A/N; Sorry this one took a while, but I gotta be honest, I absolutely hated writing this chapter. I like the episode, but something about it was just difficult to work with. That paired with some really annoying irl stuff... anyways, the episode does have some pretty important moments, so I'm not just gonna skip it. Rest of book 2 should be FAR better than this, both in terms of how long it takes to do a chapter and the quality of it. (you guys have no idea what's coming for the swamp >:)

Real talk, though? Why did we not get the return of cabbage man in return to omashu? Truly one of life's greatest tragedies. It will be many a chapter before I see you again, old friend.

Aang P.o.V.

"I can't believe it. I know the war has spread far, but Omashu always seemed... untouchable."

Aang stared out at the sight before him, disbelief still running through him. He'd seen some of the horrible things the Fire Nation had done, but this... he never once imagined Omashu could ever fall. And he didn't even want to think about what they might have done to Bumi. He did know, however, that he couldn't just leave his friend to die.

Sokka's voice echoed from behind him, solemn. "Up until now it was. Now, Ba Sing Se is the only great Earth Kingdom stronghold left."

He felt a hand on his shoulder, and glancing over he saw Azami standing next to him, her eyes reflecting the sadness he felt. "As much as it hurts, Aang, we need to move on."

"No," he countered as he shook his head. "I'm going in to find Bumi."

"At what cost?" she challenged, and though she had a point, Aang honestly didn't care. "I get that Bumi is important to you, but he would want you to be safe and keep moving. Staying will just put you and the rest of us at risk."

"Besides, we don't even know if Bumi's still..."

Aang whipped around to face Sokka, who had just wisely shut his mouth. "What?" the airbender demanded. "If he's still what?"

"A-around," Sokka stuttered out, looking ashamed.

Katara came up on his other side, bearing a similar expression to Azami. "I know you had your heart set on Bumi, but there are other people who can teach you earthbending," she offered.

"This isn't about finding a teacher," Aang insisted. "This is about finding my friend."

He turned back to face the great Earth Kingdom city. He couldn't - he wouldn't fail any more of his friends. Bumi needed him, and he wasn't going to back down.

Getting in might be a little harder than normal, though.

Beneath Omashu, we find a bald monkey boy escorted by three hormonal teenagers, all of whom may or may not be simping for one another (not unlike some of you horny people in  the comments, that's right I see you), all the while ignoring the true fluffy hero of the show.

Azami P.o.V.

"A secret passage?" Sokka whined. "Why didn't we just use this last time?"

"Because it's not a secret passage, Ponytail," Azami replied as Aang yanked open the sewer grate. Predictably, sewage came rushing out, and the firebender jumped out of the way just in time for it to miss her and hit Sokka in the face. "Personally, I'd take grouchy old Aang wearing a fake mustache over this any day."

Sokka gagged as he desperately wiped his hands on his traveling cloak. "Agreed," he groaned before climbing into the sewer. "Ew!"

Aang and Katara were both able to bend the sewage away from them as they climbed up the pipe, and while Azami was thankfully able to stand right behind the waterbender and remain largely clean, the same could not be said for Sokka. A few minutes later, they emerged back in the streets of Omashu, with no one else in sight.

Katara smiled as she climbed out after Aang. "That wasn't as bad as I thought."

"For you, maybe," Azami muttered as they all watched Sokka climb out, drenched in sewage like some weird monster. Katara quickly bended a stream of water onto him to clean it off before he got the rest of them covered in it, revealing him to have a few cute little purple pentapi attached to his face.

Like an idiot, he started screaming and yanking on them, and Azami had to tackle him against the wall and shove a hand on his mouth to keep him quiet. "Will you shut up?" she hissed at him. "It's just a purple pentapus, they let go when you rub them." To prove her point, she gently nudged the creature and it happily let go of Sokka's face. He just sighed, removing them as Azami backed up. 

