A/N; Alright, here we go - time for our next meetup wih Azula. Honestly, I was probably more excited for this chapter than I had any right to be, but idk I still like this episode a lot. Definitely a high point of season 2 imo.

Anywho, I'm not gonna waste anymore of your time - let's dive into it :)

Katara P.o.V.

"Hey! You guys picked a great campsite. The grass is so soft."

"That's not grass," Sokka explained to her. "Appa's shedding."

Katara grimaced as she realized she was covered in the stuff, despite trying to tiptoe through it. "Oh, gross!"

"It's not gross," Aang countered from where he was sitting peacefully on Appa's back. "It's just a part of spring! You know, rebirth, flowers blooming, and Appa gets a new coat."

Azami seemed to be in a similar boat as Katara when she looked down at the fur pile uneasily. "Yeah, Appa's not the only one," she muttered, plucking different pieces of fur off of herself before continuing to unpack.

"Don't worry, it's just the beauty of spring!" Katara exclaimed sarcastically. Next to her, Appa slowly started to open his mouth wider and wider, and the waterbender only had a second to panic before the bison sneezed, coating them all in another layer of fur. "Stop! Appa, stop!" she begged, but the bison continued to shake his head and rain fur all over her.

"It's not that bad, Katara," Sokka's voice called out from where he was crouching. To her horror, when he spun around to face her, he had a huge tower of Appa's fur piled up on top of his head. "It makes a great wig!"

As if things couldn't get any worse, Aang then jumped down to join him, his face covered in fur. "And a great beard!"

The two boys laughed together, while Katara simply crossed her arms in frustration, unable to believe she had to babysit her older brother and the Avatar. "Well, I'm just glad we girls finally outnumber the boys, because you two are disgusting."

Aang and Sokka both gave her an unimpressed look, before making way to let Toph pass by them. "Excuse me," the earthbender announced. "But does anyone have a razor? Because I got some hairy pits!"

Toph lifted her arms up behind her head, revealing the fur she'd stuffed into her shirt? The three of them just laughed like crazy, and Aang sneezed, launching him into Appa's leg before collapsing to the ground in a cloud of fur. Which, naturally, only added to their laughter.

Admittedly, Katara laughed a bit too - she couldn't help it.

"Did I miss something?" Azami called down in an amused tone. "Do mine eyes and ears deceive me, or are you laughing at these disgusting acts, Katara?"

She just sent the firebender a sheepish look in response, and the two girls soon joined the others in their laughter.

A few hours later, once they were all cleansed of Appa's fur and started setting up camp, Katara couldn't help noticing that Toph was just laying off to the side, doing nothing to help at all. She wanted to snap at her then and there, but she forced herself to remember that Toph was still new to all this, and probably just needed a bit of guidance on how things worked.

So, putting on a sweet expression, she headed over towards the earthbender, trying to appear as friendly as possible. "So, Toph, usually when setting up camp we try to divide up the work," Katara explained, sure it would help the other girl come to her senses.

"Hey, don't worry about me," the earthbender casually shrugged. "I'm good to go."

That's not the point, Katara grumbled. "Well, actually, what I'm trying to say is - as some of us might fetch water, while someone else might set up the fire pit, or put up the tent." Thankfully, Momo flied in with the nuts he'd collected, proving her point further. "Even Momo does his fair share."

"Katara, I'm fine," Toph whined. "I can carry my own weight. I don't need a fire, I've already collected my own food, and look," she explained as she bent an earth tent up around herself. "My tent's all set up."

Frowning, Katara realized that she now had yet another stubborn child to take care of. "Well, that's great for you, but we still need to finish-"

"I don't understand what's the problem here!" Toph snapped, forcing Katara to back down... for now, anyways. This wouldn't work out well in the long run though.

Sokka P.o.V.

Setting up camp was getting painful.

Like sure, he got that he was the big, strong man of the group, but why did Sokka have to get Appa's saddle dropped on his head every single time? As always, Aang quickly jumped down from the bison's back apologizing, but it didn't matter to him that much anymore.

"Hey, Toph," Katara's voice echoed from nearby, and Sokka let out an internal groan at his sister's antics. Even at the best of times she could be a little bossy, but with someone like Toph in the group... it was only a matter of time until a full-on blowout between them.

Fortunately, though, she still showed enough restraint that they were all able to get some semblance of sleep - albeit, though, not very much. Right as he was starting to dream, Toph's cries woke him up at the worst possible time. "There's something coming towards us!"

