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Chapter Text

Excerpt from Dissertation #40,076, Professor Lon'qu, Ba Sing Se University, 71 AU, Year of the Sheep

Looking back on it, it is difficult to ascertain the exact cause of the Hundred Years War. Depending on who you ask, the bloodiest conflict in recent human history was waged for a variety of different reasons. Many refer to it as the Unification War, yet few ignore its other moniker, The Infernal Scourge. Seventy-one years after the conclusion of this great conflict, we are now at liberty to ask: what was the true purpose of the Fire Nation's desire for conquest? Unfortunately, while the memories have yet to be lost to time, the secretive nature of the war's perpetrator, Fire Lord Sozin, makes any definitive answer impossible. Speculation is the best we can manage.

On the other hand, records do exist, making our speculation far more credible. A detailed exploration of Fire Nation census records following the hundred years prior to the War reveals that the aggressor nation experienced remarkable growth of its population during this time: so remarkable that it was soon pushing the limits that the island country could sustain. One could assume then, that the Hundred Years War was nothing special at all, but simply an attempt by a burgeoning nation to claim more territory for its swiftly growing numbers. And yet, while this could have very well been a motivating factor in the initial stages of the war, the Fire Nation met that goal well within two decades, claiming more than enough land from the Earth Kingdom to support their new growth, casualties notwithstanding.

Why then, did the war continue on for another eighty years? Clearly territorial expansion was not the only reason the Fire Nation descended on the world at large. Was it honor? Anyone that has spoken to a native of the volcanic isles for more than a few minutes will tell you that the Fire Nation's culture reveres honor, courage, and glory to the extent that those values may as well be their gods. Did they continue the war for the sole reason of gaining glory and honor on the field of battle? Was the objective of conquering the world supposed to be nothing more than a monument to their own strength?

Some of my fellow researchers seem to believe this, yet I cannot say the same. The University possesses many remnants of war propaganda from the conflict's main combatants: a quick glance at Fire Nation material will prove that their ideals of honor and glory were only marginally relevant to their cause at best.

Another theory is that the Fire Nation's imperial engine also had some underlying altruistic motives, though many of the ones who believe that attribute it more to a feeling of superiority than generosity. There is no denying that, just prior to the War and all throughout it, the Fire Nation enjoyed a significantly higher quality of living than their fellow countries. Aside from the brief population crisis that was quickly nipped in the bud due to the War, records indicate that poverty, homelessness, and illness were remarkably low in the island nation, a stark contrast to the Earth Kingdom's admittedly appalling overall state at the time. This is to say nothing of their great technological gains, far overshadowing all of the other nations of the world.

These factors lead some of my colleagues to believe that the War was little more than misguided pity and arrogance on the Fire Nation's part: that the Fire Lord felt obligated to raise the backwards, inferior civilizations of the world to the standard of his own country. I won't go so far as to say this isn't true at all. Many of our most prosperous cities today are Earth Kingdom towns that had been converted to Fire Nation colonies during the War. There's no denying that the Fire Nation did indeed raise the standard of living for many of the territories they conquered. I find it hard to believe they would dedicate time, resources, and manpower to the improvement of conquered Earth Kingdom land if such a thing had not been part of their plan from the beginning, though it is quite possible the Fire Nation only made these investments because those conquered lands were now theirs, and their rampant problems had become their own.

The final most common academic theory is that the Fire Nation was simply governed by a megalomaniac that wanted to make the entire world his property. After all, even the natives of the island do not deny that the genocide of the Old Air Nomads was an outright atrocity their country still atones for today. Maybe Sozin was simply an evil man that intended to wipe away all other cultures and peoples. However, I believe this theory is far too flawed to take seriously; following the initial genocide of the Old Air Nomads, the Fire Nation never again attempted anything similar on other cultures. We have irrefutable proof that Fire Nation prisoners of war were rarely executed, and indeed, the aggressors established governance over many Earth Kingdom citizens, though both of these phenomena were certainly not a result of mercy. The notion that they were simply waiting for Sozin's Comet to kill everyone at once is asinine; the comet wouldn't have been present long enough to even get close to such a goal. If genocide of all other races had been the intent, clearly the Fire Nation would have been systematically killing off their opposition throughout the course of the war.

I've made it quite clear that I don't fully agree with any of these theories on the nature of the Hundred Years War. I believe they may have all had some part in it, but I would like to present a new theory; liberating humanity from the chains of the spirit world. A very idealistic notion, I grant you, but one I believe may have been the true overarching cause of the Fire Nation in their global conquest. It only makes sense to me: prior to the Hundred Years War, the four nations of the world were kept in relative stasis by a very powerful spirit, the Avatar. It's also an established fact that Avatar Aang, primary opposition of the Fire Nation during the closing days of the War, narrowly escaped death during the genocide a hundred years prior.

It stands to reason that the main reason the Fire Nation was so ruthless to the Old Air Nomads is because they were absolutely determined to destroy the Avatar once and for all. Now, perhaps this was merely an attempt to eliminate a powerful and nearly guaranteed foe, but I believe it goes deeper than that. My evidence for this dissertation is a bit unorthodox; an autobiography written by a common soldier in the Fire Nation during the War's end. This record of events was unmarked and clearly untouched in the darkest corners of our University's library, and I count myself lucky to have stumbled upon it during my research. Admittedly, it is difficult to take everything in this tale at face value, for much of it is truly extraordinary. And yet, I find it fills so many gaps in our understanding of the war, of the maneuvers that took place behind the scenes, that I've yet to come across anything that contradicts the events we know to be true.

I apologize for the lengthy introduction, but I felt it was necessary to introduce my theory and this gem of knowledge I have so miraculously stumbled upon. I hope all of you on the University Educational Committee Board can appreciate the revealed mysteries this soldier's tale provides, and maybe, even consider an entirely new perspective on the Unification War.

Nearly a full century after Firelord Sozin declared war on the world, the penultimate cause for which the Fire Nation fought was lost to many of those that engaged in battle. A select few remembered the grand cause their nation truly pursued: soldiers whose fathers had been soldiers, whose grandfathers and great grandfathers had been soldiers. Families with military lineages like these remembered their purpose, because one of their ancestors had been there when Sozin had sent them on their noble mission. Those soldiers passed down their quest to their sons, who likewise did it for theirs. Only a small portion of the Fire Nation's people still remembered that this war was about more than just conquest.

One such soldier was Corporal Xisheng, great great grandson of Weisheng, who had been a member of one of the very first battalions to be deployed on Earth Kingdom soil. Once a member of the 12th Guard Division, he had been pulled from the Defensive Line in the Earth Kingdom to serve in the massive armada Admiral Zhao had put together for the North Pole invasion. It was an odd duty station for an Army Firebender that had no experience on ships aside from the initial ride from his homeland to the Earth Kingdom, but he found that the Navy life wasn't so bad, at least in the short term. He had no doubt riding one of these metal letter openers for more than a few months would quickly lose all novelty.

"Xisheng, our shift is about to start."

Responding to the call to duty from his fellow Fire Nation native, Xisheng quickly concealed his features behind the standard skull patterned helmet of a Firebending soldier, turning to face his comrade at the door of the armory, equipped in a similar fashion. Today, it was their turn to guard Admiral Zhao and his consultant for the siege, General Iroh. While it was difficult to imagine there being any threat to the two men, today of all days was the one were they needed to be on their guard. In but a few hours they would be on the Northern Water Tribe's doorstep. If there was going to be any danger, it would be today.

With that in mind, Xisheng simply nodded to his partner for the day and followed her out of the armory. The inclusion of women in the active military was more or less unique to the Fire Nation: just one of their many ideals they aimed to spread to the rest of the world, if only they could wrap up this war and begin with the evolution of global society.

The fact that the war had dragged on for over a hundred years was frustrating for any member of Fire Nation society, but it was downright infuriating for people like Xisheng that still remembered they were fighting for something more than military victory. Even worse was the fact that the only places that still needed to be conquered were the capitals of their opposition. The few Earth Kingdom cities that had escaped occupation thus far were either of little consequence or could be taken at any time. Aside from the North Pole, Ba Sing Se was the only real challenge still remaining thanks to its sheer size and defensive scope. Still, Xisheng had little doubt that their invulnerability wouldn't last much longer. If the Fire Nation's newest weapons couldn't bring down the walls, Sozin's Comet would handle the problem before the year's end.

Of course, even that once guaranteed outcome was now in question. After the officially 'unintentional' tragedy that was the Air Nomad genocide, the circumstances of which had been lost to nearly everyone by now, no one was sure what had become of the Avatar. He had seemingly dropped off the face of the Earth, and had never been reincarnated into the other nations. Or, if he had, he had literally done absolutely nothing to oppose the Fire Nation since the war began. But now, the Avatar had returned, and according to reports, he was nothing other than a young Airbender child, roughly the age the Avatar was supposed to be back when Sozin had first searched for him. And of course, considering the fact that the Airbenders had been essentially wiped out as far as anyone knew, it was impossible for the Avatar to have simply gone through the entire cycle and been born into the Air Nomads once again. Somehow, someway, this was the same Avatar that had lived a hundred years ago, and he had not aged a day.

How this was possible was a complete mystery to Xisheng, but honestly it was above his pay grade. Whatever the specific details about the Avatar were, the fact remained that he was quite likely the only person capable of turning the tide of the war at this late stage of the conflict. In fact, the only reason the Fire Nation was launching a massive attack on the North Pole was because they knew the Avatar was there, and they could quite possibly kill two birds with one stone if they could take the city and simultaneously destroy him.

That said, Xisheng did not think it was the absolute best plan. While it was difficult to pinpoint the Avatar's location while he was on the move, surely the best time to strike at the powerful bender was not when he was secluded away in a heavily fortified capital. But Xisheng was just an enlisted soldier, and it was not his job to question the tactics of his superiors. Not that it stopped him from doing so quietly as he walked down the steel halls of the Inferno super battleship Admiral Zhao had claimed for his own.

Apparently his brooding was obvious even under his helmet, as his comrade questioned his peculiar behavior. "You seem on edge."

"Can you blame me?"

"Come on, nothing is going to come at the Admiral out here..."

"The Admiral's safety isn't what's bothering me."

"Then what's the problem?"

Xisheng glanced over at his fellow soldier as he walked. Aside from the difference in physique it was like looking into a mirror. The purpose of uniforms, he supposed.

"We're about to assault the largest group of Waterbenders in the world, who live in a fortress city made of ice that rests atop an ocean, with ships that must sail on that ocean. Never mind the fact that we're only a night or two away from a full moon, which is the absolute worst time to be attacking the aforementioned target. The Admiral's lust for glory and fame is going to get this armada obliterated."

The woman beside him shrugged. "Well when you put it like that, it does sound like a terrible idea. But we have to attack the Water Tribe sometime and those advantages for them aren't going to just disappear."

"The least we could do is wait until the full moon passes so we can avoid fighting the Waterbenders at their maximum power. Especially since there's no doubt in my mind that Admiral Zhao will launch a land invasion."

"You don't think we should?"

"We have a massive fleet of warships with siege weapons that can hit the city from far out of bending range. The most reasonable tactic is to simply bombard them into submission from a safe distance. Considering the massive expanse of open water between our fleet and their walls, we'd be able to spot any advancing boats long before they reached us. If we just stayed out of range and used our artillery we'd be nigh on invincible."

"We can't make sure we get the Avatar if we don't deploy though..."

Xisheng spread his arms into the air as he walked, signalling his confusion with that sentiment.

"So? The Avatar isn't going anywhere anytime soon. We could still bombard the city first and then go in after him. And even if he fled before we were ready to deploy, it would be impossible to miss him flying away from the city. We have enough ships that we could easily divert part of the armada to pursue him. I'm telling you, someone in command is going to mess this up, and we're going to lose a lot of people. Honestly, I don't even know how Zhao got promoted. Last time I checked he accomplished nothing to warrant the advancement to Admiral. I don't trust his judgment."

"General Iroh is consulting for him. He'll make sure we do this right."

"Oh please, the Dragon of the West? You mean the general that retreated from Ba Sing Se after we finally breached the wall? If not for his cowardice, we could have captured Ba Sing Se by now."

"Come on Xisheng, that's not fair. He didn't have enough troops to take the whole city after the battle at the outer wall."

Xisheng jabbed an accusatory finger at his comrade, as if she were the General himself. "He didn't have to press forward. After breaching the outer wall, all he needed to do was establish a foothold and wait for reinforcements. The Fire Lord would have redeployed plenty of troops if he had known the outer wall was down and we had gotten past the most resilient of the city's defenses. But instead, the General retreated after finally accomplishing the objective, making the sacrifice of every single soldier who died to breach that wall completely and absolutely worthless. We lost thousands of men and women attacking that wall, and they all died for nothing because the General could only accept the casualties until his son was one of them."

His fellow Firebender leveled an incredulous gaze at Xisheng, not that it was obvious behind the mask. "You can't be serious. You're condemning the man for being torn up about the death of his son?"

"I'm just saying, he certainly had no problem with the deaths of thousands of other people's sons and daughters. He was more than willing to sacrifice those lives. Excuse me if the death of his son doesn't evoke any sympathy after he wasted all of those sacrifices his troops made to breach that wall."

With no real retort to that, Xisheng's partner simply shook her head, trying her best to ignore the very good points she had been presented with. Honestly she would rather walk in silence at this point.

Considering the size of the ship, it took several minutes for the two Firebender guards to reach the bridge. When they arrived, they found Admiral Zhao boasting about his plans to General Iroh, with the morning sun just beginning to peak over the horizon.

"I have a plan for dealing with the moon, General Iroh. Trust me, by nightfall tomorrow the Northern Water Tribe will be no more."

Xisheng could tell by the look on Iroh's face that he wasn't nearly as happy about this statement as Zhao was, but the old man said nothing, providing time for the two guardsmen to announce their presence.

"Admiral."

Zhao looked over his shoulder to glance at the two bowing Firebenders. "What is it, soldier?"

"We're here to guard you and the General, sir. Just in case."

The man with the ridiculous sideburns scoffed. "I fail to see how two Firebenders below my skill could protect me, but I suppose it is what you are being paid for."

With that, Zhao turned away from the faceless soldiers, leaving Iroh to bow to them instead. "Your efforts are appreciated. I for one feel much more comfortable with someone watching my back."

Despite Xisheng's dislike for General Iroh, he had to admit that the man was polite. He could at least credit him for that, though Zhao clearly did not do the same. "Please. You talk as though those Water savages will somehow pose a threat to us."

"Do not underestimate the determination of a desperate people Zhao. From now on, we are on their turf. They will have the advantage, we must not underestimate them."

The female soldier next to Xisheng nudged him with her shoulder while nodding towards Iroh, likely trying to tell him that the old man wasn't nearly as bad as Xisheng made him out to be. Xisheng for one didn't think spouting common sense was reason enough to restore some faith in the retired general, but he certainly couldn't say that out loud.

With the formalities out of the way, Xisheng and his fellow guard began their duties in earnest. Unfortunately, this meant that they did absolutely nothing for several hours. After all, the fleet had still been quite far from their destination. At some point Zhao and his advisor decided to stand on the deck outside the bridge, but all that did was provide a never ending sea of blue to appreciate. Eventually there were some icebergs to look at, but that was hardly anything exciting. The temperature began to drop exponentially the closer they got to their target, but this was no danger to Firebenders that could warm themselves. Xisheng felt bad for the regular soldiers honestly.

The only other thing to do on guard duty was listen to Zhao's incessant boasting about his exploits or ambitions. It was this kind of thing that made Xisheng feel that guards deserved a pay raise. Did command have any idea how maddening it was to listen to the rants of men like these? The fact that such men were put in high command sometimes made Xisheng wonder if they had completely lost sight of their cause. Zhao wanted nothing more than to destroy the Water Tribe, but the purpose of the war called for assimilating them into more advanced society, not wipe them out. The Air Nomads had already been the first mistake, and they weren't supposed to be repeating it. The world Fire Lord Sozin had envisioned did not include the Fire Nation being the only people standing.

Thoughts like these were the only thing a guard could occupy themselves with as the long hours of their duty stretched on. Thankfully, Xisheng was the kind of person who could get lost in thought very easily, and the several hours he stood behind Zhao seemed to pass more quickly than they truly did. On the other hand, this meant he had zoned out for the entire approach to the Northern Water Tribe, and by the time they reached the place he had not spent any time psyching himself up for the battle.

Of course, it wasn't like he was a stranger to combat. The 12th Guard Division had been responsible for holding the line against Earth Kingdom incursions into acquired Fire Nation territory, providing all of its members with plenty of experience. Xisheng had fought and killed Earthbenders before and narrowly escaped death more than once. Still, he had never fought a Waterbender before, and he was slightly concerned about the imminent battle with their direct counterparts.

Even so, as Xisheng glanced up at the sky, he realized that the Navy completely lacked the element of surprise. No one could have missed the giant cloud of smog that signaled the approach of a fleet this size. The Waterbenders being ready for them simply added another disadvantage to the Fire Nation offensive.

That said, Xisheng was rather unimpressed with the sight of the Northern Water Tribe when they reached it. What could be seen of the city was certainly majestic and impressive, but the problem was that any of it could be seen in the first place. The walls protecting the place were too short to thwart a bombardment. The Fire Nation's munitions would sail over them with ease.

Soon enough the entire Fire Nation fleet was holding its position outside the city, dotting the blue sea with over one hundred ships. Most were cruisers and frigates, but almost a fourth were Hell-storm Class Battleships. Without a doubt, this was the largest and most formidable fleet the Fire Nation had ever assembled in one place.

That said, one would think the best tactic would simply be to attack in full force right from the start, but Zhao's first order was unfortunately nothing of the sort.

"Well, I see no reason to rush in blindly. Who knows what kind of dirty tricks those savages might have ready for us? Send out one of the cruisers from the vanguard, have it approach the city."

While the side of caution was usually advisable in any conflict, Xisheng did not see this as a very smart move. Zhao was sending out one ship by itself in plain view of the enemy. That was hardly a scout. In fact, it was pretty much just sending it out to die. Truthfully Xisheng despised men that employed these useless tactics.

Xisheng's distaste for the maneuver was justified when the Avatar flew out on his strange beast to engage the ship following its one launched projectile. It was impossible to tell how the fight was progressing from the distance Zhao's ship was at, but it only took a few minutes for the metal ship to be lifted out of the water by pillars of ice, courtesy of Waterbenders on several smaller vessels. Xisheng took the unnecessary loss of an entire cruiser as a stain on Zhao's strategic ability.

With that lead cruiser disabled, the Avatar was quick to rejoin his flying steak and approach other ships further back in the fleet. He had almost no opposition other than the deck crews on two other ships as he disabled all of their weaponry.

It didn't seem like Zhao had any intention of doing something to fix this situation, instead focusing on the bombardment that the Waterbenders were actually attempting to intercept at this point. Glancing down at the deck of the capital ship he stood guard on, Xisheng saw that there were barely any defenders should the Avatar come after them. They could be disabled just as easily as the other ships were.

That said, it wasn't Xisheng's place to give tactical advice to people above his station, but Zhao clearly wasn't fit to make these decisions himself and Iroh, his military consultant, was not properly advising him instead. And while speaking out to a superior officer regarding tactics could very easily get Xisheng demoted or worse, the longer he held his tongue the more of his comrades could die. With that in mind, he spoke up from behind his superior officers even as he bowed to show that he meant no disrespect: even though he did not really respect these men at all.

"Admiral, perhaps we should station some archers and Firebenders on the decks of our ships? It could at least ward off the Avatar..."

The first thing Zhao did was cock an eyebrow at him. Never in his military career had a grunt offered him tactical advice. And while he was not necessarily outraged by this input, he was still slightly offended. Before he could say anything however, Iroh responded instead.

"The Avatar is a powerful Airbender. Arrows and average flames are all but useless against him."

That Iroh, a famous general who was supposed to be a tactical genius, was opposing an idea that was beneficial to their forces, struck Xisheng as very, very wrong. Anyone with tactical experience in commanding armies knew what Xisheng had suggested was the best course of action. It was impossible for Iroh to not know it as well.

"With all due respect General Iroh, the Avatar can only deflect what he knows is coming. One attack he doesn't see is enough to kill or wound him. We'd still be better off attempting to shoot him down instead of waiting for him to jump from ship to ship destroying all of our weapons."

The Dragon of the West frowned at the soldier behind him, but Zhao actually smirked. "The soldier makes a fair point, General. In fact, I find it strange that he suggested this before you did. Surely you aren't that old already?"

Iroh simply scowled for a brief moment before schooling his expression into something more passive. From Xisheng's point of view, it almost seemed like the retired General didn't want them to do their best to attack the Avatar. Probably just assumptions on his part, but it still seemed suspicious.

Either way, Zhao quickly ordered the troops on his own ship to take up defensive positions against the Avatar's aerial assault, and he wasted no time in signalling the other ships to do the same, though it took them some time to interpret and follow through with the orders. Soon enough the sky was filled with scores of arrows or blasts of fire whenever the Avatar drew near, and though the young boy did deflect or dodge practically everything that came his way, he was now so busy defending himself that he didn't have much time to actually attack.

That said, Xisheng's tactic had paid off very well, and even Zhao, hotheaded as he was, could see that. "Well Iroh, it looks the soldier was right. Are you being outsmarted by a common grunt?"

The retired general said nothing, instead looking to the skies as the Avatar retreated from the front-line to escape the significant danger to himself and his bison. With the Avatar off the field for the moment, the few Water Tribe boats that had sailed out from their city quickly retreated before they could be blasted to timber by the trebuchets of the Fire Nation.

That being the case, the Fire Nation armada was free to continue their bombardment throughout the day, blasting away at the ice wall that the Waterbenders kept trying to repair and doing who knew how much damage to the inside of the city. Unfortunately, it was a rather droll experience, since it wasn't a battle so much as an attack on an enemy that failed to resist. Xisheng had nothing to do but watch the sulfur bombs raining on the city for hours on end, and the only time when that became interesting was when a particularly well-aimed bomb smashed into something showy and created a nice explosion for everyone to cheer over.

Xisheng honestly wished he could simply rest. Take a nap or something. But until Admiral Zhao and General Iroh retired for the night, it was his duty to guard them. Thankfully, dusk began to fall soon enough, with a nearly full moon rising over the horizon. It was as Xisheng had feared: with the full moon in effect, the enemy Waterbenders would be at their strongest. Still, even though he realized this, he was surprised to hear the advice Iroh offered to the commander of this siege.

"It's a full moon tonight Admiral Zhao. The Waterbenders will be stronger than ever. We should stop the bombardment for now and resume in the morning. Besides, our men need their rest."

To Xisheng's chagrin, Zhao looked completely ready to agree with his advisor. But it was such terrible advice. Even a common soldier like Xisheng could see that. Why would the strategically renowned Dragon of the West suggest such a thing? Even so, Xisheng didn't think it was a great idea for him to counter the General's advice, at least not for his personal career. But the General's tactics could potentially cost the Navy hundreds of lives. Didn't he have a duty to prevent that from happening?

With that in mind, Xisheng bowed as low as he could go, prompting a concerned look from his female counterpart that probably knew what he was about to do. "Forgive me Admiral..."

Zhao and Iroh both turned to face him, though the Admiral seemed slightly willing to indulge the trooper after his earlier success. "You find some issue with the General's tactic, soldier?"

"I mean no disrespect to the General, but I believe we should continue the bombardment throughout the night."

Zhao cocked an eyebrow at him. "What part of 'they are at their strongest during a full moon' did you not understand?"

Xisheng kept his gaze glued to the steel floor of the ship even as he explained his reasons. "The strength of the enemy in direct combat is irrelevant at this stage of the siege, sir. We won't be fighting them directly, so we'll be in no danger even if we continue to bombard them."

"With the full moon in effect they'll have no problem stopping almost all of our bombs from causing any damage. It's pointless."

"Sir, even if they stop every bomb with ease, they'll still have to stay awake all night to do it. We can weaken the enemy's forces before the land invasion if they're exhausted from a night of bombardment."

If Xisheng had looked up, he may have noticed Iroh glaring at him ever so subtly, even as the old man tried to refute the common soldier's suggestion. "The same will apply for our soldiers. They will be tired too if they must stay up all night, and the trebuchet crews have been working all day as it is."

Not for the first time, Xisheng was somewhat suspicious of Iroh's reasoning. It didn't take a genius to see that he wasn't making the best calls as a military advisor. But why? It was almost like he didn't want the Fire Nation to win.

"Operating the trebuchets is very simple, sir. We can let the gunnery crews rest and train another group of soldiers to use them in ten minutes or less. Crew rotation throughout the night will fatigue the enemy and give our troops an advantage during the land invasion."

Admiral Zhao cocked an eyebrow at the masked soldier before him, but he smirked as well. "Seems to me like you would have been better off becoming an officer than a common grunt, soldier. You make a fair point across the board. We'll continue the bombardment overnight."

Xisheng noticed that General Iroh was glaring daggers at him, but decided to resolutely ignore it as the burning glow of more bombs illuminated the night sky. At this point the spectacle became a lot more entertaining, if only because it looked a lot more like fireworks. Thankfully the troops didn't need their commanders to tell them what to do during the night, so the two men commanding the siege retired soon after Zhao gave his standing orders to continue the bombardment. This meant that Xisheng and his comrade could retire as well, a welcome relief after standing literally all day.

The sound of the trebuchets launching could be heard through the hull of the ship pretty clearly, but rather than keep him awake, it would actually help Xisheng sleep. It was comforting to know that he had improved their odds against the enemy, and without endangering his own career. Maybe he really should have become an officer.

As he removed his gear for the night, Xisheng couldn't help but glance in the mirror the barracks had for ensuring one's uniform was presentable. He made a habit of appreciating what he had before every potential battle, just in case he returned from it with some gruesome deformity. Unfortunately, he didn't have too terribly much to appreciate. Like the majority of Fire Nation natives, jet black hair covered the top of his head. It was definitely outside of military regulations, what with the somewhat shaggy strands that stopped just above his eyebrows. The military only supported long hair if it was in some sort of 'respectable' hairdo. But being a Firebender, Xisheng wore a masked helmet around all of his superiors, and none of his comrades were petty enough to report him.

On the other hand, being born in the colonies where mixing between Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom citizens was common, his genes had forsaken the common amber color of the Fire Nation for a peculiar set of eyes that constantly earned him looks of curiosity from his fellow soldiers.

Heterochromia was pretty rare the world over. Because the four nations had always been so inclusive, the dominant traits in each nation had almost been continuously perpetuated. More then three fourths of the Fire Nation had black hair and amber eyes of various shades. The Earth Kingdom was similar, but with green eyes. Blue eyes were almost strictly found in the Water Tribes, and the Air Nomads, when they had been around, rarely had eyes that were any color besides brown or stone gray.

Xisheng was one of the very, very few people who genetically laughed in the face of these dividing lines. His complete heterochromia had not only made his eyes one unusual color, but two. This wasn't all that surprising considering that his mother had carried this rare mutation as well, but every time Xisheng looked in a mirror and saw his pair of blue and green eyes, he always wondered where the blue had come from. With a Fire Nation father and an Earth Kingdom mother, the blue had seemingly come out of nowhere.

Of course, he supposed it was some facet of genetics that was yet to be understood. The Fire Nation had begun investigating genetics very, very recently. A lot of research was being conducted on similar traits between parents and children, but this early in the research very little was understood. All anyone really knew right now was that nine times out of ten, children acquired the aesthetic traits of their parents. One time out of ten they would have some trait that neither of their parents had, and that was still confusing the scientific community.

Despite their lack of understanding on the matter, Xisheng always often found the vast difference between nations in regards to science telling. While the Fire Nation was constantly working towards the advancement of medicine, culture, and technology, the rest of the world may as well have been studying dirt. The Earth Kingdom probably didn't research anything other than how to throw even bigger rocks at people, and the Water Tribes were probably trying to develop a better way to catch seals or something. It was almost laughable really.

But Xisheng never laughed at the notion because he, unlike many of the Fire Nation supremacists that made up the military these days, knew that conquering these nations was not the end, but mere means to an end. Other soldiers laughed and scoffed and called their enemies savages or fools, but the few that knew of their true noble cause looked on the enemy not with disdain, but with determination. Determination to usher them into a new age of human ingenuity and potential, rather than a world stratified and held back by inhuman forces.

Many soldiers, knowingly or not, had given their lives for this objective. As for Xisheng, he knew that no one wanted to die without a righteous cause. He knew better than anyone that the people they fought to save would not appreciate their efforts for years after the war, likely decades. But when the starving were fed, the homeless sheltered, and the sick cured of their illnesses thanks to the enlightenment of the Fire Nation, they would see that they had been blessed by foreign dominion, not cursed.

These were the kinds of thoughts that ensured Xisheng slept soundly at night, and tonight was no exception, even with a potentially hazardous land invasion the very next morning.

The sounds of battle drums and war horns in the early morning awoke Xisheng from a peaceful slumber. They weren't the most welcome sounds to wake up to, but they were certainly familiar. While stationed in the Earth Kingdom, he had been awoken by similar instruments many times to fight off a push into their lines.

That said, Xisheng was used to fighting battles with less sleep than was probably healthy, so doing so now was not what bothered him. No, what irked him was that the war drums wouldn't be in use unless they were about to mount a ground assault. As he had anticipated, Zhao was so eager to prove that he was some sort of legend that he couldn't stand waiting for more than a day of bombardment before initiating an assault. The fleet literally had thousands of sulfur bombs in their arsenal. They could have bombarded the Northern Water Tribe for days, probably for a whole week and then some. They had enough bombs to probably turn the entire city into a mound of icy rubble, but that wouldn't be nearly as glorious as a land assault spearheaded by the Admiral himself.

So, as usual, hundreds of men and women would probably die today to satisfy the ego of their commander. It was hardly anything new: years ago some general in the Earth Kingdom theater had planned to use a battalion of completely new recruits for some sort of suicide operation. Rumor was that the now banished prince had objected to the strategy, something that would have boosted him to the height of respect and admiration in the military had he not turned his back on his own words as soon as they were challenged.

Having not even been in the military at the time, Xisheng had of course not been present for the Agni Kai in which Prince Zuko was to defend what he believed in. But word had spread around the Fire Nation quite quickly: the moment Zuko was faced with a fight he did not believe he could win, he crumbled. Suddenly the lives of those recruits didn't matter as much as his own safety, and that brought more shame and dishonor to the boy than literally anything else could have. The civilian population of the country didn't care nearly as much as the military one did, and very few common soldiers still looked on the Prince with any fondness after he made it so abundantly clear that their lives weren't worth defending when the odds were stacked against him.

As for Xisheng, he cut the banished prince some slack. He had been fairly young at the time, and being thrust into combat against the Fire Lord himself would be shocking for anyone. But Zuko had been foolish. He didn't have to win against his father. No one expected that of him, and it wasn't the point. The point was that he would be willing to fight against someone so much more powerful than him not just for his own convictions, but for the people of his nation. When he had essentially surrendered to his foe, he had betrayed both himself and the soldiers who trusted him. How could someone unwilling to fight for their people against impossible odds ever hope to be Fire Lord?

That said, Zuko had been horribly dishonored that day. The Fire Lord had really banished him for his own good more than anything else. If Zuko had stayed in the Fire Nation all these years, everyone would have been reminded of his disgrace whenever they saw him. By keeping him out of the public eye, the Fire Lord had at least made sure that the upper echelon of Fire Nation society would more or less forget about the incident. As for finding the Avatar, while it was a long shot, it was one of the only things the banished prince could do to erase his mistake. After all, great follies required great reparations. Besides, it was the only thing Zuko could really do besides conquer Ba Sing Se single handed that would clear his name.

As for the scar, it did seem harsh to some, but it was not as if the Fire Lord could give his son special treatment just because he was family. Not wounding him in any way at all would have been the same as accepting his cowardice in the face of the enemy, not to mention go against the sacred rules of an Agni Kai. What was the Fire Lord supposed to do, disregard the country's most sacred traditions just because the person in question was his son? That would have made him only marginally better than his cowardly brother.

Besides, being a Firebender himself, Xisheng knew for a fact that the prince's scar was hardly a result of wanton cruelty. If the Fire Lord had wanted only to hurt and shame his son, why exercise enough control to avoid incinerating his eye? Xisheng was fully aware how difficult it was to control the heat of your flames to such an extent that everything around your target was burned, but not the target itself.

If anything, the scar would serve as a reminder to everyone that the prince had come a long way from what he once was when he manged to return. And now that the Avatar was actually back without a doubt, Zuko had a real chance of restoring his honor, his dignity, and the respect of his citizens and soldiers. Even Zhao was on board with the idea: dislike Zuko as he did, there was still no denying that helping him in his quest to capture the Avatar was the best thing for his career. Zhao couldn't really rise any higher in the military than he already had, but if he helped the future Fire Lord achieve his greatest objective, well, the benefits would be astronomical.

That said, maybe Zhao should have tried a little harder to catch the young Airbender a few weeks ago. After all, master marksmen or not, how on earth did he expect the Yu-Yan archers to somehow defeat someone that could control air? It didn't make any sense at all.

Either way, the situation now was what it was. They'd be deploying for a ground assault against the Northern Water Tribe within the next hour. Hopefully the overnight bombardment had worn out the enemy to an extent where they'd be defeated before nightfall. Normally it would be fine if they couldn't destroy the enemy in a single assault, but that only applied when they were killing every enemy they came across. The Fire Nation military had standing orders to capture benders alive if at all possible; while the purpose of this directive was lost on most of the troops that followed it, those who knew what was truly going on understood that the benders of the other nations couldn't be re-assimilated into the new society if they were all dead.

Needless to say this had made the war considerably more difficult for the Fire Nation over the past century. Having to fight with some degree of restraint in order to take the most powerful enemies alive was difficult. Moreover, keeping those benders incarcerated after the fact was expensive, taking both resources and troops. Meanwhile, the Earth Kingdom had not taken a Fire Nation soldier alive in a hundred years. A trek through the Earth Kingdom and a peek into any of their prisons was proof enough that there had never been Fire Nation captives in their borders: colonists and soldiers alike, all were executed by the Earth Kingdom.

Because this no mercy rule was followed by the majority of the Earth Kingdom army, the rules of engagement had changed just slightly about forty years ago. The Fire Lord still wanted benders to be taken alive if possible, but by now there were a significant number of both Earth and Waterbenders in their custody, so if a particular bender seemed too dangerous to risk capturing, lethal force was acceptable. On a somewhat more morbid scale, any enemy bender that claimed the lives of one whole squad was to be killed rather than captured. The Fire Nation may have wanted to bring enlightenment to the world, but not at the expense of too many of its own people.

Besides, it was difficult to not want some form of retribution against the enemy for their acts of barbarism. Granted, the Fire Nation had committed genocide a century ago, but the events surrounding that incident were still shrouded in uncertainty. All Xisheng knew was that the idea had supposedly not been to kill them all from the start. Of course, the initial intention didn't justify the wholesale slaughter of an entire race, but at least the Fire Nation had learned from the mistake. They'd yet to do anything nearly so heinous again. They didn't even execute prisoners of war in most cases. Granted, that was because prisoners were more valuable than dead people, but still.

But still, as infuriating as it was to know that every captured man and woman was executed in front of Earth Kingdom troops for morale, Xisheng had to keep in mind their true purpose. That being the case, he quickly donned his armor for the coming battle, hiding his unique features behind the skull of his helmet and ensuring that his armor was strapped snugly to his frame.

As soon as he was prepared for battle, Xisheng made his way to the deck of the ship. Unfortunately it was still his duty to guard Admiral Zhao, so unless the man had different orders for him, Xisheng would be spending this battle escorting the foolhardy commander, something that didn't bode well for a soldier interested in staying alive.

Even so, it was comforting to walk the deck of the ship, as it allowed Xisheng to witness the fleet's ground forces as they prepared to attack the Northern Water Tribe. Xisheng had of course never been part of a naval assault before; he would have assumed that landing craft were necessary, but apparently the plan was to simply ram the battleships into the wall and drop the ramp, allowing the Fire Nation's troops to storm into the city en masse. It was certainly a good approach, and one that couldn't be performed without the technology of the Fire Nation.

Xisheng glanced down at scores of infantry, bender and non-bender alike, alongside tanks and Komodo rhinos. Naturally the armored vehicles were in front, protecting the more vulnerable soldiers that would storm in behind them. Just on this ship alone, there had to be a thousand troops ready to assault the enemy. Of course, it was twice as large as even the second largest class of vessel present.

Turning his attention away from the ranks of soldiers below and towards the command deck of the ship, Xisheng spotted Admiral Zhao and a handful of other Firebenders that would be his guards. Naturally the Admiral didn't even notice Xisheng's arrival, but the common soldier had expected no less. Thankfully, it seemed that Xisheng's input would not be needed this time, as Admiral Zhao or his advisor General Iroh had organized the assault in a tactically sound manner this time.

The first wave of ground troops would have their advance covered by a barrage from the waves behind them. With that cover they'd have little fear of enemy attacks while they moved forward and destroyed whatever secondary defenses were in place.

Xisheng was about to come and stand behind the Admiral, but not before he heard the door to the command deck behind him burst open. "Admiral Choi! Prepare to meet your fate!"

Xisheng and every other guard quickly turned on their heels to see a Water Tribe boy with dark hair rushing at the Admiral with a spear and an outdated uniform. Aside from the appalling breach of security, Xisheng wondered how this warrior had possibly managed to remain undetected on their ship. Either way, being the last guard to arrive Xisheng was closest to the infiltrator, who was ignoring everyone else in favor of charging right at the Admiral. Clearly he was no experienced soldier.

Taking advantage of the boy's complete and total lack of self-awareness, Xisheng stepped into the boy's path, fists raised to strike a killing blow. The Water Tribe native looked genuinely surprised that someone was actually going to intercept him, and he didn't seem all that interested in being diverted from his task of killing Zhao. The haphazard swing of his spear was evidence enough that he considered Xisheng a nuisance in his path to success.

Unfortunately, the difference in battle experience was immediately obvious. Xisheng sidestepped the spear tip, grabbing both the shaft and the boy's collar as he passed. With a considerable advantage in leverage, the Fire Nation soldier hurled the lanky Northerner back the way he had come, sending him tumbling across the deck. With a somewhat clumsy recovery roll, Xisheng's opponent got to his feet, with a smirk on his face that indicated he was about to spout some sort of bravado. However, the expression was quickly wiped away when the tip of his own spear tore into his unarmored abdomen, hurled from Xisheng's hands.

Falling to his knees, the infiltrator reeled in obvious shock, unable to utter any sort of pained cry as his blood stained the old uniform he was wearing. Well aware that his death would be slow and painful at this rate, Xisheng took the few steps necessary to reach his dying victim, opting to finish him off mercifully rather than with the even more painful demise that was Firebending. Grabbing hold of the spear's shaft, Xisheng yanked it out of his foe's abdomen, only to swiftly stab him through the neck instead. Gruesome, perhaps, but by severing the spinal cord Xisheng ensured his foe would feel no more pain as he passed.

When the deed was done, two of the other guards lifted the body over the edge and into the water, at which point Xisheng noticed the mixed looks he was getting from his two superiors. Zhao for one looked impressed by the swift reaction to a potential threat and ruthlessness in dealing with it, but Iroh looked disappointed and even appalled. Xisheng couldn't imagine why: he had been protecting the retired general as well.

By now the assault was well under way, with the first wave of Fire Navy ships having already deployed their troops onto the enemy's shores under the cover of dozens of sulfur bombs. But while Xisheng was occupied with trying to witness the battle, he couldn't help but overhear Admiral Zhao's conversation with the Dragon of the West, which had something to do with the Moon Spirit, and more importantly, something to do with destroying it. This was something Xisheng was none too happy to hear.

While astronomy was just as relatively fresh in Fire Nation science as genetics was, by now the leading minds of the country knew that the Moon was important for a reason beyond nighttime luminosity. Preliminary studies had shown that the size of the Moon, as well as its location around the Earth, affected the tides of the oceans. This seemed to corroborate with what everyone knew about the Moon and Waterbending, so anyone who knew these things would also know that having no Moon would be very, very bad.

That said, perhaps it was fortunate that Xisheng would be on escort duty for Zhao after all. If the Admiral was going to do anything insane... well, he was just a faceless soldier. All he had to do was escape immediate retribution and he could easily disappear back into the ranks. Of course, being a loyal citizen of his country, committing essential treason really didn't sit well with Xisheng, but he was willing to toe the thin line of allegiance to better serve the final objective. Not that he would ever truly betray the Fire Nation of course: he was supremely dedicated to their true cause.

Thinking about it made Xisheng eager to join the battle. After all, winning it was just one step closer to realizing their final goal. Thankfully Zhao seemed eager to get involved as well, though for his own glory no doubt. Either way, he ushered his flagship forward, and soon enough the golden beast that made up their prow smashed through what was left of the Northern Water Tribe's ice wall, and the thousand strong army of troops on the main deck rushed out onto the battlefield.

Naturally the Admiral's retinue had to descend from the command deck first, at which point Xisheng discovered that they would be taking Komodo rhinos to their destination, wherever it may be. Apparently Zhao had a map, something Xisheng couldn't make sense of if he had truly discovered it in the Earth Kingdom as he had claimed when talking with Iroh. But while that raised a fair number of very good questions, Xisheng had no time to dwell on them, as he and his fellow Firebenders were thrust into battle.

Being on the front-line allowed Xisheng to see the results of his tactics yesterday firsthand: the Fire Nation line was rapidly demolishing all resistance ahead of it. Even powered by the sun, their swift advance could not be accredited to that alone. The enemy was tired, as they should have been considering the dozens of sulfur bombs frozen in pillars of ice around the field of battle. The Waterbenders had spent most of their night intercepting the projectiles, and now they were paying the price for their fatigue.

Even so, it was difficult fighting Waterbenders on a battlefield comprised entirely of their element. Even tired as they were, Xisheng saw many Fire Nation soldiers fall prey to Waterbending attacks from unexpected directions. Some of them found their heads suddenly submerged beneath the icy floor of the city, doomed to drown unless their allies could break the ice and draw them out in time. Others were impaled by spears of ice shot from angles unseen, while even more found themselves cleaved in two by powerful Waterbending slices.

It was a different kind of violence than Xisheng was used to, as he had only ever faced Earthbenders in combat. However, he was familiar with the attacks of the Fire Nation, and while he did not relish in killing, he could not deny that he was glad to see the enemy burned to a screaming crisp or blasted apart by a concussive blast after they killed his comrades. Xisheng himself killed quite a few Waterbenders from the back of his rhino. One was simply set alight by a large blast of flame. Another found his leg separated from his body in a bloody mess when the concussive force of a charged Firebending explosion impacted the ice next to him. These were the kinds of injuries and deaths Xisheng was used to seeing.

Considering the fact that they had landed significantly later than the initial force, there was not much fighting to really be done for the Admiral's retinue, especially once you considered the fact that Zhao was spurring them past the conflict itself and towards his personal objective. It was during this time that Xisheng noticed a distinct lack of one General Iroh, who had been present when they had first disembarked from the ship. The man's absence made Xisheng uneasy, but Zhao did not seem to care or even notice that he was missing.

Thanks to the fatigue the Water Tribe's forces were experiencing, the armies of the Fire Nation advanced throughout the majority of the city well before nightfall. By early evening, they had pushed the enemy forces back to their final line of defense, the palace itself. Granted, it wasn't much of a palace, but it was a royal building of some sort, and according to Zhao it was where the Moon spirit rested.

Naturally the remaining Water Tribe forces had holed up inside this building, along with the civilian population that had been taking refuge there since the start of the engagement. Needless to say, the battle was essentially won, as the Fire Nation could not possibly lose now, but there was still one wild card to take into consideration. No one had seen the Avatar on the field of battle that day, but surely he was still present. Even now, it was possible that the Avatar could turn the tide.

But from what the Fire Nation had seen of the Avatar so far, he was little more than a coward. Even in situations where he could have easily defeated his enemies, he instead chose to flee. He was an Airbender at heart, avoiding confrontation if at all possible and preferring to dodge trouble rather than face it. If they were lucky the Avatar would simply flee this battle as well.

They would soon see what the boy would do, as the Fire Nation could hardly occupy the city overnight with the Moon on its way. They had a few hours of daylight left in which to win the battle, and for Zhao to achieve his 'destiny.' That being the case, the invading army took positions to assault the final line of defense, which was unfortunately approachable from only one direction. The seat of power here in the Water Tribe was elevated above the rest of the city. It was surrounded by water on all sides, and the only way to reach it was a staircase and a bridge that led to the front door. The only choice for the invaders was to move along this rather narrow path made of ice, putting them at a massive disadvantage against their Waterbending foes.

Thankfully the solution was fairly straightforward. The enemy would be too busy taking cover from a bombardment to actively attack the advancing ground troops if the rear Fire Nation lines kept up a steady assault. With this tactic in mind, Zhao ordered the tanks and rhinos to stay in the rear and attack the palace from afar as he led the infantry across the bridge.

Xisheng was worried that the enemy would still manage to collapse the bridge as they traversed it, but as he followed his commander to the front door with several dozen troops at his back, it became obvious that the enemy was more concerned with surviving the concentrated attacks pelting their fortress and less with stopping the troops coming to kick down their front door.

Xisheng watched as Admiral Zhao blasted the barrier before them into nothingness, clearing the way for his troops to enter the palace. With practiced ease, he recited some lines that all frontline commanders were technically supposed to say, though how genuine they were was always up for debate. A matter of policy was hardly an indicator of how one's leaders really felt. "You know how it goes men; take prisoners. The Fire Lord frowns on civilian casualties, and get the leader alive if possible. Charge!"

Considering the fact that these reminders were completely unnecessary, the forces of the Fire Nation wasted no time in rushing through the breach and into the last line of defense for the Northern Water Tribe. Naturally, what warriors remained of the enemy rushed forward to meet them, protecting their people from what they no doubt believed to be genocide or some other such nonsense.

As for the Admiral's retinue, they followed the man himself through the now embattled palace, fending off what few warriors were brave or foolish enough to challenge them as Zhao ignored the conflict in favor of his true objective. It briefly occurred to Xisheng that the map they were using was very detailed, leading him to question its origins, but it nevertheless proved accurate. Zhao led his guards outside of the main palace and towards a back pathway that eventually brought the group of military men and women to a small circular door in a wall. It looked like nothing of note to the majority of the guards, but Zhao was grinning like a madman at the sight of it.

"We're here. Give thanks men, for today you get to witness the birth of a legend!"

Zhao led the way into the abode they had discovered, where Xisheng and his fellow Firebenders were met with a truly astonishing sight: grass, trees, and warm temperatures throughout the area, something that should have been completely impossible in the North Pole. One of the soldiers commented on exactly this.

"How is it so warm here? This doesn't seem possible."

Xisheng, being somewhat knowledgeable on these affairs, made an assumption. "If this is truly where the spirits reside, it must be their doing. Ironic, that they have the power to do such things yet the Tribe that worships them still lives in a frozen wasteland."

Zhao ignored the conversation his minions were having in favor of walking towards a pool in the center of the grove. Once there, he wasted no time in snatching up one of the Koi fish that swam around inside and stuffing it into a bag. If this was supposed to do something, no one could tell, because the Moon had not yet risen on this side of the Earth. It was still a short time away yet. This naturally didn't stop Zhao from descending into some sort of mad rant regarding the glory he would receive and all of the wonderful titles that would be bestowed upon him for his victory.

Xisheng was worried what Zhao's actions here would do to the world, but as he could not tell what kind of effect it was having without the Moon present, he made no move to stop the Admiral. Acting too hastily could cost the Fire Nation in more ways than one. However, it was clear that the situation was about to get a lot more intense when a large shadow passed over the grove, and the soldiers of the Fire Nation glanced up to see the Avatar's flying beast descending towards them. It did not take long for it to land, or for its passengers to hop down to the earth to confront them.

This presented a very notable problem: child or not, the Avatar was a powerful Airbender and had proven himself to be a match for superior numbers more than once already. While confident in his own abilities, Xisheng had no delusions regarding how a fight against this child would likely go. Still, he wasn't about to cower or flee now. He'd fight the Avatar to the death if he had to.

Thankfully it seemed that there would be no need, as Zhao was quick to threaten the fish he was holding when he saw that he faced the Avatar, and this was enough to keep the child and his Water Tribe allies at bay.

Naturally, the Avatar gave some spiel about preserving balance and not disrupting the natural order of things, but it was nothing but idealistic tripe in the ears of the soldiers that heard it. Yes, Xisheng understood that destroying the moon was probably bad, but he had come to loathe the foolish trappings of balance for the stratification it brought upon the world.

No, what the Avatar said was just noise. It was the words of who came next that were truly surprising.

"He's right Zhao."

Zhao and his retinue all turned to face Iroh, who had appeared from the shadows to their right. Before all else, this raised far too many questions for Xisheng. How long had he been there? How did he find this place? Had he arrived before them and simply been waiting for the right time to act? There were too many factors that didn't add up properly. Something wasn't right here, beyond the obvious that even Zhao saw.

"General Iroh. Why am I not surprised to discover your treachery?"

"I'm no traitor Zhao. The Fire Nation needs the Moon too. We all depend on the balance."

There it was. The obvious sign of someone that did not share the righteous cause. Iroh believed in balance. He believed in what the Avatar stood for. Xisheng had half a mind to attack the old man where he stood, as he understood better than anyone that Iroh truly was a traitor to their cause, but before he could make any move at all, the world was bathed in crimson light. The Moon was rising.

Most of the people in the grove gasped at the sight above them, of a blood red moon likely caused by the strife Zhao was causing the now mortal Moon spirit. As expected, destroying the Moon was a terrible idea, but this and that were two different things, and preserving a critical celestial body versus maintaining arbitrary lines of division in society had nothing to do with one another. With this in mind, Xisheng began formulating a plan that would prevent the destruction of the Moon and still maintain his loyalty to the Fire Nation. Thankfully Iroh's next words made his planning much easier.

"You can now see what chaos you are unleashing upon the world Zhao! Whatever you do to that spirit, I'll unleash on you tenfold! Let it go, now!"

With that, Iroh took a Firebending stance, and was more or less threatening Zhao, an Admiral of the Fire Nation Navy. Yes, this situation would work out nicely if only Zhao would heed Iroh's threat for just one moment...

Thankfully Zhao did just that, releasing the captured Moon spirit back into the pool. As he did this, the moonlight that now bathed the world returned to normal. However, Zhao's tensed and twitching muscles spoke volumes of his anger and rage, and anyone with half a brain could see that he was about to do something crazy. Xisheng watched as Zhao raised an arm into the air to unleash a Firebending blast at the pool and the mortal spirits, and that was his opportunity to strike. Everyone was looking at Zhao: no one was looking at Iroh, and no one could confirm or deny whether or not the traitor general was about to attack the Admiral.

"Admiral, look out!"

With that cry, Xisheng threw a punch that sent a Firebending blast towards Iroh, cutting off Zhao's assault on the Koi fish. Naturally Zhao and the other soldiers assumed that Iroh had been about to attack, and Xisheng's fellow guards turned on Iroh as well even as the old man deflected the surprise attack that had come his way.

With multiple soldiers now launching attacks at him, Iroh had no choice but to defend himself, though this ended up being child's play for the old man. He intercepted all five plumes of flame with one large blast of his own, then simply forced that blast outwards to engulf his attackers. Zhao's retinue, save Xisheng, had been incapacitated with almost laughable ease. If anything, it was a testament to the massive gap in skill between an average bender and a master.

Now only Xisheng and Zhao still stood, though the latter was turning tail to flee into the foliage of the grove. "Kill that traitor soldier! Don't you dare abandon your post!"

Xisheng felt a modicum of disgust as he watched Zhao flee, but he nevertheless took a stance against Iroh, who had lowered his arms the moment Zhao disappeared. The old man actually seemed pleased. "That was quite clever of you, soldier. But you've protected the Moon and Zhao is gone. Why do you still stand ready to fight?"

Digging his heels into the ground and taking deep breathes, Xisheng knew that he would likely not be able to defeat a legendary Firebender like the Dragon of the West, but he was still ready to try regardless. "Don't mistake my intent. I always knew you were a coward, but now you've proven yourself to be an outright traitor. I won't just let you walk away."

Iroh cocked a curious eyebrow at his opponent, seemingly unfazed by the insults. "You are loyal to the Fire Nation yet have protected the balance of the world. You do realize that these are conflicting ideologies?"

"The natural balance of the world is a concept I support. The balance of society is a construct of human thought, and one I wholeheartedly oppose. The world needs unity, not separation. As a member of the royal family, surely you know of our true cause?"

The Dragon of the West raised his arms in a combat stance. "I know that it is presumptions to assume the right to rule others simply to solve their problems."

"And yet you support the Avatar, who embodies that idea more than anyone else. Look 'General', we both know neither of us is going to change our beliefs at the drop of a hat. Let's just fight."

Iroh released a defeated sigh as he prepared for Xisheng's attack. "As you wish. By all means, please make the first move."

While Iroh's politeness had struck Xisheng as nothing more than that before, now it infuriated him. Not only had this man invalidated the deaths of every soldier at the Siege of Ba Sing Se, but now he was betraying the very thing they had all given their lives for. Xisheng did not particularly enjoy violence, but he was not without fury of his own.

"Your men and your son will thank me for avenging the sacrifice you wasted and betrayed, Iroh. This is for them!"

Surprisingly, Xisheng's attempt to goad his seemingly unflappable opponent actually worked; to be fair though, he was bringing up his fallen son.

Iroh punched forth a powerful gout of flame that Xisheng chose to evade rather than block. In his experience it was always safer to evade if you could manage it. Sidestepping the attack, he retaliated with a bending punch of his own, though Iroh simply powered through it and unleashed a wave of flame along the ground, forcing Xisheng into the air and exposing him to an unavoidable follow up attack.

Xisheng was met with a fireball the moment his feet left the earth, knocking him backwards but not stopping him from performing an almost flawless recovery upon landing. Rolling with the impact to get to his feet as quickly as possible, the somewhat experienced soldier released two spirals of flame with spin kicks at head and ground level, then followed up with two punches in the middle that covered all the bases. Being a little too old to be dodging such wide ranging attacks with any real spryness, Iroh simply lived up to his moniker and breathed fire from his mouth to match and overpower Xisheng's attacks. While it was an impressive display of force, large Firebending attacks had a major downside: they blocked the user's view of the enemy.

Taking advantage of Iroh's technical blindness, Xisheng rushed through the wavering flames, protected by armor that had long since been developed to resist Firebending for training or potentially dangerous moves. Forming a blade of fire in his hand, he rushed through Iroh's attack and swung the flaming extension of his arm at him from the ground to the sky. With enough power an attack like this could cleave a man in two, but Iroh was quick enough to more or less stumble backwards out of its way.

But a stumble was still a folly in a duel, and it gave Xisheng enough time to leap in the air with a flaming axe kick, one of the most powerful melee Firebending moves there was. Unfortunately, he underestimated Iroh's skill and power, and though the old man only had time to raise his arms in defense, earning himself several severe burns on his arms, he nevertheless weathered Xisheng's attack, allowing him to counter with a powerful condensed blast of flame that smashed into Xisheng's chest and sent him careening through the air.

Though he had not yet lost consciousness, Xisheng knew that the battle was over as he smashed into the grassy earth of the grove. And while his ears were still ringing, he managed to hear just a bit of Iroh's words to the Avatar and his friends.

"This battle is lost...must flee... fight another day..."

It was all Xisheng managed to hear before he slipped into unconsciousness, but he nevertheless could settle on one thought in his mind as he did so. There was no question that the once esteemed General Iroh was a full-blown traitor to his country and everyone that had trusted him. No question at all.

When Xisheng awoke from his forced nap, he was met with the familiar unchanging countenance of a Fire Nation soldier. While the helmets were great for intimidating the enemy, they certainly weren't something anyone was eager to wake up to...

"Admiral, the Corporal is waking up."

Xisheng barely had time to get to his feet before Zhao was in his face. "You! What happened?! Where is General Iroh?!"

More than a little irritated that the Admiral was snapping at him even though he was the one that had fled, Xisheng nevertheless kept his displeasure under wraps. "I was no match for the Dragon of the West Admiral. He rendered me unconscious with ease. He could be anywhere, but it was obvious that he was assisting the Avatar."

"You let him escape?! You incompetent moron! What kind of soldier are you?! Even the Moon spirit is nowhere to be found!"

Xisheng glanced around the oasis, now teeming with Fire Nation troops. One glance in the pool was enough to tell him that Zhao spoke the truth. It was no surprise really considering that the spirits couldn't stay here now that it was under Fire Nation control, but even so Xisheng was surprised that the spirits were allowed to leave this oasis at all. Perhaps they didn't even need to be in a special place?

Either way, Zhao was apparently still furious that Xisheng had allowed the traitor Iroh to escape, and the soldier wasn't having any of that. "With all due respect Admiral, the General is a legendary Firebender. Surely you didn't expect a simple soldier to best him?"

"I expected you to do your job! Now the spirits are gone and we have a traitor on the loose! Moreover, he took Prince Zuko with him! We've got no idea if he's in league with the old man or if he's just being strung along as insurance! You could have prevented all of this if you weren't so incompetent!"

Xisheng was about to make some snarky comment about the Admiral fleeing the scene of the battle, but thankfully another soldier cut in before he could ruin his career. "Admiral, Corporal Xisheng fought with honor and skill. I was incapacitated by the traitor general in seconds, but the Corporal even managed to wound him. I was barely conscious for the fight, but he did his best to defeat the enemy."

Admiral Zhao scoffed. "Well let me know when trying and failing actually wins the war. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to finish subjugating this pathetic excuse of a country!"

With that, Admiral Zhao turned on his heel and stormed away from the soldiers that had been his escort during this fiasco. Needless to say, Xisheng's dislike for the man multiplied tenfold, but he was simply glad that they had emerged from this battle more or less victorious. While the Avatar had escaped and a powerful Firebender had betrayed them, the Northern Water Tribe was subdued, and that brought the Fire Nation one step closer to realizing their final objective.

The soldier that had come to Xisheng's defense grabbed him by the shoulder before he could go anywhere. "Corporal. I meant what I said a second ago. You're a very skilled warrior. Few soldiers could have put up a fight as effectively as you did."

Xisheng shrugged off the praise, not feeling worthy of it. "I still lost though. Fighting well and winning are two very different things."

"Maybe. But that's not the point. You fought against a superior opponent knowing you were almost guaranteed to be defeated, and still did very well against him besides. A Firebender with your talents should be putting his skills and guts to use elsewhere."

"I can't think of any better place to employ those things than on the front line."

The faceless soldier shook his head. "We both know that there will be few major offensives after this point, at least until the comet arrives this summer. With the Dragon of the West turning traitor and the questionable loyalties of Prince Zuko, I get the feeling a lot more Royal Guards are going to be needed in the coming months..."

Xisheng had never thought of being selected for such an honor before. Then again, he had never wanted to be, since Royal Guards did nothing when the royal family was sitting around in the palace all day. But it was true that leaving Iroh on the loose would be catastrophic for the Fire Nation, and it was about time that the Crown Princess had a chance to prove herself to the people... it was all conjecture at best, but it did seem likely that elite Royal Guards would be seeing some action sooner than later.

"You think I have the skills to be a Royal Guard?"

"Moreso than the rest of us at any rate. I'm just a Captain, but I think it's about time someone put you in for a promotion. Who knows? Maybe when the Fire Lord reads the reports of this conflict, he'll see that you have the potential to serve the Fire Nation in a much greater fashion. I doubt the Admiral will even mention us, but you can rest assured that as Captain of his escort during this mission, your exploits will be fully noted."

Xisheng bowed to the man. "Good enough for me Captain. But while this is all well and good, I imagine our assistance is needed in managing the city now that it is under our control."

"Fair enough."

The Captain led the way out of the oasis, presumably to bring Xisheng and some other soldiers into the city to help establish order. While it was a short trek, it gave Xisheng time to think about what the future could hold if he really was promoted to a position in which he could guard the Princess and all those she called her allies.

Chapter Text

The domestic operations that followed in the two weeks after the battle at the North Pole were far more stressful than anyone cared to admit. The North Pole marked the first capital city the Fire Nation had conquered during the war, and with it came numerous logistical problems that were difficult to manage. First and foremost among these was actually subjugating resistance. Despite a total military victory over the city, small bands of warriors and Waterbenders that had not been captured were still striking out at the newly established Fire Nation patrols and occupation forces.

Needless to say this had lead to more than one skirmish, with numerous casualties for both sides. Thankfully this city was the only major settlement the Northern Water Tribe possessed; all of their other settlements were so scattered and small that meeting any resistance from them was extremely unlikely. It made it easier for the Fire Nation to focus its manpower if nothing else. Even so, it was difficult to establish order and implement recovery when you had to constantly watch your back for icicle spears or worse.

The state of affairs was a tentative one. Obviously none of the natives were happy about being conquered and occupied, but aside from the most stringent and bitter of them, most of the city's inhabitants had already realized that their conceptions about Fire Nation dominion were mistaken. After all, the city was still standing, no one had been executed, and none of them had been dragged off in chains to slave away in some faraway mine. Of course, Xisheng knew that many rumors spread during wartime that were essentially straight up lies: one of the most ridiculous that he had heard was that the Fire Nation dressed their prisoners in Army uniforms and pit them against their own comrades unarmed. Aside from all of the particular reasons such a tactic would backfire horrifically, it was a practice the Fire Nation had never employed. They took many prisoners, but certainly not for reasons such as that.

Of course he also knew that not everything he had heard about the Water Tribes and Earth Kingdom was true as well. While the Fire Nation didn't rely on propaganda for morale nearly as much as their enemies (they were winning, after all), Xisheng had still heard a rumor or two that had turned out to be false. The city he currently occupied was proof enough that the concept of savagery and barbarism was as foreign to the Northern Water Tribe as it was to the Fire Nation. While they were lacking in many aspects culturally and scientifically, it was not like they were living in caves and inbreeding. They had their own culture, and while it had some growing to do, it deserved to be treated as such.

Thankfully, one of their objectives was already coming to fruition. While it was little more than eavesdropping and a general atmosphere, considering the tight lipped nature of the Water Tribesman around their conquerors, it was fairly obvious that they were disgruntled with their dear moon spirit for failing to protect them, or otherwise do anything to really help them at all. Of course there were still many individuals that were praying to the stupid fish for salvation or simply out of misguided faith, but there seemed to be a good number of people that now shunned those spirits for abandoning them.

This realization lifted Xisheng's spirits a great deal. If there was one thing that had been proven without a doubt thanks to the Fire Nation's conquest, it was that the spirits of this world were useless leeches that did nothing for the ones who revered them. In the past hundred years of expansion into EK territory, not once had they been opposed by a spirit. Not even in areas where spirits had actually been sighted.

In the larger scheme of things, reliance on spirits to solve problems was hindering human progress. After all, if you truly believed some sort of spirit would handle all of your problems, what ambition did you have to advance your own standing? To innovate and grow? Many of the Fire Nation's academic minds attributed their massive technological advancement to the shift in spirit worship a hundred years ago. Maybe they were biased, but it couldn't be denied that the Fire Nation had advanced by leaps and bounds after the abolition of spirit worship.

Either way, there was a lot more to be done here at the North Pole. The current combats with the few renegade fighters in the city were unacceptable, mostly because they hindered the Fire Nation's efforts to implement their revolution. For that very reason, Captain Chikaraishi, with Xisheng and another guard at his flanks, stood before the Princess of the Northern Water Tribe within her private quarters to discuss the matter. Under normal circumstances this issue would have been brought to the Chieftain, but the man had been killed in the final assault on the palace. He had been a warrior through and through, fighting alongside his men in the final reckoning. Xisheng respected him for that, but he imagined that his daughter felt quite differently about the whole ordeal. After all, she did not seem to be in an extremely cooperative mood.

"Princess, surely you understand the severity of the situation. The remnant fighters in your city are inflicting casualties on both sides. As their leader, it is your duty to order them to stand down."

The white haired teenager, thrust into a position of power she was not ready for, looked ill at ease with the entire situation. However, she was still firm in her reply. She had guts, even if she wasn't fully confident in what she was doing.

"You expect me to tell my people to simply surrender to you after you invaded our home and killed our people? How dare you!"

Captain Chikaraishi, the man who had spoken so highly of Xisheng after the battle and his duel with Iroh, sighed. "The battle is already lost Princess. Further fighting will change nothing. It will only cost both your people and mine dozens of lives."

"I will not order my people to give up. You are invaders and murderers. Even defeated we'll never give into you."

The Captain sighed again, seeing that his efforts were fruitless. He motioned for his two comrades to follow him out of the Princess' private chamber. The Princess herself was not being imprisoned, at least not in a traditional sense. She was allowed to go wherever she pleased within her city, but she was always escorted by two Firebenders. She'd been treated very well for a defeated royal.

Stepping out of the room with his immediate commander, Xisheng watched as the Captain pulled off his helmet and pinched the bridge of his nose. His short black hair would have normally been slicked to his head by sweat, but that was not the case with the temperature around here taken into account. "I fail to see how this is my job instead of the Admiral's..."

For the record, Xisheng felt exactly the same way. Zhao had done very little after the battle itself. He had mostly relegated all of the important tasks to his subordinates. It was just one thing Xisheng had found to dislike about the man among many others.

"Captain, if it's alright with you, I could try to speak to the Princess."

Chikaraishi turned towards the soldier he had come to respect greatly over the past two weeks. "You have something particular in mind that might convince her Xisheng?"

"Nothing in particular sir. But who knows? She might be more responsive to a common soldier closer to her age."

The Captain merely shrugged. "Worth a shot at this point. Any chance we have at putting an end to these pointless skirmishes is good enough for me. Have at it Corporal."

Bowing to his superior officer, Xisheng turned to head back into the Princess' room. Naturally the white-haired teen couldn't tell him apart from the Captain, so she seemed especially irked that he was in there. "Was our last exchange unclear Captain? I will not-"

Xisheng cut her off, convinced that protocol and diplomacy would have to be surrendered for a more blunt approach if he was to achieve his goal. "I'm not the Captain, Princess. My name is Xisheng. I'm a Corporal."

Yue looked intrigued by the presence of an enlisted soldier to appeal to her rather than an officer, but she still did not seem any more cooperative than before. "I assure you the rank of the soldier that comes to me will not change my decision."

Seeking to gain a more human approach, Xisheng removed his helmet, leveling his dual colored gaze at the girl just a year or two younger than him. The look on her face proved she was actually shocked by the revelation that there was an actual human being under the helmet. Xisheng supposed he couldn't blame her; it was difficult to humanize the enemy, especially when they didn't even show their face.

"I am going to be straightforward with you Princess Yue. I admire your resilience and your courage. But you are making a foolish mistake."

Whatever her initial impression of him had been, Yue's expression hardened at Xisheng's words. "Nothing would be more foolish than to give in to your tyranny."

Xisheng cocked a curious eyebrow at her. "Our tyranny? If I may be so bold Princess, may I ask what tyranny you are referring to? Perhaps you mean the freedom we are allowing you to keep despite being a political prisoner? Or perhaps you are referring to the citizens of your city, which we have neither harmed nor mistreated after the battle?"

The snow haired girl glared at him. "You monsters killed my father!"

"And he killed many of our soldiers. Your father took sons and daughters from their families. That is the nature of war, and it is unavoidable. But what you are doing now will inflict pain on families that is not necessary."

The mention of daughters and sons gave Yue pause, though it certainly did not divert her anger. Still, her silence gave Xisheng a chance to continue. "The Fire Nation did not come here to simply obliterate your city and its people. Our intention is not to start massacring your citizens in the streets now that the battle is over. But make no mistake: we will not stand idly by and allow resistance fighters to continue attacking and killing our soldiers. If these skirmishes do not stop soon, measures will be taken to root out your resistance and eliminate them. We will kill them all to protect our citizens and soldiers if we must. But you are their leader now. You can put an end to these conflicts before we must take drastic measures to rectify them."

Yue fell silent as her gaze fell to the floor, prompting Xisheng to take another step forward so he could be more direct. "If you do not care for the lives of your countrymen, then by all means, let them continue fighting. But if you want to spare the lives of people that would otherwise needlessly die in a futile battle against an army dozens of times their size, then accept your responsibility as their leader and have them stand down. A certain degree of bravery and determination is admirable. But what your people are doing now is suicide, not courage. This war has claimed enough lives already. Don't make that statistic any graver than it already is."

The young ruler remained quiet as Xisheng turned to leave, confident that he had made the impact that he had intended to. But before he could make his exit, Yue spoke to him once again. "What right do you have?"

Turning to face her again, Xisheng kept his expression as neutral as possible. "Excuse me?"

While she had been staring at the ground before, Yue now raised her steely gaze to the soldier before her. "What right do you have to speak of unnecessary death? Of avoiding needless loss? How can you speak of such things when it is your nation that started this war? Your nation that invades homes, destroys families, your nation that has wrought so much death and pain against people that have done nothing to you? All of the suffering that the world has endured for the last one hundred years is the fault of the Fire Nation. And yet you have the audacity to speak of such things?"

Xisheng closed his eyes for a brief moment as he contemplated his answer. Long had he pondered these very truths; the Fire Nation had inflicted a great deal of pain on the world. Pain that could have been avoided. However, the pain they caused now was to save the world from centuries of suffering later. War had been their only option for bringing enlightenment to the world, as the Avatar and the Spirit World would not allow it to be achieved through peace.

"Tell me, Princess: if there was a child being abused by their caretaker, would you be morally at fault for their suffering if you did nothing about it?"

Yue's expression was clearly confused. "What does this have to do with anything?"

"I'm merely curious."

"...of course. To know the right thing to do and not do it is the same as committing evil."

Xisheng smiled, amusingly wondering if the princess realized how similar her ideal was to his own. "Yes, I couldn't have worded that better myself. As a matter of fact, that concept is the very core of the Fire Nation's motivations for this war."

"Your misguided nationalistic pride and supremacist beliefs do not make your nation right!"

"That's true. But come now Princess, do you honestly believe my nation's people have sacrificed their quality of living and even their own lives for an entire century just to laud superiority over everyone else? And if it was a matter of personal gain, believe me when I tell you we've lost much more than we've gained, and we crossed that threshold decades ago. This war is one of a kind; the first and hopefully last war that will need to be waged for this cause. You're still young. Chances are you will live to see what I mean."

Not following his rhetoric but obviously not caring for it in the first place, Yue's glared at him once again. "I'll certainly live to see the downfall of your nation's empire due to its hubris."

Xisheng donned his helmet as he opened the door to leave. "You said it yourself; to know the right thing to do and not do it is the same as committing evil. The only question that remains is which concept of 'right' is objectively true? For now, I believe the right thing would be for you to prevent the needless deaths of your countrymen."

Though she seemed unhappy to acquiesce to the enemy, Yue finally relented just as Xisheng left the room. As much as she hated to admit it, he had a point there. "I will order my people to stand down..."

Exiting the Princess' chambers, Xisheng nodded to the two guards that stood outside before glancing around to find Captain Chikaraishi absent. This was fine of course, though it left Xisheng without standing orders. He was unsure of where he should go or what he should do. He could of course return to the current command center for new orders, but he honestly didn't feel like it now that most of the important stuff was over and done with. Besides, he had already done more than was required of him by far.

With that in mind, Xisheng stepped out into the awful temperatures of the North Pole, wondering why anyone would choose to live there willingly. Then again, with the Avatar ensuring that trespassing on the lands of others was nearly impossible, perhaps the Water Tribes had never really had anywhere to go. It was yet another notion that would be nonexistent should the Fire Nation emerge victorious from this war.

Still, as he slowly walked along the ice bridges and walkways of the North Pole, Xisheng couldn't help but dwell on Yue's words to him. She was right on all accounts in saying the Fire Nation was solely responsible for initiating this war. Frankly speaking, every single person that had died fighting this conflict was on them, as was any of the suffering caused by wartime strife. This begged the question; was it right to commit evil to achieve good? This loaded question was one Xisheng had pondered many times.

On one hand, the logical choice was yes. If you had to murder one person to save three, then you did something wrong to achieve something right, and that was acceptable. But intrinsically, the question was much more complex. Morally, evil was evil regardless of why it was carried out. The murder of one to save many would still be considered immoral. That said, how could anyone be sure of the righteousness of the Fire Nation's cause? Mistakenly or not, they had wiped out an entire race, and claimed the lives of tens of thousands besides.

Ultimately, this cost could change the course of the world, and both save and improve the lives of millions in the future. But did that make it right? Xisheng did not know, but he also did not fault the Fire Nation for the war itself. They had tried to do things peacefully; the Avatar had been the one to prevent that, and even the one to resort to force first. Roku had made it clear that the only way the world could change was through conflict. The only way they could forge a better future was if the Avatar and all the spirits had no part in it.

This was Xisheng's conviction. He fought not for himself nor for his nation, but for all mankind. He was certain that the Fire Nation had embarked on this mission to finish it, and no one was going to stop them. Not the Earth Kingdom, not traitor generals, and most certainly not the Avatar.

A mere day later, Princess Yue stood before her assembled people to give the speech that Xisheng had convinced her to be necessary. She stood atop a balcony several stories above a large courtyard that held the assembled inhabitants of the city. Several Fire Nation troops were around the area as well, just to make sure nothing got out of hand. By now, Yue was already through the opening gist of her delivery.

"I understand your desire to fight for your homes and your comrades. I am not suggesting that you all simply give up hope and accept defeat. But the way to resist now is not through fighting. I know for many of you, there is no alternative besides opposing the Fire Nation. But as much as it pains me to admit it... continuing to fight them now will only bring more suffering to our own people. Those of you that continue to fight against them, please consider your families. As things stand, more conflict is pointless. Don't allow-"

At this point a large portion of the crowd was getting into a frenzy. The outraged voices of many people attempted to be heard over all of the others, but more importantly it was possible that a riot was on their hands. For the moment though, the majority of the anger was focused on the Princess, and not on the surrounding Fire Nation troops.

"How dare you suggest we just roll over and let them trample us!"

"The real Chieftain would have never said such a thing!"

"You're just a coward! You'd rather surrender to the Ashmakers than fight to the death!"

Xisheng shook his head as he watched the ordeal. Such blatant disrespect to one's leader would have never been accepted in the Fire Nation. A combination of fear and admiration kept people from spouting foolishness at the Royal family. As for this situation, many of the people around were starting to move against the perimeter of Fire Nation soldiers. And while Xisheng wasn't actually a part of that perimeter, he was certainly close enough to have some sort of obligation in containing the threat.

However, before Xisheng could take a step towards the commotion, a hand was placed on his shoulder. Turning to face the person that clearly wanted his attention, Xisheng came face to face with Captain Chikaraishi. Considering that he looked no different from any of the other soldiers here, Xisheng wondered how the Captain could have possibly known it was him, but perhaps by now the man recognized his stance, or simply the way he carried himself.

"Xisheng?"

"Sir?"

Apparently affirming that he did indeed have the right soldier, Chikaraishi withdrew a rolled letter from a pouch at his waist, adorned with a black ribbon that denoted a priority message. "You've got new orders Corporal. By decree of the Fire Lord himself."

"The Fire Lord himself? Surely that's an exaggeration Captain."

"Believe me, it's not. Truth be told I didn't think the Fire Lord himself would read my report for the battle, but apparently he took a personal interest in the account since it regarded General Iroh's betrayal, and untainted by the Admiral's arrogance at that. Just read it, you'll see."

Still a little doubtful, Xisheng took the message and unrolled it so he could read it for himself. The beginning of the message was addressed primarily to the Captain, acknowledging that the report had been thoroughly analyzed and taken into consideration. The second part pertained entirely to Xisheng himself.

For his bravery and dedication to the Fire Nation, Fire Lord Ozai commends Corporal Xisheng. For his exploits in thwarting a catastrophe and reducing the casualties incurred by the Fire Nation Navy through tactical appraisal, Corporal Xisheng is hereby promoted to Lieutenant. For his exceptional combat prowess, Lieutenant Xisheng is ordered to return to the capital immediately for induction into the Royal Guards.

Simple as that, the message had nothing more to say, at least in regards to Xisheng. Obviously it had not been written by the Fire Lord's own hand, but the commendation certainly was true. No one spoke for the Fire Lord, so no one would ever presume to voice his thoughts for him. That meant that the Fire Lord had indeed read the report submitted by Captain Chikaraishi, and he was truly impressed with Xisheng's role in it all. There was a great deal of pride in knowing that the leader of your nation acknowledged you.

Still, all of this news at once was quite shocking. "I didn't even know you could jump from enlisted to officer like that..."

Captain Chikaraishi chuckled. "Well considering the vital strategic role you played in the battle, you're more fit to be an officer than a grunt. I had to do some digging to hear about all you did, but according to Private Nani your advice probably saved hundreds of Fire Navy lives."

Xisheng tilted his head at him. "Private who?"

"The soldier you shared guard duty with the day we launched our invasion."

"I see... well I'm honored to have received such a drastic promotion, but it doesn't sound like I have a choice in this Royal Guard business..."

This earned another chuckle out of the older man that was still a superior officer by one rank. "You really don't, but look at it this way; there's no way the Fire Lord would pull you from the field just to stand guard at home. The Royal Guards must be seeing some serious action soon."

"Do you think-?"

Xisheng's query was cut off by the cacophony of a scuffle erupting behind him. For a moment he had completely forgotten about the potential riot that had been brewing.

Turning on his heel, Xisheng witnessed several Fire Nation soldiers attempting to hold back dozens of angry Water Tribesmen. No one was bending yet, but it seemed likely that the situation was going to escalate from bad to worse.

Xisheng was about to join the fray, but Chikaraishi stopped him a second time. "Hold up Lieutenant. You have a ship back to the capital to catch."

"Right now? Sir, there's about to be a full-blown riot!"

"That's true. But the Fire Lord's orders are to be carried out the moment they are received. We've got more than enough men here to keep things under control. You head back to the shoreline and get going. It's a long trip back as it is."

While Xisheng was incredibly reluctant to leave with an impending fight coming on, he figured that Chikaraishi had a point. It wasn't like the Army would collapse without him there. "If you say so Captain..."

Still watching the brawl going on in the courtyard, Xisheng began to walk away from the scene, barely hearing the words of the Captain one last time. "Good luck Xisheng. I hope the next time we meet it's at the victory banquet."

Finally turning to face the ocean instead of the city, Xisheng mumbled to himself. "You and me both sir..."

By the time Xisheng finally set foot on Fire Nation soil again, the irony of his situation had long since grown sour. On the way to the North Pole, he had enjoyed the novelty of riding across the open seas. On the way back to the Fire Nation, he had come to hate it. Even being an individual that was not prone to seasickness, he had grown seriously tired of that ironclad ship plowing through the waves. The ride from the Earth Kingdom's northern coast to the North Pole had been a little more than a week and a half. The ride from the North Pole to the Fire Nation had been a little over a month. It had been maddening, and so unbelievably droll that Xisheng had lost his nervousness and anticipation for the future for awhile.

He had of course spent most of the ride in solitude, considering his lack of familiarity with the crew. All things considered, he was kind of eager to get back to some sort of unit he would actually be a part of, even if he was nervous to join the Royal Guards. He was even more nervous when he thought about who else he would be around when he did join the unit. He recalled Captain Chikaraishi's words: Fire Lord Ozai wouldn't have pulled an able combatant from the field to stand guard at home unless the Royal Guards wouldn't be home for much longer.

Of course, the Fire Lord certainly wouldn't be going anywhere. But that only left his daughter, Crown Princess Azula. Xisheng didn't know anything more about her than the average Fire Nation citizen, but he had of course heard that she was supposed to be some sort of Firebending prodigy. And while Xisheng didn't doubt those rumors himself, there had been no practical chance for the Princess to exemplify her skills. Going to the front line could be that chance for her, but she was so young; fourteen or so. Of course age was not an indicator of capability, but Xisheng wasn't comfortable with the notion of someone so young going to war. Then again, maybe he was jumping to conclusions. For all he knew the Crown Princess wouldn't be going anywhere at all, and even if she did, it probably wouldn't be to the actual front line. Besides, he was still a few months shy of seventeen. He was hardly a grown man.

Either way, as much as Xisheng would have enjoyed a day or two to relax after so long at sea, he knew as well as any soldier that a delay in following the Fire Lord's orders was unacceptable. He had to report to the palace for induction into the Royal Guards immediately, though he doubted the process would be so simple. Surely a demonstration of his abilities would be in order before he would be allowed to join such an important unit. The only question was who he would be performing for.

The thought of it was nerve-wracking, but on the other hand it was pleasantly soothing to be back in the capital. The city of Xuchang rested comfortably within the famous Caldera of an ancient volcano. It was not the place of his birth, but he had spent many years training here in the capital to be a soldier. He briefly wondered if Sergeant Taizo was still around, terrorizing new kids, but there was little time for Xisheng to track down his very first mentor. Still, he wondered what the Sergeant would say if he learned that one of the men he had trained was being inducted into the Royal Guards. Chances were he would claim most of the credit, but that was alright. The most important aspects of Firebending had been drilled into him by that man, after all. He deserved some of the credit at least.

For a brief while, Xisheng managed to turn his attention away from his impending future. Walking through the streets of the Fire Nation capital served as a strong symbol of what he was fighting for. Of what the world could achieve. Here, there was no 'poor district.' There were no beggars on the street, trying to survive on the whims of their fellow man. There were no squalid children trying to scrape a living in alleys, no sickly elders walking about in rags, no one clearly suffering from starvation... it was the dream of Fire Lord Sozin, just not yet fully realized.

That said, it was far from a utopia. Of course Xuchang had problems; taxes were higher than normal because the war had to be funded. There was an upper echelon of society that often looked down on the common class. There was a mandated draft for males over sixteen. It was a wartime city, with all of the problems that included, but it was still far beyond the decrepit cities of the Earth Kingdom, where the poor were kicked to the farthest outskirts to suffer in silence.

Of course, one could argue that the only reason Xuchang was in a better state than Ba Sing Se was because the Fire Nation was winning and the Earth Kingdom was not. But any historical expert could tell you that the situation in the Earth Kingdom had been what it was now long before the war started. The symptoms may have been exacerbated now, but the war was not their origin.

Xisheng wondered if anyone in the Earth Kingdom knew how truly terrible their situation was. Were they oblivious to it, because they had experienced it all their lives? Did they think their lives were the way things were supposed to be?

He supposed they did. After all, it was difficult to be aware that there was something wrong with the only life you had ever known. It was why so many people actually changed their tune under Fire Nation dominion. Granted, newer colonies and conquered cities were still resentful and bitter, but older ones like Yu Dao had not only accepted Fire Nation rule, but embraced it. Once the Fire Nation had introduced a better quality of life to them, it was but a matter of time before the people realized their conquerors were not as evil as they had made them out to be.

Of course, it had been well over a decade before Yu Dao came to appreciate the benefits their conquerors brought, but hopefully that city would be the first of many. Unfortunately, Xisheng got the feeling that Ba Sing Se would take much longer to acclimate to the new rule than most of the smaller cities had.