"Hey!" a voice called out as Sokka was getting the third off, and the group all panicked, quickly hiding Aang from view. Sokka and his screaming, she cursed to herself. Fortunately, they were able to hide Aang long enough for him to cover up his bald head, and Azami kept her gaze firmly planted downwards, trying to avoid any attention at all. 

"What are you kids doing out past curfew?" the Fire Nation guard snapped as he approached them.

Katara took charge, which was probably for the best. "Sorry," she smiled at the guard. "We were just on our way home."

They quickly turned to leave, and just when Azami thought they might actually get away, the guard called out to them. "What's the matter with him?" he spat, glaring at Sokka.

"Uh... he has pentapox, sir!" Katara exclaimed, much to the guards' confusion. Clearly, he didn't buy it, as he started to get closer to see for himself. "It's highly contagious!"

Sokka, luckily, had the brains to catch on to the act and proceeded to act like some sort of zombie while the guards ran in fear. Azami let out a sigh of relief - clearly, the Fire Nation was getting a lot more desperate this late in the war. A hundred years ago, they'd never appoint someone so incompetent as a janitor.

"Come on," she called out to the others. "The longer we stay here, the greater the risk of getting caught. Let's see if we can find Bumi."

Azula P.o.V.

Why is she here? For agni's sake, why am I here?

And why is she upside down?

All these thoughts and more raced through Azula's head as she stared at Ty Lee, the chi-blocker currently in the middle of a handstand on just her two index fingers. Though she was loath to admit it, she'd always been jealous of the girl's flexibility and talents, although the tradeoff of her firebending was certainly worth it.

Time to make myself known, she muttered to herself before walking over to the girl. "Ty Lee, could that possibly be you?"

"Azula!" the girl smiled as she quickly righted herself, bowed (as she should), and then raced forwards to give the princess a tight hug. "It is so good to see you!"

"Please, don't let me interrupt your... whatever it is you were doing," she muttered, already irritated with this waste of her time. It would be so much easier if Ty Lee would just come with her, but sadly that wouldn't be quite so easy. "Tell me... what is the daughter of a nobleman doing here? Certainly our parents didn't send us to the Royal Fire Academy for Girls to end up in... places like this."

Azula cringed slightly at the sight of several people tugging at the leash of a platypus bear, to very little effect, followed by the bear casually laying an egg. Shaking her head, she turned back to the girl before her. "I have a proposition for you. I'm hunting several traitors. You remember my old, fuddy-duddy uncle, don't you?"

"Oh yeah, he was so funny," Ty Lee smiled as she... what was she doing now? She was balanced on her two front elbows only, her legs bent so far back that her feet were literally resting on her head. Azula would never understand how she did some of those things, but right now it didn't matter.

"Then there's the matter of this Princess Azami," Azula sighed. "Unfortunately, I haven't really gotten any good leads on her yet."

Ty Lee giggled slightly. "I've heard about her from some of the other people here. She sounds sooo fun, I'd love to meet her."

"Yes, well... I would be honored if you would join me on my mission," Azula offered, already expecting the disappointing response. And disappointed she was.

"Oh, I, uh, would love to," the girl admitted as she again rose to stand on her feet. What a concept, Azula thought bitterly. "But the truth is, I'm really happy here. I mean, my aura has never been pinker!"

Azula felt like gagging, but she had enough self-restraint to refrain from doing so. "I'll take your word for it," she muttered. Time to do this the hard way, then. "Well, I wouldn't want you to give up the life you love just to please me."

Ty Lee looked shocked for a moment, before smiling as she bowed. "Thank you Azula."

What a stupid, naive child, Azula smirked as she walked off. Ty Lee was coming with her, whether she liked it or not. "Of course, before I leave, I'm going to catch your show."

Ty Lee just spluttered out some random resposne as the princess walked off, her smirk growing. People really were so easy to manipulate.

Azami P.o.V.