Reluctantly, he pulled himself out of bed and joined the others outside his tent. "What is it?" Aang wondered.

"It feels like an avalanche," she explained. "But also... not an avalanche."

Wow. "Your powers of perception are frightening," Sokka muttered irritably, still not happy about being woken up.

"Should we leave?" Katara asked nervously.

Azami nodded, the bags under her eyes a little more noticeable than the others. "Probably," she yawned out. "Better safe than sorry."

And so, in the middle of the night, right when he should be getting his beauty sleep, they were instead flying away from some grey blob heading in their direction, a massive trail of smoke billowing behind it.

Over an hour of flying later, they set down again, and Toph was the first to leap off of Appa, faceplanting straight into the ground. "Ah, land, sweet land. See you guys in the morning!" she excitedly exclaimed before starting to walk off.

"Actually, can you help us unpload?" Katara asked, a hint of her motherly tone creeping in.

Azami jumped down next to the waterbender, briefly putting a hand on her shoulder before walking towards the nearest pile of grass. "Oh, who cares," the firebender yawned out as she laid down on the ground, already half asleep. "Just sleep."

See, now there's a woman with common sense. Nothing and no one is more important than sleep.

"I'm with miss sparkles on this one," Toph stated bluntly. "Do you really need my help unloading Sokka's funky-smelling sleeping bag?"

Wait, smelly? Reaching for his sleeping bag, Sokka gave it a quick sniff and nearly passed out from how bad it actually was. The water and earthbenders started fighting again, and honestly he just tuned them out as he rolled out his bag, not even bothering with the tent this time. He knew how mother-Katara fights ended, and didn't care to get involved in this one.

He could not, however, tune out Katara's next scream. "SUGAR QUEEN?!"

Oh great.

"Did- did you just slam the door in my face?" she yelled at Toph's earth tent. "How can you be so infuriating!"

Realizing he wasn't gonna get much sleep while this was happening, Sokka just stood watching Katara flip out with Aang beside him, both unable to believe this was happening right now. Azami was somehow already asleep, but the two boys... yeah, that wasn't going to happen anytime soon.

"Should we... do something?" Aang asked, unsure of what to do.

Sokka shook his head, already familiar with his sister's process. "Hey, I'm just enjoying the show. At least she isn't yelling at me this time."

Aang rolled his eyes before heading up towards the waterbender. "Okay, okay," he declared, putting his hands up in a calming gesture. "You both need to calm down."

"Both?" Katara snapped as she whirled around, her eyes wide and bloodshot, the right one ticking slightly. "I'M COMPLETELY CALM!"

Clearly, Aang was smart enough to know danger when he saw it, as he backed away as quickly as he could without straight up running. "I can see that," he muttered.

"The stars sure are beautiful tonight," Katara muttered sarcastically. "Too bad you can't see them, Toph!"

Just trying to get some sleep, Sokka whipped the cover of his sleeping bag up over his head, trying to block out his sister's constant yapping. The bag did not, however, protect him from his sister being launched directly on him by Toph's bending.

Irritated beyond belief, he pulled himself out of his sleeping bag and shoved Katara off to the side. "Hey, how's a guy supposed to sleep with all this yelling and earthquaking?" he snapped at them both.

"That thing is back!" Toph exclaimed as she suddenly opened up her earth tent again.

Sokka groaned to himself, unable to believe this night was real. "Well, how far away is it? Maybe we can close our eyes for just a few minutes?"

Desperately he pulled himself back in the sleeping bag, but it didn't stop Aang from ruining his moment. "I don't think so, Sokka."

Grumbling to himself, he balled up his sleeping bag as best he could and went over to wake Azami, who yawned slightly as he shook her awake. Of all the nights she was actually getting proper sleep for once, why on earth did she choose now?

So it was, that once again they were racing off into the night, and this time Sokka just fell asleep on Appa's back, not caring what happened. When they finally landed and he was thrown off Appa's back by the bison collapsing, he didn't bother even grabbing his sleeping bag. "Okay, forget about setting up camp," he mumbled. "I'm finding the softest pile of dirt and going to sleep."

The two girls started arguing for a bit, but thankfully Aang stepped in and put a stop to it, allowing him to try and tune out - albeit unsuccessfully.

"Who's Zuko?" Toph asked.

"Oh, just some angry freak with a ponytail who's tracked us all over the world," Sokka muttered in response.