One way or another, Xisheng did his best to weave through pedestrian traffic on his way to the palace, which was easily seen even from his position on the streets. Xuchang was easily the largest city in the Fire Nation, and this fact was mostly amplified for those traveling to the palace because most people that arrived in the city did it from the shore. The palace lied at the center of the city, making it a long walk from the perimeter.

But it gave Xisheng time to relax his nerves as he walked towards the next step in his career. He was nervous of course, but expectant as well. He had never thought he would advance beyond the rank of common soldier, yet here he was, a Lieutenant about to be inducted into the most prestigious and elite unit in the Fire Nation. As far as he knew, the Royal Guards weren't military; they answered only to the Royal Family. Then again, considering that the Fire Lord was the commander in chief, didn't that mean that they technically were military...?

Ultimately Xisheng shelved that thought to be answered at a later date, and the rest of his journey consisted of a nostalgic enjoyment of Xuchang's sights, sounds, smells, and overall atmosphere. He couldn't even remember the last time you could actually smell spices in the air. And the sound of actual laughter from the surrounding citizens was something Xisheng had not heard in many months.

This being the case, the hour long trip to the palace went by a bit faster than Xisheng had anticipated, and soon enough he was at the gates of the palace, where four of the Royal Guards he could possibly be joining barred his entry. While they all looked the same to Xisheng (uniformity was pretty popular in the military), the one that was supposedly the leader stepped forward to ascertain Xisheng's purpose for being there.

"State your business."

Knowing that his word was as good as nothing at all here, Xisheng handed over the letter Chikaraishi had given to him back at the North Pole. The guard before him perused the entirety of the letter before rolling it up and handing it back to him.

"Welcome to the palace Lieutenant. You'll be escorted to the proper room."

The guard motioned towards one of his cohorts, who bowed to Xisheng before turning and heading into the palace. Xisheng bowed to the other guards before hurrying after the one that was guiding him. While he focused on following the woman, Xisheng couldn't help but gawk at the architecture and design around him. He had of course never been to the palace before, being nothing more than a common soldier, and the view from a distance really didn't do the place justice.

The outside was flourishing with all sorts of vegetation, with a plethora of trees, bushes, and flowers dominating any open area. The structure of the palace itself was distinctly ornate, with dark red wood accented by flawless gold comprising the majority of the used materials. The interior itself had a distinctly dusky feel to it, being dark but not unwelcoming. It was strange that a place lit with so many torches could have any shadow at all, but Xisheng found the atmosphere kind of homey, if nothing else. At one point he and his guide passed a hall depicting every Fire Lord since Sozin, which Xisheng found strange considering that there had been far more than that. Then again, perhaps this hall was only for the current dynasty, which had begun with Sozin.

Due to his insatiable curiosity in observing his surroundings, Xisheng did not really take note of how he got to the chamber he was lead to. The only indicator that he had arrived was his guide stopping at that particular door. He was ushered in without any delay, at which point Xisheng found himself in a large, open chamber that was clearly designed to house Agni Kais.

The guard that had lead him here bowed before retreating out of the chamber, leaving Xisheng to more or less leap to the isolated platform that rested in the center of the chamber. It was Xisheng's understanding that this was the place Prince Zuko had undergone his ill-fated Agni Kai. It was kind of foreboding in that respect, though Xisheng doubted he would be facing the Fire Lord.

When a few newcomers did enter the chamber, Xisheng turned to face them with a mix of determination and anxiety, the latter of which was quickly amplified when he noted that the man entering the room was exactly who he had just told himself he would not be facing. The stoic, stalwart face of Fire Lord Ozai peered down at him from the balcony Xisheng had just left, with several Royal Guards flanking him.

OK, calm down. This doesn't mean anything. It's only logical that the Fire Lord would be here for this. The Royal Guards protect both him and his family. He would want to see for himself the prowess of the people he's entrusting such a responsibility to.

Thankfully Xisheng was right, and the Fire Lord sat in an ornate seat separated from the others. It seemed he would be observing this test alone, as the four Royal Guards that had entered the chamber with him descended onto the platform Xisheng currently occupied. As they all took combat stances to face him, Xisheng deducted that he would simply have to prove himself against them. Whether or not that meant actually winning was another question entirely.

There was absolutely zero delay in the start of the combat, as two of his opponents shot forth obvious yet powerful fists of flame to meet him. Xisheng's first instinct was to dodge the raging blast, but he quelled that impulse, choosing instead to block the combined attack with a wall of his own flame. He was being tested as a guard, meaning his role would be to protect. His concern would be the safety of his charge, not himself. That meant blocking attacks that came their way, not avoiding them. While the Fire Lord's face remained completely impassive, Xisheng hoped he was on the mark, and that actual defense was what the stony man wanted to see.

That would be easy enough if the enemy continued with straightforward attacks, but it was no surprise when they attacked all at once, and in different patterns. After all, who knew when a Royal Guard would be outnumbered? Two of the guards repeated the initial straightforward attack, but the right most one launched a curving fireball to hit Xisheng from the side while the final guard leaped over the combined inferno with the ever popular flaming axe kick. Xisheng had to think fast if he wanted to handle them all appropriately.

The curved fireball reached him first. Instead of wasting time and energy blocking it, Xisheng chose to divert the flame, briefly commanding it to follow the path of his shoulders and fly harmlessly to the other side of him. Unfortunately, diverting a light attack like that one was easy. Diverting a combined power blast was not, forcing Xisheng to once again rely on a fire wall to protect him. He only had a second after dealing with that attack to nullify the incoming kick from the sky, but since there was no time to attempt a Firebending move of his own, Xisheng simply weathered the blow and blocked it physically, stopping the physical contact but still having the flame wash over him.

His armor protected him from the worst of that, allowing him to shove his attacker away, head over heels through the air. She landed on her feet just fine however, just in time for the remaining three guards to launch a barrage of fireballs from every conceivable direction they could manage. Still holding fast to the belief that he was supposed to thwart the attacks rather than dodge them, Xisheng quickly calculated the best way to handle this assault.

He would never be able to react in time if he waited for each sphere of flame to reach him. Instead, he began launching fireballs of his own to intercept them. Of course there was only one of him and three of the enemy, so he could not block them all this way, but by nullifying more of the attacks before they reached him, he could block most of the rest through defensive walls. It was a technique he had quickly learned on the defensive line in the Earth Kingdom, where being outnumbered by Earthbenders and their numerous projectiles was all too common.

There was no time at all to try and see what the Fire Lord thought of his efforts so far, but Xisheng figured he would have to be offensive at some point. After all, you could protect against attacks all day long, but until the enemy was neutralized the threat would not cease. With this in mind, Xisheng redirected the next fireball to reach him through the barrage of similar attacks to target one of the Firebenders about to throw another one at him. Caught in the middle of a motion, the man was unable to react fast enough to protect himself, getting launched backwards by the impact.

Taking advantage of the now decreased number of attacks he had to fend off for a split second, Xisheng quickly advanced towards the remaining enemies, continuing to counter their attacks as he did so. Unfortunately the woman who had thrown the axe kick at him earlier now stepped forward to sweep a tendril of flame at his legs, an attack that would easily knock him off balance if it wasn't avoided. Xisheng essentially hopped over it, not wanting to expose himself with a high jump into the air. He even managed to block two more fireballs during the maneuver, but he did not manage to block the followup bolt of flame when the only female guard threw a straight kick at him. The force of the blow sent Xisheng sailing backwards, though he rolled to his feet as soon as he hit the floor and unleashed a torrent of flame back at his trio of attackers, about to be rejoined by the one guard Xisheng had hit earlier.

Just as he had with Iroh, Xisheng took advantage of the blinding flame he had unleashed to close the distance between himself and his group of opponents, a movement they failed to notice whatsoever until their collective Firebending cleared away his inferno. Unfortunately for them, by the time they were able to see Xisheng's new proximity to their position, the potential Royal Guard was close enough to launch two powerful palm strikes at his center foes. The strikes to the chest, amplified by the concussive force of condensed Firebending, sent two of the guards careening off the edge of the Agni Kai platform, essentially removing them from the conflict.

Xisheng did not have long to revel in his small victory however, as his remaining two adversaries began to attack him in close quarters, foregoing Firebending altogether to instead rely on simple martial arts prowess. Naturally all military Firebenders had significant training in Shaolin Kung Fu (it was the martial art medium through which Firebending was used after all), but it was unusual for it to be used without the associated element. That said, Xisheng himself was quite adept at hand-to-hand combat, because the chaotic battles on the defensive line had often called for a quick reaction to a nearby foe.

Even so, he was outnumbered by two skilled fighters. He managed to block a few strikes on either side of his body, but his opponents were smart enough to alternate their attacks to catch him off guard. Xisheng quickly found one of his legs kicked out from under him, sending him to one knee as he raised both arms to block combined side kicks to his torso. But the force of the dual blow broke his guard, and the follow up straight kick to his chest both knocked the wind out of him and sent him reeling backwards.

Despite the tightness in his chest, Xisheng knew he had to display perseverance and determination to keep fighting. Performing an ukemi that allowed him to windmill his legs in the direction of his two remaining opponents, Xisheng unleashed two torrents of flame that kept them at bay as he used his motion to return to a fighting stance.

Both he and his adversaries were ready to engage once again, exhaustion be damned, but they were prevented from doing so as the voice of the Fire Lord cut them off with one curt command.

"Enough."

Dropping their stances, the combatants turned to face the Fire Lord, bowing to him. The ruler of their nation said nothing, instead rising to his feet and calmly walking to the door to exit the Agni Kai chamber. Xisheng waited until he was absolutely sure the man was gone before daring to speak his misgivings.

"Is that... good? He didn't say anything, what does that mean?"

Understanding his trepidation, one of the Royal Guards turned to face him. "Don't worry about it. If the Fire Lord were not satisfied with your performance, he definitely would have made it obvious. This means you passed, and it's a well earned passage too, if I do say so myself. Welcome to the Royal Guards, Lieutenant Xisheng."

Xisheng breathed a sigh of relief, his concern over his performance washing away with the news that he had been sufficient. "Great. So... what's next?"

"You'll need to get acquainted with a new uniform, obviously. After that you'll need to be briefed on a series of protocol and rules, not to mention quite a few oaths... but after that it's just rest. We're leaving the Fire Nation first thing tomorrow morning."

The now advanced Firebender shook his head in dismay. "Seriously? I literally just got back..."

"It's rough I know, but the Crown Princess is departing for the Earth Kingdom tomorrow to apprehend the traitor Iroh. She's taking the best fighters in the Royal Guards with her, and after your performance today, that includes you. If you have any other questions, you can ask them once we're out to sea tomorrow."

Xisheng bowed, not at all pleased with the idea of getting back on another ship. "Yes sir."

With a bow back in his direction, the two Royal Guards left on the platform began their descent to ground level to help their fallen comrades. As for Xisheng, he rolled the stiffness out of his shoulders, and went to go figure out where he could get the new uniform with the way more kickass helmet.

The next morning, Xisheng found himself hurried at a much more leisurely pace than he had expected. The day before, he had acquired his uniform and been sworn into the service of the Royal Guards, then been told they would be leaving first thing in the morning. Turns out first thing in the morning in the capital was a little different than first thing in the morning on the front lines.

For one, it wasn't the crack of dawn. Xisheng was roused by his fellow guards at roughly eight in the morning, and succinctly told that he had thirty minutes to be at the docks with everyone else. Not wanting to make a bad impression or otherwise do anything foolish on his very first day, Xisheng had wasted no time in donning his new uniform, one that he, to some childish degree, thought looked far cooler than the standard one. He especially loved the far more intimidating helmet and mask, though it was arguably a little more difficult to see out of compared to the standard Army helmet.

Either way, Xisheng had properly equipped himself with everything necessary in just under seven minutes, and it was at that point that he questioned how on earth he and the others would reach the docks in twenty minutes with the distance and the traffic taken into consideration. Turns out the Royal Guards moved throughout the city with an underground network, something that Xisheng would have thought a myth until he used it himself.

The maze of underground tunnels was home to tracks that utilized wheeled platforms. They were little more than steel squares with benches on them, but either way they allowed eight Royal Guards at a time to move unhindered through the city and at a much faster pace. Xisheng was impressed with the device, if only because only the Fire Nation could have it considering everyone's technological levels. Sure, the Earth Kingdom had that train thing they used in Ba Sing Se, but that was powered through Earthbending, not technology.

Mode of transport aside, Xisheng and his comrades in arms reached the docks with plenty of time to spare, and locating the ship they were to be stationed on was easy; while certainly not the size of the Inferno super battleship from the North Pole, the Royal Barge had plenty of features to give it away, aside from being the size of a Dragon Class Destroyer. The significantly more ornate prow than any standard ship certainly made it obvious as well. It also had its own space at the private docks, with no civilian or military ships within a thousand yards.

The Royal Guard contingent boarded the ship without delay, sweeping the entire craft for anything even mildly threatening, though mostly for threats along the lines of spies and assassins. When that was done, they returned to the deck and formed two lines, simply waiting for the arrival of the Crown Princess. Xisheng wasn't really familiar with all of this protocol, but he simply followed along well enough.

They did not have to wait long for the Princess and her palanquin to be brought aboard. If Xisheng had a way to tell the time, he would have seen that she arrived at exactly nine in the morning. While her notion of 'first thing in the morning' may have been a little askew, she was certainly punctual.

Following the cue of his fellow guards, Xisheng prostrated himself in deference well before the Princess even bothered disembarking from her luxurious means of transportation. Only after they had been in this position for a few moments did she actually emerge from her palanquin, not that Xisheng could see with his face practically in the ground. Considering that no one could see in their positions, the Princess had no choice but to use her voice to command them.

"Rise."

Every one of the Royal Guards did so, turning to face forwards when they did. As for Xisheng, he was struck by how commanding the voice of such a young girl could be. She certainly sounded older than fourteen, in tone if nothing else. Then again, she looked a far cry from fourteen as well. Sure, she had the height of a budding teenager, but her countenance, her poise, even the near flawlessness of her overall appearance: they all seemed unnatural on someone her age. Even so, she was very pretty. The severity of her expression didn't diminish the pure, piercing amber eyes that only the Royal Family laid claim to. Nor did it degrade the obsidian bangs that framed her features so perfectly.

Descending from the steps her palanquin rested on, the Princess wasted no time in beginning her succint briefing for their mission.

"General Iroh has disgraced and betrayed the Fire Nation, and brought shame to each and every one of us. My brother may be in league with him, or he may not. One way or another, you will be fighting members of the Royal Family. I understand some of you may have mixed feelings about this; but rest assured, I will not tolerate hesitation. If you cannot strike down Iroh and, potentially, my brother, I'll have no choice but to remove you from the Royal Guards. Permanently. Is that perfectly understood?"

"Yes, Princess!"

Even as Xisheng gave his affirmation along with his new comrades, he was glad for the helmet that hid his face. It allowed him to more or less gawk at the girl that was in total command. He had expected her to be stern, but not to threaten her own men. Then again, she was embarking on a mission to apprehend a legendary Firebender and master tactician. She would need complete dedication and unwavering conviction in the mission from her men, and this was one very effective way of ensuring it. Xisheng attributed her threat to that more than any other potential reason.

Regardless, the contingent of Royal Guards was dismissed after that short and to the point briefing. Strangely enough, there was little for Xisheng to actually do. There was actually very little for any of them to do. Their job was to guard the Princess. And while that was a much larger responsibility than any normal soldier had, it was also a very narrow range of responsibility. As a common soldier there was always something for Xisheng to do: check supplies, relay orders from officers, manage squads he may have been put in charge of, the works. Here he only had one job, and he couldn't very well do it unless the Princess was being attacked or in a compromised situation. Even on his first day, there was a surprising amount of downtime for a Royal Guard...

That being the case, Xisheng spent most of the day familiarizing himself with the ship and getting more familiar with his new comrades. What surprised him the most about the latter was the ratio of male and female guards. While women were certainly nothing new in the Fire Nation military, they were still a minority for the most part. Only about fifteen percent of enlisted troops were female, and only a moderately higher twenty percent were officers. This was mostly because most women didn't choose the military life, and because the draft didn't apply to them the same way it did men, because the ratio for the entire population was somewhat askew in favor of males.

Here though, roughly half of the Royal Guards were women. While some chauvinists in the regular Army disliked the idea of trusting women on the battlefield, here they were respected. And why not? They had all been required to prove themselves. They were all capable fighters, surely.

For Xisheng, the day passed very slowly. Aside from having nothing truly important to do, he was extremely unhappy to be aboard a ship once again, so soon after finishing one voyage. It wasn't until the late afternoon that someone actually brought forth a decent idea. One of the other relatively new Royal Guards, Akuwagata, suggested that he and Xisheng do a little sparring on the deck. He seemed to be as depressed with the boring nature of their first day as well, and since he was no longer the 'rookie' of the group thanks to Xisheng's induction, he wanted to test himself against the new guy. Xisheng had no problem with that, and the two of them found themselves on the deck of the barge rather quickly.

Xisheng thought it strange that they had the entire deck to themselves. He figured that more people would have been up here, enjoying the sea breeze or the vermilion shade of the sun on the waters, but there was no one else present. Everyone was below deck somewhere, or on the bridge. That being the case, at least he and Akuwagata had plenty of space to fight.

Their match was nothing special, though mostly because Akuwagata was nothing special. Xisheng hated to think that since it seemed kind of haughty on his part, but he didn't really see anything too impressive from his sparring partner. The man had raw power, but he didn't have any strategy. His method of fighting was little more than executing various combat forms, and it wasn't difficult to predict or even defend against. Xisheng had to actually hold back to have the match last longer than a minute. He supposed a regimented fighter could be useful in certain situations, perhaps against a score of typical combatants, but if it came down to a fight against a skilled warrior, like the traitor they were hunting, such an approach to fighting would be less than useless.

He was too rigid really. He almost fought like an Earthbender, with one set course of action that he didn't know how to deviate from. Still, maybe it was unfair to be so judgmental. In a one on one fight Akuwagata's style wasn't worth much, but coordinated with his comrades he would be much more efficient. Certain styles of fighting did fare better in certain situations, after all.

Xisheng was about to block another straightforward blast when Akuwagata stopped himself short, staring at the bridge of the ship for a second or two before bowing. Easily concluding what the holdup was, Xisheng turned around as well, spotting the Princess descending down the crimson carpet that shrouded the steps to the bridge. He of course wasted no time in bowing as well.

Surprisingly, the Princess seemed to find their actions amusing. Then again, that half sardonic tone she so excelled in exuding made it seem like she found everything amusing. "Please, don't stop on my account. What worth would you have as my guards if you didn't keep your skills sharp?"

Xisheng wasn't sure how to respond to this; she was technically giving them the go ahead to continue practicing, but protocol dictated that engaging in anything even remotely dangerous around the Royal Family was a massive folly. That included training within a hundred feet of the Crown Princess.

Thankfully Akuwagata voiced exactly that. "Your Highness, we will vacate the deck if you desire to occupy it..."

This reply earned a slight frown from the young girl. "Well, I see you weren't chosen for intellectual reasons. What part of 'don't stop on my account' was unclear? In fact, just consider it an order. I won't have my guards grow incompetent because they don't train."

With nothing to really say to that, Akuwagata bowed even further. "Yes, Your Highness."

With no means of dissent now, Xisheng and Akuwagata returned to their sparring match, though it was much more tense now. Xisheng had his back turned, so he didn't know what the Princess was doing, but what if she were watching them? Judging their abilities? Granted, if he could impress the Fire Lord Xisheng was reasonably confident he could impress his daughter as well, but that would mean demolishing Akuwagata, something that didn't sit quite right with him.

Thankfully, it became painfully obvious that the Princess wasn't watching them at all when a brief crackling sound heralded a bolt of electricity shooting forth from the deck of the ship. The lance of blue cracked across the amber sky, a strange sight indeed considering the temperate weather, but Xisheng was far too flabbergasted by the feat itself to dwell on its magnificence.

I'd heard rumors that the Royal Family could bend lightning, but I never thought it had much merit to it... does she even need protection when she is capable of such an incredible form of bending? I doubt even that traitor Iroh could counter that...

Briefly lost in thought as he was, Xisheng was caught off guard when a somewhat strained blast of fire came roughly his way. He said roughly because it was actually quite a bit off, so much so that Xisheng could simply stand still to avoid it. Unfortunately, letting the attack pass him was a very bad idea because of who was behind him. Even more unfortunately than that, Xisheng was too unprepared to somehow intercept the blast before it passed him.

He glanced over his shoulder to see the ball of flame hurtling right at the Princess, and he immediately questioned how he was going to die. Thrown overboard? Burnt to a crisp? Hanged? Who knew?

Alarmed as he was, Xisheng barely managed to breathe a sigh of relief when the blast of ill-aimed fire briefly turned an azure blue before dissipating at the hand of the Princess herself. Unfortunately, his relief didn't last long. The expression on the girl's face was calm as ever, but definitely unhappy. Disdainful maybe. Xisheng didn't know, but either way it was bad.

Azula sighed as though she had only been inconvenienced, stroking one of her bangs as she glanced off into the ocean. "Not for intellectual reasons indeed... if I were paranoid, I would almost accuse you of being an assassin of some sort, but no one that actually wanted to kill me would employ such a pathetic attack."

Akuwagata bowed so low his head was almost level with his knees. "M-m-my apologies P-Princess..."

"Oh, I'm sure. But I really don't care much for apologetic drivel. So stand up; you can hardly fight me like that."

There was a brief moment of confusion for the two Royal Guards, once again voiced by Akuwagata. "I-I don't understand, Your H-highness..."

The Princess leveled a disdainful glare at Akuwagata. She seemed to be exceptionally adept at that. "Yes, we've established already that you're lacking in mental acuity. It just seems to me that if you're so eager to train that you can't even control your own Firebending properly, you must need some 'advanced' opposition. Both of you are going to fight me. And it's going to hurt, but maybe you'll learn something useful."

Though she gave a relatively solid reason for doing this, Xisheng got the feeling the Princess just wanted to exact some petty revenge for the misstep of her subordinates. One could call her a terrible person for doing such a thing, but hell, she was actually being quite merciful. After all, had she been caught off guard she could have been seriously injured. Akuwagata had messed up, and so had Xisheng to some extent for failing to block the attack before it reached her. The Princess could have done any number of terrible, horrible things to them for endangering her, but she instead chose to simply mop the floor with them in a sparring match. Whether the goal was to just beat them up or humiliate them was a mystery.

Either way, Xisheng knew there was no getting out of this one, so he took a firm stance and prepared for the worst. Behind him, Akuwagata did the same, but he was clearly wavering and far too scared for his own good. The Princess actually seemed to appreciate Xisheng's resolve in facing her, though interpreting her expression was actually pretty difficult. But if there was one thing drilled into every soldier's head during training, it was to stand your ground against a foe no matter how outclassed you were, provided a fight was inevitable. It was a lesson Xisheng had displayed against Iroh. A lesson that Zuko probably could have used to very great effect before his banishment.

Either way, the Princess didn't wait even a moment for her far outclassed opponents to be ready, launching thin, spear-like bolts of azure flame at both of them simultaneously. Akuwagata, still fumbling in his stance, attempted to block it but was sent hurtling backwards, while Xisheng decided to dodge the blue flame rather than block it, considering his lack of experience with it. He had no idea how strong this variety of Firebending was compared to the regular kind, but he was willing to bet that the difference was significant.

However, he barely had a second after dodging the first attack before another bolt raced at him, and then a third when he dodged that one. Not only were the Princess' attacks powerful, but they were fast: much faster than any Firebender Xisheng had ever seen. It was all he could do to less than gracefully evade getting shot in the chest by rolling, ducking, and practically dropping to the deck of the ship to avoid getting hit.

By now Akuwagata had returned to his shaky feet, but he did nothing in regards to actually attacking the Princess. His lack of involvement on that front caused him to be almost entirely ignored by the teenager, who continued to harry Xisheng with shots that he was sure were not as strong or fast as they could have been. He got the distinct feeling that she was toying with him, which was no surprise really but still insulting. Xisheng knew he was not the best Firebender: he was certainly not better than the Princess. But he at least believed himself to be a good fighter. No matter who he was facing, he liked to think he at least provided some challenge.

Besides, he noticed that the Princess seemed to be rather disappointed in the whole ordeal, or bored at the very least. Xisheng could at least rectify that. Akuwagata may have been unwilling to attack the Princess, but she had explicitly stated that they were to fight her. Not stand around and get pummeled by her. With that in mind, Xisheng settled on returning fire after his next dodge.

Leaping over the next shot, Xisheng kicked out two wheels of flame, the duo soaring towards his target for but a moment before they were nonchalantly sidestepped. Even so, The Princess almost looked impressed. Almost.

"Bravo, one of you actually did something. I honestly thought you were going to let me shoot at you all day."

While he definitely wasn't going to bet on his interpretation of anything the Princess said, Xisheng felt that she too understood the inherent code of honorable combat for a Firebender: fight for fighting's sake. It didn't matter if you won, as long as you fought your absolute hardest.

With that notion in mind, Xisheng went on the attack, hurling every conceivable move he could at the Princess from his distance. He swept waves of fire at her feet, launched wheels of flame at her torso, curved fireballs from different angles, he even used the somewhat rare Sunder technique, launching a wall of flame at the girl that split in two as it traveled. They were all equally useless. Every single one was dodged or simply brought under the Princess' control before she forcefully dispersed them. The powerful Sunder technique was simply kicked into nothingness by one swipe of blue flame.

Desperate for some kind of headway, Xisheng tried his somewhat signature technique of blinding the enemy with an inferno before closing the distance. However, he had no time to employ the second half of the technique, as a condensed tendril of blue flame pierced the veil of orange and blasted Xisheng right in the chest, sending him stumbling backwards. The force of the blow was enough to knock the wind out of him and probably bruise his torso, but not pierce his armor.

Without him to power it, Xisheng's own attack faltered and dissipated, revealing the Princess looking no worse for wear than she had before. Still, Xisheng was standing, and not without energy. He wasn't going to stop now. But he had figured by now that he would never match the Princess in Firebending. Considering her unusual bending style, perhaps she was unskilled in hand to hand combat?

Trying to capitalize on that gamble, Xisheng used his Firebending to boost him forward, closing the distance between him and the Princess in but a few seconds. Of course, Xisheng was certain she could have reacted at any time to stop him from getting so close, but she must have been curious as to what his next attack would be.

Indeed, she was surprised to see a regular axe kick coming at her, but surprised or not she nevertheless dodged it. In fact, rather than retaliate at all, she simply avoided everything. Every punch, every kick, every feint, and certainly any other kind of threat her opponent posed. At some point Xisheng tried to crush the shorter girl under a downward elbow strike, but he found the Princess' fingers half an inch from his gut before he could connect, and a controlled yet nevertheless powerful spurt of blue flame smashed into Xisheng's stomach with enough force to keel him over in pain. In a second he was on his knees, struggling to breathe.

The Princess seemed convinced that the match was over, but she found herself rather pleasantly surprised when Xisheng struggled to his feet and took some semblance of a combat stance, though it was suffering from fatigue and pain.

The Princess cocked a curious eyebrow at him. "Are you a sane member of my guards, soldier?"

While he found it hard to speak, Xisheng knew he couldn't leave the Princess unanswered. "I... haven't been incapacitated yet... I can still fight...Your Highness..."

There was a brief moment of silence from the younger girl as she contemplated the man before her that looked no different than any of her other guards. "Is that so? Well in that case, I order you to stand down."

More than a little relieved to hear that, Xisheng dropped his stance, though he refrained from any display that was too unsightly.

"What's your name, soldier?"

Surprised that the Princess had anything else to say to him, Xisheng nevertheless managed a reply. "Lieu...Lieutenant Xisheng, Your Highness."

His response actually earned a small expression of surprise from the Princess. "Really? The same Xisheng that fought against my Uncle at the North Pole?"

"T-the same, Your Highness."

This actually elicited a slight smirk from the girl. "I didn't think you'd actually arrive in the Capital for induction before I left, Lieutenant. Allow me to commend you personally for your efforts to thwart my traitorous Uncle at the North Pole."

Xisheng wasn't sure how rare praise from the Crown Princess was, but based on what he had seen of her so far, he was convinced that it was a once in a blue moon occurrence. "You speak too highly of me Princess. I only did what was expected of any soldier."

"Oh, it's your duty as a common soldier alright, but I doubt there are many soldiers in our military that would have dueled the Dragon of the West. Furthermore, it's my understanding that you played a significant tactical role in the siege. The Fire Nation needs more soldiers like you, truly."

"I-I'm honored that Your Highness thinks so."

The Princess glanced down at her nails. "As for your combat prowess..."

This was the part Xisheng didn't want to hear. He had been soundly defeated without giving a single scratch in return, after all.

"You're good. Not even close to my level of course, but definitely better than most of the common rabble in our Army. More importantly, you fought me seriously despite knowing you couldn't win. Your awareness of the futility of your efforts didn't stop you from nevertheless fighting your hardest. Truth be told I admire your bravery, though I suppose it could be considered asinine as well."

Xisheng wasn't sure how he felt about that last spiel, since a lot of the compliments seemed kind of backhanded. But they were still compliments, so Xisheng decided to take them for what they were. As for the Princess, she turned on her heel, stalking back towards the bridge where her private quarters were. "Be on the deck by sunrise tomorrow morning Lieutenant. I prefer to train early."

Left speechless by that order that could have meant any number of things, Xisheng fumbled for some sort of reply. His shock didn't last long though, because the Princess seemed to remember something just before she left the deck.

"Oh, and one more thing."

Quickly turning on her heel, the Princess shot another of her blue lances of flame at Akuwagata, who was still standing on the far end of the ship. The impact was significantly harder than anything she had used in her spar, blasting the poor guard backwards and smashing him against the edge of the deck railing.

"Hesitating to fight members of the Royal Family includes me."

With that, the daughter of the Fire Lord finally made her exit, leaving Xisheng staring after her with a wide array of mixed feelings. He wasn't sure if she was a ruthless individual or simply a girl that knew what she wanted and expected and worked to make it happen. Either way, Xisheng decided to worry about the Princess' intentions in the morning later. Instead, he took a brief moment to futilely rub the soreness out of his torso, then turned and walked back towards Akuwagata to make sure the guy hadn't broken his spine or something.

Chapter Text

Chapter Text

Xisheng had buried himself in his training over the course of the next few days, having been thoroughly humiliated after the incident with the Princess and her friend. He still couldn't believe he had made such an unsightly display before them, and even now he was mortified.

Thankfully Azula hadn't made any mention of it whatsoever. In fact she seemed to have entirely forgotten about dinner that day in favor of enacting the next stage of her training curriculum. Having worked out the majority of the basics in the simple things like form and concepts, she was now attempting to actually teach Xisheng new things. Unfortunately, learning anything new from Azula was a grueling process. Like always, she demanded excellence, and it was difficult for someone that was not a prodigy to live up to her standards in any decent time frame. Even so, Xisheng had discovered by now that Azula was far easier to read as a teacher than a general person.

She was rather straightforward as an instructor. She did not expect perfection immediately, but she did expect you to strive for perfection as your end goal. As long as Xisheng gave his very best in learning what she had to teach him, she accepted his progress for what it was. Not that she never criticized him of course. She was harsh in pointing out his flaws, but it was always factual. A simple acknowledgement that he was not perfect yet and that he needed to improve, something that Xisheng knew as well as she did.

The most recent lesson was about accomplishing more with less. Generally speaking, bending a larger amount of an element required more energy and strength. This was especially true for Earth and Water Benders, but when it came to fire this concept was somewhat more subtle. Unlike bending the other elements, which involved the manipulation of outside forces, the source of power for Firebending came almost completely from within the bender. That being the case, the power of a bending inferno was completely relative to the bender's own power.

Azula had made the comparison to a fixed value and a shifting one. In Earthbending, the weight of a boulder did not change regardless of how skilled the bender was. From amateur to master, a five hundred pound boulder was five hundred pounds to anyone that tried to lift it. Firebending was different in the sense that a more powerful Firebender could produce an inferno of a certain size at far less cost than a less skilled Firebender.

Metaphorically, the five hundred pound boulder would only weigh two hundred to a more skilled Firebender than an amateur one. It was a completely relative scale, and it also explained why Azula was as powerful as she was. She could produce infernos of an equal caliber to Xisheng, but at far less expense than him. In that sense a weaker Firebender like Xisheng could never match her in raw power or attrition.

So if Xisheng could learn to regulate his power more effectively, he could begin to create more flames but with less energy. It was the key to fighting powerful enemies or waging prolonged battles.

Unfortunately, Xisheng had not even gotten close to reaching a new level. It was difficult to simply... gain more power. For one, Xisheng didn't even know what that meant. Azula told him that it would happen naturally as he trained. Supposedly all benders gained more strength simply through practice. Their bodies adapted to the flow of chi to be more efficient, or they simply became capable of utilizing more of it. Bending being around as long as it had, there was actually a great deal of knowledge on it throughout the nations.

But Xisheng had not conducted too much research on it. For now, he understood that more training would give him more power, though his current regimen with Azula was difficult. For the past few days they had been pitting their infernos against each other in direct clashes, Xisheng simply giving it his all in an attempt to overpower her. Naturally he had yet to succeed, and even though the training was simple and straightforward, it was far from easy. Unleashing that much power in so short a time frame was truly taxing, especially when you had to compete against a even larger force.

That was why Xisheng was taking advantage of any chance he could to rest. Right now, he was just trying to enjoy some breakfast as the ship sailed forward to their next destination. Unfortunately all he had to eat was rice, since he still couldn't stomach much else. On the bright side he had this little section of the deck to himself. A lot of other Royal Guards were on the deck as well, but they were scattered enough in their activities to avoid bothering Xisheng's alone time, something he didn't get too much of.

"I'm so happy Azula has left you in one piece so far Gohan!"

Startled by the loud and bubbly voice that erupted directly behind him, Xisheng nearly dropped his bowl of rice overboard. Thankfully he managed to save the meal in time, and he turned to face the acrobat that had crept up on him from behind.

"Ah, y-yes, that's fortunate... what... what did you just call me?"

Ty Lee smiled at him without apology. "It's your new nickname! For all the rice."

Xisheng didn't know how much he could breach protocol in this situation, but he felt the need to speak openly. "Ty Lee, please don't call me that..."

The brunette's beaming smile just grew even wider. "Sorry, no can do. I've already settled on it, and I think it fits really well."

"So you're seriously going to call me 'rice' just because of my eating habits?"

"Yes Gohan, yes I am."

Xisheng was about to resist further, but Azula walked by him on her way to the center of the deck. "Stop whining Gohan, we have a lot of practice to do."

Ty Lee giggled at the defeated expression on Xisheng's face as he turned to follow the Princess to the largest part of the deck for their training. On the bright side, at least he knew Azula was calling him that just to antagonize him.

The following day, Azula's ship docked at a new harbor in the Earth Kingdom, and the Princess disembarked with an actual portion of her retinue. Roughly half of the Royal Guards accompanied her off of the Barge along with her palanquin, and of course Xisheng and Ty Lee were there. While Xisheng had initially been ignorant of their objective, the ever talkative Ty Lee had informed him of their plans quickly enough.

"...and that's why we're heading to Omashu to rescue Mai from certain death."

With his helmet actually equipped considering the situation, Xisheng cocked an eyebrow at the girl that flipped and cartwheeled on the road to Omashu alongside him. "But... we control Omashu now and this girl is supposedly the daughter of the new governor. What is there to save her from?"

"Oh Gohan-"

"Please stop that."

"No. Anyway, as I was saying, you'll get what I mean when we see her. She's probably thought about jumping off a roof at least once a day since the occupation started. You know what she'll probably say when we get there? 'I'm bored, please kill me, there's nothing to do here, my aura is gray and dingy and I hate everything, bleh."

Xisheng's look of confusion amplified, though it was of course still hidden. "That sounded... overly harsh for someone who is supposedly one of your best friends..."

Ty Lee shot him one of her usual blinding smiles as she began walking on her hands. "Well of course, it was just a joke. I mean, she will probably say a lot of that stuff, but that's just who she is. She doesn't really have a passion for anything, so-"

"That can't be true."

Surprised at the rather blunt interruption, Ty Lee glanced up at the soldier that was walking beside her. "What do you mean?"

Returning the hazel gaze he was offered, Xisheng shrugged. "There's no such thing as not having any passion whatsoever. Everybody cares about something. Even if people aren't vocal about it, they have a passion."

"Hm... well, I guess Mai may have a passion for knives."

"Uh, knives...?"

"Yep. And arrows, and daggers, and blades of any shape and size really. Let's just keep it simple and say anything that can pierce, cut, gut, slash, or gouge the human body."

Xisheng gulped as he tried to picture the kind of psycho Ty Lee was describing to him. He had been kind of eager to see what other kind of company Azula had kept when she was a child, but all of a sudden he was feeling a little anxious about it. What kind of madwoman were they going to fetch today...?"

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

As always, Xisheng gave silent praise for the helmet that hid his face. For one, it allowed him to hide his incredulous and confused expression upon hearing these words. Secondly, and more importantly, it also hid his relative gawking. The girl they had come to fetch, Mai, was extremely severe. Xisheng could tell that much even though he had just laid eyes on her. But it was a graceful seriousness, and definitely a beautiful one. She had piercing eyes of a dull amber that held sharpness and wit to them, and her raven hair had even more of a total darkness to it than Azula's did. Xisheng had a thing for dark hair, and he had to admit that Mai's was quite beautiful.

Either way, there was a moment of awkward silence in which Xisheng had trouble telling how serious Mai was, but she soon cracked the slightest of grins for her friends to see that indicated she was joking. It was strange, since she did not seem to be the joking type.

Even so, she was quickly greeted by a hug from both of her friends, though Ty Lee's was naturally more enthusiastic. "It's so good to see you again, Mai!"

"You too Ty Lee. But I'm surprised you're here at all, I thought you had found your calling in the circus or something."

The acrobat finally released her hold on the friend she was seeing for the first time in many years, nearly a full minute after Azula had done the same. "I did honestly, but Azula needs my help on a very important mission. I can always go back when this is all done, but this is something Azula needs my help with now."

Mai glanced over at her other present friend and Princess. "I'm assuming you're here to recruit me for this mission of yours too? Please tell me you are."

Azula smirked at her. "Come now Mai, you don't even know what the mission is. Besides, why would you possibly want to leave such a comfy position here in the city to go traipsing about with me in the countryside?"

The night haired girl glared slightly at her for even asking questions with such obvious answers. "I would rather do anything than sit around here for another day. And you know damn good and well that nothing, absolutely nothing is more boring than a political position. You know what I do all day around here? I laze around, twirling my knives until my Dad needs me to appear as a member of the governor's perfect family. We can go camping in the backwoods of the Earth Kingdom for all I care. Please, just take me with you."

This completely deadpan yet totally earnest plea from her earned a giggle from Ty Lee and an even wider smirk from Azula, the latter of which shrugged. "Well, while I do so hate to bring you on so harsh an adventure, who am I to say no? Unfortunately my objective isn't nearly so plebeian as camping. We're hunting my Uncle... and Zuko."

Mai's body visibly stiffened for the briefest of moments, but she quickly relaxed into some semblance of control. "News of your Uncle has spread this far already, but this is the first time I've heard about Zuko. What happened?"

The Crown Princess folded her arms as a more somber expression took over her features. "Well on a technicality he attacked a member of the Royal Family and he aided a fugitive in escaping from Fire Nation custody. Unofficially, Iroh's sunk his claws into him and he's confused. Don't worry Mai; I have no intention of bringing in my brother unless it becomes a necessary last resort."

Listening to all of this, Mai uttered a long, drawn out sigh. "Zuko confused? Why am I not surprised? But you really think your Uncle is leading him on?"

"Almost certainly. He's likely been spewing nonsense in Zuko's ear for the last few years. It's no surprise that dear Zuzu has been swayed considering Iroh has been the only major influence he has had all this time. But I believe I have already put some doubt into his mind regarding the trust he has placed in the man. If we're lucky, the next time we see Zuko he'll have figured out where his loyalties lie."

Mai's gaze narrowed as she heard this. "And is that the reason you want to bring me along? Hoping that Zuko will be more likely to come quietly if I'm there?"

The Princess shrugged, unfazed by the mild accusation. "I'll admit that I have considered that as a benefit, but ultimately there's no guarantee that we'll have such an advantage. It has been over three years Mai, and the two of you were quite young before he was exiled..."

These words caused Mai to scowl, prompting Ty Lee to make an intervention of some sort. "Azula, is that really necessary...?"

Surprisingly, Mai cut her off. "No, she's right Ty Lee. We weren't even really a thing before he left. There's no point in expecting him to really care after all this time."

"But Mai-"

"We'll see how things stand when we see him again Ty Lee. That's all there is to it."

Suitably cut off from that tangent, Azula moved onto another. "So, while I would like to get underway with my own mission as quickly as possible, I've heard reports of resistance fighters here in Omashu. If the situation is yet to be quelled, I would like to speak to your father."

Mai cringed just slightly at the mention of it. "About those rebels..."

She began leading Azula towards the palace that her father had taken residence in as governor, leaving Xisheng with Ty Lee. "She's certainly..."

"Strange? Weird? Unusual?"

"Unique."

"Aw, Gohan, you're so sweet, using such nice words to describe her! You can be brutally honest you know, I won't tell."

Xisheng rolled his eyes as he began to follow the other guards after the Princess. "I could have some sweeter things to say about you if you'd stop calling me that..."

The girl trailed after him with a smile on her face. "Just because you don't say them doesn't mean you aren't thinking them Gohan..."

Rather than fight a futile battle, Xisheng simply sighed to himself, concluding that there really was no way to win against a girl of this nature.

"So, let's make sure I have this scenario right."

Ukano, the recently appointed governor of Omashu, swallowed hard as he prepared to listen to Azula's retelling of events in the city during the last few days. He and his wife were both uneasy facing the Fire Nation Princess, especially since they had not been expecting her. At least Mai seemed calm, but when did she ever seem flustered?

As for Azula, she was trying to wrap her head around the incompetence that had been displayed here in the past few days as she reclined on the chair she had more or less commandeered from the governor.

"Not only did you not make it a top priority to root out the enemy resistance fighters that were plaguing the city, but you let them all escape thanks to a stunt that involved a fabricated illness that you did not bother to check the validity of with a doctor. Moreover, even if you did believe it was real, you decided to let them just walk out of Omashu, rather than quarantine them in a sector of the city for further investigation. Or, if it was absolutely necessary, it didn't occur to you to just burn the pestilence away with the hundreds of Firebenders under your command here? I do believe that is what you're telling me."

Ukano bowed his head as low to the floor as he could manage. "F-forgive me your Highness, but the troops panicked under the threat of a plague..."

Azula likely would have continued her verbal lashing if Mai didn't have something to say. "To be fair Azula, the gate guards let them out of the city without any orders. There wasn't enough time to tell them to contain the threat."

The Crown Princess sighed in frustration. While she would never admit it, she had actually grown accustomed to Xisheng's competence as a soldier. She had almost forgotten that there were still plenty of incompetent simpletons in the army.

"Well, nothing can be done about that now. But as for this trade of hostages you are planning..."

While she would never speak up against the Princess under normal circumstances, Mai's mother did so now. "Princess, they have our son. We can't let the rebels keep him, he's just a toddler!"

"Indeed, he is just a toddler. And you want to exchange the King of Omashu for him, an extremely powerful Earthbender and a grave threat to our forces."

Though she was nowhere near as open about it as her parents, Mai still didn't like where Azula may have been going with this. "Azula, you aren't suggesting-"

Already knowing what Mai was going to ask, Azula cut her off. "Not to worry Mai, I'm not suggesting that we just let the enemy keep your brother. But there are far better ways to go about this than making a completely one-sided exchange."

The governor still did not look convinced. "But they have demanded King Bumi..."

"Leave the negotiations to me, governor. I will get your son back, and at no great cost to ourselves while I'm at it."

"T-t-thank you, your Highness..."

Off to the side, Xisheng stood next to Ty Lee, something that was starting to become quite typical in these situations. Neither of them was well-versed in the political trappings of the world, so they often found themselves as little more than passive observers to Azula's machinations.

"The Princess is quite capable of controlling the conversation..."

Ty Lee traded her usual beaming smile for a slight grin since the prior may have been a bit out of place in their situation. "You didn't really just figure that out, did you?"

"Of course not, it was obvious the very first time I spoke to her."

This brief tangent may have continued a bit longer, if the Princess did not descend from King Bumi's stolen throne. "If I remember correctly the trade is supposed to occur in just over an hour. Let us go ahead and make the necessary preparations for a smooth... 'exchange.' Governor, take me to King Bumi."

"O-of course, your Highness."

If there was one thing Azula respected, it was genius. She knew that she was far from the only gifted individual in the world, and that others had been blessed with prodigious talents as well. That said, she had heard of King Bumi, the supposedly legendary tactical genius, but in light of recent events she found herself questioning his title.

She stood alone in the chamber in which King Bumi had been imprisoned, staring at the steel coffin he was encased in, which covered every part of him save his wrinkled face. Thankfully the governor had at least been smart enough to place him in a room devoid of stone, as Fire Nation engineers had covered everything in this small square space in steel. To his credit though, Bumi did not seem concerned. Of course, that could have just been because he was insane.

She briefly wondered if she should have brought Xisheng along so she could make a lesson out of this, but she reminded herself that she was his teacher as a Firebender more than anything else. He would have to take notes on anything else he wished to learn from her when he was in her presence. For now, she wished to converse with the Mad King alone, which was why everyone else was outside of the chamber making other preparations that she had commanded.

For now she would focus on the conversation she was about to have with the old geezer that had greatly disappointed her so far, despite this being their first encounter.

"So, I finally get to meet the exalted king of Omashu, alleged tactical genius... I must say, I expected someone a little more... sane."

The mad king snorted and cackled, producing sounds that made Azula want to set his hair on fire. "So rude, for royalty to greet each other with insults. To what do I owe the honor of this visit Princess?"

"Honestly this is a friendly visit. I have no need to speak to you, but I find myself doing so because I am curious. You see, reports from the general that took your city state that he marched in without any resistance whatsoever. And while I would like to simply be grateful for the swift victory, I cannot help but ask: why? What could have possibly possessed you to surrender without so much as a single iota of resistance?"

Bumi wrinkled his nose in some sort of distaste. "Why you ask? I just didn't feel like fighting that day. You see, I woke up on the wrong side of the bed that morning and you know what they say-"

Irritated by this nonsense, Azula didn't suffer it. "Cut the tripe, you fool. You and I both know your feigned insanity is a ploy to make your foes underestimate you. Either that, or you truly are insane. So which is it?"

The deposed king frowned back at her, not used to being stopped cold so quickly. "Or, a little of both perhaps? There's a fine line that divides genius and insanity..."

"Indeed there is. But that line is whether or not something works. Needless to say allowing us to march in unopposed didn't work, making you insane, not a genius."

Bumi smirked at her. "Or did it? The entire battle passed without a single casualty for my people. I'd say it worked quite well."

"Yet you've lost control of the city and handed over a vital stronghold to your enemies, when you could have easily defeated them or at least inflicted heavy damage upon them. You had the high ground, and destroying the bridge that leads to the city would have forced the Fire Nation forces to climb the slopes to even reach Omashu. Dispatching them at that point would have been simple for a defending force made up of Earthbenders."

"Not all battles are won with weapons and soldiers your Highness. It wasn't the right time for a fight. I will liberate my city when the time is right."

Azula shook her head as she scoffed at the man. "Perhaps there would not be a city to liberate were you not such a fool. But I digress: your senility has greatly improved our situation. Now Ba Sing Se is the last stronghold we must conquer to win this war, and you yourself may have planted the seeds of our victory. But for now, we have something more important to attend to. Your city's resistance is attempting to have you freed, and I doubt we can have any sort of trade without you actually present."

Bumi looked perturbed by this news, but said nothing on the matter. Azula could only assume that his own resistance forces were throwing a wrench into some sort of plan of his, but she did not care for that. After all, in one of the many outcomes this day could have, King Bumi would not even survive it.

There was a certain dramatic flair to having an exchange like this one on the scaffolding surrounding the statue of Ozai being constructed. Or at least, Xisheng thought so. Moreover, he questioned why a statue was being erected this soon after the battle. Surely there were more important things they could put their time and resources into, but then again, Omashu was one of the few Earth Kingdom cities that wasn't rolling in corruption and poverty. Good military leader or not, Bumi at least kept things in far better order than Ba Sing Se.

Either way, the grounds for the trade was what it was, unusual or not, but what was strange for Xisheng was the scrutiny with which he was being observed by the newest member of Azula's flunkies. Of course, he was absolutely positive that it wasn't a flattering analysis, as Mai did not seem the type for it, and even if she were he was still fully armored.

That said, as the four of them stood among the scaffolding, waiting for the arrival of the resistance negotiators, Xisheng could do nothing but suffer her piercing gaze in silence. Eventually though Mai broke her dedicated vigil to pose a question to Azula. "I understand why you might bring some of your guards as backup, but why did you only bring one?"

Azula glanced over her shoulder curiously, Mai not being one that asked too many questions, but before she could offer any response Ty Lee essentially tackled Xisheng with a hug, wrapping her arms around his neck. "This is no ordinary soldier Mai! This is Gohan, Azula's personal pupil!"

Xisheng made it halfway to clarifying that his name was not in fact what Ty Lee claimed it to be, but Mai cocked an eyebrow at Azula first. "Seriously? You took on a student? That's got to be a joke."

"Oh, it's not a joke, Mai. Though it does sound like one coming from Ty Lee."

"Why? What's the point in taking on dead weight like that? He'll just slow us down."

This comment kind of stung, but it actually only caused Azula to smirk. "Really Mai, you think I would take any common rabble as my personal student? I assure you my pupil is no pushover. He won't get in the way. Or at least, he better not."

Azula marked the end of that statement with a glare in Xisheng's direction, though he took it as more of a high expectation as opposed to a threat. Mai simply cast another doubtful look at him, choosing to ignore him after that final glance in favor of looking forward, just in time to spot their quarry in fact.

"Azula."

The Crown Princess turned to face forward once again, and Ty Lee came out of the handstand she had been doing to stand on her feet, allowing the entire troop to focus on what was now before them: a group of kids that Xisheng recognized from personal experience, with a dark haired toddler in the arms of the boy who was clearly of Water Tribe descent.

As the trio of kids approached, Xisheng lowered his voice to speak to the Princess. "Milady, that boy in the orange is the Avatar."

Azula cocked an eyebrow at the approaching monk. "Well, I can't imagine anyone other than an Airbender wearing such garish attire. Make no move against him yet. And let me do all of the talking."

"As you command."

As the two groups got close enough to speak to one another, Azula took the lead, ignoring Tom-Tom's infantile babbling and needy pawing in Mai's direction. He clearly recognized his big sister. "So, the rebel scum actually held onto their end of the bargain. I'm honestly surprised."

Instead of retorting to this, the Avatar, head wrapped in an orange cloth, jabbed a finger at her. "Where's Bumi?! What have you done with him?!"

Azula frowned at the bluntness. "So uncivilized. Worry not, that senile old coot is present."

The Crown Princess snapped her fingers, and King Bumi was lowered to their position by a pulley, still encased in a steel coffin. Xisheng could only assume that some engineers somewhere had been stationed for this purpose. Unfortunately, they had not gone out of their way to gag the old man.

"Helllloooo everybody! Did you miss me?"

Surprisingly, Azula mumbled to herself quietly enough for the Avatar's group not to hear. "Not in the slightest..."

Ignoring her, King Bumi took a gander at his surroundings, as well as he could at any rate, and turned his gaze on Xisheng when he finished. "My my, aren't you the lucky one? Three pretty girls to keep you company at night."

Xisheng blundered in his response, not dense enough to miss the implication being made or the visual it presented him with. The sight of it got a giggle out of Ty Lee, but the more reserved girls ignored it for the situation at hand.

Completely unaware of the brief exchange, the Water Tribe boy holding Tom-Tom made to place the toddler on the ground. "Alright, we've held up our end of the deal. Let King Bumi out of there."

Azula actually scoffed at his simplicity. "There are a dozen reasons why that would be a terrible idea. But here's the main one; why should I have to trade the King of Omashu for a toddler?"

The Avatar's trio looked taken aback, and Mai's expression became just the slightest bit more negative than neutral. But she was still trusting Azula for the moment.

On the Avatar's side, the only girl in the group seemed agitated by these words. "I should have known the Fire Nation wouldn't value the life of a child over their strategic advantage!"

"Really? Because last time I checked, the 'evil' Fire Nation wasn't the one holding a mere child hostage so they could further their own position. Isn't that right, Avatar?"

For some reason, the Avatar seemed surprised. "W-what? How did you-?"

"You are literally traipsing about in the colors of the Air Nomads, of which you are the last. How could anyone not connect those dots? That being said, I thought you were supposed to be the good guy?"

"I-I am!"

"And yet here you are, holding a three year old hostage all so you can free King Bumi, who I assume you wish to teach you Earthbending. You are holding a child for ransom just so you can advance your own position, and yet you accuse us of being evil?"

Clearly rattled by this accusation, the Avatar had to rely on his male accomplice to answer for him, the boy waving about some primitive club as he accosted them. "Like you're any better! You're holding someone hostage to advance your position too!"

"Indeed we are. A fully grown man who, might I add, willingly surrendered to us and our custody. Tell me, did Tom-Tom wave a white flag for you? Give an eloquent speech explaining his surrender perhaps?"

The Avatar faltered even further, though his allies did not. The Water Tribe girl was especially vehement. "We're not going to fall for your tricks. If anything, you're just making it obvious how desperate you are-"

"No."

Cut off by the Avatar himself, the girl turned to him. "What?"

The Airbender was staring at the ground, grip tight on his staff. "She's right Katara. We're supposed to be the good guys, aren't we? What we're doing here is wrong!"

"But Aang, what about Bumi?"

As if his name was an invitation to talk, Bumi did exactly that. "Don't you worry about me Aang. You're doing the right thing. Besides, this contraption is actually kinda comfy. It could use a little renovation, but..."

Wanting to stop him before he started to ramble, Azula cut the old man off. "So, what will it be, Avatar? Contrary to popular belief, I do have quite a lot to do."

Aang furrowed his brow in consternation for a moment, but ultimately Azula had read him all too well. "Let's just give him back guys. It's the right thing to do."

His allies both gave him a questioning look, but in the end they nodded their agreement with his choice, the boy lowering Tom-Tom to the ground so the toddler could take some faltering steps towards his sister. Mai crouched down to scoop him up in her arms when he got close enough, and Azula stopped their hostile negotiators before they even thought to leave.

"So, onto our next order of business..."

Katara glared at her. "We have no other business. Don't even think about it."

"Come now, you didn't think I would just let the most dangerous risk to my nation's cause walk away from me did you? And from a city under Fire Nation control no less? Surrender. It's the easiest for all of us."

As if naturally more hostile just because her opponent was a woman, Katara snapped at her. "You think we're going to just roll over and give up because you said so?"

"Of course not... I expect you to surrender for the greater good. You see, normally I would threaten the citizens of the city itself, but a certain someone allowed most of them to leave. So I'll have to make do with what I have: this senile dustbin that you seem to care about so much. So here's the deal. You surrender completely and unconditionally or I test the conductivity of Bumi's metal coffin with a little lightning. Or perhaps toss him off the edge of the scaffolding. Or even just let Mai stab him in the face. Whatever works."

Azula's ultimatum earned a myriad array of reactions from everyone assembled. Naturally, Mai didn't seem to care at all, her expression a perfect mask of neutrality. Ty Lee looked shocked that such a grave threat was being issued. Xisheng's face was hidden of course, but he had no qualms with the Princess' tactically adept move. On the other side the Water Tribe natives were either gritting their teeth or glaring icy daggers at them, but the Avatar just seemed conflicted. And his reaction was the most important one.

As before, Katara was determined to keep the situation between them hostile. "Don't listen to her Aang, she's bluffing! It's just a trick!"

Knowing full well that the largest influence when it came to pressure was time, Azula made sure to bring it to bear. "You have ten seconds to comply Avatar. Otherwise he dies."

Now provided with an extremely sparse time frame to make his decision, Aang found it almost impossible to reach a conclusion of any sort. Naturally he wanted to do whatever it took to save Bumi, but both Katara and Sokka were telling him not to do it. And of course he knew that the fate of the world was in his hands, but what would be the point of saving the world if he couldn't even save one of his closest friends?

Unfortunately Aang wasn't used to situations this dire at all. His mind was moving far too fast for his mouth, and he was stuttering and floundering and altogether failing to say what he needed to say. Being a woman of her word, Azula merely shrugged as the time limit she had set passed. "So be it then."

The Crown Princess conjured one of her sapphire flames in her palm, turning to face Bumi's cage with the clear intent to strike written on her face. To his credit, Bumi himself did not look overly perturbed. Then again, when you got to be as old as he was, surely you came to expect death on any given day, from old age if nothing else.

Even Ty Lee could tell that Azula was serious, shielding her eyes from the approaching violence, but there was no need to. Azula was only halfway through launching her fatal attack when the Avatar sprung into action.

"No!"

While Aang's cry of opposition was basic, it was punctuated by a massive blast of wind that rocketed all four of the Fire Nation natives away from Bumi's prison. Sent flying, Xisheng decided against simply recovering to save himself and made to assist Mai, since she was unable to use her hands with Tom-Tom cradled securely in her arms. She'd have a hard time landing on her feet with such a burden.

Using the force of of his Firebending to correct his flight a little sooner than his non-bending counterparts, Xisheng managed to plant his boots on solid ground just in time to catch Mai in his arms, though the force of her impact made him skid a few more feet. He briefly noted Ty Lee careening a bit farther past him before she managed to catch herself as well.

"Are you alright milady?"

While normally not one to show gratitude, Mai decided she at least owed him that much since he had helped protect Tom-Tom as well. "I'm fine. Thanks."

Even so, that was all she offered before getting to her own feet. Gratitude or not, it was sparse. Xisheng hoped it was because she was just a somber individual and not because she was actively hostile towards him. Either way, he didn't have long to think about it since Ty Lee was in his ear a second later.

"Hey! Why didn't you catch me?!"

Genuinely confused, Xisheng cocked an eyebrow at her underneath his helmet. "You're an extremely skilled acrobat, I knew you would be fine. And Lady Mai was holding her brother."

The currently ex-circus performer blushed. "Aw, you had faith in me, huh? Still, catch me next time! I want to be in the arms of a strong guy too! Mai didn't even appreciate it!"

The two of them glanced towards the aforementioned girl just in time to see her pinning Tom-Tom to the floor of the scaffolding with two knives through his pants. "Don't wander off this time."

The young child simply uttered some unintelligible gibberish in reply, but as he tried to move it seemed that he was well and truly stuck. She must have driven those knives in pretty deep. All of that aside, Azula had recovered in the same manner that Xisheng did, and she was already moving forward to engage the enemy. "Don't just stand there! Xisheng, with me! Mai, Ty Lee, get the other two!"

Xisheng rushed forward to assist his teacher, who was heading directly for the Avatar that was likewise rushing for Bumi in some attempt to free him from his bondage. Still, he called out to the other girls as they moved towards their own fight. "Watch out for the Avatar's Sky Bison! It has to be around here somewhere!"

He missed the incredulous expression that briefly crossed Mai's face at the mention of a 'Sky Bison,' instead following Azula's lead as she leaped over the steel coffin Bumi rested in to launch a flaming blue kick at the rapidly approaching Airbender. Aang was forced to leap backwards to avoid it, but even as he landed he had to repeat the maneuver to dodge a typical orange blast that came from Xisheng. Azula gave him a brief look of curiosity as he landed beside her.

"This may be a little off-topic, but how much experience do you have fighting in tandem Xisheng?"

"I was in the Army Your Highness. It's all fighting in tandem."

As for Mai and Ty Lee, they had a more interesting battle to wage. Even without actually facing him yet, Mai could tell that the Water Tribe boy was far from an experienced warrior, and definitely far from a threat. It was obvious that he had strength, but he had no real training. The clumsiness of his movements made that obvious. As for the girl, she had the fluidity of movement that pointed to real training, but she didn't have the sure steps of experience. She was young after all, and it was unlikely she had fought in too many truly serious conflicts.

Then again, it was not as if Mai was a seasoned veteran herself. She had hardly fought in any real battles. But she had been training with her myriad array of weapons for years. Since she was eight actually, and that many years of practice ensured that she moved with the skill and grace of an experienced warrior. Lucky for her throwing sharp things had been a halfway decent cure for boredom during her childhood, or she'd be nowhere near as skilled as she was now.

All things considered, Mai decided to ignore her male adversary in favor of launching an array of her knives at Katara. Unfortunately they were all blocked by a wall of ice, but she had not expected immediate success. Besides, she was just covering Ty Lee's approach.

The acrobat was speeding as quickly as she could towards Katara, knowing that it was her job to disable the bender more than anything else. Normally she would attempt a lot more dodging and weaving in her approach, but Mai was doing an excellent job of keeping Katara's attention with a rain of very pointy objects. Skilled as she had become through her tenure under Pakku, Katara still couldn't counter two opponents at once.

That said Ty Lee had an easy approach, one that wasn't made any more difficult by the clumsy swing of a club along the way. She leaped over that with ease, twirling through the air in a manner truly befitting of her station, and landed right next to Katara, who barely had time to use her Waterbending to carry her away from a chi-blocking fist.

"Oh, come on! I just put a ton of work into getting over here!"

Instead of receiving any sort of apology for dodging her attack, Katara sent back a deadly icicle spear, though Ty Lee had no issue sidestepping it.

"Hey, rude!"

"I could say the same to you!"

Back on Azula's end of things, she was pleasantly surprised to find that Xisheng was quite adept at working together with her. She didn't have to give him any special instructions even. He simply read her movements and followed her lead as efficiently as he could manage, which was quite well considering his recent yet thorough training with her. Every time the Avatar dodged one of Azula's attacks, the place he dodged to was filled with orange flame. Xisheng worked in nigh perfect harmony as far as boxing in the Avatar was concerned, which was critical considering how evasive of a fighter he was. So far the entire fight had been the Avatar on defense. He hadn't even managed to strike back yet.

"I must say Xisheng, you continue to impress me even now. I recognized your prowess in single combat but you're quite capable on a team as well."

Xisheng subconsciously noted that Azula was calling him by name rather than his rank. "Thank you, Your Highness. I'm glad to be able to serve so well."

"Well, I'm certainly looking forward to the exercises we can try now that we have Mai and Ty Lee as well. I'm quite looking forward to it."

The Avatar took this break in the attack to make a quip of his own. "That sounds fun. You guys should go do that!"

Azula turned to launch more of her signature dart-like attacks at the boy. "I'm afraid I'll have to politely decline. We'll have plenty of time to do that after you're captured or killed. Either is acceptable."

Deciding that he didn't quite like the way Azula spoke so casually about killing him, Aang swung his stuff in a wide arc that sent a roaring wave of wind at his foes. Unfortunately they both took the brunt of his attack with their Firebending, but it at least gave Aang enough time to take stock of the situation. To say the least, the fight between his friends and Azula's allies was not going well. Sokka had already had both arms paralyzed, courtesy of Ty Lee after he had tried to attack her with his club again. Now he was just trying to flip, flop, and flounder around all of the dangerous pointy things Mai was throwing at him.

As for Katara, she was being pressured by Ty Lee in close quarters, just barely managing to stay out of range of her knuckles with swipes of water or thin walls of ice. She attempted to retaliate with water whips and even more lethal icicle spears, but Ty Lee always managed to contort her body at some extreme angle to dodge them no matter how Katara attempted to make contact.

In short, it was bad. Bad enough for Sokka to voice as much. "Aang, we need to get out of here! We're getting our butts kicked!"

No one had the heart to point out that only Sokka had gotten his butt kicked so far, so Aang instead pointed out his unwillingness to leave. "Not without Bumi! We can't leave him here!"

Well aware that Aang and his allies were completely disadvantaged here, Bumi called out to him. "It's fine Aang! I can take care of myself, you can't win here!"

Still attempting to burn holes in the Avatar's glider as Xisheng boxed him towards the ground with wider arcs of flame, Azula smirked. "King Bumi actually offering sound, logical, advice? The world may as well end now."

Jokes aside, the situation went from bad to worse when Ty Lee front flipped over the next water whip that came her way, striking Katara in the shoulder as she sailed over her. The Waterbender's arm immediately went limp, and the water it had been manipulating splashed to the ground uselessly.

"My arm!"

Sokka ran to her side, his arms still completely worthless at his own flanks. "Welcome to the club. Now what?!"

Ty Lee flipped away from her adversary to stand by Mai, who had already armed her right hand with plenty more weapons. "Now you surrender or get turned into pincushions. I hope you barbarians are at least smart enough to figure that one out."

Instead of giving any sort of snarky reply, Katara whipped another gush of water at Mai, encasing her right hand in ice and thoroughly neutralizing the threat of any weapons in that hand. To her credit, Mai barely glanced at the block of ice now entrapping her slender fingers, instead choosing to slip a thin needle into the palm of her left hand.

"Suit yourself."

Snapping the projectile at her too fast for Katara to intercept with her good arm neutralized, the Waterbender took the needle straight to the shoulder, splotching her blue attire with a spot of red. Surprisingly, her brother seemed more concerned at this development than Katara herself did, the Waterbender taking all of the liquid she had to form a thin yet sturdy barrier of ice between her position and Mai's.

"Aang, this is getting really bad! We have to run!"

While he was still busy bobbing and weaving through a literal firestorm, Aang nevertheless managed to glance between his new friends and his old one. He had no desire to leave Bumi here in Omashu with the Fire Nation, but the longer they stayed the more he risked something happening to Katara and Sokka.

"Bumi... I'm sorry!"

Still trapped as always, Bumi smiled at the boy. "Don't worry Aang. You just get out of here, I'll be fine!"

Despite his reluctance to leave, Aang went through the motions necessary to organize his escape, forming a powerful cyclone of air with his bending prowess that protected him from the immediate Firebending threat and giving him enough time to turn tail and sprint away from Azula and Xisheng. Once the residual flames faded enough for Azula to take stock of the situation, she noted with dismay that the Avatar's impressive speed had already placed him out of her immediate effective range.

"Mai, stop him!"

Taking the command to heart, Mai unleashed a hail of razor discs at the boy, throwing them with pinpoint interception accuracy that would have made for a series of clean hits, if only the Avatar didn't turn in his sprint just long enough to blast the projectiles away with his Airbending. This now posed the problem of several deadly projectiles soaring towards Azula's retinue, but thankfully all four of them had good enough reflexes to escape injury. Unfortunately, by the time they managed that, the Avatar and his comrades had already leaped over the edge of the scaffolding that was their battleground. Before any one of them could reach the edge of said scaffolding to see what had become of them, that Sky Bison Xisheng had mentioned rose over the edge, roaring at them in defiance as it carried their foes.

By the time Azula's troop reached the edge of the scaffolding, the Avatar's bison was already turning away from them to escape the city. Mai launched an arrow from some sort of launcher at it, catching the animal's hind leg, but it was Azula that conjured lightning around her fingertips in an attempt to fry their adversaries and blast them out of the sky. Unfortunately the animal she was targeting was much faster than it looked, and it was already a significant distance away when Azula unleashed the bolt of lethal energy she had created. The bluish white lance arced across the sky and came far too close for the comfort of the bison's occupants, but ultimately it passed its target harmlessly, and they were too far by then for Azula to try again.

The Crown Princess merely huffed in annoyance as she watched their prey escape, but Xisheng took it upon himself to conjure a controlled flame in his hand so he could assist Mai with the block of ice around hers. Honestly he was surprised that the way she was glaring at it in annoyance hadn't melted the thing already.

"Milady, use this."

Mai gave the flame in his hands one glance before holding her frozen limb over it, but Xisheng received no thanks for his efforts this time. Behind them, Bumi cackled in his coffin.

"Looks like you've got a real Ice Queen on your hands there boy! Get it? Get it?! Hahahahahaha!"

Everyone except Ty Lee sighed in distaste at that one.

Having engaged the Avatar so late during the day, Azula decided that they would spend the night in Omashu before moving on to their next destination the following day, which happened to be information that she was keeping to herself for now. No surprise there.

One way or another, she and Ty Lee were now resting in the room Ukano had provided to the Princess as accommodations for the night, with Xisheng present as well at the Princess' insistence. As per the instructions she had already given some day prior, he was without his helmet, much to Ty Lee's not so subtle delight. She was very straightforward about what she liked, having a pleased smile and a definitely appreciative gaze for the only male in the room.

Still unused to such attention from a girl, Xisheng tried to ignore it in favor of listening to what Azula was saying. "It seems the Avatar's penchant for cowardice is the same as it was back at the North Pole. This fight hardly ended up being more than a scuffle."

Ty Lee smiled as she rested her chin in her palms. "If you could even call it that. You were amazing out there Gohan, fighting the Avatar so well!"

Still uncomfortable with the attention being given to him, Xisheng turned it away as best he could. "Ah, w-well, I think Lady Mai was very impressive. She's uh, v-very skilled and, um, collected."

Ty Lee pouted in disappointment hearing Xisheng's praise go to Mai when she wasn't even here, but she didn't complain about it since it would be kind of shallow. Besides, Xisheng had already expressed confidence and appreciation for her acrobatic skills. He thought she was cool too.

As for Azula, she didn't care where the praise went, though she did have some to offer herself. "Everyone performed admirably, but I must say Lieutenant, I was suitably impressed by your efficiency in a team. It's been a long time since I've had someone I could actually look forward to fighting alongside."

Ty Lee had the presence of mind to be offended. "Hey!"

"I meant another Firebender Ty Lee. It's different than working together with you and Mai. And before you ask, no I don't mean different as in better, I just mean different."

Ty Lee frowned anyway, but said nothing as Xisheng gave his gratitude for Azula's praise. "Thank you Princess, but I'm sure I could improve..."

"Well of course you could. So could we all, though all of you more than me..."

Now it was Xisheng's turn to be offended, but he decided to simply take the compliments he could get.

With all of that out of the way, Azula moved onto a new tangent. "Either way, without the Avatar around it should be simple for Governor Ukano to hunt down and recapture those resistance fighters that escaped on his watch. After that's accomplished I imagine it'll be the usual grind of converting this backwards city to some state of respectable civilization."

Leaning back in the chair she occupied, Ty Lee glanced over at her friend that sat on the king sized bed the suite offered. "I dunno Azula, Omashu doesn't actually seem that bad off. Compared to other Earth Kingdom cities and towns it's not bad at all. And I've seen a lot of those towns to compare it too while in the circus."

"Perhaps, but there are still issues to be addressed. I'll be the first to admit that Omashu is far better off than some of its neighbors, but there is still a sizable population of impoverished and hungry. Not to mention that we'll have to get the city to willingly accept our rule. A conquered city is more trouble than gain as long as it has a resistance."

Forgetting about his embarrassment for a moment in the face of all this political discussion, Xisheng interjected. "In that case it may be a bad idea to bring those resistance fighters back Princess. Bringing them back into the city will only solidify the base of opposition here."

"Perhaps, but if we let them go free it's practically guaranteed that they'll join up with another Earth Kingdom force. To leave them at large is paramount to endangering our own soldiers, wouldn't you say?"

When she put it like that, Xisheng could only agree. "I-I suppose so, Your Highness..."

"Good. Now, I plan on us leaving for our next destination quite early in the morning, so if you don't mind..."

Not catching onto the implication immediately, Xisheng simply stared at her for a moment, which prompted a cocked eyebrow from the Princess. "I do hope you didn't take that senile old fool's words to heart..."

Remembering a certain comment about spending the night with pretty girls, Xisheng's face flushed in embarrassment, spurring him to make his exit as quickly as possible. "O-o course not Your Highness. I-I'll take my leave now..."

He bowed to the Princess, then bowed to Ty Lee as well just to be polite, earning him a girly wave and a wink for his trouble, which did nothing to ease his nerves. Unfortunately, as he turned to leave the room, he opened the door to come face to face with the only member of this feminine trio that had been absent, likely because she had wanted to talk to Azula for some reason herself.

Being scarcely half a foot away from her, Xisheng realized he may have been mistaken regarding the color of Mai's eyes earlier. He had thought they were one of the typical shades of amber most Fire Nation natives had, but now that he was this close to her he saw that they were actually far from ordinary. No, there was a rich blend of a little dark brown and fairly brighter orange to be seen here, equating to a vivid tawny color that was all too easy for Xisheng to lose himself in. Of course, the intensity of this unique color union could have also been in part due to the sharpness and wit that made it stand out even more.

Xisheng was drawn into the lovely color despite his efforts to the contrary, but he nevertheless noticed that their sudden encounter and close proximity gave rise to the most expression Xisheng had seen on Mai's face thus far: she blinked. Then she cocked an eyebrow at him likely because he was just standing there and barring her path.

Realizing that he must have looked like a dumbstruck fool, Xisheng quickly took a step back and bowed to her. "M-my apologies, milady..."

Instead of giving any verbal response, Mai simply stepped to the side and let Xisheng pass her. The ascended soldier wasted no time in retreating away from the room of feminine charm and attractiveness that Mai was about to add her repertoire to, eager to get away after being flustered at nearly every turn. As for Mai, she watched him retreat as she stepped into the room.

"Who was that?"

Ty Lee smirked at her. "Oh, is that interest I'm hearing Mai?"

Ukano's daughter turned to face her, displaying her typical emotionless mask. "Does it look like interest to you?"

"Maybe not to most people, but I know you Mai. You watched him leave and asked about him. You may as well have painted your fascination on a sign and hung it around your neck."

Mai rolled her eyes as she closed the door to the suite Azula had been provided. "Or maybe I'm interested because he's a guy, a soldier, and a soldier out of uniform in Azula's room. That's all sorts of unusual."

Ty Lee stole whatever explanation Azula was going to give with her own voice. "That was Gohan, Azula's new student. Isn't he cute? And he's got such beautiful eyes!"

The knife thrower ignored the question Ty Lee asked for the bit of information she was actually interested in. "That was the soldier you brought with you to the exchange?"

Azula leaned back on her bed. "The same."

"Huh. I guess he's not half bad."

"Slow it down there Mai, I've already got him wrapped around my finger. He can't have two harpies toying with him."

Ty lee folded her arms and gave her friend a disdainful look. "Azula, that's not the type of thing you should be proud of..."

In what was a true rarity considering that she had already done it once today, Mai smirked. "It's what the ruling class does."

Folding her arms behind her head, Azula matched her expression. "And don't you forget it."

Chapter Text

The morning after the heated conflict with the Avatar, Xisheng found himself thankfully free of Azula's teaching for just one sunrise, for she had more important things to attend to now that she had gathered the special team she had envisioned.

As Xisheng donned his uniform in the confines of the quarters he and the guards had been provided, he couldn't help but question their next move. The more things progressed, the more likely it seemed that Azula was going to do something that, from a Royal Guard standpoint, he couldn't condone.

After all, she had essentially put together a strike team. A small, mobile group of fighters designed to operate in exactly that fashion. But small and fast was the exact opposite of the Royal Procession, what with its barge and fifty Royal Firebenders.

The more Xisheng thought about it, the more it seemed like Azula was going to ditch the procession entirely so she could operate unhindered by their weight and seeming incompetence. And while Xisheng would be the first to admit that the Royal Guards had made complete fools of themselves when they had tried to arrest Iroh, there was still strength in numbers. Having more soldiers around still served to dissuade assassination attempts and the like.

But on the other hand, having that many soldiers around also called attention to themselves. What made it more obvious what the Princess' movements were if not a large boat and a procession of soldiers?

Besides, Xisheng had to admit that he was not lacking in faith regarding Azula's recruits. Ty Lee was clearly a skilled hand to hand combatant, and she had knowledge of some obscure yet very potent techniques. Aside from that she was extremely agile and swift, making for a deadly combination. And Mai? Xisheng had to admit that her abilities scared him a little. Someone as fast and precise as her could be a true menace on the field of battle.

After all, with her skills, if she really put her mind to killing someone, it would be all too easy to do so. One flick of the wrist, and someone had a knife buried in their eye or their throat. Someone like her could easily kill Azula, Ty Lee, and Xisheng in mere seconds if she caught them off guard.

Not that he was worried about something like that. Considering Azula's calculating nature, Xisheng was inclined to trust anyone that she did, if only because Azule didn't give her trust very easily. It was just a theoretical appreciation of the fact that Mai could be very, very deadly if she chose to be.

The phrase 'deadly but beautiful' came to mind, particularly since Mai had a certain grace to her that was absent even from Azula, who had her own majesty. Xisheng smirked to himself as he thought of a way to label them all. Mai and her grace, Ty Lee's acrobatic finesse, and Azula's Firebending majesty. They made a good team, each having their own thing like that. It set them apart, unlike a squad of Firebenders that all had the same training and the same military mindset.

The real question was whether or not Xisheng was included in this little squad Azula had formed. He got the feeling that he might have been, since Azula had gone out of her way to bring him along for the exchange, but then again that could have just been extra insurance on her part if a fight broke out. He didn't have any particular skills like Mai or Ty Lee that made him especially useful for a strike force. He was an all-around average Firebender and not a particular asset in that regard since Azula was already around, so his position on such a team was far from a sure thing.

Either way, Xisheng felt uncomfortable this morning for a different reason. He felt that there was something amiss among his fellow guards, but specifically in regards to him. Even now as he finished equipping all of the appropriate gear, he felt like the other soldiers that were awake right now were all staring at him. Not that it was easy to tell considering that he couldn't see them doing it.

Obviously any time Xisheng tried to catch someone staring their gazes were elsewhere. Even some of the people he had kind of gotten along with like Akuwagata seemed kind of reserved around him now.

Of course it wasn't too hard for Xisheng to determine why this was the case. Obviously his still relatively fresh connection with the Princess was irking the rest of the retinue. It could have been for a myriad of reasons; some of them may have been suspicious of his motives. Others may have thought it was simply inappropriate for him to get as close to the Princess as he was being a common soldier.

Truth be told Xisheng didn't really care. A few weeks ago he would have. He definitely would have lamented the somewhat awkward and tense atmosphere between him and his comrades. But only because they would have been the only people he could connect to.

But now, he had others. Which ultimately struck Xisheng as strange. He viewed the girls as companions in and of themselves, even though in reality they were not. Azula was not just his teacher, but also his Princess. She was his superior, not his friend, and sometimes it was difficult to remember that fact. It was difficult to remember his place all the time because of the way Azula acted. Sure, she was never casual enough with him to give off that 'friendship' vibe, but on the other hand she wasn't so regally detached that she felt solely like some superior figure that never spoke to him outside of giving orders.

As for Mai and Ty Lee, it was easy to remember that the prior was Azula's friend and not his, but Ty Lee well and truly was someone he could consider one. Of course he got the feeling that most anyone could consider Ty Lee a friend because of her nature, but she did go out of her way to make him feel welcome. Hell, she had practically nicknamed him. Of course it was possible that it was just a pet name, but Xisheng got the feeling that was something more suited to Azula than Ty Lee.

Either way, Xisheng wasted no time in leaving the appropriated barracks of the Omashu palace, though he was unsure of where he should go. It wasn't really his place to bother the Princess when she was busy, but she hadn't given him any direction the night before. Xisheng had no idea what the Princess was planning to do; he could only hope that she went out of her way to bring him along if she were planning on leaving as early as she had said she would this morning.

Elsewhere in the wilderness of the Earth Kingdom, a recently shaven fugitive Prince lied awake in his bedroll under the slowly brightening sky, for a multitude of reasons.

His place of rest was the most uncomfortable he had experienced in a long time. Even exiled, the bed he had possessed on his old ship had been nicer than most well off civilians ever experienced. On top of that, the dull green clothing he wore was rough and itchy, being of a lesser quality than anything he had worn throughout his entire life. And of course, his stomach was growling from the paltry amount of food he had eaten the past few days, which amounted to little more than what could be taken from the land around him.

In short, Zuko was living the life of a fugitive and he outright despised it because he was used to better things. But that was not what troubled him at this early hour. Not at all. Even now, his thoughts lingered on the past, both immediate and long ago.

No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get Azula's words out of his head. He didn't want to think about them at all, but he had to. He couldn't just ignore his potential problems, and Azula had risen a point Zuko just couldn't run from.

Looking back on his quest for the Avatar, Zuko realized that his Uncle had truly done very little to aid him. Aside from the lack of seriousness he had always handled Zuko's quest with, there were too many things that just didn't add up.

Zuko had spent three years training under the Legendary Dragon of the West as a personal pupil. As his only student. And yet, his skills had never really improved beyond that of an amateur. How could that be? Zuko knew he was not so downright hopeless in Firebending that he could not improve beyond a laughable level. Even as a child he had still progressed at a decent pace that was just overshadowed by his prodigious sister.

So how was it that he could scarcely improve at all with three years of tutelage directly under a Firebending legend? There was only one possibility, and that was that Iroh had been intentionally holding him back.

And then there was Admiral Zhao. After encountering the Avatar, Iroh had placed both him and his nephew in a compromised position by accepting tea of all things with the man, granting him even more chances to interrogate them about what had happened at the South Pole. Almost like he wanted Zhao to find out.

The mere thought of it caused Zuko to grip the edge of his bedroll in anger, but only for a moment as his train of thought flipped on itself once again.

What was he thinking, suspecting Iroh of such things? His Uncle had given up a cushy life of royalty so he could look after his banished nephew on a perilous and distasteful journey around the world. His Uncle was the only person to stay by him when his whole life came crashing down around him. His father had sent him away, his sister had done nothing to dispute that decision, and the girl that had claimed to love him had been perfectly content to watch him depart from the shores of his homeland. Only Iroh had given up what he had to go with him.

The only reason Zuko hadn't improved much under Iroh's tutelage was because his Uncle had wanted him to learn to Firebend the right way. So he could really improve on what mattered. And the tea with Zhao was just Iroh following the polite customs of their people. That made sense.

Zuko nodded to himself now that he had come to that conclusion. Azula always lied. Anything she said that made sense was just being said to manipulate him.

Still, despite this conclusion he had reached, Zuko found that he wasn't able to sleep any more comfortably than he had before.

Xisheng was staring over the city of Omashu from a high terrace of the palace when Mai found him. Not that she had been looking for him for personal reasons of course. Azula was ready to go and she had more or less sent Mai and Ty Lee on the errand of finding him so they could leave this droll place behind.

Mai hadn't been taking the search too seriously, but even so she had gotten lucky first. Normally she would just relay the news quickly and go about her own business, but Mai made a habit of always analyzing a person if she had the opportunity.

Besides, as much as she hated to admit that Ty Lee was right about, well, anything, the acrobat had been correct in saying that Mai was interested in this individual Azula had taken on as a student. From a purely objective standpoint though. She was simply curious to know what had made Azula pick this person in particular.

Azula never did anything without a good reason, and usually that reason benefited her somehow. Based on what Mai had seen yesterday, she could tell that this guy had potential as a fighter, but she wasn't well versed enough in Firebending to know if there was something special about him in particular.

He seemed wholly ordinary aside from being an adept Firebender. And that confused Mai more than she cared to admit. Neither Azula nor her friends were ordinary, and Azula herself was so bored by the typical that she would never willingly take on someone that was just that as a pupil.

