thank you, Azula." Ty replied, respectfully bowing to the princess. At the same time Tanya looked at her like she'd just declared her intention to transform the Fire Nation into a hippie-communist state.

But Azula did not acknowledge Tanya's look of betrayal. Instead she smirked to herself. "Of course, before we leave, we're going to catch your show."

"You don't talk much, Mr Blue Spirit. Are you mute?"

Zuko nodded his head awkwardly, inwardly feeling a little guilty for lying to a child. His voice worked fine, but it served his purposes better to be known as a mute when donning this alias. Though the chances of some Earth Kingdom peasant recognising who he was by voice alone was close to impossible, paranoia warned Zuko to distance his two identities wherever he could. Besides, he'd yet to say a word whenever he wore the Blue Spirit mask before, and staying silent felt right somehow.

"I'm sorry to hear that." The young girl's mother replied sympathetically, pouring clean water from her canteen into the cup set before him. No doubt she assumed he'd been injured in the war.

The moment Zuko's cup was full again, the little girl resumed her onslaught of innocent questions. "Hey, where did you learn to fight like that? It was so cool! You were all like fwaah! And then they were all like yeaaahhh!"

"Alright sweetheart, that's enough." The farmer interjected, placing a hand atop her head to settle her as she began to mime-swing a pair of swords around. "Though I agree that your swordsmanship was a sight to behold. With skills like that, I suppose you must be heading to Omashu to aid the rebellion?"

Zuko tilted his head to the side questioningly. A rebellion? He knew nothing about that. He was heading towards Omashu because, the last time he'd been around that area, he'd picked up word that The Avatar had been a guest of the Mad King Bumi for a while. When The Avatar left the North Pole he'd seek out an Earthbending teacher next, and King Bumi was known to be one of the best.

"You didn't know?" The farmer shook his head sadly. "Then I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news. The Fire Nation has fully occupied the city. There was no siege, no struggle; they were allowed to simply march straight in and take over. We're from Omashu ourselves actually; one of the lucky few who the rebellion was able to slip out in time. Now governor Ukano is in full control."

Ukano?! Mai's father! Did that mean Mai was in the city too?

The farmer reached into his pocket and held out a wooden medallion. It was hexagonal in shape, with a few lines carved into it to form a simple yet stylish outline of a badger. "Here, take this. It's a rebellion amulet. Take this to the Gritty Crown restaurant and hand it to one of the staff, and you'll be granted an audience with a member of the rebellion. Whatever business you have in Omashu, I'm sure they can help you out in exchange for a little assistance."

Zuko took the medallion and tucked it away in his pocket. He'd always been fond of Mai, but he couldn't trust her family nor the other soldiers occupying the city not to turn him over to Azula. If the Avatar did pass through Omashu though, there was a good chance that this rebellion would notice. They'd be a good source of information if nothing else.

One conversation, one performance, and one flaming net later, Ty Lee had joined the party.

Tanya was not happy.

"That was in violation of several important health and safety laws!" She ranted at Azula, who was deliberately keeping her eyes fixed ahead with a look of forced nonchalance on her face. "And, more than that, it was downright dangerous! What if she had fallen?!"

"Honestly Tanya, do you really have such little faith in your friends?" Azula replied dismissively. "Ty Lee is the best acrobat we know. She'd have never done something as amateur as fall off a simple tightrope."

"That doesn't excuse putting her in danger! Accidents can always happen, even to the most skilled professionals!"

"Relax. She would have said something if she didn't think she could handle it. Isn't that right, Ty Lee?"

"Of course, Azula." Came the chipper voice of Ty Lee from behind them. "And it did make the performance even more exciting. I never needed the net anyway."

There was no sign whatsoever that the flaming net had bothered her even slightly, and that was reason enough to cause Tanya's anger to stall. What if she really was making a big deal out of nothing after all? Both Azula and Ty were acting like the flaming net wasn't even worth mentioning, and employees in her original world had always been griping about how unnecessarily anal health and safety regulations were. Perhaps her concerns came from the mindset of the human resources manager she'd once been, and didn't really match up with the mindset of the people in her current world.