Azami smirked over at him, having not yet fallen asleep. "What's wrong with ponytails, ponytail?"

Although Sokka admittedly couldn't deny the butterflies feeling he got in his stomach whenever she called him that, he still had a sense of pride to maintain. "This," he corrected as he pointed to his hair. "Is a Warrior's Wolf Tale."

"Well, it certainly tells the other warriors that you're fun and perky!" Katara exclaimed.

A few choice words entered Sokka's head as he rolled over, but they could wait. "Anyways, whoever's chasing us, they couldn't have followed us here, so now would everyone just shhhh." Momo, apparently, didn't get the memo as he jumped on Sokka's stomach. "No momo. Shush. Sleepy time."

The noisy lemur leaped off his head and raced to the edge of the plateau they had parked on, and a sense of dread filled Sokka to the bone. "Oh, don't tell me!"

"That's impossible, there's no way they could have tracked us," Aang exclaimed.

"I can feel it with my own two feet!" Toph protested.

Racing to join Momo, the gaang looked down at the trail leading to them, and sure enough that weird metal and smoke thing was hot on their heels. "Let's get out of here," Katara insisted, but Aang stubbornly stayed put.

"Maybe we should face them," Aang wondered. "Find out who they are. Who knows, maybe they're friendly?"

Azami glowered down at the approaching cloud. "I've got a pretty good hunch. Trust me, they aren't friendly."

Proving her point, the vehicle soon came to a stop, and three mongoose lizards came crawling out, carrying the three Fire Nation girls from Omashu. Oh great, Sokka thought bitterly as the three lizards started racing towards them.

"It's those three girls from Omashu!" Katara exclaimed.

Rather than flee, as they'd done previously, the gaang all settled into their stances, ready to fight. "We can take 'em!" Toph declared confidently. "Three on four!"

Wait a sec, Sokke realized. Even in his sleep deprived state, he knew something was off about that. "Actually, Toph, there's five of us."

"Oh, I'm sorry," the earthbender grinned. "I didn't count you - you know, no bending and all."

He whipped around to face her, sure that his eyes were even wider and more bloodshot than his sister's. "I CAN STILL FIGHT!" he screamed at her.

"Okay," Toph replied, and he settled down for a moment. "Three... on four plus Sokka."

He did say 'for a moment', after all.

Returning their attention to the actual threat, Toph quickly bent some small obstacles at the girls, but their lizards simply climbed over or around them without slowing at all. "Well, we wanted to find out who they were and we found out. Now let's get out of here!"

He and the others raced to leave, but for some reason the stubborn earthbender stayed back and bent a large wall to block them. Instead of climbing over, as Sokka expected, he instead heard the familiar sound of crackling lightning echoing before a section of the wall exploded, clearing a path for the three.

Toph simply stood there for a moment in shock before launching herself back towards Appa, dodging several throwing knives as she did so. As soon as she was onboard, they took off again, Azami blocking a few blasts the enemy bender sent at them.

Azami P.o.V.

"Appa fell asleep!"

Having fallen asleep herself after their last departure, those were not words Azami wanted to wake up to. Unfortunately, they proved true as she felt the uncomfortable sensation of weightlessness take over her body. The others were all desperately clinging onto the bison, but she was so exhausted she couldn't even grab hold of his saddle before the winds grabbed her, flinging her away from the bison.

In the distance, she heard someone screaming her name, but that did little to shake the panic she felt as the ground came rushing towards her. Knowing her odds of survival if she went back to sleep were less than zero, she forced herself awake, drawing on the risen sun's energy. 

Feeling a rush of power flow through her, she quickly tried to level herself and desperately blasted flames out of both her feet and her fists to slow her descent. It worked, somewhat - she did survive the fall. That was about all the good she could say about it, however.

On her way to the ground, she crashed into multiple pine trees, the needles scraping her face and arms, and she landed rather uncomfortably on one foot, definitely messing up her ankle in some capacity before the rest of her body collapsed in exhaustion.

Thankfully, like other firebenders - or, at least, other skilled firebenders - she was able to draw on the sun's energy to rejuvinate some of her strength, and she pulled herself up with a grunt of pain. Nothing seemed broken or too badly injured, by some miracle - but she was now stranded in the middle of nowhere. Great.

Alright, basics of survival one oh one. Find water.