Spoiler alert - they couldn't find Bumi!

Who could've guessed.

What the gaang did manage to find was a random girl who was fairly talented with throwing knives, a family of Fire Nation nobles, and a group of Earth Kingdom rebels, still fighting against the invaders. It didn't take long for Aang to convince them to leave the city, but coming up with a feesable escape plan? That took a little more work.

Turns out, there were still thousands of citizens that needed to be evacuated. And Sokka's brilliant idea? Pentapox plague. Before long, everyone, including Azami, was covered head to toe in red dots. Credit where it was due - this actually might work out.

"The marks make you look sick, but you gotta act sick, too," Sokka instructed to the gathered citizens. "You gotta sell it." Right on cue, an elderly man with a walking cane and peg leg stumbled right in front of him, groaning the whole way. Sokka just grinned. "Now that's what I'm talking about!"

"Years of practice," the old man smirked as he looked back, tapping his cane to his fake leg.

Everyone was set to leave - except Aang, that is. So when Sokka gave the order for everyone to get in formation, he and Katara stayed behind. Azami just sighed as she saw the stubborn look on his face. She really did understand why Aang cared about Bumi, but the kid had to start learning to take his role as the Avatar more seriously. At this rate, he was going to get himself killed.

Katara came back to join them as Aang took off, her expression downcast. "You ready, Kat?" the firebender grinned.

The waterbender just gave a feeble smile back in response, and the two joined Sokka's army. Within minutes, the streets of Omashu were littered with people groaning and shuffling along, and she had to hand it to him - it was convincing. The Fire Nation guards panicked, crying out about the 'plague', and pretty soon they were all miraculously walking free out of the city.

Honestly? It was surprisingly easy in the end.

Which, of course, meant something had to go wrong. Because something always has to go wrong.

Sokka P.o.V.

We have an extra.

Just great. Omashu had fallen to the Fire Nation, Bumi was nowhere to be found, they now have no plans for Aang to learn earthbending, and worst of all, this Fire Nation baby kept chasing Momo around. The lemur had shown up at camp well after Aang had also returned, and the baby was refusing to leave the lemur alone. Well, that is, he was chasing the lemur. Now he had seen Sokka's club, had even started to suck on it - and that's where he had to draw the line.

"No!" Sokka exclaimed as he yanked his club out of the infant's reach. "Bad Fire Nation baby."

Naturally, the baby started to cry loudly, and only after receiving both a death glare from Azami and a slap from his sister did he relent. "Oh, all right," he muttered, handing the club back to the baby.

As the baby just giggled and started playing with his club, Katara leaned over to hug it from behind. "Ooh, you're so cute," she cooed.

"Sure, he's cute now," Yung grumbled. "But when he's older, he'll join the Fire Nation army. You won't think he's so cute then. He'll be a killer."

Katara scowled, lifting the baby and shoving it towards the Earth Kingdom soldier. "Does that look like the face of a killer to you?"

Yung remained unimpressed, but Sokka had to admit he couldn't help siding with his sister here. "Not every firebender is a killer," he asserted, gesturing over to Azami. "I mean, she's living proof of that."

"No, actually, Yung's pretty spot on," Azami countered, and the gaang all looked at her in shock. "What?" she shrugged. "It's true, so long as this war is going on everyone in the Fire Nation can be a threat. That's the whole point of trying to stop the war. This isn't just about saving the Earth Kingdom or the Water Tribes."

Sokka was about to argue, but he couldn't help recalling that moment in the northern tribe... Zhao may have been a horrible person, but even so, she'd still killed him. Good intentions or otherwise, he couldn't deny the truth of the fact - the same girl he'd just pointed out had in fact taken a life with her bending.

Maybe Yung really did have a point.

Azula P.o.V.

Well that was entertaining.