Even so, the memory of the flames spreading across the ropes still sat uncomfortably in her stomach.

"If we are to be successful in our mission, we must strive to be as efficient as possible." Tanya grit out in clipped tones, reigning in her anger through force of will. If emotions would not serve her here, then cold, clinical professionalism would. "We cannot afford to risk the health of one of our best assets, no matter how small the risk, for the sake of entertainment."

Now Azula scowled: a small, pursed tightness around her lips and eyes. "Strange. I could have sworn that I was the one appointed as commander of this mission, not you. I believe that means I can take whatever risks I deem appropriate."

"You are in command here, but your father appointed me as your subordinate so that I could advise you-…"

"Advice?!" Azula snapped, suddenly whirling around to face her. "You think that I need advice, do you? That I'm not clever enough to succeed without the help of the oh-so-mighty Moonslayer?!"

Oh come on! Azula had to know that was not how she meant it! She was being deliberately stubborn! Hints of frustration began to seep into Tanya's tone as her self control started to slip. "You are a genius Azula, and were this a matter of politics I would happily default to you. But this is a military operation, and though you are well studied, you don't yet have the experience I do. Seeking wisdom from subordinates more specialised than you is-…"

"Girls, girls! C'mon, break it up!" Ty Lee interjected, popping up like the world's most cheerful jack-in-the-box between them. "I finally get to see you both again after so long! Let's not ruin this moment by arguing!"

The sudden interruption gave Tanya's brain to catch up with her mouth, and with a jolt of panic she realised just how close she'd come to yelling at the crown princess. Friend of not, that was a line one should not cross lightly. Taking a literal step back from the argument, Tanya cleared her throat awkwardly. "Yes, quite right. My apologies to both of you. That was rather ill-mannered of me."

Azula took a noticeable breath herself before rebuilding her iron-clad expression of calm confidence once more. "Indeed. I apologise too. I should not have said what I did."

It wasn't her words that Tanya felt needed apologising for, but it was in poor taste to break the metaphorical olive branches they'd extended to each other. Azula turned and walked away, likely to sort out their transportation to Omashu, leaving Tanya and Ty Lee alone.

"Again, I am sorry for that shameful display." Tanya began as she looked at Ty Lee. "Your performance was fascinating to watch."

Ty Lee giggled. "Thank you! I came up with the routine myself." She launched herself at Tanya in a big, smothering hug, which Tanya awkwardly reciprocated with a couple of awkward pats on the back. "And you! Youngest admiral in history! Conqueror of the North! That's amazing!"

"I can't take all the credit." Tanya replied, fighting herself not to preen under the praise.

"Oh, right." Ty Lee broke the hug, but her hands slid over to Tanya's shoulders, and she looked her in the eyes sympathetically. "I'm sorry about what happened to Admiral Zhao. I know you respected him a lot."

"Yes…" Tanya's voice came out as little better than a whisper, and she suddenly found that she could not bear to keep eye contact with Ty. It wasn't that she regretted killing Zhao: there had been a monster in him that she couldn't believe she hadn't seen right from the beginning. But how was she supposed to explain to one of her best friends that she'd got to where she was now by committing treason? By murdering a man she'd once respected in cold blood and framing a ten year old? Azula understood the necessity of such things, and hadn't needed to be told anyway, but Ty Lee was far more innocent. Even if she wouldn't tell anyone, she would no doubt be horrified. "I do sometimes find myself wondering if I could have saved him, if I'd only been there a little faster."

"No Tanya, don't say that. It's not your fault." Ty Lee replied comfortingly, mistaking her guilt for sorrow. "The Avatar is the only one to blame."

Tanya's smile did not quite sit right on her lips. "Of course. You're right."

The silence between them stretched on a little too long for comfort. Tanya awkwardly cleared her throat. "So, you've changed your mind about joining us?" As questionable as Azula's methods were, they seemed to have served their purpose of helping Ty Lee really think about the direction her life was headed.

"Yes. I thought a little bit more about what you said earlier." Ty replied with her usual smile. "Perhaps there is no escaping my place in the Fire Nation after all?"