Mai hadn't bothered asking Azula about that last night. She had asked a lot more questions about their plan for the next few weeks and what kinds of supplies she might have needed from her father before they left. Logistic stuff. She didn't like to ask personal things because it made her seem like she cared when she was really just curious.

That said, Ty Lee had been right about something else last night as well; he was pretty handsome. Mai liked to act as though typical human feelings didn't exist for her or something, mostly because it kept annoying people from bothering her, but she was a far cry from an unfeeling statue. She felt all the things normal teenage girls felt, she just wasn't nearly as open about it.

From her position in the doorway, Mai could just barely see the contemplative look on Xisheng's face as he looked out over the recently conquered city. He probably wasn't supposed to be out of uniform, but he figured it was alright since he was out here alone.

Not that you could really tell a person's thoughts just by looking at them, but it seemed to Mai that Xisheng was the kind of person to take in the big picture of things. He looked as though he considered anything and everything in different lights. The sign of an intellectual if ever there was one, and something that Mai would theoretically appreciate in a person.

She'd spent most of her life around people with very singular focus. Her parents had always been focused on their political careers, never entertaining thoughts of anything more. Ty Lee's focus as a child had always been standing out as much as possible however she could, and Azula's focus had always been being the best she could be. As for Zuko… Mai was never sure what Zuko had focused on before. She figured that he had never really known what he wanted, which was likely what had drawn Mai to him in the first place.

She too had never really been sure what she wanted out of life. She still didn't know even now. Everything she did had always been about finding something that meant anything to her. No one but her best friends would ever know, but Mai had been relatively adventurous as a child. Not adventurous because it was in her nature, but because she had always been searching for something that interested her.

As a kid she would try almost anything at least one time to see if it appealed to her or not. The problem was that nothing ever really did. Singing, Pai Sho, Ty Lee's acrobatics, if you could name it Mai had probably tried it or would be willing to. At least back then.

By now she'd grown kind of cynical about it all. She'd spent so many years trying to find something to be passionate about, and things had never really panned out. The boy she had held affections for had disgraced himself in front of his entire nation and gotten himself banished. And the only thing aside from that Mai had ever taken a liking to was throwing sharp objects at things.

This had led to the common notion held by just about everyone that knew her that Mai didn't care about anything. That she had no passion for anything and never got excited for any reason ever. Granted, as of right now that was mostly true, but only because she still hadn't found anything to be passionate about. She also wasn't trying very hard right now to find anything to fill that space. Even searching for something to enjoy in life had gotten boring after so many repeated failures.

Having managed to put herself in a bad mood just thinking about it, Mai finally ruined whatever introspection Xisheng was putting himself through.

"Hey."

The unmasked soldier glanced back over his shoulder in surprise, his contemplative expression quickly shifting to embarrassment due to who was there. For the life of her Mai thought it was kind of pathetic. Also kind of adorable, but still pathetic. There was a distinctly Zuko vibe in that combination.

"Ah, L-Lady Mai…"

"We're leaving."

That was all she said before turning on her heel and retreating back into the palace, leaving Xisheng to fumble with his helmet alone. Somehow he found Mai even harder to deal with than Azula. Sure, Azula was always pulling strings behind what she said and did, but you knew that she was doing that even if you didn't know why.

He had no clue what Mai was ever thinking. He was still half worried that she might hate him or something, but truth be told her expression was far too neutral to be that and he hadn't done anything for her to hate him yet.

Also, it was hard to deal with pretty girls having so little experience with them throughout his life. That applied to all three of the women in their little retinue, but Mai's impervious neutrality made it difficult to read anything about other than the fact that she was beautiful. And Xisheng knew for a fact that gorgeous neutrality was even worse than the regular kind.

All things considered Mai had not given him enough information to do anything on his own, so Xisheng quickly got back into uniform before going after her into the palace. After all, he had no idea where they were going.

Thankfully Mai wasn't someone that moved with too much haste when it wasn't absolutely necessary, so he managed to catch up to her fairly easily. Doing that, he decided to walk a little behind and to the side, which was the typical position for a guard escorting anyone of a higher stature. Moreover, he didn't feel comfortable walking right beside her.

It was no surprise that they walked in total silence considering who his company was, but it was rather shocking when the young woman actually did say something to him after a minute or two.

"Are you from some special family in the Fire Nation?"

Caught off guard and unsure of why she was asking this of him, Xisheng nevertheless tried to give a prompt answer. "Uh, n-no Milady…"

"You have special Firebending powers or something?"

"No, Milady…"

"…some sort of genetic thing?"

At this point Xisheng decided against answering. "Why are you asking me all of this?"

Mai didn't give a straight answer, which wasn't really surprising. "Just curious."

Xisheng got the feeling that 'just curious' for this girl equated to prying for information of some sort, but he couldn't imagine why he would be of any interest to her. On the other hand, he kind of liked the idea of being interesting to her. Though he doubted it was in the light he wanted it to be.

Either way Mai more or less led him to where the Princess and Ty Lee where at the gates, the former speaking with an attendant of some sort that probably represented the Governor. By the time Xisheng was close enough to hear what was being said her conversation was already over and the attendant was bowing and making his exit.

The Princess, adorned in her usual attire, briefly acknowledged the arrival of the last two members of her party before launching into a short narrative.

"Lieutenant, seeing as how you were the only one absent earlier this morning and we are on a tight schedule, I'll bring you up to speed quickly. We're pursuing the Avatar."

Not entirely surprised to hear this, Xisheng still questioned it nevertheless. "But Princess, I thought your objective was to apprehend the Dragon of the West…?"

"It was. But under the circumstances and after careful consideration I believe we would be of more use pursuing the greatest threat to our nation's cause and not a foolish old man that's not even a good traitor."

Xisheng wasn't sure what supposedly set a good traitor apart from a bad one. "Meaning…?"

"Look at it this way Lieutenant; assuming that Iroh has been arrayed against us for a long time now, how effective of a traitor has he been? He's completely failed to use his powerful position in the Fire Nation to do anything useful, from influencing our own people to feeding information on our movements and tactics to the enemy. He's not a direct threat."

While Xisheng could see the logic in this deduction, he still had his doubts. "I… suppose that's true, but isn't it still dangerous to let someone of his capability roam free?"

Azula scoffed at the notion. "Not at all. My theory is that Iroh is banking on the Avatar just like the rest of the world is. And just like the rest of the world, he's unwilling to really take a stand unless he has the Avatar backing him. Even when he finally moved against us at the North Pole, it was only with the Avatar at his back to take his side. Right now, I don't believe Iroh will do anything actively against us. It's more likely that he's trying to turn Zuko over to his cause. At least, that seems like a reasonable assumption at this point."

Xisheng glanced at the other girls, wondering if they had agreed to this course of action or if they had simply followed Azula's decision. After all, Ty Lee had signed on to track Iroh, not the Avatar, and the latter could take significantly more time than the acrobat had originally planned on. Mai, on the other hand, had made it clear that Zuko meant something to her. Surely she would have preferred to pursue him over the Avatar?

But neither girl looked overly bothered by it. Well, Mai looked a little sour, but that was just par for the course for her. Ty Lee was all smiles as usual, and this left Azula with room to continue.

"So, the way I see it, why bother hunting an offshoot of the problem rather than the problem itself? At this point we all know that the war is as good as won already. Ba Sing Se is the last standing enemy capital and one of the only major cities in the world not yet under Fire Nation control. The Earth Kingdom is on their knees and has no hope of engaging in an active counter offensive. In short, without the Avatar, victory is only a matter of time, especially considering the proximity of Sozin's Comet. Aside from maintaining the lines of battle we have now, realistically all of the Fire Nation's capabilities should be aimed towards eliminating the Avatar. So that's what we're going to do. Any other questions?"

The way she said that revealed the fact that she didn't expect any more questions, but Xisheng actually still had one. Though it was more rhetorical than anything else.

"I assume this means we're leaving the barge and the entirety of the Royal Guards behind?"

He said this with folded arms, and a tone that could almost be interpreted as a reprimand. To be honest Azula was kind of surprised that he was taking that tone with her after displaying a relatively submissive persona thus far, but it didn't necessarily anger her. From the perspective of Xisheng's job, he was right to be displeased about this development.

"Well, to be fair Lieutenant, I have elected to bring you along, have I not? Despite how much Ty Lee told me not to."

Xisheng was utterly shocked at this (and more than a little hurt), but Ty Lee was quick to clear her name. "I said no such thing! I begged to have you come with us! Mai was the one that said you shouldn't come!"

The acrobat jabbed a finger at her knife throwing friend, who shrugged when Xisheng turned his gaze on her. "Don't expect me to deny it. I did say that."

For Xisheng, that was confirmation that Mai must have detested him for some reason or another. "O-oh…"

"Don't take it personally, I don't know you well enough to trust your skills yet."

That was somewhat less painful to consider, but Azula brought him right back down. "Which means based on a first impression she still thinks you're a waste of space."

Xisheng's deflation was almost visible, prompting Ty Lee to hug him protectively as she glared at her friends. "Don't worry Gohan, I think you're great. Ignore these two witches and I'll keep you company whenever you want."

The lone soldier wished he wasn't wearing his armor at the moment, because the stiff steel completely negated the parts of her body that Ty Lee was pressing into him. But at least he felt a lot better knowing the brunette had his back. To be fair he was pretty certain Azula was just screwing with him because she could and she found it amusing, but Xisheng was still confused on where Mai stood. At least she had made it sort of clear that she didn't like nor hate him. He was just kind of there and she accepted that fact.

Either way, Azula put their short amount of banter to rest. "Back to your original question Lieutenant; yes, we are leaving the barge and all of the soldiers on it behind. We could never hope to track the Avatar across the Earth Kingdom in a seafaring ship. Moreover, we need to be able to move quickly and having five dozen guards hounding my every move isn't conducive to that end. And ultimately, those soldiers truly are dead weight. They proved to be worthless against my Uncle. Of course, I suppose if you really wanted to do your duty you could report all of this…"

Xisheng thought that was just a rhetorical comment at first, but when he was met with silence he saw that Azula was actually questioning him. "I… suppose my duty would call for such actions, but… I find that my loyalty to you takes precedence over that, Princess. I'll follow you anywhere as long as you'll have me."

His response brought one of those weird smirks to Azula's face that was halfway to a genuine smile but nevertheless falling short. Xisheng wondered if she ever actually smiled in an innocent sense. "And don't think for a moment that I don't appreciate that loyalty Lieutenant. It's the main reason I've trusted you to come along with us on this critical mission."

It was always heartening to get true gratitude from the Princess considering how rare it was, earning a smile out of Xisheng as Azula turned on her heel to lead her troop out of the palace. Naturally Ty Lee stayed next to Xisheng so she could tease him.

"She also brought you along because we need a cutie on the road trip too. That's the real reason, no doubt."

Apparently Mai was capable of hearing her comment even from ahead of them, prompting her to make a counter comment. "The real reason is because we need someone to drive the tank."

Some level of testosterone fueled excitement arose in Xisheng at the word tank, along with the notion of getting to drive one. What Fire Nation boy didn't dream of driving an Army tank at some point in his childhood?

However, when Xisheng finally stepped out of the Omashu palace with the trio of girls, the vehicle that was waiting for them was not the typical battle tank of the military. That made sense though, considering that there was no way a Firestorm main battle tank could carry four people.

What instead lied before them was a transport with real treads, a sloped rock breaker on its prow, and a smokestack on it.

"Aw, man…"

Ty Lee looked at him in confusion. "What? What's wrong?"

Sufficiently disappointed, Xisheng didn't really pay attention to the fact that maybe he sounded a little childish right now. "This isn't a tank! It's an Overlord all terrain armored transport! Dammit…"

Azula ignored his lament entirely. "That it is. Can you drive it?"

"Yes… I can…"

"Good. Then let's be on our way. We have an important pick up before we leave the city, and the sooner we're on our way the better."

His disappointment ignored by both Azula and Mai, Xisheng found some solace in Ty Lee, as always. Though it didn't last long since her words of consolation utterly shocked him.

"Don't worry about it Gohan. There'll be plenty of fun things for you to ride in the future."

With that and a wink she hurried after her two friends, leaving Xisheng frozen in the courtyard that was the base of the palace here at Omashu.

Positive that the sway in her hips as she walked towards the Overlord was entirely intentional, Xisheng's gaze dropped below her bare lower back and settled on the hypnotizing view. There was some niggling voice in the back of his mind that said maybe he shouldn't have been so openly appreciating the visual, but it didn't push through and take dominance until he recalled the massive difference in their stations.

That said, Xisheng tried to override his thoughts with Firebending combat mantras.

Flame is powered by the breath. Without discipline a Firebender has no control over his own power. Fire can overcome all other elements with perseverance. Only fire can destroy that ass to usher in the future. Wait, shit!

Xisheng smacked his hand to his face when that thought interrupted distorted his mantras, but ultimately he didn't quell the notion or the image that it had conjured up.

Having taken rather spartan courses in basic training in regards to operating vehicles, Xisheng had only needed a few minutes to figure out the gist of controlling the steel beast he now commanded. Truth be told it wasn't an overly complex machine. The engine that powered the vehicle pushed it forward with coal, and all Xisheng had to do was steer really.

Other than that it was just a matter of getting a feel for handling the essential train-tank hybrid. It had great acceleration in a straight line, but it definitely didn't turn all that well. It made navigating the passages of Omashu rather interesting. Xisheng did accidentally nick the corner of a storage building at one point, gouging it pretty seriously, but it wasn't really his fault. The view port on this thing was pretty narrow.

Either way Azula had informed him not to take the Overlord straight out of the city, but instead to its stables, which were near the gates anyway. Upon reaching that particular location, Xisheng was met with the somewhat troublesome prospect of lining up the Overlord with another car that had to be added to the back of the already present one. Xisheng didn't actually know what was in that first car, but he imagined that it was probably some sort of living quarters for the ladies. They would probably be on the road in this vehicle for quite some time after all. That said, Xisheng was fairly certain that he would be calling the driver's cabin home for longer than he would have liked. While the cabin was technically spacious, it was crowded with so many controls and machines that it was still cramped. The only place there would really be to sleep was the driver's chair itself.

Then again, he could always sleep outside whenever they stopped if it was possible. He was no stranger to outdoor living and sleeping under the stars while deployed in the Earth Kingdom. Granted, he usually had a sleeping bag and a tent, but it was mostly still the same.

Either way, Xisheng at least discovered what the car they were adding now was for, as four reptilian creatures were ushered into it as soon as it was attached. He vaguely recognized them as some sort of native Fire Nation creature, but the name of the species eluded him. They were versatile mounts and distant cousins of dragons, or something like that. Other than that Xisheng didn't know anything about them. Basic training had only included general knowledge on Komodo Rhinos, since they were the most commonly used beast of burden and war in the military.

Once the four scaly steeds were secured, Azula gathered her quintessential cronies to discuss where they were actually going. After all, none of them knew precisely where the Avatar had headed, so an impromptu meeting was in order, with all of them gathering outside of the driver's cabin.

"So, here's the dilemma. We have no idea where the Avatar is going, and all we can do is reasonably deduce his most likely destination in order to pursue. The good news is he has limited places to run to considering how much of the Earth Kingdom is under our control. Admittedly I have a fairly good idea where he'll probably go next, but thoughts from all of you first."

Ty Lee was the first to speak. "Well, isn't Ba Sing Se the most obvious choice? It's the safest place in the EK. And if he is looking for an Earthbending teacher there's gotta be plenty of them there."

Xisheng admitted this was not bad thinking, but Ba Sing Se was pretty far away. Even flying it would take the Avatar quite some time to reach it. Apparently Mai knew this as well.

"Gaoling is closer. And the way I heard it Gaoling is considered one of the best places to learn advanced Earthbending. Supposed to be all sorts of schools there."

These were both fair points, and Xisheng figured Azula would make a decision without his input, but this turned out to be untrue when she waited for his insight with a nonchalant expression. As though there were no question as to whether or not he was supposed to say something.

Xisheng was still caught off guard by the notion. "Ah, surely I don't have anything worthwhile to add Princess…"

"I beg to differ. You have the most unique perspective out of all of us, being a soldier and a commoner. No offense."

Xisheng decided not to take any offense at the remark, seeing as how it was true. He was surrounded by nobles and he was just an average man from an average family.

"Well… from the few encounters we've had with him, it seems to me that the Avatar is rather impulsive, and not very patient. If his primary objective right now is find an Earthbending teacher, it seems likely that he would try to achieve it as soon as possible. That being the case I think he would head for Gaoling before Ba Sing Se."

Worried that his deductions seemed foolish, Xisheng was relieved to see Azula give one of those approving smirks. "My thoughts exactly Lieutenant. The Airbenders were notorious for being impulsive and rarely thinking more than a few steps ahead."

She was briefly interrupted by a sardonic comment from Mai. "Sounds like someone we all know…"

There was a brief moment in which Ty Lee glanced around their little group, likely trying to determine who Mai was talking about. Naturally she frowned when she figured it out. "Hey, I think some stuff through. Sometimes."

Truth be told Xisheng did think the acrobat had an uncanny number of Air Nomad qualities. She certainly had their agility, and the jab at her impulsiveness was not misplaced. She even had some of their physical features. That said, Xisheng knew it was stupid to identify everyone with brown eyes and an impulsive personality as being reminiscent of Airbenders. After all, eighty percent of the world had black hair and they weren't similar in any way.

Ignoring the brief exchange, Azula continued on with her point. "Either way, I think it's fairly safe to assume that the Avatar is heading for Gaoling. That'll be our destination for now."

Mai felt the need to point out something important here. "It might be the most likely assumption but it's still just a guess. Like you said, the Avatar seems pretty cowardly, what if he goes to Ba Sing Se because it's safer? We could be heading off in the complete opposite direction he's going."

"You make a fair point, but either way we still have no guarantee of making the right choice. That said, I'm willing to make another assumption; the Avatar likely feels safe the moment he's flying away from danger on his ridiculous flying buffalo. I doubt he thinks of the best way to stay safe in the long run, feeling as though he has an easy means of escape at any point in time. I still believe our safest bet is Gaoling."

Having only wanted to bring up the point and not debate it, Mai merely shrugged, deferring to what Xisheng had to say. "I agree with you Princess. I know I would feel safe being able to soar far from any dangers. That said, I think we should make neutralizing that animal a primary objective when we encounter the Avatar again."

Ty Lee was on him in a flash. "Gohan, how could you say something that horrible?!"

The soldier turned officer briefly noted that this was the first time he had seen Ty Lee genuinely upset about anything. Which confused him because he had no idea why she would be upset at what he had said.

"W-what do you mean…?"

"There's no need to hurt the bison! It's not like it got a choice in whose side to be on!"

Xisheng prepared to make some sort of statement about how he had simply been making a tactical assessment, but Azula had it covered before he did, albeit in a less gentle manner.

"Don't be an imbecile Ty Lee. The Lieutenant's right. As long as the flying pack animal is around the Avatar could potentially escape our clutches every single time we corner him. Besides, the filthy animal is just a remnant of a backwards bygone civilization. Who cares if it joins the rest of them in extinction?"

For some reason Xisheng was surprised to hear the Princess speak so maliciously. Honestly he had almost forgotten that aspect of her character, since it was generally absent from most of their day to day interactions. Xisheng had to remind himself that she could be cruel; and that she often was to the people and things that were of no interest to her, though he didn't necessarily judge her for this. Was not everyone apathetic to the things they did not care for? Azula just had a wider range of negligible concerns compared to the rest of them: save Mai, of course.

Speaking of the marksman, Ty Lee turned to her for support, for some reason Xisheng couldn't fathom. "Mai, say something! You don't support animal cruelty right?"

Mai seemed as confused as Xisheng that Ty Lee was looking to her for backup. "What are you looking at me for? I don't care what we do to the stupid flying steak."

While he had been the one to make this suggestion in the first place, Xisheng saw that Ty Lee was truly upset by the notion. While there was no way to be sure, he figured that maybe it had something to do with her tenure in the circus. Perhaps she had a greater appreciation for animals than the rest of them. Either way, seeing as how she often tried to provide assurance of some sort for Xisheng, he felt morally and emotionally obligated to try and comfort her.

"I-I wasn't suggesting we kill the Sky Bison, Ty Lee, just that we should neutralize its usefulness somehow…"

The acrobat was halfway to giving him a grateful smile before Azula cut in. "Speak for yourself, I was suggesting we kill the Sky Bison. Or rather, I'm suggesting it now."

Naturally it was almost impossible to tell when Azula was joking, so Ty Lee simply scowled at her for the remark either way. It was unfortunate for her that her physical appearance didn't support scowls, frowns, or general displeasure as well as Mai's.

Having decided their course and sufficiently dampened the mood of the most cheerful of their number, the cadre of Fire Nation natives boarded the Overlord a second time, though they would not disembark again until they had covered some distance or someone had the courage to inform the male driver that one of the ladies needed a bathroom break, though how they would make that known to him with no means of communicating between the engine and the passenger car was a good question.

Unfortunately for Xisheng, the addition of another car with numerous heavy animals in it made the Overlord even more unwieldy, and steering it through the sloping streets of Omashu was a real pain. He was fairly certain that the rear car knocked over a cabbage stand or something at one point, but he cut himself some slack because he had been driving this vehicle for less than forty minutes tops.

But despite his amateur skill in the craft, Xisheng managed to get out of Omashu without too much trouble, clearing the newly erected steel gates to the city and crossing the land bridge that he had no doubt would be replaced by steel later. After all, it wouldn't do to have the only conventional entrance into the city be something Earthbenders could easily destroy.

Crossing said bridge briefly reminded Xisheng that a machine had been expressly built for the siege of Omashu. A literal mobile bridge that could be deployed on one side of the chasm and extended to the city walls for the attacking troops, since the regular earthen bridge would obviously have been removed by the defenders prior to the assault.

Naturally it had not been used because King Bumi had surrendered the city without a fight, which left Xisheng rather disappointed. He was always eager to learn of the efficiencies of new Fire Nation technologies. If anything it proved their point in having advanced far beyond their counterparts. Still, he supposed it was better that it had not been needed.

Having been provided a map and following rather straightforward directions to Gaoling in the first place, Xisheng didn't have much trouble setting the Overlord in the right direction, and thankfully they didn't have any mountains or hills to really deal with just yet. While he was curious to see how well this vehicle functioned on such terrain, he preferred to leave it a mystery as much as possible.

And since the driving was so easy, it gave him time to do what he did best: think. Or more accurately, ponder his life choices. Xisheng did that a lot, seeing as how he had often been given plenty of downtime in his career in which there was nothing else to do. Perhaps that was why his conviction in their cause was so strong, because he had always had plenty of time to dwell on it.

That was not to say he was blindly loyal to the cause of course, even if he was totally committed. He did not question the end goal of the war, but he often questioned how they got there. After all, the genocide of an entire race was a heavy sin to bear, and one that no amount of good intention could ever redeem.

But Xisheng had long ago accepted that evil for what it was. It could not be atoned for. All that could be done was ensure that their extinction was not in vain. If the Fire Nation failed to achieve victory in this century long conflict, the Air Nomads would have died for absolutely nothing.

Of course, Xisheng felt as though that logic wouldn't fly very well with the rest of the world. 'Surrender and let us win so the people we killed won't have died for nothing.'

Yeah, he didn't see that approach to the war working anytime soon. Thankfully though, they were in the final stretch. With only Ba Sing Se and a few major yet ultimately unimportant cities like Gaoling still standing, the EK's days were numbered. That said, saying 'Ba Sing Se is all we have left to conquer' was equivalent to saying there was still a whole country to fight, as the city almost had just as much total area to it as the Fire Nation in its entirety.

Even so, with Sozin's Comet soaring through the atmosphere in less than a year, the war was practically won already. The Fire Nation didn't have to really make another offensive. They could just hunker down, gather their forces, and unleash everything on Ba Sing Se when the Comet came. The Earth Kingdom had no hope of really winning at this point.

Or at least, they wouldn't if it weren't for that pesky supernatural bender of all four elements that had the gall to try and determine the course of humanity for them. Xisheng doubted that was how the Avatar truly thought; he was but a twelve year old boy after all, and probably didn't think of his situation beyond what everyone told him it was, which was undoubtedly 'saving the world from Fire Nation tyranny.'

Of course his companions were just children as well, so Xisheng could understand their naiveté. Everybody thought their enemies were 'the evil bad guys.' Who looked at their foes and thought of them as people with their own convictions and beliefs in right and wrong? Hell, who even looked at their foes and thought them human like everyone else?

Not children certainly. It was easy to vilify those that wronged you as a child, justly or not. It was even easier when your side also happened to be losing. After all, everyone liked to think themselves the victim when on the receiving end of a beat down. The Fire Nation had been gradually stomping the EK into the ground for the past one hundred years. Being on the losing team for that long made it laughably easy to vilify the winning team.

Xisheng didn't really care too much about that. He knew there was no way to convince the world they weren't evil until the war itself was over. They would be hated until their good intentions were made clear, provided the Fire Lord actually followed through with all of it. Based on what he had seen so far Xisheng was fairly certain that the Fire Lord was interested in their manifesto to some extent, though perhaps he was more in line with Azula. Maybe he was just improving conditions in the conquered EK cities because they were now Fire Nation cities, and their problems became the Fire Nation's one way or another.

He supposed it didn't matter why change was implemented so long as it was. Practical or philosophical reasons notwithstanding, as long as it happened that was good enough.

Really, the world didn't appreciate just how much effort the Fire Nation was putting into this revolution. Did they have any idea how many lives and resources they were pouring into this effort? Did they know how much money and materials could have been used for something else if the FN didn't need them for complex and costly prisons for captured benders?

And surely no one with half a brain really thought the ultimate goal of the war was world conquest. There simply had not been enough gain as opposed to cost in the past one hundred years. If the point of the war was material gain in territory or power, then going this far had done more harm than good. The only explanation was that the Fire Nation had some goal in mind that was not purely for self-gain.

Not that anyone would believe that, and not that Xisheng would blame them. They'd killed a great many people, and for a future they would never get the chance to see.

This ultimately led Xisheng back to the ultimate question: was it worth it? Was the extinction of an entire race and tens of thousands more besides worth a brighter future for all of humanity? A future free of the restraints of the Spirit World, which had kept them in darkness for thousands of years, maybe even since the dawn of time?

Xisheng figured that ultimately only the future could condone or condemn their actions. One day when the events of the past hundred years could be viewed in retrospect, society would determine if what had occurred was just or evil. Until that day the people that lived this event could only carry forward with trust in their own cause.

Weary of dwelling on such things even for a brief time, Xisheng turned his thoughts to far more tasteful subjects. He was traveling with an entire trio of beautiful girls after all. Any man his age would think himself lucky to be in such a situation, even if it was an entirely 'look and don't touch' kind. Fantasies aside, Xisheng knew his place in their merry little band. They were all nobles and beyond in Azula's case, and he was just a soldier. Just a faceless grunt in a mask.

He was on this mission because he had practical uses, not for sentimentality. Azula hadn't brought him along because she valued him in any other way than his ability to fight and his ability to drive the Overlord. As for the others, Mai couldn't care any less about his existence and Ty Lee probably valued him for the amusement he provided more than anything else. He doubted he would be too sorely missed had he not been here at all or was removed from the situation one way or another later.

With all of that taken into account, Xisheng didn't view his stance as a matter of self-esteem. It was just facing the facts. He knew he had no chance in forming a real relationship with anyone in his current group, primarily due to social even if that wasn't the case, he was fairly positive they were all astronomically out of his league regardless. Girls that gorgeous were far outside his aesthetic means in life. He certainly didn't think himself good looking enough to catch their interest, at least in any serious light considering Ty Lee, and he doubted his personality was anything great enough to be worthy of such affections either.

Granted, that might have been low self-esteem. Either way, the reality of the situation, perceived or not, didn't stop Xisheng from daydreaming about impossible fantasies from time to time. After all, how could he not? He was more or less a grown man at this point and a young one besides, no one could reasonably expect him to not dwell on some scandalous things every once in a while considering his company.

Of course, it was not like that was his only interest in the girls of the group. He was hardly that shallow. And moreover, they were all far too interesting people for him to simply care about their undeniable good looks.

Though, truth be told, his greatest interest was in Mai. Not that he thought any higher of her than the others, but unlike Ty Lee and Azula, she was a mystery at the moment. Xisheng knew almost nothing about her other than her relation to Omashu's new governor, her childhood friendship with Azula, and her incredible proficiency with projectiles.

That lack of information about her made for an enigma Xisheng was eager to solve. He loved figuring people out. And not in the 'learn their weaknesses so I can pick them apart' kind of way he was sure Azula preferred. Xisheng was a people person at heart. He liked knowing the people around him. The things that made them who they were. After all, how could you truly appreciate someone if you didn't truly know them in the first place?

The process was made even more intriguing with people like Mai, who seemed to care about nothing or hardly even be human at times, but only because they were so good at hiding the things that made them smile or laugh. Hell, even Mai's closest friends seemed to truly think of her as some impenetrable fortress of gloom and misery.

Xisheng for one could not understand that belief. Could you really call yourself someone's friend if you didn't even know them well enough to differentiate a facade from their true character? Then again, maybe Xisheng was, not for the first time, being too idealistic. Maybe Mai was completely without warmth or passion of any sort. He found that hard to believe with her being a Fire Nation native and all, but hw wasn't sure if that whole 'will of fire, burning passion and drive' thing talked about in school was only an alleged quality of Firebenders.

Either way, Mai was more of a mystery than her two friends at the moment, and truth be told he had already figured out Azula and Ty Lee for the most part. That was not to say that they were simple or he knew everything there was to know about them, but identifying the things that drove them forward in life was no great challenge even this early in his limited familiarity with them.

Azula seemed like an ambitious person that wanted the whole world but in fact wanted very little. She wanted perfection from herself and competence from everyone that served or aided her. Whether for nationalistic pride or simply pleasing her father, she wanted to help the Fire Nation succeed and advance their power and position. Surely there were other things that motivated her in life, but those two were clearly the most influential. Improvement of herself and advancement of her nation.

As for Ty Lee, she was an outright hedonist. Not in the bad sense, where she cared nothing for anyone and simply sought to fulfill her own desires, but in the sense that she just wanted to enjoy life to the fullest. And she wanted the people around her to enjoy it too. It was at the core of everything she did. Why she was always so happy and excited and why she tried to get everyone else to be the same, which made her a real trooper for constantly trying to breach Mai's impervious defenses.

And Mai, well, Xisheng didn't know enough to fairly say anything about her. She had stated that finding a cure for boredom was enough reason to embark on this mission, and Xisheng got the feeling that was not a lie, though not the whole truth either. Maybe she wasn't looking for a cure for her boredom so much as a cure for her apathy. It was possible that the reason she was so bored all the time was not because she had nothing to do, but because she had not found anything to care about.

That notion made Xisheng incredibly sad. He could not imagine living life without some sort of passion for something. Anything. What was there to live for without something to love? Something to love doing, someone to love being around, somewhere to love being?

What did soldiers live for but a love of their country or their families? Artists, dancers, and musicians but for their craft? Scientists but for their love of learning, and doctors for their love of helping others? Xisheng couldn't fathom having no passion for anything. It was entirely beyond his ability to comprehend.

But to be fair, this was pure conjecture on his part. He had literally known Mai for less than twenty four hours and he hardly had any right to make assumptions on her character, and he certainly had no evidence to support those assumptions either way. He just found it hard to believe she could be as cold and uncaring as her friends claimed her to be.

After all, there was that mention of the wayward prince Zuko in the conversation yesterday. It had sounded like she at least cared about him in some regard, from the observation of an outsider that knew nothing of the matter at least.

Xisheng entertained himself with these thoughts as the hours of the day dwindled away under the ceaseless toil of the Overlord's engine. And during this time, Xisheng learned quite a bit about the machine. The first was that it wasn't really designed to be driven by one person, especially considering the two chairs that existed up here. After all, someone had to make sure the engine constantly had enough fuel to burn. Considering that Xisheng was the only person available to drive, he had to do that himself. Which meant leaving the driver's seat and going to the rear of his particular car to do that.

Thankfully if he was smart about it the issue didn't pose a huge problem. As long as he left the driver seat when the Overlord was passing through a long straight or something, he generally had time to refill the engine before he was needed to control the machine again.

Speaking of which, he was mildly concerned about fuel. The Overlord did have a considerable coal reserve already stocked, and though the consumption rate of that coal wasn't too alarmingly high, it was still a limited resource. It was easy to stock at Fire Nation camps and facilities since coal powered so many of their machines, but elsewhere it wouldn't be so readily available. Still, he was sure this was a detail Azula had figured out already.

The second thing he learned about the Overlord on his first day on the job was that the seat was not especially comfortable over the course of several hours. The Fire Nation was great at designing things for a practical purpose. They hadn't yet mastered the fine balance between practicality and personal comfort. The only padding in Fire Nation development existed in the armor of their soldiers, and that was actually because it provided more insulation than anything else. More safety against both wayward Firebending and the cold of icy Waterbending attacks, with comfort just being a nice bonus.

Either way, about the time he had been driving for six hours or so (he noted for future days of travel that he would need to bring some sort of food into the driver's cabin with him), Xisheng was met with another more serious problem: Azula had not told him when or where to stop for the day. Or if he was supposed to stop at all.

He imagined that he was, as reaching Gaoling was more than a quick jaunt across the countryside and would take several days, but considering how early they had left Omashu it was only late afternoon by now. There was still enough light to travel safely at top speed, and Azula was a real stickler for efficiency.

Still, having been locked up in the driver's cabin for so long, Xisheng knew he needed a break anyway. For one it was undeniably boring as hell driving around such open and easily passable terrain in this thing for so long, and on a more basic note he kind of needed to relieve himself. He was only human after all.

That being the case he allowed the Overlord to consume what coal was in its engine before gradually slowing to a halt in a relatively flat plain of land that nevertheless had a few hills here and there to grant some minor variety. The mountains they would have to cross eventually loomed on the horizon, but aside from the setting orange sun behind them they were too far to really appreciate in a visual capacity.

Regardless, Xisheng wasted no time in exiting the driver's cabin, just in case Azula wore into him for wasting valuable time in their pursuit of the Avatar and daring to stop for anything so banal as basic human necessity.

He didn't get to actually relieve that human necessity before the car that housed his companions opened, with significantly more steam than seemed necessary. Xisheng supposed it was the result of imperfect hydraulics. The Fire Nation may have been the world leader in technology but even so they were technically still amateur practitioners only beginning to really hit their mechanical stride.

He also imagined that exiting from such a cloud of steam could make any entrance dramatic, but a coughing fit from what could have only been Ty Lee ruined it. After all, it couldn't have been Mai or Azula. Coughing was a sign of human weakness, and they both liked to pretend they didn't have that.

Either way the Crown Princess stepped through the cloud of steam just as it began to dissipate, glancing around for only a moment to see where Xisheng was. When she spotted him there was no hesitation before she asked the obvious question.

"Is there an issue Lieutenant? Why have we stopped?"

Unwilling to say anything along the lines of 'I had to go to the bathroom' to the Princess of the Fire Nation, Xisheng quickly devised an excuse that was, humorously enough, the exact same excuse but for a different subject.

"There's no issue Your Highness, but I figured it would be prudent to allow the animals we're carrying a few minutes of reprieve and relief. They've been confined for some time."

From inside the car that Xisheng couldn't see inside of from this angle, he heard Ty Lee's seemingly triumphant voice.

"See, I told you! Gohan's a nice guy, he was even thinking of the animals! I knew he would."

Naturally, she was answered by the entirely deadpan voice of the car's only other occupant at the moment. "And I told you, probably six times by now at least, that I really don't care for anyone's love of the animal kingdom, or my lack thereof. Please shove it already."

Not put off in any way, Ty Lee had a suggestion for that too. "Hmph. I told Azula all those years ago that if we had gotten that baby Deerhound for your eighth birthday you would grow up to be a happier person…"

"Remind me to thank her for not burdening me with an animal that needs even more attention than you do."

Azula ignored their exchange entirely, instead providing a reply to her direct subordinate. "I suppose you make a fair point. It would be far more hassle than it's worth if they were to… well, obviously you know or you wouldn't have brought it up. Ty Lee?"

Essentially summoned, the acrobat front flipped out of the passenger car, because she could and why not? "Leave it to me! I've got plenty of experience with Mongoose Lizards, so I don't mind."

The Crown Princess considered stating that she didn't really ask whether or not her friend minded, but ultimately she settled on a more pressing question.

"What does a circus need with Mongoose Lizards?"

Already pulling the switch on the outside of the third car to release said animals, Ty Lee gave her friend a look of confusion. "Huh? Who said anything about the circus?"

Needless to say this left everyone else baffled, but at the same time they all figured it was best not to dive any deeper into that particular issue. Instead, Xisheng decided it was a good time to ask the other more important question as Ty Lee coaxed the Mongoose Lizards into staying somewhat orderly and controlled in their mad dash from the car.

"While we're stopped Princess, I figured this would be a good time to ask; but when or where exactly do you want me to stop? You didn't really specify before we left Omashu…"

For her part, Azula looked at him with a completely serious expression. "Were you under the impression that you're supposed to stop before we reach Gaoling?"

As usual, Xisheng had no idea if she was serious. And the fact that she very well could have been was kind of terrifying. That said, Xisheng tried to say something that would make her reveal this statement as a joke.

"W-well, you and your friends will need to sleep sometime, correct…?"

The Princess donned that one smirk that always worried Xisheng as she motioned for him to look into the passenger car she had been riding for the past six hours. "Indeed, but I do believe that dilemma has already been solved."

Now curious, Xisheng moved to a position where he could see within the still open passenger car. Needless to say what came out of his mouth was not exactly professional.

"What the hell is this absolute nonsense?"

The passenger car may as well have been a small suite for all the difference the interior made. It had beds. It had rugs covering the cold steel floor. It had a small closet looking compartment in the corner that Xisheng was fairly certain was a bathroom. Aside from the walls that were still steel, it was way nicer than any passenger car pulled by a military vehicle should ever have.

The downright absurdity of the sight was ironically offset by Mai's lazily reclining form on one of the beds, as though nothing were strange about this at all.

"You have got to be kidding me. Where did this come from?!"

Azula looked into the car as well as she came to stand beside him. "I had it prepared overnight by servants at Omashu. You didn't really think the Princess of the Fire Nation was going to ride in any level of discomfort did you?"

Temporarily forgetting his position in who he was talking to, Xisheng gawked at her. "You had them install plumbing in a passenger car over night?"

"At the Governor's expense of course."

Xisheng didn't know what to say to that, but thankfully Azula filled in the silence. "That said, I don't expect you to drive all night…"

Before he could give thanks silent or otherwise, Mai had something to say to that. "Don't see why not though. It's not like we couldn't sleep just fine while you did."

A little irked by Mai's seeming disregard for his well-being, Xisheng snapped at her before he really thought about it. "Oh, I'm so sorry that you get impatient while lazing around in bed all day. Maybe you wouldn't be so bored if you drove the Overlord, milady."

Mai actually looked moderately surprised that Xisheng had spoken to her with such disdain, but she didn't actually seem mad about it. If anything, the look she gave him was almost… appreciative. In fact, she almost appeared to be actually considering his not to be taken seriously suggestion. Ultimately, she simply shrugged and returned to reclining as she was before Xisheng's criticism.

"Maybe."

Left flat footed after a response like that, Xisheng did feel immediately bad about what he had said, though he was more confused by her reaction than anything else. That said Azula gave one glance to the orange sky before making a statement.

"Well, now that we have that drama out of the way, I suppose this is as good a time as any to stop for the day. After all, it's better to train with some amount of sunlight still available…"

Xisheng's only response to that was a despairing grimace, which prompted Azula to almost smile in amusement.

"You seriously believed you were going to get out of it for a while, didn't you?"

"No, of course not. Not at all. I was looking forward to it actually. Please bless me with your eminent wisdom Princess."

Azula cocked an eyebrow at him, but Mai actually commented on it with some very small amount of amusement in her voice. "I understand getting all sarcastic with me, but was that really wise?"

"Well sarcasm seems to be a prevailing quality around here so I have to get in on it sometime. Otherwise I'll just end up like Ty Lee."

"Hey! What is that supposed to mean?!"

Thankfully the training session Xisheng had with Azula was a short one since they started so late in the afternoon. The whole thing was wrapped up in just under an hour, with the lesson being short and to the point in regards to concussive Firebending.

Xisheng was no stranger to the technique of course, having employed it several times on the battlefield. It was a phenomenal technique really, once one realized that fire had no physical force to it at all. And this brought Azula and Xisheng back to that one particular point about Firebending, in that what they were necessarily bending might not have been fire in and of itself.

Well, it was fire, but it was a matter of whether or not fire was just a manifestation of what they were really doing, which Azula had theorized to be 'energy bending.'

After all, if flame had no physical force of its own, how did Firebenders utilize concussion? It was something they all just kind of did without really thinking, using Firebending to knock people back or blast them away with an explosion, but it didn't make any sense in regards to what fire was and how it worked.

It did however, make some sense if Firebenders actually bent energy and just used fire as they primary manifestation of it. Because if that were true, Firebenders could manifest physical force with their bending, seeing as how force was just a reaction to energy.

All in all, Xisheng didn't know how the hell it worked. Ultimately he cared that it did, though the mechanics of it still intrigued him. For now he was content knowing that he could condense his Firebending so it would 'explode' with physical force on impact. Quite useful for numerous situations.

Naturally Azula had demonstrated how useful it was by shooting Xisheng with one such fireball, but thankfully at a low enough power to avoid truly hurting him. Mai had been right about her mild payback for snarking her.

But, all in all, that part of the day passed quickly enough, and Xisheng was free to supposedly relax for what was left of the evening, and hopefully eat. Aside from the quick breakfast he had grabbed in Omashu that morning, he had consumed nothing all day.

Thankfully, by the time training was over Ty Lee has gotten a fire going with wood she had mysteriously acquired from some source Xisheng couldn't discern. They were out in the middle of God-forsaken nowhere after all.

He chalked it up to Azula having thought ahead and bringing supplies or something, not questioning it any further as he came to rest at the fire as well. The Mongoose Lizards were more or less scattered about the immediate area, well-trained enough to avoid running off. That said it was just Xisheng and Ty Lee at the campfire, because Mai had yet to leave the passenger car (Xisheng was pretty sure she had fallen asleep in the position he had seen her last) and Azula was poring over the map of the Earth Kingdom they had as she leaned against the Overlord.

This left Xisheng in especially good company either way, made more obvious when the currently ex-circus performer handed him a bowl of whatever she had been cooking.

"Here. Guess what it is?"

A brief glance at the contents of the bowl proved Xisheng's suspicions true even as they formed in his mind. It was, of course, rice.

"Of course… I guess this is actually thoughtful, all things considered. Thank you."

Supposedly Ty Lee thought it was kind of funny, wearing an even goofier grin than usual as she provided him with a pair of chopsticks from somewhere unseen. The recently promoted officer decided to take it as her general sense of happiness and not any particular jibe at him.

Still, he noticed that there was only one bowl to be had, leading him to ask the obvious. "Aren't you going to eat any?"

The acrobat gave him a brief apologetic look before answering. "Well, no offense, but the rest of us kind of already ate, well, y'know, nicer things."

Recalling his last debacle with fancier foods, Xisheng was silently grateful to whichever girl had remembered his preference for food. Though he wouldn't have minded some other basic things. Bread maybe. He hadn't eaten a good, wholesome sweetroll in what felt like forever.

"No worries. Can't help what I can't stomach."

That remark left the duo in silence for a few minutes as Xisheng sought to actually sate his hunger, but he was not so foolish as to pass up this one on one opportunity with someone who was still a relative stranger. As soon as he wasn't feeling completely famished he got started on learning a bit more about the girl sitting a few feet from him.

"So, if you don't mind me asking…"

There was an extremely brief frown to be seen on Ty Lee's face when he said that. Mostly because every time someone said that to her, the question to follow was, 'why did you join the circus?' Or sometimes it was, 'why did you run away from a life of nobility to join a circus?' Even the people at the circus had asked her that and it irritated her. It just proved that everyone thought she was nuts for abandoning a life of posh nobility for any reason at all.

"What started your interest in acrobatics?"

Having literally been halfway through the first word of her typical response for the circus question, Ty Lee was caught off guard when it never came. "I-huh?"

"Your acrobatics. I was wondering when and why you got into them. If you don't mind sharing."

Truth be told this question had literally never been asked of her. People asked Ty Lee about her life choices all the time. No one ever asked about her for the sake of just knowing more about, well, her.

"Um, well… there's wasn't anything really special I guess. I mean, not like whatever epiphany Mai must have had the first day she caught on to how much she liked throwing things. I just… gave it a try one time. You know, a cartwheel. I was out in the palace garden, just waiting for that super long dinner my parents had been invited to with the rest of the nobility to be over. I can't even remember why they brought me along, but a lot of parents did so maybe it was expected or something…"

Ty Lee was worried that she was kind of rambling without getting to her point, but to his credit Xisheng didn't seem bothered at all. He was listening intently, giving her his full attention. And she liked that fact more than she'd admit to anyone out loud.

"And uh, none of the adults really cared when the kids got kind of antsy. We were all raised in noble homes so it wasn't like we didn't know how to behave. At least, I think no one really minded. It could be that no one noticed when I slipped away from the banquet table. But either way, I kind of just roamed the palace for a while, since it was my first time there. And I thought the garden was really nice, but by the time I got there I was really bored, and it felt like the dinner was going to take forever. So I just… kinda cartwheeled around a bit. Trying to pass the time. Entertain myself I guess."

Glancing furtively at her conversational partner to make sure he was still interested in this simple story she felt like she was dragging on far too long, Ty Lee was relieved to see he was. Though in hindsight his complete attention was kind of nerve wracking. He was looking at her so intently with that gorgeous multi-colored gaze of his…

"And w-well, uh… Azula was there. I mean, she saw me doing all the cartwheels. She clapped when I was done, said it was really impressive… and I guess… that was kind of it really. I mean, maybe it was just the logic of a little girl, but I figured… if the most basic acrobatics could get the attention of a Fire Nation princess, then doing all the really cool stuff would really get people to notice me right? I realized that everyone pays attention to me, even if it's only for a second, when I'm doing something acrobatic that impresses them. I always enjoyed that attention. And I guess I still do, so I just got better and better at what I do, until I got where I am now."

There was a moment of silence as Xisheng contemplated everything she had said. "I guess that explains joining the circus… what better place to capture everyone's attention than with a performance and a real audience?"

For some reason that comment made Ty Lee feel extremely self-conscious. "That… all of that makes me seem really shallow and vain doesn't it?"

The soldier looked genuinely confused by this notion. "I don't think so. There's nothing wrong with wanting to be noticed. I'm pretty sure almost everyone wants to be noticed by someone. Part of feeling good about ourselves is being important to other people, and that's just human. I'm just as guilty as you and I'm certainly not going to judge you for it."

That seemed to be all Xisheng had to say on the matter, and that seriously shocked Ty Lee. He didn't want a backstory? Some sort of explanation that would justify her need for attention or validation? He was just going to take it at face value and say, 'this is who you are, and I don't mind at all'?

But apparently she had 'spoken' too soon, for Xisheng did have something to say after a moment of thought. "Although now that you're away from the circus, I suppose there's no one to really watch you perform…"

"U-um, yeah, I guess so… but it's fine, I-"

"I'll watch."

Once again caught off guard by this completely nonchalant statement from the man across from her, Ty Lee fumbled in responding. This was a feat in and of itself, because she actually didn't get flustered all that often. Moreso than her friends, but definitely not as easily as most girls.

"Uh, w-what do you mean?"

"I'm sure you have all sorts of routines or just moves in general I haven't seen. I only got to see one performance. So if you ever have anything you want to show off, I'm always willing to make time for you. You've got my attention whenever you want it."

There were all sorts of implications Ty Lee could derive from almost every inch of that response, and all of them totaled together brought one of the most furious blushes she had ever experienced to her face. For once she actually found herself trying to change the topic of conversation to something that had nothing to do with her at all.

"T-t-thanks, b-but um, y-y'know, I'm sure you'll be busy doing uh… stuff, with the others. Right?"

It was impossible to tell if Xisheng noticed how badly he had flustered his conversational partner, as he gave her diversionary comment real consideration, though it ultimately caused him to scoff. "That's a joke right? I mean, I guess training with Azula could be take some time, but I'm fairly certain Mai doesn't want anything to do with me. I'm pretty sure she flat out hates me or something."

The defeated expression on Xisheng's face as he said this was enough for Ty Lee to forget her prior embarrassment to offer real insight on the matter. "Aw, come on, Mai doesn't hate you."

"It certainly feels like it."

"Well, it's more like… hm, how do I say this without sounding mean? You're uh… kinda boring Gohan."

Xisheng gave her an incredulous look at this blunt statement. "Just so you know, that wasn't the way to say that without sounding mean. You think I'm boring?"

The pink clad acrobat waved her arms in dismissal. "No, I don't think you're boring. But that's because you're… well I feel like you're more of yourself around me. Look at it this way; Mai's nobility too, she grew up surrounded by good little servants that treated her with utmost respect and deference and all that."

The man she was speaking to cut her off. "You can't possibly be suggesting that I shouldn't treat her with respect. No woman wants that."

"That's not really what I was implying… ugh, this is so much harder to explain than I thought it would be! I mean, there's a big difference in respect for authority and like, respecting a woman, y'know? I'm not saying you should like, objectify or hold her in lower regard or anything. But she's never really cared about being a noble. She's been surrounded by dozens of people in her life treating her like she's nothing but a noble, like there's nothing else to her other than being a noble. Which means all of her interactions with them where the same. Deference and respect to her position but no real interest in the person that held that position. You get what I'm saying right? Please tell me you do because I don't think I can explain it any better."

Xisheng finished off what was left of his dinner as he mulled it over. "Essentially what you're saying is that the attitude of servants and deference to her position bores her, right?"

"Yeah, exactly! Like, she's dealt with a hundred of those guys in her life. And as far as I can tell, you've kind of been one of those guys with her too so far. So you're just another bore in a big sea of bores because you're no different than all those other people she never cared about at all."

"You know, you're almost as good as Azula at insulting people very subtly."

"Sorry, but that's probably how it is from her point of view… like you were totally on track when you snapped at her earlier. I know that sounds weird, but it's something that set you apart from a bunch of nameless faces. None of her family's servants would ever dream of doing something like that."

Xisheng was silent for another moment. "So... this all amounts to essentially 'don't treat her like anything special'?"

"Er… yes?"

"That… sounds like awful advice in regards to being on good terms with a girl."

Ty Lee gave him an apologetic smile. "Admittedly, this is all kind of stuff I just guessed at. It's not like Mai ever like, spilled her heart out to me or anything."

"So what you're saying is that it's just as possible that she does expect and want me to defer to her position of nobility and doing otherwise could easily get one of many lethal weapons buried in my jugular?"

"Arguably, yes."

The soldier glanced stoically in the direction of the Overlord and the woman in question. "Somehow your ability to reassure is both the best and worst I have ever been subjected to."

Back in Omashu, the dethroned King Bumi was in his metal cell, still trapped within his steel coffin. He'd been whistling some tune he couldn't remember the name or origin of when the new governor, Ukano, entered the cell, followed by six Firebenders. This event brought a cold snap to Bumi's train of thought and all of his plotting, for at this moment he realized he had severely underestimated one particular trait of his foe.

"Governor, I'd say it's nice to see you again, but I get the feeling I won't quite like the news you're here to give me."

To his credit Ukano looked entirely uncomfortable with the situation, which was evidence enough that what was about to happen was not his idea.

"I'm… afraid not. I… I want you to know that I do not agree with this, but by explicit orders from her Highness the Crown Princess…"

Bumi smiled, despite feeling no merriment at the moment. "Execution, yes? I was prepared for this eventuality. I figured someone would have the brains to do me in eventually."

Ukano actually looked apologetic. He had always been a man of politics, not the necessities of war. "I'm… truly sorry-"

"Oh, don't be Governor. I'm not taking it personally. Honestly it's a smart move by the Princess. Why take all the risks of keeping an Earthbender like me alive and kickin, and in a city I know better than anyone no less? I'm too dangerous to be left alive and there's no benefit to doing so. Heck, all of the people in Omashu that were willing to fight have already left. Even if my death is publicized none of the remaining citizens will be galvanized enough to revolt. I'll admit that I played my hand poorly. I didn't think the Fire Lord's daughter would be quite this ruthless at such a young age."

"I know it's not much consolation, but… I'd like to at least offer you a choice in the matter…"

"I don't suppose letting me die of old age is an option?"

Ukano hesitated a moment before realizing this was supposed to be some sort of morbid joke. "I… don't believe the Princess would find that acceptable."

"Phooey. Worth a shot. Well then, surprise me! After all, at this old age death is the only real surprise, ruining it would make me a pretty bad sport, don't you think?"

Descending into cackling laughter, Ukano led his entourage back out of the cell, closing the door behind him. He spent a few moments pondering his macabre task before simply turning to the captain of his guards.

"Captain, what would be the most humane way of doing this?"

Factual to the letter, the soldier didn't seem emotionally invested in this situation at all. "We could fill the chamber with gas sir. He'd pass out before dying. Wouldn't feel a thing."

Still reluctant to give the order, Ukano knew he had no choice in the matter. "So be it. When it is done, preserve the body. Her Highness wishes for it to be plausible that he died of old age some months from now."

"Yes Sir."

With that, Ukano left the men to their morbid task, resigned to drown his guilty conscience on the matter in the arms of his wife or at the bottom of a bottle. And somewhere in the back of his mind, he worried for his eldest daughter that happened to be traveling with the ruthless and calculating girl that had ordered this execution of a prisoner.

Back in his cell, Bumi's face lit up just as gas started pouring into the room through it's vents. "Hey! I just remembered the last line of that song!"

He took a deep breath of the air that was slowly being poisoned and bellowed out the last line in the deepest voice he could manage.

"And diiiiiieeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

Chapter Text

On his second day of driving the Overlord to Gaoling, Xisheng had enough ire to curse the whole world a thousand times over. For one, he was up at an ungodly hour of the morning to get the vehicle on its way again, because Azula had explicitly told him when she wanted them to move out the day before.

Five in the morning wasn't even the crack of dawn.

No, the light of the sun was only just starting to illuminate the darkness of night when Xisheng woke up, in that fashion where you knew it was arriving but could still see no real trace of it. The fashion in which that light had not even managed to change the tint of the sky yet.

So yeah, he was up really fucking early.

On top of that, he had not slept well in the slightest. As he had predicted, the inside of the driver's cabin was ill-equipped for sleeping. The chair wasn't adjustable beyond how close or far it was from the controls, meaning it couldn't lean back for some semblance of a bed. And even if it did, it was hard as hell, being solid steel.

So naturally he had elected to sleep outside. That posed its own fair share of problems as well. For one, he had not come equipped for outdoor camping. He had nothing even remotely akin to a sleeping bag, and even though the grass and the dirt was still softer than the metal chair of the Overlord, it was definitely a far cry from comfortable.

And on top of that, the Earth Kingdom was lacking in a tropical climate like the Fire Nation had. When the warm rays of the sun were absent from the sky, it could actually grow fairly chilly without any normal means of warmth.

Of course Xisheng could keep himself warm, being a Firebender and all, but the problem with that was it wasn't an automatic process. He had to actually focus and actively do something to keep himself warm, and as most people knew, those two things were rather counterproductive when it came to sleep.

So in short, Xisheng had not slept very long overall, and the few hours he did sleep were constantly interrupted by chills and the general discomfort of the ground.

So he was in a distinctly bad mood as he sat in the driver's cabin of the Overlord, checking all of its instruments and roughly calculating how far it could travel on its current coal reserves. Considering how droll the experience had been the day before, Xisheng was not eager to go about driving in a straight line for several hours with little sleep. At least if he passed into an unexpected slumber the Overlord would come to a stop of its own accord when it ran out of immediate fuel. Other than that, the passengers of the vehicle would be fine in almost any scenario because the Overlord could smash into nearly anything and sustain minimal damage. Short of falling off a cliff no one would die if Xisheng succumbed to sleep.

Though he supposed he could maybe die since Azula would likely interpret that as incompetence and endangering the life of royalty.

Either way, he was not especially keen on his surroundings at the moment since the fog of an early awakening still weighed heavily on him, but even so he did not miss the very slight sound of someone resting their boots on the steel floor of the cabin.

Xisheng knew he had left the door open, mostly for ventilation, but he was honestly more curious about who would have any reason to be up at the same time as him. Of course, there were only three options.

Considering Azula's penchant for getting up at the crack of dawn, she appeared to be the most likely choice. But the thing was, it wasn't the crack of dawn yet. And throughout Xisheng's brief experience with the Princess, she never woke up before that. Maybe later, but certainly not earlier.

He also supposed it could be Ty Lee, because her overall enthusiasm and bubbliness practically guaranteed she was more of a morning person than the rest of them. And Xisheng could not at all fathom why Mai would ever be up this early, because she seemed to hate sunlight at any time of the day, never mind the early morning.

It quickly occurred to Xisheng that there was a very easy solution to his query, which was simply looking at the open doorway to identify his visitor. Much to his downright shock, it actually was Mai, the girl looking about as tired as he was, lazily reclining against the edge of the door frame as she stifled an unbecoming yawn.

Aside from her existence in that particular spot in and of itself, Xisheng noted that she wasn't appearing as he usually saw her either. Apparently going through the full routine this early in the morning was too much for her to bother with, made obvious by the lack of the red stitches of her garments that usually went over the baggy black parts that hid her plethora of weapons. She had spent time to fix her hair in the usual style though, which seemed strange all things considered. Why was that the one thing she'd bother with this early?

Either way, Xisheng was actually so surprised by the last person he expected that he wasn't sure what he was supposed to say. By social standards he probably should have offered a good morning, but they were both scowling with the fatigue of an early awakening and neither would think he actually meant it. It was a shit morning, no need to pretend otherwise.

Thankfully he didn't have to say anything, because when she actually had something to say Mai wasn't the kind of person to hesitate about it.

"Teach me how to drive the Overlord."

This short sentence that was definitely along the lines of a demand rather than a request stunned Xisheng into even further silence. Even so, he managed to get the most important response out eventually.

"…what?"

The girl in question didn't seem put off by his reply in the slightest. In fact, it looked like she thought the explanation should have been obvious.

"You said yesterday that I should try driving."

Recalling the incident that he was mildly ashamed of, Xisheng tried to clarify that he hadn't actually meant that. "I didn't actually suggest that you should…"

"But it carried the implication. So, teach me how to drive the Overlord."

Xisheng questioned whether or not he should give in, but ultimately he asked himself why he wasn't. He had already decided that he wasn't looking forward to driving today, and someone else was offering to do it for him. Still, he felt the need to clarify why exactly Mai wanted this.

"I suppose I can, but… you do realize you're asking to do grunt work, right?"

"Well I'd be replacing you, so that was obvious, yes."

Trying and failing to ignore the quite potent sting of those words, Xisheng continued on. "So why do you want to? No offense but I know for certain it's not because you feel bad about me doing all the work."

The unapologetic look on Mai's face made it very clear that Xisheng was indeed right about that. As for giving him an actual answer, she simply shrugged. "I've never done it before."

To hear such a basic answer from her made Xisheng wonder if he had seriously misinterpreted a part of Mai's character so far. "That's it? That's your only reason?"

She cocked a slender eyebrow at him. "Is there supposed to be another reason for doing things you haven't done before?"

Conceding to that very valid point, Xisheng shrugged at the overall unexpectedness of the situation. Mai was the last person he had expected to see this morning, and by far the last person he had expected to take on what even she clearly defined as grunt work (yes, he had expected her to avoid it even more than Azula), but here she was and that was what she wanted to do. Who was he to question good fortune?

"Well alright. I already checked all the instruments, so take that seat there and I'll tell you what all the controls do. And since we may as well get underway now, go ahead and close the door please."

Xisheng wondered if a noble lady had any issue with effectively being told what to do by someone of his status, but as he moved to shovel some coal into the engine she didn't utter any form of dissent or malcontent.

With the engine fueled and the Overlord essentially ready to go, Xisheng peeked his head out of the door one last time to make sure they wouldn't be driving off without something important. He had already corralled all of the Mongoose Lizards back into their car when he had first woken up, and the passenger car with the other humans being ferried was closed as well. Honestly Xisheng wondered how Mai had made an exit from the thing without waking everyone else up, but maybe there was another way out that didn't include the amateur hydraulics?

Either way it seemed like they had everything in order, so Xisheng locked the door back in place and took the second cabin seat that existed only for the coal shoveler to rest in between bouts of, well, shoveling coal.

Considering that he had pretty much only driven the Overlord for a single day before now, Xisheng found it kind of funny that he was teaching someone else how to do so. Still, the machine was a lot simpler than it looked at first, and it didn't actually take a lot of learning to get the ropes.

Besides, he got the feeling Mai had enough mental acuity about her to not have an issue learning something simple like this, and that feeling was proven accurate as soon as he finished detailing where each critical control was. Basically, the sticks for steering and the emergency brake that Xisheng had found no use for the day prior.

In but a few minutes of explanation regarding the nature of its momentum and controls, the Overlord was already moving towards Gaoling once again, just with a different driver.

If Mai found the whole process as entertaining as she had hoped it might be, it didn't show on her face. Her only expression was lazy tiredness as she peered out of the small view port that allowed her to drive without complete blindness.

Considering that there was very little for Mai to focus on now other than drive straight, Xisheng felt this was a good time to clarify something that was bothering him greatly.

"Why on earth were you up this early anyway?"

Mai didn't even glance at him. "How was I going to usurp your throne if I wasn't awake when you were going to start driving?"

This was a fair point as far as that was concerned, since there would very well be no breaks or anything until they made many hours' worth of progress, but it just raised more questions.

"Wait, so you intentionally woke up this early just so you could drive this thing? You actually wanted to give it a try that badly?"

"Since the answer to that is obvious, I hope you aren't a complete moron and that you're asking that rhetorically."

Left dumbfounded by the facts presented to him, Xisheng fell silent. How often did any noble actually want to work? So much so that they would do something they hated to make it happen?

Well, to be fair he didn't think Mai actually had any great specific interest in driving the Overlord. As she had said herself, the only reason she had for doing this was because she had not done it before, which lent some credence to Xisheng's earlier speculations that perhaps Mai didn't have anything she particularly cared a great deal about. After all, you had to be extremely desperate to find anything entertaining to pull all this.

That said, now was a perfect opportunity to actually discern a thing or two about Mai, as she certainly wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. It was just a matter of getting her to actually say anything worthwhile.

"So-"

"Don't."

Cut off before he could even get close to beginning, Xisheng cocked an eyebrow at her. "Don't what?"

The possibly palest girl he had ever been acquainted with still didn't grace him with her gaze. "I can tell that you're about to ask a bunch of extremely grating questions to try and get to know me or something. Don't. I'm not interested in learning about you. I'm not interested in having you learn about me. So don't bother."

Stopped in his tracks rather easily, Xisheng almost bowed his head like a good soldier would to the demands of a noble lady, but he then recalled exactly what Ty Lee had said to him about this particular situation just last night.

Of course Ty Lee herself had said that she had just been hypothesizing, and for all she knew everything she had guessed at could have been wrong. Mai could have been a firm believer of social class that would be outraged at a common soldier daring to do anything remotely out of line.

Then again, Ty Lee could be right, and maybe Mai was so bored with the whole noble shtick that she would actually appreciate someone disregarding her social standing entirely.

Ultimately Xisheng decided he would be no worse off for giving it a shot. After all, even if he did end up angering or offending Mai, she couldn't really kill him right? Surely Azula would not be happy about something like that, as it then meant that one of them would have to drive this machine all the time.

Settling on exactly how cheeky he could be without being stupid, Xisheng opened his mouth to speak once again. "Right. Well, my interest in military service began when I was roughly-"

"What are you doing?"

Not even bothering to look at the no doubt sour expression of his compatriot, Xisheng gave his answer as innocently as possible. "Talking about my life of course. It starts off pretty boring, but it gets pretty interesting when we get to the part about killing a magic fish that will in turn kill the moon."

Mai entirely ignored that last part because it actually did sound rather interesting, even if it also sounded entirely insane. "So are you deaf or stupid? Which reason is the one that kept you from understanding 'I'm not interested in learning about you'?"

"Well I understood that part, but I just don't care that you don't care."

It was at this point that Mai finally glanced at him directly, supposedly because he had said something of actual interest. Xisheng couldn't help but notice that she sported the dark bags of poor sleep all the same as he probably did, but strangely enough it didn't actually look all that bad on her. The darkness kind of brought out the brighter aspects of her orange eyes all the same as her hair did.

Still, the next words out of her mouth weren't exactly pleasant. "Then as a member of nobility I'm ordering you to shut up and stop bothering me."

For a second time, Xisheng was tempted to do as he was told. He was a soldier after all, and his entire career revolved around obeying orders. But as he sat in that seat for a moment, he realized that he had absolutely zero reason obey anything Mai said. Yes, she was a member of nobility, and even upper echelon nobility at that, but so what? Last time Xisheng checked, the military didn't answer to nobles on any level unless those nobles were put in charge by someone the military did answer to, like the Fire Lord.

And last time he checked, Azula had never actually put Mai in charge of anything. Even if he were still a corporal, Xisheng would not be obligated in any way to be subservient to her. The only person he answered to around here was Azula. As far as everyone else was concerned, they were essentially equals. Even social class wasn't really withstanding because Mai's upper class didn't really bear any weight on Xisheng's lower class. The fact that she was a noble and he was not literally meant nothing other than the fact that she had been raised differently than him.

So with that in mind, Xisheng decided to press the envelope just a little bit, and he hoped he wasn't about to get stabbed for it.

"I don't take orders from you."

It was not said with any defiance or outright hostility. It was just a factual statement, yet it nevertheless garnered him Mai's full attention. "What?"

"The nobility of the Fire Nation has no command over military entities of any scope unless that authority has been granted to them by a member of the military hierarchy. I'm under no obligation to treat you any differently from a typical citizen of the country."

For a moment, Xisheng was sure he had crossed the line and that he was going to have some sort of blade slid between his ribs and jammed into his kidneys. But after a moment in which Mai's expression actually registered some amount of surprise, she actually smiled.

Well, it wasn't a smile really. It was actually an almost completely imperceptible shift of her lips from one position to the other, something he could have never noticed if he weren't looking right at her from a foot away, but either way it was the kind of shift that denoted the surprise she had felt as actually being pleasant.

It barely lasted more than half a second, and in that time the raven haired beauty turned her attention back to where she was guiding the Overlord. Nothing about the situation changed. Her tone was still entirely neutral and she looked just as tired and uninvested as she had before. The only thing that changed at all was the words she was actually saying.

"No, I guess you aren't. But I still don't want to talk about your life. According to you it's immensely boring right up until a few months ago."

Realizing he had indeed worded his own life in such a fashion, Xisheng nevertheless smiled to himself, feeling as though he had accomplished something monumental here. How many other people had gotten this icy woman to actually open up even the tiniest fraction? Exactly two as far as he knew.

"Well to be fair I certainly didn't have very interesting companions until recently. Now I'm completely surrounded."

"Consider yourself lucky to be brought into the fold this late in life."

A little worried about what he might discover if he read too much into that, Xisheng decided that he needed to find a new topic that would actually interest his partner now that he had gotten her to accept that he was going to talk one way or another. Ty Lee had told him that Mai hated to be bored, and that meant he had to avoid being boring. It was just too bad that Mai seemed to be bored by almost everything. Almost.

"Jian or Dao?"

Now this actually earned a real smirk out of Mai. She had to admit, Gohan here was at least clever compared to most other people that had tried to get her to fraternize in her life. At least he was smart enough to focus on the one thing she had an obvious interest in, that being weapons. She was willing to give him credit for that.

"You really do love questions with obvious answers. Everyone knows the superior sword is..."

For the briefest of moments when she had first awoken that morning, Azula had been worried that Mai had somehow been left behind when the Overlord went into action, considering her absence from the passenger car when they had started moving.

Thankfully, her somewhat irrational concern was soothed when she could hear the faint voices of conversation through the communications piping that ran between the passenger car and the driver's cabin. After all, considering that Ty Lee was still in the car with her, there was only one pair that could be in the driver's cabin.

That said she had been utterly surprised to learn that Mai was there for any reason whatsoever. Naturally Azula had been more than a little keen on discerning her motives, but eavesdropping over the communication system had revealed nothing of note at all. They were simply discussing (with surprising vigor considering that Mai was one of the conversationalists) the merits of different weapons and the like. A far cry from the scandalous things Ty Lee had foolishly stated when she had first learned of the situation.

Having quickly dismissed the situation at first, it wasn't until several hours into the voyage that it was brought to Azula's attention again in a rather roundabout manner, thanks to Ty Lee's incessant babbling with nothing else to do other than talk.

"-and you know, he didn't even ask about the circus thing. He just asked about me. It was so sweet! He even said he would watch me perform anytime I wanted, and that was kind of embarrassing but I think I'll take him up on that if I catch him with free time, because he's really attentive and I bet-"

Hardly able to focus on the book of military strategy she was reading with all of this noise, Azula lowered said book so she could cast a displeased glare at her friend. Naturally she wasn't very supportive of what was currently making Ty Lee smile. Not that she was ever actively trying to put the acrobat down, but she was usually the voice of negativity as opposed to Ty Lee's optimism. In hindsight it was unfair for Ty Lee because Mai was always the voice of pessimism as well.

"Ty Lee, why are you ranting so much about this? Your whimsical affections are entirely wasted on the person in question."

While this did stop Ty Lee cold for a whole two seconds, it just gave rise to more talking. "What are you talking about? Wait, you aren't actually going to take him for yourself right? You told me you weren't interested before."

For the life of her Azula had no idea how her friend had reached such a ridiculous conclusion. "What? No. I'm certainly not going to sully myself with someone beneath my station. I was reminding you that the situation is no different for you. You're a member of Fire Nation nobility, you can't stoop to the level of a commoner. Your fellow caste members would lose all respect for you."

It took a moment for Azula to realize that her friend was leveling an incredulous look at her, which was actually quite rare for the acrobat. "What are you giving me that look for?"

That it wasn't immediately obvious only seemed to confuse Ty Lee further. "Seriously Azula? I ran away from my life of nobility to join the circus. The circus. Do you really think I care enough about our social rules to not get attached to someone of a lower class? I don't care what class Xisheng is a part of. He's nice and thoughtful."

Trying to ignore the fact that she should have indeed considered Ty Lee's personal circumstances, Azula scoffed. "I'm sure you could find someone 'nice and thoughtful' who also has a lot of money and political influence. I still don't get your point."

Surprisingly, Ty Lee scoffed back. "If by 'nice and thoughtful' you mean 'some guy who would only want me as a trophy wife to show off to all of his noble friends,' then sure. You know Azula, do you even consider Xisheng a person? Is the fact that he's not a noble or something that important?"

"Don't be ridiculous Ty Lee. Of course I see him as a person. After all, how can I know the best ways to ensure his loyalty and competence if I don't at least understand the aspects of humanity that allow me to manipulate him?"

While she saw no flaw in her answer whatsoever, Ty Lee frowned at her in a way that could have been sorrow for both Xisheng and Azula's sake. "That's really sad Azula. You'd have his loyalty all the same if you thought of him as a friend. That's how you got me and Mai to help with all of this. Because we're your friends."

"Oh, so you wouldn't have assisted me as subjects to the Fire Nation Princess?"

"Wouldn't that just make us soldiers? Apparently you don't think very highly of soldiers."

Raising the book she had been reading to peruse its pages once again, Azula nevertheless put some real thought into that one. Truthfully, the reason she felt more comfortable with Mai and Ty Lee around rather than an entire contingent of Royal Guards was indeed because they were her friends. She trusted them more deeply than the oaths of any soldier, which could be bought and swayed with coin or promised influence. But in that case, was she not perfectly justified in treating Xisheng as exactly nothing more than a soldier?

"I don't see your point Ty Lee. The lieutenant is a soldier. I am holding him in the exact regard a Princess is supposed to hold a soldier. I see no reason I should treat him any differently than any other soldier I've ever commanded. Don't let your personal misgivings about uniformity evolve into nonsense."

Ty Lee scowled at that, considering it a low blow to mention something unrelated to the situation but important to her just because it bore some coincidental similarities. In the end though she simply laid back on her bed to drop the conversation.

"Whatever. I'll just steal him from you when you don't need him anymore…"

Azula expected such a statement to relieve her since it meant Ty Lee would stop talking for a while, but ultimately it did no such thing. In fact, it actually irritated her a bit, and at first she couldn't tell why.

Never content to be confused with her own feelings, the Princess of the Fire Nation broke down Ty Lee's exact words to see what had bothered her so. The most important word was obviously 'steal.' You couldn't steal something unless it belonged to someone else to begin with.

Was that it? The idea of someone stealing something that was hers? After all, Xisheng was hers. Her soldier, her pupil, her tool. What right did anyone have to take something she owned?

In fact, wasn't Ty Lee doing that every time she got all friendly with him? She took his attention away from his duties, which included serving and protecting Azula. So yes, she temporarily lost something she owned at those times, and the idea of it angered her.

Logically, Azula's rational mind was capable of telling her that no harm was being done, that Xisheng still performed his duties admirably and to the letter regardless of any time he spent with others. But the irrational side of her, which was actually quite a bit larger than she would ever admit, still said that it pissed her off.

In a moment of clarity, Azula realized this was no different than her young days in the palace, where, being the youngest daughter of the Fire Lord's youngest son, she was almost always overlooked in favor of others. Azulon was always paying attention to his eldest son, her father was always paying attention to his elder brother, her mother was always paying attention to her favorite child.

That last one really stirred her ire, but Azula quickly forced it down with dismissal. As if she could possibly suffer from something as pathetic as craving attention. That was literally Ty Lee's problem. Such things were beneath her.

And because they were beneath her, she decided against the suggestions of her own mind in commanding Xisheng to forego any relation with her two friends. Because she would only need to make that order if she actually cared. And she didn't.

She was the Crown Princess of the Fire Nation, the only Firebender to ever manifest azure flames, and one of the few Firebenders in the world and all of history that could shoot bolts of lightning from her fingertips.

If other plebeians were too dense to realize how great she was, that was completely on them, because it didn't bother her in the slightest.

Not. At. All.

"I've got to say, this was actually a huge letdown. This might be the most boring thing I've ever done. It practically spawns boredom of its own."

Xisheng was not surprised to hear these words out of Mai's mouth as he shoveled more coal into the Overlord's engine. After all, he got it. Driving the Overlord in a straight line for hours on end was mind-numbingly boring. Honestly he probably should have given Mai fair warning before she started because he knew she had only volunteered to drive in hopes that it wouldn't be droll.

"It could get better. We'll be entering a small mountain range that cuts us off from Gaoling soon. That'll require a bit more finesse and challenge."

"You say that like I'm going to do your job for you all day."

"Well no, but… I mean you are going to at least stay in the cabin right?"

Mai was fairly certain that she could detect a hopeful tone in that question, which honestly surprised her. This guy was either incredibly lonely or totally desperate for a girl's attention in any form. It had to be one or the other for him to actually want Mai of all people to stick around.

Despite the fact that she was a little happy at the thought of being considered interesting, Mai's expression and tone remained as icy as always. "Well unless we stop I could hardly leap out the door. Unfortunately…"

While he may have actually been wounded by that before today, Xisheng had quickly come to realize that Mai poking subtle fun at people was actually her way of being friendly to some extent. In the 'I only joke around with people I don't outright detest' kind of way at any rate. Still, sometimes it was hard to know just how serious she was being considering the implacable nature of her existence all the time.

Xisheng liked to think that he had gotten on Mai's good side today, but maybe he hadn't made as much progress as he had thought. True, they had actually had a very real and even very invested conversation on Mai's part regarding all sorts of weapons, but having someone invested in a topic they actually cared about was no great feat. Even complete strangers could have an animated discussion about something that was important to them, and they would still part as strangers.

Neither had he managed to make her show any real positive emotion at all, along the lines of smiling or laughing. Then again, Xisheng admitted to himself that asking for that much on the first day of real interaction with her was probably too greedy of him. He should have been content with that fact that she had found him interesting enough to even speak to today, as opposed to all the other times she acted as though he weren't worth her attention.

"C'mon now, this is where things get interesting. You aren't even the slightest bit curious as to whether or not this thing can smash through a decent sized boulder?"

Mai cocked an eyebrow at him, almost like she were asking if he really thought something so masculine as pure destruction could entertain her. Surprisingly, she didn't say anything like that. "Is that really a safe thing to attempt? You don't sound sure that we'd actually win against a boulder."

Sensing that the raven haired girl may have actually been on board with the idea of ramming a boulder just for the hell of it, Xisheng smirked mischievously at her. "Well we do have a rock-breaker for a prow. We'd be doing the Fire Nation a service by testing the capability of the machine, right…?"

Mai didn't smile back at him. But she did slowly nudge the accelerator stick forward, commanding the Overlord to gradually build speed. "That math adds up to me."

Xisheng's smirk widened a bit, and even though he still didn't get a smile back, he realized that Mai likely just had a different physical means of expressing the same feeling. In fact, he noted now that despite her usual neutrality, her eyes were extremely expressive. It was easy to tell when she was bored out of her mind. Easy to tell when something struck her as odd or even stupid. It was even easy to tell when she was actually amused, like she was right now. Despite having once told himself that Mai's midnight locks were the most attractive thing about her, Xisheng decided that perhaps he had been mistaken.

Taking his seat because it would hardly be a good idea to be standing if and when they hit something arguably as sturdy as the Overlord, Xisheng saw that they actually were already putting their theory to the test, as Mai had already spotted a decent sized boulder to ram some distance ahead. They were approaching it with almost as much speed as the Overlord could muster, and for a moment Xisheng wondered if he was a little too good at bringing out the recklessness in people, especially the people that he would not have imagined to have an ounce of recklessness in them until now.

This was especially true as he realized the boulder in question at the base of the mountains was a little larger than it looked from afar, but by now he and Mai were set in seeing just how well the Overlord could do its job.

Unfortunately (or fortunately since the outcome had the potential to be very bad), their very unsafe experiment was halted by the voice of the Princess echoing throughout the cabin, thanks to the communication system Xisheng had not even known existed until right now.

"Lieutenant, stop the vehicle."

It was a short and to the point command, and it was said in a tone that indicated Azula had no idea the driver was about to plow into a big rock. Still, that meant they had to stop their experiment, and Mai reached for that emergency brake that never got used.

Pulling on it did not bring the Overlord to a swift stop though. In fact, the lever she pulled launched the Overlord's large harpoon spikes, which rocketed forward with the power of steam and crashed into the boulder ahead of them with enough force to break the whole thing apart.

Realizing with some mild disappointment that she had made a stupid mistake and reached one lever too far to her right, Mai successfully got the brake the next time, which brought to Overlord to a slower stop than expected of an 'emergency' brake. Then again, one did not just instantaneously 'stop' a heavy steel vehicle.

When they came to a complete stop, Mai spared her partner in crime a scathing glare. "If anyone asks, ramming the boulder and firing the harpoons was all you."

Amused by her folly, Xisheng's expression had no problem saying as much. "If I agree to that, you owe me one."

"Fine. Whatever."

With that she sauntered out of the driving cabin, content that Xisheng was going to take the blame for any idiocy. As for the soldier himself, he found it kind of adorable that someone so serious was scared of looking silly.

Once he was finished shutting down the Overlord, Xisheng wasted no time in following Mai out of the vehicle, where he found all of the girls already waiting for him, with Azula glancing at the previously destroyed boulder in confusion. She turned that confusion on Xisheng with a cocked eyebrow as soon as he was within her sight.

Understanding her silent question, Xisheng allowed the mirth at his revelations regarding Mai's character to seep into his answer. "My apologies Princess, but that boulder was doing an excellent impression of Admiral Zhao's... 'eccentric' facial structure, sideburns and all, and I could only interpret that as an act of mockery for the Fire Nation's most...er, 'fashionable' high commander. I simply did my duty as a patriotic soldier."

With Zhao's god-awful sideburns being nearly legendary across the upper echelon of Fire Nation society, Xisheng's jab did earn the slightest smirk from his Princess. Ty Lee looked totally lost, but this wasn't really surprising considering that she had been away from noble affairs for several years now.

On the other hand, Mai made some sort of extremely suppressed sound that could have, with a great stretch of imagination, be interpreted as a mildly amused expression. Maybe she did have a sense of humor?

Either way, Azula decided that the reasoning behind smashing a boulder with the Overlord's weapons was irrelevant. It was more important to inform the driver of why they had stopped. "I will take your word for the ghastly visage of the rock in question Lieutenant. However, we have something more important to discuss while Ty Lee tends to the animals."

The acrobat in question made a sour face at being handed this job without any real consideration, but she accepted it anyway since she knew she was indeed the most qualified member of their party to do it. Still, she was determined to have someone treat her a little nicer today, even if it was just Xisheng talking to her for a few minutes at the end of it.

With that she walked off to perform her assigned duty, and Mai made a subtle show of stretching her tired limbs before retreating to the beds of the passenger car, leaving Azula and Xisheng by their lonesome and allowing the soldier to quickly become more professional.

"There is something of import to discuss, your Highness?"

The young ruler to be stared him down with intense amber focus, seemingly contemplating her response before actually allowing some semblance of relaxation to reenter her expression.

"Do not mistake me Lieutenant; this isn't an especially urgent matter, but when Ty Lee mentioned it was about time for the Mongoose Lizards to be let out, I figured now was as good a time as any to bring this up, as it will be very important later."

"My attention is entirely yours, Princess."

Azula was unusually pleased to hear that, considering that such undivided attention was owed to her by birthright. Maybe it was because that attention was being afforded to her by someone that was not just another peon doing their job.

Granted, Xisheng was 'just another peon,' but he was one that had some level of relationship with Azula beyond that of mere soldier and royal. That didn't necessarily mean anything, but it was clear that Xisheng held her in some regard that was not just 'daughter of the Fire Lord,' and that felt nice, even though Azula never admitted it to herself. There was a reason she only had two friends, and that they were friends that knew her beyond a mere title.

Still, there was something important that needed to be discussed, and it needed to be discussed as Princess to soldier. "Tell me Lieutenant, have you killed anyone before? I'd assume you have, being in the military during a global scale war, but you never know."

Xisheng did not know why this question was being asked of him, but he knew that Azula was not the kind of person to utter words that didn't serve some critical purpose. "I have, your Highness."

If this was the answer Azula had wanted to hear, it did not show on her face. She merely continued her line of inquiry. "And I assume the majority of the people you have killed have been enemy combatants, and likely adults?"

The ascended soldier was growing more confused about this line of questioning, but he stayed faithful in his answers. "I would consider some of my foes in past battles to be just shy of adulthood, but for the most part, yes. The enemies I have slain have been primarily soldiers of the Earth Kingdom, some of them young and others old men. Your Highness, if I may inquire, why do you ask this of me?"

Instead of giving a straight answer, Azula glanced off to the side where Ty Lee was efficiently controlling the Mongoose Lizards in their attempts to stretch and enjoy the open space. While she couldn't see her from this angle, Azula was indirectly looking at Mai as well.