Seemed easy enough - she could hear the running of water in the distance. Turns out, though, getting there was a lot harder, between the unpathed terrain and her irritated ankle. By the time the rushing river was within eyesight, the sun's position had shifted a considerable amount - by her estimate, it had taken her at least a solid hour. Not exactly ideal.

For now, though, she didn't really care, as she simply beelined straight towards it.

Once she got there, she knelt down in complete exhaustion, leaning over to take in a drink. From the water, she got two things - one, a clear, flowing drink that tasted like nothing, as expected, and two, a mouthful of fur, which she did not expect in the slightest. Gagging slightly, she spat the fur out beside her, rubbing her mouth in disgust.

Looking down at the fur, she was shocked to see that it was a very familiar white color. Similar almost to - Appa.

Of course - Appa's shedding. That's how those girls kept tracking them down, no matter where they went. Ironically, their knight in shining armor, their great steed, was actually the one giving them away.

Returning her gaze to the stream, she had a quick double take as more and more fur started flowing downstream until it started to take up a majority of the surface. Deciding to take it as a lead, she started to follow the stream upriver. Within minutes, the gaang was in her view - Aang and Katara busy giving the bison a bath, but Sokka and Toph were nowhere in sight.

The firebender slowly limped towards them, favoring her weak side slightly. "Hey guys!" she shouted, and the two waterbenders looked at her in shock.

"Azami!" Aang exclaimed happily. "We thought you, well..."

She smirked slightly as she came to a stop in front of them. "What? Died?"

"Well, yeah, kind of," Katara agreed. "Most people don't survive a two-hundred foot plummet straight into the ground."

Azami grinned as she pulled out a small blue flame in her palm. "Takes more than that to kill me, Kat. I thought you'd know that by no-"

Her next words were cut off as she was tackled into a hug from behind, two rather long arms wrapped around her, and she yelped in surprise as she lost her balance and collapsed on the ground. The other person's weight then immediately collapsed on top of her, knocking the wind out of her lungs.

"Get... off..." she wheezed out.

The person thankfully did get off rather quickly, and she rolled onto her back to see Sokka blushing slightly in embarrasment. "Sorry," he said sheepishly.

"Whatever," Azami muttered before looking up at Katara. "Could you do me a favor and work some of your magic water on my ankle? I think I twisted it when I fell." The waterbender immediately agreed and got to it, while Azami just looked around them in confusion. "Where's Toph?"

Everyone in the gaang then took on a rather guilty expression, and the realization hit her. "You guys lost her too?" she demanded. "Why are you so busy washing Appa when she could be-"

"We didn't lose her," Sokka interrupted, before sending a pointed glare at Aang and Katara.

The girl in question rubbed the back of her head nervously. "She, er, left. And before you ask why, we... well, Aang and I said some rather horrible stuff to her." Looking to the airbender for confirmation, he simply nodded slightly, and Azami sighed as she leaned her head back.

"Serves you right, then," she muttered. There was a reason she hadn't gotten involved in Katara's little fights with Toph earlier, and honestly she was glad she didn't have to see that disaster play out either. "So what's the plan, then? I assume you guys figured out Appa's shedding was the problem?"

Aang twirled his staff around a bit, and Azami only just noticed the pouch he'd put around himself. "Well, I was actually about to head off by myself," he explained. "We saw a nearby town that looks abandoned - and if we're going to have to fight, it seems as good a place as any. I'm gonna take a pouch of Appa's loose fur and lead at least one of them away while the rest of you escape on Appa."

"You mean, we are," Azami corrected as she pulled herself up, her ankle good as new. Before Aang could even try to protest, Azami held up a hand to silence him. "If you think I'm letting you run off by yourself without any help, you're an idiot. Do you remember what happened when these two got sick? I'm going with you."

The airbender simply sighed in response, recognizing her seriousness on the matter. "Fine," he grumbled. "Just follow below me, and try not to get too much fur on you."

Soon enough, after planning a little more, they'd set off, and Azami's head felt like it was being kicked in by an ostrich horse when they finally arrived at the abandoned town. The sun was already starting to set again, proving the insane amount of time she and the others had spent awake, running. Well, in truth, she had gotten a little more sleep than the others, but not much.

Following the trail of fur, she raced into the town, seeing Aang already sitting and meditating at the far end. Rather than say anything, she simply sat down a meditated, focusing on the power of the sun. It was the only thing still sustaining her - the second night fell, she'd be out like a light, whether she wanted to be or not.