Although circuses were absolutely not her thing, Azula couldn't help admiring the chaos that had just unfolded. Those silly performers, taking all those little security precautions. Didn't they see how much more exciting things got once that net was aflame and all the animals were racing around? There was something about the imminent threat of death that just added to the spectacle.

Best of all, Ty Lee was now accompanying her on her quest.

Of course she was. When had Azula ever failed to win someone over? She'd even succeeded with little Zuzu, and would've been presenting him to her father already if not for that lieutenant. At least now he wouldn't interfere with her ever again.

The ride to Omashu proved to be largely uneventful, although her arrival was far less so. As she arrived, there was a distinct... quietness to the city, one that she hadn't heard before in such a populated space. Had they imprisoned all the citizens already? It's what Azula would've done, if the reports of attempted uprisings were to be believed.

These thoughts faded slightly, though, as the person she came to see entered her vision. She, like Ty Lee was taller than Azula remembered, but she was still just as drab and dull as ever. Some things never change.

"Please tell me you're here to kille me," Mai sighed as she bowed to Azula. The two just laughed, before embracing. Ty Lee then followed up by launching herself in to Mai's arms, much to the gloomy girl's surprise. "I thought you ran off and joined the circus! You said it was your calling."

Ty Lee pulled back, her expression bright as ever. "Well, Azula called a little louder!"

As much as she was flattered, Azula got right back to business. Her father would be expecting updates soon regarding her progress. "I have a mission, and I need you both."

"Count me in," Mai replied immediately. "Anything to get me out of this place."

Yes, this place... it may be called Omashu, but that didn't seem too fitting for a new Fire Nation colony. She'd definitely have to change that while she was here. And when Mai informed her of the situation, regarding the supposed 'plague' and the disappearance of the new governor's child... maybe some other things would have to change, too.

"I apologize," the governor pleaded as he bowed before Azula. She'd taken his throne, not that he deserved one anyways. He wasn't born to rule, not like she was. "You've come to Omashu at a difficult time. At noon, we're making a trade with the resistance to get Tom-Tom back."

Ugh. Parents and their ridiculous notion that their child must come first. Such affection was only a weakness, after all - wasn't this situation all the more proof of that? "Yes," Azula muttered. "I'm so sorry to hear about your son. But really, what did you expect by just letting all the citizens leave?"

She rose to her feet, and the governor and his wife both flinched. It was comforting to know that she commanded the same fear her father could inspire. "My father has trusted you with this city, and you're making a mess of things!"

"Forgive me, Princess," the pathetic man begged as he bowed once again.

"You stay here," Azula snapped as she made to leave. "Mai will handle the hostage trade so you don't have a chance to mess it up." A thought then struck her, and she grinned maniacally as she arrived at the perfect name for this city. "And there is no more Omashu. I am renaming it in honor of my father."

"The city of New Ozai!"

Azami P.o.V.

The four steadily walked up towards the meeting point, the city unnaturally quiet except for them. To say that they were all uneasy would be a massive understatement. It got to the point where Azami felt like she could actually see the tension. One wrong move, and this could easily be the end of the war if they got captured.

When the clearing finally came into view, it also brought with it three girls approaching them, all seemingly around Azami's age. One was the weird knife throwing girl from the previous night, and the others... well, she didn't recognize the girl with the braided ponytail, but something about the third was really weird. Almost everything about her features were basically identical to Azami's, and it was freaking her out a little.

The only key difference between them, though - aside from attire - was her eyes. Something about them felt threatening, dangerous, even. She was quickly distracted though when a snort came from above them, and the gaang all looked up to see Bumi being lowered in a metal prison. "Hi everybody!" he cheerfully called out to them, only his face visible through the cage.

Ignoring the king, knife girl stepped forward, her expression bored. "You brought my brother?"

"He's here," Aang replied, not moving an inch. "We're ready to trade." The baby in question was currently preoccupied with pulling on Sokka's face, not caring one whit about the circumstances around them.