"Xisheng, are you aware that you are the only person who has the blood of other human beings on their hands here? The only one guilty of snuffing out human life?"

The gravitas Azula put into this question conjured forth an image of that young Water Tribe boy Xisheng had killed at the North Pole. He was fully aware of the blood that stained his hands, but he was not rendered off-balance by Azula's words. He had long since come to terms with the reality of being a soldier in wartime. He bore no guilty conscious for the enemies he had slain over the years, now nearing the several dozens thanks to the frantic front-line battles on the EK defensive line.

Still, he couldn't tell if Azula was simply stating a fact or actually expressing some sort of displeasure with him. Her tone was too guarded.

"I... imagined that to be so before now, Princess. I certainly did not think you or your friends were sullied by blood, all things considered."

Azula seemed to accept 'all things considered' at face value. She at least didn't seem offended. "Indeed. As I'm sure you can easily imagine, Ty Lee has never even dreamed of dealing a fatal blow to another person. She abhors true violence, at least as far as engaging in it herself. I can only speculate on whether or not she would be willing to kill an opponent to save even her own life."

Xisheng got the feeling he knew where this conversation was going, but he dared not interrupt the Princess yet.

"And Mai, well... honestly I think she would be perfectly fine with killing someone under the right circumstances, but those circumstances would have to include something very important to her, and by now I'm sure you've determined that those are few and far between. She prefers to merely immobilize the enemy if the situation calls for nothing more."

Xisheng stayed silent as Azula spared her own nails a glance, likely ensuring that she bore no imperfections, though he supposed it could have just been a casual mannerism for her. "As for me... I admit that I am curious as to what it would be like to rob someone else of life. I truly do enjoy learning you see; the more experience you have in all things the better you are for it, even in violence. But the fact remains that I have not killed anyone yet, and though I personally think it very unlikely, there is always the possibility that I could... find myself unwilling to strike a fatal blow."

As he had predicted, this conversation had ended up right where Xisheng had expected it to be. Yet he found it strange, the idea of Azula of all people balking at the thought of killing another human being.

Then again, she wasn't. She was merely expressing the possibility of it in the future. She even thought it an unlikely possibility. But Xisheng knew that no one was certain of their ability to kill until the first time they managed it. He himself had not been certain if he was capable of fatal blows until the first time he had almost been slain by an Earth Kingdom soldier. When it had become clear that he could choose between the life of his enemy and his own, the decision had not been hard to make.

But even prior to that, he had been trained as a soldier, with the expectation to kill enemies. It was something he had mentally prepared for prior to the battle in which he had done the deed. Azula on the other hand was a fourteen year old girl, who, despite being extremely talented in the art of war and combat, had lived a relatively sheltered life in which she had never been specifically expected to kill. Though she seemed ruthless in nearly everything, it was entirely possible she could find herself unwilling to strike a deadly blow when the time came upon her.

And that was why this conversation was happening. Why Azula uttered her next words with such firmness and clarity, not to mention a surprising amount of honesty.

"Xisheng, I'm relying on you to be willing to kill if the rest of us cannot bring ourselves to do it. When it comes down to it, whether you are the last line of defense or merely the chosen executioner because no one else is willing, I need to be absolutely certain of this: will you kill anyone?"

The emphasis on that last word revealed the true nature of the question. Azula was not asking if he would kill again. He was a soldier of a nation at war with another militant entity. Of course he would kill again. She was asking if he would be willing to kill anyone of any identity. If he would be willing to kill people that were not soldiers. People like the Avatar and his allies, all of who were children near Azula's own age.

The answer to this question was more convoluted than the first one. Xisheng had no issue with killing soldiers. They were paid to be put in harm's way, or fought for some cause they were willing to die for. They ran the risk of being killed by the very nature of their careers, and they would certainly kill the soldiers of their enemies as well.

Children were another matter. Normally, children were regarded as innocents. For any honorable soldier, killing an innocent was unacceptable, or at least considered immoral and even evil at times. War was waged against nations, but not against the people of that nation, at least in theory. Xisheng of course knew that war in practice was rarely so clear cut, and for many reasons. Sometimes it was 'collateral damage.' Other times it was 'acceptable casualties.' And in some cases it was just a matter of total war, in which case the enemy could only be defeated by striking at the very foundation of their society, that being its people.

Ironically, none of those things really played a role in Xisheng's thought process at the moment. There were only two things he really had to consider.

The first was, of course, a matter of defending his own. This naturally included the fact that it was his duty as a soldier to defend the Princess at any cost, including his life or that of an 'innocent,' but more prominent was the need to protect people important to him. He held no delusions about his relationship to everyone on this particular mission. He had not known them for very long, nor did he know any of them particularly well. But even at the admittedly shallow levels of his familiarity with them, he would destroy another life to save one of theirs in a heartbeat, duty and obligation completely notwithstanding.

The emotional part of his decision aside, there was also logic to consider. Yes, the Avatar and his friends were all kids. Not a one of them could be considered even close to being an adult just yet. Under normal circumstances killing them would be considered the murder of innocents, but then again, these were not normal circumstances.

The Avatar and his group had established themselves as enemies of the Fire Nation. Not even as people who merely opposed them idealistically, but as combatants that were willing to attack military installations and assault Fire Nation soldiers. Loyal soldiers had been killed by their actions, in some cases indirectly, but in others quite the opposite. News from the raid on the Northern Air Temple had listed dozens of casualties, caused directly by the Avatar and his assembled fighters burying troops in snow or straight up knocking them off the mountainside.

Xisheng did not condemn them for this. As he had already concluded, soldiers ran the risk of death whenever they went to battle. But the moment anyone, even children, stepped onto that battlefield to fight, they were no longer innocents. If they chose to fight of their own volition, they were combatants, soldiers in their own right fighting for what they believed in. They could not simply be given a free pass, allowed to attack and even kill soldiers simply because they were not yet adults. In that light, Xisheng was more than willing to strike down even children like the Avatar's group; after all, they were no different from the Earth Kingdom soldiers he had faced before, and he made sure to tell Azula as much.

"Princess, I assure you that I will strike down any enemy that threatens your life, that of Lady Mai or Ty Lee, or any loyal soldier of the Fire Nation. Man, woman, or child, they will receive no quarter if it means protecting you."

There was an unabashed and earnest sincerity to Xisheng's answer, which could have been just a little disconcerting if one considered what he was talking about. But for Azula, it was exactly what she wanted to hear. And she had to admit, something about his specification of killing anyone for her sake was...comforting.

Naturally, one would normally consider her comfort over such a thing disconcerting as well.

"Very well then Lieutenant, I rest assured. I believe I've said this before, but I truly appreciate your unyielding loyalty."

Aware that he had probably already received more praise and gratitude from Princess Azula than most people ever would in their entire lives, Xisheng still managed to keep a smile from his face and answer as coolly as possible. "Think nothing of it Princess. Someone like you is deserving of such loyalty."

Even though she desired to get a little more specification on how exactly Xisheng meant that, Azula was denied the opportunity to inquire when Ty Lee sidled up behind Xisheng from the sidelines, assuming her usual position that included her arms snaked around his neck. Her expression was sly, almost like she believed herself to be in on something the rest of them were not.

"That one was really smooth Gohan. I bet you practice these lines in front of mirrors for hours just to steal girls' hearts away."

For his part, Xisheng appreciated the compliment but did not want to make it seem as such, for appearances if nothing else. He didn't want Azula to assume that he was actually attempting do anything along those lines to her, since such things were far beyond his boundaries. Thankfully he was fairly good at playing off awkward situations with quips of his own.

"That would be a very specific line for me to practice considering the very specific set of circumstances it could be used in..."

"Well c'mon Gohan, you have to have some secret. I mean, first you get me with that conversation last night, then you hold an actual conversation with Mai for more than two minutes, and now you lay down a slick yet sincere line like that on Azula? You're either practicing or very... mm, 'gifted.'"

Xisheng did not miss the way Ty Lee's arms tightened around him when she said that in the slightest of sultry tones, and neither did Azula. Of course the latter was not nearly as happy about it. The tinge of jealousy she had not entertained earlier that day flared up with renewed vigor, and even though Azula was once again a little unsure of the reasons for her emotions, she nevertheless decided to feed them in the most subtle and unobtrusive manner possible.

"Well, I do believe we should be on our way again if the Mongoose Lizards have caught their break Lieutenant. The sooner we are in Gaoling the better."

Ty Lee was not nearly as blind to Azula's scheme as the Princess made her out to be, and she was sorely tempted to take Mai's place in the driving cabin just to hang out with the only resident male even though she knew Azula was unhappy with that idea for some reason. But apparently Xisheng picked up on Azula's immediate displeasure as well, though he wasn't sure what to make of it in the slightest.

Either way, he figured it would be best if he drove the rest of the way to Gaoling on his own today. But he felt kind of bad about Ty Lee being snuffed out so rudely, so he made sure to give her a wide smile. "Provided the Princess' training at the end of the day doesn't render me unconscious, I'd love to spend the evening with you again Ty Lee. Like I said, you have my attention whenever I can provide it."

Despite her intention to, Ty Lee totally failed to offer a coherent response, simply trying to avoid looking like a giggling idiot as she retreated to the passenger car after Azula.

There was no way he didn't practice being so effortlessly smooth. But regardless of Ty Lee's belief on how he reached that level of unintentional (or was it?) flirting, she knew without a shadow of a doubt that she fucking loved it.

The rest of the trip to Gaoling took two full days at full throttle, and required a stop at a Fire Nation outpost to refuel on coal reserves. The trip was by far one of the most boring experiences Xisheng had been subjected to at that point, for Mai never again joined him in the driver's cabin, and Ty Lee either chose not to or was coerced by Azula into not doing so for some reason the soldier couldn't fathom.

The driving itself had gotten slightly more interesting when they had gotten through the strange mix of sands and forest that was the border edge of the Si Wong desert, but Xisheng had been mistaken in ever finding the need to drive into the mountains. While the relatively small Yonbu mountain range separated Gaoling from both the Si Wong and essentially Omashu, the mountains themselves actually ended just shy of the route to Gaoling itself. There was no need to go over the mountains at all, as the west side of Gaoling was easily accessible from an easier path at the foot of the mountains instead.

The thickening forest had proved a problem of course. While Xisheng was sure the Overlord could topple some younger trees, the machine was certainly no match for century old trunks. Granted, maybe it could knock those trees over, but not while maintaining decent speed or a smooth ride. It was literally quicker and easier to go around. Thankfully hugging the foot of the mountains reduced the number of extremely large trees and thick forest that Xisheng had to deal with. Even so he had flattened more than a few small trees into the ground, something he felt a little bad about. Destruction was unavoidable in open combat, but in mere travel he would have preferred to skip on environmental destruction if he could manage it.

Thankfully, while the driving part of the trip was dull, the evenings of each day were not. As per the usual, people tended to interact more the longer they were around one another. Xisheng's evenings were definitely the highlight of the entire trip.

Naturally, those evenings included his usual training with Azula, since the young Princess was not content to miss a single day if she could help it. At least she always managed to keep training interesting, as she usually found something unique for him to do based on where he was. Their forest nights had been spent immolating trees, turning stalwart pillars of nature into smoldering ashes with sheer power. While Azula admitted to preferring small amounts of force applied precisely, she also made it clear that there was a time and place for raw power as well.

Of course, even though the exercise had mostly been about incinerating a large tree as quickly as possible, it had been a test of control as well. After all, the trees Azula had picked as his targets during these sessions were always surrounded by other foliage, so there was the whole notion of not starting a catastrophic forest fire.

Xisheng also noticed that Azula had significantly stretched out how long their evening sessions lasted. She had made them relatively quick before due to the timetable of their current operations, but for the past two nights their sessions had stretched out for nearly two hours. Xisheng wasn't presumptuous enough to guess why this was the case, but he got the feeling it could have possibly maybe been a tinge of jealousy. He just couldn't imagine why that would be true, so he simply chose to believe that Azula wanted him to train harder now that they could get into a fight with the Avatar at some point.

Another big part of why the evenings were enjoyable was because Mai had elected to not completely ignore his existence like she had before. Granted, she still didn't really go out of her way to talk to him, but she would at least talk back if he spoke first, provided he presented a topic she was at least mildly interested in. It left him with very little to start conversations with, but Xisheng had slowly zeroed in on a few more things Mai had an actual interest in. Humiliating tales of things her friends had done when they were young happened to be one of them, so long as the other girls were out of earshot.

But as usual, Ty Lee was his go-to girl for social interaction in the evenings. She was always so happy to see him. In fact, Xisheng was sure she had somehow grown even fonder of him since their meeting, though he wasn't sure why. If anything, he had only expected to grow fonder of her himself, since she was always so nice to him. He didn't know what he could have done to earn more of her surely platonic affection.

Either way, Ty Lee had been especially happy about the low branches the forest provided to her, as they served quite well for the acrobatics display she had shown her sole audience member for the past two nights.

She had been especially shy the first time she had brought it up, like she was afraid Xisheng would rescind his promise to watch her or something. That was ridiculous from his perspective of course, but he supposed this may have been the first time she had ever performed for just one person, which definitely carried a different weight to it compared to an entire crowd.

But his words of reassurance the first evening she had asked had wiped away all of the girl's fears. She'd made a wonderful display of agility and skill for him, and Xisheng had responded with no small amount of genuine praise, as he was truly impressed with Ty Lee's abilities and how effortlessly she did it all. He had actually put the biggest smile on her face he had ever seen on her, and he had thought that her smiles couldn't be any wider as it was.

In short, the days were boring as all hell, and the evenings were the only saving grace of the trip. By the time they reached Gaoling, Xisheng hoped he would not touch the Overlord again for at least three days. That steel chair was not doing him any favors.

That said, the group of high-profile Fire Nation natives were not actually in Gaoling just yet. After all, the city was still under Earth Kingdom control, and driving an obviously Fire Nation machine through its gates wasn't a good idea if they didn't want to fight against the sizable military force stationed there to ward off anything but full scale hostile incursions.

At the moment, the Overlord was simply parked on a hill far enough away from Gaoling to remain unseen, though the dense foliage of the forest certainly helped with that. All four of its usual passengers were standing atop said hill as they gazed down on their destination, each of their thoughts resting on the city in one way or another. Xisheng had no idea what the girls were thinking, but he knew his own thoughts, and they were worried.

Needless to say, this was about as 'belly of the beast' as one could get aside from being within Ba Sing Se itself. While Gaoling was mostly regarded as a merchant city, it was still one of the most prominent Earth Kingdom cities left under their control, and that meant a very large military force was garrisoned here. As essentially the only Royal Guard present, he was extremely concerned for Azula's safety here. Even a prodigy like her would fall before the might of an entire battalion. If there was one thing that was true about war, it was that skill didn't always outweigh sheer numbers.

Thankfully he doubted that they would be doing anything blatantly obvious to reveal who they were while present here. While he had no guarantee of that, Xisheng could not imagine Azula being so reckless with such poor odds.

But while he had that faith in her, he didn't know how they were going to go about it. After all, it was extremely obvious that they were Fire Nation...

Since this was a pressing concern, Xisheng decided to voice as much. "Considering our state of dress, it seems likely that one of us will have to procure appropriate apparel before we can enter Gaoling as a whole. Unless of course you were already prepared for this Princess?"

Azula looked mildly offended that he even entertained the possibility of her not being prepared. "I would have to be a monumental fool to leave Omashu, an Earth Kingdom city, without Earth Kingdom clothing to help us blend in at Gaoling, our destination that also happens to be an Earth Kingdom city. Do you really question my foresight to such an extent Lieutenant?"

Since it was just a little rude to think her capable of such an obvious oversight, Xisheng made sure to twist his own words so they sounded more favorable. "Of course not Princess. But you had a hand in so much of the logistics, it simply amazes me that you thought of everything even still."

His response earned a smirk out of the youngest member of their party. "You really do have a clever answer for everything Lieutenant. I'll have to put in extra effort to catch you unawares sometime."

"I'd prefer if you didn't feel the need to actually attempt such a thing, Your Highness."

"Too bad, because I do."

With no real counter for that, Xisheng let the exchange rest, which was just as well since he was promptly instructed to fetch the aforementioned clothes from the passenger car of the Overlord. Thankfully the garments had been properly stored in a footlocker of sorts so they would be in suitably presentable, but because Xisheng had no desire to lift the whole thing and carry it outside, he simply made to open the container and carry the much lighter cloth by hand.

The problem with that was that he didn't register the fact that most of the clothing in the container would be feminine in nature until he was already staring down at them, and he allowed two thoughts to coast through his mind before doing anything else.

One, why was there a need for disguise appropriate underwear? Outer garments were obvious, since those were actually seen. But what was the point of undergarments to match? Surely Azula wasn't so paranoid as to prepare for some hypothetical strip search, in which case their black Fire Nation silks would give them away? Honestly, that was either true paranoia or the most advanced level of preparation Xisheng had ever encountered.

The second thought was a little game of mix and match in guessing what particular style was being worn by which person, but Xisheng shut that one down as quickly as possible. Not that he had a moral issue with entertaining such thoughts, but all things considered the scantily clad mental images weren't conducive to a professional state of mind, which was probably what he needed for the upcoming mission.

Still, it was amusing to imagine the lacy ones as belonging to someone other than Ty Lee.

Deciding that the safest thing to do was obviously exclude himself of any undue blame, Xisheng decided that he was better off closing the footlocker and carrying the whole thing outside, giving the others the impression that he had most certainly not looked inside of it.

Apparently he made a good choice, because there was some look of mild relief from Ty Lee at least, and even Azula looked like she had been mildly irritated until spotting him with the entire container in his arms. Naturally Mai looked as though she couldn't care less, though she did seem to be staring rather intently at Gaoling at the moment.

Either way, Xisheng simply placed the container of clothing at the trio's feet, but apparently the nature of the goods did in fact register for everyone, because no one was immediately forthcoming in grabbing their respective attire. Naturally Azula sliced through whatever awkwardness was present with her usual expression of mild disdain for the obvious.

"Are you just going to stand there or are you going to give us some privacy?"

Aware that he and Azula were now locked in some sort of verbal combat in which she tried to make him falter, Xisheng decided that he was going to go all out as far as that was concerned. He was used to losing against Azula in combat, and that wasn't going to change anytime soon. But he was absolutely determined to keep his wits about him for their more clever contests.

"While I vehemently object to the gross dereliction of duty that is leaving you unguarded Princess, I suppose I have to consider your security in other regards as well. I'll be on the other side of the Overlord."

He made his exit with that, but Azula was left dwelling on what could have been a thinly veiled double meaning. "Just what the hell did he mean by that...?"

Ty Lee suppressed a snicker as she eyed the shortest member of their group, and thanks to her age, also the most undeveloped. "If you think about it he was being sweet, not wanting to make you feel bad and all..."

The heir to the Fire Nation throne turned a very unhappy golden glare on her friend. "Excuse me? I'll have you know I've gone up a full size since-"

Ever the mediator if only because she hated irritating discussions, Mai stepped between the two of them so she could appropriate whichever clothing suited her best from the small wardrobe Azula had brought along on their journey. She didn't know they were all the same outfit, just in different sizes. "You're both reading into it too much. He was just being clever. Also, there's no way he was out of earshot before you just said that Azula."

Doing a small amount of mental math to confirm Xisheng's distance at the time of her words, Azula realized with abject horror that yes, she had essentially just informed a grunt of the status of her feminine growth. Thankfully she had been vague, building off knowledge that Ty Lee had already known. Still, it was embarrassing to acknowledge the slip, and that was something rare for the girl who was never surprised, flustered, or flabbergasted by anything. After all, blushing was nothing more than the product of a lack of control. And Azula certainly had plenty of control. So the misstep she had just made and the information she had vaguely passed onto a man definitely wasn't making her blush. That was impossible.

Which meant that her two friends getting an obvious kick out of it was part of their imaginations, and Azula had to dispel them immediately. "N-no matter, I can dispose of him whenever I wish if he learns of something he shouldn't. Besides, you're the one 'disclosing' information so readily all the time Ty Lee, you certainly make no effort to hide your own, er... specifications."

The temporarily ex-circus member didn't seem ashamed of this fact in the slightest. "I don't think attractive women should be ashamed of their looks. It's silly to hide things about yourself just because other people don't like it whether it's good or bad. Jealousy or judgment, someone will always dislike something about you, so what's the point?"

Azula was actually impressed with this level of essential philosophy out of Ty Lee, but Mai naturally added her cynical input to the scenario. "That was the least arrogant way of saying 'I'm hot and should be able to flaunt it if I want to' that I've ever heard. Bonus points for subtlety."

"H-hey, that really wasn't the point I was making..."

The youngest of their number donned an amused smirk as she eyed the slightly more peeved than usual frown on Mai's face. "Speaking of jealousy..."

"That was the aforementioned judgment, not jealousy."

"Oh really? Tell me Mai, have you grown at all these past few years? It's difficult to judge from mere visual comparison, but I'm almost certain that I've surpassed you, which is honestly hilarious considering-"

The most barbed part of Azula's jab was cut short when one of the dark emerald garments of the footlocker was flung into her face. The giggle Ty Lee offered to the scenario earned her a similar treatment, and Mai chastised herself for getting bent out of shape over 'girl problems.'

Considering that they could very well be on a tight schedule if the Avatar was actually present in Gaoling at the moment, the girls' wardrobe change didn't take more than a few minutes. Truth be told Xisheng had heard something a little incriminating before getting out of earshot, but out of politeness he had removed himself further from the area so he wouldn't accidentally hear anything else personal. This placed him significantly further away from the Overlord than he had intended to be at first, but it gave him a bit of space and time to dwell on the situation at hand.

He was essentially in charge of security after all, being the only Royal Guard present here. The problem was that he was the only Royal Guard present here. There was very little he could plan for with that being the case. If their identities were discovered while in Gaoling, they'd have an entire Earth Kingdom battalion swooping down on them within an hour. With a lack of their own manpower, Xisheng's party had a very limited number of maneuvers to employ if escape became necessary. Normally enough manpower would call for a fighting retreat with each rear line of defense falling back as the Princess got further away from the danger, but since Xisheng was the only soldier here...

Well, he supposed he could attempt it anyway all by his lonesome. He'd probably die, but if it came down to it he'd have no choice but to try and distract the enemy so his allies could escape.

That said, it was really a matter of whether or not they would be discovered in the first place. As far as he knew Gaoling didn't have any thorough security checkpoints or anything, but even with their Earth Kingdom disguises there were risks to consider in the fact that most of the group didn't look like Earth Kingdom natives.

He said most because Ty Lee had nothing to worry about. She honestly had no outright 'Fire Nation' qualities, at least not as far as the general stereotypes went. Realistically Xisheng would probably be fine as well, since his eyes bore no resemblance to his nation (technically he was half Earth Kingdom anyway). But that was where the conveniences ended. Both Azula and Mai bore distinct features that could give them away to anyone who was decently informed or just a keen observer.

Azula's eyes were the most obvious risk, since her pure shade of amber was unique to the Fire Nation royal family. It was unlikely that any random Earth Kingdom soldier would know that in particular, but most everyone knew that amber eyes in general were rare outside of Fire Nation genetics. On top of that both Azula and Mai had very dark hair, and even though that wasn't unheard of outside of the Fire Nation, outright midnight locks like Mai's were generally assumed to be a rarity in the Earth Kingdom where most people sported various shades of brown. It wasn't a dead giveaway by any means, but it could arouse suspicion nevertheless.

There were plenty of other little things that could give them away as well. Xisheng had no idea how good the girls were at acting. For all he knew they were all terrible at it, and all it took to endanger them all was one tiny mistake. A figure of speech that was specific to Fire Nation culture, a mannerism no one in the Earth Kingdom used, even a seemingly harmless comment about how it was colder here than they were used to, implying that they were from a warmer locale. Any of those things could land them in trouble.

OK, so someone would have to be ridiculously astute and more than a little paranoid to connect the dots on that last one, but the point still stood. As a soldier Xisheng didn't like going into enemy territory without superior or at least equal numbers.

Of course, the lack of numbers on their part was probably what Azula was banking on. Being one of the few prosperous Earth Kingdom cities outside of Ba Sing Se still free of foreign control, the population of the city was rather large. What was four more people in shades of green amidst a sea of people in green? As long as they stuck to the crowds it was unlikely they would be picked out visually by anyone for any particular reason.

Hoping that would indeed be the reality for their upcoming venture, Xisheng was nevertheless drawn out of his musings when the group's usual spokesperson made herself known with her ever energetic voice. "See? Gohan was so polite that he went far enough away to not hear something scandalous even by accident. Maybe he didn't hear about your-"

There was a grunt of minor pain that was probably the result of an elbow to the ribs, but the mental acknowledgment of the girls being ready brought just one more risk to Xisheng's mind.

They wouldn't blend in very well if they were all dressed like nobles. Even wearing green in a sea of green, exquisite tastes would stand out, and Xisheng couldn't imagine for an instant Azula being alright with donning peasant attire. Would narcissism negate their own disguise...?

Turning to hopefully deny his suspicions rather than confirm them, Xisheng was moderately relieved and more than a little awed by the change in garments. In a world where three primary colors mostly ruled the fashion industry, it was always enlightening to see someone in a color they practically never wore.

Ironically, there was still plenty of black to go around. This was fine, since black wasn't an unheard of color in the Earth Kingdom, but Xisheng still thought it would have been better to dispose of the color completely.

That said, Xisheng found it rather amusing that the three girls had essentially color coordinated with one another. Whether it was intentional or because Azula simply liked the idea of her troop being in concert, either way they were still all equipped with tops that had black torsos and dark forest green sleeves and leggings. They each bore the emblem of the Earth Kingdom on their chest, and also sported an almost lime green sash around their waists that served as little more than decorative pieces. In truth, Xisheng would have assumed them to be some sort of actual group of some sort, though whether it was of a militant or social nature could have gone either way.

But despite their similarities in dress, there were small things that still set them apart. Mai's sleeves were longer and looser than her friends, likely for the sake of hiding her weapons. Unlike the fuller forearm gloves Azula and Mai wore, Ty Lee had cloth wristbands not unlike the ones that accompanied her usual outfit. And as for Azula, she obviously couldn't tote around the symbol of Fire Nation royalty that was her usual hairpiece, so it had been temporarily replaced with a simple green ribbon that was almost just enough to make her look like a normal girl. Normal being relative since she still put the average attractive teenager to shame.

In short, Xisheng found himself captivated by the contrast of their appearance to the norm (at this point Ty Lee having her midriff covered almost seemed like an affront to nature), and needless to say this resulted in a more fixed gaze than he had intended. As usual, Azula was quick to point this out. There was rarely any mercy from her barbs.

"I understand that you have less experience with class than the rest of us Lieutenant, but I at least expected you to know that staring is considered rude."

Ironically, Xisheng found that Azula's mildly stinging words tended to have the opposite of the intended effect. Normally he would have been flustered, but being constantly reminded of Azula's determination to make him exactly that, he managed to calm his nerves enough to appear composed, not to mention voice his thoughts more genuinely than a bunch of babbling could provide.

"My apologies. I was just caught off guard, you all look very good in green."

While his comment could have possibly scored some embarrassment out of his audience (he didn't count Ty Lee because she obviously enjoyed the compliment), the reminder that she was indeed wearing green only made Azula scowl. "What you meant to say was that the green looks good on me. Such a droll color could only be made attractive if someone of my caliber was wearing it to begin with."

"O-oh, I see..."

Azula didn't immediately understand why Xisheng seemed put out by that unless he had some strange fondness for green, but an obviously faked cough from Ty Lee got Azula to look in her direction, and the acrobat was subtly gesturing towards her eyes. The implication of her gesture was obvious.

Admittedly Azula felt a little bad about it, but only because she had let a small detail slip from her mind, which therefore resulted in her choice of words. Oh well, it was Xisheng's fault for not having a pair of more gloriously colored eyes. She was hardly to blame for that.

Still, it would have been awkward to just leave it at that, so Azula decided the best course of action was to simply move forward. "Well, I daresay we have wasted enough time dawdling. Your attire is still in the footlocker Lieutenant. We'll depart as soon as you are ready."

Immediately discarding whatever injury he may have felt at Azula's unintended insult, Xisheng made sure to point out one important thing before he left to change so it could be fixed while he was doing so. Efficiency was kind of the job of every soldier, after all.

"Of course Princess. But before I do, I think it would be best if you changed your hair, Mai."

The girl in question merely cocked en eyebrow at him, seemingly not offended so much as curious. "Why?"

"Well, we are trying to blend in, I assume... your hairstyle is very distinct, and definitely a cultural standout."

While he had tried to be as logical in his answer as possible to avoid accidentally insulting her, it seemed like Xisheng didn't even need to bother. Mai merely shrugged. "Good point. I'll change it."

Glad that his input had gone over so easily, Xisheng shrugged as well, moving to the opposite side of the Overlord so he could don his Earth Kingdom disguise.

He was unfortunately not surprised to see that his garb did not match the upper middle-class level of his compatriots, but at least the clothing was not the dull brown and green of the peasantry. If anything, anyone that saw him walking around with the girls would think him a well-off servant or some such.

It could have been worse was what he told himself, and by the time he was dressed in a simple forest green tunic with beige accents he admitted that he made for a passable Earth Kingdom citizen. Now properly adorned, he made his way back to the girls on the opposite side of the Overlord, only to find that his suggestion to Mai had sort of backfired.

Being someone that didn't put effort into anything she didn't care for, Mai had not bothered putting her hair into any particular style. Instead, she had simply allowed her raven locks to cascade freely, their length causing the strands to accent her form all the way down to her lower back. Perfectly straight and streamlined, Xisheng could only compare the sight to a flawless black waterfall, and even that wasn't doing it justice.

He was back to thinking the hair might have been the most attractive thing again.

On the other hand, there was an issue in the fact that the problem had not been averted. The whole reason he had suggested that Mai change her hair was to avoid being noticed. She'd have every guy with good taste flocking to her like this.

That said, he had to say as much or the potential crisis would still remain. "Ah, er... M-Mai, that doesn't really, uh... solve the problem..."

This time Mai really did seem confused. "I'll admit you had a point the first time, but I doubt just having your hair down is patented by any one nation. What's the problem?"

Apparently the other girls were in agreement with Mai, because they looked equally confused on the point Xisheng was trying to make. Still, he wasn't ready to come out completely clean, so he would try for subtlety one last time.

"L-like I said, the point is to avoid attention..."

Unfortunately no one caught his drift, least of all Mai. "And my hair being down draws attention how exactly...?"

Seeing no way to make his point without being straightforward, Xisheng decided to simply say it. "B-because you're... v-very beautiful, is what I'm saying. People are bound to notice you. And I mean, for the sake of the mission concealment is key, so..."

Xisheng petered off when he noted that the reactions he was getting were different from what he had expected. To be fair, that was because he had expected Mai to not react at all, but to his great astonishment she actually appeared... shocked. Maybe out of surprise, though Xisheng supposed it could have been disgust or something. This was a compliment coming from a 'commoner' after all.

He was actually more surprised by Ty Lee and Azula, both of whom appeared displeased by what he had to say. He wasn't dumb enough to not understand why, but he was still confused. Why be jealous of the attentions of someone beneath their stature? Besides, he did have an actual practical reason for making his statement.

Unsure of how to proceed with this turn of events, Xisheng was not saved at all when Mai almost smiled at him. "So are you implying that I'm not attractive when my hair isn't down?"

Getting the distinct feeling that he was being teased by the least likely member of the group to do it, Xisheng found himself at a loss for words. On a technicality, this could be construed as very subtle flirting. He doubted Mai meant it as such, but either way the potential implication flustered him more than anything Azula had tried to catch him off guard with.

"N-n-not at all! I was definitely not saying that! I-It's just that there's a certain allure that would, uh, get the attention of anyone with good taste, is what I was saying!"

Apparently amused by his fumbling, Mai's almost smile evolved into a smirk at his expense. Strangely enough, that sight still challenged his cognitive ability.

Yet the moment was lost the moment Azula got fed up with it. "I think we'll manage to avoid too much trouble from the people that actually matter. Let's head out before I hurl."

Xisheng thought he might have heard some sort of muttered amusement from Mai regarding jealousy, but unlike her he was actually worried that he had offended the others. He still couldn't see it as fair, but that did not stop the awkward silence that reigned over them as they proceeded as one to the gates of Gaoling on foot.

The roughly fifteen minute trek reached its conclusion when they came across what was essentially the only security checkpoint to bother with. Naturally any wartime city worth its salt didn't let just anyone in, but fortunately the huge population of the Earth Kingdom meant that the nation kept relatively poor tabs on people. They relied a lot on paperwork, and forging that was easy enough.

Even so, Ty Lee was entrusted with making the presentation of their actually genuine documents, since she was the least suspicious among them and definitely the only one of them that no one would assume to be Fire Nation for any aesthetic reason. It was actually rather sad that infiltrating Gaoling was as easy as that, but Xisheng imagined that it was a matter of branch competence. Ba Sing Se would no doubt be much harder to infiltrate in such a fashion, at least as far as getting beyond the Lower Ring was concerned.

Either way the four Fire Nation infiltrators made it into the boundaries of Gaoling with no trouble whatsoever, and the moment they were within Ty Lee voiced the most obvious question at hand.

"Now what?"

Azula probably had an answer for this, but since it was an easy question Xisheng decided to spare her the trouble. "The person we are looking for is the Avatar, the last Airbender, is one of the only people that wears orange, and travels around on a flying buffalo. If he's here, someone will know about it."

While these were very good points, Mai sought to point out the questionable validity of them. "I can't imagine any reason for the Avatar to hide that he's here, but the fact remains that he could be."

"That's true, but even then his companions have skin complexions that will stand out here. Just inquiring about unusual visitors could yield results."

Azula cut in before the exchange could continue. "While I highly doubt it will be as simple as asking around, discreetly taking in the latest rumors could nevertheless prove useful. For now, we should split up and see what we can learn individually."

She was almost ready to dismiss them with that, but Xisheng had to counter. "We should at least split into groups of two Princess. Going anywhere alone while in enemy territory is tempting fate."

Unfortunately, his sound advice did not sit very well with the young ruler to be. "Are you implying that we cannot take care of ourselves Lieutenant?"

"I'm implying that the point of a team is to have someone at your side you can rely on. Trust me Princess, I've seen plenty of great warriors slain on the battlefield because they didn't have someone to watch their back. The skill of one person alone can never handle every eventuality."

"I assume this is some Army doctrine you're spouting at me?"

"It's from personal experience Princess. I will follow whatever order you give, but I beg you to let us divide into two teams. It's safer for everyone."

It almost looked like Azula would object further, but in the end she simply rolled her eyes. Still, she wasn't going to let him off the hook that easily. "Very well then. Who do you want to go with Lieutenant?"

While some men were utterly lacking in common sense regarding women, Xisheng was not one of them. He knew damn good and well what a dangerous situation was when it came to women. Choose? There was no right answer when it came to a choice like this. Any choice he made would anger someone. He knew that all too well.

"You know the capabilities of everyone here better than I do Princess. I'll submit to whatever placement you have for me."

Azula mentally cursed at his exceptional answer. She had to admit, Xisheng was very good at this. She would even go so far as to say that he was better at wordplay than he was at fighting. Yet it just made her more determined to win at some point or another.

"You're not mistaken there. Very well, you and Ty Lee go together. There's no point in having the two of us on the same team with similar skill sets. If that's the last tactical input you have for us, then we should all be on our way."

Xisheng felt the urge to bow but didn't for obvious reasons, instead simply nodding and turning on his heel to lead the way into Gaoling with Ty Lee at his side, the latter looking a bit more sour than usual. It was ironic, since Mai still had that smirk on her face that symbolized positive emotion in one way or another. For some reason (she actually knew what it was but refused to acknowledge it) Azula found it irritating.

"What are you smiling about?"

Fully aware of what was bothering her younger friend but ultimately just amused by it, Mai's expression didn't fall. "He gave a clever answer is all. Most boys are dumber than rocks when it comes to this kind of thing. Relatively speaking it's kind of impressive."

"Well considering that Zuko is the only other boy to see anything in you I'd hardly call it a fair comparison."

Azula's petty cruelty returned Mai's expression to the usual, though not because she was offended. She had long since become mostly immune to her friend's venom, mostly because she knew the younger girl tended to spit it at anyone and everyone if she was in a foul mood. This was especially true if the foul mood was brought about by being overshadowed. She'd always detested that, from the very first day Mai had met her. It had never bothered her as much as it did Ty Lee because Mai didn't really care to stand out above anyone else. She'd been raised to be unassuming, so her desperation for attention had been snuffed out relatively early in life.

And finally, she had to admit to herself that she felt too good about the original compliment that was pissing Azula off to let the latter's displeasure get through to her. She'd practically never received praise of that nature, at least not genuinely. Nobles spouted crap like that all the time, but only because it was considered polite to compliment the daughter of the person you actually cared to impress.

And Zuko had of course always been too dense when he was still around. It never occurred to him that certain girls might have wanted a compliment or two from him. But he hadn't even been a teenager at the time, so Mai cut him some slack on that one.

So instead of getting irritated, Mai simply decided to drop the whole matter and urge the objective forward. "Fair enough. Where do you want to look first?"

Azula looked a little put out by the lack of a hostile response, but she at least managed to see that it was childish to try and spur a fight for no real reason. "Word travels rather quickly around places where people are forced to gather frequently. The marketplace sounds like a good place to start eavesdropping."

Not honestly caring where they went since this was all Azula's mission anyway, Mai merely shrugged and allowed her younger compatriot to lead the way, though she couldn't imagine how Azula could have known where she was going all things considered.

She almost thought to ask, but her desire to do so waned when a slightly stiff breeze graced the city streets and forced her cascading hair into a gentle wave.

Did she really look that good like this?

From the moment Xisheng had entered the perimeter of Gaoling, he was all business. He couldn't afford not to be, because this was arguably the most dangerous situation he had ever been in, and that was saying something considering the battles he had waged on the EK defensive line.

The reason this situation was more dangerous than those was because the numbers were so drastically different. In those all out battles Xisheng had the benefit of hundreds of allied soldiers at his side. At this exact moment, he only had one person to count on. And while he certainly had faith in Ty Lee's abilities, Xisheng knew two versus a thousand was still abysmal odds. If push came to shove for any reason, both he and Ty Lee would probably die. With the numbers of the enemy so far beyond their own, one boulder would eventually paste them against the cobblestone ground or the pale white walls of some fancier building. Maybe their guts would place a macabre painting on one of them? There was far too much white anyway.

His tension led Xisheng to eye everything suspiciously as he struggled to maintain a casual and relaxed gait that wouldn't seem suspicious. The myriad array of green clothed civilians were suspicious. The obviously poor ones would not hesitate to turn in a lead if it got them rewarded by the military. The middle-class citizens adorned in richer shades of their nation would no doubt report something unusual if they thought it was some sort of threat to their relatively cushy lives.

Even the buildings seemed suspicious at the moment. There was too much white stone that reminded him of chalk. Too many wooden railings and paper walls that would spread fire too easily if a stealthy engagement was required. It was ironic that it was all so unsettling, as objectively speaking Gaoling was a very nice city. For the most part it was clean and well built and populated with decent (legally speaking) people.

The thing that gave Xisheng the greatest amount of concern however was the heavy presence of soldiers. Every other street had at least one squad of Earth Kingdom soldiers maintaining an idle watch over their flock. They were lax in their watch though, clearly not thinking that anything really bad was out and about, least of all the Fire Nation. After all, Gaoling had not been attacked by the Fire Nation even once during the last one hundred years of war. There had been no reason to really take over a city with no strategic importance while other more important targets still stood.

But even the high command of the Earth Kingdom army must have realized that wouldn't be true for much longer. With Omashu now occupied and an attack on Ba Sing Se likely postponed until the arrival of Sozin's Comet, there was nothing better for the Fire Nation to do than take over Gaoling. They knew their Firebending enemies would come eventually, but they didn't think there was anything to fear for now.

But just because they weren't manning their posts with great astuteness did not mean there was no danger. In fact, Xisheng knew that people were more likely to notice something out of place when they weren't specifically looking for it. All it took was one guard thinking something looked a little unusual, and then he might feel the need to ask questions. And all it took was one good question to reveal the true nature of their presence here.

And yet, despite all of his very professional concerns about the lives of both himself and his allies, Xisheng still couldn't bury the platonic concern he felt for Ty Lee at the moment, because something was clearly bothering her. She was not a frowner. She did not frown at all unless there was something to actually be upset about.

Xisheng kind of had a guess as to what could possibly be the matter, but he didn't want to extrapolate on a hypothesis, especially since he would appear full of himself if he were mistaken.

But either way he got the feeling Ty Lee's current doldrums was his fault, and technically speaking it would be a good idea to rectify the issue if he could anyway. Being in a bad mood wasn't conducive to efficiency, which was kind of critical in the current situation.

For a moment Xisheng wondered if it was safe to utter a very not Earth Kingdom name at all, but considering the cacophony of a bustling merchant city all around him, he was fairly certain he could lower his voice and not allow anyone to meaningfully overhear anything.

That said he figured he was better off probing for the problem as gently as possible. He didn't peg Ty Lee as a very temperamental girl in general, but Xisheng knew every woman had the potential to be volatile.

"Is something the matter Ty Lee? It's off-putting to not see your usual smile. I miss it already."

There was a very strange conflicting expression that crossed Ty Lee's face upon hearing that. She wanted to be mad. Oh, she wanted to be so mad right now. But he was just so damn good at making her smile. How could she possibly stay mad in the face of such smooth praise?

Yet somehow she managed. Probably had something to do with the fact that the thing drawing her ire at the moment wasn't that far in the past. "Right, something like that couldn't possibly get people's attention, could it? Not like Mai's wonderful hair I'm sure."

While Xisheng had theorized that this was the problem, he was still surprised for many reasons. For one it seemed kind of petty, which didn't really seem like Ty Lee's thing. But two, he couldn't see why she cared. What did it matter what a nobody like him thought of her? What was there to even be jealous of really?

Even so, she clearly was, so that was what he had to fix. That said he didn't know how to do that other than being honest, and in the same sense as being a little blunt. "Are you really upset just because I complimented someone else?"

"Well yeah, it sounds shallow when you say it like that. B-but it's just... you always have so many nice things to say about Mai! You compliment her all the time, but you never say anything about me! Don't I have anything worth appreciating?"

Actually puzzled by Ty Lee's question for what he thought was a very obvious reason, Xisheng ceased his spy's tour of the city to level his gaze directly at his companion. The folded arms added to the sense of incredulity emanating from him. "Really? I never say anything nice about you?"

With the somewhat stern look on his face, Ty Lee was forced to look back over their brief experience together. "W-well, I guess there was the heap of praise you had after the stuff I did in the forest...and the thing you literally just said about my smile I guess... b-but that's beside the point! You haven't given me any... y'know, girl compliments!"

Xisheng for one liked to think that telling a girl she had a beautiful smile counted as a 'girl compliment,' but he supposed that was up to interpretation. Truth be told Ty Lee did consider it a 'girl compliment' and it made her really happy now that she thought about it, but she couldn't really take back her point now.

All in all, Xisheng wasn't sure what his place here was. Just what was he allowed to say, taking status into position? Surely there was some distinct line he could not cross lest he overstep his boundaries. Yet, of everyone in their strange band of Avatar hunters, Xisheng felt the most at ease with Ty Lee by far, at least as far as social convention went. She didn't seem to care too much for it (he just assumed that, but she had run off to join the circus), and so far she had interacted with him like anyone would with a peer of equal status. She certainly didn't seem to look down on him and she didn't act as though he was supposed to look up to her.

Taking all of that into account, along with the fact that the two more stringent members of the party were absent, Xisheng decided there was no real harm done if he pretended there was no distinction between soldier and noble for a brief moment. Besides, she evidently wanted him to say something that was beyond his position, so who was he to deny her?

"So... you're under the assumption that I don't find you attractive?"

Ty Lee had not expected him to be so upfront with the assessment, but she knew how to roll with the metaphorical punches. No point in hiding it. "Well you haven't made it as blatantly obvious as you have with Mai if you do."

Something about bringing a blush to the cheeks of a girl out of his reach thrilled Xisheng more than he cared to admit. To have that kind of effect on someone that was just beyond his rstation was exciting in that taboo kind of way that could easily evolve into something dangerous. Still, to know that he had the ability to make someone so out his league embarrassed only fueled his confidence on the matter further. Was this the kind of skill and charm he had been hiding under a Fire Army helmet all these years? If so, he had to make up for lost time, and he could hardly think of a better situation to exercise in than this one. Just because he could never have the affections of the people he was currently spending time with didn't mean he couldn't tug on those strings from time to time.

"I'm sorry I came across that way Ty Lee. I just didn't think it needed to be said."

The arguably most agile girl on the planet could practically feel a shift in Xisheng's overall atmosphere. Then again, considering her unique perception of the world, she could literally tell that something had just changed for him. His usually yellow and red blend of color took on a very distinct stream of orange just now. Whatever had happened, he was feeling confident about something.

"D-didn't think what needed to be said?"

Apparently pleased that she was too curious to let his words pass by without clarification, Xisheng donned a charming blend of smirk and smile, and Ty Lee could have sworn that she lost feeling in her legs for at least half a second.

"That I find you attractive. It's really more a matter of how I possibly couldn't. You're sweet, kind, and gentle. You have a brilliant smile, warm eyes, and confidence in yourself that's charming. And of course, you're extremely pretty. I consider myself lucky that a girl like you even talks to someone like me."

Ty Lee couldn't stop a massive smile from coming to her face, but honestly she didn't try very hard. Even so, she didn't miss the flare of color in Xisheng's aura when he saw her do it.

Oh my God, did he just get really happy just because he made me really happy? Dammit, he's so perfect! Where have you been all my life?!

To say this was the first time Ty Lee considered Xisheng really good boyfriend material would have been a complete lie. The problem was, she wasn't sure enough of the situation to act on it.

For all the things about Xisheng's personality that she just really liked, it wasn't a matter of him only treating her like that. The sweetness, the smooth talking, the overall interest in others as people, none of those were specific to her. He treated everyone like that. And while Ty Lee certainly had nothing against being so wonderful to everyone, it made it difficult to discern how he really felt about anyone in particular, including her. After all, if this was how he treated everyone (or every girl at least), who knew what it looked like if he actually liked someone?

After all, Ty Lee was usually pretty good at discerning people's romantic preferences, and if she had to hazard a guess in regards to what she had seen so far, she would have assumed that Xisheng really liked Mai. He really did have a lot of nice things to say about her, and he seemed really bummed out by the idea of her disliking him.

Even so, that was just an assumption, and even though Ty Lee usually didn't mind operating on assumptions, this wasn't the case when it came to her friends. She didn't want to act on anything that she wasn't sure of, lest it cause some sort of animosity among them.

Of course, it wasn't just about not acting on her own uncertainties. While Azula would probably deny it, it was obvious to Ty Lee that she was jealous of Xisheng's growing attachments to people other than her.

Well, maybe jealous wasn't the right word. Possessive was probably more like it. Ty Lee didn't like to talk bad about her friends, but Azula had always been the kind of person to stop others from using anything that was hers even if she didn't really care for it. After all, Ty Lee highly doubted that her childhood friend felt anything romantic for anyone, since it was apparently just a sign of pure weakness. But that wasn't the problem she had. She just didn't like sharing.

And of course, Ty Lee being the kind of person that she was, she didn't like upsetting her friends, especially not for her own gain. She had only done that once, and even though she had never really regretted leaving the Fire Nation to join the circus in practice, she had always had trouble reconciling the fact that she had abandoned her friends for her own happiness. Mai probably hadn't minded, but she knew Azula had felt more or less betrayed.

So she really, really didn't want to do anything that would upset the people important to her again. Unfortunately that only added more uncertainty to the situation, and ultimately it meant Ty Lee wasn't going to act on any budding feelings.

That sucked, but she'd go out of her way to clarify how everyone felt about each other at some point, and if it ended up being in her favor she'd be on it in a heartbeat.

It occurred to Ty Lee that she had mustered several moments of silence in response to Xisheng's words just now, but before she could think of anything to say the man in question had already reached some obviously erroneous conclusion about what her silence meant. Suddenly his aura was a very nervous and abashed mix of pink. Auras were weird since the same color could mean many different things depending on just a few differences, but Ty Lee knew the difference in her general happy pink and its bad counterpart.

"I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to overstep my bounds..."

Needless to say Ty Lee was massively confused by this apology. What bounds was he talking about? Did he think he had offended her or something? Why would he ever think that?

"What on earth are you talking-"

Before she could finish questioning the almost humiliated expression on Xisheng's face, someone practically forced his way in-between them. Ty Lee forced down a very sudden (and potent) urge to chi-block him in the neck for daring to interrupt what she thought was a vital conversation with a friend, and instead chose to identify the rude individual.

A quick once over revealed nothing special. He was a young man about their age with brown hair and dull green eyes, wearing a brown tunic that was in decent condition but still symbolized a lack of overall wealth.

And before either she or Xisheng could ask why he was intruding on their personal space, the young man put two flyers in their face. "Nothing is more important than self-defense in these times of war and strife! Master Yu's Earthbending Academy is the place to go if you want to learn to defend yourself for a reasonable price! I'd give you more information, but I'm not getting paid by the hour! Just be a good person and check it out would you? Please?"

With that, the man ran off to hand out more flyers to anyone he could manage. For some reason Ty Lee found this more strange than her companion did.

"That was... unusually desperate for someone just handing out flyers..."

Glancing down at the parchment he had been given, Xisheng shrugged. "He probably gets paid on some arbitrarily perceived notion of advertisement success."

"But he literally didn't even ask if we were Earthbenders!"

"I guess he figures he'll rope in more people if he casts a wider net. Either way, we should check it out."

"What? Why?"

Glad that there were actually directions on the flyer he had been given, Xisheng looked around for some sort of landmark or something he could use to determine where he was right now.

"We're looking for someone that wants to learn Earthbending. It makes sense that he'd check out an Academy. It's unlikely that we'll just conveniently run into him or anything, but if he went there at all someone will probably remember him or his friends."

Ty Lee had to agree with that assessment, but despite the relative urgency that demanded they act on a potential lead as swiftly as possible, the noble turned circus performer didn't want to let the conversation they had been having just sink into the background. Xisheng had clearly misinterpreted something, and Ty Lee didn't like the way it apparently made him feel.

But he was already following the route on the map, walking away from her with the obvious belief that she would follow, and that the conversation they had been having was no longer relevant now that they could continue on their actual mission.

Ty Lee didn't like the fact that he didn't consider his own feelings important enough to talk about, but she would get him to reveal what had just transpired here later. Once all of this espionage business in Gaoling was done she'd find out why he thought he had done something wrong and set him right.

After all, she couldn't let him believe that being nice to her was some sort of crime.

Master Yu's Earthbending Academy was nothing particularly special. Like the rest of Gaoling, its walls were comprised of mostly white stone with terracotta tile on top, and those walls formed a nice, large square that served as the training grounds for young Earthbenders. The school itself was an obviously nice building, but not one Xisheng bothered investigating, since everyone that attended the Academy appeared to be on those grounds right now, practicing basic forms he had seen used in his battles with the Earth Kingdom many times before.

Nearly everyone present was younger than both Xisheng and Ty Lee, most likely because they were enrolled here by their parents and not because they cared for the martial art themselves.

There was one man beyond their years though, and Xisheng could see the resemblance to the face on the flyer. Subconsciously he noted that it was a very detailed advertisement.

Naturally this Master Yu would be the person they wanted to speak to, since he would know if anyone matching the description of the Avatar or his allies had stopped by, and since Xisheng wasn't the type of person to wait around, he made his way towards the man overseeing the exercises here. He hesitated to call him a teacher, since he hardly seemed to be doing any actual teaching at the moment. It wasn't like there was nothing for him to say, what with the sloppy forms of at least four students. Then again, he was only paid to teach them, not to make them perfect.

Xisheng approached Master Yu with Ty Lee close behind him, and he did his best to suppress a frown as he bore witness to the unseemly facial hair that was his long goatee and mustache. Facial hair was pretty much a sign of prestige or wisdom or something throughout most of the world, but Xisheng had personally never been enthralled with the idea. He didn't plan on growing out a beard or anything until he was old enough for his hair to be white.

He briefly wondered how the girls would feel about that notion. Considering how widespread the consideration of facial hair as 'manly' was, was it even considered attractive to lack it once reaching a certain age?

He was honestly curious, but he was quickly reminded of the farce that had been his earlier flirting attempt with Ty Lee, and that was enough to quell his thoughts. How any of the girls felt about such a thing was irrelevant. He wasn't good enough for them in any form, so why worry about something like that?

That said, he decided to simply focus on the far too stringy hair of the Earthbender, the hideousness of which he did not appreciate until the man in question noticed the approach of newcomers and turned to face them. There was a brief moment of confusion on his face as he took in the appearance of the visitors, but it cleared with only a few moments of thought.

"Welcome to Master Yu's Earthbending Academy. I am Master Yu, renowned and, in my own humble opinion, most talented Earthbender in all of Gaoling. Welcome to my school."

With that less than great introduction given, Yu bowed, but only to Ty Lee specifically. Xisheng had no idea why this was the case, but even after the man rose he only even bothered looking at her. "So, I assume a lady such as yourself is here to get lessons for her servant? A great deal of people have realized the benefits of having an Earthbender at their command. In fact, I even have special courses for-"

It didn't take Xisheng more than a second to see that the disparity in the clothing between Ty Lee and himself was giving an impression of servitude to her, but he supposed it wasn't far off from the truth anyway.

As for Ty Lee, she had stopped really listening to Master Yu when she noted Xisheng's aura twisting with negative color at the mention of being a servant. In fact, the blend of colors were very similar to whatever emotion had struck him in their earlier conversation, and even though Ty Lee wasn't entirely sure what it was, she knew she didn't like it one bit. So she donned the brightest smile she could manage, then wrapped both of her arms around one of Xisheng's and pulled him into her embrace.

"Oh, Gohan's not my servant. He's my boyfriend!"

There was an expression akin to incredulous disbelief on Master Yu's face that made Ty Lee kind of angry (he obviously thought she was playing a joke on him, which implied that he thought the prospect of the Ty Lee and Xisheng being an item was laughable), but she was more focused on the flare of confusion and joy that Xisheng had at both her words and her touch. Part of the reason Ty Lee enjoyed making other people happy so much was because she could actually see the effects of her own handiwork.

Even though Master Yu still seemed to believe himself to be the victim of a prank, he decided that it didn't really matter. The identity of whoever came to him was irrelevant compared to whether or not they could pay for his services.

"My mistake then. I see you have one of my flyers. There's a coupon for a free lesson on it. I suppose if you're both here to learn I'll let you both make use of just one. Oh, and before we even begin, would you like to hear about my promotional program? You get bumped up to the next belt automatically if you pay for a year of lessons in advance."

Ty Lee gently nudged Xisheng in the side, prompting him to be the one to answer. She honestly wasn't all that good at lying unless it came to a very particular set of things, and this was not one of them. She didn't know how to explain why two people that weren't Earthbenders were at an Earthbending Academy without sounding suspicious.

Still reeling a bit from the declaration of being Ty Lee's boyfriend even if he knew it had been for the sake of false appearances, not to mention the feel of her body against his without any armor to get in the way, Xisheng miraculously still managed to focus on the task at hand. He was technically on a mission here.

"Actually Master Yu, we're not here looking for lessons. My little brother was supposed to stop by to sign up for Earthbending lessons today, but he wasn't looking forward to it. I just wanted to check in and see if he actually showed up. Mom will have both our hides if he spent the day fooling around."

Of all of the explanations for investigation that Xisheng could have given, this one did bear the least amount of suspicion to it, but it was entirely possible that it wouldn't work. If the Avatar had actually come into this city as, well, the Avatar, then it was very unlikely that this line of questioning would bear fruit. However, there had been no evidence of a the return of a prodigal spiritual figure in this city, so Xisheng had every reason to believe that the Avatar was keeping a low profile for now at least.

As for Yu, he didn't seem to suspect anything too out of the ordinary. Besides, Xisheng had wisely picked a lie that played to his greatest weakness, that being material gain. Allegedly there was supposed to be someone signing up for lessons who maybe had not, meaning that there was money on the line.

"I did have someone come in earlier today looking for prospective lessons, but he wasn't very good at it... called it quits after taking just one boulder to the chest! I even offered him the same promotional as you two, and-!"

With little interest in hearing about any of that, Xisheng cut the man off as unobtrusively as possible.

"Was he short and gangly? Around thirteen looking?"

Master Yu donned a knowing smirk. "He might have been."

Xisheng immediately got the implication that Yu wanted some sort of recompense for his information. As expected, the man was greedy beyond hope. Unfortunately Xisheng didn't actually have any substantial amount of money on him, and he doubted Ty Lee was just carrying around a bunch either. Thankfully the acrobat in question was good enough at playing off of the story that had already been presented.

"C'mon now mister, you're getting good business here. His mom is gonna force him to attend no matter what, but we have to know if it was his little brother in the first place so we can know if we have to keep looking or not."

While lamenting the loss of any type of monetary gain, Yu figured that the payoff for cooperation was bigger anyway. Not to mention that he had to wrap up this conversation quickly regardless, since he needed to head over to the Beifong estate in about an hour for his special teaching position there.

"Well, I suppose any parent that can afford such ridiculous tattoos for a child so young will probably be able to afford the curriculum as well. Yes, I saw your brother earlier today, just an hour or two ago in fact. I've no clue where he went after the fact though."

While the math was already starting to add up in every way that mattered, Xisheng wanted to confirm without a shadow of a doubt that they were all talking about the same person.

"Yeah, those blue tattoos were always ridiculous..."

Master Yu did not seem confused by this statement. In fact he agreed with it, and that was confirmation enough of the truth. "Quite. Now, if you don't mind, I still have a class to finish teaching. Good day."

With that, the somewhat unsavory teacher bowed to them before turning on his heel to return to his class. Now that they were away from any potential eavesdroppers, Ty Lee gave him a beaming smile. "Great work Gohan! Azula would be proud."

This was only half a joke really, as both she and Xisheng knew that Azula would probably compliment him for his decent degree of manipulation and subterfuge, simple as it was. She did enjoy fighting, but she also tended to prefer the quiet approach when it could be used.

"Well she can compliment me after we tell her the news. She'll probably want to know that who we're looking for is actually here as soon as possible."

"Yeah, but she didn't specify where to actually meet her and Mai again if we found something out..."

"The most likely place to rendezvous is near the gate we came through."

Xisheng thought this was obvious, but apparently Ty Lee wanted an explanation on this. "What makes you think that? She didn't say anything like that."

"It's typical military practice. If no specific rendezvous was mentioned than the best place to try and regroup is the location that you separated at."

Mention of the military served as a reminder for Ty Lee that her current companion was in fact a soldier. That sounded dumb when she thought it considering that he was usually wearing a uniform, but he didn't seem like someone who had fought on the field of a life or death battle when she talked to him. She'd overheard that part of his conversation with Azula in which he had claimed to be willing to kill anyone.

She'd buried the ill feelings that news had brought to her since learning of it. She'd always found killing to be deplorable and senseless and an indicator of cruelty. To hear that Xisheng was willing to kill anyone and concluding through common sense that he had probably killed people before had severely jumbled Ty Lee's thoughts on him for a short while.

That he had taken such great enjoyment in her performance in the forest the next day had admittedly alleviated her concerns somewhat, but either way it was still a matter of her burying her real misgivings on the matter. With her mind where it was, they were brought to the surface now, but she wasn't sure if it was fair of her to make assumptions. She hadn't heard the entire conversation he had with Azula. It was possible that she was misunderstanding something out of context. And even if she wasn't, surely there was someway to reconcile Xisheng's willingness to kill with his personality. He was a good person, Ty Lee at least knew that much.

Despite telling herself that, she still didn't reach a definite conclusion before the path they were taking back to the gates of Gaoling allowed them to hear a plaintive cry for help from down an alley.

She and Xisheng exchanged looks of confusion before glancing down the alley where the pathetic cry had emanated from. It was kind of weird to be hearing such a thing, considering that they were literally less than a hundred feet from Master Yu's Academy. Had no one heard anything until they had just now?

Either way such a strange occurrence demanded investigation due to curiosity if nothing else. Thankfully the chalky alley didn't take very long to reveal the source of the disturbance, as Xisheng and Ty Lee came across the extremely peculiar sight of two young boys frozen to the sides of the walls, with their heads pressed together.

Ty Lee looked mortified by the act of abuse, but Xisheng merely scoffed. "Gee, I wonder who could be responsible for this?"

The frozen boys, unable to see their rescuers with their heads forcibly pointed at the ground, were ecstatic that someone had finally found them. "H-hey! Whoever's there, y-y-you're gonna get us out of here right?!"

Ty Lee was quick to offer an affirmative, naturally. She wasn't the type to hold back assistance for those that needed it. "Of course! We'll have you out in no time!"

She immediately looked over to Xisheng, who was quick to give her a look that communicated why this wasn't going to work. Obviously there could be no Firebending. "I-I mean, we'll tell the guards you're here. They can get you out!"

Xisheng stopped her movements before she could actually fetch said guards. "Before we help you guys, I have to ask how you got here. Who did this to you?"

While the boys were certainly unhappy with having to wait, they figured they would be rescued faster if they just answered any questions instead of arguing or expressing their distaste. "S-some dark skinned witch in blue! C'mon man, we've been up here for half an hour!"

"Half on hour? Geez, she could have killed you guys like this. Why'd she do it?"

At this, both boys fell silent, but only for a moment as they decided that getting warmth back in their bodies was more important than keeping a secret about their attendance at an underground and technically illegal fighting tournament. "S-she wanted to know about Earth Rumble Six! It's an illegal Earthbending tournament! I don't know why she wanted to know, she didn't say! S-she just froze us up here and threatened to freeze our heads too if we didn't tell her where it was! Come on man, we're freezing, just get us down from here!"

"Calm down, we're going to get you down. Just as soon as you tell us where this Earthbending tournament is."

"W-what?! Seriously-"

"If you want the girl who assaulted you to face justice, the guards are going to need to know where they went. You tell us, and we tell them at the same time we tell them to come get you down from here. After all, you said this tournament was illegal right? You want to be the ones to tell the guards you knew about it?"

Had the boys in question been in their right minds at the moment, they probably would have asked questions that debunked everything Xisheng was getting at. After all, there were many ways in which it didn't make sense. However, they had been frozen parallel to the ground for nearly an hour and a half now, and they couldn't feel an inch of their bodies. What was logical wasn't exactly what they cared about at the moment, and that was why Xisheng and Ty Lee were leaving said alley with the information they required shortly after the question was asked, looking for any guards they could inform of the crime that had taken place so those poor sods could be rescued before they froze to death.

Ty Lee for one had a very sour look on her face. "You know, I think that Waterbender girl is meaner than Azula is."

Xisheng wished his companion would be more careful about uttering the name of the Fire Nation's Crown Princess while in an Earth Kingdom city, but she was keeping her voice low enough that no one would hear.

"You say that like our mutual friend is unspeakably cruel or something."

The acrobat at his side leveled one of the most serious expressions Xisheng had ever seen at him. "You haven't known her that long Xisheng. I'm not saying she's some monster or anything, but she can be seriously vicious, even to her friends. But it's usually just words. She finds more enjoyment in breaking people's spirits than their bodies."

"And you think that's not as bad as this Waterbender?"

"Well hurting people with words is just a matter of being smart and clever, and it only hurts as much as the victim lets it. But you can't do anything to protect yourself from someone physically stronger than you are when they use their strength to bully you. That Waterbender assaulted those boys just because they wouldn't do what she wanted."

Fully agreeing with the sentiment, Xisheng smirked to himself. "Well be sure to tell her what a hypocrite she is the next time she spouts some nonsense about being one of the good guys. Might want to subdue her first though, since she seems prone to violence."

"Tell me about it. You know she almost killed me with that icicle to the face, and I bet she would have acted like it was righteous or something..."

Thankfully Xisheng had had been right about reuniting with their lost allies at the gates of Gaoling. Surprisingly, he and Ty Lee hadn't even needed to wait very long for Azula and Mai to show up. Xisheng had expected a much longer wait since they were lucky and gained critical information very quickly, but apparently Azula had found a reason to keep her own investigation short as well.

It was a minor bummer, because Xisheng had actually been enjoying the conversation he had started with Ty Lee regarding their enemies. He had just been about to unleash a philosophical lecture on the duality of morality when he had been interrupted. He imagined Ty Lee would have been thankful for Azula's intervention though. When it came to the human condition Xisheng always had a mouthful to say. Maybe he could become a philosopher one day, when this war was finally over and people were free to explore the truth of thought outside of what the Spirit World forced upon them?

Either way, Azula had been greatly pleased to learn of Xisheng and Ty Lee's acquired intelligence, as she and Mai had supposedly learned nothing of import during their own investigations. For some reason the Avatar wasn't making his presence hugely known. According to Master Yu he wasn't really hiding either, but even so it was strange that he had not made his presence common knowledge for a beleaguered Earth Kingdom city.

All in all, Xisheng had quickly relayed what he had learned and Azula had them on the move immediately, heading for the location of this allegedly brutal 'Earth Rumble Six.'

Xisheng had been initially concerned that the rather 'middle class' look of his cohorts would be suspicious to the people running the underground fighting ring, but when they reached the unassuming side of a mountain on the outskirts of Gaoling, the somewhat filthy person standing watch at the cave entrance to the arena didn't even question it. After all, they had money. And he didn't care what anyone looked like if they paid the fee to enter, because that was the source of his paycheck.

So within an hour of meeting up at the gates, and only three hours of being in Gaoling overall, Azula's infiltration team was already hot on the Avatar's heels. Apparently coming to Gaoling had been a good idea.

Still, while walking through the earthen halls that would lead to the arena for this underground fighting ring, Xisheng was left fretting over the potential for disaster. If the Avatar was here in this ring right now, there was a chance that he or his friends could identify them. They had only had one encounter, but the fact that the girls he traveled with were all very striking and memorable remained.

It could come down to a lot of things. He didn't know how large the ring itself was. If it were small, they could find themselves in very close proximity to the enemy, and in that case they would likely be recognized with little trouble if any of the kids were paying attention. Their odds would be better if the arena were large, since it was unlikely that they would be recognized from a distance after their one encounter and while dressed differently from that encounter.

The possibility of danger always made Xisheng on edge, but it was especially true now that there were other people he absolutely had to keep safe. Not to mention that, if they were discovered and a fight broke out, it was very likely that any Earthbenders present would join the Avatar and attack. He doubted Fire Nation sentiment was very positive here in Gaoling, even if the city itself was one of the only Earth Kingdom settlements to be spared an attack so far.

Xisheng would of course be fine as far as remaining incognito. He had been masked during the scuffle with the Avatar, so no one would recognize him. Honestly Azula stuck out a bit, but mostly for reasons beyond her control. Her features were sharp and elegant and unmistakable, but hopefully the lack of identifying garb and accessories would keep their prey from actually focusing on her face too much.

As for Mai, while she was subjectively gorgeous, objectively she was currently unassuming. She would have little problem blending into a large crowd of people, as there was little to draw singular attention to her. Ironically she was the most noticeable when she was by herself, but that implied that there was no one around to notice her in the first place. A real shame, since Xisheng got the feeling her beauty was not nearly as appreciated as it should have been.

That only left Ty Lee. And while Xisheng had earlier concluded that she had the best chance of blending in with the Earth Kingdom, he realized that right this second she was the most recognizable of their group to the Avatar.

"Ty Lee, let your hair down."

The acrobat had to glance over her shoulder to make eye contact since Xisheng had taken to the rear of the group as soon as they entered extremely hostile territory, but the angle of the view didn't mitigate the obvious confusion and strange amount of hope on her face. "Really? You think I should?"

Xisheng got the feeling that Ty Lee would be put out if she learned his suggestion was for the practical reason of eliminating a defining aesthetic characteristic. He wasn't an idiot of course, so he knew why this was the case. Or at least he thought he knew. Obviously she wanted the same kind of praise he had afforded Mai earlier that day for the same scenario. But that didn't add up with just a few hours ago where his compliments had only been met with silence. At this point he couldn't help but wonder if he had gotten turned around somewhere in his perception of things.

Was he misinterpreting something important? All of these conflicting signals implied that he was. Still, now wasn't the time to ask. They were about to step into an extremely volatile situation that could get them all killed. Even so, on the very real possibility that Xisheng had completely misread the situation thus far, he figured it couldn't hurt to leave his more practical motives in the dark.

"I do. I find that today has been a good day to break from the norm, all things considered."

Xisheng felt bad seeing Ty Lee take his words at face value, but it wasn't like he was lying or anything. Everyone was dressed differently, pretending to be people they weren't. It was a pretty good premise to do something a little differently today.

That said his agile comrade wasted very little time in undoing her usual braid, and considering the complexity of the knots she was remarkably swift about it. Good thing the walk to the Earth Rumble arena was decently long.

When the process was done, Ty Lee gave her now loose locks a flip and eyed the only man in the group somewhat bashfully. Unbeknownst to him she was attempting to recall the phrasing he had used earlier that day.

"S-so, um... am I...alluring?"

Naturally Xisheng inwardly questioned if it was his place to utter anything along the lines of outright appreciation for the physical to someone beyond his stature in life. But he got the feeling that trying to hold back any praise in this instance was futile.

Unlike Mai, whose hair was almost perfectly streamlined, Ty Lee's was unusually wavy any bouncy out of its braid, which Xisheng hadn't actually been expecting. Even though it may have been just as long as Mai's, it fell a little higher on her back due to this, and he couldn't help but think that the bounce of her locks from every step accented her energy and bubbly atmosphere almost perfectly.

She was undoubtedly prettier than nearly every girl walking the face of the Earth at the moment, but Xisheng couldn't find it in him to utter words that brazen, so he settled for the best his faltering cognition could muster.

"Y-yes..."

Xisheng immediately berated himself for the lack of complexity in his response, and he was afraid that he had only succeeded in insulting someone again. However, Ty Lee seemed downright ecstatic to hear him say something so simple. Maybe she knew that he had simply been too outright dumbfounded to say anything else.

The moment was lost when Azula cut in. She tended to do that a lot.

"If you two teenagers are done flirting, we do have a mildly dangerous job you should be focusing on."

Both Xisheng and Ty Lee refrained from pointing out that Azula was in fact the youngest teenager there, mostly because they had finally reached the end of the hall that opened up into the arena that was their destination.

There was no door. Just a big, empty hole that led into a massive space in the belly of a mountain. Unconventional and definitely far from ornate, but that said it also fit the Earthbender mentality of simplicity in execution. If it worked they usually didn't bother making it nice.

A perfunctory glance into the area revealed nothing immediately obvious. The action hadn't started yet, and people were either milling around conversing with one another or simply finding the seat they wanted the most. More importantly, Xisheng was relieved to see that almost everything here was in their favor. The arena, which consisted of little more than stone stands and a large fighting ring in the middle, was huge. The scope of the place meant they were less likely to be noticed.

Furthermore, the crowd here was large enough to easily hide in. Roughly half the stands in total were taken already, with, oddly enough, the top half of the seating being taken and the bottom half left almost completely empty. Considering that the lowest seats were level with the ring, Xisheng easily deduced why this was the case. There would be no spectacle to enjoy if you were flattened by an errant boulder.

That said he found it pitiable for fighters to have such a lack of control. With the power benders wielded, it was their responsibility and duty to keep a tight leash on their abilities and avoid causing unintentional damage. In an Agni Kai, somehow managing to wound or even just endanger the audience would be just as dishonorable as losing the duel, if not more so.

Of course, it could have just been because he was a soldier. The Fire Nation military trained all of its soldiers to be disciplined and controlled, as their element posed the greatest threat of collateral damage to both ally and environment. Being unable to control the wild force of flame on the field of battle was not acceptable.

Either way, Xisheng imagined they would be better off in the higher stands. He also imagined they would be better off taking caution even if the odds here were in their favor.

"We should enter one at a time. Larger groups are more likely to draw curiosity."

Azula gave him a look that was a weird mix of irritation and admiration. Xisheng didn't even know those things could blend. "I'm not sure if your ability to give advice on the most minor of details irritates me or impresses me."

"Entire battles can hinge on the understanding of very small details, Pr-,er, Milady."

"Fair enough. And here I thought I went unusually far out of my way to consider the small things. Very well, I'll go first. Don't dawdle for too long."

The young ruler to be made her exit with that, allowing her to take the first gander at the arena as a whole. Thankfully no flames started flying or anything, so she hadn't come under immediate attack, and soon enough her comrades started filing in at sporadic intervals that weren't inherently suspicious.

Azula had been smart enough to choose a spot that was blocked by other audience members in both the front and the back, providing them with plenty of shielding from both detection and actual physical attack. How she had managed to appropriate enough seating for four people was a mystery, but probably had something to do with her ability to intimidate.

Ultimately Xisheng was faced with a new uncomfortable situation as he entered this scenario. Naturally, being a guard by nature, he entered the arena last, since holding the rear was his duty. Because this was the case, he had expected to be on the end of the line of people his little group would form on the stands, and with quite a considerable distance between them at that. Yet Ty Lee had chosen to intentionally take the end for herself so he would only be able to sit between her and Mai. He could tell it was intentional because of the cheeky smile if nothing else.

Now this was not a problem in and of itself, but despite Azula's ability to scare people out of their seats, it was still cramped up here and they weren't going to get a lot of elbow room regardless. By extension, he possessed less than an inch of space between him and his lovely feminine compatriots (he essentially had no space on Ty Lee's side, but he wasn't complaining about her intentional proximity), and that posed a problem because he was supposed to be paying attention to their surroundings, which was difficult in this situation.

Thankfully Mai was awful at perpetuating sexual tension, at least unintentionally. Based on his experience with her so far, Xisheng was almost positive she could make anyone hot under the collar if she wanted to, but when she didn't she was so apathetic to everything that it was difficult to even feel awkward around her. It was weird that she could be so neutral as to make other people feel comfortable (she couldn't judge you if she didn't feel anything about you in the first place), but also kind of nice.

That said her singular focus on the task at hand only mildly served to calm Xisheng's nerves in this situation. After all, he couldn't help but admire the way even complete seriousness only accented the acuity of her beauty. Never had he thought before meeting her that a frown could actually be attractive.

Thankfully he managed to avoid gawking blatantly like an idiot due to the beginning of the night's entertainment. A shower of boulders blasted forth from the center of the ring, some of them smashing into the lower stands, reinforcing why it was a bad idea to sit there. The man that had created the reckless display introduced himself as the announcer for the tournament, Xin Fu, and with a fair amount of bravado that accompanied all events of this nature, he wasted no time in getting things underway. After all, the longer this business dragged out, the higher the chance of the authorities ruining it.

Xisheng recognized with a great deal of dismay what kind of spectacle this ordeal was going to be when the first two fighters made their entrance, with the announcer labeling them as 'The Boulder' and 'The Hippo.' Silly gimmick names that meant this tournament was just as much about mindless entertainment as it was was about skill. Possibly even moreso. Mai summed up the feeling remarkably well.

"This is going to hurt me on a soulful level to watch."

Naturally Ty Lee was more optimistic about it, but she was a performer, so this was kind of up her alley in that regard. Admittedly Xisheng would have much rather seen a display of her talents over this Earthbending tripe. In a completely non-carnal sense, of course. It was just that Xisheng had already seen a lot of Earthbending in his lifetime, and he imagined that many of the moves used in this tournament would be over-the-top, dramatized nonsense that would never work or just be an awful idea on the battlefield.

The first show of drama was actually the very first move, in which The Boulder launched a similarly named projectile right at his overweight foe, only for the latter to simply tank the hit and crush one of the rocks within his disgusting maw. Tactically speaking there was no reason to ever take a direct hit in real combat if you could avoid it, so it was for shock factor only. Though Xisheng didn't consider it very shocking. An Earthbender negated an earth-based attack; what was so amazing about that?

The retaliation strike was equally ridiculous, with The Hippo leaping up and down to heave the entire ring and throw the Boulder off-balance. Admittedly it was a pretty appreciative display of raw power, but such a tactic would be less than useful in a real fight and even throw off your own allies if you had any.

In the end The Boulder saved himself from falling off of the battleground with a slab of stone, and he made short work of his opponent after that by picking him up in a cradle of earth and heaving him out of the ring altogether. The bravado after his victory put exasperated scowls on the faces of everyone in Azula's group save Ty Lee. Just one fight in and they were all sick of this already.

The brief pause between matches gave Xisheng some time to scan the audience around him, but he didn't spot their prey anywhere. It was possible that they could be on the opposite side of the arena, but from this distance he couldn't pick out anything truly distinguishable about anyone over there.

His subtle analysis of the people around him was cut short when the entire crowd started jeering at The Boulder's next opponent, and returning his gaze to the ring, Xisheng saw why this was the case. Probably had something to do with the moron waving around a Fire Nation flag and speaking about the glory of the Fire Lord and all that.

Azule scoffed at the presentation. "This man is going to get killed. Lynched maybe. What a moron..."

At first Xisheng agreed, but after a moment of thought, he saw through the ruse. Azula was right in saying that this man would have been long dead by now if he were a true and open supporter of the Fire Nation in Gaoling. After a hundred years of a losing war, the Earth Kingdom nursed an unhealthy degree of outright hatred and bitterness for anything Fire Nation related. This guy would have been hung, mauled, drawn and quartered, or something by an angry mob of people by now.

But this was entertainment. Xisheng had no doubt that this 'Fire Nation Man' (was that the best they could come up with?) was simply an Earthbender getting paid to pretend to support the Fire Nation so the crowd would have someone to collectively hate, and so they would have someone to cheer for as one in the form of the 'patriotic Earthbender' facing him. A good marketing tactic really. Everyone liked to see their boogeymen get destroyed.

That was why it was no surprise when The Boulder not only defeated Fire Nation Man in mere seconds, but with a ridiculous level of dramatic flair, prompting everyone to cheer as the 'loser's' body was flung into one of the boulders that had crashed into the stands earlier, courtesy of Xin Fu.

The uproar of applause and cheering was deafening, and Xisheng found it kind of sad that such an obvious stunt was enough to boost the spirits of these people. What had just happened was essentially war propaganda, and very obvious war propaganda at that. He hoped no one here was stupid enough to really believe it would be that easy when the Fire Nation really descended on this city for the first time.

But while he thought of this, apparently Mai had been doing something more useful, as she informed all of her allies of something important under the cover of the overly loud cheering around her. "Our 'friend' is here. Other side of the ring, where that moron just landed."

Xisheng directed his gaze where Mai had specified, but for him he couldn't outright identify the trio of people sitting foolishly in the front row seats on the opposite side of the arena (seriously, assuming none of them knew Earthbending, they were literally risking their lives sitting there). Still, now that Mai had pointed them out, he thought he could make out the blues of the Avatar's Water Tribe friends against the slate gray of the stone behind them.

"You have remarkably good vision Mai."

"Thanks."

Considering that he had expected her to shrug off the compliment immediately, Xisheng considered it a victory that she had responded at all, even though she wasted no time in questioning Azula.

"So? Now what?"

The princess of the Fire Nation seemed remarkably pleased, yet she also didn't look too eager to do anything at all.

"Now? We do nothing. We've acquired the most important thing of all; undeniable evidence of his presence. We can hardly start anything here in the open anyway. Now we observe and wait."

The mention of more waiting, and by extension more boredom, only gave rise to a sigh out of the eagle-eyed member of the team that has spotted the Avatar in the first place. "Great. My absolute favorite."

Since Azula had a very good point in saying that they couldn't do anything now, the quartet of quintessential spies was left with nothing to do but continue watching the Earth Rumble VI 'tournament.' Thankfully it did evolve from mindless entertainment to actual fighting at some point, as it became obvious that The Boulder's opponents were actually attempting to defeat him. For the record, Xisheng recognized that The Boulder was actually a very good Earthbender. He had more power than the average bender, and many of his attacks were actually kind of creative. He was above the average mark for an Earthbender at any rate, and he made it all the way to the tournament finals in relatively short order. In little time at all he was facing off against the champion, who turned out to be... a little girl. A very little girl, no older than twelve at the most.

The diminutive figure, clad in unusually high quality greens and beige, would have earned looks of confusion from normal people, but everyone in Azula's retinue simply accepted the situation. After all, Azula had been far more talented and skilled than the average Firebender at that age. Who was to say that an Earthbender couldn't be the same?

Either way, this girl, dubbed 'The Blind Bandit' (by far the best name of all these hooligans so far), exchanged some practically obligatory bravado with The Boulder before their fight started. Unfortunately for her opponent, when it did start it didn't last very long. The Boulder took just one step before the girl he was facing countered with a swift shift of the earth under his foot that forced him into a painful split.

Xisheng was the only member of the team to cringe at the phantom pains the sight provided him. Mai didn't seem to care, Azula probably thought it was amusing, and Ty Lee probably just thought such a lack of flexibility was sad. That said, Xisheng decided then and there that he would work on his flexibility just in case this kind of scenario ever happened to him. After all, he figured Ty Lee had to know some really good stretching techniques to be as limber as she was. There was no reason not to ask her to share.

Despite the overwhelming wave of sympathy for The Boulder, he was subsequently launched from the ring with three pillars of stone from the Blind Bandit. She received a decent modicum of cheering, but apparently more than a few people had hoped the reigning champion would actually be defeated.

As Xin Fu started talking incentives for other people to challenge the talented young girl, Xisheng questioned the nature of her victory. In the end, he wouldn't have necessarily called it a matter of skill so much as very quick reaction time. The Boulder had presented an obvious opening, and the girl had taken advantage of it swiftly. Besides, he always found it difficult to truly judge skill in battle during contests like this. All she had to do was launch her opponent from the ring. In a real fight, who was to say that he wouldn't have gotten back up, thought of a new strategy, and actually beaten her? Then again, who was to say that the girl's first blow wouldn't have just killed him in a real fight?

Xisheng put his thoughts to rest when he saw that someone had taken Xin Fu up on his offer to face the Blind Bandit, and as fortune would have it, it was the Avatar himself. He recalled a certain notion of the Avatar not being very subtle at some point in the past, but this was ridiculous. Knowing that he was arguably the most wanted man in the world, did he really think it was a good idea to put himself out into the open like this? Even in an Earth Kingdom city, he still had to worry about mercenaries, bounty hunters, and anyone that thought (rightfully so) that they could score a cushy life in the Fire Nation for turning him over to them.

Perhaps he was just not experienced enough yet to realize the danger that was stalking him every waking moment of his life.

It was obvious (to his hunters at least) that the Avatar was not challenging the Earth Rumble champion for the prize money involved in winning. Considering that he was likely still looking for an Earthbending teacher, it seemed that he wanted it to be this girl.

Unfortunately it was impossible to confirm this, as the Avatar didn't shout his intention as loudly as all of the fighters before now had. Whatever he said though, it didn't allow him to hold a conversation with the Blind Bandit, who attacked him outright. He was allegedly challenging her title after all.