Escaping? Not exactly the word Tanya would have used, but it was close enough. All things, be they companies, militaries or even nations, had a hierarchy, and rebelling against it was so much more wasteful than acknowledging and trying to climb it.

"You know, I don't think I've ever seen you and Azula argue like that before. Is everything alright?" Ty Lee asked.

A resigned sigh slipped out of Tanya's nose. "Truthfully? Things have been a little tense recently. Azula wants this mission to go perfectly, and has been a little more controlling than usual to make it happen." She thought about mentioning that Azula's desire for total control was her way ensuring Zuko would not be hurt, but decided to keep that card close to her chest for now. It wasn't her place to go around revealing Azula's private thoughts. "I've been doing my best to accommodate her, but it's starting to get a little tiring."

Ty Lee gave her a sympathetic look. "Maybe you should talk to her? I know you two will be able to figure something out. Sometimes it's like you're cut from the same cloth."

"Perhaps." Tanya nodded. "But not right now. Our next destination is Omashu, to invite Mai along. I think a few comforts of civilisation is just what we'll need to reach an equitable agreement."

"So, is King Bumi with you guys? Is he leading the resistance?"

Omashu had not quite been what Aang had been hoping for since he arrived. First had come the shock of finding out that it had been captured by The Fire Nation. Then, in an attempt to save a lady from falling boulders, he'd been mistaken for a member of the resistance and had knives thrown at him. And all the time he still had no idea what had happened to the only friend he had left from before his big freeze.

Yung, the leader of the resistance, angrily clenched his fists. "Of course not! The day of the invasion, we readied ourselves for battle. We were prepared to defend our city... to fight for our lives and for our freedom! But before we even had a chance…" A deep growl thrummed in the back of his throat, his expression morphing into a rictus of frustrated fury. "King Bumi surrendered."

Surrendered? Bumi? No, there must be some mistake. Bumi loved his city! He wouldn't sit back and let it fall into enemy hands without a word.

"The day of the invasion, I asked King Bumi what he wanted to do." Yung continued, sensing his disbelief. "He looked me in the eye and said: I'm going to do… nothing!"

Sokka and Katara stirred uncomfortably behind him, no doubt recalling how Bumi had imprisoned them in candy the last time they'd visited as part of a game. Aang didn't need to look at them to know that they believed it. Bumi was a little crazy, yes, but not completely insane! There had to be a reason for what he'd done.

Yung snorted derisively. "It doesn't matter now. Fighting the Fire Nation is the only path to freedom. And freedom is worth dying for."

Freedom. The core principle of airbending. Aang had a great respect for freedom, and valued it immensely, but the way Yung spoke of sacrificing lives for it so easily didn't sit well with him. As noble as it was to risk your life for a cause you believed in, such a sacrifice should always be the very last resort.

"Actually there's another path to freedom." He said calmly. "You could leave Omashu. You're directing all your energy to fight the Fire Nation, but you're outnumbered. You can't win. Now's the time to retreat, so you can live to fight another day."

Yung looked like he wanted to slam his hand against something. "You don't understand! They've taken our home, and we have to fight them at any cost!"

"I don't know, Yung, living to fight another day is startin' to sound pretty good to me." One of the resistance members piped up softly.

"Yeah, I'm with the kid!" Another agreed more forcefully. Whispers erupted through the underground tunnels as the gathered resistance members began discussing amongst themselves, and though Aang could not pick out any particular conversation, the lack of aggression in the crowd's tone suggested that most agreed with him.

Yung looked back to him with a frown; clearly annoyed at being undermined, yet mature enough to not throw a tantrum or insist that his orders be followed. "Fine. But there are thousands of citizens that need to leave. How're we going to get them all out?"

"Suckers!"

All eyes turned to the source of the outburst: Sokka. The young watertribe man had a wide, devious grin on his face.

"You're all about to come down with a nasty case of pentapox."

"Please tell me you're here to kill me."

Azula stared at Mai with a raised eyebrow. Mai stared back, her expression perfectly deadpan. Then, on some unspoken cue, the slight smiles cracked on both their faces.

"It's great to see you, Mai." Azula said, stepping forward to place her hands on Mai's shoulders, only to quickly remove them when Ty Lee bounded forward and enveloped Mai in a huge, boneless hug. Mai patted her pack with one hand with the look of someone who'd become resigned to such grandiose hugs long ago.

