( Book 2 Episode 3 )
I have a feeling that despite our preparations, this might turn out similarly to how it would have in canon. But that's what I'm here for. I'm good at thinking on my feet.
Climbing the construction platform under cover of the heavy mist sets my mind at ease a little. Even though Aang said earlier that he has a good feeling about this, I'm glad to be surrounded by my most useful weapon. It can only help against a firebender since their style is generally to produce larger flames than there is water. But if water is everywhere, well, the princess can punch flames all she wants before she's an icicle.
Additionally, the five earthbenders beneath our feet are on the lookout for enemy soldiers and ready to defend us immediately.
We're not there for long when three figures appear on the other end of the platform. We can only see them as dark smudges against the fog, but I'm fairly confident that we're close to invisible with our light blue clothing and the masks. Except for Aang, of course. He'll be an obvious target.
The sound of a metal chain rattling fills the air, and I can feel where the fog is misplaced by the coffin's passage. Lovely.
Aang takes a few steps forward and I follow while Katara and Sokka stay behind. The child in my arms is oddly quiet, probably feeling the tension. "Hi everybody!", King Bumi exclaims and if there's ever a time that one can hear insanity, it's in this man's voice. He touches down with a muffled thump behind the three women.
"You brought my brother?", a cool voice asks, also muffled by the thickening fog. Katara must be busy behind us.
"He's here. We are ready to trade", Aang says, very seriously. His eyes, instead of cataloguing the shifts in posture from the figures in front of us, are fixed on a probably grinning Bumi.
Of course, instead of completing the trade, the princess decides it's time to attempt an arrest. "I'm sorry, but a thought just occurred to me. Do you mind?"
"Of course not, Princess Azula."
Sokka draws in a slow, deliberate breath. So he's heard of her, then. Even in the Northern Watertribe I never heard much about her, but it was always made clear that she is as ruthless as she is dangerous. Which I already knew. But then again, it'll be different seeing it for myself. It always is.
"We're trading a two-year-old for a king", ah, lovely. I wonder how that makes Mai feel, but I can't make out her features. Which is good, because it means she can't see ours either, but I do wonder if some of her resentment that she held for Azula festered here. After all, while Zuko left her to run around with Team Avatar, she still went against Azula for him. "A powerful, earthbending king."
"Mmh-hm", Bumi says. Aw, man. I suppose it was too much to hope that he would have mastered patience already. Or something. I remember him saying something about waiting for the right moment to strike.
"It just doesn't seem a fair trade, does it?", well, she does have a point. And since she would hardly care if it were her own brother, she probably figures that Mai feels the same. I drift backwards and allow Katara's mist to thicken around me.
"You're right", she tells Azula and takes a few steps forward to raise her left hand, "The deal's off."
And with that, the chain can be heard rattling once more and she shadow of the coffin ascends. "Whoa! See you guys later!", Bumi shouts.
Aang is not about to let him go, "Bumi!"
He rushes forward, jumps over Azula's blue fire and launches himself into the air on his glider. The mist is thick enough around me that I can't see him anymore, but Azula seems to have no such problems, "The Avatar! My lucky day."
She probably launches herself after Aang in pursuit and I hear two pairs of footsteps coming towards us. Poor, poor non-benders. Katara manages to intercept one of them, so it falls to me to take down the other. With a shift in my stance, I take hold of the mist around me and stretch my senses. Lighter footsteps, come at me directly. Probably the circus girl, then. It's all too easy to coat the wooden planks with ice and it's even easier to use her startled skid to get behind her as she whooshes past me. I make sure to keep a good distance from her. She used to perform in a circus, I have no idea how quickly she can regain her balance or how good an actress she is.
With a twist, she is back on her way towards me, feet now steady on the ice. I make it liquid again and catch her feet before freezing them. Then I set about closing the mist tightly around her form and freezing it.
There are noises beneath my feet, a scuffle between our benders and someone else. I decide to go help and find a ladder. The fog is less thick down here, but that helps me see where I can best help. Either the firebenders aren't bending for fear of setting the wood on fire, or these are regular soldiers. They are surprisingly well-trained to work against earthbenders.
But clearly, a waterbender working with earthbenders is too much for them to handle on their own. Not, that the earthbenders are used to back-up in the form of suddenly choking soldiers who can't get their own spit out from their windpipes.
It's almost too easy. Which is why I am very, very suspicious. Maybe they've already managed to tag someone and have the means to track them, us. It seems plausible. After all, Fire Nation is usually one for frontal assaults and attacking from behind, if possible. Not sure about those tactics with Azula here, though. We'll have to take it as it comes, I suppose. With no idea of how her brain works, I can't predict anything and so, countermeasures will have to be taken within moments.
If they're going with the tracking method, they'll probably go after the kid. And me. Wonderful. I should probably stay in the city. "Hey, you", I pick one of the benders, "You and I are going to lay a false trail. The rest of you, get out of the city and go underground to the camp. If we're not back by sunrise, move on without us."
They all nod and aside from the one I wanted with me, they all disappear. Heh, most of the time you just have to tell people what to do, and if it seems plausible, they'll do it. Good thing, that. It's also a good thing that they have their commander back in camp to make sure they're not attacked. I'm not one for too much responsibility.
Carefully, I stick my head up to see what's going on with Katara and Sokka. They're both still there, thankfully. "Hey, wanna come with us, or go after Aang?", I ask, and it turns out that both of them want to leave the Avatar to his joyride with Azula. That's both good and bad. Good because Aang can have his chat with Bumi, bad because if we're all scented, or tagged, or whatever else they come up with, it'll be easy to follow both Team Avatar and me. Well, if it's scent, I can manage to wash it off with Katara's help.
We get to one of the entrances to the tunnels beneath the city. "Alright", I say, gather mist tightly around our group and we are swallowed by the ground. "Gotta wash off our scent", I say and nod to Katara. We work in tandem, she douses each one of our group and I remove the water from their skin and clothing. She even takes extra care with the baby strapped to my chest. He complains a little, but burrows back into my shirt. Seems he's tired.
There isn't much for us to do now, but wait.
"For fear of sounding like Aang, but… I'm pretty bored", Sokka announces. Of course. He needs some kind of problem to solve and keep him occupied. It's probably one of the reasons why he's such a great strategist. He also understands people, as I have been unfortunate enough to find out. I don't think I'll have to worry about him much. But then again, maybe he needs to be worried about the most. He'll be the one with the common sense. Not, that he isn't now. But he knows that I can be reasoned with, whereas his sister is an explosive powder keg on the best of days and Aang is twelve. Enough said.
Objectively, looking at my own successes and failures, I have constantly underestimated my enemy. First with Zhao, then with General Fong. Of course, those situations were partially out of my sphere of influence, but I'm hardly about to make that mistake a third time. Especially with Azula. She's a rare kind of intelligent. I could hypothesise that she's a sociopath, since that time during the solar eclipse Toph was only barely able to tell when she lied.
Although I do wonder what it is she feels for Zuko. While she has tried to kill him on multiple occasions, has tormented him throughout his childhood and manipulates him constantly, I am sure she could murder him if she really wanted to. In the fragile state he is in now, she has the upper hand in every equation that does not involve Iroh. Which leads me to wonder, what does she feel for her uncle? Some measure of fear, I'm sure. Suppressed admiration, perhaps? He is a hard man not to admire.
I'll be glad to see him again. I wonder if he and Zuko are already in Ba Sing Se.
There are few things I can know with certainty these days. My presence here alone has brought many changes, small as they might be. I think that it might be time for a larger change than I am capable of on my own.
Thankfully, I have just the person in mind.
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Don't forget to throw some power stones :)
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