Honestly, Xisheng was surprised that people didn't recognize the Avatar as an Airbender as soon as he started evading attacks. True, he wasn't wearing his usual outlandish attire, but the way he floated about the field of battle was unnatural, and definitely beyond the ability of any other bender. The way his body suddenly decelerated when gravity demanded otherwise was testament enough to his manipulation of the nearly extinct element.

But apparently no one caught this, and the fight carried on in a similar fashion for a whole thirty seconds, ending when the Avatar chose to counter an incoming boulder rather than avoid it. It was debatable whether or not he had intended to do it, but either way the blast of air he used to defend himself launched the Blind Bandit out of the ring, leading her to be officially defeated.

Amid the cries of astonishment and cheering in the crowd, Azula's group stayed focused and watched the ensuing actions of their prey. The Avatar wasted no time in pursuing the girl he had just bested, no doubt attempting to get her to listen to his pleas, and his obvious determination to get her attention was enough for Azula to decide on a risky but advantageous plan.

As she dwelt on the possibilities of knowing the objective of her own prey, Azula almost blew their cover by donning a smirk so calculating and malicious that anyone looking would have known she was plotting against them. Thankfully everyone was too busy cheering for the mysterious stranger that had bested the Blind Bandit, and the group of Fire Nation infiltrators suffered no difficulties as they made their inconspicuous exit from the arena of Earth Rumble VI.

How strange it was, to leave a place with a plan for another's demise that you had not possessed before then.

Chapter Text

The first night Azula's retinue spent in Gaoling, Xisheng spent the first half of it all by his lonesome. That was because he was assigned to a particular task while the girls found a suitable place for them to stay, which was making sure that the Overlord was still secure and well-hidden. After all, it wouldn't do to have the local garrison wary of Fire Nation presence, even if the discovery of the Overlord certainly wouldn't have been very specific evidence of who was around.

Even so, Xisheng understood the Princess' precaution, and he had also expected it to be his job to do this. Thankfully it was relatively easy to leave Gaoling, and when Xisheng was done out here, it wouldn't be that much of a problem to get back in either. While there were many issues with the bureaucracy of the Earth Kingdom, they certainly loved their procedures, and they did them pretty well. The faux passport he had used to get into the city had been stamped by the gate guards, proving that he had already been legally accepted into the city and that he was simply a returning individual.

Of course, while this was effective in some ways, it wasn't like it was without its flaws, and it wasn't really all that difficult to bypass, as Azula and her crew had proven. But personally Xisheng thought it was something that could be incorporated into the Fire Nation in some form. His home country didn't keep especially good tabs on the identity of every citizen. Most people that could be recognized were done so through reputation or the fame of their family name.

This of course meant that there was no locking people out of any one city. Literally anyone could step into the capital without obstruction. It was just that they would face the full extent of the law if they stepped out of line, and the Fire Nation was quite unforgiving when it came to crime.

But the somewhat impressive security of the Earth Kingdom could definitely find some use in the Fire Nation, so long as it didn't devolve into the same system of elitist segregation that the Earth Kingdom used now. Maybe Gaoling wasn't quite as bad as Ba Sing Se, but the fact remained that passports into the wealthy city weren't cheap, creating a natural barrier for anyone that wasn't at least middle class. The poor members of the city had either cheated their way into its walls or simply lost all their wealth while within them.

To say the Fire Nation didn't have some of the same problems would have been a lie of course. While the Earth Kingdom gave more opportunity to those that had more wealth, the Fire Nation had always favored those born of respected families. So people that were just born into a renowned name tended to have more opportunity available to them than the common citizen.

But the difference was the barrier to success. Xisheng imagined that it was not impossible for someone to make a name for themselves in the Earth Kingdom's economy. Surely there had been some people that were cunning or determined enough to fight their way to the top and find success. But there was an active resistance to such things happening in the EK.

Naturally the already rich members of EK society wanted to keep their status, and make more money by monopolizing whatever it was they made all of their money from. So they often tried to prevent others from rising to success in their particular market.

While you may have had to work harder to gain prestige in the Fire Nation if you were born a nobody, at least the only obstacle to your advancement was your own limitations. The Fire Nation was a meritocracy at its core. Regardless of what family you were born into, how much money you started with, or if you were a bender or not, you could acquire respect and prestige as long as you earned it.

Of course, that didn't mean everything was perfect and fair. Benders may not have had a concrete advantage over their counterparts, but they were still generally held in higher regard. Non-benders naturally had more difficulty gaining glory on the field of battle, and of course there was no stopping people from looking down on you if you were poor or weak.

But that was just the human condition. No government could ever change the way people treated one another. All it could do was try to provide an equal opportunity for everyone to succeed, without a corrupt system that made the strong even stronger and left the weak in the dust.

As Xisheng made his way across the small field of plains that separated Gaoling's walls from the forest where the Overlord was hidden (in almost total darkness since he dared not bend in enemy territory), he couldn't help but find it amusing that the Fire Nation, while seemingly obsessed with strength, cared more for the weak than their global counterparts.

Not that it was particularly a matter of morals. Xisheng didn't know the origin of the Fire Nation's social doctrine, but he doubted that it was really a matter of 'doing the right thing.'

Being a small island nation for almost all of its existence, and considering the intense segregation forced on the world by the ideals of the Avatar for thousands of years, the Fire Nation had always had to rely on its own ability to thrive more than anything else. Sure, trade and cooperation wasn't unheard of in the past; it wasn't like the Avatar was against interaction between countries at all, but even so each of the four nations had been forced to rely on themselves more than their relations with one another.

Point being, the Fire Nation had always possessed a rather small population, and because it wasn't massive like the EK, social issues had a more significant impact on the country. If a fifth of the population was poor in the EK, it barely affected the upper echelon of society. If the same was true in the FN's much smaller population, a huge portion of their potential workforce and future generation was unable to live up to their full potential, which was critical for a small country determined to thrive and grow.

So the Fire Nation had put a lot of effort into making sure the largest possible number of its people could become successful. In that sense the reasons for their humanitarian advancements were actually selfish. But did it really matter? Whether their motivation for fighting poverty, starvation, and bias was moral or selfish, it still achieved the same thing. They were still advancing the living conditions of their people, and as they took over more EK territory, doing the same for those people as well.

By this time Xisheng reached the edge of the forest he was heading for, and he was finally comfortable lighting a very small flame in his hand. At this distance, anyone that spotted him from the city would not be able to differentiate the light from a torch, and if he somehow encountered anyone this far away from Gaoling, Xisheng was certain that he could kill them before they had a chance to expose him.

Besides, he had plenty of trees to cover him as he pondered the nature of the war, as he was often inclined to do in his alone time.

He understood that it was easy to be blinded by anger and hostility during times of conflict, but hadn't anyone asked why the Fire Nation had been so successful in this war so far? Was it not obvious that a massive nation like the Earth Kingdom should have crushed the early Fire Nation advance in no time, unless the country itself was so broken that it couldn't manage to do so?

After all, logically speaking there was no way the Fire Nation should have had the upper hand in a conflict like this. Sure, the FN had marginally superior technology, but most of that technology proved its might on the open ocean. Earthbenders still possessed the capability to destroy FN vehicles, so it wasn't like that was making a huge difference. And of course, the EK had numbers exponentially beyond that of the Fire Nation military. Even if they just conscripted a massive militia, sheer numbers would have likely overwhelmed the Fire Nation in no time at all.

So how was it that this tiny country was winning this war against one more than a dozen times its own size in both mass and numbers, and on almost unstoppable offense no less? Aside from a few stonewalled offensives on cities like Ba Sing Se and Omashu, the Fire Nation had practically steamrolled over EK territory with minimal resistance or casualties.

The math just didn't work, unless the Earth Kingdom was just well and truly a broken system that couldn't even defend itself against a numerically inferior force. And there were of course many reasons why this could be.

Perhaps it was the lack of unity. Omashu had existed almost independent of the EK after all. It had received no aid from any other allied city, and it had certainly not received support of any form from Ba Sing Se, even during the past offensives when the FN had not taken the city in a single day.

On the flip-side, if any one of the Fire Nation's cities was attacked, it would be reinforced from across the country to defend it. There was one army that defended the entire nation, deployed to protect their territory regardless of where it was.

Maybe it was the isolationist attitude of Ba Sing Se, which was of course the most powerful entity in the Earth Kingdom. Ba Sing Se had never made an offensive of its own. It had never sent troops to defend settlements beyond its own walls. It had only ever used its army to defend itself, and nothing more. With the city being comparable to an entire country in and of itself, Xisheng had no doubt that Ba Sing Se could have fielded an army equal or greater to the entire FN military if only it had wanted to.

Perhaps it was a combination of both those things. The disjointed nature of the nation, the uncaring military center of their might, the incompetence of their leadership, whatever it was, it should have been obvious to anyone that the Earth Kingdom was both corrupt and broken.

Did that justify the imperialistic conquest of another nation? Perhaps not, but right or wrong there was no denying that the people in that taken territory were having their ineffectual government replaced by one that actually worked. No one could deny that it was a good turn of events for them.

Ultimately, Xisheng found the Overlord exactly where they had parked it last, still hidden under all sorts of foliage and other forest type disguises. Even though it was deep within the forest and well-hidden, Xisheng decided there was no harm in putting it under a little more cover, just in case. Naturally, up close it looked quite unnatural and no one would have mistaken it for some natural part of the forest, but it would be easily overlooked if anyone was just walking by, if anyone had any reason to be out here in the first place.

Of course there was a subtle trail leading to the vehicle for the ones who had left it there in the first place, but the myriad array of easily missed notches carved into trees would be nothing but scratch marks to anyone but the Fire Nation natives that had left them. Truth be told Mai had to write down each turn for him before he left, but Xisheng knew he didn't have her apparently ridiculous memory, which even Azula had praised at the time of making the trail.

Either way, Xisheng finished his assigned task, and figured it was about time to head back to Gaoling. For a brief moment he wondered if maybe he should have booby trapped the immediate area just in case, but ultimately he decided against it. The garrison at Gaoling didn't even patrol their own city properly. The chances of a patrol coming this far out was almost infinitesimal.

The approach of cloud cover made the return to Gaoling a darker ordeal than the first time, and Xisheng figured that he should have brought a torch for both practicality and appearances. But at least it wasn't so dark that he couldn't see the walls of the city across the plains as moved towards it. Their chalky hue at least reflected moonlight well.

As he traipsed back to the city, it occurred to Xisheng that he had no idea where to go to reunite with his allies. When they had separated Azula had not settled on where they were going to spend the night yet, so it wasn't like he had been supplied with directions or the name of an inn.

Still, he figured that Azula had been well aware of that issue prior to telling him to check on the Overlord, so either one, she had a plan for solving it, or two, she would see it as amusing or a test of some sort. Either way, there was no way to be sure, so Xisheng figured he would just have to discover the truth of things when he got back.

That being the case, he eventually realized that he was getting close when he spotted the orange lanterns of the gate guards. Xisheng had of course heard of those green crystal lanterns that the Earth Kingdom was so famous for, but the truth was that those crystals only grew in Ba Sing Se, so they were pretty rare outside of that city. Sure, they were exported from time to time, and surely Gaoling could have afforded to procure a lot of them, but apparently they had no interest, at least not for the garrison's sake.

Xisheng showed his falsified papers to the guards when he arrived, and he was ushered in without any delay at all. Upon entering the city itself, Xisheng gave the immediate area a precursory glance, but he didn't spot anyone he could recognize, leading him to believe that Azula really was looking to get a kick out of him only making it back to them in the early hours of the morning.

He wondered if this was going to become a normal problem in his current group dynamic… truth be told he wasn't looking forward to such things. Was it a product of his station or was it the way she treated everyone? Azula did find a lot of amusement in getting the best of her actual friends, so maybe it was just her personality?

Before the undercover soldier could extrapolate on that line of thought, he felt something poke him gently in the lower spine. For a brief moment his entire body tensed against his will, but in the next every muscle went completely loose and relaxed beyond anything he had ever experienced. It was only a temporary physical respite, but there was no denying that it was an incredible sensation.

That said, he could only think of one person with enough knowledge on the human body to manipulate it so well, so he didn't even bother saying her name or anything.

"Is this the part where you say 'guess who?"

"Nah, I'm pretty sure you could tell it was me."

Turning to face her, Xisheng decided to question whatever it was that Ty Lee had done to him. "It was pretty obvious. What was that anyway? It felt amazing..."

Ty Lee smiled at him as she wiggled the index finger she had poked him with. "Sorry, it's a secret. My master would be very angry if I was passing his techniques out to anyone that asks. And besides, I had to work hard to earn it, so I'd feel kind of slighted if someone else got it real easy."

Not sure if she was joking or not, Xisheng cocked an eyebrow at her. "How hard exactly?"

"Oh, y'know, just climbing a rocky mountain barefoot, balancing on my pinky finger for a whole morning, breaking my fingers intentionally so they'd grow back stronger, stuff like that. Hard work, yep."

Now even more confused than before, Xisheng decided to question Mai or Azula about whether or not he should put any stock in this later. Though to be fair, he was certain Ty Lee had trained with someone to learn all of her great skills, and considering how rare and useful they were, surely they were dispensed by some master somewhere.

All in all though, he decided that his sanity and peace of mind was more important than asking about that. "So uh, you got elected to wait up for me huh?"

Ty Lee continued to smile. "Nope. I volunteered. Azula was bummed that it would make it easy for you, but I insisted. After all, we really need to talk."

With that she began walking away, obviously expecting Xisheng to follow her. He did so without hesitation, though he was intrigued by the direction this encounter was taking. "Just so you know, those are words that no man ever wants to hear from a woman, regardless of the scenario."

"Don't worry, I'm not mad about anything. This is important, but not because you did anything wrong. Actually, I guess maybe you did…"

She frowned at that, leading Xisheng to do the same. "Well that's not very reassuring…"

The acrobatic wonder turned to walk backwards so she could make eye contact while moving. "Would it be reassuring if I said you did something wrong but I'm not really mad about it?"

"I think you might have to be more specific before I can say yes or no to that."

Stopping in her tracks so she could fold her arms and give him a mild glare, Ty Lee decided it was best to just be upfront about it. There was no need to beat around the bush anyway, since she already knew the issue.

"You think you're beneath me."

It wasn't a question, that much was obvious. That said, it was kind of unusual to hear Ty Lee speak so curtly and forcefully. It kind of reminded Xisheng of Azula for a brief moment.

Still, he wasn't quite sure how he was supposed to respond. After all, she hadn't asked anything of him, and he wasn't sure what her statement had to do with the situation.

"And that's what I did wrong? I don't get it."

Seemingly annoyed by his lack of understanding, Ty Lee's frown deepened by just a little bit. "That's what you did wrong because it is wrong! You didn't deny it, so that's how you feel right?"

Xisheng didn't feel like he was being attacked or anything, but he certainly didn't think too highly of this line of questioning. "Yeah, that's how I feel. I don't see what's wrong with that. You're a noble and I-"

"And you're just a commoner, right? Look, don't get me wrong, I like being and feeling special, but seriously, this nobility business? I never cared for it. I still don't. I want people to look at me and think I'm unique, but I don't want them to think that I'm better than them. How can you really be friends with someone if they feel like they're beneath you?"

Xisheng found it kind of amusing that this was one of those things that Ty Lee got really serious about. It was kind of endearing that she only put on her war face when talking about friendship and stuff.

"But my station is-"

"Don't care."

"And you're-"

"Irrelevant."

"The others probably-"

"Doesn't matter."

The two of them stared at each other in silence since there was nothing else to really say. After all, Ty Lee had rejected all of Xisheng's points on the matter.

After a moment, Ty Lee sharpened her hazel gaze on him even further. "So, you get it right?"

"Uh… I think?"

With a sigh of frustration, she leveled her finger at him. "Alright, I'll make this perfectly clear. You're a soldier."

"Uh-huh."

She then pointed at herself. "And I'm a circus performer."

"That's true."

Her hands went to her hips. "Neither of those sound like a job nobility has, so I guess it means neither of us is nobility."

Xisheng wanted to point out that unless she was actually disowned by her family, Ty Lee was still a noble, but he figured it would go against everything she was trying to do at the moment.

"I… suppose so."

Ty Lee then nodded affirmatively. "Well then, if you're a normal person and I'm a normal person, I see no reason we can't be good friends who treat each other as equals. Right?"

There was a brief moment where Xisheng's training as a soldier and the rules of his society demanded him to decline Ty Lee's offer of equal friendship. In regards to those two things, this just wasn't right. Societal norms demanded that he mind his place in regards to his betters.

But then again, Ty Lee obviously didn't care for that in the least. And Xisheng wasn't an outright moron. The pretty girl was making it perfectly, totally clear that she wanted to screw the rules and be friends at the least. With no room for confusion in regards to whether or not she was alright with it, why on earth would he still say no? He certainly didn't value whatever social norm his nation believed in over the possibility of a personal relationship with the amazing girl standing in front of him.

"I guess you're right. Though I hope you don't get offended if I still act a little overwhelmed by you sometimes. There's really a lot of amazing things you're capable of that I don't think I could ever do."

Finally getting his agreement put her usual smile on Ty Lee's face. "That's not true at all. Anyone could eventually get as good as me if they put the hours into it. It just takes a lot of practice and a good teacher."

Now satisfied that she had cleared up what she considered a heinous error, Ty Lee continued walking again, leading Xisheng to their inn of choice even though he walked abreast of her now.

"Is that so? Could I consider you a good teacher?"

She gave him a look of surprise. "For what in particular?"

Xisheng could only shrug. If he wanted to be honest he could have said 'everything.' Seemingly everything that Ty Lee was good at was certainly worth learning.

"I don't know. Anything you're willing to teach I suppose. You have a great many skills that I imagine anyone would be eager to learn."

Not being a total idiot, Ty Lee figured he was probably referring to her chi-blocking abilities above all, and truth be told she wasn't sure if she liked the idea. She knew that Xisheng was probably considering the combat applications of the style more than anything else, and she couldn't help but feel uncomfortable with that. She never used the style to kill anyone, but Xisheng had made it clear already that he had no such qualms with death in the first place.

It might have been unfair of her to judge that, but wasn't a soldier taught to use everything at their disposal to defeat the enemy? If she taught him her technique, it would obviously become part of his arsenal, and by extension it was very likely that he would end up killing someone with it. Ty Lee owed it to both herself and her own teacher to oppose that outcome if she could.

Still, she didn't want to ruin the nice moment the two of them had literally just had together, so she didn't outright tell him no.

"I'm glad you're interested. But you do already have your training with Azula…"

"That's true… but perhaps I could still make time for it. I suppose I'll just keep it in mind if you're open to it."

Ty Lee merely smiled, honestly hoping that Xisheng would just forget about it later on. Truth be told though, she felt kind of guilty for inwardly rejecting him just because of his profession, especially since she would have normally been ecstatic that someone wanted to learn from her of all people.

It was hard to swallow since she considered herself accepting of pretty much everyone, but maybe this was her crowning moment of realization: there was no such thing as being completely devoid of bias or judgment. It kind of stung though, to come to grips with that about herself.

Even so, the rest of their walk to the inner section of Gaoling went smoothly, with Xisheng having clearly reached a new understanding of their relationship thanks to the conversation the two of them had shared not that long ago.

As expected, the inn that Azula had chosen for herself and her comrades was of a higher quality than anything Xisheng would have chosen in the name of subtlety. It wasn't exactly a locale for the rich alone, but it was definitely above the quality of what a commoner would be able to afford, adorned in the white stone and dark wood that set it apart from the less wealthy part of the city.

Xisheng briefly questioned how on earth Azula had paid for this, but he supposed that she could have easily stocked up on Earth Kingdom currency before leaving Omashu. Had she not been a Princess, she definitely could have been a great logistical officer in the military. She seemed to think of literally everything.

Of course Xisheng ended up getting his own (moderately lower quality) room apart from the girls, but he still found himself in their presence before the night was out. After all, he had to be clued in on the next step of their plan.

The room itself was quite large, and it did indeed sport three separate beds, which Xisheng found a little curious. Not that the room in itself was strange, but he figured that at least one of these teenage girls would have preferred to have a room to herself. He certainly couldn't imagine Ty Lee really caring for a solitary room, but he would have thought that both Azula and Mai would have preferred their own space.

Perhaps Azula was more frugal than she cared to admit.

Either way, Xisheng found himself leaning on the door to the mildly luxurious room. Aside from the silk sheets and nice furniture it was nothing special, but for the life of him Xisheng was honestly glad the room he had been afforded was more basic. He wasn't sure if he could sleep comfortably on anything too terribly soft at this point.

His three companions had situated themselves around the room, but Mai was the only one that looked like she wanted to be asleep already. She'd already shed the black top of her outfit, as well as any of the constricting pieces of gear that would have been uncomfortable to sleep in. Admittedly, she looked especially attractive in the remaining loose fitting attire. Most men preferred to see clothes that were a tight fit, but there was a certain appeal to this as well.

Doing his best to ignore those thoughts, Xisheng merely waited for Azula to enlighten them as to what she had figured out earlier that day while watching Earth Rumble VI. He assumed it would have something to do with that Blind Bandit girl all things considered, but he wasn't going to be presumptuous and speak first.

Thankfully, the heir to the Fire Nation throne wasn't the kind of person to waste time, even when there wasn't an extreme sense of urgency to actually consider.

"I think it's fairly obvious at this point that the Avatar is going to pursue 'The Blind Bandit' as his Earthbending teacher. That said, I also think it obvious that we need to get to her before he does. Our chances of turning her against his request increases exponentially if we can plant the seeds of doubt before he can earn her trust."

Already in a comfortable sleeping position, Mai kept her eyes closed as she weighed in on the situation. "How exactly? All we've got is what she looks like and her ridiculous stage name. And I doubt she'd be as easy to find as the Avatar was."

"The man who runs the tournament is clearly in a position of knowledge. While he might not know everything regarding our quarry, it's extremely likely that he has enough information to set us on the right path. After all, I doubt participation in this event of his is free, so he no doubt has records of some sort."

Still leaning on the door, Xisheng folded his arms. "We likely don't have a lot of time to act. If we want to make contact before the Avatar does, why didn't we speak to the ring leader today?"

Azula turned her amber gaze on him. "If we act too quickly we simply seem suspicious. If we provide a small window of time between then and now, it'll seem as though we merely realized a discrepancy on our own time. We'll let this night pass without issue, and begin to move first thing in the morning. Needless to say I'm certain we'll still be moving with more urgency than our prey."

Leaping onto her own bed with careless abandon, Ty Lee asked a question that Xisheng himself would have were it not for his position of deference to the Princess.

"Question; why didn't we just ambush the Avatar at the Earth Rumble tournament? We probably could have caught him in one of those narrow tunnels, it would have been perfect for fighting an Airbender."

Azula didn't even get a chance to answer, as Mai did it for her. The only questions she ever answered seemed to be the ones she deemed as obvious. "Too many witnesses. Even if we somehow caught their group in the tunnels without anyone else around, the sound of battle would have drawn others to the conflict. And between the Avatar and two Firebenders, who do you think all of those Earthbenders would have sided with?"

Ty Lee looked put out, since her suggestion was seemingly stupid, but Xisheng sided with her. "I'd like to point out that we could probably kill the Avatar with ease if we caught him unaware. There's no need to go all out with bending or anything. Mai has good enough aim to end the hunt quietly and efficiently."

Xisheng could barely see Mai's expression from their differing angles, but he could see the slight crease of a frown even from his position. Still, the talented marksman didn't say anything for or against the idea, instead allowing Azula to retort.

"I'll admit that I'm not completely against simply eliminating the Avatar, but as things stand we're better off taking him alive if we can manage it. If we kill him now we'll simply have another one to deal with in another decade or so. Even being in control of the Northern Water Tribe, there's no guarantee we would be able to locate a new Avatar before they were whisked away to be used against us."

Xisheng countered with the proper level of respect. "Maybe so, but by then we will have won the war for certain. And ten years is plenty of time to solidify our position. It just seems to me that the current Avatar is more of a threat to our cause than his theoretical replacement would be in ten years."

At this point Azula merely shrugged. "Our ultimate goal, as I'm sure you're aware, is to permanently remove the Avatar as a deciding force for the world. In order to do that we can't just kill the Avatar at every opportunity. There's obviously some sort of secret to his reincarnation; until we figure it out, the Avatar will always be a threat to what we're trying to achieve."

It was obvious that Azula was speaking only to him here, as it was unlikely that Mai or Ty Lee had any knowledge whatsoever about the war's underlying revolutionary goal. That said, Mai didn't seem to care anyway, and Ty Lee just seemed bothered by the talk of killing more than confused on any of the other things.

Of course, Xisheng knew that Azula had a point. The Avatar had always been a major obstacle for global unity, because the Avatar had never ceased to exist. However that damned reincarnation cycle worked, it ensured that there was always an Avatar to hold society back. Truly, getting rid of the Avatar once and for all was probably the most important thing the Fire Nation could do for the world. As long as there was some all-powerful being dictating the freedom of human will, the world could never really be free.

Still, couldn't they just focus on smiting the Avatar ten years from now, once everything else was in order? Sure, Azula was the kind of person to do whatever she could as soon as she could, but from Xisheng's point of view it just seemed safer to kill the Avatar now, cement their hold over the Earth Kingdom, and fortify their hold before the next Avatar was old enough to be a problem.

Heck, if the Fire Nation took control, would there even be a need to get rid of the Avatar? Once they were in control every new Avatar could be raised according to proper doctrine.

Of course, you could tell people with nigh unlimited power not to abuse it a hundred times, but when you were the most powerful bender in the history of the world, what was stopping you from doing what you wanted?

Xisheng could remember a time when he questioned the crusade against the Avatar, earlier in life when his retired father had told him about the secret Fire Nation agenda. At the time, Xisheng couldn't see the difference between the Avatar using his power to control other people versus the Fire Lord doing the same thing.

By now the difference was plain as day. One ruler was a man that had been brought to power by the will of his own people. He was the leader of the Fire Nation because the people allowed him to be. Should he become a criminal tyrant, the people of the Fire Nation could revolt and overthrow him. The Fire Lord, like all legitimate rulers in all countries, was part of the social contract, only truly possessing as much power as the people that followed him were willing to tolerate.

The Avatar on the other hand, was beyond such intangibles. The Avatar's position had not been condoned or agreed to by everyone he supervised. Indeed, when the Fire Nation attempted to defy the will of the Avatar, they had been forcibly suppressed by his inhuman power.

Regardless of whether or not the Avatar was trying to do something good or ill, the fact remained that he had no right to demand obedience from others. He simply had power, granted to him by some spirit, that he used to force the world to align with his personal beliefs.

It was not a matter of right and wrong so much as one of free will, and that was something Xisheng understood by now. Humans deserved the right to choose between right and wrong. After all, if you took away that free will, humans were no different from animals.

Merely shrugging, Xisheng decided that it was not his place to question what Azula wanted to do. If she felt that it was preferable to try and take the Avatar alive, so be it.

"So then, we speak to this Xin Fu, and assuming he has enough information for us to act on, we find the Blind Bandit before the Avatar. But what do we do with her?"

Azula smirked at him. "Well naturally it depends on her situation. We don't really know her standing in Gaoling. Obviously it would be ideal to turn her completely against any offer made by the Avatar, but how we do that will vary. Needless to say we'll have to improvise as things unfold. Of course, by extension there isn't actually much to discuss right now… but I feel at this point that these little strategy sessions are practically obligatory."

Sensing that their discussion was at an end, Mai rolled over on her side so she could face away from all of them. "Someone please let me know when that changes."

Picking up on the cue as well, Xisheng finally got off the door and prepared to make his exit. "Very well… when shall you need me awake Princess?"

"The crack of dawn."

"As you will."

He bowed one last time, making his exit at roughly the same time Ty Lee bade him goodnight.

Now left in the presence of only her two female friends, Ty Lee felt comfortable dropping the smile she had more or less plastered on after Xisheng had made her uneasy with his request to learn from her. She did feel well and truly deplorable for holding something against him that wasn't really his fault, but nevertheless she couldn't change what she felt at the drop of a hat.

It really struck her as wrong since she was the one that had insisted they could be good friends, yet now she was uncomfortable with something that a friend should have been alright with. He'd only asked, very sweetly at that, if she would be willing to teach him some of her unique skills. The fact that he had to perform a soldier's duties at some point in the past wasn't really his fault, and it wasn't like she had ever actually seen him kill someone. For all she knew he had simply been bluffing when Azula asked and he didn't really have the heart to kill anyone.

Either way, Ty Lee briefly contemplated asking the Princess if she really intended to have anyone killed for any reason during their mission, but ultimately she figured that asking about her modus operandi would only cause irritation and trouble.

Yet acknowledging that didn't help her sleep any better that night.

As commanded by Princess, Xisheng was awake at the first sign of light the next morning, having actually slept quite comfortably on a bed that was decent, but still in possession of the solidity he needed to be in a familiar environment. Yet despite his relatively successful period of rest, the young soldier was still awake far earlier than he would have liked, and he was forced to move with urgency once out of bed.

As Azula and Xisheng had both more or less stated the night before, time was of the essence, as they needed to reach their immediate goal before the Avatar did. That said Azula was rushing him without remorse first thing in the morning, though it turned out to just be them. Ty Lee had been sent to do something else of supposedly grave importance, and Mai had more or less told them to fuck off that early in the morning for trying to wake her up.

To be honest Xisheng was surprised that Azula didn't have an issue with that level of defiance, but perhaps she figured that it was pointless to bother with Mai's hatred for any hour before noon. After all, she cooperated when it really mattered, and it wasn't like Azula actually needed her for anything right now. They would simply round her up on the return trip.

In short, Azula and Xisheng were on their way back to the place the Earth Rumble tournament had been held before the sun was even completely past the horizon. Xisheng couldn't help but wonder if the person they were going to talk to would even be there that early, or if he would be at the arena at all, but Azula believed it to be his most likely location, on the basis that he probably had some loose ends to tie up so soon after the tournament.

Moving throughout the city so ridiculously early in the morning was a different experience than doing so during the day. The crowds of people were practically nonexistent, replaced only with soldiers on early morning rounds or store and stall owners that needed some time to set up before the aforementioned crowds made their appearance.

Xisheng worried that the lack of crowds to blend in to would draw attention to him and his head shorter charge, but ironically no one gave them a second glance. Granted, perhaps it was because Azula was moving without her usual regal air (which Xisheng would have thought impossible for her to do intentionally), or maybe everyone was just too tired to bother picking out any one person that was still clothed in green, the quality of that green notwithstanding.

It took the duo the better part of an hour to reach their destination, a trip that was carried almost entirely in silence. Normally Xisheng would have considered such a long silence between himself and the Princess to be troubling, but she wasn't giving off that usual displeased air that was normally present in such situations. It seemed more likely that she was just deep in thought, and he was too tired to initiate a conversation himself.

Either way, entering the Earth Rumble arena this second time was free, unlike the first, since there was no one standing guard. It was only natural, considering that there was no money to be made with no competition occurring.

Yet the seemingly abandoned and eerily quiet tunnels made Xisheng anxious. Truth be told he didn't like being at half strength in such a situation. While Azula was without a doubt the strongest member of their group, Xisheng would readily admit to anyone that he would have felt safer with both Mai and Ty Lee there as well. The truth was he just really didn't like any large amount of earth when potentially surrounded by Earthbenders.

At one time, Xisheng had hated the steel plating of Fire Nation outposts and bases. They had seemed to simply stain the countryside with hideous blots.

And then he had experienced his first ambush while at a temporary camp on the Defensive Line. There was nothing quite like seeing a man burst out of solid ground to launch a spike of earth into a fellow soldier. The brief encounter had lasted no more than a few minutes, but that short battle had been one of the most terrifying that Xisheng had ever experienced.

Enemies continued to erupt from the ground when they were least expected. Some Firebenders found themselves grabbed by the ankles and dragged underground to be killed. The air became a hurricane of earthen spikes and boulders, smashing steel and bone or ripping holes in flesh and blood. Even now, Xisheng sometimes remembered the screams of terror and pain from his fellow ambushed comrades.

Xisheng had never again frowned upon the protective steel of more permanent bases. And while he was not necessarily scared of dirt or anything, being in the very midst of the Earth Kingdom, and in the darkest depth of a mountain at that, Xisheng was more than a little wary. He knew it was paranoia, as no one could possibly know who they were and therefore have a reason to ambush them, but he could not stop imagining the possibility.

If Azula noticed his unease as they progressed, she made no comment on it, having not said a word to him since leaving the inn earlier. While Xisheng had rationalized her silence before, he had to admit that it was a bit disconcerting by now. He felt as though nothing good could ever come from Azula being silent for more than a few minutes, if that.

Perhaps that was unfair of him, but such was the persona the young Princess had erected around herself thus far.

When the duo stepped into the arena they had visited last night, it was completely devoid of anyone at all. The empty chamber was almost eerie, with the insane amount of space it provided and none of the people it was supposed to house present. The fact that any word spoken by Xisheng or Azula would have echoed throughout the entire arena was an intense juxtaposition to how their voices had been drowned out the night before.

However, due to this all-encompassing quiet, it was not difficult to hear the not so faint footsteps reverberating throughout the cavern in the next few moments. It was difficult to pinpoint their origin all things considered, but a glance around the arena itself at least pointed to the most likely location.

On the far right side of the arena was a set of stairs dug into the wall, leading up to some sort of stone box that overlooked the area itself. It seemed to have a doorway and windows, so the likely conclusion was that it served some purpose, and with that purpose, a population of at least one.

Azula wasted no time in proceeding in that direction, with Xisheng hot on her heels as usual. It was unlikely that anyone was here this early other than the ringmaster himself, and Xisheng was mildly concerned with whether or not this Xin Fu was a sharp man. If he was as well informed as he was supposed to be, it wouldn't have been any stretch of the imagination for him to at least be somewhat knowledgeable on foreign cultures as well.

Of course, if, by some astronomical luck, he managed to identify Azula (even recognizing her as a Fire Nation native would be enough, the regal title notwithstanding), Xisheng was positive that she could take him herself, never mind with him by her side.

Somewhat assuaged with that level of faith in Azula's ability, Xisheng concluded that they would be fine, and moreover, the long haired Xin Fu didn't seem anything other than confused when the two of them stepped into his little observatory box. He just seemed curious as to why anyone was here at all, and he assumed right off the bat that their presence had something to do with his business.

"There are no fights today. Get lost."

Xisheng could almost see the slightest of twitches in Azula's expression, likely because she was entirely unused to being spoken down to. Technically this was the very first time she had ever been in a position where her title was not common knowledge, or in a position where that title didn't mean anything other than painting a target on her back.

But she was an excellent actress if nothing else, and anything that may have given her away was wiped from her performance completely.

"We aren't here for that. In fact, we were going to bring up something from last night's tournament."

Xisheng could see that their target was wary of them, perhaps believing them to be guards or something trying to shut down his operation. He moved slightly towards the one desk in the room, the only furniture that was present besides a few bookcases holding ledgers and scrolls. What may have been in that desk was anyone's guess, but if it ended up being dangerous the tight quarters here would be his down fall.

Still, his attempt at evasion was rather transparent.

"I've got no idea what you're talking about."

It seemed to Xisheng that the Princess had to enact a massive force of will to avoid rolling her eyes, mostly because she could not imagine a more pathetic attempt at lying. Still, she managed.

"Oh? I'm sure there was a tournament last night. One in which the reigning champion was defeated by some unidentified, nameless child, costing you a great deal of gold. Or am I mistaken?"

The mention of specific events didn't necessarily mean anything. Considering that the Blind Bandit's defeat was by far the most noteworthy aspect of Earth Rumble VI, it was entirely possible that rumors of the incident had simply circulated well enough for law enforcement to catch wind of it.

However, considering that barely half a day had passed since the tournament itself, and the fact that most of the people who cared to watch it had been present, it seemed very unlikely that anyone bored enough to put an end to Xin Fu's profitable venture had actually heard of it.

"Alright, so you were here last night. Yeah, the Blind Bandit lost. Yeah, I lost pretty much all of the night's profit. What's your point?"

Xisheng determined at this point that he was getting very good at reading the Princess, even though she was so good at controlling her expression. He could just see it in her eyes when she was judging someone. Something along the lines of 'can't this fool put two and two together' he imagined.

"My friend and I were entirely enraptured by the battle last night. After watching the Boulder decimate all of his competition only to be so easily defeated by the champion, it just didn't seem possible for her to be bested so easily by some random member of the audience. In fact, what struck us the most last night was that the boy who challenged the Blind Bandit didn't use any Earthbending move we had ever seen. There was no projectile, no quake; the Blind Bandit seemed to be ejected from the ring without any impact whatsoever."

Xin Fu was halfway to saying that he had no idea what she was getting at, that the boy who had challenged the champion had obviously used Earthbending or else he wouldn't have won, but now that someone had explicitly brought the fight to his attention he realized that something did seem a little off.

He had organized a lot of Earthbending fights in his lifetime. He had also been a participant in a fair number of battles himself. And even beyond those two things he just knew how Earthbending worked, and analyzing the fight more closely now that someone had brought it to his attention, Xin Fu could say with certainty that there was something wrong with the way in which the Blind Bandit had been defeated. The manner in which her attack had been negated, the way she had been launched from the ring without the resounding thud of a solid impact, it all just seemed wrong somehow. And due to this love of money, he knew how to do the math.

"That little… she threw the match? To split the money with that kid?"

Azula merely shrugged. "That seems like the logical conclusion."

While she was not mistaken in that, it still didn't add up for Xin Fu. The Blind Bandit's identity was a mystery to most everyone in Gaoling, but not to him. He had certainly not let a twelve year old girl he knew nothing about enter an illegal fighting circuit, for no other reason than because the charges leveled against him would have been much more severe if someone of that age was trounced by grown men.

Yet she had proven herself to be a more than capable fighter, and she had provided more than enough money to cover all of her entrance fees for each of the tournaments she participated in.

Point being that Xin Fu knew that Toph Beifong had money. The Beifongs were one of the wealthiest families in the southern Earth Kingdom, so there was no chance in hell that the Bandit would throw away her title and her pride for the relatively measly amount of gold she would have gotten from this scam.

So what was it then? Charity? The silly puppy love of a child? Ultimately, did it really matter? Xin Fu had been conned out of his money. No one got away with that.

His course set, the admittedly imposing man pounded his fist into his palm. "She'll regret that. No one steals from me!"

Azula smirked, pleased at how easy it was to manipulate the greedy. "You have a plan in mind?"

"Why would I tell you?"

"Well, it is I who brought this to your attention. Moreover, if you plan on making any offensive action towards this girl, you'll need assistance."

"From civilians? Why bother?"

"Mercenaries, actually. I lead a small band. It seems to me that you could use some experienced aid."

Xin Fu didn't consider it for a moment. "In case you haven't noticed, I have plenty of Earthbenders willing to get back at the Blind Bandit and make some coin while doing it. Why spend whatever sum your troop is asking for when I have them?"

Azula had never specifically said that she was supposed to do all the talking, so Xisheng felt alright weighing in here. "You mean the Earthbenders that were all easily defeated by the Boulder, who was then completely obliterated by the very girl you're going after? I think it's obvious that those odds are against you."

Unfortunately, Xin Fu couldn't quite refute that. He had seen enough of the Blind Bandit in action to know that she was far superior to any of the other fighters under his wing. Even with superior numbers he wasn't overly confident in the average rabble he could assail her with. But then again, at least he knew the capabilities of his own flock. He didn't know anything about the skill of this supposed mercenary group.

"Say I accept your offer. How much is your fee? And what exactly am I getting for it?"

For a moment it almost looked like Azula was genuinely enjoying the charade. "Assuming we succeed, a mere fifteen percent of your profit will suffice. As for what you're getting, a master hand-to-hand martial artist, an extraordinary marksman, an elite ex-army commando and an expert Earthbender."

Up front it sounded like a good deal. After all, fifteen percent of the gold he planned on getting back was less than Xin Fu would have had to pay all of his flunkies. But again, the only evidence he had of the ability of these mercenaries was their word.

"Assuming you succeed. And what if you fail?"

"Then you pay us nothing, obviously."

"You expect me to believe that you'll keep your word on that?"

The Crown Princess in disguise folded her hands behind her back. "We're with the guild. If you submit a legitimate contract we'll have no choice but to agree to the terms."

Truth be told Xisheng did not know much about the 'guild' in the Earth Kingdom. The fact of the matter was that the Earth Kingdom was massive, and in comparison the governing forces that policed the land rarely managed to do so very effectively. So bounty hunters and mercenaries were an extremely popular means of hunting down wanted individuals or completing underhanded work.

Still, getting off the ground solo was rather difficult, so the majority of mercenaries had more or less grouped together into a guild of sorts to increase their own availability and workflow. Technically there were dozens of guilds, but since each and every one of them functioned in the same manner they were all collectively referred to as 'the guild.'

Ironically, the very existence of the guild was contradictory. For example, this theoretical capture of an Earth Kingdom citizen was illegal. And yet, the existence of the guild itself was perfectly legal, as the authorities never bothered to shut down the system that did so much of their work for them. Honestly many mercenaries did honest work and hunted down criminals or fugitives, but there were just as many that took underhanded and illicit contracts like the one Azula and Xin Fu were discussing now.

Still, Xin Fu seemed glad to learn that his mysterious conversational partners were supposedly legitimate mercenaries, because it gave him all sorts of advantages. For one, he could get them on contract through the guild, and then they'd have to abide by the set terms without complaint, which included not paying them anything at all if they failed. Secondly, if they were part of the guild he could actually investigate just how good they were supposed to be.

"Very well. Let's go to the guild now then. I want this done as soon as possible."

"In that case we'll need to go ahead and gather the rest of our members. Just leave the contract for us and we'll take it from there."

"What's the name of your group?"

For a brief moment, Xisheng questioned the kind of interesting names he could have come up with as a kid. After all, most young boys liked to imagine themselves as a member of some legendary company of heroes. Groups like the Rough Rhinos and the Storm Riders had inspired lots of young men to join the army in hopes of one day having cool stories of their own to tell.

To be fair, Xisheng was fairly certain his own division back on the Defensive Line had earned itself quite the reputation with all of the attacks they had fended off. Maybe he'd get back to the Fire Nation one day to find out he had been a part of The Impenetrable Wall or The Invincible Shield or something.

"We have no specific title. We're group number forty one on the roster."

Xin Fu simply folded his arms, nodding his confirmation. "Then get out of here. I'll have the contract written within the hour."

Azula said nothing, and she certainly made no sign of respect to the man as she turned to leave. Xisheng simply followed her out. Once they were far enough away that he was sure Xin Fu wouldn't hear him, Xisheng decided to break the silence. He had a lot of questions for one, but he opened up with a comment anyway.

"Couldn't even think of a name for us? That's bland."

The Crown Princess cocked an eyebrow at him. "You honestly thought I would make some silly gimmick name for this hoax we're pulling? Don't be ridiculous. Besides, considering our cover I couldn't have named us anything appropriate."

Xisheng smirked, wondering if Azula would have actually come up with 'some silly gimmick' name if she had been allowed to use 'dragon' or 'dawn' or something in it.

"Well, that aside, what's this about an 'elite ex-army commando' business? That was high praise."

"Don't let it go to your head, I just needed him to believe we are capable. That said you had best not relay what I said about Mai or Ty lee either."

"Come now Princess, there's nothing wrong with complimenting your friends…"

Azula merely scoffed, and by the time the duo made their exit from the mountain Xisheng moved onto the actual plan of action.

"I assume you've already set everything up for this mercenary cover of ours?"

"So long as Ty Lee has done her job properly, we should already be an 'established' mercenary troop working with the local guild."

"Not that I don't have faith in her, but what if she doesn't succeed?"

Azula didn't even seem to consider the possibility. "She's equipped with a lot of money and she knows how to flirt her way around any simplistic moron. It'll be fine."

Taking her word for it, Xisheng merely nodded. "So, we're going to use this contract as evidence of a hit on the Blind Bandit, and offer her our protection, correct?"

"I'm glad you caught on. By now I've deduced that our target is someone of at least moderate wealth. Even the garb she wore during the tournament was of a high enough quality to be above the common class here in Gaoling. And of course, she's but a child. If I'm right and she comes from money, then it seems extremely unlikely that her parents would be knowingly using her skill to make money in such a fashion."

"Meaning she's probably doing it under their noses."

"Most likely. If her parents don't know she's so competent in combat they'll likely welcome the idea of extra protection. And even if they are aware of her talents, success is still likely. We've acted quickly enough that we'll probably be at least moderately ingrained before the Avatar makes his appearance; and with the threat of hunters looming over their daughter's head, it's unlikely their parents will take him at face value."

Now entering the actual outskirts of Gaoling, Xisheng noted that they were vaguely heading back in the direction of the inn, probably to pick up Mai.

"Her parents might be easy to fool, but what about the girl herself? She's the one who's dangerous, and she's the one we have to try and alienate from the Avatar."

"True enough. Unfortunately that is something we can't account for until we're in the thick of it. If we're lucky, she's skilled, but not overly intuitive. If we're unlucky, she's as clever as someone of her combat aptitude implies. We can only change our approach as we learn more."

Xisheng had to admit that Azula was so quick with the plans that it kind of scared him. She had figured all of this out sometime between now and the end of Earth Rumble VI last night? Xisheng himself had a decent aptitude for strategic warfare and combat tactics, but this subterfuge business wasn't quite up his alley.

When they made it into view of the inn they had stayed at the night before, there was no need to go inside at all. Mai seemingly just materialized at their side once they were near. It wasn't right to say they were surprised though, as her silent arrival was perfectly fitting for her. She still looked tired and irritated, but she was fully prepared for whatever the day might bring, which included life or death combat.

All things considered there was no exchange of good mornings, since they all knew Mai didn't care for it. They simply proceeded towards their next destination, most likely to round up their last member. Naturally Azula didn't bother explaining anything to Mai, since it would just require her to explain everything a second time when they got Ty Lee around again.

Xisheng didn't know when or where Azula had learned the location of the local mercenary branch, but either way she led everyone right to the large cube building that was mostly unassuming and the same color and material as the rest of Gaoling. Perhaps the architects figured that it was better to remain as subtle as possible, since it invited less scrutiny.

Ty Lee was standing outside the building, obviously waiting for her companions to come find her. While not as quiet as Mai, she came to join them in the same manner when she laid eyes on them.

Naturally, the first thing Azula did was question whether or not the girl had found success. "So? Any difficultly?"

Her childhood friend folded her arms and frowned. "No, but I hope you really appreciate it. That guy at the front desk was a total sleaze. He came this close to touching me somewhere he shouldn't and I wasn't even allowed to paralyze him! Also, he was like, forty!"

If Azula felt bad for any of that it certainly didn't show on her face, and definitely not in her words. "I'm sure you escaped the situation relatively unscathed. Did you see the announcer from the tournament last night make an entrance yet?"

"About twenty minutes ago. He already left though."

"Guess he wasn't joking about wanting to get things underway as soon as possible. Well then, come with me, we have to actually get our hands on the contract now that it's been written."

She was speaking specifically to Ty Lee, so Xisheng figured he should ask, and for Mai while he was at it. "Do you require our presence as well?"

The Princess merely waved her hand in dismissal. "That won't be necessary. We should only be a few minutes."

He said nothing to that, instead turning to watch the city itself as his charge and his friend entered the building. You never knew when the enemy would become aware, so he was determined to at least keep an eye on anyone that decided to enter the guild.

Mai clearly did not care to do the same, choosing to lean on the building itself and close her eyes for a few moments of rest. Xisheng could not imagine that she was feeling very energetic all things considered, so he didn't bother saying anything to her. He for one knew that he didn't like being bothered with conversation in the early hours of the morning.

Nothing of note happened for the few minutes the two of them stood out there alone, and soon enough Azula was back with a scroll in her hands. Xisheng could only assume that this was the contract in question, though Mai, having been relatively left out of the loop, questioned the situation.

"So? What's the deal?"

The Crown Princess unrolled the parchment she was holding so she could share the details in full. "On a technicality, our forty-first mercenary company of the local Gaoling branch has been hired to capture a certain Toph Beifong for fifteen percent commission on an undisclosed amount of profit. Ironically this Toph person is apparently a nonexistent individual, but Xin Fu privately identified her as the Blind Bandit, so this is indeed the girl we're looking for."

Mai cocked an eyebrow. "Beifong as in the richest noble family of the southern Earth Kingdom?"

"The same."

"Uh-huh. So what's the actual plan?"

Azula rolled the scroll back into shape so she could keep it pristine. "Well, thanks to a hefty portion of the funds I brought from Omashu, as well as Ty Lee's influential charisma, we're technically already well-established as a reliable and experienced mercenary group that's been working in the Gaoling branch for months. All we have to do now is approach the Beifong family of this irrefutable evidence of danger to their mysterious daughter, and offer our protection. We become the girl's personal guards and we're without a doubt ahead of the Avatar."

Mai kept her arms folded. "I guess bribery works all the same no matter where you are… Still, the plan might work out in theory, but there's all sorts of things that could come up or go wrong. What then?"

Unfortunately, the knife thrower didn't get an answer that she found personally assuring, though the tone was tinged with Azula's usual amusement.

"Come now Mai, all plans only work in theory. There has never been a successful plan of action that did not require some degree of adaptability to the unknown."

Needless to say this true yet irritating answer simply earned a sigh from Mai, and Azula dropped the topic in order to begin leading the group to their final destination. While they had been in Gaoling for less than twenty four hours, it seemed that Azula already knew where everything was. Though, to be fair, perhaps she had simply asked a lot more varied questions the day before during their search for information. It seemed very like her to gather a wider array of intelligence on everything even remotely relevant. Including the location of the very large Beifong estate apparently.

Said estate was completely walled off from the rest of the city, though it was mostly isolated from it in the first place being on the outskirts of Gaoling. It made it rather easy to spot at least, since it was roughly out in a wider area all by its lonesome, with tall walls and a large gate sectioning it off.

Said gate had a green emblem with a flying boar above it, and Xisheng for one couldn't imagine how an airborne pig could be seen as noble in any way or form. Strangely there were no guards outside the gate itself, and Azula took the opportunity to relay the last bit of information to her allies before they got started.

"Alright everyone, obviously this is a mission of subterfuge. The most important thing is selling who we are. Between you and myself Mai, there's no concealing our rather distinctive features in close and personal quarters, so the two of us fled from the Colonies a few years ago after the rebel movement was crushed. Ty Lee, you and the Lieutenant are from Omashu, no need to risk being Gaoling natives. We formed this mercenary troop a year ago, looking for work. If anyone asks we know very little about each other's lives before all of this, so we don't have to risk answering false personal questions. Also, I would hope this would be obvious Lieutenant, but no Firebending, no matter what. As far as our initial impression goes, let me do all the talking. Are we clear?"

Everyone nodded, since it was clear enough how things were going to proceed from here. Azula was the best orator anyway, so whenever verbal deception needed to be employed she was probably the best choice.

With all of that out of the way, Xisheng watched as Azula led them to the large stone doors of the Beifong residence, and he wondered if the relatively matching outfits of the girls would actually support their cover story now. In that light, maybe he should have been in uniform too, but apparently even Azula couldn't predict absolutely every outcome.

Either way, knocking on the large doors produced a much smaller sound than anyone was expecting in comparison. There was nearly a full minute before the gates actually creaked open by the slightest of inches, where a guard looked out to see who was daring to bother the residents of the estate.

Really, he didn't even open it enough for any of the Fire Nation infiltrators to see more than his face, but apparently he was being wary.

"This is private property. State your intentions."

Azula merely held out the scroll she had appropriated. "I believe your master will find this of critical importance."

The guard in the beige alternative to a typical Earth Kingdom uniform simply made to shut the door. "Mr. Beifong has no interest in whatever you're selling."

Deciding that the best way to proceed was to simply cut to the chase, Azula did just that. "This concerns the safety of his daughter."

Needless to say the door ceased its movement immediately, and the guard thrust it open as quickly as he could to level his grizzled old gaze on the quartet of young people before him. As an ex-soldier himself, he could feel on an almost instinctual level that they were more dangerous than they looked.

More than that though, the mention of his employer's daughter was most urgent. All of the guards here were sworn to secrecy, and no one in Gaoling should have known about her existence.

He warily took the rolled up parchment Azula was offering, opening it for his own viewing convenience. For obvious reasons his expression was all shock in mere moments, and he quickly turned it back on the strangers at the Beifong's door.

"Get in here. Now!"

No one in the current group liked being told what to do so brusquely, but for now they had to act subordinate, so they did what they were told, only to find that six guards were moving in to surround them once the gates were closed and they were locked within the estate grounds. Of course, such a thing was to be expected, since their own presence here was suspect.

The guard that had answered the door quickly ordered everyone to watch them while he sprinted for the mansion that rested across the estate gardens, and Azula did her best to refrain from smirking in success and celebration.

Everything had been set in motion, and the first stage of her trap for the Avatar was in place. All she had to do was weave an even more complex net.

Chapter Text

Azula was someone very used to being escorted, regardless of the destination. She had grown up constantly being under the watchful eye of her father's subordinates, but that was a great deal different than the wary gazes of the men that watched her group as they were escorted into the residence of the Beifong family. Not that Azula could claim she was unused to such a scenario; her mother, when she had still been around, had often recruited servants to the noble cause of reporting all of Azula's misdeeds. And naturally, Ursa had seen almost everything Azula did as some sort of heinous crime, so that was always a hassle. On the bright side, Azula often scared said slaves into silence with threats of being burned alive. She had always found it amusing that they wouldn't dare report the worst thing she actually did.

Point being, there were six of the Beifong's guard detail escorting them to what she presumed would be the family head himself, and despite the fact that their unknown identities clearly worked in their favor, she felt somewhat irked that they had received such a small detail to keep an eye on them. She alone was deserving of far more guards than this to even try and keep her in check. And taking her friends into account, the Beifongs should have had a quintessential army out here.

But of course, they were just a group of sell-swords to these blissfully ignorant fools. If only they knew who they had let waltz right into their midst, they'd probably have a heart attack.

The quartet of Fire Nation infiltrators was escorted past many different symbols of wealth, though not a one of them really understood how they served such purposes, since they mostly came in various different models of winged boars. Whether it was green tapestries with golden embroidered pigs or actual stone statues of the aerial hogs, it seemed to be a well-respected animal around these parts. Whether the Beifongs had adopted the symbol because it was revered or if the animal had become respected thanks to the family's prestige was a mystery. But for the likes of Fire Nation natives, no amount of explanation could convince them that a pig with wings was a noble animal of any sort. Probably had something to do with the array of vastly superior and formidable fauna that inhabited their island homeland. It was difficult to respect flying bacon when big scary reptiles were the norm.

Their destination was, of course, a halfway refined room that likely served as the Beifong's place of reception for guests they wished to impress. Despite the Earth Kingdom's many primitive ways their nobility apparently still had some sense of decorum, though compared to Fire Nation nobility the room Azula's group was ushered into was rather plain. While the subdued green carpets and pale chalky walls were clearly made of prime material, the only real piece of 'prestige' to be seen in the chamber was the large double throne of sorts that the Bei Fong patriarch rested in, alongside his wife. It was an odd piece of furniture that seemed much too large for its intended purpose, especially since there was a large divider between the two people that used it. What was the point of sitting in a position of prominence alongside your spouse with such separation between you?

Understanding of the culture aside, Azula was not at all impressed by the head of the Beifong family, a rather unusual man with a long mustache and a likely permanent expression that seemed adverse to fun or amusement of any sort whatsoever. His wife was a very pretty woman with narrow eyes that bore the light of naivete in them, in a way that was somehow even more clueless than the kind Ty Lee had. As much as Azula ribbed her childhood friend about being an airhead, she knew the brunette was actually wise in her own way. It was just a particular set of knowledge that she carried.

But the time for such admittance was over, because considering the situation at hand, Lao Beifong wasn't going to give his guests much time to think. "You had better do a very good job of convincing me why I shouldn't have my men throw you in a cell. How dare you come to my doorstep with a threat against a member of my family!"

Now, while people often gave Azula credit for her acting ability, very few truly understood the depths of her prowess. She was so good at pretending that she was even capable (begrudgingly so) of acting subservient to an Earth Kingdom noble, folding in half at the waist in a sign of reverence. Even though none of her friends could see her face at that moment, it was obvious that her soul was hurting from the motion. Her dedication to the cause really couldn't be questioned, that was for sure.

"Esteemed Master Beifong, I'm sure you have already realized the implications of our presence here, we-"

Lao cut her off, something that almost broke Azula's sturdy facade. "Indeed I have! You have a contract of sorts for the head of my daughter, and you are mercenaries, are you not?! It seems quite clear to me what is implied by your presence!"

Mai resisted the urge to make an exasperated motion of any sort. Apparently this man had come to the conclusion that they were here to capture his daughter; and instead of telling his men to keep them at bay or outright attack them, he had them brought right into the confines of his home? Didn't this just mean he was a moron?

For those familiar enough with the girl to detect it, it was obvious that Azula thought the same thing. There was that slightest bit of condescending frustration in her voice that she just barely failed to mask.

"Master Beifong, while we are indeed a mercenary group, surely you don't believe we would declare our presence and our intentions so blatantly? We've no desire to see harm come to your daughter, from our hands especially."

While still wary, Lao admitted to himself that it wouldn't make sense for anyone that wanted to hurt Toph to announce themselves at the front gate. There were still many questions to be asked however, though Poppy beat him to one of them.

"Why is this happening? Who would want to harm our darling Toph? What kind of person would even think of something like this?"

Momentarily ignoring his wife's duress, Lao focused on the more important question. "I'm more interested in 'how' this happened. No one in Gaoling should even know that Toph exists, save Master Yu. And considering how much he gets paid to teach her I doubt he has any interest in misfortune befalling my daughter. So, mercenaries; who hired you to come here?"

While the only acceptable outcome of this situation was to get on Lao's good side, Azula had to at least make it seem like her only concern was personal gain. "With all due respect Master Beifong, revealing that now would only deprive my comrades and I from a handsome reward..."

While dense in many regards, Lao didn't miss what Azula was implying, though he certainly wasn't happy about it. "You wish me to pay you just to leave without trouble? I have more than enough guards to evict you with no such loss to my wealth."

"Nothing of the sort, Master Beifong. We may be... entrepreneurial freelancers, but we expect to carry an appropriate amount of weight for our pay in any situation. Rather than paying us to leave without trouble, it would be more beneficial to both parties to hire a little extra security, wouldn't you say?"

Lao frowned immediately, torn on whether or not he actually approved of that idea or was suspicious of it. "Once again, I say I have plenty of guards to keep my home secure and my daughter safe. What need do I have of such young and inexperienced brigands?"

Azula was sure the whole group had taken some offense at being labeled as brigands, as she did as well, but things were actually playing out in their favor. "Young we may be, but it has no bearing on our skill. I mean no offense to your guardsmen, but, well... we've dealt with their caliber plenty of times before, and warriors of our skill are fairly common in the Guild..."

From the downright terrified look on Poppy's face, it was clear that Azula had her caught already. The woman would probably buy into any tall tale that could be spun. Azula could probably say that dragons would descend on Gaoling to raze it to the ground, and Poppy would rush to prepare for the apocalypse.

Lao on the other hand had a healthier degree of skepticism, though he was quite far from the toughest nut Azula had ever crushed into pieces. One more move would be enough to secure their position here at the Beifong estate, especially with the anxious whispers Poppy sent her husband's way, though her nervousness failed to keep the volume down.

"Lao, your men haven't fought anything more than a stray thief in years! If experienced warriors come after Toph, s-she'll be-!"

With a deep breath, Lao eyed the strangers before him again. No matter how he tried to picture it, he couldn't see them as being dangerous at all. Aside from the fact that none of them appeared to be over eighteen, three of them were girls. Only the young man in the back, with the clear musculature of a seasoned warrior, looked like he could pose any threat to anyone.

But despite his own skepticism, there was an easy enough way to prove the worth of these unusual soldiers for hire. "If you're so confident in the incompetence of my men, I see no reason why you shouldn't be able to prove your worth against them. If you can defeat the ones who escorted you here I'll hire you to protect my daughter alongside them; and expect you to share what you know about this contract. Fair enough?"

Absolutely confident in their ability to prove exactly that, Azula donned her trademark smirk for the first time in this meeting. "Absolutely. I presume we are going to do this outside?"

Lao motioned towards the door rather than answering, starting the small procession that was himself, his guards, and the strangers in his home. Not one to appreciate violence in any form whatsoever, Poppy stayed behind, going to check on her darling daughter out of some misguided attempt for solace.

Despite being a mansion, the Beifong estate was actually a relatively small one, and it didn't take long for everyone to make it outside. They stopped in the gardens, for the implied reason that there was no particular grounds for intensive combat training. Lao didn't look very happy about that, for the easily made assumption that at least one of his men was an Earthbender. Then again, if that were true that same Earthbender should have reasonably been able to fix whatever damage he caused after the fight: provided that he was in any shape to do anything at all.

In fact, with enough space between them and their would be opponents to at least whisper without fear of eavesdropping, Azula made one thing clear to the currently deadliest member of their crew: Ty Lee.

"Take it somewhat easy on them Ty Lee; we all need to look good here."

The girl in question folded her arms and pouted, only pretending to be disappointed. She did like showing off, but she didn't enjoy fighting very much, so she didn't mind holding back so her friends could do more of the heavy lifting.

And of course, since neither Azula nor Xisheng could do any Firebending, it was true that Ty Lee would be the most formidable in this situation. It may have been Mai if they were aiming to kill the opposition, but since it was coming down to hand to hand combat that wasn't the case. Of course, if there was an Earthbender to contend with, Mai could be the solution to that problem.

As for Xisheng, he would have been mildly concerned if not for the allies at hand. Firebending definitely possessed one of the more practical forms of utilization compared to the other elements; the martial art used for Firebending was much more useful in actual hand to hand than say, water or air bending. Fortunately for Xisheng, his experience on the defensive line meant he was even more skilled in using that medium for real combat than most Firebenders. Still, possessing a valuable skill like Ty Lee's would have been useful for these types of situations.

Regardless, Azula was certainly not one to waste time or mince words, especially since there was only a limited window for everything to occur before the Avatar inevitably showed his face.

"We're ready whenever you are, Master Beifong. We'll be sure to leave your security detail able-bodied by the time we're through."

As always, Azula's demeanor didn't go over well, but it served its purpose in getting things underway without unnecessary pomp and circumstance. Clearly Lao didn't like the way such a young girl was talking to the noble head of a wealthy household, so he hoped his men would be able to teach her and her friends a well-earned lesson; even though Poppy was right in saying they may have been out of practice.

"I hope for your sake your skill is as great as you say. Yan, go ahead and begin!"

His command clearly received by whichever beige clad guardsmen was Yan, he and his five comrades made their move, albeit slowly. It was clear by the looks on their faces that none of them felt comfortable attacking a group of teenagers that comprised of three girls. The Earth Kingdom had always been a little slow on the uptake; women that could fight were infinitely scarier than men.

It was easy to tell which men were benders long before they managed to lift any rocks. For one, the two that there were carried no weapons, unlike their other comrades. On top of that, their first movements were large, heavy ones that telegraphed their intention to shift the earth in some way or another.

The first Earthbender that attempted to lift his foot found it nailed to the ground by two expertly placed knives. Xisheng found it kind of disturbing that Mai could place steel that close to the body without actually cutting anything, but apparently the soles were large enough targets to hit as opposed to toes.

It was obvious from the awkward movements of the armed men that they weren't sure how aggressive to be considering the unarmed nature of most of their opponents, but once Azula planted her heel in Yan's abdomen, that hesitation quickly faded.

The tip of a spear was the first thing to come Xisheng's way, stabbing at him in a rather textbook frontal assault. Said assault allowed the seasoned bender to sidestep the attack, then stomp the outstretched blade into the ground. Snapping the shaft in two with an axe kick was a simple follow up, considerable strength notwithstanding.

Ty Lee on the other hand had no such need for nullifying the weapons of the enemy. There was simply no danger to her, as her reflexes and flexibility avoided every swipe of the blade. Even with two men focused on her alone, she seemed to be dancing for fun more than fighting, leisurely jabbing her knuckles into a limb when she saw an opening. Considering that she had landed six hits already but her opponents were still standing, it was clear that she truly was playing around.

By this time the Earthbender that wasn't trying to yank his foot out of the ground had managed to lift a decent chunk of earth, but his means of attack was about all that could be expected. To be fair, the majority of Earthbending was just throwing rocks in one fashion or another.

Unfortunately that did pose a threat to Xisheng since he couldn't Firebend, which would have allowed him to kick a projectile of this size into dust. As it was he had to settle for evading the boulder, which harmlessly soared past him for a brief moment. It was a surprise however, when the Earthbender recalled the projectile after it missed the mark, forcing Xisheng to avoid it much less gracefully since it caught him off guard. He hadn't seen that kind of maneuver employed before.

The same Earthbender split the rock in two once it was in his grasp again, this time aiming for targets that weren't paying attention to him in the form of Ty Lee and Mai. Unfortunately for him, splitting the chunk of earth made the two projectiles small enough for Xisheng to destroy in the middle of their flight. But unfortunately for Xisheng, he was used to smashing such projectiles with both the aid of his bending and the steel plating of his uniform; in fact, he had done exactly that so many times without injury that his leg was already slicing through the air before he realized that this time it would actually hurt.

Thankfully he had still kicked with good form, using the heel of his foot rather than his toes, so he avoided any broken bones. What he didn't do was avoid enough pain to resist cursing after demolishing the projectiles.

"Shit! Argh-fu-!"

He found a hand clasped over his mouth before he could finish, courtesy of a mockingly irate Ty Lee. "Nope, none of that! Shame on you!"

Xisheng tore her hand off his mouth as he furiously tried to rub the pain out of his heel. "I think I'm justified with this one!"

Mai almost leisurely backed away from the edge of a sword, overhearing the brief exchange as she did so. "You kicked a pair of rocks, you're not justified in the least."

"I'll keep that in mind with the next one that comes your way!"

With no appropriate retort to that, Mai left him alone, instead focusing on the 'fight' that was already looking grim for their opponents. The two men that Ty Lee had struck were feeling weak and wobbly, rather than completely paralyzed since she hadn't gone all out. Mai was more or less screwing with the same Earthbender she had started with, repeatedly nailing both of his boots to the ground every time he managed to free himself. By now he was just using his arms, but with two of his limbs immobilized he wasn't capable of performing any overly creative or powerful moves.

Azula had already knocked out the man she had struck first, with a very similar attack judging by the vaguely foot shaped bruise on his face. She was already pressuring another victim with a flurry of strikes that utilized her claw like nails.

In short, Xisheng was the only one who hadn't contributed overly much, and despite being mostly practical and cool-headed, it still kind of stung his pride to be shown up by a trio of girls with no 'real' combat experience. He was practically a veteran soldier by now, he couldn't be so inept as to get carried to victory.

So, he settled on taking out both Earthbenders, since Mai couldn't really do anything other than repeatedly immobilize her target.

The first step was to take vengeance for his poor bruised heel, so Xisheng began a steady advance towards the Earthbender that had damaged him, preparing for a similar onslaught to the first. Ironically this was exactly what had gotten him hurt in the first place.

The Earthbender, naturally preferring to keep his target at bay, began lifting and throwing fist sized rocks at Xisheng in a relatively steady stream. Thing was, Xisheng had actually punched a lot of rocks in his lifetime. Usually it was with the aid of his Firebending, but at times he had been caught off guard and forced to physically counter such projectiles, and so long as they were a manageable size, he was actually pretty good at deflecting them. He'd only hurt himself smashing the other rocks because he acted without realizing that he didn't have the usual boons in this situation, that being his bending and his armor. Now that such deficiencies were in focus he would be able to minimize damage to himself.

The key to physical deflection of small boulders was all about negating the incoming force of the projectile. In fact, you weren't even trying to smash it; you just wanted to direct it away from you. Like any projectile a bent boulder only had significant force in one direction. Applying an equally significant force in a different one often nullified the danger, as long as you weren't stupid enough to try and apply that force in the exact opposite direction. Generally the human hand lost against rocks.

And Xisheng had done this enough times to know how to properly hit said rocks to avoid broken fingers, so he continued to steadily advance even as he batted aside incoming stones with precision chops and hooks. Since he was aiming to deflect rather than destroy, he didn't even have to hit them all that hard, which helped in avoiding serious injury.

The Earthbender, openly intimidated by the ineffectiveness of his assault, nevertheless continued it as he tried to retreat backwards. Unfortunately he wasn't backpedaling as fast as Xisheng was moving forward, and only a few more rocks got in the way of a quick melee. And unfortunately for that out of practice guardsmen, it was quick indeed. Many benders were less than adequate in melee combat because of how much they relied on fighting at range. And even though Xisheng considered his CQC less deadly than his bending, he was actually quite proficient at it in comparison. The frenzied battles on the EK Defensive Line often devolved into merciless brawls, and one didn't last long there without gaining some semblance of skill on the matter.

Xisheng's first strike was, naturally, a solid blow to the solar plexus, which doubled his target over immediately. This was followed up by a swift punch to the side of the head, with just enough force to push his opponent to the side. With his head now in position, a solid kick to the forehead snapped the man backwards and landed him flat on his back. In a more lethal combat Xisheng would have used an axe kick to crush his skull; but he was certainly not going to employ that technique a second time if it wasn't needed. He had never been too terribly comfortable with the first incident.

Glancing back at the remains of the brief scuffle, Xisheng saw that Mai had already taken care of his other target. Perhaps realizing that she too had not contributed much, the uncannily accurate marksman had methodically pinned her original target to the ground, entirely immobilizing him with a dozen knives nailed through various points on his clothing or gear. Acknowledging that they all could have been in veins or organs if she wished was objectively terrifying enough to offset the amusement of the Earthbender's situation.

The rest of their foes had likewise been dispatched by now, with Ty Lee really putting her opponents down once she saw that the scuffle was coming to a close and Azula having knocked out the last remaining man with a display of martial prowess that Xisheng had not borne witness to. In actuality the man Azula had faced just wasn't very good, but she chose to mark it up to talent rather than massive skill variance.

So in total Xisheng had only defeated one of their six foes, and honestly that kind of stung a little. Now more than ever he really hoped he could find time to learn some things from Ty Lee. Obviously Firebending would probably always be his main means of fighting, but it certainly couldn't hurt to know more martial skills. It obviously would have been useful in this situation.

Either way, the point had been made; the men that guarded the Beifong estate were no match for talented fighters. And 'surely' mercenaries of this caliber were fairly common, meaning Lao would have a serious issue on his hands when those equally talented brigands came his way.

Of course, there would be no other mercenaries coming after his daughter, and the adversaries that showed up at his door step would be nothing other than a bunch of kids. In that sense, this whole plan would have been ridiculous; what kind of idiot would ever believe that a trio of barely teen children were mercenaries, hunting an equally young child for coin? A very particular type of idiot, of course. A paranoid one that would place stock in any type of danger, no matter how asinine.

The kind of paranoid idiot that was so afraid of everything that he locked his own daughter away from the world to keep her safe.

Naturally Azula had not been aware of that particular fact at the time she had formulated her plan, but then again, the initial purpose had just been reaching the target before the Avatar. Her allies had probably believed that she had a fool-proof plan from start to finish, but the reality was that plans hardly came into being that way; they were usually constructed one step at a time. Azula had reached her first goal without a hitch, and thanks to it had learned information that would aid in the second phase. Fortune had done half the work for her.

Not that she would admit that to anyone.

As equally stunned with the performance of these strangers as he was appalled by that of his men, Lao nevertheless tried to hide the latter, doing hid best to appear pleased rather than disgruntled with the results.

"Well... I must say, your looks are truly deceiving. I would never have guessed that a group of... individuals such as yourself would be so skilled."

It was obvious from the hesitation in his voice that Lao thought better of what he was initially going to say, though it wasn't like anyone was dumb enough to somehow miss the implication in the first place. He was either shocked that they were so competent being primarily female or because they were so young. Either was rather insulting, but at least he had tried to conceal the notion.

Azula couldn't quite find it in herself to be irritated at the moment anyway, since things were proceeding so very smoothly. "Why thank you, Master Beifong. I hope this proves my point in regards to a little extra help protecting your daughter. No offense to your men, but they do seem to be a bit out of practice. The mercenaries that will come after your daughter have spent most of their lives fighting, so I believe the odds are obvious."

It was clear by the tone of her voice that Azula had long since dropped the charade of subservience. It was no longer necessary, seeing as how she had planted all of the seeds required to checkmate her opponent. Lao was of the mind that his daughter would soon be assaulted by enemies of sufficient skill. He was also convinced that his own guards were insufficient in protecting her against said enemies. He had no choice now but to do exactly what Azula wanted, unless he was willing to risk the entirely fictional yet potential danger to his daughter.

And for his many flaws, Lao was at least a man that cared for his child. He had plenty of money to spare if it meant protecting her from danger. And while he was far too paranoid to blindly trust Azula and her band of competent fighters, he could do the apparent math. If they were this skilled, and were only here to capture Toph, there would be no need for subterfuge of any sort. They could have easily plowed through his security and taken her by force. There was no need for any of this sneaking about, and they weren't wrong in their thinking: the Beifong family was the richest in this half of the Earth Kingdom. Lao could pay them far more for their services than whoever had hired them to attack Toph in the first place.

"As much as it worries me to see this level of incompetence from my men, I hope this is a result of your skill more than their faults. I won't lie; it pains me to rely on people of your profession for something as crucial as protecting my daughter, but your point has been made. If the others that come after Toph are as capable as you, I need your services. I suggest we return indoors to discuss your no doubt substantial fee."

Azula folded her arms behind her back, obviously pleased with herself, though for a reason Lao obviously misconstrued. "Don't look so glum, Master Beifong. Remember, you'll also be getting the identity of the man who ordered this contract. I believe that, along with our protection of your daughter, will be worth a fair sum, don't you?"

Unwilling to outright agree even though he very much did, Lao motioned to the men that were finally managing to get back to their feet after their rather embarrassing beat down. "Return the garden to how it was. And I suggest you all get some very much needed practice. Even with these youths on hand, I expect all of you to be vigilant; and preferably more useful against the next mercenaries than you were against these ones."

Utterly humiliated at this point, the six men that had been bested by a bunch of teenagers bowed deeply to their employer before getting to work on the garden, which fortunately for them had only been slightly damaged in the scuffle.

As Xisheng followed Lao back into the mansion alongside his other companions, he felt especially bad for them; while it was definitely their fault for not maintaining a greater level of proficiency in combat, it wasn't really fair to expect them to hold their own against the kind of opponents they had faced today. After all, they had probably spent the last couple of years standing guard around a girl that had to at least pretend to be blind and helpless.

Halfway back to the room in which they had first met Lao Beifong, Azula rose her voice to make a rather important statement. "Master Beifong, if I may be so bold, but I think it would be best if you directed my comrades to your daughter as quickly as possible. We needn't all be present to discuss monetary affairs."

For some reason Lao seemed to find this notion preposterous, as evidenced by the arch of his brow. "That seems wholly unnecessary. What need is there to begin your watch before the terms are even set?"

Azula returned his look perfectly, though hers was questioning his intelligence. "We arrived this early in the morning, did we not?"

Unable to miss the implication of that sentence, Lao reluctantly conceded. "Very well. When we get back I'll have one of my men escort your comrades. To think, I was worried about Master Yu increasing his fee last night..."

The rest of the trip back to the estate's reception room only took a few minutes, and upon arrival, they found that no escort to the daughter in question would be required. After all, the diminutive blind girl was currently in the room, sporting the most displeased grimace Xisheng had ever seen on anyone as she was unwillingly coddled in her mother's lap. Apparently Poppy felt that now was the best time to pointlessly fret over her daughter's safety.

Considering how capable she had proven herself to be during Earth Rumble VI, Xisheng could understand why being treated in such a manner would be infuriating.

He got the feeling she wasn't overly fond of the stuffy appearance forced upon her by her parents either, if the aesthetic she chose to take in the ring was any indication. Truth be told though Xisheng could level with the girl there. The white and beige silks she was wearing might have been comfortable if only they weren't bound so tight around her body. Regardless of the sightless nature of her eyes, it was still all too easy to see the malcontent in them. It was no wonder she led a double life of combat and glory. Any sane person would go mad if left to this situation.

Seeing that there was no need to direct his new and hopefully brief employees, Lao simply led Azula away to a different room after briefly informing his wife of the new situation, not wanting to concern her or his daughter with monetary affairs. In truth, perhaps he just didn't want Toph to hear him haggling over how much her safety was worth.

Either way, Azula didn't bother telling her compatriots to stay, since it was already obvious that they should. Unfortunately, this left said compatriots in a rather awkward situation, since they were now alone in the room with only their soon to be charge and her mother. It was obvious that neither Ty Lee nor Mai quite knew what to do with their current personas, but Xisheng had done enough soldiering to know what his role would normally be in this situation. In fact, now that he thought about it, he could have a pretty decent career in mercenary work if he wanted to. But, he was much too driven by loyalty and honor and whatnot to really consider that. Besides, all things considered, he much preferred the company he had now compared to whatever theoretical group he could work with elsewhere.

Either way, he did exactly what he would have done in any other scenario that involved guarding an individual in a room; he watched the door. More accurately, he positioned himself in a place that allowed him to see every potential entryway into the room, at least in his peripheral. Mai caught on to what he was doing quickly, wasting no time in pretending to watch those same entryways, but Ty Lee was utterly clueless, simply standing around with her usual smile on her face. Even Poppy found it to be a little odd.

In fact, despite her own lack of uncanny wit, Toph's mother felt the awkward tension in the air and sought to rectify it. Unfortunately, the way she went about doing that was awkward simply because of the tone of voice she addressed her daughter with. For some reason, Xisheng found it a more fitting way to address a pet than your child.

"Toph, these er, 'kind' people are here to keep you safe. I'm sure they're very talented and capable, so you have nothing to worry about. I'm sure this strapping young man can handle anyone that would try to hurt you."

Toph cocked an eyebrow, maybe questioning why Xisheng had been singled out in particular, and it was clear that Ty Lee felt the same way, though why she felt the need to speak was beyond Xisheng or Mai. "Um, what about us? We're really good too y'know!"

Poppy gave Ty Lee a disbelieving once over before returning her gaze to her daughter. "Yes, I'm sure you are. Anyway, as I was saying..."

Being completely disregarded was practically number one on Ty Lee's list of awful, terrible things, but she at least had the wits about her to not go off on some sort of tirade against the wife of the household. It didn't stop her from fuming of course, but Poppy didn't seem to notice that either.

Poppy continuing rambling about all the terrible dangers her darling daughter needed to be protected from, managing to go on for a good sixty seconds before someone stopped her. Surprisingly, it was her own daughter who did so. More surprisingly than that was how dainty she managed to sound while doing it.

"Mother, I need to relieve myself. May I be excused?"

Something about the notion of having to ask for that struck the Fire Nation natives as strange, but since Poppy didn't react in any untoward way, this must have been what she typically expected.

"Of course dear; I suppose one of the ladies will have to do. Maybe both should go, to make up for-"

"I want the 'strapping young man' to escort me. You said he could handle anyone!"

To anyone that wasn't a complete idiot, it was obvious that Toph was having a ball with the way her mother reacted. How she could tell Poppy looked aghast was beyond Xisheng, but maybe she didn't even have to perceive it. Maybe she just knew.

And yet, aghast or not, Poppy still submitted to her daughter's wishes, much to the surprise of everyone else. The older woman gave Xisheng a severe gaze that was a symbol of affirmation, but also a threat of some sort. Xisheng for one was outright offended at what she was worried about, but also a little amused; even if he did commit some heinous crime, what could she do about it? Send her incompetent men to inflict punishment? It was obvious how that would go already.

Either way, Xisheng knew that Toph was completely joking about this matter. He didn't know how anyone could misinterpret the tone of her voice, seeing as how it sounded like she was struggling to contain a laugh even now. Granted, the shock on Poppy's face had been rather funny.

All things considered, Xisheng decided it would be best to just play along. If Poppy were truly so worried regarding his integrity she could send some of those aforementioned incompetents along.

"I will do my utmost to see the lady to her destination. I'm willing to give my life for this noble cause."

Toph snickered, perhaps realizing that Xisheng was on the same page as her. Unfortunately even Ty Lee and Mai gave him wary looks, but honestly he didn't think they were genuinely concerned. He was fairly certain he had established himself as a respectable enough individual.

The girl in need of a break rose from her mother's lap, offering a hand to her soon to be escort. She was 'blind' after all, so this was probably how she had to pretend to act around her parents. Assuming this was still part of her personal amusement, Xisheng nevertheless did what was expected of him, allowing Toph to lead him out of the room at a clearly faked slow pace.

The moment they were out of Poppy's sight, the young girl began moving at a pace fitting of any normal person, though she didn't let go of Xisheng's hand for some reason. If he had to hazard a guess, Xisheng would say that maybe she was trying to figure out what he looked like. She was obviously blind, but she clearly still saw the world around her in some way. Being an Earthbender he would guess it had something to do with vibrations or some such, but if that were true he never would have guessed that such a method could be so effective.

It occurred to Xisheng as they walked that he had to act as though he had never seen Toph before, lest he come off as suspicious. He knew she wasn't helpless or even truly blind, but he had to pretend he didn't. It put a bad taste in his mouth though, since it felt kind of insulting to treat a capable fighter like that.

Thankfully, he wasn't completely inept at word-crafting, as Azula had pointed out more than once already.

"Your knowledge of this estate must be flawless, to move about it so quickly."

Toph snorted in what sounded like derision, as much as such noises could be interpreted. "You can cut the crap y'know. You know who I am already, and you know I'm not blind; well, not like, really blind. You know what I mean."

For a brief moment, Xisheng panicked, wondering if he were about to get into a fight with who was probably the most skilled Earthbender he had ever seen. But Toph kept walking to her destination unperturbed, and she didn't seem any more aggressive than she had sixty seconds ago. She'd simply stated facts.

And facts they were, because it was definitely the truth, but now it was a matter of how she knew. Perhaps it was as simple as Azula had claimed it to be; a girl of her talent couldn't be a total simpleton. No prodigy was an outright idiot.

Deciding to play it safe nevertheless, Xisheng returned to a state of normalcy. He was pretty good at keeping calm when the need truly arose.

"How do you figure?"

Toph led her completely unnecessary escort around a corner, still latching onto his hand. "There's one guy in all of Gaoling outside of this estate that knows who I am outside of the Blind Bandit thing, and that's Xin Fu. If you know him, you've probably seen me in action at least once. I doubt you showed up at my doorstep actually thinking I was a helpless little blind girl."

Xisheng resisted the urge to breathe a sigh of relief. The only thing Toph had managed to deduce was their cover, and not even the fact that it was a cover. Everything was still safe for now.

"Fair enough. I guess that was pretty obvious."

"Yeah, but you know what's not? Why he sent you guys at all. The heck could Xin Fu possibly get out of placing a hit on me? I mean, I'm the one who makes all of his money! People show up at those fights for me! Ungrateful blockhead..."