"I thought you ran off and joined the circus. You said it was your calling."

"Well, Azula and Tanya called a little louder." Ty Lee replied chipperly as she released her.

Mai cocked an eyebrow and looked around. "Tanya's here too? Where is she?"

"She got a little distracted on the way here." Ty Lee replied sheepishly. Strange, Tanya was never what she would have called an easily distracted person. What could have captured her attention?

As if sensing her thoughts, Azula stepped past them and led the way out onto the palace balcony. "Perhaps you'd better see for yourself." She called, pointing out towards the courtyard below. Mai followed behind her and peered over the railings.

A horde of peasants shambled towards the gates, moaning and groaning with glassy eyes and outstretched arms. Even from so high up, Mai could see huge red splotches dotting their skin in irregular patterns. "Plague! Plague!" Some of the fire nation soldiers were shouting fearfully, hurrying around trying to contain the infected civilians whilst also keeping a wide distance away from them.

Mai spotted her father on the scene, surrounded by a ring of guards and flapping his hands around animatedly as he tried to gain control of the situation. "Drive them out of the city!" He shouted "But don't touch them! We have to rid the city of this disease!"

"Belay that order!"

Ah, there was that familiar tussel of gold hair. Tanya was hovering above the crowd like a miniature star, fire blazing at her feet as she observed the situation from above. "Keep the gates closed. Direct all infected to Guoxun Hill; we'll use it as a quarantine zone until the plague has passed."

"We can't keep them here!" Ukano protested. "What if it spreads across the city?! We'll all be in danger!"

"If we let them leave, the infection will spread across the entire Earth Kingdom. Which, as you may have noticed, we are currently trying to conquer." Tanya shot back acidly. "Better this be confined here than be allowed out into the wider world."

The fire nation soldiers on the ground looked around awkwardly, stuck between their duty to obey an admiral and their own desire to not get infected. Sensing their hesitation, Tanya fixed them with a cold glare. "I swear to Agni, if one of you opens the gate so much as a crack, I'll have you hung, drawn and quartered faster than you can say pentapox."

Compared with certain death at the legendary admiral's hands, suddenly pentapox didn't seem quite so dangerous anymore. The soldiers snapped to work, using their spears like shepherd's staffs to literally herd the infected down another street, while Tanya took charge of directing them.

"As perfect a soldier as ever I see." Mai drawled.

"Indeed." Azula replied, a hint of venom lacing her tone. "She's grown very comfortable throwing her rank around."

Slowly but surely the crowd of infected began to thin out from the courtyard as more of them were syphoned away to the quarantine zone. Mai's father and his guard began to retreat back to the palace, and once the local guards seemed to have full control of the situation, Tanya broke away and flew over to join him as they entered through the palace doors. As the sounds of their raised, arguing voices drew closer, Azula led her and Ty Lee back inside to sit at a nearby table just as the door burst open.

"- strange about it! I've heard about it before! One of my guard's brothers caught pentapox!" Ukano yelled.

"I understand that! What I'm saying is that it's strange for this disease to suddenly pop up so quickly, and here of all places!" Tanya fired back.

"What's that supposed to mean? The reformation of Omashu is going perfectly!"

"That's the problem! It's all been going too perfectly. I've fought Earthbenders plenty of times, and if nothing else I have to admit that they're stubborn bastards. I've never heard of them surrendering territory without putting up at least a token resistance before. Yet here, in the second most defensible city in the Earth Kingdom, The Fire Nation was allowed to just waltz in and take over without any problems. It doesn't make sense!"

"Bah! You're being paranoid-…"

"Well, I wouldn't say that there haven't been any problems." Mai interrupted blithely.

Tanya finally looked away from Ukano, and her expression softened as she lay eyes on her final childhood friend. "Mai! It's good to see you again." She approached, all thoughts of Omashu temporarily pushed aside. "And you look so dignified. Life in the colonies has been good to you."

"I have been bored out of my mind every second." Mai deadpanned. "If you want to swap jobs, I'm game."