Until then, however, she was ready to fight.

After nearly an hour of waiting, a small trail of dust started heading towards them. Preparing herself, Azami took a deep breath and continued to concentrate on the sun's energy. There was only one person heading towards them, and she was pretty sure she knew who it was. Azula wasn't going to make this fight easy, and Azami wanted it over as fast as possible.

Soon enough, Azula arrived in the town alone and dismounted her mongoose lizard, steadily approaching the two of them. Washing Appa's fur seemed to had been a last ditch effort, so it probably wasn't hard for the three girls to figure out they'd split up. And Azami knew that Azula wanted the two of them specifically. She felt Aang tense beside her, knowing that he too was ready to go out fighting.

"Alright, you've caught up with me," Aang stated bluntly as Azula stopped a short distance from them. "Now who are you, and what did you want?"

Oh wait. Did Azami actually forget to tell the others about them?

Oops.

"You mean you haven't guessed?" Azula mocked, still making no move to attack them. "Well, if my family resemblence to your friend there isn't good enough, perhaps this will help." She then proceeded to cover half her face with her hand, clearly mimicking Zuko as she deepened her voice. "I must find the Avatar to restore my honor."

Okay, Azami had to admit this girl had a sense of humor.

Apparently, Azula was on the same page as her as she continued. "It's okay, you can laugh. It's funny."

"So what now?" Aang snapped, his drowsiness having clearly shortened his temper.

"Now?" Azula wondered sarcastically. "Now, it's over. You're both tired, and you have no place to go. You can run, but I'll hunt you down."

The two of them stood, defiant. "We're not running," Azami spat as she readied herself to fight.

"Do you really want to fight me?" Azula smirked as she started approaching them slowly.

At that exact moment, an ostrich horse came barreling out of a side street, right into the middle of their standoff - and, much to Azami's surprise, Zuko jumped off of it before sending it away. "Yes," he announced dramatically. "I really do."

"I was wondering when you'd show up, Zu-zu," Azula grinned as she crossed her arms impatiently. Wow, that's way worse than anything Azulon or I came up with, Azami laughed. She couldn't help feeling the slightest bit of sympathy for Zuzu on that.

Okay, maybe she lied. Zuzu deserved it, after all.

Aang snickered. "Zuzu?"

"Back off, Azula!" Zuko yelled as he dropped into his stance. "They're mine."

Azula's smile widened as she too got ready to fight. "I'm not going anywhere."

Within moments, the four of them had formed a sort of three-way standoff, with Azami covering Aang behind her slightly. No one moved, just letting time tick by slowly as the tension continued to rise between them.

Zuko's gaze continued to flicker back and forth from Azula to her and Aang, while Azula remained still as a statue.

That is, until she smirked and sent a blast of blue flame straight at her brother, throwing him straight into a nearby house, and all hell broke loose.

Aang immediately used his glider to get on top of one of the houses, while Azami leaped towards the other princess and kicked two blasts straight at her. Azula dodged them both easily as she flipped forwards, a massive line of fire racing out of her foot and catching Aang mid-flight, who only had enough time to quickly swing his staff around and block the fire from reaching him.

Azami followed up quickly by dropping to the ground and sending out an arc of fire that raced towards Azula, who only barely had enough time to block it from burning her. Azula's expression then twisted into a scowl as she rose and summoned a massive amount of lightning around her, causing Azami to yelp in shock as she ducked under the blast sent straight where her head was. Instead, it slammed into the building directly behind her, which promptly exploded into rubble.

She knew that Ozai wanted her dead, but geez. Overkill much?

Rather than give Azula another chance to take her head off, she quickly created a flame in each hand and used them to rapidly close the distance between the two, while Azula recovered from casting the lightning at her. Soon enough, both blue firebenders had daggers made of flame in each hand, and were desperately trying to injure the other without much success.

Aside from Ty Lee, who was just on another level with her chi-blocking, it was the hardest Azami had ever had to fight. Despite being exhausted beyond belief, she continued to pull on the sun's energy and maintain a steady breathing pattern in order to preserve what little of her energy remained. Honestly, the fact that she was even holding her own against Azula was shocking to her.

For a while, the two were seemingly at a stalemate as they continued to blast away at one another, neither one actually managing to land any solid blows.

Eventually, Azula tried to break them up by kicking up with her leg to send a jet of flame straight into Azami's face, clearly desperate to get after Aang as well. It was easy enough for her to avoid it, and she quickly tripped Azula by kicking her remaining leg out and then knocking her straight into the ground with a burning fist to the face.