"I'm sorry, but a thought just occured to me," the Azami clone smirked, and the real Azami immediately tensed. Her tone, the way she talked, everything about her... it almost screamed inhuman. "Do you mind?"

Knife girl sighed, barely turning to face her. "Of course not, Princess Azula."

Oh you have GOT to be kidding me.

So now there actually was just a straight up duplicate of Azami living in the royal family. Wonderful. Hopefully, she didn't inherit Azami's bending, though knowing her luck at this point that seemed highly unlikely.

"We're trading a two-year-old for a king," Azula questioned. "A powerful, earthbending king? It just doesn't seem like a fair trade, does it?"

Knife girl's expression darkened, and Azami could already sense the fight coming a mile away. "You're right. The deal's off," she announced, and Bumi was slowly dragged back up.

Naturally, Aang reacted without thinking, calling out to his friend as he raced forwads. Azula lashed out with her bending to meet him, and - great. Another blue firebender. Aang managed to leap up and out of the way, but not without his headband coming off, revealing his airbender tattoo.

Azula immediately headed over to a lift system, which she used to launch herself up the scaffolding after Aang. Their cover well and truly blown, Azami decided she had nothing to lose by getting involved as well. As Katara started to fight knife girl, Azami quickly turned around to face Sokka.

"We've got to get that baby out of here!" she exclaimed, before noticing him blowing on Aang's bison whistle.

He smirked. "Way ahead of you."

The two started running away from the fight as Katara covered them, but for some reason Sokka tripped over for seemingly no reason. Forcing herself to a halt, Azami whipped around to see the other girl climbing out of a small hole in the floor. With Sokka sliding next to the edge, Azami kicked out a large ring of fire to knock the other girl back as she raced towards them.

Much to her surprise, the girl just flipped over it without any issue and kept running. What she wasn't able to outrun, though, was the water whip that yanked her foot out from under her and caused her to faceplant into the floor. Sokka took the opportunity to climb down a nearby ladder to the waiting Appa, while Azami just got ready to fight this other girl as she was already pulling herself back up.

Realizing that long range attacks weren't going to do much here, Azami simply created two small daggers of flame underneath her fists and let the other girl come. Before she knew it, the two were engaged in a fist fight, and this other girl moved at a speed Azami had never even seen before. Despite showing no signs of bending, she was able to keep up just fine and avoid any attacks Azami sent towards her.

Growing impatient, Azami kicked a line of blue flame towards the girl, which proved a mistake as she immediately felt a sharp jab to the leg, followed by several to her arms. Normally, she could take a hit, but for some reason her limbs just immediately gave out on her, and she collapsed to the ground. Chi blocking, she wondered in awe. She'd only ever heard about the technique in passing before.

"You must be Azami!" the other girl said in a cheerful voice, leaving the firebender even more confused. "It's so great to meet you, I'm Ty Lee! Lemme just go deal with your friend, and then we can totally have a long chat after. Bye!"

Azami just watched in bewilderment as the girl winked before she cartwheeled out of sight, leaving her nearly paralyzed on the ground.

Thankfully, only about a minute passed before she heard Appa landing nearby, followed by the pounding of footsteps racing over to her. A moment later, a concerned Sokka appeared in the edge of her vision. "You okay?" he asked, concerned.

"Oh yeah," Azami muttered. "I can't move or bend, but aside from that everything's fine. Is the baby and Katara safe?"

He just nodded in response before reaching down to pick her up, carrying her bridal style back over to the bison. Azami couldn't help the blush that crossed her face from the position she was in. "Not a word about this, ever again," she growled, and Sokka just laughed as he placed her down on Appa's saddle, propping her up against the side so she could actually see what was going on.

Katara was already there, rubbing her arms as the baby just continued his habit of slobbering on Sokka's club. The waterbender soon noticed her arrival, and quickly looked up to meet her gaze. "Did she get you too?"

Azami nodded. "If you mean Ty Lee, then yes."