Tanya let out a quick laugh, mistakenly seeming to think that she was joking. However it quickly turned serious again. "What were you saying before? There's been problems in Omashu?"

"A rebellion." Mai explained.

"A minor rebellion!" Ukano butted in. "Nothing serious. Just a few angry peasants throwing a few rocks around. The city guard has it perfectly under control."

Tanya did not look impressed. "Perhaps so. But I'm pretty sure that any signs of an active rebellion cell, no matter the size, should be reported to military intelligence. I don't recall seeing Omashu on the map of potential insurrection sites."

"There's no rebel cell here. Just a gang or two of angry teens. Why, the last one we saw wasn't even a teenager yet. Just some little bald child."

Tanya went ramrod straight in an instant, her face stricken with panic. In a flash she whirled around to point at Ukano. "What! Bring me whoever witnessed this attack!" She demanded.

"That would be me." Mai cut in.

"Did the perpetrator have blue arrows tattoos on his head and hands?!"

Mai raised an eyebrow curiously. "Airbender tattoos? I couldn't see; the sun was in my eyes."

"What about his clothes?! Were they orange coloured?! And was he holding a wooden staff?!"

Mai thought about it for a moment, then nodded. "Yes."

Tanya's face morphed into a horrible scowl. "It's him! He's here!"

Azula was the first to catch on. "The Avatar? You think he's here in Omashu? But why?"

"Good question. Could his appearance be related to the outbreak of this plague?" Tanya seemed to lose herself in thought; pacing back and forth as her mind whirred to connect the dots. "King Bumi's surrender… airbender tactics… chemical warfare-… Oh! OH!"

Suddenly Tanya darted over to the wall, when a large map of the city hung proudly, and ripped it off. Before Ukano could protest, she draped it across the table and began to furiously scan the layout of the city as if the secrets of the world were hidden across it. Just as Ty Lee was about to ask what she was doing, Tanya stepped back and shouted out loud.

"Guerilla warfare!"

"What?" Azula questioned, looking over at Mai, who just shrugged.

Ty Lee gasped. "Like elephant gorillas?! You think the rebels are training animals to fight?!"

"No! Guerilla, not goril-… ah, forget it!" Tanya huffed, pushing the map aside and slamming her hands down on the table dramatically. "Tell me, what has made the Fire Nation so successful during our invasion of the Earth Kingdom?"

"Our national pride." Ukano declared proudly.

"No." Tanya replied sharply. "Serious answers only please."

"Our superior numbers, tactics and technological advances." Azula answered.

Tanya nodded approvingly. "Exactly right. We excel at offensive strategies just as much as the Earth Kingdom excels as defensive strategies. Our war machines allow us to counteract the fortifications and other defences of their cities. With those things balancing each other out, our superior numbers allow us to prevail in most conflicts." Tanya began to pace again, this time circling around the table. "The majority of our battles against the Earth Kingdom have followed a simple pattern: our armies arrive at a city and begin a siege, the Earth Kingdom holds its defences for as long as it can, and both sides whittle away at each other until there are no earthbenders left, and the Fire Nation breaks through."

"Why is that relevant to Omashu?" Mai asked blankly. "They surrendered without a fight."

Tanya shook her head. "No, Mai. I don't think they did."

The others looked at her with puzzled expressions, so Tanya ceased her pacing and returned to the table. "Most earthbenders would be too stubborn to abandon their defences, but King Bumi is no ordinary earthbender. He's well known for being insane, and that makes him capable of thinking of strategies outside of conventional earthbender tactics. Tactics using Omashu's natural defences not as a wall, but as a coffin."

"A coffin?" Ukano echoed, concern lacing his tone.

"Picture this. You are the Mad King Bumi. You look out across your walls one day to see a Fire Nation army of such numbers that your city could never hope to repel it. You could marshal your men, ready your city for a seige, but you already know that you're just stubbornly holding out against the inevitable. Then suddenly a thought crosses your mind. That army is here to invade your city now, but once they succeed then the majority of them will then march away to the next city in need of conquering, leaving a smaller garrison behind in an unfamiliar location who are well trained at attacking cities, but not so experienced at defending one."