For some reason, the word 'blockhead' reminded Xisheng that he was conversing with a twelve year old more than anything else, including her height or her voice. And considering his partner's age, he wondered how well it would go over if he simply kept silent regarding the details of their presence here. Azula had more or less ordered him to stay quiet, but this situation was pretty unavoidable. Moreover, would Toph even accept silence as an answer? Kids weren't known for being the most reasonable human beings around, and this kid in particular could actually do something about it if she were unhappy.

He figured the best thing to do was to just reinforce their cover as innocently as possible.

"He thinks you conned him out of the night's winnings with that kid that challenged you during the tournament."

Toph arched an eyebrow at nothing in particular. "That sounds really dumb. For one, I'm rich already. Two, I don't know who that cheater during the tournament was, but as much as I hate to admit it he knocked me out of the ring against my will. Not with Earthbending of course. Whatever he did was definitely cheating. If it weren't for the rules I would have shoved that stupid hat up his butt..."

Unsure of how to respond to that, Xisheng simply didn't, giving Toph ample time to continue.

"That said, I don't understand why he sent all of you. No offense, but there's no way you can take me in a fight."

Seeing as how the girl had probably not witnessed their fight against the guards, however she would have gone about that, Xisheng decided not to take offense. Part of that may have been because he didn't necessarily know if she were wrong about that. Having seen her in action, he didn't know if they could actually take her down in an all our brawl.

Not that he had no confidence whatsoever. There were four of them after all, and Azula was this girl's equal at the very least when it came to raw bending prowess. On top of that, if her means of sight really did work through the earth somehow, it was possible that Mai's projectiles could be all but invisible to the girl.

Either way, if all went according to plan, they wouldn't come to blows with Toph.

"That's a rather unfair statement considering that you don't know what we're capable of in the least."

Toph merely smirked at his reply. "I don't have to. Nobody can beat me."

At this, Xisheng smirked back. "That kid beat you."

The young Earthbender's grin reversed immediately. "Alright wiseguy, don't get too cheeky. I could bury you in one of these walls and no one would ever know."

"I think someone would manage to connect the dots. And I think it might make my companions unhappy? They might try to avenge me. I hope..."

"Even blind, I can see that you aren't sure of that. Guess being the only dude in a troop of harpies isn't all it's cracked up to be, huh?"

"I'd hardly call them harpies; witches, at the most."

Toph giggled, glad to find that this stranger that would apparently be hanging around her for a while had a sense of humor. Truth be told she had been a little sour of the idea of having even more guards stalking her than usual, but the distaste had faded with the realization that these ones would probably know what she could actually do, and would treat her as she deserved.

Of course, knowledge of that led Xisheng to ask a particular question. "Seeing as how you don't have to maintain appearances without your mother here to see it, why are you still holding my hand?"

Toph pretended to be offended. "What, shouldn't you be happy? I'm not just any girl you know, I'm both a lady and a strong warrior. How many girls can say that?"

Xisheng quelled the desire to mention that all of the girls in his party were exactly those two things, though Toph misinterpreted his silence as awe or something and continued with her explanation.

"Anyway, you obviously know by now that I'm not totally blind. I mean, I am as far as my eyes are concerned, but I can still sorta see stuff. Unless you're a complete moron you've probably figured that already."

"Based on your performance in the tournament, I assumed it had something to do with Earthbending."

"Kinda. Technically it's just vibrations traveling through stuff, and my Earthbending ability makes it easier for me to use them to my advantage. I guess if you wanted to be exact I'm not actually using my Earthbending to see, it's just a bonus of being an Earthbender. Even chumps like The Boulder could do it if they put some effort into it."

Xisheng wondered how many Earthbenders ever actually employed a technique such as this. Considering the general consensus that bending was only good for combat, and that most Earthbenders probably weren't blind, he imagined that it wasn't a lot. It was a shame really, how rare techniques like this were; with the ability to manipulate the elements, there were so many things humanity could achieve, yet all they ever managed was the invention of new ways to kill things. He would have said the Fire Nation was different, but as things stood now, even their many new innovations for non-combat Firebending still existed for the ultimate purpose of combat.

To be fair, it was wartime though. Once this conflict was finally won the benders of the world could turn their attention to developing more useful techniques for their arts.

"That's extremely fascinating, but... none of it really answered my question."

Toph shrugged, leading Xisheng around another corner. "I'm just trying to figure out what you look like. Or what you're shaped like, I guess. Normally I could do that without touching you since you're walking so close, but I'm wearing shoes. Holding onto you gives me a different way to read all those vibrations going through your body whenever you take a step."

Fascinated, Xisheng couldn't help but ask for more information. "Really? So... how much can you determine like this?"

"Just basic stuff. Jawlines, cheekbones, the size of your forehead; just the overall shape of your face really. Gotta say, you aren't as rugged as I was expecting."

"Is that so?"

"Just saying, you're the only guy in a group of girls. I figured you'd be all brawn and a square chin or something. Like The Boulder. Uh, no offense."

Seeing as how The Boulder had actually been a pretty skilled fighter, Xisheng didn't feel slighted anyway. Meanwhile, Toph had finally reached whatever her destination was, which just seemed to be a solid wooden door in some hallway in the back of the estate.

"So what is this?"

The girl he was 'escorting' turned slightly in his direction, with an expression that questioned his intellect. "What, didn't you hear me earlier? It's the bathroom."

"Oh, I uh... thought that was just an excuse to get away from your mother..."

"Don't be ridiculous. I never lie about serious business."

With that, the young girl finally detached herself from her escort and retreated into the room she had come to visit. As for Xisheng, he felt so terribly awkward that it came full circle and simply let him accept the situation. With little choice in the matter, he leaned against the wall next to the door and stood guard. Wasn't like he didn't have experience in that.

Knowing full well that her mother would assume the worst if she were out of her sight for more than ten minutes, Toph quickly finished her business and returned to the woman's side. Not to really placate her specifically, but more because she didn't want to deal with any of the fallout if Poppy freaked out. By the time the unlikely duo made it back, Azula had already finished her business with Lao, and the two of them had returned to the room. The family's patriarch was in the midst of a conversation with his wife at the moment Xisheng and Toph returned, with the latter once again pretending to be helpless.

"-a man named Xin Fu! Some sort of criminal that runs a fighting ring. I'm heading into the city right away to issue a warrant for his arrest!"

Xisheng noticed an alarmed expression from Toph, perhaps because she had realized that questions would be asked if Xin Fu were caught. Namely, how he knew about Toph at all. And even though the two of them had more or less been business partners of a sort, she doubted Xin Fu would do her any favors in keeping her identity a secret from her parents.

Personally Xisheng couldn't see what she was worried about. Realistically the chains that bound Toph were completely of her own making. She was obviously strong enough to do whatever she wanted, there was no way her parents could really detain her in this estate. Then again, maybe children held greater respect for their parents in the Earth Kingdom. Ironically, even though the Fire Nation placed supreme value on loyalty, they also taught their children to never let anyone hold them back from reaching their full potential: a set of values that could easily come into opposition with one another.

As for Poppy, she seemed stricken by the prospect. "Are you sure Lao? Will the guard even do anything?"

Xisheng was honestly surprised that someone of Poppy's nature was even aware of the corruption in her own city. She had a point; the city guard was so lax in its punishment of mercenary work that said mercenaries had their own hub, and the building itself had signs that led to it. Granted not all mercenary contracts were immoral or illegal, but the soldiers that policed the city sure didn't make much effort to root out the ones that were.

Lao on the other hand must have figured that the best way to get things done was to take advantage of that corruption. "They'll do it for enough money. You know how those leeches are, they won't even care who he is if I pay them enough."

There was a look on Azula's face that said she was appalled by the notion of justice being meted out based on funding, but Xisheng got the feeling that she had a somewhat biased view of things. The Fire Nation may have been superior to its counterparts in many ways, but it was not without corruption of its own. There was generally a higher level of integrity among its troops, but a big part of that was because more was expected of them. The Fire Nation military was more unforgiving than the Earth Kingdom's in many ways. Looting was ruthlessly punished. Coercion of the public would almost always result in a court martial, or worse. Deserters were struck down with worth equal to that of the enemy or outright traitors. The men and women of the Fire Nation military behaved, and not because they were all perfect soldiers.

Yet corruption still existed in their ranks to some extent. More then a few Fire Nation soldiers had taken advantage of occupied towns or prisoners, in ways that brought shame to their nation. Such thugs and lowlifes were often swiftly dealt with, but that didn't erase the mark they left on their country's honor.

Regardless of who was in charge of the world, Xisheng doubted such things would ever change. Still, that didn't mean it wasn't a cause worth fighting for.

Understandably furious, though for reasons that could have been disputed, Lao was quick to assemble an entourage of his men, though for some reason it ended up being almost all of his available guards. Considering the fictional threat he nevertheless believed was coming for his daughter, Xisheng figured that the man would have left more of his meager security with her. Apparently Poppy thought the same thing, as she wasted no time voicing as much.

"Lao, should you really take such a large portion of your men? If Toph is attacked while you're away..."

"All things considered, it seems our new employees are rather close to the worth of the men I'm taking with me. I'm at least paying them enough to be, that's for certain."

Not completely sure of things, Poppy eyed their newest acquaintances. She really didn't like the look of their leader. "Do you trust them so easily Lao...? While you and your men are away..."

Catching onto her meaning, Lao sought to placate his wife. "I'm not a complete fool dear. These mercenaries aren't being paid in advance. Until the situation is rectified they will not see a single piece of gold. Besides, I'm not taking all of my men with me, Yan and Purut will stay here."

Even Ty Lee could do the math here, noting that the two men Lao was leaving behind wouldn't be able to really prevent them from doing anything, considering how they had easily trounced six earlier. Perhaps the man had faith in the money involved; as far as he was concerned, Azula and her troop wouldn't settle for the sum their contract on Toph provided when they could serve his needs and get paid triple. That was hardly an objective guarantee, but for Lao, money had never really let him down in life. In his experience, people always followed the path that provided them with the most money.

He had yet to meet anyone that didn't value money enough to dictate their decisions, which was, ironically, exactly what Azula's entire group was. Obviously Azula and Mai had been born into enough money to have no need to pursue it. Ty Lee just flat out didn't care. And of course Xisheng's greatest value was loyalty to his comrades and country.

But they could pass for money-grubbing lackeys apparently, which was enough for Lao to make an objectively ridiculous decision in leaving his daughter almost entirely in their care. On that note, Azula decided there was no reason to let things stay only partially in their favor.

"While I'm confident in my troop's ability to protect your daughter Master Beifong, I don't know if the four of us, plus your two guards, will be enough to defend both her and your wife."

Lao looked confused about this statement, which Azula found pathetic.

"My wife? What danger could she be in?"

"Well, obviously any mercenaries that come for your daughter already have no qualms about making a move against your family. If my allies and I are able to prevent them from taking your daughter, who is to say they won't try to take your wife hostage as a backup plan? And as I said, we are capable but few. We might not be able to keep both of them safe simultaneously. It's just a potential risk though, there's no guarantee such a thing will occur."

As the expression on Lao face took on a strange mix of abject fear and contemplation, Xisheng tried to decipher the Princess' angle. He couldn't really see a reason to get both parents out of the picture; their plan was to ingratiate themselves with said parents (and Toph) just enough to come out on top in a contest of trustworthiness when the Avatar eventually showed up. They were missing good opportunities to do that by getting rid of witnesses.

Unless of course, a lack of witnesses was exactly what Azula wanted. If she were certain the Avatar would show up eventually, it was quite possible the ultimate plan was just to kill him here. After all, why not? He would be walking right into a trap basically, even if it was a basic one. And if they failed to defeat the Avatar, her backup plan could just be to kill Toph and deprive the Avatar of a powerful teacher and ally.

Then again, why bother with all of this then? Quite frankly the presence of Toph's parents and these half-assed guards wouldn't stop them from making a lethal move if that were the plan. Theoretically they could just kill them all, especially if they were going to go all out and use their Firebending.

Not that Xisheng was in favor of this plan of course. While he could acknowledge it as a tactically adept move, he couldn't condone killing innocents in such a manner. He could only kill combatants in good conscience.

But he was jumping to conclusions, and even now he already knew better than to try and speak for Azula's planning. He could theorize, but there was never any way to be sure.

Either way, whatever her apparent goal was in getting Poppy away from them, Azula appeared to have succeeded in it, since Lao was quick to make a suggestion. "While she said herself that it was only a possibility, I believe our young entrepreneur may have a point, Poppy. I think it would be best if you came with me to the guardhouse. If we do that we'll have a roughly equal amount of protection."

"In that case, why not just bring Toph with us? If we all go together-"

While this was definitely the safest course of action objectively speaking, Lao cut his wife off immediately. "You know we can't do that! Knowledge of Toph's existence is what caused this situation in the first place. Besides, to reveal her now would lead to a massive scandal, who knows what the people of the city would think, knowing we kept her secret all these years?"

Based on the angry expression on her face, Xisheng could tell their false charge had something she really wished to say about that. Yet, for some reason she held her tongue. The Fire Nation trooper just couldn't understand why she wouldn't reveal her prowess. He supposed there could have been some sort of abnormal factor; maybe Lao had lost someone close to him from Earthbending or something. But considering that some of his guards were Earthbenders, he didn't seem to have a qualm with the art in and of itself. Still, Xisheng was running out of excuses he could think up in Toph's favor.

Lao wasn't entirely without a point though, twisted as it was. It was unlikely that any society would smile upon the steps required to keep a child secret for over a decade. While it may not have been technically illegal, especially since Toph seemed well-treated for sure, but it still basically amounted to imprisonment.

Apparently Poppy saw the point her husband was getting at, because she ultimately agreed, though not without concession. "Then leave some more of your men behind with Toph. I'm sorry, but it just doesn't seem prudent to leave her alone with complete strangers. We don't even know their names!"

Strangely enough, Poppy had a point there. No one had bothered to ask them their names so far. Perhaps Lao didn't think it mattered, since they basically amounted to hired help.

"Fine, Uho and Jagi, you two will stay here as well. I don't foresee any problems, but stay on your guard."

Content that he had satisfied his wife's concerns, and for some reason having misguided confidence in a group of teenagers he had just hired not an hour ago, Lao decided that everything was going according to some sort of plan, and in a moment he and his wife were making their exit in order to pay off the city police force.

This left Toph with a total of eight guards, though she had reached the same conclusion as her Fire Nation counterparts already. Theoretically speaking, the four trusted protectors her parents had left behind would be less than useless if her new guards actually wanted to do anything bad. Or at least, that was definitely the feeling she got from the way her mother had spoken. She hadn't actually witnessed the sparring match they had against her usual unwanted retinue. Which was kind of sad, since she was interested in seeing just how good they were. Part of being an amazing fighter included always wanting to know how strong other warriors were.

Which made it unfortunate that the room was now occupied by four of her parent's guards, since Toph wouldn't be able to hold a halfway honest conversation with her new ones while being forced to act. Thankfully, being waited on hand and foot did have some benefits. It was actually quite easy to get rid of her father's men when their presence was irritating her.

"It's so scary to think that bad guys are out to get me. Especially since no one is watching the gate right now. The bad people could climb right over the wall and no one would know!"

Toph's usual guards exchanged looks of uncertainty, but didn't seem like they were going to actually act. Fortunately for the young fighter, Xisheng caught on to what she was trying to do.

"She has a point. With all of your comrades protecting your master, there's no one to man the perimeter. It really isn't prudent to let intruders past the first line of defense so easily."

One of the younger men, Jagi perhaps, frowned at the implication. "Master Beifong instructed us to protect Toph. We aren't leaving this room."

Xisheng folded his arms in disdain. "Don't any of you have some tactical sense? It's better to have multiple lines of somewhat equal defense than one large final line."

While it was impossible to guess why Mai would be even remotely invested in the conversation, she offered valuable input to the cause anyway. "This room has multiple points of entry, but there's no point in having two people watching each one. It's better to have more choke points we can use to identify the enemy and alert the rear defenders. That way some of the defenders have time to prepare for action, rather than all of us getting jumped simultaneously."

Surprised by the tactical truth more than any of the others, Xisheng gave the girl a questioning glance, curious as to where she learned such strategy. It was basic tactics of course, but still something that most people needed slight amounts of experience to know. Unfortunately for his curiosity, all Mai did was shrug, apparently considering the knowledge common sense.

Meanwhile, the same guard as before objected. "In that case, it only makes sense for all of you to assume outer positions."

This time it was Azula who countered. "Don't be ridiculous. You can't build an entire defense around the final line, but that final line still needs to be the strongest one. There aren't enough of you to patrol the entire area anyway, so if the enemy slips by undetected the strongest fighters will still be congregated here. This is simple logic, of which all of you seem to be lacking."

Another one of the guards spoke up in outrage. "How dare you! We're not pushovers and we're not fools! We have far more experience than all of you brats!"

Azula's hands went to her hips. "As evidenced by your stellar six to four victory against us, right?"

The man that had spoken up glanced at the floor. "W-well, I wasn't one of the six..."

"Then by all means, try us. But that does seem like a waste of valuable time, which you could be using to patrol the outer perimeter. Don't you agree?"

In its own way, Azula's means of coercion and intimidation against physically larger and older men was kind of hilarious. On the other hand, it was frightening, because it didn't look like Lao's men had anything to say back to her. This was kind of pathetic on their part though, since they didn't even really know what Azula was capable of.

Granted, she was plenty frightening without that knowledge.

Still, they at least had the guts to ask what Toph wanted them to do. Technically she was allowed to order them around.

Unfortunately for them, she was voicing her decision before any of them could even ask.

"I think I'd feel safer with someone watching outside, but I want to have strong people to protect me too."

The by now unofficial spokesperson of Lao's guards knelt down beside Toph. "I understand that, but don't you want at least one of us to stay here with you?"

Even Xisheng could feel the sting of her lack of hesitation. "Nope. Like she said, the strongest need to be the final line of defense."

One of the men that had yet to speak finally found reason to do so. "Alright, I won't dispute that these thugs are better fighters, but how can they be trusted?! We don't know anything about them, even their names! We can't just leave Master Beifong's daughter alone with them, they came here for her in the first place!"

With a sigh of frustration, Azula folded her arms. "Your master left us here alone with your daughter, with only four men he already knew we could best to keep watch. Do you know why that is?"

The black bearded guard that had spoken naturally did not have the right answer. "N-no?"

"Tell me, what is the career of myself and my comrades?"

"Y-you're mercenaries..."

"Yes, and what is it that mercenaries do?"

The man racked his brain for a moment to come up with a the most exact answer. "They... take on various kinds of work for money, I guess."

Clearly in the midst of thinking this man was an idiot, Azula continued. "Very good. Now, use your brain for this next one. The man that paid us to capture your charge runs an underground fighting ring, where the vast majority of his funds comes from bets and gambling. The man that paid us to protect your charge is the patriarch of one of the Earth Kingdom's richest families. Which one do you think is paying us more to follow their wishes?"

With the answer too painfully obvious to bother saying, the suitably whipped man ceased his petty resistance, and one of the guards who hadn't been treated like a moron conceded as well. "We'll begin patrolling the estate... b-but mark my words, if anything happens to Toph you'll have all of the Gaoling guard hunting you down!"

Naturally this threat scored no purchase with the Princess of the Fire Nation. "Yet another reason we wouldn't do anything in the first place."

Probably tired of being mocked to the ends of the earth, the four men Lao had left behind simply to placate his wife made a hasty exit, not really comfortable with the situation but more or less trusting in the greed of their new allies. It was ironic, as Azula herself considered greed to be a very good indicator of potential loyalty, but they were obviously not here for the money.

Toph on the other hand, immediately dropped her facade the moment she could no longer sense her father's men, loosing an impressed whistle. "Wow, you are one seriously harsh girl. You win fights just by insulting people? Because honestly I could believe it."

Altogether pleased with the outcome of the current scenario, Azula smirked. "Don't be ridiculous. Breaking their spirit is only half of the battle. The fun part, naturally."

Having been quiet due to a lack of familiarity with her supposed position as a mercenary, Ty Lee nevertheless spoke up now. She really couldn't help it. "That's really, really not something to be proud of you know."

Toph snorted, having completely shed the persona of a noble girl. "Well, guess we know which one of you is the party pooper. You're the boring self-righteous one right?"

Because they all knew who the real square usually was, the Fire Nation group got a kick out of it, sans Ty Lee of course. "Excuse me?! I am the most fun, cheerful, and energetic person you will ever meet! My profession is cheer! I do fun and games for breakfast!"

Xisheng found it amusing that Ty Lee took such a comment to such a deep personal level, but nevertheless rose to defend her. "To be honest, she is the fun one in this dynamic. There's no question about that."

Perhaps in a slightly joking mood due to the situation, Mai countered. "I'll remember you said that later."

'Watching' this strange group of four interact with each other, Toph smiled. Outside of her family and their employees, and the people she fought in the ring of course, she'd never spoken at length with anyone. She was pleased to find that her new acquaintances seemed to be a lot of fun.

"So I know I've only known you guys for like, an hour, but somehow you're still better than the people I've been around my whole life. Though now that literally everyone has mentioned it, what are your names anyway?"

There was a brief moment of silence in which the Fire Nation natives briefly exchanged glances, wondering what they were supposed to say. Of all the details they had somewhat ironed out before this, false names weren't one of them. Then again, the only one of them that had enough knowledge of Earth Kingdom culture to even think of appropriate names would have been Ty Lee.

Thankfully, Azula had a quick cover, and one that didn't raise too many questions. "Our names are need to know. Safety precaution, you see."

Toph cocked an eyebrow in her general direction, not buying it right away. "Safety from what?"

"Not all guild activities are legal, mind you. Keeping our names to ourselves is a great way to ensure no client turns us in later for a reward. Granted, this job is legal, but the means through which we landed it is not. Surely you understand."

While the youngest among the five furrowed her brow for a moment, eventually she shrugged, not taking the secrecy personally. Besides, as far as she could discern, Azula had told the truth. And Toph knew from personal experience that she was pretty good at telling that.

"Well gee, thanks for trusting me."

"No hard feelings."

It almost looked like she was about to agree, but in the end Toph didn't. "Actually, there are some hard feelings. Did you have to tell my dad about Xin Fu? That guy won't keep his mouth shut. Heck, dad will probably ask how he knew about me in the first place! A little consideration would have been nice."

Azula shrugged, not at all bothered by such things. "There really was no choice, but part of our new deal was revealing the identity of the one who placed a contract on you. Besides, it's your fault for being so weak in the first place."

Naturally, Toph didn't take this comment very well. "Excuse me?! Weak? I could bury all of you in a heartbeat, who do you think you are?!"

Aware that they were indeed surrounded by stone, Xisheng attempted to placate the young Earthbender. He didn't know how malicious she could be, but she did seem to be quite brash. "I don't think she means as a fighter. We watched you at the tournament, you're obviously a powerful bender. But, that being the case, why put up with this act you clearly despise? There's nothing your parents can really do to stop you from doing what you want."

"Well, that's true, but... I mean what am I supposed to do, threaten them into treating me right? They're my parents!"

Azula was the first to jump on this. "But of course, what's wrong with that? They're holding you back from your full potential, which is downright criminal in my book. You're nowhere near as good as you could be and it's all their fault. You have every right to be furious."

Toph leveled a somewhat astonished expression in Azula's direction. "Wow, so we know who the lame one is and who the scary one is. Anything you two want to reveal?"

She was obviously speaking to Xisheng and Mai, the two she had not yet labeled. Naturally, Mai shrugged. "I can be the fun one if you consider stabbing things with knives fun."

By now Mai allies knew how to read her jokes, but considering the deadpan nature of their delivery, a stranger like Toph naturally did not. "OK... two scary ones, I suppose...please tell me you're kinda normal?"

Having tilted her head towards Xisheng, he decided to give her some semblance of comfort. "Of course. Just call me the last sane man in an insane world."

"I'd buy it. Seriously, why even subject yourself to this kind of torture?"

While slightly worried that he may pay for it later, Xisheng smirked. "Oh it's hell in some ways, but c'mon now; I have the company of three attractive women all to myself, it has its perks."

While young, Toph wasn't naive enough to miss the implication. Probably had something to do with all of interaction with unsavory thugs in underground fighting rings.

"Oh, so that's how it is? Someone's lucky."

Xisheng almost continued, but he noticed that both Mai and Azula were glaring daggers at him. Naturally Ty Lee had no qualms with the suggestiveness of the message. Still, Xisheng was feeling in a relatively lucky mood since no one could outright kill him here, so he decided to flip and go the opposite way.

"I was just kidding. Those two are actually horrible and I would never dream of it."

He obviously didn't include Ty Lee in the setup since she was generally good to him, but of course his words earned even more heated glares from his other two companions. Xisheng simply shrugged back to them.

"You can only be mad about one or the other you know."

Toph released a short laugh that said she believed otherwise. "Don't be ridiculous; they're women, of course they can be mad about both."

With two out of three of Xisheng's companions suitably irritated, it was up to Ty Lee to offer any sort of response. "You're a woman too, though."

"Actually, I'm just a girl. And a really tomboyish one at that. I'm reasonable and probably will be for the rest of my life."

This time it was Mai who seemed amused. "We'll see what puberty has to say about that."

Being the only person who hadn't experienced that so far, Toph stuck her tongue out in some sign of displeasure. "Ick, don't even. Let's just go back to talking about how strong I am, that was much more interesting."

More than willing for various reasons, Azula accepted her wish, though not in the way Toph would have liked. "Actually, I mentioned how strong you could be. As you are now you aren't nearly as special as you think."

Naturally this led Toph to scowl again. "Seriously, you did see me at Earth Rumbe Six right? I'm the best Earthbender in the whole world!"

Azula just scoffed. "And you know this because you've fought a handful of incompetent foes that all hail from this one small corner of the world, I take it?"

"What's that got to do with anything?"

The princess of the Fire Nation held out her hands in a placating manner. "Don't mistake me, you're good. Very good. But do you honestly believe you're the only one of your class out there? A world at war is full of 'very good' warriors. It's also full of warriors with much more experience than you. You have undeniable skill, and obvious incredible potential; but you've hit a plateau. There's no room for you to improve here in Gaoling, none of the opponents you have the opportunity to face push you beyond the limit. Put aside your pride for a moment and answer this truthfully; how much has your skill improved since you began fighting?"

Xisheng and his comrades were honestly surprised to hear Azula giving such genuine advice to a total stranger, but Toph actually took said words seriously. Unfortunately the length of her silence was answer enough, prompting Azula to continue.

"My point exactly: you have no challenge here, no real test of skill. The Earthbenders you face regularly are mostly actors more than fighters, and they're all so grossly incompetent that you'd have to be an amateur yourself to lose to them. Which of course, begs the question: are you really that good, or are your enemies just that pathetic?"

Toph was speechless for a moment, unsure if she had ever heard such a withering speech, even from her parents. "Geez... I know I said earlier you were harsh, but this is outright soul-crushing. Do you practice this kind of stuff in the mirror or something?"

The princess in question donned her trademark smirk. "Only occasionally."

"Well then, since you've clearly got so much experience under your fancy belt, what am I supposed to do? There's no one else to fight but those buffoons in the ring."

"I said it once already didn't I? Your parents are holding you back. There are plenty of strong warriors to test your ability against in this world. Regardless of how good you might be, there are always dozens, even hundreds of fighters superior to you. And the only way to really surpass them is to actually fight them. Even if you lose, experience against those superior fighters is what makes you stronger. As things stand now, you will never surpass your current strength. Even worse, you'll never know what your true strength really is, because the only means you have of measuring it is trouncing those clowns you call Earthbenders in a mockery of combat."

The whole room was silent for a moment, reeling from the miniature tirade Azula had unleashed on a matter no one thought would personally interest her. That said, Xisheng felt that she was being a little presumptuous, seeing as how Azula herself had obviously never fought in true combat, sans their one scuffle with the Avatar. He supposed she could have trained with her father, the strongest Firebender in the world, but obviously at fourteen and having lived in the palace her whole life, Azula was quite short on experience herself.

Perhaps she was fully aware of the deficiency.

Either way, Toph ultimately released a sigh, maybe realizing that Azula wasn't wrong in most of her words. "Well... gotta say, getting this kind of heartfelt advice from a mercenary of all people wasn't exactly what I expected today."

Possibly realizing how long she had droned on, Azula looked mildly flustered, and maybe a little irritable because of it. "Don't take it personally. I just hate to see promising people waste their potential is all."

Where the conversation may have gone from there was anyone's guess, since it didn't get to go any farther. After all, one of Lao's men returned at exactly that moment, and he wasn't alone.

"Before you berate me for letting these people in, this boy showed undeniable proof that he's the Avatar!"

Xisheng felt his breath hitch as another potential battle made itself known, but Azula was all calm as she turned to face Jagi and the trio of shocked children that was the Avatar and his Water Tribe comrades.

"Hello there; what can we do for you today?"

Chapter Text

If there was ever a testament to how little thought children put into dire situations, it was the speed at which Katara whipped a stream of water at Azula's face after the disguised Princess had greeted them. Granted, it was good reaction time all things considered, but the lack of situational awareness was still quite blatant.

Thankfully, Azula had expected just such a reaction from their guests, and had practically been leaning back to dodge the attack before Katara even committed to it. Of course, the Waterbender wasn't content to stop there, readying another liquid whip to lash out against her sworn enemy. By this time, most everyone else in the room was starting to react, namely Azula's allies and the Beifong guards, but before any of them could make a move to intervene a wall of stone was suddenly erected between the combatants. It conveniently blocked the view of the guards that had been beside the Avatar's group, though Xisheng imagined this had been the intent.

"Stop! Is this how the Avatar is welcomed into someone's home? You attack its other guests without warning?"

Lowering the stone barrier she had erected as subtly as possible in the presence of her guards, Toph couldn't really level a scathing glare all things considered, but she was remarkably good at sounding authoritative despite her small stature and age. She was probably hoping that the guards assumed one of Azula's crew had done the Earthbending.

As for the Avatar's group, Katara was certainly not swift in apologizing for her unprovoked assault. "Guests?! Do you have any idea who these people are?!"

"I know they didn't come in here and attack someone after being invited in! And at the moment, I know them far better than I know you!"

Katara looked as though she wanted to make a retort, but the Avatar swiftly stood in for her. "You're right to be mad, we're very sorry. My friend acted too rashly."

Naturally his female companion did not take this well at all. "Excuse me?!"

Mildly amused by her reaction, Toph nevertheless managed to keep a straight face, not to mention her noble act. "Well, at least someone in your retinue has manners."

She then focused her attention on the guards that had brought the new arrivals in. "You all should return to your posts."

After witnessing the aggression of the Waterbending girl they had let in, Lao's guards were naturally not too keen on this idea. "B-but Toph, these people just proved themselves dangerous! We can't just leave you with them!"

Catching on to what Toph was aiming for with little trouble, and condoning it as well, Azula chimed in. "Your master is right. For all we know this group is just a distraction. They could have more accomplices infiltrating the compound right now. Besides, rest assured that we can handle them better than you."

Seeing as how this argument was coming from someone they didn't really trust, one of the guards was quick to oppose the idea. "Didn't you hear us? This boy is the Avatar! If he is going to be trouble you can't handle him yourselves!"

In an effort to assure her guards, Toph angled her head in Aang's direction. "That's true. Avatar, are you going to cause trouble?"

The young Airbender smiled as cheekily as possible. "No, of course not! Right Katara?"

Naturally the girl in question had a very unfriendly expression in response, though she grit her teeth and agreed. "Right..."

Toph merely nodded before turning back to her men. "Well, there it is. The Avatar isn't going to cause trouble, so you guys can go back to your posts."

"But that's-!"

"Hey, my father will be very unhappy if he finds out you were so blatantly disrespectful! Get going!"

With little to no means of countering, Lao's guards ultimately gave in, bowing before making their exit from the room. The moment Toph could no longer sense them, she dropped the posh charade entirely.

"So good to see you again Twinkletoes. Gotta say, I didn't think you were the kind of guy to do Xin Fu's dirty work. Kinda pathetic really."

It was no surprise that the Avatar had no clue what Toph was talking about. "Huh? Who's Xin Fu?"

"C'mon, don't play dumb! You've obviously been in on this whole scam from the start! I guess being the Avatar explains how you beat me in the ring, but I never woulda thought the Avatar of all people would use his powers for something so sad."

This time it was Sokka who expressed his confusion. "Hold on, you're not making any sense here. What scam are we supposedly in on?"

Before anyone could answer that, Katara cut in, leveling an accusatory finger at Azula's retinue. "The more important question is what are they doing here?! What's a proud Earth Kingdom family like yours doing with the Fire Nation?!"

Toph would have cocked an eyebrow at 'proud Earth Kingdom family' if only she wasn't more confused by the second accusation. "Fire Nation? Are you guys from there?"

She was obviously speaking to Azula's group, so it was the Princess who answered, swiftly and calmly. "Two of us are from the Fire Nation colonies to the west, but we share no more familiarity with them than that."

The young Earthbending prodigy frowned at this, mostly because she couldn't help but be confused. As far as she could tell, the Avatar and his friends weren't lying. But as best as she could discern Azula was telling the truth as well. She'd never encountered this kind of situation before. Even so, she was more obligated to trust those she knew a little better over these new arrivals, even if one of them was the Avatar.

"Well there you have it, they aren't from the Fire Nation. And even if they were, why would that matter?"

Katara's incredulity was immediately obvious. "Why would it matter? Is that supposed to be some kind of joke?!"

Knowing Katara's unrelenting penchant for pushing her point, Aang tried to intervene peacefully. "Calm down Katara, there's clearly some sort of misunderstanding here. All we have to do is clear it up."

The teenage Waterbender didn't seem too terribly fond of that idea, but in the end she didn't really have any alternative. So long as Toph was being deceived by these Ashmakers she would side with them. They had to reveal the truth first.

"Fine..."

Seeing that another fight would be avoided for now, Toph folded her arms. "Great. So, if you aren't here because of Xin Fu, why are you? What business does the Avatar have with the Beifong family? Actually, before we even do that, I don't trust the competence of Dad's men as much as I can throw them without my bending. Are you even the Avatar?"

Since that was easy enough to prove, Aang made a small show of creating a sphere of air and borrowed water from Katara's pouch. "I'm pretty sure I am."

Naturally Toph couldn't actually see the different elements being bent, since all she could tell was that it wasn't earth. For all she knew Aang could be bending just water or nothing at all. That being the case, she spoke out loud to Azula's group.

"So uh, I can't actually confirm that he's doing anything special..."

Seeing as how any lie about this wouldn't hold up for long, Xisheng figured the truth was their only option. "He's bending both air and water. He's the Avatar, no denying it."

Toph merely shrugged, seemingly unimpressed. "Great, so what do you want?"

A little put off by her lack of enthusiasm, Aang nevertheless kept his own. "Well you know, the Avatar has to master all four elements, so I need someone to teach me Earthbending. And I think it's supposed to be you! I had visions and stuff!"

"Wow, creepy. Why exactly am I supposed to agree?"

Sokka seemed confused by Toph's reaction. "What do you mean why? He's the Avatar! Teaching the Avatar is like, a huge honor or something right?"

"Is it? Just seems like unnecessary responsibility to me."

Katara's hands went to her hips. "Helping the Avatar save the world is not an 'unnecessary' responsibility! He's the only one who can stop the Fire Nation! Unless you're on their side, which seems likely since they're here!"

"That again? They said they weren't from the Fire Nation. Why should I doubt 'em?"

"People can lie, you know!"

Toph smirked, proud in her abilities. "Not to me they can't. I can use my Earthbending to tell when people are lying."

Distinctly recalling all the flames that had come their way last time Azula's group had been encountered, Sokka was clearly incredulous. "Right..."

Having come to an impasse of sorts, Toph decided that she might as well make the situation somewhat more civilized. "Tell you what, why don't we deal with this over lunch? I'm hungry."

Naturally, Sokka agreed immediately. "Definitely, alright!"

No one else shared Sokka's enthusiasm, but there was no need to disagree with the sentiment either. Things were remarkably civil at this exact moment anyway. That said, Toph would have to go find some of the household servants in order to command meal prep, and she had to erect her facade to do that, which meant having an escort. As seemed natural by now, she elected Xisheng for the task. She'd apparently taken some sort of liking to him.

That said, she still left a parting quip to those still in the room. "If I come back and this place is a battleground I'll kick all your butts!"

Xisheng wasn't quite sure that kind of warning would be sufficient considering the situation, but whether or not Azula would attack the Avatar in their current situation was debatable. One way or another, if a fight broke out Xisheng was fairly certain his allies had the upper hand. For all the clout of being the Avatar, the young Airbender hadn't really proven all that deadly in their personal encounters.

Regardless, Xisheng soon found himself being led through the Beifong estate once again, hand in hand with Toph just like before. For a solid minute, the diminutive Earthbender was silent in her trek, but soon enough she brought up a troubling topic.

"So, are you guys really from the Fire Nation?"

There was no accusation in Toph's voice; she didn't seem angered or irritated by the notion. Just curious. As for Xisheng, he knew that he was supposed to lie right now, but he wasn't so sure that it would be the right choice. The ultimate goal of this entire operation was to turn Toph against the Avatar, at least to an extent where she wouldn't help him. One could think the best way to do that would be to deceive her, but that could just as well backfire. If the truth was dragged out or mistakenly revealed it could actually make her more likely to oppose them.

Besides, even though Xisheng had only been acquainted with the girl for less than a day, it seemed fairly obvious to him that she didn't really bear any outright distaste for the Fire Nation. The notion of them being from the island country didn't seem to bother her, and she didn't seem to care all that much about the Avatar stopping the Fire Lord. No matter how he considered the situation, it seemed to Xisheng like they were better off being frank and trustworthy than trying to hide their allegiance.

Of course, maybe Azula would be mad about this, but Xisheng was not incapable of acting on his own. He was making a judgment call that he believed was in their best interests.

"Technically, I'm from the colonies, so that's up for debate. But as for the others, they're all natives. We are from the Fire Nation, no denying that."

To his credit, Toph didn't react to this news badly. In fact, she seemed befuddled above anything else. "That so? So the scary speech girl was lying and I couldn't tell at all..."

"I know I have no right to really say this all things considered, but please believe it if nothing else; we aren't here to hurt you, your family, or even your city. We have deceived you, but not to do you harm."

"I'll pretend that makes me feel a little better about it. But then what are you here for?"

"Specifically to stop the Avatar. Your family has only been involved because we knew he would come to you."

Toph seemed confused by this notion. "To stop the Avatar from... what exactly? I don't get it."

Xisheng wondered what consequence could possibly be inflicted on him if this all backfired horribly. He quickly decided not to think about it.

"You are a very powerful bender Toph. Probably the most powerful Earthbender any of us have ever seen. The last thing we want is for someone of your strength to side with the Avatar."

The young noble frowned at this. "So you're scared of me is all."

Xisheng couldn't help but scoff at the notion of Azula being scared of anything. "Not in the slightest. Our leader spoke so passionately about truly measuring your strength because she herself is incredibly strong. As a bender, she is undoubtedly equal to you in skill, and possibly better. That's not an insult towards you; as I said your abilities are phenomenal, and I've met hundreds of Earthbenders in battle. We're not scared of your abilities Toph, we respect them. The fact that our leader, who finds nearly all foes beneath her, acknowledges your threat as a potential enemy is evidence enough of her respect for you as a warrior. Truth be told I've never seen her place so much emphasis on the potential of another bender, and she doesn't even know you. I'm almost jealous."

Toph was silent for a moment as she pondered these words, perhaps wondering if they could be trusted after being lied to in the first place. "So that's how it is, huh? Can't say I still don't feel like a piece on a board. Why did you even tell me this? Won't your scary leader be mad?"

"Probably. But as I said, we respect you. I feel that you deserve to know the truth of things. Whether or not knowing the truth turns you for or against us, well... I cannot fault you for whatever decision you make. I just hope you'll give fair consideration to both sides of the conflict first."

The two of them turned down their fourth hall as they continued talking, seemingly still at ease with one another. "What, you think I wouldn't?"

"You're an Earth Kingdom citizen, whose country has been at war with my own for nearly a century. If you sided against us for the sole reason that we're from the Fire Nation and nothing else, I wouldn't be surprised in the least."

"Like that crazy girl with the Avatar? I'm always down for a good fight but just attacking people out of nowhere for a reason like that seems pretty stupid."

"I'm honestly surprised you feel that way."

"Why? The Fire Nation hasn't done squat to affect me. Yeah, there's a big war going on, but so what? It's nothing to get all uppity over. Maybe the Earth Kingdom should just stop getting their butts kicked in."

To say Xisheng was surprised to learn of this nonchalance regarding the war was an understatement. But then again, Toph wasn't wrong in saying the war had barely affected her own life. Due to the Fire Nation mostly ignoring Gaoling, and since Gaoling did most of its trade with big cities like Omashu and Ba Sing Se, the people living here hadn't really suffered much of anything in the past century of conflict. Other than misguided national pride, they really had no reason to detest the Fire Nation.

"I'm glad you're reasonable enough to consider both sides of the story. Not many people can do that without bias. That said... what will you do?"

Toph simply shrugged. "How should I know? All I've heard so far is that the Avatar wants me to train him and you guys don't want that. It's not exactly a whole lot to go on. Besides, who knows? I might not do anything. Could just play stupid and let you guys go about your business. We'll see over lunch, I guess."

That Toph was deciding to handle this situation in such a way definitely surprised Xisheng, but ultimately he decided that he had made a good call. He honestly couldn't see Toph discovering the truth any other way than this earning her support on the matter. That said, she could ultimately choose to side with the Avatar anyway, but Xisheng knew one very important thing about people, and moreover, about girls.

That women generally valued emotions more than men when making decisions was simply fact. It wasn't sexist, but rather just a general truth, and of course it bore its own exceptions. Azula was a calculating individual that obviously cared far more for logic and rationale in her decision making process. And the Avatar seemed to make almost all of his decisions based on emotion.

That said, if you were trying to guess the nature of someone you didn't know personally, it was usually safe to assume that the general statistic would be true. Xisheng could try to win Toph over with logic and facts, presenting sound arguments for why she should support the Fire Nation's cause in liberating the world... or he could simply try and earn her support by endearing himself and his allies to her. Fact of the matter was, they were more likely to have Toph side with them for the sole reason that she liked them than through any philosophical argument.

Shallow maybe, but nevertheless quite true. Regardless, now that the air was somewhat tense (though not necessarily between the two of them), Toph and Xisheng made the rest of their trip in silence. Thankfully it was a brief one, since it involved little more than a quick visit to the kitchens. Toph managed to succinctly explain the situation to the out of the loop servants there, though she left out nearly everything that would have been considered important to most people. No mention of the Avatar or the Fire Nation was made. In fact, Xisheng was simply labeled as a guest of her father's.

Even at her age, perhaps Toph realized it was easier to leave people in the dark if they didn't need to be enlightened.

Once the diminutive Earthbender was finished placing her order for lunch, she and her escort hurried back the way they had come, likely out of concern that someone or everyone would be dead or maimed.

To their relief, a return to their companions revealed that no fighting had occurred. A miracle really, considering the blatant venom in Katara's expression. Azula's patronizing, quiet smirk probably wasn't helping on that front. Regardless, everyone was still in one piece, engaging in a standoffish glaring contest that made it clear the ceasefire was well and truly temporary.

Toph was the first to comment on the situation as they returned.

"Well, everyone is still alive. I'm honestly surprised, all things considered."

The young girl angled her head at Katara, indicating that she was being referred to, but the Waterbender decided against any sort of retort. Whether that was because she had calmed down to some extent or if she didn't trust herself to stay civil was debatable.

Sokka missed the underlying nature of the exchange, responding only to Toph's words. "You're telling me. I can't believe these crazy harpies didn't jump on us the moment you left the room."

Azula looked ready to retort, but Ty Lee beat her to it, though she had clearly misunderstood the meaning. "Don't be ridiculous, there's no way we'd do that. You're way too scrawny."

The blatantly offended look on Sokka's face was apparently enough for Azula to stow whatever comeback she had originally intended, allowing Toph to intervene before the verbal sparring continued. She didn't seem to care that she had started it in the first place.

"Well, unlike some people, I'm not totally rude. Let's take up this very interesting conversation in the dining hall, shall we?"

Thanks to her present company's knowledge, Toph knew she didn't have to keep up any appearances, so she took it upon herself to lead her guests towards the dining hall without Xisheng's perceived assistance.

As for him, the soldier was looking for some sort of indication of Toph's feelings regarding the truth now that she knew it. As best as he could tell, she didn't really seem all that bothered by the knowledge, which was of course a good sign. However, it was difficult to tell what a blind girl was actually thinking. Xisheng hated to think it, but Toph's cloudy white eyes revealed very little. Certainly nothing like the easily noticeable shifts in a a mood that most people's made obvious.

In hindsight, perhaps it would have been a safer move to simply let Azula handle the situation. Xisheng had acted entirely without Azula's consent, in a manner she would almost certainly condemn. She was the leader, and she was the one that was supposed to make decisions. Xisheng had no doubt that she expected her leadership to be regarded in such a manner.

And yet, Xisheng knew this was not the way an effective unit worked. Of course there was a leader, and of course they were generally deferred to for orders. But what good was having people under your command that couldn't act of their own volition? If all of your subordinates were incapable of making good decisions without the leader's approval, they'd only be as useful so long as the leader was around to guide them. What if something went wrong while the leader wasn't around to give orders?

Point being, Xisheng had been trusted as a second-in-command many times over his brief military career. And he had been expected to make good judgments and good decisions without the explicit input of his superiors. He may had made a risky move in revealing the truth to Toph, but he was certain that it was a decision that best served their objective. Only time would tell if his confidence on the matter was well placed or not.

The current head of household ultimately led all of her guests to a large dining room with a long rectangular table in the center of it. She swiftly gestured for everyone to take a seat, though she herself took the slightly more ornate one at the head of the table. Clearly it was meant for her father, but it wasn't like there was anyone around to stop her. The servants certainly weren't going to chastise her.

Naturally, the two opposing groups took to opposite sides of the table, making for an altogether surreal scenario; the Crown Princess of the Fire Nation and her retinue, sitting across from the Avatar, their prime adversary, for a civil meal. It honestly looked more like a skit or comedy sketch than any real encounter.

But even though the situation was deceptively calm at the moment, Xisheng knew it could devolve into mortal combat at any time. The Waterbending girl, Katara, was still so obviously on edge that the slightest hint of danger could result in an attack. Her male counterpart was blatantly suspicious of everything going on, but seemed levelheaded enough to avoid confrontation when things were unclear. As for the Avatar, he was clearly nervous, yet he looked unusually determined to succeed in whatever he was here for today. Recruiting Toph, presumably.

Of course it wasn't as if the potential for conflict was solely due to the Avatar's group. Azula had been quite vague about the penultimate aim for this entire operation. Sure, she had stated that the main goal was to simply deny the Avatar a powerful ally and teacher, but surely she wouldn't be against taking advantage of an opportunity if it presented itself? After all, eliminating the Waterbender would put a big dent in the enemy's strength as well.

And there was Mai and Ty Lee as well. To be fair, Xisheng was certain he could rely on Mai not to act irrationally, if only because she hardly seemed capable of being on edge to begin with. And Ty Lee probably wasn't aggressive enough to strike first, but she was more impulsive. Even if she didn't make the situation worse on purpose, she could still make a mistake.

But Toph was definitely the largest factor to consider. Now that she knew the truth of things, the entire outcome of the day hinged on her whim. Xisheng didn't know her very well; he couldn't accurately make assumptions on what would influence her decision. For all he knew, Azula's rather scathing advice on Toph's level of ability would be enough of a petty reason for the girl to side against them.

Granted, she seemed a bit more level-headed than that, but it was still a possibility.

Since the food Toph had ordered was obviously not going to be ready for quite some time, the short Earthbender figured there was no point in everyone silently glaring at each other until it was ready. As per her usual modus operandi, she cut straight to the point as she addressed the Avatar and his friends.

"So, Twinkletoes, remind me why you're here again? Whatever it is wasn't important enough to remember the first time."

If the Avatar was offended, he managed to keep it hidden. "I need to master all four elements so I can defeat the Fire Lord and save the world! The next element I need to learn is Earthbending, and I think you're supposed to be my teacher. Like I said, I had a vision and you were in it!"

Toph grimaced at the second mention of a vision. "OK seriously, this talk about seeing me in a vision is creepy. What are you on about?"

"When my friends and I were flying over a giant swamp, a sudden tornado came out of nowhere and knocked us off of my Flying Bison, and there was a giant tree and a vine monster and-"

The only member of the Beifong family present raised a hand in an attempt to cut Aang off. "Whoa whoa, stop. Are you just crazy or do you actually think I'm that stupid?"

Aang looked convinced he had actually offended Toph. "No, it's neither of those! That stuff is all true, I swear!"

Toph naturally didn't look convinced in the slightest, leading Sokka to come to his friend's aid. "Alright, admittedly that all sounds pretty insane when you say it out loud. But we've already proven that Aang is the Avatar. Does anything else really matter? What more reason do you need to help him?"

"A lot. You keep talking like the fact he's 'the Avatar' means I should feel honored to help him with anything he asks. Like I should consider myself blessed he wants a favor from me. You know what I know about the Avatar? You can bend more than one element. That's it. I don't know anything else about you or what it is you do, or what makes you so special that you feel entitled to my help. You explain those things, and maybe I'd actually consider what it is you want from me."

The Avatar and his friends all looked quite shocked that Toph was so passively hostile to them. It wasn't like they hadn't met a handful of people that disliked him, but for the most part people treated Aang like a returning hero. Only a small number of those they had encountered rejected him or what he stood for.

But then again, Toph had just stated that she didn't know for sure what Aang did or what he was supposed to be. Maybe she just needed it explained to her, and even though Aang wasn't all that sure on the specifics himself, he felt as though he could do that well enough.

"The Avatar is a bridge between the Spirit World and the physical world. It's my job to keep the balance so that everyone can live in harmony."

The sole child of the household leaned back in her chair. "Right... so uh, what exactly are you supposed to be balancing right now? World seems fine to me."

Naturally it was Katara that answered this one, and none too gently. She got pretty passionate whenever the Fire Nation's conquest of the world was mentioned.

"If you're trying to joke around it isn't funny! The Fire Nation has taken over more than half the world and they're on their way to taking it all! How much more unbalanced can things get?!"

"So, almighty Avatar, is there gonna be some sort of global natural catastrophe that destroys the world just because one country took some land from some other countries? How does that work?"

The look on Aang's face showed that he wasn't prepared to answer this question. "Well, n-not exactly..."

"What then? What bad things happen if the world isn't 'in balance?' If something bad doesn't happen because of it then who cares?"

It was once again Katara who rose to defend their cause. "Everyone! Everyone that is losing their home and their land and their livelihood cares! Everyone except you! The whole Earth Kingdom is nearing the edge of total defeat and you don't seem to care at all!"

Toph shrugged, just as her father's servants began filing in with different dishes prepared. "I don't care. Gaoling hasn't been bothered by them. And even if it was, what difference does it make to me? Earth Kingdom, Fire Nation... I can't even see what banner is flying over the city. Why should I care who is in charge of the government? I mean, the Fire Nation comes in and controls some land, but it's just dirt and trees and houses and stuff. It's not like we're losing it."

By the incredulous look on Katara's face, it was clear that she couldn't fathom this line of thought in the slightest. Sokka clearly missed most of it since he completely focused on his food as soon as it was placed in front of him.

As for Toph, she quickly turned her attention to her first guests, the ones masquerading as something they weren't. After all, they had been awfully quiet thus far.

"So? What about you guys?"

It seemed to Xisheng that Toph was actually speaking to him first and foremost, but Azula answered fast enough that he didn't get a chance to anyway.

"I'm afraid you'll have to be a bit more specific. What about us?"

"This whole balance and world war business. You got opinions right?"

Azula opened her mouth to speak, but Toph beat her to the punch a this time. "I'm asking all of you, just so you know. Not your spokesperson that always seems to answer for everyone."

Xisheng had to suppress a wince upon hearing this, knowing for certain that Azula would not be happy to be interrupted. He didn't know if the Princess would manage to react according to her disguise with something that irked her so much.

However, Azula managed to respond very civilly, despite the twitch of her brow. "Very well. However, I am part of the group am I not? I may as well start."

Toph merely shrugged, managing to keep a very solid front up considering that she knew the truth behind all of Azula's deceptions. Xisheng could only hope that wouldn't come back to bite him in some horrendous manner.

For now though, nothing bad happened as Azula presented her opinion.

"I would say something cliche such as 'the strong prey on the weak,' but I'd rather say the the more accurate 'the capable benefit from the incapable.' It's not just strength. The intelligent manipulate the stupid. The wise deceive the foolish. The rich extort the poor, and yes, the strong coerce the weak. All of life is about the more capable benefitting from their lesser kin. Even animals survive by taking advantage of weaker or less intelligent beings, and even plants use their advantages to monopolize the nutrients they need, forcing others to suffer. In short, it seems ridiculous to claim that the Fire Nation taking from other countries is upsetting the 'natural balance' of the world when nature has made it abundantly clear that this is the way the world is supposed to work. Those that cry about the unfairness of this war are just victims that won't admit their own weakness is the source of all of their problems."

Azula leveled her calm gaze specifically at Katara as she said this, and the Waterbender did not miss out on this at all.

"A typical answer for a heartless warmonger like you. You'll come up with any sort of morally corrupt excuse to justify your actions!"

The Crown Princess shrugged. "I never claimed it was moral. Just natural. Besides, that's just my point of view; I can't speak for why the Fire Nation continues its conquest."

Katara may have had a comeback ready, but apparently Mai was already tired with the conversation and offered up her opinion to interrupt it.

"Who cares? The war is a thing that's happening. Why bother tacking on all this nonsense about ethics or the natural state of the world or any of that? It's an event that has happened, is happening, and will continue to happen. Whether or not you accept it or condone it doesn't change any of that."

Surprisingly Sokka actually looked up from whatever meat he was eating to comment on this. "That's practical, but to the extreme. You're right that we can't change what has already happened, but if everyone told themselves they can't affect the future, then who is actually going to do it? What are you even doing here if you don't think you're affecting anything worthwhile?"

Mai folded her arms, clearly not interested in extending the conversation to that length. "I hate being bored. And this was entertaining. I don't care about any of the rest of it."

Like his sister, Sokka wasn't really left with any sort of answer to that. After all, it wasn't like he could say Mai's reason was invalid. You didn't really need a very philosophical or righteous reason to justify anything you did.

Seeing as how Mai wasn't going to say anything further, Toph vaguely swiveled her head in Ty Lee's direction, indicating that she wanted to hear from the acrobat next.

While generally fine with any sort of attention, Ty Lee was obviously uncomfortable with being put on the spot over this subject. Still, she did like making her opinion known, and in some way she kind of wanted to put it out there. It was worth seeing how Xisheng would react, if he did it openly enough to begin with.

"W-well, I..."

The young acrobat glanced over at Xisheng's seat, wondering if he would be offended or hurt by what she had to say. In the end, she figured it was just best to be honest.

"I hate the idea of hurting other people, physically or emotionally. I wish violence didn't exist, and that everyone could just get along. I know that's naive and impossible, but I still wish it could be that way. I can't imagine ever dedicating my life to fighting or conflict, and I have no idea what possesses someone to do that. But as for whether it's objectively right or wrong, justified or corrupt... I'm sorry. I don't have the wisdom to know any of that."

Surprisingly, the Avatar seemed to empathize with Ty Lee. Or at least, he vocalized as much. "I know how that feels... people keep expecting me to know what's right or wrong, but I just don't. I just know what I want to try and stop..."

Perhaps the young Airbender would have gone a little farther, but Toph was quick to usher his comment along. "Yeah, yeah, that's great Twinkletoes, but I'm more interested in what he has to say."

Seeing as how Xisheng hadn't made any comment yet, it was clear that Toph was referring to him. Unfortunately the young soldier didn't know what all he could say while still maintaining his cover, but he figured that he was clever enough to handle it. It was amusing though, that Toph already knew the truth, and Xisheng was just trying to maintain appearances for Azula instead.

"I believe war is a terrible thing. Many atrocities are committed during war. Thousands of soldiers lose their lives, some for a cause they don't believe in or even know about. A country's people suffer in their day to day lives; increased taxes, food shortages, conscription, rationing... war brings many terrible curses down on all who participate, even the victors. I fully understand this, and I lament it every day."

For a brief moment, Xisheng received a look of empathy, confused though it was, from Katara. Maybe she thought he was of the same mind as her. She would quickly learn otherwise.

"However, I believe that war, horrific though it may be, is sometimes necessary. Sometimes a country simply needs more land or resources to support itself. Or perhaps it needs a common enemy to keep its people unified. Because war is so terrible and costly, no one wages it without some sort of cause worth making that sacrifice. I don't know what the Fire Nation wants to achieve in this war. Maybe it's just for personal gain, to help their own country and their own people. Or maybe they also want to aid those in foreign nations as they take their land along the way. All I know is that I can't fault the Fire Nation for fighting for what it believes in. And I can't fault the Earth Kingdom or Water Tribes for defending themselves. That's all there is to it really. Sorry if that answer was a bit more vague than you were hoping for."

There was silence around the table as Toph listened to his words, casually taking in a spoonful of soup as she did so. It was an out of place display of calmness in the otherwise tense and unfriendly atmosphere. But when she did speak, it wasn't to utter anything that everyone was expecting.

"How old are you anyway?"

Momentarily caught off-guard, Xisheng didn't answer immediately. He wasn't sure where this question had come from or why it was even being asked. He did however, notice that the girls in his group seemed rather curious to hear his answer as well. All three of them had focused their attention on him, though naturally Azula and Mai were more subtle about it. It seemed odd at first, but ultimately Xisheng realized he was no different: he didn't actually know exactly how old any of them were either, and he was curious.

Either way, he was the only one expected to speak at the moment, so he wasn't going to delay for long.

"Seventeen."

Toph scoffed at his answer. "Could have fooled me. You're way too young for all this wise old man nonsense. Though I guess your scary boss lady is even worse..."

Azula didn't seem at all bothered by the assessment. It was unlikely that she would ever be insulted by someone saying she was wise beyond her years. Still, it was unclear what was going through Toph's mind at the moment, which was a bit nerve-wracking for her many guests. It wasn't made any better by the fact that she didn't say anything else for a solid five minutes, instead focusing on her meal with unusual intensity.

To say this made things awkward was an understatement, as the enemies at the table were all left in relative silence, either glaring at or pointedly ignoring each other. As for Xisheng, he could tell that even Azula had grown slightly worried; no doubt she was questioning what Toph could have possibly been considering so intensely. After all, she didn't know that Toph was aware of her their true nature. She must have been worried that her plan was potentially unraveling.

Xisheng too pondered over what was about to happen, and how he should react depending on the answer. If a fight broke out, the first move would be crucial in this situation. Realistically speaking, the Fire Nation natives could attack right now and probably defeat or even kill the Avatar. He was nervous, but not prepared; it was obvious that he wasn't actively expecting an attack, and only his reflexes would be able to save him from a sudden ambush.

Realistically speaking, Mai was the best choice for a sudden strike. She was not faster than Azula in general, but the movement of flinging a knife across the table could be accomplished more quickly than launching a jet of flame. The motions were just less demanding. But as Azula had stated before, Mai wasn't a killer, at least not inherently. It was unlikely she would take the initiative to outright kill the twelve or thirteen year old child on the other side of the table. And even Azula might not be able to commit to that action outright.

That only left Xisheng as the absolute, guaranteed option of killing the Avatar in a surprise attack that no one expected. And it was more than possible. At this exact moment, when no one was ready, when no one expected a lethal blow, Xisheng had a very real opportunity to lash out and incinerate the Avatar. What happened afterwards would be anyone's guess: maybe Katara would strike back fast enough to kill him in return. Maybe Toph would attack because of what he had done.

But if the Avatar were slain, would the immediate consequences matter at all? Azula had stated it would be pointless to outright eliminate him since he would ultimately reincarnate, but Xisheng didn't agree. If the Avatar was forced to reincarnate now, the Fire Nation would have a decade or more to finish the war unmolested. It was a surefire way to guarantee victory at this stage of the conflict, and Xisheng couldn't frown on such a thing in the slightest.

His dual colored gaze focusing entirely on the Avatar's young face, Xisheng's favored hand clenched with anxiety and anticipation, waiting for the mental order to attack. No matter how he considered the situation, Xisheng couldn't see why this wasn't the best course of action to take. Eliminate their deadliest foe right here, right now, and everything would be over. The Fire Nation would win, the war would essentially be a foregone conclusion... he could guarantee that all of the sacrifice that had occurred until now was not in vain. All he needed to do was slay the young child before him.

Flexing his right hand again, Xisheng could feel the ambient heat of his chi engulfing it. He'd yet to conjure a flame, but he could do so in an instant. It all came down to whether or not he would do it.

"You should fight."

Startled out of his deadly focus by Toph's nonchalant voice, Xisheng, along with everyone else at the table, turned their attention to the young Earthbender. Aang was the first to question what she had said.

"Fight? About what?"

Toph looked as though she had not said anything unusual. "About who I should side with, of course. Look, I don't actually care about much in this world. But I do care about who has strength. So, Avatar, if you want me to teach you Earthbending, prove you're strong enough to warrant my attention."

Aang did not look inherently pleased with this notion, but it was Azula who spoke out against it. "No offense, but surely you aren't suggesting that we fight the Avatar? Capable we may be, but that outcome is practically inevitable."

The Beifong heir donned a smug expression, and Xisheng could feel the dread knotting in his gut. He had messed up, hadn't he? He had exposed the entire mission to this temperamental child and his faith in her would be rewarded with failure and betrayal.

With full confidence in his prediction, Xisheng was just starting to rise to his feet when Toph snapped a fist towards Azula's face, yanking a square chunk of stone out of a nearby wall. From the corner of his eye, the Fire Nation officer witnessed the reactions of his allies. Ty Lee barely even registered that they were being attacked, while Mai was displaying her exceptional reaction time, already reaching into her sleeves to draw weapons. As for Azula, Xisheng could see the shock in her golden eyes: not because she had not considered this possible scenario, but because she had been confident that it wouldn't come to pass.

After all, how could she have known that Xisheng acted without her input in regards to her plan? She had probably expected better of him.

Said soldier had his fist halfway through the motion of a punch when the stone Toph had thrown exploded in a cloud of dust and azure flame a few inches in front of Azula's face. The dust cleared rather quickly, revealing the fading flames of Azula's right hand, alongside an extremely venomous glare for the young Earthbender that had attacked her. Xisheng had yet to see such a dangerous gleam in her eye, and yet, the Princess' voice remained eerily calm and exacting.

"It seems quite hypocritical to judge your other guests for their rudeness only to turn and assault your own allies, wouldn't you say?"

Toph didn't seem bothered by Azula's reaction, though it may have been because she couldn't see the severity of her expression. As for Azula's companions, Xisheng and Mai were prepared for the next attack, and Ty Lee was simply dumbfounded by this turn of events.

"Don't sound so hostile. I wasn't trying to hurt you; I just wanted to put your honesty to the test."

"Oh really? If I weren't a bender that most certainly would have killed me."

Reclining back in her seat, Toph placed her now bare feet on top of the dining table. When she had lost her shoes was anyone's guess.

"Nah, I knew you were lying the whole time. I told you people can't lie to me."

This implication seemed to irritate Azula more, but mostly because she thought Toph's attitude was misplaced.

"Yet you think you can lie to me? I never said I wasn't a Firebender. In fact, I never even claimed that none of my group was from the Fire Nation. So do tell, what exactly was I lying about?"

A prominent frown made it onto Toph's face as she considered this. Azula actually had a great point; while she had never claimed that neither she nor her friends weren't Firebenders, she had also not stated that they were. And she had stated that they were from the Fire Nation in some capacity. In the end Toph couldn't deny that she never would have known anything was up without Xisheng's admittance of the truth. Of course, she could have revealed his folly, but considering how nice and understanding he was, Toph didn't really have any desire to get him in trouble with his boss.

"OK, so maybe I didn't know that you were lying. But I knew you were hiding something at least. Besides, this does prove that Twinkletoes and his gang here weren't wrong either."

"Good to know you gambled my life on a hunch, esteemed hostess."

Toph certainly didn't miss the sarcasm in Azula's title for her, but considering the situation she figured it was somewhat warranted.

"Look, I wasn't kidding about being able to determine when people are telling the truth. And thing is, as far as I could tell, both you and Twinkletoes' girlfriend here were telling the truth-"

"Hold on, g-girlfriend?!"

Other than a mildly irritated furrow of her brow, Toph didn't react to Katara's outburst.

"And since it was obvious that you couldn't both be telling the truth about the same thing, someone had to be lying. And no offense to you and your friends, but the Avatar and his pals are way too open and naive to be the ones lying. Total offense to them."

Sensing an irritable response from the only Waterbender in the area, Azula decided to interrupt the tirade before it began. Besides, there were clearly more serious matters to attend to.

"So our own competence betrays us; how unfortunate. Do tell how this revelation will affect the day's proceedings, will you?"

Tilting her chair back to lean even further, it was obvious that Toph was not at all concerned with 'the day's proceedings.'

"Look, I'll cut right to the chase. Maybe you guys are 'evil secret agents' from the Fire Nation here to bring Gaoling to its knees. Or maybe you really are just a group of mercenaries trying to make some money on Xin Fu's stupidity. I honestly don't really care."

The young Earthbender tilted her head towards the Avatar and his friends.

"And maybe you guys really are on a quest to 'save the world' from some cosmic unbalance or whatever. I honestly don't care about that either."

Perhaps reaching a point that she actually considered important, Toph finally put her chair and her body back in a regular position.

"What I do care about is proving that I'm the best Earthbender in the world! But to do that..."

Toph slightly swiveled her head in Azula's direction.

"I have to fight people strong enough to really test my skills. So, the answer is obvious; you guys fight it out and then I'll choose who to side with."

Surprisingly, it was Sokka who had an objection on the Avatar's side. Honestly Xisheng had expected Katara to speak up again.

"No offense, but isn't that thought process a little... shallow? I mean, we're talking about the fate of the world here..."

"No offense string bean, but no one asked you."

"S-string bean?!"

Ignoring the exchange entirely, Xisheng was somewhat surprised to see a smirk cross Azula's face. She didn't actually seem all that displeased by this turn of events. Then again, it wasn't hard to figure out why; it was actually a win-win situation for them. After all, if the Avatar wanted to get Toph on his side, he would be forced to stand and fight rather than run, and that meant providing Azula's group with an opening to capture or kill him. And if he did run, then he would miss the opportunity to get a very powerful Earthbender on his team. Unless they were actually beaten, this couldn't go too poorly for Azula's team.

Then again, Xisheng didn't share Azula's confidence on the matter. Thing was, in the one time they had actually engaged the Avatar, he hadn't been cornered. He had been relatively capable of escape at any time, and had been clearly focused on evasion rather than fighting. In other words, Azula's retinue hadn't faced the Avatar at his full strength yet. Who could say if he wasn't powerful enough to best all of them if he was forced to?

Still, it was somewhat obvious that the Avatar disliked engaging in violence when he could help it. Hopefully, if he really was strong enough to defeat them all, it would end without fatalities.

Eager to witness the prowess of the warriors in her home, Toph folded her arms in dismay at the fact that they weren't yet fighting.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Hop to it!"

Understandably confused, Mai cocked an eyebrow at the girl.

"Not that I care, but... here? In the dining room?"

"Why not? Either way I'm getting out of this place. Preferably with one of you but alone if I have to. Your boss said it herself; my parents are holding me back and I'm sick of it! They've got more than enough money to fix any mess you leave anyway. Throwing money at things is all they're good at."

Xisheng and Ty Lee exchanged worried looks, likely both thinking that Azula was a very bad influence in some regards. Sure, she was trying to reach her full potential here, but she probably didn't have to be so reckless and vengeful about it.

With no investment in the state of the manor, Azula rose from the table with a smirk.

"Well, who am I to contest our gracious hostess? Aside from a particular incident she's treated us very well, so I suggest we entertain her as suggested, Avatar."

The expression on Aang's face was evidence enough that he had no idea how the situation had gotten to this point, and he clearly still had qualms about getting into a fight in the Beifong estate. Still, he obviously had enough wits about him to lean back and essentially roll out of his chair when Azula punched a gout of blue flame at him.

With it now clear that this was really going to happen, as ridiculous as it may be, everyone leaped into action at speeds befitting their abilities. This notably resulted in Sokka stumbling out of his chair more clumsily than anyone else, but he didn't have to suffer for his haphazard evasion anyway, since no one attacked him. Ty Lee was in a similar boat, but only in the sense that she hadn't really needed to backflip out of her chair. With Aang still getting to his feet, Katara was the only immediate threat, and both Mai and Xisheng attacked her without hesitation, assaulting the Waterbender with a combination of knives and flame.

Having apparently been on edge and prepared for a fight at any given moment, Katara reacted remarkably quickly, raising a small wall of ice to protect her from the pouch at her waist. Said wall protected her for only a brief moment, but it was enough for the Waterbender to actually prepare herself for the coming fight.

With a moment of his own to assess the situation, Xisheng realized that his team actually had far more advantages than he had previously realized. Fact of the matter was, this battleground favored the Fire Nation natives almost entirely. Both of the enemy's most powerful fighters was severely limited in the space that was the Beifong dining room; Katara had no readily available supply of water other than the small amount she had on her person, and the Avatar's skilled evasion was hindered by the confines of being in a room at all.

In fact, Katara's danger could be nullified completely if the Firebenders in the group simply evaporated all of her water over the course of the fight. That would likely occur naturally as Katara blocked attacks.

On the flipside, the enclosed space offered nothing but benefits to Azula's team. As far as being a projectile was concerned, fire was the relatively slowest element, so less distance to travel was a great boon. While Mai was already fast with her knives, the short range would make her harder to avoid, and Ty Lee's benefit in this situation was obvious. All in all, Xisheng couldn't help but think this was actually a rather skewed contest in earning Toph's approval. Never mind the fact that it was four on three.

The thought of an easy victory stumbled somewhat as Aang used his position on the floor to send a powerful gust of wind under the dining table, knocking Xisheng's legs out from under him. He was just grateful that his head didn't smash into the table on the way down, sparing him the humiliation as he retaliated against the Avatar in an identical fashion once he was on the ground. Naturally Aang avoided that by leaping back into the air.

While it had only been for a moment, Xisheng berated himself for underestimating the Avatar; he was very clever in the use of his versatile element.

As for the others, they did a relatively good job of picking their targets appropriately. Mai decided against attacking the Avatar at all, since it was clear that projectiles weren't a fantastic choice against someone that could alter the airflow on a whim. Granted, maybe she still could have taken him down with speed or saturation, but Azula was focusing on the young Airbender anyway, so the raven haired sniper decided to distract Katara instead.

Unfortunately, 'distract' was about the full extent of her usefulness against the Waterbender. All of Mai's projectiles flew in a straight line, so all Katara had to do was raise a shield in front of her. And sharp as they were, Mai's knives still weren't going to penetrate a slab of ice. Still, this tactic had worked relatively well with Ty Lee helping, so hopefully that teamwork would win the day again. Then again, considering that Ty Lee had apparently been roped into attacking the Avatar by Azula, it was apparently going to be up to just Mai for the moment.

A few more arrows and daggers from her sleeves prevented Katara from taking any offensive action, but she didn't need to, since her brother came to the rescue a moment later.

To his credit, Sokka would have probably knocked her clean out or worse with that club of his, since Mai (and everyone else apparently) had completely forgotten that he posed a threat. To his discredit, Sokka's ambush would have gone a lot better if he hadn't loosed a kind of squeaky war cry as he charged her.

Alerted to the danger, Mai managed to sidestep a downward swing from Sokka's club, but even at that moment the Fire Nation combatant was still focusing on Katara and the water whip she was about to unleash on her. Sokka may not have been an experienced warrior, but Mai definitely couldn't handle both him and his sister at the same time.

Admittedly feeling a significant degree of panic, Mai nevertheless managed to keep any relief off of her face when a gout of orange flame vaporized the liquid between Katara's hands. Apparently Gohan had finally realized that she was being tag-teamed over here and had come to her aid. A small part of Mai was mildly pleased that he'd divert his attention from the all important Avatar to help her, but she figured it was mostly practicality on his part; the Avatar was already facing two opponents, and they only had a number advantage as long as all four of them were still fighting. Preventing an ally from being defeated was common sense.

Ignoring the flashes of orange going off to her side now that she was confident it was safe to do so, Mai refocused her attention on Sokka, who looked nervous now that it was one on one. Or maybe it was just Mai's glaring abilities. Anyone's guess really.

Brandishing more of her blades, Mai tried to make the fight even easier by intimidating Sokka out of it. After all, she was honestly surprised he even had enough of a spine to step in for his sister.

"You don't seem entirely dense; tell me, do you really see this situation ending well for you at all?"

Sokka did actually seem pretty intimidated by Mai's knives, but maybe it was just a matter of wondering how many she had hidden away. Even so, he didn't back down.

"What are you talking about? We're both non-benders, so it's an even fight!"

"Do you really think so? That's kind of sad."

Irritated by her condescension, Sokka drew his boomerang.

"Oh yeah? Watch this!"

With a good arm and lots of practice, Sokka made a great throw of his favorite weapon, but even so one would have to be completely incompetent to not avoid something they saw happening right in front of them, so Mai managed to tilt her head out of the way as the steel weapon passed her.

"Imagine that; you missed."

Her Water Tribe assailant smirked as he saw his boomerang make its arc back towards its caster.

"Or did I?"

However, his expression quickly faltered when Mai tilted her head forward this time, avoiding the projectile once again as it sailed over her and back into Sokka's hand.

"Yes, you did."

"O-oh, heh, that... usually works..."

His Fire Nation adversary cocked an eyebrow at him.

"Seriously? How many people in the world don't know how a boomerang works?"

"A lot more than you think, trust me."

Not too far away, Xisheng ensured that Katara would not be able to attack any of his other allies. It was an easy enough matter; the Waterbender girl was heavily disadvantaged, on the run from the start of her combat with her Firebending foe.

Of course, a big part of it was the fact that Katara had a lot less to work with than her opponent. There was no readily available source of water for her to use in the Beifong dining room, leaving her with only the water she carried at her hip. It was enough for the odd scuffle with your standard Firebending goon, but until now Katara hadn't fully realized that was all she had really faced.

After her training with Pakku, Katara had indeed reached a great level of skill, but in hindsight, she had not been presented with many opportunities to use any of that training in practical application. The most skilled foe she had faced alone thus far had was Zuko, an individual with a fair deal of power, but little in the way of talent or battle intelligence.

This man she faced now was different. His attacks had purpose, intent beyond 'wound or kill.' He didn't wildly launch flame at her in blind hope that one attack would eventually connect. His offense was his defense, and vice versa. He would launch spheres of flame from two sides, forcing Katara to erect a wall of ice rather than evade, for the sole purpose of evaporating that previous water with a more powerful immolating blast. When Katara did find openings to attack, her foe never simply defended himself. He would always counter in the same motion, not only kicking water whips into vapor, but arcing the same defensive flame at Katara's body to constantly keep her on the move.

Oddly enough, it was quite akin to a lesson that Pakku had taught her, not about Waterbending in particular, but about fighting in general. 'The easiest way to defeat someone with talent but little experience was to give them no time to think.' As much as Katara hated to admit that she was in that category, she had no choice but to accept it as she deflected a fireball with a swipe of water, only for a second projectile to be directly behind it. With no time to make any bending motion all she could really do was essentially fall over backwards to avoid getting scorched.

Katara knew, without the lens of pride or arrogance, that she had talent. Pakku had made it clear that he, as a greatly experienced master, considered her to be one of his most promising pupils. But only now that she was fighting this battle did the young Waterbender realize that she still possessed a critical deficiency in experience. The way this Firebender moved; with absolute certainty in each motion, always flowing from one to the next without hesitation, knowing the ideal followup or reaction to any one attack by instinct, was evidence enough that he had been in many battles against many skilled foes.

While Katara knew she had the potential to be like that, it was obvious by the fact that she was entirely on the defensive that she wasn't there yet. In hindsight, it made sense considering the relatively low level of skill most of her foes had been thus far, never forcing her to truly push her limits and sharpen her natural skills. Even with the time she had spent under Pakku, she hadn't reached the level of martial ability where every movement and nuance of battle was natural to her. With the constant barrage of unorthodox attacks and counters, she could barely do anything other than react on instinct to stay unharmed. Trying to remember any particularly useful skill from her training was difficult under the duress.

Still, Katara had been in a number of fights, and she didn't have to be a master to know she couldn't win if all she did was evade and defend. Besides, with the limited amount of water she had and the fact that she was losing some of it every time it got vaporized, a battle of attrition was quite obviously not in the cards. The Waterbender had to do something that would secure a win quickly and efficiently, or she was toast.

With this in mind, Katara settled on the most efficient way to use what she had available; icicles would serve her well, especially if they were small enough to avoid being seen. Attempting to double down on the possibility of hitting Xisheng with an attack he didn't see, Katara used her right hand to lash out at him with another water whip, while using her left to manifest a few small icicle darts to send his way as well.

To her credit, Xisheng did not actually see the icicles themselves coming at him. But what he could plainly see was that Katara was doing more than just mustering another water whip. As she had already used many before, he could tell that she was doing something else at the same time. He didn't have to know what it was to actually defend himself from it.

With no way of knowing what secondary attack was coming, Xisheng settled for an all around defense, using his flames to create a sphere around his body. Based on the small amount of water Katara had available to her, there was no attack she could pull off that would overpower the heat of his flames.

Waiting what he felt like was an appropriate amount of time to have blocked Katara's offensive, Xisheng pushed his sphere of flame forwards, catching his Waterbending foe completely off-guard; the last thing she had expected was for a shield maneuver to be used offensively.

With no other choice besides raising a water shield, Katara sacrificed over half of her reserves protecting herself, watching in dismay as her defense held off the enemy attack, but was blasted into steam. Unfortunately, the visual cover didn't provide a moment of reprieve as expected, as her foe took advantage of her temporary blindness to close the distance between them. By the time Katara realized her opponent was doing something as unusual as closing in for melee, he had already snapped her body against the wall behind her.

Now in close proximity, Katara was faced with an altogether different problem. Namely, the young man she was face to face with didn't look anything like the way her mind had imagined Fire Nation soldiers to be; assuming this was the same man that had been with the trio of girls that attacked them before.

The majority of the Fire Nation soldiers she had faced had been masked. Sure, there were people like Zuko or the Rough Rhinos, but they had all fit decently well with her mental image of the heinous marauders hellbent on destroying the world. The person she faced right now didn't strike her as such, and she didn't like that feeling at all; seeing someone so normal and admittedly somewhat handsome didn't really fit with Katara's conception of Fire Nation grunts, and despite the intensity of the situation, a part of her couldn't help but look back on the defense of the Air Temple not too long in the past; a lot of 'faceless' Fire Nation troops had been buried alive or knocked clean off the mountain that day.

Still, the words that came out of her opponent's mouth reminded Katara that he was no different from anyone from the Fire Nation that she had faced before.

"Katara, was it? I suggest you put an end to this foolishness while you still can. You have your whole life ahead of you; don't give me a reason to cut it short so soon."

Fully reminded that the person that gripped her was an enemy that deserved no sympathy, Katara's blue eyes hardened in an icy glare.

"As if monsters like you would need an excuse to kill anyone to start with. Your kind have made it perfectly clear that surrendering doesn't grant the weak any mercy!"

If Xisheng was offended by Katara's harsh words, it didn't show on his face. If anything, his expression almost seemed... pitying. Needless to say, that infuriated Katara far more than any alternative.

"Your misconceptions about me are your own, and I'm certain I can't change them anytime soon. Be that as it may, I still feel obligated to be honest with you; I get the feeling the foes you have faced until now haven't down a very good job of presenting the gravity of your situation. I have no desire to harm someone of your age, but if you continue to be a threat to my allies, make no mistake: I will kill you."

There was a serious degree of conviction in Xisheng's voice that quite frankly scared and intimidated Katara. She didn't doubt his sincerity for a minute, and hearing something so intimidating from someone so young didn't help either. His looks were deceiving; he was a deadlier foe than he appeared.

Even so, Katara wasn't about to back down. Her cause was far too important for her to be intimidated. In the end he was just another Ashmaker trying to scare the innocent into submitting.

"You don't have the guts to do something like that. I'm not someone that will be scared by empty words and a glare. We will stop you, no matter what!"

Having not restrained her arms, Xisheng found out too late that Katara still planned to fight, as she used one of her them to bend an attack from behind him. Unsure of where she had gained the substance for said attack, the Firebender nevertheless turned to face it, somewhat insulted to discover that his foe was attacking him with soup from their earlier meal. A quick gout of flame was enough to disperse the green liquid, but the distraction gave Katara enough time to plant her foot in Xisheng's abdomen and push. With the wall to brace against behind her, Xisheng's superior physique and strength was overpowered enough to knock him back.

More impressed by the extent of her desperation than anything else, Xisheng simply sighed as he retook his fighting stance. It seemed he would have to convince Katara of the gravity of their conflict with lethal force after all.

On Aang's side of things, the fight was, once again, not much of a fight so much as a dance of sorts. The young Airbender was being double teamed by his opponents just like their first encounter, but this time it was actually far worse. Where before, he had been required to dodge flame of one color or another whenever he landed, now he was forced to deal with something far more dangerous, something that ironically had nothing to do with the elements at all.

The brunette with the long braid was hounding his every step, both impressing and intimidating Aang by nearly matching his movements to the letter. To see someone that wasn't a bender move with almost as much agility as an Air Nomad was something else. Granted, Aang had a few advantages, such as the ability to redirect himself in midair, so as of yet he hadn't been touched by the girl.

That said, he distinctly recalled Katara's retelling of events after they had escaped Omashu. According to his crush, her arm had been completely paralyzed after this girl had landed a hit on her. And mobility being his greatest strength, Aang wasn't too keen on losing that edge. Without his ability to move he'd be burnt to a crisp by those terrifying blue flames.

As he flipped over Ty Lee's head to avoid her, the Avatar was faced with a gout of those exact azure flames, forcing him to adopt an unusual counter. With little other option, Aang attempted to blow the flames back from whence they came, but to his shock and detriment, his wind only seemed to empower the blaze further as it approached him.

With an even more powerful blast now mere feet from his person, Aang made an emergency maneuver and simply blew himself higher with his lungs and his bending. But while he successfully evaded the attack, his haste launched him rather roughly into the ceiling. Falling back to the ground in a slight daze, he had less than a moment to react before Ty Lee was on him again, only this time he wasn't ready.

Before he could do anything to defend himself, Aang received four rapid strikes to different parts of his arms, at which point they quickly fell limp at his side. Seeing this, Ty Lee visibly relaxed.

"OK, so you can give up now right? There's no reason to keep fighting."

A little miffed to be underestimated, Aang's chose to forego a verbal response in favor of taking a deep breath, only to release it in a windy blast that succinctly launched his assailant across the room, and right towards the skirmish between Xisheng and Katara.