"What did she do to us?" Katara whispered, panic evident in her tone.

"It's called chi blocking," Azami explained as she tried to move her limbs, with little success. "Don't worry, it's only temporary, but it can block bending and, in my case, paralyze you entirely. I've never actually seen it in use before."

Katara sighed, relief flooding her face. "So it goes away? My bending isn't... you know, gone?"

"You should get it back soon enough," Azami assured her. "Probably best not to be picking any more fights for a while though."

Aang P.o.V.

Panting, Aang sat down as he and Bumi both came to a stop. He wanted to basically interrogate his friend - and he would, in a moment - but first he had to catch his breath. Fighting that girl - or even, really, just evading her - had taken a lot of his strength. He'd always been grateful to have Azami as a friend, but he'd never really considered what fighting her would have been like before.

He was pretty sure he had a good idea now, and he didn't like it one bit.

That would have to wait, though, as he looked up into Bumi's face. The earthbender was just smiling as he watched Aang, and that was enough to set the airbender off. "I don't understand. Why didn't you free yourself?" he demanded. "Why did you surrender when Omashu was invaded? What's the matter with you, Bumi?"

"Listen to me, Aang," Bumi told him, and the airbender had to remind himself that his friend wasn't a child anymore, but an old man. "There are options in fighting called Jing. It's a choice of how you direct your energy."

This was old news to him. "I know," Aang snapped, losing his patience. "There's positive jing when you're attacking, and negative jing when you're retreating."

"And, neutral jing," Bumi grinned. "When you do - nothing!"

Wait, what? "There are three jings?"

"Well, technically there are eighty-five, but let's just focus on the third," Bumi explained. "Neutral Jing is the key to earthbending. It involves listening, and waiting, for the right moment to strike."

Listening and waiting? If that's true, then... Aang gasped as the realization hit him. "That's why you surrendered, isn't it?"

"Yes, and it's why I can't leave now," Bumi agreed. Aang just turned around, glancing down sadly. It was hard for him, leaving his friend behind.

"I guess I need to find someone else to teach me earthbending," he muttered.

Bumi's voice echoed from behind him, his words encouraging. "Your teacher will be someone who has mastered neutral jing. You need to find someone who waits, and listens, before striking." Momo jumped onto Aang's shoulder at that moment, and the airbender couldn't help the short giggle that left him. "Momo's mastered a few jings himself! Goodbye, Aang. I'll see you, when the time is right."

Before he knew it, Aang was watching in confusion as Bumi launched himself back up the mail chute, laughing the whole way. Appa soon rose behind him, and the airbender joined his friends on the bison. Today hadn't exactly been the good day he was hoping for, but it had left him hopeful for the future.

Azula P.o.V.

"So, we're tracking down half your family, huh?"

Ty Lee smirked. "It'll be interesting seeing Zuko again, won't it, Mai?"

No. Not just them. Knowing her father, Ozai would want the Avatar too. And now that she knew where both he and Azami were... "It's not just my disgraced family members anymore," she announced to her companions. "We have a fourth target now."

Though she was outwardly scowling, inside, she'd never felt more elated. After so many years of training and practice, it was time for her to really put her skills to the test.

The Avatar was hers.

A/N; Alright yay finally got this done lol. Hopefully I'll have the swamp out before the 20th, but uh no promises cuz irl stuff is starting to catch up a little :P

Also I kid you not I'm literally already coming up with plans for a LoK sequel fic and man am I hyped for that as well. Definitely not spoiling anything though, so that's gonna have to wait until this one is well and truly finished. As always, hope you guys enjoyed it - for some reason these first few chapters of book 2 have been a lot harder to work with than I anticipated.

Anyways, I'm up like super early tomorrow - aka like 11 am, which yes is early normally I sleep until 2pm - so honestly fuck proofreading this it's taken long enough and I'll come back and edit later if I have to lol bye :)