Azula was the first to catch on. "You think he's planning a counter attack?"

"Yes. If Omashu surrendered then what, I ask, happened to their army? Rather than let his men be worn away day after day at the walls, Bumi orders his generals to take their men and go to ground, probably quite literally. A full army of well trained, healthy soldiers with a clear chain of command, all disappearing among the local populace or hiding beneath the ground, waiting for the invaders of their homes to raise their flags and march off on their next great conquest."

Tanya pointed to the map where the newly formed quarantine zone was located. "This pentapox outbreak is just the opening act. I suspect that King Bumi arranged for The Avatar to come to this city and release the pentapox virus into the local populace as a means of spreading chaos. With an infection spreading around, pressure will be on us and the local garrison to maintain order and prevent its spread. Soldiers will be stretched thin maintaining checkpoints and patrolling the streets, and that will leave them vulnerable."

Tanya leaned further over the table, her tone growing slower and darker, as if she were telling a horror story around a campfire. "It will begin with ambushes, like the one that targeted Mai. Patrols out at night will find themselves attacked by larger gangs of earthbender soldiers, crushed by overwhelming numbers and the element of surprise. The attackers flee back underground before reinforcements can arrive, leaving the corpses on the streets as a message of fear. Once the patrols have been thinned out enough that guards have to be reassigned from important positions, next comes the sabotage of food stores, military equipment and all the other supplies that give us the advantage in combat. Then come the assassinations of those high up the chain of command or in important positions: captains, tacticians, even the local governor and his family…"

Ukano gulped heavily.

"Fear kept the population in line before, but now, with the Fire Nation garrison scared and disorganised, that fear starts to turn to resentment. They blame the Fire Nation for the spread of the pentapox, and rally behind the banner of the legendary Avatar. Protests begin, easily turned violent by a few stray rocks from a rebel, and as the weakened garrison struggles to maintain order the Omashu army finally steps out of the shadows, crushing the garrison while they are at their weakest. King Bumi is freed, the city returns to his control, and the army is celebrated as heroes even as all those who helped the Fire Nation occupation are hung from the palace walls."

"By the spirits..." Ukano breathed, sounded utterly terrified, and already defeated. "Wha-… What can we do?"

Tanya straightened back up and turned to the governor, standing as every inch the admiral she was. "Do not fear governor. A rebellion is itself like an infection. Leave it too long and it will spread, consuming you from within, but if you act quickly and decisively it can be easily dealt with. Do not hesitate to cut off the infected limb, and the infection is beaten in an instant."

Ukano looked down nervously. "I'm not sure I can-…"

"No matter. It's not in your hands anymore." Tanya interrupted, her tone laced with the commanding tone of authority. "As admiral, I am exercising my right to place any city I believe to be at risk of rebellion under military lockdown. As of this moment, all military and administrative personnel are under my direct command. All civilians working non-essential jobs are to be confined to their homes or the quarantine zones, and all commanding officers are to report to me immediately for reassignment. You, governor, and your family shall remain in protective custody here in the palace-…"

Mai coughed meaningfully.

"… with the exclusion of your daughter, until such a time as the rebellion has been dealt with. I expect it to be over within a few days."

Ukano gaped at her like a fish out of water. "What are you going to do?"

Tanya's lips peeled back into a wolfish, snarling grin. "First I will find whatever cave the rebels are hiding and excise them from this city, burning away the disease until Omashu is pure once more. Then I will finish what I started at the North Pole." A flash of red hot anger gleamed in her eyes. "I will trap The Avatar within this city, and I will destroy him once and for all!"

Sokka was upset.

He knew he had a tendency to mess things up fairly frequently, but one thing he'd always had confidence in was his plans. Aang and Katara could bend the elements to their will and fight off dozens of firebenders, but it was his ideas that got them out of the sticky situations they found themselves in more often than not.

Not today though. Just as everything seemed like it was about to work out, that she-devil came swooping in like a bat out of hell.

It was a small mercy that she hadn't spotted them amidst the crowd. The moment he'd seen her, Sokka was filled with the urge to storm up and throw his boomerang right at her face. After everything she'd done to Yue and the North Pole, she deserved a little suffering of her own. Yet Katara had held him back, and they'd slipped into the quarantine zone among the fake infected, and then back to the rebellion headquarters through a secret tunnel.