Ever aware of his surroundings, the Fire Nation officer noticed the incoming projectile that was his ally even as he took note of Katara's next Waterbending attack. Under normal circumstances Xisheng would leave Ty Lee to her own recovery, since he had more faith in her in that regard than anyone else. But Aang's gale had accelerated the acrobat to a speed too fast for her to risk catching herself on the hard stone floor. Even with her finesse that kind of impact would probably break an arm.

Seeing Katara form a sphere of water in front of her, Xisheng simply held out a hand to stop her.

"Hold that thought, would you?"

Startled by the nonchalance and completely unexpected choice to ignore her threat in the middle of a fight, Katara actually did falter for the moment it took Xisheng to reposition himself to intercept his airborne friend.

Though she was undoubtedly the lightest member of the party, Ty Lee's impact into his arms was still a solid one, forcing a staggered grunt out of the soldier. Ty Lee on the other hand barely seemed affected at all, instead breaking into a wide smile as she assessed the situation.

"Aw, Gohan, you really are the best! Even in the middle of a fight, you're always looking out for us! Is there anything you can't do?"

More than a little peeved to be ignored, Katara cut into the moment.

"Possess common human decency, for one."

Ty Lee directed her attention to the Waterbender with a very uncharacteristic glare.

"I don't want to hear that from you Miss 'use my bending to freeze people that won't do what I want.'"

"How did you even-? Whatever, that was justified! They were preventing the Avatar from accomplishing something important!"

"By that logic we're justified just because you're stopping us from doing something important."

Preparing to attack again, Katara snarled at them.

"Don't compare your goals to ours! We're trying to save the world, you just want to conquer it all for yourselves!"

Knowing he wouldn't be able to defend himself in his current position, Xisheng lowered Ty Lee to the ground, though he still addressed her.

"Ty Lee, maybe you should return to Azula? She might need your help."

Casting a glance in Azula's general direction, Ty Lee seemed to think otherwise.

"Nah, I think she has it under control."

Seeing the way Azula was more or less manhandling the supposedly almighty Avatar, disagreeing with Ty Lee's sentiment was not possible for Xisheng.

Now that she had lost Ty Lee's support, Azula had clearly cranked up the intensity of her offensive, using greater sweeps of flame and more powerful javelins of her element when she struck to actually do damage.

Granted, now that all he had to focus on was Azula, Aang himself was able to put more effort into his evasion as well. But not for the first time, evasion and defense seemed to be his only interest. Sure, he made attacks of his own from time to time; subtle undercurrents that aimed to knock Azula off her feet, direct kicks of wind that attempted to knock her into a wall, and even the occasional thrown piece of furniture, carried by a gust.

But watching him battle, Xisheng could tell why Azula was in almost no danger from any of this; the Avatar lacked the one critical component he needed to utterly demolish the likes of Azula and her group with his power, and that element was the very desire to win. Naturally, Aang wanted to escape, and likely wanted his friends to continue living. But he didn't actually want to defeat his foe. He didn't want to really achieve victory at any cost. He didn't even want to hurt Azula, someone that was essentially trying to kill him.

Being so naive is what prevented the Avatar from utilizing his might to the fullest potential. If he was willing to hurt or even kill his Fire Nation foes, his trouble would have been over long ago. Clearly, he had yet to learn the very lesson the destruction of his people had epitomized; the world did not reward the innocent and the naive.

It was a shame really, because as best as Xisheng could tell, Aang had the makings of a truly great fighter. Granted, Xisheng was no expert on what good Airbending was supposed to look like, but Aang's fluid motions, quick reactions, and creative use of his element showed that he was indeed more skilled than your average Airbender.

If the young Avatar just had the necessary conviction to put it all to good use, Xisheng was certain that his fight with Azula would not be so one-sided at the moment.

As it was, the heir to the Fire Nation had managed to corner the Avatar in one corner of the room, where she unleashed a blast of most considerable size at the boy. However, Aang's much lauded creativity in a tight spot surprised even Azula; using his Airbending, her foe used the air around him to contain the incoming inferno, forming a sphere of wind around it before constricting it down. In moments the starved blue flame faded into nothing, prompting Azula to fall back on a different plan.

Stepping into the familiar motions for her deadliest attack, it was clear that Azula intended to conjure lightning right here in the Beifong dining hall. Not recognizing the technique since his back had been turned last time, Aang likely had no idea just how important it would be to dodge this next attack, or how much more difficult it would be compared to flame. In fact, it was very likely that this strike would kill the Avatar outright.

Or rather, it would have, if only a solid wall of stone hadn't erected itself between Azula and her target before she had even gone through the motions. Xisheng and Ty Lee found a similar barrier erected to separate them from Katara, at a much needed time for the Waterbender. She barely had any ammunition left to fight with.

Elsewhere in the room, a voice of protest could be heard from Sokka.

"Hey, what about me? Protect me too!"

While everyone else turned their gazes to the only person that could have erected these stone walls, Toph herself was clearly paying attention to Sokka's situation, which included being completely pinned to the wall by an assortment of daggers, knives, and needles. Mai had actually taken a seat some time ago, opting to watch the rest of the fight rather than participate further. How long she had been doing that was anyone's guess, and Toph stated the obvious.

"If you were in danger you'd be much worse off than you are, Noodle."

"Hey, what are you trying to-"

Considering the more important situation at hand, Azula cut off the negligible complaint.

"What's the meaning of this? Why bother holding a martial contest if you are going to intervene?"

Toph lowered the walls she had erected before answering.

"Well geez, I never said you had to fight to the death. Seriously, are you always this terrifying?"

"I demanded an answer, not an evasion."

Probably displeased with Azula's tone, Toph nevertheless remained uncharacteristically mature for the moment.

"I guess you did, huh? Look, I told you that I wanted to see who was stronger. I might have stopped the fight short, but it seems obvious to me that the Avatar's gang is no match for the Harpy Trinity Plus One. I mean, anyone that can put the Avatar on the ropes like that must be a top bender, right? And that's exactly why I'm gonna join Twinkletoes here instead of you."

From his position on the wall, Sokka cocked an eyebrow at the girl.

"You are? You had a contest of strength and you're siding with the one you think is weaker?"

"I told you Twig Legs, if I want to prove myself as the strongest Earthbender, I have to fight the strongest opponents! And how am I supposed to seriously battle with your betters if I'm on their side? Besides, you guys are outnumbered by the opposition. Stop questioning me and be grateful."

With a mild look of apprehension on her face, Azula leveled a wary glare at the Beifong hostess.

"I suppose you intend to test your might straight away?"

With an eager smirk, Toph cracked her knuckles.

"To be honest I'd love to. But if I'm not gone before my parents get back things are going to get a lot more complicated. And as much as I hate to admit it, I'm not confident that I could take you all that quickly. But if you're really determined to fight..."

Coming to stand beside the Princess, Xisheng lowered his voice in an attempt to advise her without anyone else hearing.

"I don't know if we could take her in here. This entire building is stone, we're practically in a coffin."

Azula's gaze narrowed as she considered the situation. It was very likely that she was weighing the potential risk and gain. After all, any opportunity they had to capture or kill the Avatar was a golden one. There was absolutely no guarantee they'd have him in their clutches like this again. Furthermore, if Toph went with the Avatar, then this entire exercise was completely moot and they would have achieved nothing at all.

But while she hated to admit defeat of any sort, Azula knew her own abilities, and that of her teammates. Could she defeat the Avatar in a one on one fight? Quite likely. Could she take down Toph in a duel? Also quite probable. But could she take on both at the same time, while trapped in a room made entirely of the latter's element, even with her allies backing her up? That fight would be tenable at best and damn near suicidal at worst.

"While I'm sure we would both enjoy the challenge of a good opponent for once, you probably have a fair point in regards to your father. I imagine he'll unleash all the resources at his disposal regardless when he finds out you're missing, but if you leave before he gets back you'll have a head start. You wouldn't want to miss that opportunity, now would you?"

The Beifong in question folded her arms.

"The only reason I'm not gonna accuse you of making an excuse is because that makes a lot of sense. He'll probably pay legions of goons to bring me back. But are you really just going to let us walk out of here without a fight? You seemed kind of serious about taking out the Avatar and all that."

With the different parties beginning to congregate around each other, Katara had come to stand next to Toph, along with Aang who had done the same. Sokka was still stuck to the wall.

"I don't buy it either. You really expect us to believe you'll let us leave? After all the trouble you went through to be waiting for us before we even got here?"

"Believe what you want, peasant. Our hostess has made her decision, and far be from me to disagree with her on who is truly the most dangerous among us. Besides, we're technically under her employ. If she wants to leave without trouble, who are we to refuse?"

Seemingly accepting this explanation, Toph pumped both fists in the air.

"Alright! I'm heading to my room to grab a few things I need. But before I do, everyone just remember this!"

The Earthbender pointed a finger roughly at Aang's face.

"Don't forget; I'm not in this to save the world or shower strangers with kindness and generosity. I'll teach you Earthbending, but don't bother me with any of that idealistic crap."

She then pointed a finger at Azula's company.

"And as for you guys, next time we meet I won't accept any excuses! We'll fight for sure and I won't hold anything back!"

To Xisheng's great surprise, Azula almost seemed excited by the notion.

"We'll be more than willing to meet your challenge with the same."

With a smirk, Toph turned on her heel and headed for the exit to the dining room, herding the wary Katara and Aang along with her. Sokka was still stuck on the wall.

"Hey! Don't forget about-"

With a solid push from the stone wall itself, the Water Tribe warrior found himself freed from his restraints, though with a great many tears in his clothes. Likely uncomfortable with the display, he quickly gathered his boomerang before shooting a glare at his nemesis. However, he was quick to retreat towards his friends when Mai returned a much more threatening one. He probably wouldn't forget the humiliating defeat at her hands for awhile. Xisheng felt kind of bad for him; he got the impression Sokka might have felt a little insecure about his masculinity, what with all these far more powerful or skilled women around. Not being a bender probably only exacerbated it. It would probably benefit him to learn a martial art or two.

Regardless, in a truly surreal aftermath, the Fire Nation infiltrators were left alone in the Beifong dining hall, which was utterly ruined by the very recent conflict. There were holes left from Toph's Earthbending, chunks of ice stuck to different angles, and more than one tapestry was on fire. And the four of them stood in the middle of the destruction, paying no mind to it at all. Mai needed to ask a serious question anyway.

"Is this really alright? We did all this crap just to let them walk away? If we don't stop them everything we did here was a waste of time."

With a sigh, Azula stared at the doorway their foes had disappeared into.

"Not to state the obvious, but fighting them here would have been a mistake once the Earthbender joined in. This room, and in fact the entire estate, would be a deathtrap. I'm not pleased to let the Avatar escape my clutches a second time, but getting buried under a pile of rubble won't help. We'll face them again another time; preferably in a location where we the odds are bit more even."

A rather prominent scowl settled onto Mai's face, but she didn't voice anything else. Ty Lee on the other hand felt that there was something else important worth mentioning.

"So, what do we uh... do about all this?"

The acrobat gestured vaguely at the carnage around them, which prompted Azula to shrug.

"We tell the truth, obviously. I'm sure our most recent employer will be utterly enthralled by the story of the Avatar himself kidnapping his daughter."

"Azula, that's not the truth..."

"It's as close to the truth as we can get as far as serving our purposes are concerned. We can hardly tell him that we're Fire Nation hunters that were pit into a duel with the Avatar in order for his daughter to decide who to run away with. Our altered truth with free us from blame and also besmirch the Avatar's name. It's the best we can get out of this situation at this point."

Despite her sour mood, Mai spoke up again.

"You think he'll believe that the Avatar kidnapped his kid?"

"But of course. His own guards can confirm that he was indeed the Avatar. And seeing as how the Avatar is not here and we still are, she can only be with him."

It was Xisheng who spoke up next.

"Why stick around to inform Lao of anything? Shouldn't we hightail it back to the Overlord so we can be ready to pursue the Avatar?"

"Lieutenant, if you think we can make it all the way back to the Overlord before the Avatar and his brats can hop on their flying beef and be in the wind, I believe you're sorely mistaken. They've won this round, in a manner of speaking. We'll worry about getting even later."

Xisheng had to admit that Azula was nowhere near as bent out of shape about this as he had expected her to be. Mai was right in saying that they had accomplished nothing they had set out to do. Their entire 'operation' here in Gaoling was a failure. And yet Azula still had that mildly pleased smirk on her face. Frankly, Xisheng couldn't help but wonder if the idea of a similarly skilled rival actually excited her.

"What in the name of all the spirits happened here?!"

The four Fire Nation citizens turned to face Lao and his wife just as the final emerald green tapestry fluttered to the ground in flames. The look on Lao's face showed that he couldn't believe his eyes. The look on Azula's face showed that she was barely restraining an amused smile.

Chapter Text

Xisheng's time in the Beifong estate was wrapped up quite quickly following the battle with the Avatar. He was actually quite impressed by it: after all, Lao and his wife had walked in on a catastrophe in which only the Fire Nation infiltrators were remaining, and only to hear the news of how his daughter had been kidnapped no less.

Naturally demands as to what happened were the first thing to come out of the patriarch's mouth, and one would think it difficult to lie your way out of such a situation: but Lao had taken practically everything Azula had told him at face value. That had included mention of the Avatar, his daughter being kidnapped against her will and Azula and company's valiant but futile effort to stop it all. Following this there had been a great degree of panic, which was understandable, but Azula had done a wonderful job of taking her deception -and her gain- to the next level.

Not only did she convince Lao that she and her 'mercenary' band would pursue the Avatar to rescue his daughter, she had even convinced him to pay them in advance to do so. The total profit wasn't as high as it could have been, since they obviously didn't get the payment for protecting Toph with the outcome that had occurred, but it was still a significant sum.

Granted, Earth Kingdom currency would be worthless when the Fire Nation took over the world, but until then it could prove useful. After all, with another leg of their journey in sight, provisions would probably be useful. Besides, whatever was left over could be melted down and reused for more useful things sometime in the future.

Either way, the entire thing had gone remarkably well. The only hiccup was a sneer from one of the guards, which, from his point of view, must have been warranted. They had failed to 'protect' Toph, after all. Of course, his disdain didn't last long, since both Azula and Mai were capable of mustering some pretty fearsome glares.

Ultimately, they tricked Lao entirely, left his estate with no one any wiser to their true identities and had plenty of money to stock up on whatever they wanted for the trip to their next destination. Naturally, Xisheng was forced to carry the hefty chest of gold they had been given, though he was fully aware that he was best suited to the task.

At this exact moment, he and his companions were perusing the markets of Gaoling for anything they deemed useful, though Xisheng imagined they would likely get some things that weren't necessities while they were at it. They had plenty of money to spare after all, and he could see Ty Lee eyeballing plenty of products he wouldn't really call necessary.

Depending on how inclined to shopping sprees these girls were, Xisheng figured he might have to remind them that everything still had to be carried to the Overlord somehow.

But considering that they hadn't actually eaten much of anything today, coupled with the stamina they'd lost during the fight with the Avatar, food was in everyone's sights right now. Xisheng was certain he could hear everyone's stomachs growling, though he was equally certain neither Azula nor Mai would ever admit to it.

Perhaps Ty Lee picked up on this as well.

"You know, we could just find a nice restaurant to sit down at. We've hardly had a chance to do that since we got back together again!"

Frankly Xisheng wasn't opposed to the idea, but Azula was quick to reject it.

"While I'm fully aware that we have no hope of catching up to our quarry straightaway, I don't believe it would be prudent to waste time relaxing here when we could be moving on. We'll find food we can take with us."

The acrobat pouted upon hearing this, no doubt a little dismayed by all of this urgency and focus on a singular goal. Xisheng imagined she would have liked to spend some time relaxing with her friends every once in awhile, considering how long they had been apart. Strangely enough, Mai took it upon herself to comfort the brunette, or maybe she was just stating a fact.

"We can always cook something more substantial while traveling. Just find some snacks for now or something."

These words did put a smile on Ty Lee's face, though Xisheng didn't quite muster the same reaction. Did any of them actually know how to cook? He couldn't picture any of the girls being competent in it. Besides, what were they supposed to cook with using the Overlord? The engine?

Either way, as the group of four came to stand in the center of the Gaoling marketplace, Azula leveled her gaze at her companions. "In the interest of time, I suggest we split up and gather what we feel is needed. There's plenty of gold to go around, and we're unlikely to need it after this, so take however much you think you need to meet your purposes. As for you-"

She focused her vision on Xisheng specifically.

"I recommend finding a very large bag to carry all of this in."

Xisheng resisted the urge to sigh as he opened up the chest Lao had provided so everyone could grab a share of their funds. He supposed the role of pack mule was understandable when his only other companions were all women, but Azula could have at least been a little more considerate of his exertions. At least Ty Lee had the presence of mind to do so.

"Sorry Gohan: I'll be sure not to get a bunch of stuff to pile onto you, okay?"

With that, everyone spread out among the place of commerce, leaving Xisheng alone as he held what was left of Lao's payment in his arms. Despite the fact that roughly half of it had been depleted, it was still pretty heavy.

With a clear product in mind, it didn't take Xisheng long to locate the kind of carrying capacity he needed. It was a large, dark green backpack that wasn't all that dissimilar from the types of rucksacks he had carried around during regular deployment, being nearly as large as his torso in both length and width. It had sturdy enough straps to hold a significant amount of weight, so he figured it would be more than enough. Following the purchase, Xisheng had stored what was left of the gold within the bag and practically donated the chest to the shopkeeper, seeing as how it was just extra weight at this point.

Having accomplished his one mission, Xisheng decided to make the rounds of the marketplace and see if he could find out what the girls were up to. He was kind of curious to know what they thought 'necessities' were.

His search didn't take too terribly long: Xisheng hoped it was just because he knew the identities of the people he was looking for, and not because they really stood out this much. Granted, in his eyes they really did stand above the rest of these regular people, but that was probably due to his personal experience with them.

Either way, it hadn't been too hard to pick Ty Lee out of the crowd as she stood in front of a stall that was selling various snacks and treats. She had apparently taken Mai's suggestion to heart.

Xisheng didn't announce his presence right away, eager to observe one of his companions outside of interaction with either him or the others for once. And yet, even as he approached silently from behind, the girl seemed to identify his presence immediately, turning to face him as he got close.

"Hey Gohan! I see you found a sturdy bag."

More than a little confused as to how she had detected him, Xisheng figured there was no harm in asking.

"Not that I was trying to sneak up on you or anything, but how did you know it was me? I didn't make any noise and you didn't see me."

Amused by his confusion, Ty Lee grinned at him. "I can just tell. You've got this kind of... presence."

"I'm not sure how to take that hesitation in your voice."

"Don't worry, I meant it in a good way. It's comforting. Warm. And even if you didn't have that going for you, your aura is always so vibrant. Lots of gold, orange, red, and pink. You've got some nice spurts of blue in there too."

Xisheng wanted to question this whole aura business since he had no clue what Ty Lee was talking about, but any follow up question was interrupted by the man running the stall.

"Hey, if you two aren't going to buy something, get out of the way. There's other people I could be selling to."

Frankly, Ty Lee was a little sick of people in this city rudely interrupting her in the middle of conversations with her friends, but Xisheng didn't seem bothered by it. Maybe he figured the man had a point, which was why he turned the conversation to the topic of purchases.

"What were you thinking of buying here, Ty Lee?"

Turning her attention back to the stall and its wide array of goodies, the brunette smiled. "I just wanted to get a treat for everyone. We all deserve one after everything that happened today!"

Hearing her explanation, Xisheng couldn't help but smile as well. Of course her first thought was of everyone else. Honestly he wasn't surprised: Ty Lee was possibly the sweetest person to ever walk the Earth, after all.

"What kind of treats? Do you know what the others even like?"

Turning a mockingly offended glance his way, Ty Lee gave her reply. "What kind of friend do you take me for? Of course I do! It's just a matter of finding the right things..."

Ty Lee turned to perusing the stock available, and Xisheng watched as she asked questions about different foods. Namely, about which things were spicy and which were the sweetest. Naturally it wasn't hard for the vendor to point out which of his products were which, so in no time at all the acrobat had several things in a bag; a spicy dumpling of some sort, a fruit of some kind covered in chocolate and a piece of bread that surely had something unique about it, though Xisheng couldn't tell what it might have been.

Once she had acquired all of that, Ty Lee turned to him with a smile. "Your turn: what do you like, Gohan?"

"I thought you said you knew what everyone liked?"

Hearing this reply, the brunette pouted a little. "That's not fair, we haven't talked about your eating habits yet!"

"Alright, but this is your only free pass. I'd like something sour, if there is anything."

Ty Lee stuck her tongue out in distaste. "Really? I don't know how anyone enjoys stuff like that."

"You asked."

"I did. Hey mister, do you have anything sour?"

With this question posed to him, the street vendor had a moment of hesitation in checking his stock. Sour was probably one of the least liked flavors, second only to bitter. Even so, he did have something, and he grabbed it to present to his customers.

Both Ty Lee and Xisheng looked confused by the stick of green crystal in his hand, as it didn't really look edible. The look on their faces must have been pretty telling.

"Don't worry, it's not actually a rock. It's sugar, fused with sour lemon juice. They make them in Ba Sing Se. I'll let you try a small piece if you want."

With a shrug, Xisheng took the sample he was offered and tasted it. He was honestly surprised to get such a good tart kick out of it, but he also found that the candy made for a pleasant chewy experience. He was more impressed than he cared to admit.

"I like it. How about three?"

"As you will, fine sir. Just give me a moment to calculate the price of all this..."

Considering that Lao had paid them in only gold pieces, Xisheng and Ty Lee had to deal with some math and the return of some change, but in the end they got a hold of their various treats, and at a relatively tame cost. With no reason to stick around, Xisheng roped his companion into helping him search for Azula and Mai, though the acrobat of course ensured that their search was not carried out in silence.

"Alright Gohan, since you wanted to tease me, let's see how well you know the rest of us already. Who do you think each of these treats is for?"

Chewing on his own candy, Xisheng furrowed his brow in consternation.

"Well, if I were a fool, I'd say the spicy one is for our taskmaster, the sweetest treat is for you, and the comparatively plain bread is for Mai."

Ty Lee cocked an eyebrow at him. "But you're not a fool, right?"

"Right. I'd only make those assumptions if the only thing I had to go on was a first impression of all of you. But since I do actually know a few certain facts... I think the spicy one is for Mai. That said, I can't actually be certain about the other two. One would think you'd like sweet things, but I don't have anything to really base that on other than your personality, which is totally unrelated to preferred taste."

With a smile, Ty Lee withdrew the loaf of bread from the bag the vendor had provided and took a hearty bite out of it. "Well, you're right on one point and wrong on the other. Truth is I don't actually like sweet things all that much. I don't mind it but it has to be kind of tame."

Drawing some conclusions from what Ty Lee had revealed, Xisheng's expression became amused. "Wait, so if I was right on the other bit, meaning the spicy one is for Mai, that means the sweet one is for...?"

Ty Lee couldn't help but grin.

"Yep. She's a real sucker for anything like this: she's got a serious sweet tooth. It's so weird, isn't it?"

"You said it. Then again, I suppose most people wouldn't assume that Mai likes spicy things, just based on a first impression."

"Speaking of which, how'd you guess that?"

Xisheng kept his eyes focused on the crowd around them as he answered, looking for their scattered compatriots.

"Well, I think I've established that Mai's stony exterior conceals a fairly adventurous spirit. Or maybe she's adventurous by necessity, since that's a prerequisite to finding something she can actually enjoy. It just seems like she would enjoy something with a bit of kick to it."

A mixed expression crossed Ty Lee's face, some sort of combination of dismay and appreciation. Because he was keeping a lookout, Xisheng didn't notice it.

"Always so insightful..."

Xisheng may have noticed the somewhat dour tone of her voice under normal circumstances, but at that moment, he noticed one of the people in question. He pointed her out to Ty Lee, who quickly doused her slight disgruntlement as they approached her.

Because her back was facing them, Xisheng and Ty Lee couldn't tell what Mai was inspecting as she stood at a vendor of her own. But as they came to stand up behind her, the two weren't really surprised to learn that her attention was on knives.

Arrayed on a platform that belonged to a burly man with hairy arms was a dozen different knives in various designs. Mai was holding a curved one in her hand as she examined it with a critical eye. For the life of him, Xisheng couldn't tell how her appraisal was going.

The shopkeeper seemed pretty confident in the prospect of a sale, with his arms folded in assurance and a smirk on his face. Of course, his words made it pretty obvious as well.

"You won't find better knives in Gaoling. These babies are made from the finest steel, and I've shaped them all myself. One of these could protect you against even the most ferocious beast!"

Naturally, Mai didn't seem very impressed by any of these claims. All she did was flip the silver steel in her hand so she could see the other side.

"So you sharpened these things, but in all of your eminent wisdom forgot to quench them? This steel isn't even hardened."

"The hell do you mean it isn't hardened? It's metal, it's already hard, lady."

With an expression that clearly wasn't enthused, Mai drew one of her own black knives, confusing everyone present when she slid its edge across the knife she was examining. You would think metal on metal would skate cleanly, but Mai's knife got stuck every once in awhile, like it was getting caught on something.

"You see that? The edge of my knife is biting into yours. That's because my edge is hardened and yours isn't. You either didn't quench this at all or you did it incorrectly. You can even see where your edge has rolled."

The alleged knife maker clearly didn't think too highly of Mai's appraisal, as evidenced by the way he slammed his hands on the table before him.

"You expect me to believe that a girl like you knows what you're talking about when it comes to weapons!? I won't fall for some sort of slander scam!"

With a shrug, Mai planted the 'knife' into the vendor's table, gathering up a bag of goods at her feet that her two friends hadn't noticed until now.

"I'm not here to try and scam a shoddy hunk of metal off of you. You can keep them all: though I'm sure that one will be even more damaged when you pull it out of the table."

Ignoring the fuming vendor, Mai turned her back on him, coming face to face with Xisheng and Ty Lee. The moment of surprise that crossed her face proved she hadn't been aware of their presence at all. But once that expression cleared, Xisheng could have sworn he saw a bit of embarrassment. Maybe Mai didn't like the idea of her friends seeing her actually get 'riled up' about something, even if her version of it was so subdued.

"You two making a habit of eavesdropping now?"

Ty Lee shrugged, a cheeky smile on her face. Xisheng actually gave her an answer.

"Sorry about that. We just didn't want to interrupt you while you were in your element, so to speak. It's amusing to see you take someone down a peg with your knowledge on weapons."

With the tiniest of smiles, Mai brushed past her two comrades, prompting them to follow her. "Did you two find everything you were looking for? I see Gohan found a bag at least."

The group's resident brunette was on Mai's heels in no time. "Yep, and speaking of finding what we were looking for, here: this one is for you!"

With that, Ty Lee handed Mai the spicy dumpling she had bought earlier. As usual, Mai's expressive range was a little limited, but it was obvious that she was really grateful. Than again, she made that obvious enough verbally.

"Thank you Ty Lee. But you know you don't have to spend money on stuff like this."

"Oh come on Mai, it's not like it's even 'my' money. Besides, I got something for all of us. Hey, did you know that Gohan guessed right away that the spicy one was for you?"

Taking a bite out of that very treat, Mai didn't seem surprised by this information in the least. "I'm not surprised. He's sharp like that."

Suppressing a smile of his own, Xisheng held out his arms, motioning towards the bag Mai was carrying. "Would you like me to carry that for you?"

"Sure. Thanks."

Ty Lee frowned a bit as she watched the only male take on another load, even though he didn't seem bothered too much by it.

"Gohan, you don't have to carry everything just because we're girls. I feel kind of bad..."

"It's not because of that, Ty Lee. But it is easier for me to carry heavy things than the rest of you. I just want to make things easier where I can. Speaking of which, what did you get, Mai?"

Normally Xisheng would have expected a snarky reply, maybe something along the lines of 'just look in the bag and find out yourself', but Mai didn't go for anything like that, much to the soldier's surprise. Maybe her treat had actually put her in a good mood?

"Just some ingredients. We were kind of running low on the stuff we brought from Omashu."

Xisheng wanted to ask who in their party possibly knew how to cook, as he couldn't really picture any of the girls doing it and he knew he couldn't, but Mai didn't give him enough of a break in the conversation to do so.

"By the way, what did you get to eat? Kinda curious."

Xisheng couldn't see it since she was walking a bit behind him, but Ty Lee cocked an eyebrow at her female friend, a little surprised. Granted, it had been a few years since she and Mai had been around one another, but she couldn't recall the dark haired girl ever showing curiosity in the mundane things around her, nevermind actually admitting to it. Aside from Zuko, she never seemed to care about people's personal preferences or anything else of the sort.

Naturally the only male in the party wasn't privy to any of this, though he did of course know Mai well enough by now to see this as a little unusual. He didn't want to be presumptuous, but he liked to think that he was interesting enough for her to actually notice from time to time.

That being the case, he held up one of the green candies he had procured. "Some sort of special candy from Ba Sing Se. Despite being green they have a strong lemon flavor."

Without a word in reply, Mai simply held her hand out in his general direction. The implication was blunt, but obvious. Moreover, Xisheng didn't mind sharing, as he viewed it as a learning opportunity.

The candy he shared with his raven haired companion was swiftly consumed, prompting an expression that was unusually contemplative compared to Mai's usual state of being.

"It's definitely chewier than it looks. Not the most sour thing I've ever tasted, but I guess it's passable for the label."

"I'm honestly not surprised that you're into sour things too."

The young woman cocked an eyebrow at him.

"I'm not sure if that's supposed to be an insult or a compliment."

"It's just an observation. It's how I guessed the spicy dumpling was yours: you seem like the kind of person that wants her food to liven up an otherwise droll existence."

While Xisheng didn't see anything wrong with his words, he noticed a mixed expression cross Mai's features. Frankly he couldn't discern its meaning, as the look didn't seem particularly good or bad, but he had no time to investigate anyway, as Ty Lee's arm came between the two of them, outstretched in order to point towards a certain spot in the distance.

"Hey, there's Az-I mean, well, you know. Looks like she found what she wanted too."

Both of them following her outstretched finger, Mai and Xisheng saw that Azula was indeed ahead of them, though she was not at a specific stand or kiosk. She already had a bag in her hand, and she seemed to be merely looking around, probably for her comrades. Being an astute individual and knowing who she was looking for, she didn't miss the approach of her allies.

Before anyone could even say a word of greeting, she practically dropped the bag she was carrying in Xisheng's grasp, forcing him to shuffle Mai's into one arm. The whole thing was quite precarious, spurring Ty Lee to action.

"Seriously Gohan, let me take one of those..."

"It's fine, just help me put one of them in the backpack."

Trying to determine which bag of items would fare better bouncing around in a pack, Ty Lee peeked into them to view their contents. The first to be investigated was Azula's, and the contents sparked a confused expression from Ty Lee.

"Bath supplies? When are we supposed to use these?"

Surprisingly, the expression on Azula's face was almost sheepish. "Well, we could stop by a fancy bath house or some such before leaving..."

Ty Lee's expression turned cross at this. "Hold on, you said that we didn't have time to stop and eat, but there's enough time to stop by a bath house?"

"Come now Ty Lee, hygiene is very important, and we can eat on the move. We can't bathe, for obvious reasons."

It was at this point Xisheng chimed in. "That's not true. I'm sure it wouldn't be too difficult to find a river out there."

As recompense for his suggestion, both Mai and Azula leveled looks of disbelief at him. For noblewomen like them, the thought of bathing in a river must have seemed barbaric.

Despite the fact that they didn't say anything, Xisheng felt the need to defend his statement.

"Generally speaking, running water is actually quite clean, you know... besides, being so hypocritical would be a bit unbecoming..."

This statement was clearly directed towards Azula, and she absolutely didn't miss it. That said, maybe she felt that Xisheng was right, because she actually conceded.

"Very well. I find your statement to be dubious, but I suppose we'll forego my wishes for today: be grateful."

Xisheng and Ty Lee exchanged looks of exasperation behind Azula's back, with the latter moving to store the the bag of bathing products in Xisheng's larger one for easier transport.

As for Xisheng, he was actually surprised for some other reasons. One, he was surprised that the Princess hadn't brought such items of her own choosing from Gaoling. Two, he was somewhat impressed that Azula was willing to consider things made in the Earth Kingdom as worthy enough to use for her own body. He had half expected her to view anything less than what she was used to in the palace as beneath her.

Either way, with the entire troop having acquired what they were looking for, there was little left to do in Gaoling. They had failed to do the one thing they had come for, but in the end, Azula at least didn't consider it a complete loss. Xisheng didn't know how that could be, considering that the entire trip had been a failure tactically speaking, but if the princess was satisfied with the outcome he saw no reason to question her on it. What was important now was their next move.

Naturally, Xisheng didn't ask anything of the sort while they were still within Gaoling's walls. It wasn't until they were some significant distance from the main gate to the city that he dared ask for any plan the Fire Nation Princess may have had.

"If I may be so bold, Princess, may I ask what our next step is? After all, I feel as though we may be at an impasse."

Leading the small column of people that was her entourage, Azula barely glanced over her shoulder at the group's lone male.

"Is that so? Do tell."

By now aware that Azula actually appreciated his input, so long as it was good, Xisheng didn't feel as uncomfortable with her putting him on the spot like this anymore.

"It's just that I can't imagine the Avatar going anywhere other than Ba Sing Se at this point, seeing as how he doesn't really have any other options. That said, frankly I don't think infiltrating a city of that size would be all that difficult, but... getting beyond the Outer Ring would be nigh on impossible. Forged passports won't cut it if we want to get beyond that point, and beyond that point is almost definitely where the Avatar will be."

Returning her gaze to the grasslands that separated Gaoling from the forest the Overlord had been hidden in, Azula gave her response to this valid line of reasoning.

"Unfortunately, I agree with you completely. The Earth Kingdom's bureaucracy is an overall travesty, easy to take advantage of... but the inner rings of Ba Sing Se are the one place where people do their jobs properly, likely due to the fact that all the wealthy members of their society reside there. I wouldn't put infiltration down to an impossibility, but it is by far an utterly unlikely plan."

From the third position in the column, Mai sighed.

"I don't suppose this means we can just forget about all of this and go home?"

From behind her, Ty Lee pointed out how contradictory this was to some earlier sentiments from the girl.

"But Mai, going home would just mean returning to the way things were in Omashu before, right? Didn't you hate it there?"

"OK, fair enough..."

Ty Lee peered around Mai's body to speak to her friends in front. "Did you hear that Gohan? We're a major improvement on Mai's life."

Mai responded to that before the young officer could answer. "One of you is, at any rate..."

Perhaps realizing the implication of what she had said now that Xisheng was looking at her, Mai seemed to find great interest in something on the horizon. Unfortunately, Xisheng had no time to investigate the meaning of this, as Azula forcibly put the conversation back on track.

"At any rate, I believe our best course of action would be to return to the nearest Fire Nation outpost and acquire some intelligence on the overall situation. Last I had heard before leaving the palace, a major offensive was being planned for Ba Sing Se relatively soon. To plan anything without knowing the details regarding that attack would be folly."

A frown crossed Xisheng's face as he considered what Azula had said. He had only heard rumors while still serving in the enlisted ranks, but the way he had heard it, the next attack on Ba Sing Se would include a massive war machine that had been under construction for well over five years now. While he had no way of knowing how said war machine was going to be incorporated into an offensive, Xisheng had always felt uneasy about it. In his own humble opinion, an assault that revolved around a single unit or weapon was slated for failure.

Moreover, the Fire Nation had a history of overestimating their newest inventions. Every time a new weapon or vehicle was invented, whether it was a tank or a battleship, some old coots that were out of touch with the battlefield assumed it would be unstoppable. They'd deploy it alone or close to it, thinking it would somehow crush the enemy with its 'technological superiority' single-handed, only for the vehicle to get destroyed because it had no support. When the Firestorm battle tank had fist been introduced, several dozen of them had been lost due to such arrogance.

By now Fire Nation command had better adopted combined arms warfare, rarely comprising an assault force of one sole unit type, but there was no telling how overconfident the person in charge would get when they had a powerful machine that had taken years to build on their side.

Either way, there was little else to say on that front, so the party traveled the rest of the way in silence: or at least, they did until reaching the edge of the forest, at which point Azula came to a stop. Initially, it was unclear why she did this, but the reason was made obvious when she turned towards them all, trying to conceal some level of irritability.

"Mai, if you would..."

Clearly implying that she had no idea how to get back to the Overlord from here, Azula suffered a few grins at her expense, but nevertheless succeeded in getting Mai to take the lead.

The rest of the day was quite droll, in Xisheng's opinion. They had reached the Overlord the day before by noon, at which point he alone had been tasked with clearing away all of the foliage that had been used as concealment. Thankfully that had been quite easy, since most of it could be burned in relative safety. Following that, there was some discussion with Azula as to which particular base Xisheng should deliver the party to. Poring over a map she had procured from Omashu revealed that the nearest Fire Nation base was a small foothold to the east of Gaoling. Said base had been established in preparation for an assault on Gaoling years ago, but considering the lack of strategic value, such an invasion had never taken place. Nevertheless, the base was manned, and should have been informed of any upcoming military operations.

Xisheng had rightly pointed out that this base was not the best choice if their ultimate goal was reaching Ba Sing Se, seeing as how it had not only mountains, but the entirety of the Si Wong Desert between it and the city. Even beyond the desert, Full Moon Bay was in the way as well. He personally believed that heading back in Omashu's general direction was a better choice in the long run, but ultimately Xisheng had been overruled. According to Azula, any conceivable route to Ba Sing Se would be fraught with inconvenience and trouble, and they didn't even know if it was worth it to head towards the stronghold anyway. She believed gathering more information before making their next move was more important.

That said, Xisheng had been forced to repeat a similar process from a few days before, that being driving the Overlord through the thick forests that surrounded most of Gaoling. Like last time, the experience hadn't been particularly pleasant, especially since he had no company during the trip. None of the girls had saw fit to join him in the driver's cabin, for reasons he could only guess at.

But while the brief journey had been boring and tiresome thus far, the evening was finally upon them, and that meant Xisheng could at least rest from the driving. And just like the state of affairs before arriving at Gaoling, evenings were generally filled with enjoyable interactions with the girls, especially since Azula had left him to his own devices for the day.

Frankly the soldier was surprised by that:he had expected the Princess to get right back to training now that they were out of Gaoling and had the chance to do so, but perhaps she was consumed with her plots for the uncertain future. Xisheng didn't know why such things couldn't wait until they actually had some information to plan around, which Azula herself had claimed was important, but maybe he was completely wrong in his assumption anyway. Perhaps the Princess was just tired, or didn't feel like catering to his inferior skill level that day.

Either way, the party had situated themselves readily enough once the Overlord had come to a stop at the edge of a forest clearing. Ty Lee had taken care of the Mongoose Lizards, something that had practically become expected of her at this point. Besides, maybe she felt bad about leaving them cooped up in the Overlord during the stay in Gaoling, even if they had plenty of food and water to stick it out. Neither Azula nor Mai had elected to leave the comforts of the vehicle yet, which had left Xisheng to make a campfire from which dinner could be cooked, whatever that was going to be.

While he hadn't put much thought into before now, Xisheng really did wonder what the girls had been eating this whole time. He just couldn't imagine which one of them actually had cooking skills. His money was on Ty Lee, even though he had only seen her make rice correctly, which was no great feat. He supposed simply asking was an option, but Xisheng preferred conducting his own investigations. He had to have some fun in his life, after all. Either way, there was no harm in preparing a fire, in case he had to make some rice all by his lonesome at some point.

Thankfully, managing a campfire was a very relaxing and effortless task for a Firebender. Short of ensuring there was enough material to maintain a fire, all one had to do was stoke the flames with their pyrokinetic abilities every once in awhile. Were it not for the need of a pot, Firebenders could have cooked without almost any tools.

Staring at the flame he had created, encircled by stones for safety, Xisheng watched as it flickered to and fro with the occasional gust of wind. The ethereal sight may have normally intrigued him, but at the moment all it did was worry the soldier.

Despite fire's potential for destruction, it had many weaknesses, namely in the form of the elements it faced. The flame before Xisheng was powerful enough to scorch his flesh, yet a gentle breeze was enough to control its path, potentially rendering it harmless. This flame had the power to burn down the entire forest, yet a handful of dirt could snuff it out. A bucket of water was more than enough to render all of that destructive potential worthless.

Of course, Xisheng couldn't care less about the survival of this one particular campfire: it was the battlefield that worried him. Frankly, the soldier felt ill-prepared for fights with the Avatar's group, especially now that Toph had joined them. Granted, he had mostly dominated Katara during their fight in Gaoling, but the Waterbender had been at a great disadvantage due to the lack of ammunition available to her at the time. In a fight where a Waterbender only had the ammo they could carry on their person available, the advantage clearly went to the Firebender.

But if she had been near even a mildly decent body of water, that advantage went out the window. Xisheng may have had more experience in battle than her, but Katara became exponentially more dangerous the more water she had available. Frankly, a fight near a river would likely result in Xisheng's demise.

As for Toph, Xisheng was not at all confident in his ability to defeat her. In ideal circumstances, sure: if they were in a location that didn't have much earth for her to bend. But finding a natural battleground in this world that didn't have earth readily available was a serious challenge. Short of leading the Avatar and his group into a trap, there was very little chance of encountering Toph in a location without any earth, or at least without very much of it.

Making matters worse was a particular fact that Xisheng had already realized: fire was at a huge disadvantage against earth. Dirt and stone just didn't burn. A simple earth shield that any Earthbender could make was often enough to thwart a Firebending attack. At least with water, flame could vaporize an incoming attack, but a thrown rock would often just plow right through a plume of flame.

And then there was the Avatar: Xisheng felt that they had yet to see the full extent of his Airbending prowess, and he was not eager to do so. If that child stopped holding back and actually fought to win they would all be in serious trouble. With Airbending, it was easy to deflect all but the most massive of infernos.

Taking all of this into consideration, Xisheng was frankly amazed at how well the war had gone for the Fire Nation over the past hundred years. If it weren't for their superior tactics and technology, and likely the incompetence of some of their enemy's governing forces, he had no doubt the war would have been over swiftly, and not in their favor. The Fire Nation's dedication to militarism, combat and technology was likely what had saved them.

Unfortunately none of those advantages gave Xisheng a personal edge against his foes. He couldn't defeat the Avatar or his allies with war machines, siege engines or an army of disciplined troops. Granted, on paper he could defeat them with those things, but in reality there was no way to levy those assets against them. Direct confrontation in which martial skill and bending prowess won the day were the only options, and Xisheng knew already that he didn't stack up.

Problem was, it was the very nature of his Firebending that was his weakness, not a lack of skill or dedication. That he possessed a disadvantageous element was something he couldn't change. But that didn't mean he couldn't find some way to surpass that limitation. Perhaps the key was finding a new way to use his flames, a technique that couldn't be countered so easily...

Xisheng was startled out of his thoughts when one of the bags the group had carried out of Gaoling landed next to him with a light thud. Glancing over his shoulder to examine the perpetrator, the soldier turned officer was surprised to see Mai, who wasted no time in handing him in pot he often used to boil rice while they were on the move.

"Set this up."

Instead of taking the cooking apparatus immediately, Xisheng cocked an eyebrow at the girl above him, many questions on his mind. Apparently though, Mai misinterpreted the look, as she reiterated her 'request' by actually making it one.

"Set this up, please."

Despite the fact that a request for politeness was not at all what he had intended to get across, Xisheng was too pleasantly surprised to make any comment on it, instead choosing to do what had been asked of him. Not that Mai was rude regularly, but her bluntness usually ended up seeming like she was.

As he proceeded to do what was necessary to place the pot over the campfire, Xisheng watched as Mai began pulling various ingredients out of the bag she had brought with her. Naturally, he couldn't help but comment on this.

"You're kidding."

"What?"

"You're the one who knows how to cook?"

Mai didn't take her eyes of the task she was performing, though Xisheng noticed her movements becoming a little more rigid. He knew that likely implied she was uncomfortable with the topic, but he couldn't imagine why that would be the case.

"It's not that unlikely."

Certain he had made a mistake somewhere but unsure of how, Xisheng worded his response carefully.

"I guess you have tried a bunch of things just for kicks. It's not too unlikely that cooking would be one of them, right?"

Mai briefly looked up at him as she began to peel some sort of vegetable with one of her knives.

"...sure."

By her reaction and her response, Xisheng could immediately tell that his guess was not accurate. Even so, he said nothing. He got the distinct feeling that Mai wasn't too keen on talking about it.

"I can tell you want to ask."

Surprised by her powers of observation, Xisheng nevertheless chose to play it dumb.

"Ask what? I already got the answer."

Mai kept her gaze focused on what she was doing: Xisheng couldn't imagine her ever hurting herself with a blade, but prudence was probably a large part of making that happen.

"It's the wrong answer and you know it. And I know that you know because you aren't a clueless idiot."

"Thanks?"

"But I also know your unhealthy obsession with learning things about people against their will. So just get it over with."

With a wry look of amusement, Xisheng shook his head. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but if I knew you didn't want to talk about it and proceeded to bring it up, would that not make me a clueless idiot? Of course I'm curious, but I'm not going to get answers at the expense of your comfort."

With the faintest of smiles, Mai responded to his statement.

"You're too nice..."

"Why thank-"

"It kind of makes me sick."

Xisheng's smile fell immediately, even though he got the feeling she was joking. Even if it was a joke, was it really necessary to make such a backhanded compliment?

Feeling like he should pout about his mistreatment a bit, Xisheng was about to go fetch the water they would need for whatever meal dinner would be, but he didn't get a chance to get on his feet, because Mai was speaking to him again.

"Were there things in the military you had to learn that you really didn't want to, Gohan?"

Unsure of where this was going but interested in the end result, Xisheng thought back to his Army training.

"Well, sure. Digging latrines is something no one really wants to be familiar with. And I wasn't too fond of learning how to skin wild game for food. There's a lot of not so glamorous skills the Army forces you to learn."

Mai smirked, likely at his expense, but the expression fell quickly.

"Believe it or not, there's a lot of things you 'have' to learn as the daughter of a noble. Nothing so disgusting as cutting up animals or making improvised toilets, but... there's a lot of skills you're expected to be capable in to prove you're a worthwhile member of high society, though it's more along the lines of proving you can cater to the needs of whatever lord you marry."

As a commoner, Xisheng generally didn't consider this aspect of a noble woman's life. In retrospect, it kind of made sense: while the Fire Nation had significantly more gender equality than the other nations, it wasn't a perfect balance. Men still dominated high society, and he imagined that a woman born to a noble house was expected to become the ideal wife for some lord, in order to bring more prestige to the family or something.

Ironically, it was a burden the common people didn't really have to deal with too much. If you were a woman in middle class or lower, at least no one expected you to specifically fulfill a certain particular niche. You could pretty much do what you wanted to and nobody would give you too much trouble for it.

"Sorry. This type of complaining must sound ridiculous to someone who has fought on the front lines of a war."

Caught off guard since Mai didn't seem the type to apologize for something like this (though to be fair he hadn't expected her to even initiate a conversation like this), Xisheng nevertheless managed to say his piece without hesitation.

"I don't think it's ridiculous. Sure, I believe there's an objective scale of how bad things are: watching people die and being in harm's way is worse than being bullied. But I also think that everyone has a relative scale of how bad things are for them, and that scale is no less justifiable. Problems that are serious for you may not be serious for me, and vice versa. People can't be blamed for not understanding or caring about problems that don't concern them, no matter how serious those problems may be for someone else. But it also means that no one has a right to label the problems of someone else as 'inferior' or 'ridiculous' compared to their own... what I'm saying is, it's true that I've seen people die and risked my life on a battlefield, but that doesn't invalidate your problems or how serious they are for you, even if they aren't as objectively bad."

There was silence between the two of them as Mai leveled an intrigued look at him, though Xisheng interpreted it incorrectly.

"S-sorry, sometimes I stray way off-topic like that..."

With the faint smile from before returning a little wider, Mai focused on her culinary task once more.

"Don't apologize for it. I like how much thought you put into these kinds of things. You always think of things normal people don't even bother to consider. Or care to, I guess."

"I thought you of all people would find such philosophy tedious."

"Well, I don't like to waste time pondering things with no practical point, but I certainly wouldn't say that I find your intellect tedious."

With a smirk, Xisheng cocked an eyebrow at her.

"My intellect, huh?"

"Don't let it go to your head. Ty Lee is around too, so the bar isn't all that high."

A shadow passed over the duo just as Mai said this, prompting Xisheng to grin sheepishly as he identified the caster. Ty Lee stood behind them, arms folded and frown in place.

"You know, one of these days all the mean things you guys say about me will actually hurt."

As she began cutting up another ingredient, Mai apologized, though she didn't sound all that apologetic.

"Sorry. Didn't think you were that close."

"Whether or not I hear it shouldn't be the determining factor!"

Feeling a little bad about the admittedly heavy-handed teasing Ty Lee often suffered at the hands of her companions, Xisheng took it upon himself to placate her.

"Don't worry Ty Lee: you've got a certain type of wisdom the rest of us are lacking. We've all got our strengths and weaknesses."

Contrary to expectations, Ty Lee's pout didn't lessen upon hearing this.

"That's sweet and all, but you didn't deny anything about what Mai implied..."

"C'mon, none of us are stupid. We all have some knowledge that the others don't..."

With a sigh, Ty Lee placed her hands on her hips.

"Stop trying to make me feel better with all this practicality and just spend time with me or something."

The acrobat cast a certain look in Mai's direction, likely questioning whether or not she was going to oppose Ty Lee's poaching of Xisheng's company. She hadn't heard much of what the two of them were talking about prior to the comment about her intelligence, but she didn't have to understand the conversation to pick up on how much Mai was opening up to Xisheng. There had been a lot of signs lately; initiating conversations of her own accord, smiling in those conversations, even complimenting him. These were all things one might consider normal in everyday interaction between people that didn't hate each other, but for Mai it was kind of unusual. Ty Lee doubted she had changed too terribly much in the years that had separated them: she had rarely cared for putting on airs with people she didn't care at least a little bit about.

Still, maybe Ty Lee was being a little ridiculous, assuming that Mai would openly try to resist the notion she had put forth. She either didn't care that much or had no intent of making it obvious if she did. That's probably why all she did was shrug.

"If you could bring some water from the vehicle first, I'd appreciate it."

Xisheng was honestly a little reluctant to leave the conversation he'd been having with Mai, as he felt as though he was uncovering some new things about her. But on the other hand, he didn't want to just ignore Ty Lee. Admittedly, splitting his attention between the three girls in the group was actually a bit difficult.

Even so, the soldier ultimately agreed with the course of action that had been set before him.

"Alright. How much do you need?"

"Just enough to fill the pot."

Seeing as how there was no immediate source of water nearby, Xisheng had no choice but to get some from the Overlord's stores: naturally it was limited in quantity, but since they had just recently left Gaoling with supplies, it wasn't like the group was particularly hurting for it. That said, it didn't take Xisheng too terribly long to fetch what was required of him, which earned a brief word of gratitude from Mai. As soon as that was accomplished, Ty Lee was quick to drag the soldier away from the campfire that had been erected.

Xisheng cast a brief glance back at the Overlord, noting with a little uncertainty that he hadn't seen Azula at all this evening. He couldn't help but wonder if she would be upset to find him absent if she finally decided that training was in order that day. Still, it wasn't like he could just lounge around outside the vehicle all day long, on the off chance that she would require his presence at some point. With that in mind, he turned his attention entirely to Ty Lee.

"So, do you have a routine you'd like to show me?"

Smiling at how eager Xisheng was to see her perform, Ty Lee nevertheless said what was really on her mind. Well, not what was really on her mind. She didn't want to tell Xisheng to his face that she was getting a little jealous of how much attention he had been affording Mai the past few days. In her heart, she knew that it was petty and shallow to feel that way, but it just didn't seem fair: Ty Lee was the only one that treated Xisheng well at all in the beginning. Not that she had done so in order to be rewarded, but the man could at least divvy up his attention a little better.

That was why she had decided to grab his attention a little more often. If he wanted her to teach him a few things, she had quite a few options.

"Actually, I was considering what you said back in Gaoling. About if I could teach you a few things? If you want, I could maybe help you get more limber?"

Being a martial artist who had seen many battlefields, Xisheng by no means possessed an inflexible and rigid body. However, he knew he didn't hold a candle to what Ty Lee could do. Frankly, this wasn't the kind of thing that had been on his mind when he was considering what Ty Lee could teach him, but there was hardly any harm in becoming more flexible. Besides, maybe that could be a stepping stone to some acrobatic lessons? If he had Ty Lee's agility and his own Firebending, maybe he could take his combat prowess to another level?

"That sounds great. What do you have in mind?"

"Well, it would probably be best if we determine exactly how flexible you are first. It would be kind of silly to try and make you do anything way beyond your current means."

Agreeing with that assessment, Xisheng ended up following Ty Lee a little ways out into the woods they were staying in, creating a little bit of privacy for them. It didn't dawn on him that this may have been intentional on her part.

Once they had reached the area of Ty Lee's choice, she turned to him with a smile.

"OK, so I'll go through some stretches, and you just try to copy me. That way we can see where you are right now."

"Alright, that sounds reasonable."

With that, the two of them began the exercise in earnest. At first, Ty Lee performed simple arm stretches and the like, seeing how far Xisheng was able to bend his limbs in general. Considering his martial background, such things were well within the soldier's capability, so it didn't take long to move on from there.

It was after those stretches that Xisheng realized the level of composure he would actually need for this whole ordeal, because once those simple stretches were out of the way, Ty Lee moved onto ones that more often than not resulted in scandalous parts of her body being pointed in Xisheng's direction. Whether it was arching her back towards him or spreading her legs for a thigh stretch, it occurred to Xisheng that she was absolutely doing this on purpose. After all, she could have done all of these suggestive stretches while facing away from him, and judging by the pleased expression on her face as they went about this activity, it was clear that she was enjoying his reaction to all of it.

That said, Xisheng hadn't been subjected to such direct or suggestive flirting in all of his life, and he felt extremely awkward about it. In an attempt to rectify that situation, he tried to bring up a topic that had interested him earlier that day, though his eyes never left the curves of Ty Lee's flexible body.

"Ah, y-you know, earlier today at the market... you mentioned that I had a certain... presence? And you mentioned a lot of colors. What was all of that supposed to mean?"

With talking hardly requiring too much focus, Ty Lee didn't interrupt her physical activity to answer this question. "I said gold, orange, red, pink, and blue, specifically. Of course you exude other colors sometimes but since I've known you those colors have been the most prominent and consistent."

Despite the visual in front of him, this actually interested Xisheng enough to distract him from any scandalous thoughts: temporarily, at least.

"This color business... what exactly do you mean? You bring up auras and colors a lot, but what exactly are you seeing?"

Perhaps forgetting her own agenda for a moment, Ty Lee pondered how to describe something no one else seemed to understand. "It's kind of like... a mist. A really colorful mist that hangs around people. And it changes color based on a lot of things. Most of the time it's specific feelings at a point in time, like bright pink when people are embarrassed or really dark green for people who are jealous. But the color also depends on someone's personality as a whole. Those are the colors that are almost always present."

"I... kind of get it, I guess. But how do you know what all the colors stand for?"

"Well, colors can actually mean several things, depending on their shade, or how bright they are, or a bunch of other stuff. You probably figured this out already, but it's not like anyone taught me any of this: I kind of just had to figure it out as I grew up. It's probably part of why I turned out to be so social with everyone. I mean, to figure out what a bunch of different colors meant, I had to talk to people and find out how they were feeling. It's actually how I met Mai when we were kids."

While he was interested in hearing that story, Xisheng decided it was better to stay focused on the topic at hand.

"Well, I'm almost scared to ask, but what do the colors you mentioned for me symbolize? I mean, you said pink was embarrassment... I won't deny that I feel that a lot, but I'd hardly say it is a crucial part of my personality..."

Perhaps amused by his concern, Ty Lee giggled at his expense, though she was quick to assuage his fears.

"Don't worry about it Gohan. Pink can stand for embarrassment, but it also represents people who are sensitive and compassionate. Of course if it's a dark pink it usually means someone is dishonest or immature, but yours isn't like that."

While glad to hear that his shade of pink was apparently a good thing, Xisheng couldn't help but question it as he tired to copy the way Ty Lee was bending her body.

"So if different colors can mean different things based on something as slight as their shade, isn't it really difficult to tell how people are feeling? I mean, apparently pink can mean ten different things depending on how light or dark it is."

"Well of course, it's not like I'm psychic or anything: I've definitely misread people's feelings before. But it's not like I rely on auras alone to tell how people are feeling. I mean, if I see the shade of pink I think symbolizes embarrassment, but the person clearly isn't embarrassed, it's got to mean something else, right? It's actually quite a bit of guesswork."

As he watched Ty Lee move into a handstand that he definitely couldn't imitate, it occurred to Xisheng that this aura business was likely something specific to Ty Lee's interpretation of any one person, rather than some sort of absolute cosmic sign of a person's feeling or personality. After all, she was the only person who saw these auras, which could only mean one of two things.

Either one, auras were totally real but regular people couldn't see them, and Ty Lee had some sort of transcendent quality about her that allowed her to see them. Or two, there was something 'wrong' with her. Of course, Xisheng didn't mean that in the sense that she was actually broken or something: only that something about her was off compared to your average human being. After all, not once had she struck him as a crazy hallucinating person, so he believed her when she said she saw all these colors around people.

But if the reason she saw those colors was because something was different about her biologically, didn't that just mean that any 'aura' she saw was just a manifestation of how she viewed them? In that case, she could be completely wrong about a person's feelings or personality, just like any normal person trying to identify those things about someone.

Ultimately, Xisheng concluded that it didn't really matter: if his assumption was right and these auras Ty Lee saw were just manifestations of how she viewed them, this was still a great opportunity to find out how she really saw him as a person. Having completely forgotten about trying to imitate Ty Lee's stretches, Xisheng decided to investigate further.

"OK, so the pink is good: what do those other colors you see around me mean?"

With her back turned and her hands planted firmly on the ground, Ty Lee spread her legs, shaping her body into a form very reminiscent of the letter T. While most of his focus was commanded by the arousing view, Xisheng couldn't help but wonder if the acrobat was trying to mess with him, because surely she knew he wouldn't be able to do that if he was still trying to copy her.

If she noticed the explicit attention he was paying to her rear, Ty Lee didn't mention it as she answered his question.

"Well, orange is something I see around people that are creative and brave... I said I saw a lot of blue with you, but in hindsight, maybe it's more of an indigo? That usually means you're intuitive, which goes really well with the gold, 'cuz that usually means someone is really wise."

Wow, I had no idea Ty Lee thought this highly of me...

"And the red means you're a huge pervert thinking about really naughty things while looking at my butt."

Needless to say, this break from the praise thus far threw Xisheng for a loop.

"H-hey, what!? Are you making that up!?"

Glancing back at him with a smirk on her face, it was obvious that Ty Lee found his reaction amusing.

"Nope, a clear, prominent red is a sure sign of passion, which includes the carnal side of desire. And your aura always grows a bit more crimson when you're checking out my body..."

"N-n-now hold on, don't you think you might be misinterpreting something...?"

Coming out of her handstand to face him directly, Ty Lee did nothing to calm Xisheng's nerves.

"Not at all. After all, my aura gets really red when I look at your butt too."

Utterly flustered by this new line of conversation, Xisheng had no response ready, though it turned out he didn't need one, as somebody else filled the immediate silence.

"Is this truly how you spend your free time Lieutenant? Color me appalled."

Feeling a slight bit of dread creeping into his being, Xisheng couldn't help but wonder how much had been overheard as he looked over his shoulder at an irate Azula, her arms crossed. He wasn't quite sure what to say, but Ty Lee beat him to it anyway, though not in a way Xisheng had been expecting.

"Excuse me, but what exactly do you mean by that, Azula? Because it sounds like you're saying something really offensive."

"If you find my disdain for wasting time offensive, that's hardly my problem."

For the first time since he had been inducted into this odd group, Xisheng witnessed Ty Lee grow combative, and with Azula no less. In a few seconds the circus performer was standing but a few inches from the Fire Nation princess, a none too happy glare on her face.

"Xisheng spending time with me is not a waste!"

This confrontational stance from Ty Lee clearly didn't sit well with the Crown Princess, as made obvious by the very displeased expression that crossed her face. Xisheng figured it might be a good idea to try and defuse the situation.

"Princess, the purpose of our time together was actually to train. Her acrobatics would-"

Xisheng's defense was cut short as Azula turned her ire on him. Frankly, he had no idea what had put her in such a bad mood, since she had seemed fine earlier today.

"Oh yes, training. That was made evident by your conversation, I assure you. Need I remind you that someone of your middling talents has no time to waste fooling around?"

Honestly, to hear this scathing remark from the Princess wounded Xisheng, but more than that, it angered him. Azula was undoubtedly his better in almost everything relating to fighting, but he was hardly some pushover that couldn't hold his own. Where the hell did she get off on accosting him like this?

"Middling is surely an overstatement, Princess. I-"

"I'd daresay it's an understatement! You don't hold a candle to anyone you should be striving to surpass! Your commitment to improvement is so pathetic that you waste your time flirting with any girl that offers you the slightest attention instead of bettering your own worthless skills."

It looked like Ty Lee was about to interject again, likely not pleased with how insignificant her investment in any of this was being considered, but before she could the voice of the only uninvolved member of the party made itself known.

"Uh... dinner's ready."

The three of them all glanced over to see Mai standing a little distance away, clearly confused by the hostile situation. She had directed Azula in the direction that Ty Lee and Gohan had gone when asked, but she hadn't expected the irritable look on her face to lead to something of this nature. Despite not being the most attuned to the group's overall atmosphere, she certainly hadn't detected any sort of tension that would have lead to this situation prior to now.

Not commenting on Mai's helpful notice, Azula directed her glare back to Ty Lee.

"I need to speak to the Lieutenant alone. Make yourself scarce."

Clearly angry with the way she was being treated, Ty Lee nevertheless held back whatever she wanted to say. Xisheng had no idea what spurred her to hold her tongue now, considering that she had already snapped once. Maybe she was privy to something the soldier wasn't, but either way she stalked away from the situation without another word. Mai was quick to follow, not nearly curious enough to try and intervene in whatever was going on here.

For Xisheng's part, he was none too pleased with anything that was transpiring here, least of all how Azula was treating people that were supposed to be her friends and comrades seemingly out of nowhere, but he too held his tongue. He couldn't let his personal feelings supersede his station.

Azula watched her friends leave the area, at which point she faced Xisheng again and quickly jabbed a finger into his chest.

"In one week, you and I are going to fight. If you fail to land a single blow on me, I will demote you and leave you under the command of the very next Fire Nation unit we encounter. That's all."

With that, the Crown Princess of the Fire Nation turned away and walked back towards the camp, leaving a stunned Xisheng in her wake. Needless to say, she had done a stellar job of ruining what had thus far been a very good day.

Chapter Text

Following the delivery of Azula's ultimatum, the rest of the day was a bit surreal. Still requiring sustenance like any normal human being, Xisheng returned to the camp to eat even though he was still reeling. Azula was absent from it when he arrived, leaving only Mai and Ty Lee for company. Normally that would have been fine, but dinner was shrouded in a stifling silence. Whether this was because Azula had said something to them specifically or just because the atmosphere was tense, Xisheng had no idea.

Maybe it was actually his fault that they were so quiet, since his mind had been far away from any thoughts of conversation. He was so lost in thought that he barely managed to acknowledge that the stew Mai had cooked was extremely good. Unfortunately it completely slipped his mind to compliment her on it or thank her for cooking dinner, due to the dire nature of his thoughts. He didn't even notice when both girls left the campfire and left him to his own devices. Maybe they had said something to him, or maybe they hadn't. He couldn't remember.

He'd already gone through the motions of cleaning up, and now he sat alone, staring at the dwindling campfire. Night was falling, and he had an early morning the next day, but sleep was far from his mind. The only thing he could think about was the situation with Azula.

One might think that he felt ashamed or humiliated to be reprimanded by her, but this was not the case. Rather, Xisheng was angry. Downright insulted really. His dedication to improvement was pathetic? Where the hell did she get off making such a ridiculous claim? Was he not the only member of the Royal Guard that had the initiative to request training from her? Was he not the one who had fought his hardest against Iroh not once, but twice? Suddenly that was all irrelevant because he'd been flirting with Ty Lee for five seconds?

Azula had a penchant for talking down to people, even if it was usually subtle, but thus far she had treated Xisheng with respect, at least along the lines of him being a warrior and loyal soldier. He'd done nothing but serve faithfully and to the best of his abilities, and this was his reward?

And that was to say nothing about the way she had treated Ty Lee. She had put her life on hold to help Azula just because she had been asked to, out of a genuine desire to help a friend. She deserved much better than the way she had been treated today.

By now Xisheng had started pacing around the camp, his movements mostly automatic as he fumed about the injustice of it all. Frankly, this was the first aspect of Azula's character to come to light that truly irked the soldier. She was smart, dedicated, talented, passionate and apparently, fickle or even petty. Or maybe she was actually was more entitled and bratty than she had let on.

With a sigh of frustration, Xisheng stopped near a tree some ways from the Overlord, pausing to collect his thoughts. Angry as he was, he couldn't speculate on things he didn't understand. He had no clue why Azula had snapped in the way she had, and trying to guess was pointless. All that mattered right now was meeting her sudden expectations, unreasonable as they were.

Unfortunately, figuring out how to do that was much more difficult than trying to discern Azula's motives. Xisheng had fought the Crown Princess more than enough to acknowledge that he couldn't beat her in a straight fight. Hell, he was unsure if he could beat her even if he could ambush the girl at his discretion. She had almost every attribute a warrior needed in spades: she was fast, clever, strong, and creative. She always reacted optimally, always expended her effort in the most efficient way possible, always recovered perfectly in the rare instances she was caught off-guard. Ironically, her Firebending ability was the least important factor in what made her an amazing fighter.

The only thing Azula lacked was experience, but her other attributes compensated for that easily. Or at least, that was clearly the case since Xisheng's superior experience hadn't allowed him to beat her yet.

So what could he do in one week to change the status quo between them? That certainly wasn't enough time to train his body to reach new speeds. And even if he could get faster than he was now, chances were he would never be as fast as Azula. She was smaller than he was and just had less mass to move around. This also meant physical strength was useless, as the strongest punch was worthless if it couldn't hit the target. On top of that, he couldn't possibly improve his raw Firebending ability to a degree that would match her. Azula had been born with a Firebending potential that already placed her above the level most people could reach no matter how hard they trained. On top of that raw potential, she trained even harder than nearly anyone out there. That combination of ingrained potential and dedicated training placed her at a spot Xisheng knew he couldn't surpass conventionally. If you had an exceptional person and an average person that both trained the same amount, the exceptional person would always stay ahead. That was just life.

Having failed to discern any meaningful way to possibly defeat Azula in mortal combat, Xisheng felt his frustration mounting. On one hand he was angry at Azula for her unreasonable ultimatum, but on the other he was angry with himself for not finding a way prove her wrong. Despite being a generally calm and collected individual, Xisheng's anger flared to a level where release was necessary. In a spurt of frustration, the soldier punched the tree in front of him with all his might, a massive jet of flame preceding the strike.

His fist still pressed against the now burnt bark of the tree, Xisheng's heavy breathing didn't distract him from a curious revelation: his hand didn't hurt. He'd hardly been in enough control of his emotions to hold back, and he was certain he had punched the sturdy beast with a great deal of force. So obviously, his hand should have been in a great deal of pain, but it was only mildly uncomfortable.

Staring down at his hand and back to the tree he had punched, Xisheng questioned this outcome and decided that an experiment was in order. Taking his other hand, Xisheng punched the tree before him with all his might, without any Firebending at all. As one would expect, there was a solid impact of bone on wood, and he recoiled immediately as the nerves in his hands condemned his actions. So, the tree was indeed hard, and he still knew how to throw a punch. That meant the experiment had to continue.

Now using the hand he had struck out in frustration in (mostly since it didn't hurt like hell like his other hand), Xisheng included a Firebending blast as powerful as the one his moment of anger had created. Naturally the tree was scorched by the flame, but more importantly, the impact was way less powerful than the unaided punch from before.

Connecting several dots in his head, Xisheng smirked, despite having one hand throbbing in pain. He didn't know if what he had learned just now would be enough to give him the edge he needed, but this was the first time he felt like he might actually have a chance against Azula. All he had to do now was perfect the technique he had devised just now over the course of the next week.

Azula wasn't one to regret her actions, but in the days following her harsh words towards Xisheng and Ty Lee, even she had to admit that maybe she had handled the situation in a less than ideal manner. The atmosphere between the four members of the group had grown unbearably awkward, even to Azula, who reclined alone in the open car of the immobile Overlord. Her compatriots were all scattered about the area, the outskirts of the forest they had so recently exited.

Ty Lee had not spoken a word to her since that night. In fact, the past few days had been the quietest Azula could remember the girl being in her entire life. At first she had been kind of grateful for the silence, but that gratitude had worn thin rather quickly. Azula would readily admit that Ty Lee talked way too much for her liking, but that didn't mean she had to go to the opposite extreme and flat out ignore Azula entirely. Where'd she even get the gall to do that?

It was her own fault for being so sensitive, and more importantly, not remembering her place. The way Ty Lee had spoken to her that night was utterly unacceptable.

Even so, Azula admitted to some extent that she could have been a little less antagonistic.

Either way, Ty Lee hadn't gotten over her personal issue yet, and Mai was keeping a cautious distance from the situation, as best as Azula could tell. At any rate, Mai hadn't asked her specifically about what had happened or why, though Azula supposed she could have asked either Ty Lee or Xisheng. She had also grown very quiet over the past few days, reminding Azula of the way the girl used to be.

Perhaps that was because Xisheng was too busy to draw her out of her emotional fortress like he usually did. That was because the group's only male had spent the last few days doing a very limited number of things: he drove the Overlord during the day and disappeared into the surrounding area whenever they stopped for the night. Azula assumed the purpose of the latter was to train, and that seemed to be accurate considering the fact that he constantly returned late at night, utterly exhausted. What he was actually up to out there was a mystery, but Azula was pleased that he was taking her ultimatum seriously.

Mostly because she wasn't nearly as confident about the decision as she had outwardly expressed.

Looking back on the thought process that had led up to this whole situation, Azula couldn't help but feel she had been a tad irrational. Truth be told she had not been in any particularly foul mood that day: she'd been a little irritated to find Xisheng absent from her immediate vicinity when she had deemed it time to train, but other than that Azula had actually been in a rather good mood. She'd even given the soldier the benefit of the doubt, assuming he was using his time wisely.

Needless to say, stumbling into a conversation revolving around the praising of posteriors had not gone over well with the Crown Princess of the Fire Nation.

In the heat of the moment, Azula had made a series of judgments without putting too much thought into it, a true rarity for her. The notion of her most loyal soldier running off into the woods to try and flirt his way into a girl's pants had done more than irk Azula. In a practical regard, he very clearly should have been spending his free time training to improve his skills. After all, he had convinced Azula of all people to train him, the least he could have done was work to meet her standards when he had the time. Moreover, he should have been acutely aware of how much better he would have to get now that Toph was traveling with their enemy.

But if she were honest with herself, Azula had to admit that practicality hadn't been the primary reason she had reacted the way she had. After all, Xisheng had claimed that he had actually been out there to train, and frankly Azula could see Ty Lee initiating a flirtatious conversation even if Xisheng was truly focused on practicing some skill to improve himself.

She'd actually just been upset about the nature of the conversation and the two people that were involved in it. Not for the first time, she found the idea of Ty Lee stealing her subordinate's attention away from her in such a manner infuriating. Xisheng had a massive list of better things to do, all of which included serving Azula in some manner or another.

Some part of Azula considered that maybe such a practical explanation was just a cover for something as petty as jealousy, but a much bigger part of her refused to believe that could possibly be the case. Xisheng was her soldier, only on this mission because of her good graces. Like a hired servant, the master would have every right to be upset if that servant was constantly catering to people other than them.

However, in hindsight Azula questioned her means of punishment for the transgression. Servant he may be, but Xisheng was a very valuable servant. In the heat of the moment Azula had threatened to get rid of him, but she didn't actually like the idea of doing so. For one, he drove the Overlord. Granted, he had apparently taught Mai how to do it, so it wasn't like the machine would be inoperable without him, but Azula could only imagine how much complaining she would have to endure if driving the Overlord every day became Mai's job.

Secondly, despite her accosting of his skill level, Xisheng had proved to be a valuable asset in combat. While they had yet to win against their foes in any engagement, he always pulled his weight and then some. And considering that the Avatar had Toph at his side now, losing Xisheng would be a major detriment to the group's capabilities.

But more than any of that, Azula appreciated having Xisheng at her side. He was loyal above all else and earnestly supported all of Azula's endeavors, and not just because duty and protocol demanded that he do so. Azula could tell that Xisheng was loyal to her, not to her title, and she greatly enjoyed that distinction.

Which was problematic. For all the credit Azula gave the man, she didn't think Xisheng was capable of besting her, even in a task as simple as landing one solid hit on her. After all, in all of the sparring matches the two of them had shared thus far, the soldier had never managed to do that. Azula would admit that he had come close once or twice, but in his failure to deliver in those instances, he erased his own opportunities. Azula had swiftly acclimated to the methods he had used to create those openings, and now they no longer worked on her.

So from Azula's standpoint, she had given Xisheng an impossible task, and his failure to complete that impossible task would result in his eviction from her presence. Granted, Azula could always go back on her word and allow him to stay regardless of the match's outcome, but that was something she wouldn't do. She was the Crown Princess of the Fire Nation. Unless overridden by her father, Azula's word was law. To rescind her own commands was tantamount to saying she couldn't be trusted as a leader.

Now if only she hadn't actually made such a foolish decision that she had no choice but to stick to.

Glancing out of the Overlord's open cabin, Azula interrupted her own musings to question everyone's presence, or lack thereof. She was well and truly alone, unable to see any of her comrades. What they were all doing was beyond her. Whether they were off doing their own thing or collaborating on something was a mystery.

The Princess briefly wondered if Xisheng and Ty Lee were up to the same antics that had started this whole situation, but she didn't think they would be foolish enough to do that. Moreover, the thought of it angered her, so she didn't dwell on it for long.

Instead, she turned her thoughts to a potential way to get out of the situation she had recklessly created. Maybe the transfer to a new command could be a temporary scare tactic.

As the week wore on, Ty Lee found herself in one of the worst moods she had experienced in several years. In fact, it was one of the few times in her life where she didn't feel inclined to talk to anyone, and instead chose to avoid them. One had to put Ty Lee in a truly irritable mood for her to forego regular human interaction, and that's why she reclined alone against a tree on the outskirts of the forest.

She had barely spoken to anyone else in the group since the brief confrontation with Azula a few days ago. Mai was hard to initiate conversation with at the best of times, never mind when neither of them really felt like talking, so that was the case there. Xisheng had been utterly enveloped in his work the past few days, for reasons Ty Lee could only guess at. She assumed that Azula had reprimanded him or worse, and he was perhaps trying to make up for his 'mistake,' that being the reprehensible crime of enjoying himself with Ty Lee, apparently.

Naturally, the acrobat hadn't spoken a word to Azula in all this time, and Azula had done the same in return. The air between them was tense, for a multitude of reasons that Ty Lee was mostly aware of and none too happy with.

In the past, Azula had been a great many things; confident, capable, intelligent and talented among them. But as a close friend of the Princess at that age, Ty Lee saw all the other traits too; the vindictiveness, the entitlement, the selfishness and the cruelty. She had a front row seat to all of that during her childhood years with the Princess. For the most part, Ty Lee hadn't been subjected to too many of the bad things. However, the acrobat had no doubt in her mind that she had evaded most of Azula's ire as a child because she had been even more agreeable than she was now.

For all of Ty Lee's weaknesses in raw mental acuity, she had an equal strength in emotional intelligence. She read people very well, understood the things that pleased them and infuriated them. Even as a child, it had been obvious to Ty Lee that Azula was the type of person that hated to be outdone or outshined, regardless of the capacity.

Azula hated being inferior to other people, even in things she didn't personally care for. She had always been irritated whenever people noticed Ty Lee for her acrobatics, or even when she herself had challenged Mai to a game of precision and lost. She hated to lose in any field, and she only reacted to losing in two ways: she either trained in that field until the person who had bested her was utterly defeated, or she simply deemed the skill as a waste of time to have any talent in. Both of these made it very difficult to get along with her.

Even Mai and Ty Lee, or perhaps especially Mai and Ty Lee, were treated to this sort of behavior. Azula simply hadn't been able to accept that they had some skills they excelled in over her. But being unable to surpass them in those skills, she simply labeled them as inferior or pointless to have. Belittling was perhaps the nicest way to refer to it. It was just one way Azula had flaunted her superiority complex over both of them.

With the beginning of this particular adventure, Ty Lee had briefly convinced herself that Azula had grown out of some of those childish behaviors. Initially, it had seemed like she may have actually matured beyond them, but the most recent conversation between the two girls had proved otherwise.

Azula may have claimed that Ty Lee was her friend, but it didn't take a genius to see that she was still viewed as a subject above all else. The way Azula talked down to her, the expression of indignation on her face when Ty Lee dared defend herself against an accusation, it was all evidence enough of the true reality of the situation.

To say it stung was a massive understatement. Azula had acted as though Xisheng even speaking to her was a waste of time, and for what? Because she was jealous of his attention being on her?

That notion angered the brunette even more. Ty Lee knew that no matter how vehemently she denied it or nonchalantly she evaded it, Azula had some middling romantic attraction to Xisheng at the very least. However, Ty Lee also knew for a fact that Azula would never act on such things. She held her social standing in far too high of a regard to even consider that.

That made it all the more infuriating that Azula felt the need to obstruct any kind of meaningful relationship with him. Ty Lee knew for a fact that Azula wouldn't even consider him seriously, so why couldn't she just let Ty Lee do as she pleased with the relationship? It was none of Azula's business in the first place, but being the Crown Princess, she felt entitled to claim everything as under her jurisdiction. It was an aspect of their relationship Ty Lee hadn't missed.

Sighing, Ty Lee couldn't help but regret agreeing to all of this at this point, at least a little bit.

"Is now a bad time?"

Startled out of her own musings, Ty Lee was a little shocked to see Xisheng standing before her, looking a little worse for wear. He seemed so exhausted these past few days, for reasons Ty Lee could only guess at. Either way, it was clear he had been looking for her, though for how long was a mystery.

"Every time is a bad time apparently. Are you sure you should be doing this?"

Even as tired as he was, Xisheng's eyes still bore that light of expressiveness that always made him so engaging.

"I'm afraid you'll have to clarify on what exactly you mean."

"Talking to me. Or even looking in my general direction. Both seem to irritate her Highness."

Xisheng was certain he had never heard Ty Lee speak with such disdain for another person. Granted, she had every right to be irritable, but he couldn't help but feel that the tone of voice was almost alien coming from her mouth.

"I don't think she can grow irritated over something she isn't aware of."

"Oh yeah? And what will you do when she just outright orders you to ignore me?"

Xisheng couldn't help but feel that such a notion was a little far-fetched.

"Come now Ty Lee, I don't think that's really a likely possibility."

Further cementing the fact that she was not feeling herself, Ty Lee scoffed.

"If you really think Azula wouldn't do something like that, you're seriously underestimating her."

The Fire Nation soldier fell silent for a moment as he contemplated his response to such a statement. After all, the way he felt about the theoretical situation could be construed as disloyalty or even treason by some extremely radical individuals. Still, that reality didn't change his opinion, and he was still going to share it with Ty Lee.

"While I don't truly believe Azula would take it that far, even if she did I would not comply with such an order. You don't have to worry about something like that."

The look on Ty Lee's face made it clear that she had not expected such an answer. Not that Xisheng blamed her: he tended to present himself as a completely loyal individual, something that didn't pair well with the notion of disobeying orders. The brunette didn't take long to verbalize this line of reasoning.

"I, um, appreciate that, but it doesn't really sound like something you would normally say. Would you really disobey an order from Azula like that?"

"It goes without saying that I am loyal to Azula. The day I became a soldier was the day I swore to serve the Royal Family. Beyond that, I am loyal to her cause and her success. I respect her as a leader, teacher and warrior. But despite all of that, I do not think it her place to dictate what personal relationships I am allowed to have. I serve her, but it is by choice. I am not her slave."

Ty Lee found herself at a loss for words, mostly because she had not expected to hear any of this. To be honest, she had not accurately gauged this aspect of Xisheng's character. She had really thought he would do anything if Azula asked it of him: he had made it very clear that his duty as a soldier meant a great deal to him. To learn that his stance on this matter was more nuanced than unyielding loyalty surprised her.

More importantly, learning this information significantly improved Ty Lee's mood. Xisheng had just stated that he would forego an order from Azula if it meant forsaking their relationship. He valued Ty Lee's friendship to an extent where he would disobey the Crown Princess of the Fire Nation if he had to. Needless to say this revelation countered her foul mood pretty effectively.

"Wow... I'll be honest Xisheng, it makes me really happy to hear you say that. I was kind of worried you didn't value anything over your duty and all that."

"Soldiers that are blindly loyal to those they serve are of a much lower quality than those who serve with a meaningful conviction. Service to a higher authority does not mean obedience without exception."

Now feeling moderately better, Ty Lee rose from her reclined spot against the tree. It felt kind of awkward making Xisheng look down at her.

"All of that philosophy would probably be a bit too complicated for me, Gohan. What did you want to find me for?"

Glad to have put a close friend in better mood than she had been, Xisheng smiled, though his exhaustion kept it from being too wide. He had worked himself to the bone in all of his free time these past few days, striving to master the technique he aimed to best Azula with. Or at the very least, the technique he aimed to hit her with. He was certain he could manage that much at least, but defeating her, even with his new technique, was probably still a bit of a stretch.

And even though he had it in his arsenal now, Xisheng saw no reason not to increase his chances of success as much as possible. A lot was on the line here, after all.

"I was wondering if you would be willing to teach me the basics of the fighting style you use to disable your opponents. I might need it."

Even though her mood had been elevated somewhat by the prior nature of the conversation, Ty Lee frowned at this. She hadn't expected this particular subject to come up again so soon. It also felt a little strange for Xisheng to bring it up at this exact moment in time.

"W-well, do you really think so? I mean, without agility like mine, I don't think you'd get close enough to the Avatar to really use it, and even with his friends-"

Seeing that she had misunderstood the situation, Xisheng made to clarify his intent.

"Actually, I need it to fight Azula."

To say that this surprised Ty Lee was an understatement.

"Fight Azula? What's that supposed to mean?"

"She has challenged me to a duel in roughly three days' time. If I cannot land a single blow on her, she'll remove me from present company and leave me under the command of the next available unit. That's why-"

Ty Lee cut him off before he could continue, startling Xisheng somewhat. Granted, he had forgotten that neither she nor Mai were privy to this, so this reaction was pretty understandable.

"Hold on, that's what she had to say when you were alone?! Where does she get off making a decision like that all by herself?!"

"I imagine she gets off at the 'I'm the Crown Princess' part."