Azula's head smacked against the earth, and she appeared dazed, if only for a moment. "Stay down, kid," Azami muttered before racing off to find Aang, the trails of orange flame in a nearby alley making it a fairly easy endeavor.

Aang P.o.V.

As they'd planned, Aang tried to escape while Azami held off the two firebenders, but that wasn't so easy when he looked back and saw the massive wall of blue fire coming right at him. Panicking, he quickly flipped himself over and spun his staff around faster than he'd ever done before to dissipate the flames before they could reach him.

When his back hit the ground, it thankfully didn't hurt much, but it was still a little jarring nonetheless. Groaning in pain, as the fire had still managed to sear a few spots on his arms and legs, he soon heard a massive explosion from nearby, one very reminiscent of when Azami killed Zhao.

Quickly pulling himself back up, he saw the house behind Azami burning and destroyed, and the two firebenders... Aang just watched in awe at the speed the two fought. While he couldn't make out much between all the blue fire they were using, he could easily tell they were two fighters beyond anyone he'd seen before, including previous times he'd seen Azami fight.

He was soon jolted from his reverie, though, by a yell of anger and a bright orange flame heading straight towards him. Startled, Aang quickly used his airbending to leap above the flame, which passed right underneath him before he landed back down and saw Zuko racing towards him.

Instead of fighting, Aang decided to do what he'd spent years learning to do - use his surroundings. So, he instead started to sprint away from the fight, Zuko hot on his heels, and headed up a flight of stairs into the second story of a destroyed home. He summoned a small air scooter for himself and raced to the far side of the house - as the floor was kind of destroyed - but Zuko was a little less aware of what was happening and barreled straight in, only to fall to the ground with a painful grunt.

Unfortunately, the air scooter didn't last him very long, and within seconds he fell straight beside Zuko, though it was much less painful for him.

"Aang!" Azami's voice cried out from nearby, and he pulled himself up as fast as he could and raced out of the ruined building to find her looking for him.

Seeing that she was alone, he grinned, assuming they'd actually managed to win that easily. "Hey Azami," he waved cheerfully to her, and she just rolled her eyes as she headed towards him.

"I saw you were being chased by Zuko," she panted, clearly out of breath. "Are you oka-"

Before she could finish, she yelped in pain as a blast of blue fire suddenly struck her in the back, and she collapsed to the ground. Only a few dozen feet away, Aang could see the other blue firebender slowly approaching the two of them, a rather sadistic grin on her face.

"Run," Azami wheezed out, struggling to pull herself back up. "Aang, run!"

Without asking any questions, he did as he was told and started to race away from Azula. He headed for another side alley that would get him out, but before he could head down it a wall of blue flame erupted in front of him, blocking him off. Continuing to look for way out, he saw a gap between two buildings and started to leap from wall to wall as he climbed it.

As he reached the top, he couldn't quite pull himself up, but that didn't stop Azula from launching a slice of flame into the building's corner which broke off and forced Aang to jump further onto the building's roof. Again, he couldn't quite get a grip, and as Azula shot a second line of fire, he fell into the rubble of the building with several large planks trapping him.

Marching proudly into the room, Azula sent a line of fire in a ring along all the walls, boxing him in with no way out. Desperately, he pulled on the beams to try and get free, but it was proving helpless as Azula raised her arm to send another blast.

Just when he thought he was dead for sure, a water whip quickly wrapped itself around Azula's arm stopping her. As the firebender spun around in shock, the next water whip was sent at the beam stuck on Aang, breaking it. "Katara!" the airbender exclaimed excitedly as she and Azula raced out of the house.

Aang quickly pulled himself up, only to find Katara standing off against Azula. He quicly joined them, Azula sending a blast towards him which he promptly dodged as Katara attacked from behind. The firebender again dodged her attacks, kicking a line of fire towards her before whipping around and shooting yet another blast at Aang.

The two managed to get her back to an alley, and right as Azula smirked at them, she was thrown off of her footing by the earth shifting slightly. As the firebender fell, it revealed a small earthbending girl behind her. "I thought you guys could use a little help," Toph grinned.

"Thanks," Katara smiled back. Azula was less pleased, continuing to backpedal and fire blasts while the three benders pressed onwards. After a moment, the firebender was forced to race down a side alley to escape, where she was soon met by Iroh, running face first into his large stomach. She bounced back in surprise, ending up cornered as Aang, Katara, Toph, Zuko and Iroh all faced her down.