It wouldn't be long before someone noticed that the 'pentapox' spots were fading from their victims rather rapidly, and at that time Tanya would surely start investigating further. If she discovered that Aang was here, she'd turn this city into a deathtrap. Before that happened, he needed to figure another way to get everyone out of the city. Yet no matter how hard he thought, no answer came to mind.

The atmosphere around the rebel headquarters was tense. Yung had started pushing everyone to take up arms again, and after their failed escape attempt a few more people were willing to listen to him. Opinions were divided, and with division came the seeds of conflict; small arguments for now, but each one with the promise of growing into something bigger if given the chance.

"General Yung!"

All eyes turned to the source of commotion as a woman came stumbling in, her flushed face and gasping breath a sign that she'd been running for quite a while to get here. Yung looked up from a document he'd been reading with a confused look.

"Lin? What are you doing here? You're supposed to be undercover at the governor's palace."

"I managed to slip away through the lockdown. I had to warn you." Lin gasped.

"What do you mean lockdown? What happened?"

Lin took a moment to catch her breath, then continued. "That newly arrived admiral! The Moonslayer! She knows The Avatar is here! She's putting the whole city on lockdown, taken over the governor's palace, and is sending every soldier she has out to track this place down!"

Already! How had she figured out that they were here so quickly?!

Yung growled. "If she wants us, let her come and take us! We'll bury her and her forces in these caves!"

"No! You can't!" Cried Aang, rushing over to stand in front of him with a look of pure panic on his face. "You didn't see the lengths she was willing to go to for victory at the North Pole! Now more than ever, we need to focus on escaping!"

"She's having archers and trebuchets set up all along the walls, with orders to shoot at anything that flies without hesitation." Lin added. "And has doubled the guards at the city gates. Orders are that absolutely nobody leaves without her express permission."

Katara, caught somewhere between Aang's panic and Yung's fury herself, spoke up. "What about underground? Is there no way to dig a tunnel underneath the ravine surrounding the city?"

"The deeper you dig, the greater the pressure." One of the nearby rebels interjected. "Even a master earthbender can only go so far underground, and there's yet to be one powerful enough to dig a tunnel deeper than the ravine."

"That's not true." Yung stated.

All eyes turned to the general as he spoke. "There is a secret tunnel beneath the palace, at the bottom of the crystal cavern where King Bumi had The Avatar face three trials. It is said to have been created by Oma, the founder of Omashu, and is said to connect to a secret tunnel-…"

"… through the mountains! The cave of two lovers!" Aang finished excitedly.

Yung looked shocked. "You know about it?"

"I've been there! We figured out the trick to navigating through the tunnels."

Yung looked surprised, but not disbelieving. After a moment to regain his composure, he cleared his throat. "Be that as it may, to reach the entrance we'll have no choice but to attack the governor's palace. That means going toe-to-toe with Admiral Tanya and no small number of firebender soldiers. If we're committing to this course of action, I want to be sure that the tunnel hasn't already been discovered and sealed off." He turned back to Lin. "Are you able to return to the palace again?"

Lin shook her head. "No. They'll have noticed my absence by now, and if I'm spotted I'll be detained for sure."

"Then we'll need to find someone else." Yung declared. "Someone capable of sneaking into a heavily fortified area unseen."

Everyone was silent for a second, until one of the nearby rebels piped up.

"You know, I think I might know just the guy…"

It was still something of a shock to see Omashu decked out in Fire Nation colours.

It had been a consistent threat for a hundred years: a stubborn dot on the map that refused to give in to Fire Nation rule no matter how many troops were thrown at it. With it gone, Ba Sing Se was the only major city left in the Earth Kingdom that hadn't fallen.

"The war is coming to a close. A few more years and we'll have won." Zuko thought to himself. A proper prince would be joyous to know that victory for his nation was nearly at hand. Instead, all he could think was that time was running out. If the war finished and The Avatar had still not been captured, would father still let him come back home?

By birthright, he should be lying in the finest room of the governor's palace right now. He should have the local soldiers at his beck and call. Instead, he was hiding from those same soldiers, squatting away in a peasant's home.

He'd snuck into the city clinging to the bottom of a cart filled with cabbages, and had given the wooden medallion to the staff at The Gritty Crown. They'd given him the room for the night, promising a meeting with a rebellion member in the morning. Only the next morning there had been a delay. Something about a pandemic that had quickly spread across the city. Zuko had considered leaving, but wisdom had counselled him to stay. Leave, and he'd be wandering around aimlessly hoping to stumble across The Avatar by pure chance. Even if this rebellion couldn't give him more than a general idea of which direction The Avatar was heading in, it would be worth a day of waiting.

A knock at the door caught his attention, and Zuko sat up from the stiff bed he'd been given and grabbed his Blue Spirit mask from the side table, fixing it securely over his face before standing up and going over to answer. The moment he opened it, he nearly jumped out of his skin at the tanned face waiting there.

"Whoa! Cool mask!" The water tribe peasant, Sokka, greeted cheerfully. "Where'd you get it?"

Zuko's brain stalled, unable to process what was going on.

When the silence dragged on for too long, Sokka tilted his head to the side. "Are you alright there?"

"He's a mute. Can't say a word, but his skill with swords does the talking for him." Michi, the owner of The Gritty Crown and secret rebellion supporter, introduced. "Made a name for himself facing off alone against every thief, bandit and ne'er-do-well around this part of the map. Folks called him The Blue Spirit."

"The Blue Spirit!" Oh great. The other water peasant, Katara, was here too. "Aang, isn't that the same guy who rescued you from Tanya and Zhao back at the fortress?"

Zuko looked past her and Sokka, past Michi, past the stern looking man dressed like a soldier, only for his eyes to land on the form of a bald child in orange robes. The same child that he had devoted his life to capturing, and that had now once again appeared right in front of him at a time where he was alone, outnumbered and weakened from his long journey. The spirits really did love to torment him. One word from The Avatar, and he'd be swarmed by more rebellion soldiers than he could handle at once.

Aang was looking right at him, clearly just as surprised as he was. Behind his mask, Zuko grit his teeth. One word from him and it was all over. If the rebellion didn't throw him in a cell themselves, they'd hand him over to the Fire Nation and let them do it for them.

For a moment Aang said nothing, staring directly at him with those wide, annoyingly bright eyes of his. The others looked at him in confusion, wondering why he wasn't saying anything.

Then, with the gentle smile of one greeting an old friend, Aang put his hands together and bowed gratefully at the waist.

"I never got a chance to properly thank you last time." He said respectfully. "Thank you Blue Spirit, for saving my life that day."

Zuko unconsciously took a step back, now completely thrown. Was he dreaming? Hallucinating? Why was The Avatar of all people not exposing him? Had he forgotten everything that Zuko had done while pursuing him?

Aang straightened up from his bow. There wasn't a hint of hostility about him: not the slightest tension in his fists, or a flicker of anger in his eyes. He seemed genuinely happy for some reason. Before Zuko could figure out why, Aang walked forward to stand right in front of the doorway and held out a hand, as if offering a handshake.

"Could I ask for your help one more time?"

While proofreading this chapter, I noticed how many times I had accidentally misspelt Ty Lee's name as "Tai Lee", and one occasion where I accidentally wrote "Tai Lung." I'm not sure that even The Avatar State would have been enough to allow Aang to escape the real dragon warrior.

Yes, Team Azula is all back together. Azula is the brave and noble hero, Mai the stoic knight, Ty Lee the quirky rogue, and Tanya the wise old wizard. Together they shall embark upon a dangerous and heroic journey to save the Fire Nation from the reincarnated demon Avatar. I've put a fair bit of thought into how I want their relationships to grow and develop along their journey, and hopefully you can see the beginnings of the relationship I have planned for Ty Lee and Tanya in this chapter. Next chapter will spend a bit more time with Mai.

And holy moly, look at all these followers and favourites! It's amazing to know that this story has received so much positive attention, and we're not even half way through yet! Thank you so much to everyone following this fic. I hope you continue to enjoy it.