Azula's smirk returned as she looked around almost lazily. "Well, look at this. Enemies and traitors all working together. I'm done." She raised her hands in a gesture of surrender, but Aang wasn't buying it. Not after what she'd pulled both today and back with Bumi. "I know when I'm beaten. You got me. A princess surrenders with honor."

None of the benders seemed to believe her, and rightfully so - only a moment later, Azula sent a quick blast towards Iroh, who spun wildly as he cried out in pain. The four remaining benders all sent their element towards Azula, who easily blocked them all with a ball of fire she summoned around herself, which exploded immediately after, allowing her to escape.

Sokka P.o.V.

As he and Katara both raced towards the burning town, Sokka couldn't help the gut feeling that things weren't going to be all that great when they arrived. And, he was soon proven right.

When they eventually tracked down the others, the two siblings saw Azula racing off after Aang while Azami lay groaning on the ground nearby. "You go help Aang," Sokka instructed to his sister, and thankfully she didn't even say anything back before racing off after the two benders.

Meanwhile, Sokka headed over to Azami and kneeled down beside her, taking in the damage that had been done. It didn't seem anywhere near as bad as her am, thankfully, but her back was still blistering pretty badly with some mild burns. Leaning down, he placed a soft hand on her shoulder and shook her gently to see if she was awake. "Hey," he whispered out gently, ignoring the shouts from nearby. "You doing okay?"

Azami groaned as she shifted slightly, aggravating the wound. "I'm fine," she forced out before slowly pulling herself up.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Sokka asked nervously, not wanting her to hurt herself anymore than she already was. She didn't respond to him, instead just focusing on steadying herself. "Do you need-"

"I said I'm fine," she snapped, before sighing in defeat as she sagged against the building next to her. Reluctantly, he could tell, she nodded, lifting her arm towards him, which he tentatively wrapped around his shoulders as he helped her slowly lean on him. It was obvious that she was biting down several different curses as he did so, but he wasn't going to comment on it. Instead, he simply let her lean most of her weight on him as they slowly made their way towards the sounds of the others.

"Knife girl and Ty Lee?" she questioned, her voice strained from the effort of walking while tired and injured.

Sokka nodded as they continued onwards. "Taken care of. For now, at least. You can thank Appa for that."

Azami smiled softly but didn't reply as they continued onwards. After a few more moments, a massive explosion resounded from nearby, and it they headed towards it, albeit slowly.

When they were finally getting close, they just saw Aang, Katara and Toph heading back towards them, their expressions downcast. "What happened to you guys?" Sokka wondered as he and Azami stopped.

"Azula got away," Katara explained. "Also... Iroh got injured, and Zuko wouldn't let me help."

Azami frowned, clearly unhappy about that. "Will he be okay?"

"Probably, if Zuko can bandage him up properly," the waterbender replied. "I just can't stand doing nothing when I know I could help." She shook her head before heading around to Azami's back. "Speaking of which, let me help you with this."

She pulled out some of her water, which began to glow as she held it in her hand. Moments later it touched Azami's back, and the firebender let out a sigh of relief as the skin healed. It was surprisingly quick, actually, and only a few seconds later Katara pulled back, leaving Azami's skin completely unharmed.

It was only at that moment that Sokka realized almost her entire back was exposed, and he quickly looked away, blushing slightly at the thoughts that started racing through his mind. Azami seemingly had similar thoughts too as she quickly lowered her arm off Sokka's shoulder and took a few steps away from him, hugging her body slightly.

"Thanks, Kat," she muttered out, before turning to Aang. "Come on, let's get out of here."

Sokka couldn't agree more as the gaang all loaded up onto Appa and left the burning village behind. And when they set up camp only a few hours later, he immediately found the nearest patch of grass and threw himself into it, falling straight to sleep.

A/N; Okay, I know this is harsh, but personally my response to Katara's commet about the stars is usually something along the lines of "you're right, katara. too bad your mother can't see them."

Harsh? Yeah, probably. Does she deserve it? I'll let you guys decide.

Aside from that - insert standard 'hope you enjoyed blah blah blah'. I don't even know why I keep writing that in tbh. I think it's a given that I hope you guys like these chapters.

Nah, jk. My job as author is to make you all SUFFERRRRRRR.

:)