Not finding his comment particularly amusing, Ty Lee couldn't help but fume. This revelation just cemented the fact that Azula didn't think twice about flaunting her perceived superiority over either of her friends or their desires. With that thought fueling her irritation, Ty Lee swiftly buried her initial misgivings about teaching Xisheng anything about chi blocking.

"Well, we'll see how the Princess likes it when her arms won't listen to her and you knock her on her narcissistic butt!"

"That might be taking it a little too far-"

"You mean not far enough! Just wait Gohan, we'll show her a thing or two. First we just have to teach you the location of all the meridians in the human body..."

The rest of that evening was spent learning the aspects of chi blocking one had to understand prior to engaging in any practical application. It was during this experience that Xisheng came to fully appreciate Ty Lee's depth of knowledge on such an obscure subject. He would fairly admit that Ty Lee's overall level of intelligence was average at best, but she was truly well-versed in many unique fields of knowledge.

Her understanding of the human body was truly impressive: she had instructed Xisheng on all sorts of aspects he hadn't even known existed, things about chi paths and pressure points and beyond. It was weird: in a way she knew the physical mechanics of bending better than most benders did.

Of course, the lesson had included her poking him in various spots to disable his limbs, which hadn't been a particularly pleasant experience. It being his first time on the receiving end of such treatment, Xisheng wasn't sure what he had expected, but the feeling of having slept on your arm for several hours only to wake up and find it a useless unfeeling stump wasn't quite it.

When one really thought about it, the whole thing was a little unsettling. Ty Lee was the nicest, sweetest person in the world, but she had the knowledge to take one's very ability to control their own body. It didn't seem like a skill befitting so kind a person.

But it was a skill with great potential. Xisheng had no doubt that learning it would be beneficial to any cause that he set his sights on, even if he wasn't able to learn the technique to a level where it would be useful by the time he fought Azula. Then again, the chi blocking was just an extra weapon, not the main trump card. Xisheng had no doubts regarding his chances against Azula if she were coming at him seriously. She was undeniably better than him as a fighter, and by a pretty wide margin. There was no possibility of him raising his skill level to match hers in a mere week. It was a little shameful to admit, but the only chance he had was to catch her so off guard that he could create an opportunity for a decisive strike. The more brand new techniques he had in the coming fight, the more chances he had to do that, even if his experience with those techniques was limited.

That was why Xisheng was tackling Ty Lee's rushed lessons with even more gusto than he would have under normal circumstances. He had always been interested in learning the art, but now doing so would help him achieve something he greatly desired. There were many reasons Xisheng wanted to succeed against Azula. Naturally, he was dedicated to the mission of stopping the Avatar from maintaining the stagnation of the old world, and the best way to contribute to that cause was at Azula's side. He was also quite keen on staying with the group because he was attached to the people within it. His current position was a once in a lifetime scenario, and he had no desire to return to regular military life so soon.

A part of him, very large by his own admittance, wanted to defend his pride: Azula's dismissal of his abilities as a warrior greatly irritated him. Xisheng knew he wasn't as good as her, but he also knew he was very skilled, and had been of great use to the party thus far. Finally, Xisheng was extremely determined to prove a point: that the way he spent his time, and the people he spent them with, was not wasteful. That he could take the time to relax and form friendships and not only maintain his skills, but grow from those friendships. He didn't appreciate how Azula had dismissed his relationship with Ty Lee, and nothing would disprove her notion regarding the worth of that relationship like using Ty Lee's chi blocking to help secure a win.

But it had still been a crash course. With only one day left before the duel with Azula, Xisheng reclined against the Overlord, practicing what knowledge Ty Lee had managed to impart on him on none other than himself. It was a bit odd paralyzing his own limbs, and not a very pleasant experience, but for a skill such as this, practical experience was the most useful and no one else was available. Ty Lee was currently tending to the Mongoose Lizards, and he was certain that he couldn't talk Mai into letting him practice on her. Besides, he wasn't very keen on the idea of paralyzing the others several times just for practice.

That didn't make it any less awkward to be splayed out against the rockbreaker of the Overlord though, with his left arm and both legs resting at useless, weird angles that he couldn't fix short of lifting and moving them with his free arm. He couldn't help but wonder if the same thing could be done to one's neck, but he wasn't too eager to try that out on himself.

"What on earth are you doing?"

Lamenting his bad luck in being caught at such a time, Xisheng figured that maybe he should have done this further away from base camp. He was sure to be the subject of some scorn, especially considering who was asking.

"The better question is, what are you doing, Mai? A leisurely stroll around the vehicle is unlike you."

Looking down on him from the higher elevation that was standing, Mai cocked an eyebrow at him.

"Is it? I can't find things to counter my boredom if I don't move around some of the time. Besides, we haven't really talked in awhile."

The implication that Mai had been specifically looking for him was not lost on Xisheng in the slightest. Needless to say, he was greatly pleased by that implication: it wasn't far in the past when he had to seek Mai out himself if he wanted to interact with her at all.

Besides, she was right in saying that hadn't spoken at any decent length in nearly a week. Not that Xisheng had been avoiding anyone or anything, but whenever he was not driving the Overlord, he was almost always off training by himself, at least over the course of this last week.

"Those are both fair points."

"Asking what you're doing is a fair point too. Why are you sitting like that? Looks uncomfortable."

Mai gestured vaguely at Xisheng's admittedly awkward bodily position, what with three limbs being spread-eagled across the ground.

"This is nothing out of the ordinary. Just the results of some chi-blocking."

To his credit, Mai seemed relatively shocked by the implication of this statement, even if her assumption was mistaken.

"Wow, you really said something dumb enough to piss off Ty Lee that much? I didn't think you were capable of that..."

"Don't be ridiculous, that's not it. I chi-blocked myself, thank you very much."

Needless to say, this earned a cocked eyebrow at his expense.

"You've done this to yourself, and I'm the one being ridiculous? When did Ty Lee even teach you this? And why? She seemed pretty evasive about it before."

"She started teaching about two or three days ago. The notion of a high stakes duel with Azula seems to have changed her mind on the subject."

Mai crossed her arms as she received information that had eluded her prior to now.

"A high stakes duel with Azula? What's that all about?"

"Suffice to say Azula was displeased with how I was spending my time one day. If I win I assume all will be forgiven."

"And what if you lose?"

With nothing really available to him other than shrugging, Xisheng did just that.

"Then I will be relieved of my position in this group and promptly handed over to the next available battalion."

Mai's eyes narrowed dangerously at this, a sure sign that she didn't like what she heard at all. It had been awhile since Xisheng had seen her so displeased about something, though he was actually kind of touched that it was on his behalf: assuming that was the case, that is.

"What could you have possibly been doing to get an ultimatum that ridiculous?"

"I was having Ty Lee teach me a thing or two about her acrobatics. I mean, it seemed like something pretty useful to have in the coming battles... I can't imagine why the scenario upset Azula so much."

Mai scowled, far more familiar with Azula's intricacies than Gohan was. Even knowing nothing about the situation other than what the soldier had revealed so far, she could hazard a pretty reasonable guess as to what the Princess' problem had been.

"I don't suppose this private time with Ty Lee involved her flirting with you?"

Thinking back to the conversation the two of them had been having when all hell had broken loose, Xisheng's face took on a crimson hue to match his uniform.

"Ah, well... surely something so petty isn't the cause of all this. Never mind the audacious assumption that such a thing would bother Azula of all people... if that is the sole cause of her irritation it must be her misplaced assumption that I wasn't using my time to further our cause."

Mai barely contained an exasperated sigh, shocked by Gohan's naivete. He was usually so sharp and observant, it was hard to imagine him being this oblivious. Some small part of her was mildly miffed to learn that some flirting had indeed been taking place between him and Ty Lee, but the irritation was quickly dispelled. For one, she wasn't sure why it would matter to her in any capacity. Two, that was just how Ty Lee was. It probably didn't mean anything.

As for the situation with Azula though, Mai knew that the young Princess was indeed petty enough to act this rashly on mere jealousy. And it was jealousy. There was a time in the old days at the Academy that they had a joint class with the boys' branch of the institution. Azula had taken some minor interest in a boy during that class: truly nothing more than a mild curiosity at best. Even so, she had swiftly terrorized all of the girls that had revealed any sort of attraction to that boy, until they all shifted their affections elsewhere. By the end of it all, Azula lost interest in him within the week, revealing just how far she would go over things even she herself barely cared about.

Azula was a ridiculously jealous person: you couldn't convince her to lend you so much as a quill, for no other reason than the fact that it was her quill. She wouldn't share anything with anyone, even if she had no practical use for that thing or didn't value it in the slightest.

Alright, maybe that was an exaggeration, but Mai knew it held true for things like attention. If Azula was present and you afforded someone else more attention than her, she didn't like it one bit. That was why Mai knew the cause for this whole debacle was as petty as she had postulated, even if Gohan thought otherwise. That's also why the whole thing irritated her so much, so she cut straight to the point.

"How likely do you think winning this duel is?"

The tone of Mai's voice made it perfectly clear that she thought the chance was nil, or at least absurdly low. Xisheng would have been wounded by her lack of confidence, if only he didn't agree with her.

"Well, I don't have to truly defeat her. If I land just one clean blow, she'll concede the victory to me. Her own words."

Mildly relieved to hear that the situation wasn't quite as dire as she had been lead to believe, Mai still wasn't overly pleased by it.

"And how confident are you about managing that?"

Despite the gravity of the overarching situation, Xisheng couldn't help but smile a little bit. Maybe he was just projecting, but it really sounded like Mai was unhappy with the idea of him being absent. The notion made him more than a little pleased.

"Forgive me if I'm being too presumptuous, but is it just me or does it sound like you would be upset about my departure?"

A sort of displeased frown crossed Mai's face, but Xisheng could tell it wasn't the kind of frown that signaled true malcontent. More like displeasure that she had been accurately read. At any rate, her gaze shifted evasively to the side for a moment, which was practically tantamount to a blush of embarrassment to the best of Xisheng's perception of her.

"I'm just sick of people being forcibly removed from my life, is all. I prefer to choose who leaves my company myself, thank you very much."

While Xisheng did derive some pleasure from the implication of her statement, he was too troubled by the vibe he was getting from the girl standing above him. He'd clearly brought up something she held little fondness for.

"Sorry, Mai. That's really not something to make light of."

Her mood mildly bettered by Gohan's consideration, Mai almost managed a smile. It kind of got halfway there at any rate.

"No, it isn't. And I'm assuming you aren't fond of the idea either. So answer the question: can you do it?"

Xisheng wasn't the type of person to employ false bravado for its own sake. He would never give an absolute yes when asked whether or not something could be achieved: that was akin to stating the future, and he knew he couldn't do that. No matter how qualified someone was, the chance of succeeding at a formidable task was never one hundred percent. This was not to say he had no confidence. He was simply realistically aware of the situation.

"I know the task is within my capabilities. I don't think it will be easy, but it's far from impossible."

Glad to hear that he had some confidence regarding all this crap, the tension in Mai's body lightened ever so slightly. Now that it had been brought to her attention, she really wasn't happy with the idea of Gohan leaving. It was hard for anyone to be intriguing enough to actually warrant her attention these days. Honestly Gohan was the first person she had bothered forming a personal relationship with in what was probably five years or more. She would be especially irate with Azula if the Princess' petty jealously problems cost her that relationship.

In fact, she'd probably call it quits on the mission and head home, even if it meant finding a tedious means of doing so. After all, they weren't going after Zuko, so Mai had little hope of seeing him again during all of this. And while she was begrudgingly glad to have the gang back together again, Mai didn't think that was worth traipsing about the whole damn world, constantly risking life and limb fighting some bending god and his sidekicks. Omashu was boring, and even without Gohan the current venture would be more entertaining, but the danger involved wasn't worth the tradeoff.

Only now that she was really thinking about it did the raven haired beauty realize how much her enjoyment of this whole ordeal was thanks to the man before her. Something about that notion was kind of flustering.

"When is this duel anyway?"

"Tomorrow."

"That soon huh... do you really have time to be lying around like this? I mean, I guess it's practice of a sort, but wouldn't it make more sense to train your bending?"

Honestly, Xisheng found it a little odd that Mai even thought this was the case. In his opinion it was obvious that taking on Azula with Firebending was next to impossible, at least as he was now. Then again, maybe from the perspective of a nonbender like Mai, the difference between him and Azula wasn't as readily apparent.

"With only a week of time to train, there's no possible way for me to elevate my level of bending ability to that of Azula's. My real chance at victory lies in methods she has little to no experience in. Trust me, my time is better spent with this, awkward though it may seem."

Mai crossed her arms, a dismayed look returning to her face. She actually seemed quite worried about all of this.

"If that's the case, I guess I should leave you alone for the day. You need the best chance of winning you can get..."

"I'll lament your absence for the day, but you are right about that."

With a stern gaze on him, Mai gave her parting words.

"Gohan, you'd better win."

That was all the young woman had to say before making her exit, leaving Xisheng feeling a little more pressured than he had before. Granted, the pressure had already been immense, but he'd mostly been considering his own stakes in the outcome of the fight. He hadn't really given as much thought to how his absence would make the others feel, probably because he was still underestimating his own value.

Xisheng was a humble person by nature, and while he didn't put himself down, he also wasn't the kind of person to give himself undue credit. He found it hard to really consider himself as important and wanted by those around him. That said, there was no way he could really do that any longer. Both Ty Lee and Mai had made it pretty clear that they valued his presence and their relationship to him. He had thought Azula felt a similar way, but that had been called into question for obvious reasons.

Either way, while it was even more pressure on him to succeed, Xisheng also felt even more motivated to do so. The undeniable revelation that the relationships he valued were held in equal regard by the girls he had them with gave him even more determination to come out on top. He respected Azula in many ways: but tomorrow he was going to make doubly sure she took a serious blow at his hands.

Xisheng did not sleep particularly well the night before the fateful duel between himself and Azula. That was mostly because he did not know when exactly she was going to initiate the fight. Were they going to fight after getting stopping for the evening? Or was the fight supposed to take place before they left for the day? Needless to say Xisheng's uncertainty and anxiety on the matter made it difficult for him to rest that night. Never mind the fact that it was kind of chilly that night and he slept outside with a sleeping bag.

Even so, he did manage to get some rest that night, and as always, he woke up at the crack of dawn, which was the usual routine. He didn't know if Azula wanted to fight him before driving for the day, but in case she didn't, he knew it would just irritate her further to have their trip delayed. After all, their destination was still a few days away, and time was wasting.

As Xisheng stepped into the driver's cabin of the Overlord, he took stock of his current state. The intense training he had put himself through over the past week had guaranteed that his muscles were sore. The chi-blocking he had enacted on himself had actually done some good in relieving muscle tension, but it didn't make up for a week's worth of intense training. Or maybe he just didn't have the knowledge to take care of all that fatigue.

Xisheng also had many painful bruises on his arms and legs, a result of the nature of his training. He had already theorized a few ways to counter that drawback, but he hadn't had time to try any of those theories out. Too busy ensuring he could use it to properly attack at all. And of course, he hadn't slept particularly well. This all totaled up to him being a bit worse for wear, but he had fought truly grueling battles with far less rest during his tenure on the Line.

He was banking on Azula being unprepared for his new techniques. He already knew he couldn't take her in a head-on fight with no underhanded tactics on his part. The element of surprise was his greatest chance at landing a blow on Azula's impervious guard. Granted, he had surprised her before and failed to land a blow, but that had been with traditional firebending. If he managed to surprise her with something completely new that she couldn't possibly predict, he had a chance.

That said, if it somehow fell flat, Xisheng would go for plan B: push beyond all pain to accomplish what he wanted. Even if he had to plow right through an inferno to make it happen, he'd find some way to land the blow he needed. He had never truly fought to his limit with Azula before: she always ended the sparring session before he truly reached his limit. Xisheng knew how it felt to be at the limit of physical ability: he had reached a point before where his body simply had no more to give, where it was impossible to even raise a finger, never mind fight. But that instance had been on the field of battle. Azula had never pushed him that far. If it came down to it today, she'd be surprised at how much he had to give.

But hopefully it wouldn't come down to that. If all went well a battle of attrition wouldn't be necessary.

"Er, Gohan…"

Broken out of his thoughts by the voice of Ty Lee, Xisheng glanced over his shoulder, shovel of coal halfway to the Overlord's engine. The anxious look on the acrobat's face made it clear why she was here: Xisheng was just glad that he hadn't wasted any of the coal after all.

Returning the fuel from which it came and laying down the shovel, Xisheng stepped out of the Overlord, swiftly laying eyes on both Azula and Mai. Xisheng imagined the presence of Ty Lee and Mai was due less to the fact that Azula had invited them to watch and more to the fact that Xisheng had warned them that this was happening today. He wasn't surprised that they wanted to witness the outcome of this fight.

As for Azula, she stood with arms crossed, an expression on her face that could have easily been displeasure. And yet, Xisheng felt that it was more consternation than anything else. The furrow of her brow was more akin to the face she made when contemplating a problem, rather than being angry or displeased.

He had no way of knowing that Azula was in the midst of regretting this entire scenario. She was still trying to find a way to undo all of this without actually invalidating her own words or ultimatum. A troubling conflict of personal pride and desire, to be certain. Of course, she was not going to admit any of this to anyone other than herself. For now, appearances had to be kept.

"Lieutenant: I trust you're ready?"

Perhaps she could find a way to make his inevitable defeat seem valiant enough to rescind her punishment? Or maybe she could pretend it had been a test this whole time, and she had never intended to get rid of him, lie though it may be. Or perhaps it was just a matter of coming off as a gracious and forgiving leader...

"Princess, I will win."

Startled out of her musings by Xisheng's determined tone and unflinching gaze into her own eyes, Azula could only admit that she had not expected such an answer. Suffice to say that Xisheng had proven relatively mild-mannered in her experience with him, though he often revealed his harder edges. Something about this wasn't the same though.

Prior to now, Xisheng was... reverent. His mannerisms, speech and gaze were always submissive towards Azula, giving way to her whenever the need arose. She was someone he didn't challenge or disrespect. But his gaze now looked on her with a certain steel: as of right now, she was nothing more than an obstacle. A hurdle to be overcome in order to achieve his own desires and ambition. Contrary to what one might think, Azula actually found the notion admirable. It reminded her of one of the things that had stood out to her when Xisheng asked to be her pupil: his fighting spirit was unflappable when the things he valued were on the line. A normal soldier wouldn't dare to even dream of laying a hand on the Crown Princess, even if she ordered it of them. Xisheng on the other hand looked very determined to knock her clean on her ass.

It was kind of attractive, honestly. Azula hadn't really given those dual colored eyes of his enough credit before: they were truly striking when he mustered such a determined and stern expression. Then again, he'd never leveled such an expression at her.

Suddenly, Azula didn't care that much about solving the mess she had created. That could come later. Now she truly wanted to fight.

"Is that so? Let's hope your skill has somehow increased dramatically enough to match your bravado."

Instead of giving a response, Xisheng took up a fighting stance, prompting Azula to do the same. Knowing the inherent risks of standing too close to a duel between Firebenders, Mai and Ty Lee made sure to put a considerable berth between themselves and the combatants. If she were actually paying attention, Azula would have noted that this was the most anxious expression she'd seen Mai muster in a long time. Maybe even since the whole 'Zuko getting banished' incident.

Instead, she took note of Xisheng's stance. It was exactly the same as it always was, making use of a wide stance for stability and arms positioned in the perfect places to react to both high and low attacks. It was a useful stance to be sure, but he'd already found it useless against Azula many times. She certainly hoped he had more to bring to the table than a slightly touched up version of his old skills.

Unfortunately, his initial attack didn't inspire confidence. A straightforward gout of flame came her way, blinding the Princess for the brief moment it took to take control of the attack and dispel it. By the time she did that, a wave of fire at ground level was at her toes, forcing her to jump backwards. Two fireballs came from the left and the right, perhaps hoping to take advantage of her lack of mobility while airborne. Unfortunately for Xisheng, she didn't need to move out of the way, as her arms were more than capable of intercepting those attacks as well.

By the time she landed on the ground again, Azula was already feeling a bit dismayed by it all. Did Xisheng really think he could win with this?

But looking at his expression, the soldier didn't seem worried by the futility of his attacks thus far. If anything, it seemed like he had expected it. Even so, his next few attacks were just as obvious and straightforward, with two wheels of flame brought forth by kicks and a third fireball behind them. The first two attacks were caught and dispelled with ease. As for the fireball, Azula was so irritated with Xisheng's approach that she simply sidestepped it. Had he really gotten her hopes up for this?

"Lieutenant, for such a bold statement, this is truly pathetic. You're going to win? With this?"

If her barbs had any effect, it didn't show on Xisheng's face as he ducked low, sweeping another curtain of fire at Azula's feet even as he threw an uppercut for a vertical slice of flame. But that wasn't all he did. The soldier pulled his other fist back, a motion similar to the one made when charging another attack. But something about the motion was different, and Azula was certain she had seen it before...

In a moment of realization, the Crown Princess snapped her gaze behind her, noticing the fireball she had sidestepped earlier returning from whence it came. He was recalling the missed attack for a pincer strike. Apparently he wasn't above utilizing the techniques of Earthbenders. The real question was whether or not he had planned this out, or had simply taken advantage of an opportunity that Azula had unwittingly created.

Even so, it was ultimately just an attack from two directions, and Azula was more than capable of dealing with that. Anything short of a four-way strike was useless against her, as two arms and a leg could take care of anything less: at least if the strength of those attacks was at Xisheng's level.

Two walls of blue flame erupted from her hands to block their orange counterparts, and knowing how much Xisheng loved to close the distance during these moments of obstructed vision, Azula launched the one facing him in his direction. She had little doubt he was in the process of rushing her, so this would cut his plans short.

Such was the plan, anyway. Azula quickly shifted her expectations as Xisheng's body emerged from the azure inferno, unperturbed in its lunge towards her. His forearm, coated in orange flame, covered his face as best it could, aiming to counteract her own. While he had no hope of overpowering her whole attack, if he focused his power in one spot he could at least overcome her strength in that precise location. Clever.

More clever still was this reckless strategy. Azula knew that Xisheng loved to dodge. It was the best way to stay unharmed, after all. She hadn't expected him to simply force his way through an attack at the cost of his own health, as she was sure he'd suffered a few burns under his armor: it was made to withstand much weaker flames than her own.

Point being, Azula wasn't ready to react. By the time she was raising an arm to defend herself, Xisheng's own fist was past her elbow. With his weight and momentum, she had no chance of stopping him.

And yet, he didn't hit her. Instead, he latched onto her shoulder, thumb driving painfully deep into her flesh. What he aimed to achieve with this, Azula had no idea. By the shocked expression on Xisheng's face when she grabbed his forearm with the arm he had targeted, it clearly hadn't worked as intended. That being the case, this didn't really count as a 'blow.' He'd just grabbed her.

Apparently he had reached the same conclusion, as Xisheng swiftly cocked his free arm back to throw a punch, grit teeth and steady glare an indicator that he intended to release it with full force. Unfortunately for him, Azula had recovered her balance by now and had already been halfway to unleashing a bending strike, and she was particularly miffed that, had he just thrown a punch instead of whatever he had been attempting, Xisheng would have gotten the better of her.

Before he could attack again, Xisheng felt the explosive force of a powerful firebending blast in his diaphragm, his vision obscured by a glorious blue for a brief moment. That moment ended as he was sent hurtling backwards, smoke pouring from his charred and cracked armor. Flying through the air, Xisheng struggled for air as his abdomen constricted from the pain of the impact. There was an agonizing heat spreading throughout his torso. He thought he might have heard Ty Lee call his name in worry, and maybe a gasp from Mai. Couldn't be sure with the way his ears were ringing.

Even wounded as he was, Xisheng pushed through the pain enough to make an aerial recovery, flipping around to at least crash into the ground with his feet instead of his back. Not that it mattered anyway, seeing as how Azula wasn't pushing her advantage. She was glaring at him from afar. He got the feeling she wasn't angry at him so much as she was at herself for slipping up.

Xisheng was likewise angry at himself: he had totally failed to consider something important in regards to chi-blocking: Azula was a lot smaller than him. Every human being may have had pressure points and chi paths in identical places, but the exact position of those places would change slightly based on the person's body type. Xisheng had only practiced chi-blocking on himself thus far, and his narrow field of experience showed in the fact that he had failed to paralyze Azula as intended. Hitting a pressure point was exact: being even slightly off the mark rendered the attack pointless.

Distraught as he was, Xisheng now appreciated Ty Lee's martial skill even more.

It wasn't lost on him that he could have won already if he had just punched Azula, but Xisheng figured he still had a chance to do that. Chi-blocking may have gone out the window, but he still had his real trump card. He could catch Azula off guard again. Would probably hurt though.

Fueled by the adrenaline of battle and an unfaltering desire to win, Xisheng charged forward, aiming to close the distance for melee. He always did that when he was going all in while fighting Azula. She knew that melee was his last ditch attempt to beat her. Xisheng knew Azula viewed it as an act of desperation, and that was what he was banking on.

From the sidelines, the audience of two had very different expressions. Ty Lee had tears streaming down her face. She hated seeing her friends get hurt and she had seen the look of immense pain on Xisheng's face as he had gotten blasted by Azula's last attack. Moreover, she knew Xisheng was making another attempt, and he would probably get hurt again. Was this really the result of her just wanting to advance her relationship with a guy she liked?

As for Mai, she was scowling, and far more prominently than she had at any point since Omashu. Practically speaking, the outcome of this match was looking more and more bleak. Gohan had squandered his one chance at winning, and it was unlikely that he would get a second shot as golden as that one, because Azula would be on her guard now. She had no desire to see another person she actually liked forcibly evicted from her life, so being unhappy was a given. And on that note, she wasn't particularly pleased with the injury Azula had inflicted on her opponent.

And yet, Gohan's expression as he closed the distance to Azula wasn't one of fear or trepidation, or even pain. He had that determined gaze of course, but the most noticeable thing was the set of his mouth: a smirk of all things, or maybe a half crazed smile. In immense pain and looking at a bleak immediate future, that lunatic almost looked excited by the battle.

Maybe it was a sensation only a true warrior could really grasp.

Now mere feet away from his target, Xisheng realized that he really was excited. Even with his current state, he was confident that he could best Azula. And the idea of defeating a warrior as prodigious as her was exhilarating. He wanted to win for a great many reasons: but right this moment, he wanted to win to prove just how 'middling' his abilities really were.

Before now, he'd never considered the actual possibility of beating Azula, even in something as simple as landing a single strike on her. But the fact that she had been at his mercy, even if he hadn't made the most of it, revealed new possibilities. She wasn't an impossible challenge. She wasn't an insurmountable wall. For the first time in a long time, Xisheng felt the drive to improve not because it would further his duties or his cause, but simply to prove his might.

Azula could have just blasted him with huge infernos of flame, but she didn't. It was the same as with all their sparring matches: she liked to prove her dominance over him even in something he should have had a huge advantage in, being a much physically stronger, heavier and taller individual.

So he closed in, and threw his first punch. Azula dodged it, as expected, and returned the favor with a kick to the back of his knee. That put him on the ground, but hardly slowed his momentum, as the soldier used his new position to swing the back of his fist at Azula's midsection.

This attack was caught in her own arm, with the other swiftly pressing down on his shoulder blade, forcing Xisheng's face into the dirt. A disgrace to most, but an opportunity for this soldier. He reached his free arm around over his own shoulder, grabbed Azula by one of her pauldrons, and yanked her over his head while simultaneously rising from the ground. He was bigger and heavier than her, so she had no chance of resisting.

Even so, the young girl displayed just how truly ridiculous a foe she was, as she used her own legs to brace her landing. With feet firmly planted and a grip still on Xisheng's body, she had prevented herself from being slammed into the ground, and thus was not hit. The sort of bridge-like pose looked extremely uncomfortable though.

Even though she had held onto his body, Azula hadn't managed to keep her grip on his shoulder, so with that arm free Xisheng grabbed her by the belt and flung the much smaller girl away from him. It was an action he would have never dared considered in any situation prior to now, but now he didn't care. He was going to win. The end was in sight.

With her much lighter weight, Azula flew pretty far, but she nevertheless managed to land on her feet. But even with such a great recovery, she wasn't prepared for Xisheng to be in her face again the moment she looked back in his general direction. He had gone from slow and methodical to relentless. Even Azula found herself struggling to do much more than react. Thinking of a strategy several steps ahead was out of the cards until she could breathe for half a second. She was kind of regretting letting him get this close when keeping him at bay indefinitely would have been plausible, but it was too late to rescind her hubris now.

In fact, she barely had time to do anything other than block as Xisheng unleashed a flurry of punches on her. In mere seconds her forearms had absorbed ten strikes, and they were awfully powerful strikes at that. She could feel the numbness in her arms already. But even so, Azula wasn't worried. These punches were strong and she was on her back leg, but she was fast enough to intercept them without trouble. She just needed a moment to regain her balance...

Her arms were moving into position for the strike she knew was coming next on reflex. Xisheng had clearly lost all sense of strategy and was just attacking relentlessly in the hopes of getting lucky. Her quick reaction time was more than enough. And yet, she noticed something wrong with the next incoming strike.

It wasn't that it was an unexpected one. In fact, it was the exact punch she had predicted to be next, coming from the exact angle she had expected. But it was moving faster than any of the punches before it. Much faster. Xisheng's fist was past both of her forearms by the time Azula realized something was wrong, and by the time she noticed the surge of flame seemingly erupting from Xisheng's elbow of all places.

What she thought after that was a mystery. What Mai and Ty Lee thought probably included a great deal of expletives as they watched the Crown Princess of the Fire Nation spiral through the air, launched two dozen feet by a bending powered fist to her regal face.

Chapter Text

There was definitely something wrong. Azula felt as though she had already woken up today and yet she was undergoing the experience of waking up for the day yet again. Everything was dark, and she could hear faint voices around her: granted, it had been a long time since anyone had actually had to come and wake her up from slumber. It probably hadn't happened more than once since her mother had left. She was the only one in the past that would have to awaken Azula by calling out to her in rest.

She didn't like to think about that, however. Besides, something else was the matter: she distinctly remembered waking up today. Why was she sleeping again? She knew night hadn't come back around. She had something very important to do today, and she couldn't remember finishing it... what had it been anyway? And why was her bed so hard?

"...cess? ...ight?"

The voice that called out to her that time was male. That was kind of weird. Most of her servants were female. Why was it so cold?

"Azu... might be bad..."

That voice was female. Sounded kind of familiar too. For a moment, she thought she felt a hand touch her face, but she didn't get to dwell on that for long, because following that, she could feel that the other side of her face really hurt.

Feeling that stimulus brought everything back to her. She'd been hit in the face. By Xisheng, who had gotten the better of her in a duel she had demanded. With her eyes still closed, such a travesty seemed more like the stuff of nightmares. And yet, she could tell that things were getting brighter on the other side of her eyelids. The words of her allies were getting clearer. And most importantly, the pain she felt was growing more acute.

"Hey, it looks like she's coming to. Azula? Can you hear us?"

Now that things were sounding a little clearer, Azula recognized Mai's voice. She sounded mildly more concerned than the young Princess was used to, which was a testament to how bad things must have been.

Trying to hold back a groan of pain but failing to do so, Azula opened her eyes to the real world once again, coming to see all three of her companions leaning over her, various expressions on their faces, with a backdrop of clear sky. She was lying on her back, likely left where she had landed after being slugged by her pupil.

Most notable was Xisheng's expression, which was a very distinguishable mix of worry and dread. He was clearly worried about Azula's physical state, but also worried about how she was going to react to what had transpired. He had just laid out the Crown Princess of the Fire Nation. Sure, she had been the one to challenge him to a duel, and she wanted him to try his best, but that didn't mean there wouldn't be consequences for actually succeeding. Logic didn't always prevail against people in power.

Mai's expression was only mildly worried, with a cocked eyebrow and a slight frown as she leveled her gaze at what Azula imagined was a nasty bruise on her face. The fact that she was even worried at all meant the hit against Azula must have looked quite devastating.

Ty Lee's expression was by far the most unexpected though. She didn't look worried in the slightest. She didn't look like she was reveling in Azula's pain or anything either, but it did look as though she was making a significant effort to stay neutral. Almost like she didn't want to give away what she was thinking. Chances were, it wasn't something Azula would have appreciated.

Now that she was back in the waking world, the memories of what had transpired just recently were quite clear to Azula, with agonizing sharpness to go with the physical pain she felt. She'd lost, in a contest that she herself had set up. Moreover, that loss was in a terrifyingly embarrassing manner, made evident by the way her companions were gathered around her. Mai even went so far as to raise a few fingers.

"Hey, how many fingers am I holding up?"

Already reeling from what had happened today and feeling patronized by this form of concern from those around her, Azula swatted Mai's hand away as she sat up, a scowl that was only half due to the pain on her face. She could only imagine the bruise that marred her features right now.

"Get away from me! Do I look like I can't see straight to you?!"

Naturally Mai's expression grew less concerned at this, not at all pleased by the response she had been given for her concern.

"I don't think you want me to tell you what you look like right now."

This snark prompted a snarl from the youngest member of the group, who tried to stand to her feet immediately. Unfortunately, she overestimated the vigor of her legs in that exact moment, which prompted her to fall to a knee before Xisheng could move to support her. Even so the sight of it got him to speak his mind through the trepidation of having been the one to cause the problem.

"Princess, don't be hasty. The effects of a head injury can be more severe than they initially feel, so you should-"

A glare from the princess in question stopped Xisheng short, though it wasn't quite as intimidating considering the state of her face at the moment. Her skin had split at the cheek and it was already turning a nasty mix of purple and crimson. Xisheng was fairly certain he could even see some tears forming in her eyes, against her will he was sure. She probably had never experienced this level of pain in her life, what with living the life of a royal and likely trouncing everyone in any type of sparring.

That said, she was still putting up a front. Xisheng assumed that she was hardly the type to admit to any sort of weakness, perceived or otherwise.

"I'm damn well aware of my limits, Lieutenant! I don't need to be told how to stand!"

With that, Azula forced herself to her feet, quite clearly still a little wobbly. However, none of her companions made an attempt to help, since it was pretty obvious to them that she would reject it. The Princess wasted no time in stumbling towards the Overlord. Her three companions watched her leave, saying nothing since they knew she was still within earshot. Naturally they didn't make to follow her either.

As for Azula, she was still reeling when she made it inside of the Fire Nation vehicle, both physically and mentally. She had a lot to unpack following her defeat at Xisheng's hands.

For one, she was in great pain. She wasn't used to that. In all of her years of living, she had never really been injured by anyone. She had only recently engaged in real battle with anyone, and in all the times she had sparred against other people, they had either been unwilling to even try to hurt her or were too incompetent to do so.

Of course the physical pain was difficult to ignore, but it was the manner in which she had been injured that Azula was more concerned with. Xisheng had quite cleanly bested her. Granted, she could have defeated him easily if she had gone all out from the very beginning, but the point was that she didn't think it necessary to take the fight seriously. Not that she didn't appreciate Xisheng's ability, but she knew he didn't hold a candle to her. Or so she had thought.

While Azula may not have been giving it her very best, whether or not she had been didn't change the fact that Xisheng had managed to surprise her twice. Even if she had been giving the fight her all, she still would not have predicted him crashing through a wall of flame to create an opportunity to strike, or whatever technique he had used in the end to land his final blow. She'd been bested in technique and battle strategy. That was what really threw her for a loop.

A very large part of her wanted to rail against that reality. It was unthinkable. Inconceivable. A mere soldier, someone that she treated as a pupil, getting the best of her? Asinine. She wanted to believe that there had been some sort of mistake, some sort of cheat that Xisheng had used. He couldn't have possibly defeated her fairly.

She really wanted to believe that, and part of her demanded that she should deny the truth of the situation. She could punish Xisheng for daring to best her, demand recompense for what was no doubt underhanded trickery and pathetic tactics that only worked because she was going easy on him.

And yet, she knew she couldn't do that. It was illogical. More importantly, it was reality: Xisheng had exposed a weakness of hers. If she truly wished to improve beyond what she was now, she had to accept that. She could use her title to dismiss or silence anyone that could best her, but then she would be best only in name. She wanted to be the undisputed best, to be the strongest. Ignoring one's defeats was a barrier to that, not a stepping stone.

Besides, even though she was reeling from her loss, even though she was stunned by what had happened, she couldn't deny that she was also impressed by Xisheng's performance. She had been calculating so many ways to get out of sending Xisheng away when she inevitably defeated him, she hadn't even considered the possibility that he might win. While she had been focused on the battle at the time, in hindsight, he had truly been impressive. His tenacity, his cunning, his determination... his means of fighting wasn't as graceful as hers by any stretch, and yet something about it was still mesmerizing. He pulled moves she would not have thought of, worked angles that didn't occur even to her, a battle genius.

And the technique he had used at the end... Xisheng had developed a new Firebending technique before she had, a Firebending prodigy. Loathe as she was to admit it, Azula felt she had no choice: there were things she could learn from him. Her own abilities could actually be improved by taking in the techniques of another person. That was something that didn't happen often, and it had certainly never happened in relation to a commoner. Her father was quite literally the only person she had ever actually learned anything useful from.

Saying that she saw Xisheng in a more favorable light than before was a bit of an understatement. Which was weird, since she was still bitter about the outcome of today's duel. But his worth had been elevated substantially in her eyes. Not that she hadn't valued him before: he was loyal, intelligent and capable. But those were things she valued as a vassal, as a soldier. To be defeated by him in a fight... it was infuriating, but something about the notion was slightly desirable as well. Someone who could possibly keep up with her... someone who believed he could even outdo her from time to time. The prospect of an actual challenger should have been insulting, but in fact it was exciting. She had never felt enthralled by the notion of competing with another person. Never actually found merit in the gaze of conviction someone else had offered, because rarely could they back it up.

Still, she didn't know how to go about handling any of this, much less letting it influence her behavior. She certainly didn't feel like admitting any of this to anyone, seeing as how she was barely in the process of coming to grips with it all herself. After all, even admitting many of these good things, she was still pissed about losing, though the anger was more towards herself for losing than Xisheng for beating her.

Thinking about that once again reminded her how much her face hurt, but there just wasn't anything she could do about that. She didn't actually know anything about treating injuries in the first place.

"Princess...?"

Startled out of her thoughts but refusing to jump or otherwise reveal that, Azula glanced over her shoulder from her position on the bed. She hadn't closed the entrance to the Overlord even though she had retreated to it, mostly because she hadn't expected anyone to actually have the gumption to speak to her so soon after what had transpired.

Standing behind her was Xisheng, holding a small bag of some sort that looked like it would be carried around by a soldier. Azula couldn't help but glare at him, not out of sheer anger, but rather because she was disgruntled with his sudden appearance when he happened to be the biggest cause of her inner conflict at the moment. She'd barely put her own thoughts in order, now he wanted to engage her in conversation that was likely about the scenario?

Taking all of that into consideration, Azula's voice probably came across a bit more venomously than intended.

"What?"

Seeing Xisheng's body stiffen, Azula confirmed that she sounded much more furious than she actually felt. Nevertheless, the soldier continued with what he had come for. Azula appreciated the fact that he wasn't so easily cowed. She detested cowards, after all.

"Princess, I'm aware that you likely do not desire company at this exact moment, but I implore you to let me treat your injury. It will only grow more painful and taxing if it is left alone."

If it was anyone else, Azula would have felt insulted, like she was being pitied. But this was Xisheng they were talking about. She knew that he was practical, and that his recommendation was based solely in logic and efficiency.

"You have some sort of medical training?"

Glad to see that she wasn't running him off in rage or something, Xisheng almost smiled, though he instead held up the small pack he was carrying.

"Well, it's more like first aid than real medical training... but every good soldier knows how to treat light wounds, and I am no exception. I can take care of your injury without trouble."

Azula felt a little irked to have her injury called 'light.' After all, her face hurt like hell, and she felt certain that half of it was a very unnatural hue at the moment. But compared to the injures Xisheng must have seen on real battlefields, she supposed even calling it an injury was generous from his perspective. She had no doubt that he had seen people killed in gruesome ways before.

All things considered, she was actually grateful that someone in the group had the skills to treat her physical ailment. She was especially glad that he had actually taken the initiative to offer treatment, because Azula knew her pride would have prevented her from ever stooping to the level of asking for aid. Not that she would ever admit any of this to anyone, least of all Xisheng.

"Well, considering that you caused this, I suppose it's the least you can do. Make yourself useful."

Finding it a little difficult to read Azula's mood all things considered, Xisheng refrained from saying anything further as he approached the younger girl, unwilling to accidentally trigger some greater animosity from her. However, he did give silent thanks to the fact that he had brought along his standard issue first aid pack when they had left the Royal Guards behind. He had felt that it would have a use at some point in their journey.

Undoing the straps and withdrawing the elements that he needed, Xisheng focused on the severity of Azula's wound. Naturally their was some blood since the skin had split, and Azula's entire cheek was a motley hue of purple and black. It would be extremely sore, but honestly it looked worse than it actually was. It was just that it would hurt to talk for a few days.

All in all, the first thing to do was clean up the excess blood so that it wouldn't interfere with the ointments that would need to be applied. Thankfully the first aid kit came with some linens for that exact purpose.

Azula managed to resist the urge to flinch as Xisheng gingerly wiped at her face, but mostly because she was extremely tense having someone do this to her in the first place. She couldn't recall the last time someone had tended to her in such a manner. In fact, there had probably been no one since her mother had abandoned her. That said, she felt immensely uncomfortable with this sort of physical contact. It was much too soft and gentle for her liking.

That said, she could sense that Xisheng was tense as well, though it wasn't hard to guess why that was the case for him in particular. As far as he knew, Azula was plotting some horrific punishment for him. However, Azula actually found it kind of admirable that he would still approach her of his own volition to tend to her needs.

Truly, he was one of the most loyal subjects she had ever had the pleasure of having at her side. He never complained, always did his duty, always fought his hardest, always had some sort of meaningful input...

Really, the more she thought about it, the more ridiculous the notion of sending him away was in retrospect. To get rid of such a valuable asset was the height of foolishness, regardless of her reasons for being irked with him.

Taking all of that into consideration, Azula figured it might be a good idea to clear any misconceptions Xisheng might have had about his immediate future. He was owed that much for his victory, if nothing else. Besides, having a conversation would make it much easier to take her mind off of the awkward physical interaction she was currently having.

"I suppose you're worried about what is going to become of you, Lieutenant?"

Xisheng didn't answer right away, likely thinking of how he was going to phrase his response.

"In a manner of speaking, Princess."

There was a very calm manner to the way he said that, something that made it difficult for even Azula to discern how he was feeling.

"And in what manner would that be?"

Azula resisted the urge to flinch as she felt a twinge of pain in her face. Xisheng had applied some sort of ointment directly to the wound, though it didn't stop him from answering.

"I have no fear of you going back on your word. That is to say I don't believe you will dispose of me at this point. I did meet your challenge, after all."

The young Princess felt a flare of irritation at the matter of fact way he said this, but since he was not actually mistaken she said nothing to reprimand him. This of course allowed Xisheng to continue.

"That said, I am... worried that this may affect your relations with the entire group, myself included. Forgive me if that sounds presumptuous."

Frowning as much as she could in her given situation, Azula made it clear how she felt about his analysis.

"It damn well does sound presumptuous. Do you think I'm some spoiled brat that would rather throw a tantrum instead of face reality?"

Surprisingly, Xisheng didn't seem particularly worried by her ire. In fact, he seemed quite calm as he worked on treating her. Azula supposed it may have had something to do with all that soldiering: he did have a remarkable penchant for staying calm under duress.

"In that case, have you considered apologizing to Ty Lee?"

Recoiling from his touch like she had been outright stung, Azula leveled a fierce and almost flabbergasted expression at her subordinate.

"Apologize?! How dare you imply that I of all people should be apologizing to anyone, for anything! Whether or not you won our little duel has nothing to do with the frivolous way you spend your time with her! There's absolutely nothing I should be apologizing for! Don't let this little victory take your ego to such downright insulting heights."

Leaning back since he highly doubted that he would be able to continue his work like this, Xisheng still looked quite content with the situation. Well, not like he was smiling or anything, but he certainly didn't look as fearful as Azula knew anyone else in her life would have in his shoes. He'd just offended the Crown Princess after all. She could have any number of horrible things done to him.

"Princess, when I leaped through your flame and grabbed your shoulder, you know what that was, don't you?"

Azula grimaced, already seeing where Xisheng was going with this. She hated to admit it, but she could already foresee a logical defeat. That said, it didn't mean she wasn't going to try.

"I know that it didn't work."

"Because the technique is useless or because I was just too unskilled with it?"

Knowing full well the answer to that, Azula didn't give it, which gave Xisheng the opportunity to continue. She really didn't like the way this was going.

"If I had better mastery of the technique, your arm would have been completely useless for the rest of the fight. And what if I had grabbed both shoulders? Could you have won without either arm? Even for a prodigy like you, that seems unlikely. And what if I had learned some of Mai's skills? Would you have been caught off-guard by a knife thrown through your wall of flame? Considering that you were surprised by me coming through it, almost certainly. The fight could have been won right there."

Azula couldn't help but scowl at him. Despite all of his good points, she wasn't particularly happy with this line of conversation. Maybe she was a bit more prone to a tantrum than she had thought.

"If you're trying to get back on my good side after punching me in the face, you aren't doing a very good job."

Xisheng ignored her sentiment to continue with his own. He was feeling quite bold today, wasn't he?

"Princess, isn't the reason you brought Mai and Ty Lee along because they have unique skills to offer? If that is so, then surely you can't believe their skills aren't worth having. That logic would be incompatible."

Azula fell silent once more, because Xisheng had a very good point: she'd been well aware all along that her outward reasoning for this whole fiasco was nonsensical. Sure, she didn't think Mai or Ty Lee's skillsets could match her own, but she still acknowledged that they were very useful. Moreover, she had made it very clear that she wanted Xisheng to push himself to become as useful to her cause as possible. Taking those two things together, from his perspective it only made sense to try and learn what they had to offer.

Of course, while she had made an outward show of inefficiency or some such being the source of her ire, Azula knew that, in reality, her reasons were impossible to defend with logic. She'd simply disliked the idea of Xisheng's attention being commanded by someone other than herself. She could of course argue it as being her right considering her station relative to his subordinate one, but she was certain her allies would simply view it as entitlement or petty jealousy with almost no merit to it.

But she didn't see it that way. She owned this man's career, his very life. He was duty-bound to serve her. Was she not entirely justified in wanting him to focus entirely on serving her and her cause? It seemed perfectly reasonable to her.

"Or, is it perhaps that you are concerned regarding my dedication to both you and your cause?"

Azula was shocked to find that Xisheng had practically read her mind. Had he always been this sharp? Or had he just been thinking about it during the whole week he had to do so? He was the type of person that tried to understand others, so Azula had little doubt that he had put a lot of thought into why or how he had angered her.

"Should I be concerned regarding such a thing?"

She was trying to play things off, but somehow Azula got the feeling that Xisheng saw right through her. His answer certainly made it seem so.

"Azula, please allow me to make this one thing clear, to be kept in mind from today on. I am a soldier in the Fire Nation Army. You are the Crown Princess of my country. By very definition, I am duty-bound to serve you in every possible capacity. However, that obligation has little, if anything, to do with why I serve you in reality."

Needless to say, Azula hadn't expected this to come up so bluntly. Though she had to admit, there was something nice about him calling her by name instead of title. Why was that?

Despite this, she managed to stay focused on the conversation at hand. After all Xisheng had just said something quite questionable, from the perspective of a royal.

"Why then, pray tell, do you serve, Lieutenant? I'm on pins and needles."

While keeping a stoic expression on the outside, Azula had to admit that she was somewhat worried about his answer to this question. He was being awfully candid today: was he about to reveal that he was only in this for personal gain? That he was using her to improve his own strength for his own glory? Surely he wouldn't be that stupid.

"My reason is nothing special, Princess. I serve you because I want to. At the most basic level, that's because I share your cause and believe aiding you is the best way to achieve it. Mutual interest, if you will. But it goes far beyond that. I believe you have the makings of an amazing leader. I feel that you have the potential to reach even greater heights than you are at already, in almost every regard. Leadership, combat, strategy, wisdom... I've no doubt you can go much farther than you already are, great as your current self may be."

Needless to say, Azula had not expected the conversation to take this direction. Where had all of this praise come from? And why was hearing it so pleasant? Usually she just felt entitled to compliments, so they didn't mean anything. Either way, Xisheng continued, perhaps not noticing that he had mildly flustered the Princess. Maybe he didn't think that was possible for him to do.

"On one hand, the realization of your full potential is important to me as a citizen because you are the future Fire Lord. As someone who wants my nation to prosper, I have plenty of reason to aid you in reaching that full potential. However, that too is secondary as far as I'm concerned."

Xisheng paused for a moment, perhaps pondering how to word what he wanted to say next. He had to be careful with Azula after all: it was hard to tell what would or wouldn't be considered an insult to her.

It's not really practical at all... I just want to help you reach that future pinnacle. Not to imply that you need my help to do that, but if I could offer any assistance at all, that would make me happy. Failing that, even just being there to see it happen is enough. I can't really give any logical reason for why I desire this: perhaps I am just personally invested in your future because I am close to you in a manner of speaking. Or perhaps it's just curiosity. We both have interest in martial prowess and strategy. For my own sake, perhaps I just want to see what levels you can reach in those arts and how you get there. Either way, the fact remains: I will continue to support you in all of your endeavors as long as you allow me to, and not because of duty or obligation. I follow and support you of my own free will. Nothing is going to stop me from doing that, so please don't worry about the depths of my dedication to you."

Now that he was finished saying his piece, the cabin of the Overlord was left in silence as the two Fire Nation natives simply looked at one another. Xisheng was clearly waiting for some sort of response to all of this. Azula was trying to actually formulate one.

She really didn't know what to make of this. Honestly, she had never had a subordinate who had so earnestly expressed a genuine desire to serve, and for such reasons as these. Granted, Azula had not actually been in charge of that many people throughout her not so lengthy life, but she had servants and subjects, and it had always been clear that their dedication to their jobs and to her was merely the fact that it was expected of them. None of them really cared about her as an individual, only about her title as Crown Princess.

It was also why she had adhered to the general rule of thumb that fear and intimidation were the best ways to ensure loyalty. After all, if everyone was only doing their job because they were expected to or were paid to, what was stopping them from ignoring their duties? Abandoning their role and running off to live in the hills, or being bought off by someone else? The answer was obvious: if they were afraid of what you would do to them for their disobedience, then they would never disobey, right?

So far that notion hadn't steered Azula wrong in life. She'd yet to be disobeyed by a subordinate as far as she could tell. So naturally, she'd assumed the thought process was perfectly legitimate. So what was she to do about this then? She'd never had someone under her command that had openly expressed a desire to support her, and not just her title, of his own volition. Sure, loyalty was loyalty, but this felt... significantly different. Knowing that her subjects were too afraid of her ire to disobey her was satisfying. Knowing Xisheng supported her because he wanted to, because he really wanted to aid her in achieving her goals, was... uplifting, almost. Azula really couldn't explain it, seeing as how she had never really experienced it before.

That made it difficult for her to really give a response. She didn't really know how to follow up any of this. Really, she wasn't sure she liked this man making her reevaluate her thought processes twice in one day.

"I... appreciate your sentiment, Xisheng. But what does that have to do with apologizing to Ty Lee? Your words have hardly convinced me to do that."

Xisheng looked mildly pleased to be called by name, but he kept it mostly under wraps for the sake of carrying forth the conversation.

"Because, both Ty Lee and Mai are like me. Well, I doubt they have much of an investment in you reaching your full potential as a warrior and leader and all of that, but the reason they are supporting you is not about duty or obligation. They're your friends. Ty Lee put her whole life on hold to come with you on a journey that has been very dangerous. Mai could very well have come along for some form of entertainment in an otherwise droll existence, but she agreed to do so because it was you. She wouldn't have just gone on some adventure through the wilds of the Earth Kingdom with just anyone. She may not admit to it, but she's also supporting you because she wants to help. My point being, we're all here because we want to be. We want to help you of our own volition. You don't have to worry about our commitment to your cause. If that commitment was paltry, we wouldn't even be here in the first place."

Azula thought that Xisheng may have finally finished saying his piece, but evidently he had just a bit more to say.

"We are traveling companions, which means we are going to spend time with each other. That's unavoidable. But that doesn't detract from our support for you. I'll spend time with Ty Lee and Mai, and not always for training or to further some practical goal. But that doesn't mean my support or dedication to you and your cause is any less. I implore you to keep that in mind from today onwards, Princess."

Now that he was finally done for real, Azula wasn't sure what she was supposed to say in return. From a purely logical perspective, she didn't know if she really agreed with everything Xisheng was saying. Who had ever heard of trust and whatnot securing loyalty and obedience from one's subordinates? It certainly wasn't mentioned very often in the annals of history. Could she really rely on something like that when it came down to her role as a leader: as the future Lord of the Fire Nation?

Frankly, Azula didn't believe she could, in the grand scheme of things. If everyone could be trusted to support their leaders faithfully no one would ever be usurped or assassinated. But then again, Xisheng wasn't saying that all of her subjects were supporting her of their own free will. He wasn't saying she could trust everyone. He was only saying that she could trust him, and Mai and Ty Lee as well. And while Azula wasn't one to hand out trust very easily, maybe Xisheng had a point: they were all here, weren't they?

Sure, Azula was pretty certain she could have ultimately coerced or otherwise forced all three of them to accompany her if they had refused. But she hadn't been required to do that for any of them. Xisheng had been more than willing to go to any length to serve her well, and Mai and Ty Lee both could have been extremely difficult with her if they so desired. But they had both been quite willing to accompany her on a very dangerous and time consuming mission, simply because she had asked for their help.

Perhaps they did deserve a little more consideration for that. It just felt weird for Azula to place any faith at all in the good intentions of other people. But if those people had done nothing to earn any suspicion or condemnation, and in fact had only done things to earn trust and some degree of faith, then wasn't Azula being illogical by doubting them so easily?

Taking all of that into consideration, Azula figured that maybe Xisheng's request for an apology had some merit. It was hard to swallow though, the thought of doing such a thing. To so humbly admit wrongdoing was ill-fitting for a princess, or any royal for that matter. At the very least, she supposed the idea deserved some consideration, even though she wasn't going to say that to Xisheng outright.

"I'll bear what you've said in mind, Lieutenant. That said, I hope you haven't forgotten about tending to the injury you so eagerly caused me?"

Donning a mildly more apologetic expression than he had previously, Xisheng stepped forward to return to his ministrations. Really, there wasn't that much left to do, but it still had to be done.

"Princess, surely you would have been more insulted if I had the audacity to hold back against you, correct?"

Even though her face hurt, Azula couldn't help but smirk. This man had some gumption, really.

"Well at least you know your teacher well enough to determine that. I'm sure you also know that I'm going to interrogate you regarding your technique..."

"Shouldn't I be allowed to keep my one advantage for more than a single day?"

"I daresay that you will have more than one advantage if you sharpen your mastery of Ty Lee's techniques. Besides, you know I'd decipher your technique without much trouble anyway, so stop resisting. You're trying to stay in my good graces, remember?"

Sensing that there wasn't actually any danger of Azula getting angry at him at this point, Xisheng smiled as he focused on applying the bandage in his hands to her skin. Considering that he had punched the Princess of the Fire Nation in the face that morning, the day was going quite remarkably. Now, if only he could usher this conversation to a quick close so he could tend to all the burns under his uniform...

---

About an hour after the culmination of Azula and Xisheng's duel, the group of covert Fire Nation natives had not left the place they had slept that night. Naturally, this reality had left both Mai and Ty Lee in an awkward situation. They'd both warned Xisheng against bothering Azula so soon after their fight, but their warnings had been in vain. Considering that Xisheng hadn't returned from the Overlord after some time and there had been no blasts of Firebending or anything, the two girls had assumed that things weren't going as poorly as they potentially could have, but either way they had been left alone and had little to do.

Mai had settled on target practice, having spent most of the last hour burying sharp metal things into one unfortunate tree that she apparently hadn't liked the look of. Considering that Mai hardly needed practice, it was obvious to Ty Lee at least that the usually reserved young woman was actually anxious. Her aura had revealed as much, at any rate. If someone like Mai was worried about the outcome of a situation, chances were everyone should have been.

As for Ty Lee, she hadn't really been in the mood to do any practice of her own to pass the time. Instead, she'd settled for wandering quite some ways from the Overlord, mostly so she could have her thoughts to herself. After all, she'd had a few unpleasant things to think about as a result of Xisheng and Azula's duel.

She hated to admit it, but Ty Lee had actually felt a great deal of satisfaction seeing Azula get walloped in the face by Xisheng. It was weird to say that she both hated and enjoyed something at the same time, but it was the truth. On one hand, she didn't like violence, and even though Azula was being extremely... 'testy,' Ty Lee didn't like her friends being hurt. But on the other hand, the acrobat felt vindicated by the reality of Azula being beaten for once. She was all high and mighty, acting like she was above everyone else, but there she was, flat on her butt, just like anyone else. On top of that, Ty Lee's technique had almost done her in. Sure, Xisheng had messed it up... but the opportunity had existed. If Xisheng had a little more experience with the art he would have defeated Azula with it.

Naturally Ty Lee was happy about that notion, since she was a little tired of Azula looking down on her or just treating her like she had nothing to offer to Xisheng in general. Today's duel had very much proved otherwise.

Which led to the other issue Ty Lee had with the whole scenario. All things considered, she would have thought Xisheng would feel a little vindicated himself, or perhaps on her behalf even. And yet, a mere ten minutes after he had bested Azula, he was rushing to her side to tend to her wounds. Some petty, but not altogether small part of Ty Lee wished the man had been a little more condemning of the Princess. After all, she was the bad guy in this whole situation. She was the one treating everyone badly, and threatening to destroy relationships just because she was jealous of something. The fact that she had gotten what was coming to her shouldn't have been deserving of pity.

Maybe it was silly, but she had just been expecting a different reaction out of him. More of 'hooray, I get to stay with Ty Lee and Mai,' and less of 'I should check on Azula.'

Coming to the edge of the woods she had been walking through, Ty Lee dragged her attention from her thoughts long enough to identify how the terrain had changed. The trees ahead of her gradually gave way to a shallow bank, which swiftly turned to a gently flowing river. It looked like the river curved away from the direction she had come from on both sides, so it was no surprise that the group hadn't come across it in the Overlord.

Though she hadn't come out here for such a purpose, Ty Lee made a mental note of the river's location. Mai and Azula may have had some qualms about bathing out in nature, but she certainly didn't. The chance to really thoroughly clean oneself didn't come often while traveling, so she saw little reason to forego any opportunities that came their way.

Either way, with no reason to go any further in this direction, Ty Lee had no choice but to turn around and head back towards the Overlord, something she wasn't particularly happy with. But then again, she couldn't just be off in the wilderness when Azula decided it was time to move on again. Knowing her temperament, she would find that a perfect excuse to ditch her 'useless' so-called friend.

Put into a significantly dour mood by that thought, Ty Lee sulked most of the way back to the Overlord. Between her discomfort with her own pettiness and actual frustration with how this day had turned out thus far, she really didn't have much to smile about. By the time she had made it back to the Fire Nation vehicle, the acrobat was effectively scowling, which was rare for her indeed.

Not helping was the state she found things in upon returning. Mai had apparently finished her target practice, as she was nowhere to be seen. Likewise, Xisheng couldn't be seen anywhere. The only person who could be seen was Azula, leaning against a tree with her eyes closed and arms crossed, and now sporting a large white bandage across her face. Naturally Ty Lee wasn't happy about the fact that she was the only one here.

The brunette attempted to move by the Princess without giving herself away, but of course this didn't work. Azula noticed, and more unfortunately, she cared to interact, for reasons Ty Lee couldn't fathom. She really hoped she wasn't about to be berated for something again: she didn't know if she could tolerate that a second time, especially with how she had already been mistreated.

The way Azula started the conversation didn't exactly get Ty Lee's hopes up.

"It took long enough for you to meander your way back here."

Sensing already that this wasn't going to be a pleasant exchange, Ty Lee frowned, not even trying to put up a façade reminiscent of her usual self.

"Can I not even walk where I want to now?"

Azula leveled a clearly displeased look at the tone Ty Lee was speaking to her with, but for some reason she didn't comment on it. Ty Lee would have liked to believe it was because Azula realized her ire was justified, but somehow she doubted that. Either way, instead of condemning her response, Azula said something else entirely.

"I was merely lamenting how long I had to wait for you to return. I don't like waiting around."

"Then why are you?"

Azula grit her teeth, but only for a moment since the action caused her face to hurt in its current state. Xisheng made all of this sound a lot easier than it was. That being the case she avoided her purpose here a moment longer.

"I... require your presence for something."

Needless to say, Ty Lee was a little confused about where this was all going at this point. Azula was behaving very oddly.

"Something?"

"Something important, of course. Everything I do is important, which is why... why you should appreciate what's about to happen."

Unsure of what was 'about to happen', Ty Lee said nothing. She didn't know what to say considering the situation. Hell, Azula looked like she was struggling just to say what she wanted to say. Rarely did she have such issues just talking. What was with the deep breath and the furrowed brow of consternation anyway?

"I'm sorry."

Silence was the only thing that followed Azula's words. Probably because Ty Lee was busy trying to acknowledge what just happened. She couldn't imagine that she had heard right. Because if she had, then Azula had just apologized for something, and that was quite literally impossible.

Since she had closed her eyes to avoid directly looking at Ty Lee, Azula cracked one open to see why she hadn't been responded to. She had gone though some serious stress to say these words, what did Ty Lee think she was doing being so quiet?

Unfortunately looking at her friend's face revealed only genuine confusion and a frown. Needless to say, Azula was a little irritated by that reaction, but admittedly, also a little embarrassed: because Ty Lee's countenance only reminded the Princess that she was not used to doing this.

"W-well, don't just stand there! Graciously accept my apology before I rescind it! The nerve..."

Azula's ire served to bring Ty Lee back to reality, if only because she was much more familiar with it. That said, she wasn't at all familiar with this nervous aura around the Princess. Then again, even if the colors didn't give it away, the incessant tapping of her index finger on her arm and the shifty gaze did so anyway. Seriously, what was going on here?

"What... what exactly are you sorry about?"

Azula made a very disgruntled expression, probably something alone the lines of 'how dare you make me say it,' and yet she did explain herself.

"For the things I said. You know. Implying that Xisheng's time was wasted with you. He didn't make it work when we fought, but... had he mastered your technique to a degree of competence, I'd have been paralyzed and defeated. As much as I hate to admit that failure on my part, denying it would be the choice of a deluded fool. Point being, I daresay the potential effectiveness of something he learned from you is irrefutable evidence that I was mistaken."

While Azula initially thought this explanation more than sufficient, it was clear that Ty Lee found it a little lacking. After all, the practicality of spending her time with Xisheng hadn't been what had insulted her so much. Picking up on this, Azula mustered the will to continue. All of this humility was seriously taxing for her.

"Moreover... I can understand why you would be displeased about being told who you can or can't spend time with, indirectly or otherwise. It's my right as Crown Princess to do that if I wish, but... just because something is within my power, doesn't mean doing it is necessarily justified. It's a lesson in leadership that I... only recently experienced. A leader should trust those that are loyal to her, at least as far as how they spend their free time goes."

Now certain that she had said everything that needed to be said, and inwardly relieved that she didn't have to admit anything else to get her point across, Azula was nevertheless dismayed to see that Ty Lee was still frowning at her. Seriously, what more did this girl want?

Frowning herself, Azula was about to express her ire at Ty Lee's reaction considering how rare this situation was for the Crown Princess of the Fire Nation, but before she could the acrobat broke into a smile much more reminiscent of her usual cheer.

"I never thought someone could be so uptight about saying sorry. You couldn't have been more awkward about that if someone was holding you at knife-point."

In a very unusual moment for her, Azula blushed, unused to being made fun of so blatantly. It didn't help that Ty Lee was right.

"I-is that any way to thank me for apologizing? I didn't have to do that, you know!"

"Azula, you don't thank people for apologizing to you. That implies they went out of their way to do something that inconvenienced them."

"I very much did. Exactly so."

Ty Lee grinned, amused by the reaction and actually feeling quite happy now that this had happened. She could tell by both Azula's aura and her behavior in this exchange that she really was sincere. Who knew that you really could knock some sense into someone? That said, it was probably too much to expect Azula to be a little more humble about the whole thing. Baby steps, she supposed.

Now that she was in a good mood, Ty Lee recalled something she had encountered while sulking in the woods earlier.

"Say, Azula... we're not in a huge rush to be anywhere, right?"

Glad to have the conversation directed away from the embarrassment that was hers, Azula provided a swift response.

"If you're asking whether or not we need to leave right now, no. But what does that matter?"

"Well, I found a river while I was walking around in the woods. I was just thinking, it's been awhile since we really had a chance to clean up to that extent..."

Mention of a river reminded Azula of the time Xisheng had brought forth such a notion. She wasn't any fonder of the idea now than she had been before.

"You're really suggesting that a Princess bathe in a river?"

"Wouldn't going a long time without cleaning yourself be even less befitting for a Princess? I mean, when's the next time we're actually going to have a chance to do this? Cleanliness is next to godliness, or something like that."

Mentally calculating the next few moves she had planned to orchestrate in their journey, Azula realized that Ty Lee had a pretty good point. There were no plans to stop by another major settlement anytime soon, and they had foregone a bath house in Gaoling in the interest of time. Needless to say, personal care had to be left to more spartan means while on the road. Taking that into consideration, Ty Lee was right about what was more unbecoming for an individual of her stature...

"Ugh, fine... I suppose you have a point. We can spare an hour. I should probably put those things I bought in Gaoling to use anyway..."

Glad to have her proposal accepted, Ty Lee was well and truly back to her old self. Funny how all it took was what had transpired in the past fifteen minutes...

"Great! I'll go round up the others, then."

Azula leveled an icy glare at her companion.

"I think you misspoke, Ty Lee. 'Others' is plural."

With a sheepish grin, Ty Lee tried to lend some credence to her argument.

"Come on now, Azula. Gohan's gotta bathe too."

"Not at the same time as us, you harlot!"

Ty Lee took no offense at the insult since it wasn't really serious on Azula's part.

"Alright, alright, I was only joking. No need to get so embarrassed."

"We're not all as eager to get naked around men as you are."

"Which is probably why I'll be happily married before either you or Mai, don't you think?"

With that, the brunette made her exit to find Mai, leaving Azula to shake her head as she left.

"More like why you'll likely catch some horrific disease..."

---

Some time after finishing the treatment of Azula's wound, Xisheng finally returned to where the Overlord was parked. He had elected to go some distance from the machine, and by extension all of the girls, in order to tend to his wounds. He was certain Azula wouldn't have really cared much for the damage he had suffered, but it was possible that Mai and Ty Lee would be bothered by the array of burns on his torso.

The good news was that the burns themselves hadn't been that severe. As powerful as Azula's flames were, Xisheng had only been subjected to them for a moment, and his armor, fire-resistant by design, had mitigated most of the heat. Only a few of the burns he had suffered would blister.

The bad news was that, while the injuries were mostly minor, there were a lot of them. The majority of Xisheng's torso was reddened and stinging. Serious or not, it was far from a pleasant sensation. All in all, it had taken him a bit of time to treat all the burns, even though he had only bandaged the moderately more serious ones. There was no telling when they would manage to resupply, so he didn't want to waste what they had now. Of course, Azula's injury wasn't really serious enough to bandage, but he had made an exception in that case.

Either way, the problem was taken care of now, so he had returned to camp to discern what Azula wanted them to do next. However, a quick glance over the area revealed that no one was currently present, either in or around the Overlord itself. Needless to say, Xisheng was mildly concerned about the development: not that he thought anything bad had happened, what with the lack of signs indicating a battle. It was just odd that everyone had up and disappeared on him without telling him anything. They could have at least left a note.

Moreover, he couldn't really imagine what everyone had left together for. If there was some errand or chore to be done, it was guaranteed that they would have just waited for Xisheng so he could do it. And the car containing the Mongoose Lizards was still closed, so it wasn't like that was the cause.

Curious more than anything else, Xisheng elected against just sitting around and waiting for them to return. After all, if all three of them had gone somewhere together, it must have been something moderately important. Maybe they needed his assistance, or would appreciate a hand with whatever it was at the least.

Deciding that, Xisheng set off into the woods opposite of the way he had come from, since he was sure he would have noticed the girls if they had gone that way. Unfortunately, he didn't really have anything to do other than search blindly: there were no real signs of where the girls had gone. Well, maybe there were footprints in the fallen leaves or disturbed twigs or something, but Xisheng didn't have the training to pick up on any of that. He was an Army combatant, not a pathfinder.

With that being so, he mostly just walked straight, scanning left to right in a wide radius as he went, just in case there was an obvious clue somewhere along his aimless path. Unfortunately, there wasn't, so he had no reason to alter his course five minutes into his walk through the woods.

This ended up being a good thing however, as apparently straight was exactly the direction Xisheng needed to go. Though he didn't lay eyes on his companions, he could hear their voices in the distance somewhere ahead of him. They weren't talking all that loud, so they couldn't have been far off. That said, he could still make out the conversation. Ty Lee was speaking at the moment.

"Seriously Mai, where were you hiding this?"

"In my clothes, obviously. Hey, don't touch it!"

Cocking an eyebrow as he continued walking forward, Xisheng couldn't help but wonder why Ty Lee would be asking about Mai's knives. The acrobat hadn't really expressed any interest in them before. But he couldn't imagine what else they could be discussing considering the dialogue.

He was also confused because the words didn't really clear up what they were doing out here. He still didn't have any clue as to what reason they could have for disappearing on him all at once.

So he kept going. The easiest way to answer the question was to just ask right? He could find no flaws with that logic.

When Xisheng passed the next tree, his vision was graced with a river. It was at the bottom of an incline, so he hadn't seen it prior to reaching the edge of the slope. Moreover, it was a very gently flowing river, with no discernible rapids at this part of it, so hadn't heard the running water over the voices of his friends and the ambient sounds of the forest.

In the back of his mind, Xisheng subconsciously acknowledged what the situation probably was. The girls had all come to a river together, without inviting him along. It wasn't hard to connect the dots on what they were doing here. And yet, while that subconscious thought manifested quite readily, it didn't have time to make it to the front of his thoughts before he was scanning the area. He was a soldier, surveying his environment was a reaction, not a conscious thought.

So he looked left as soon as he stepped beyond the obscuring trunks of the forest. And he laid eyes on his companions. All of whom were bathing, and all of whom were, by extension, naked.

Ironically, the first thing he noticed was actually the fact that Azula's hair was a lot longer than it really appeared to be. He supposed her usual hairstyle gave it the impression of being short, but when let down for a thorough washing it went decently past her shoulders.

Of course, following that, he noticed everything else. He was able to confirm something he already knew: Ty Lee was definitely the best endowed among her friends, at least on the top end of things. This had always been more than a little obvious, but without the obscuring nature of clothing, it was clear that she was at least twice as 'hefty' up top as either of her friends.

He was also able to learn some things that he didn't know: Ty Lee had certainly not been referring to knives in regards to Mai. Apparently what she had hidden in her generally loose clothing was a very attractive posterior that Xisheng would not have anticipated prior to now. Big and round wasn't really what he would have guessed if someone had asked him whatever weird question would have required such an answer.

Xisheng's brain told him that he was doing something he shouldn't have been, that he should have immediately averted his gaze because that would be the decent thing to do, but his body failed to do that. Or maybe it just didn't agree with the sentiment. There was a veritable paradise of soft curves and the forbidden imagery of the female form before him, slender shoulders and lovely thighs included. Not appreciating the moment for at least a few moments was surely impossible, even for an upstanding and morally upright fellow like Xisheng. Surely.

Of course he also realized that he should probably keep the gawking to a few seconds at most. All three of the girls in view had the means to kill or maim him if they got in the mood. And of course Azula was the Crown Princess of his country, so there was no telling what punishment would await him if she realized this was happening.

Thankfully, both Mai and Azula had their backs turned to him, so he had a moment to retreat back from whence he had come. Unfortunately, Ty Lee was more sideways relative to his position, and thanks to some whim of fate, she looked in his direction while he was still standing there. Xisheng inwardly cursed the world as they locked eyes, certain that she would give him away, unwittingly most likely, which would lead to a swift demise or worse.

But while she was clearly shocked to see him there, the most Ty Lee did was blush a very deep shade of crimson: thankfully, there was no gasp to alert her friends. Xisheng would have assumed that the next logical step was for her to cover herself, but instead she actually smiled shyly, linking her arms behind her head as she posed in a way that accentuated her curves even beyond their natural state. This was accompanied by a coy wink, but the ultimate outcome was Xisheng being locked in place for a moment longer. He knew that Ty Lee was boldly flirtatious, but this was a tad extreme, wasn't it?

Maybe she was a bit more serious about things between them than he had initially thought.

Too stunned to leave while the going was good, Xisheng panicked when Azula spoke, beginning to turn towards Ty Lee as she addressed her.

"Ty Lee, where-"

Ty Lee's expression rapidly changed to one of panic as well, probably because she realized that Xisheng would get into some serious shit if Azula spotted him gawking at them in the nude. Thankfully, she was pretty quick to distract her friends before either of them turned around. All she had to do was interrupt them and direct their attention elsewhere.

"Whoa, what kind of bird is that!? It's so pretty, check it out!"

The brunette pointed in a direction directly opposite of Xisheng, prompting both Mai and Azula to follow the prompt, though there was of course no actual bird to be spotted where she was pointing, something Azula commented on pretty quickly since she had been interrupted.

"What bird? I don't see anything."

With the two of them suitably distracted, Ty Lee glanced back at Xisheng, making a shooing motion with her hand. The soldier almost missed it since he had an excellent view of the rear aspect of heaven from all three of them. Even so, he was not so lost in admiration as to waste his chance to escape unscathed, so he quickly turned on his heel and made himself scarce.

Passing on the opposite side of a tree he had encountered on the way here, Xisheng saw that the girls had left their clothes hanging over a branch. Well, that would have been a good indicator of the situation before he was thrust into it, if only he had actually seen them. Passing the clothing now, he was also able to finally get an answer to the tentative question from before they had entered Gaoling: the lacy ones were apparently not Ty Lee's. They were actually Azula's. Something about that notion was as adorable as it was confounding.

Beating it back to the Overlord as swiftly as possible, Xisheng tried to clear his mind of what he had just witnessed, if only because he wasn't sure if he'd be able to function properly if he was still thinking about it when the girls came back. Instead, he tried to focus on the still stinging pain of his burns, though he had treated them well enough that said pain wasn't that distracting. He could try to focus on a Firebending exercise of some sort, but honestly Xisheng didn't think he'd be able to do that with any control or finesse.

Xisheng spent the better part of fifteen minutes coming up with various ways to try and put his mind on other things, which, ironically, did a better job of distracting him than actually doing those things. Unfortunately, being distracted within that time frame didn't really help when his three companions actually returned to the vehicle.

"Walking in circles, are we? Don't you have anything productive you could be doing?"

The frazzled soldier looked over his shoulder as the girls re-entered the clearing, fully dressed and not in any way scandalously exposed. However, that truth didn't erase the image his mind was conjuring up in its place. It was probably going to take more than barely half an hour for him to not think of that glorious moment every time he saw the three of them.

Even so he knew that he couldn't act too suspicious, and he was pretty quick with words: and excuses.

"J-just keeping my muscles loose, Princess. Lay down for too long and they're bound to get stiff after the exertion they faced in our duel."

Accepting him at face value, something that Xisheng felt pretty bad about considering that he had just talked to her about trust earlier, Azula merely shrugged.

"Fair enough. Well, we should probably get underway..."

Surprisingly, both Mai and Ty Lee gave the Princess a sort of mildly condemning look. Apparently Azula got their telepathic message, since she amended what she had to say.

"Ugh, fine. There's a river back that way. If you must tend to your hygienic needs, try to be somewhat swift about it. I'd like to leave within an hour."

Content that Azula was going to offer their last companion a decent service, Mai merely made her way to the Overlord silently, probably to take a nap. She'd only really gotten up early this morning because of the duel. Ty Lee, on the other hand...

"Oh, you'll really like it, Gohan. I think you'll agree that the view was incredible."

Azula didn't notice the intentional phrasing of 'was' as opposed to 'is.' Xisheng naturally did, which was why he knew Ty Lee was not talking about the scenery at the river. She had no shame at all, teasing him about it right in front of the others, did she? But hey, even mentally reeling as he was, he could totally fight back against this. He wasn't a total mess even at a time like this.

"Yeah, I'm sure it was definitely incredible. Most incredible thing anyone could ever see."

Since she was in on it, Ty Lee blushed and smiled. Since she was not, Azula merely cocked an eyebrow.

"It was just a river. How low are your standards...?"

Feeling slightly more emboldened at the moment, Xisheng responded to Azula, but his words were really meant for Ty Lee.

"They're pretty high, actually. And I'm sure they'll be met. Positively certain."

Needless to say, Azula was none the wiser to his meaning. Of course, Xisheng was glad for that, taking many factors into consideration. Ty Lee on the other hand looked quite happy to hear it, but since Azula had put Xisheng on a timetable, she simply gave him a wink as the two girls retreated to the inside of the Overlord.

As soon as they were behind him, Xisheng's increased confidence dropped back down to normal, and he felt incredibly embarrassed all over again. Weird, how that worked. But since he too understood that Azula wasn't going to wait around for him to take his leisurely time, Xisheng made for the river where he had been blessed. There wasn't enough time to wash his clothes, but he could go as far as to wash his body.

Upon reaching the waters, Xisheng decided to swiftly remove his armor, noting with a degree of unhappiness that he had just covered himself in bandages earlier. Thankfully, he had only deemed it necessary to cover the worst burns, which were mostly centered on his sternum where Azula had hit him. He could wash the rest of himself without getting the bandages wet, if he were careful.

That being the case, he wasted no time in getting in the running water once he was disrobed, noting that the cool temperature felt quite pleasant on his currently toasty skin. One would think a Firebender wouldn't mind being warm: but warmth and burning weren't the same thing. Even people who could control fire had no fondness for the pain associated with a burn.

Aside from that, being in the exact spot he had witnessed an extremely flustering scenario from less than an hour ago didn't help him take his mind off of it. Though, now that he was the one nude in the water, his thoughts shifted more towards that. What if the situation had been reversed? Society had this weird stigma that only women were mortified to be caught in the nude unwittingly, but Xisheng was almost certain he would have been just the same. He was fairly confident he would not have reacted as boldly as Ty Lee had.

More importantly though, he couldn't help but wonder if the girls would enjoy the reversed scenario: Xisheng knew, even as humble as he was, that he had an attractive body. He was a soldier after all. His career was very physical and he was constantly going through rigorous training, so he was toned and sported plenty of lean muscle. Despite his lack of personal experience, it was his understanding that girls generally liked that kind of thing.

But he also had a lot of scars, and he didn't know how any of the girls would have felt about that. Some of them were small of course, like an assortment of minor burn scars: a Firebender almost never made it to the end of their life without a few of those. Training, sparring, chaotic battlefields... with fire being so prevalent in every aspect of a Firebender's life, getting a few related scars was practically guaranteed.

However, those burn scars were small and minor, barely noticeable at all unless someone was looking really closely. He did have a few nasty ones though. There was a long gash across his abdomen from the first and last time he had underestimated a non-bending soldier on the battlefield. The 'he's not an Earthbender, no big deal mentality' had very nearly seen him eviscerated with a polearm. It had almost seen him dead, too.

He had a very similar scar, but vertically on both sides of his left shoulder, from an actual Earthbender. Clever bastard, figured if he took a piece of stone and fashioned a wedge with a really sharp edge, he could effectively guillotine his enemies into the afterlife. He was probably right. Thankfully the vertical strike hit Xisheng in the shoulder, where it had to go through two armored pauldrons and a jerkin. It did go through them, but not as much as it would have elsewhere. Still, the injury had split bone and put Xisheng in the field hospital for months.

Finally, there was a small but very prominent scar on his right pectoral that looked kind of like the hole a sword would leave: probably because that was in fact the cause. Though it was friendly fire, on a technicality. On one of the occasions that Earthbenders had burst out of the ground into a temporary encampment for an ambush, Xisheng had found himself grappling face to face with one of his enemies because he had sprung up too close for either of them to bend right away. One of Xisheng's comrades saw him in trouble and ran the Earthbender through from behind with his sword: a bit too enthusiastically, since it kept going and pierced Xisheng, who hadn't been wearing his armor while off of the battlefield.

Everyone in the platoon called that guy 'Kebab' after that.

Really, whenever Xisheng thought about these scars, he usually considered how lucky he was to be alive, which was probably more important than whether or not girls would be put off by them. But that didn't really stop him from thinking about the latter right now. After all, he'd already had plenty of time to be grateful that he had survived all those incidents. He didn't have to think about it every day now.

Where the soldier's thoughts may have gone after that was a mystery. Said thoughts were interrupted when he felt something soggy press up against his back. Worried that something unpleasant had washed downstream, Xisheng warily glanced down at the foreign substance to identify whether or not he should be disgusted, but all he found was a very large tuft of white fur.

He may have dismissed that as nothing important, but the fact that it was white got his attention. There weren't too many wild animals in the forest with white hair during this time of year. And even if there were a few, this fur was several inches long: much too long for any animal's coat to be with winter pretty far away.

It was a stretch, he knew. Before even thinking it, he knew it was a long shot. But the coincidences did line up kind of conveniently. It was very unlikely that this hair was from a local animal. And even if it was, if said animal had entered the river at some point and was shedding, there would be a lot more than this one tuft of hair flowing downstream. It was logical to assume that this hair had fallen into the river then, likely from above it: and the Avatar just so happened to ride a flying animal foreign to this area that had long, white fur.

Of course, it was extremely unlikely. And even if it was true, one tuft of hair from the animal didn't help them figure out where their prey was or where they were going. But if there was more of this, scattered about in the general direction their target was going... well, it was more information than they had before. And so, Xisheng cut his bath short to throw on his clothes as swiftly as possible, before taking off upstream to see what he could survey.

The first few minutes didn't provide any success. Maybe this fur had floated from so far upstream that it would be impossible to make even an estimate on where the animal that had dropped it had gone. But he was going to check the riverbank and the bordering forest for at least a mile or two. He could manage that in but a few minutes.

After a few more minutes of running, Xisheng nearly decided that it was fruitless after all. But around the time he thought that, was around the time fortune smiled upon his search. Caught on the branches of a pine tree ahead of him was another tuft of fur, easy to see thanks to the white against green. A little deeper into the forest, there was another tuft, caught on some vines wrapped around a trunk. Even further still was one more simply lying flat against the forest floor.

Three in a row: it was enough to consider a trail. It was enough to start following. Maybe Xisheng's conclusions were totally wrong. Maybe this had nothing to do with the Avatar at all, and it had been left by some other creature entirely. But he was a good soldier: instead of writing this off as some coincidence, he'd leave the decision on what to do to his superior. All he had to do was find a way to mark this location so they could get back to it: and also figure out how to get back to the Overlord.

In light of all this, he was kind of wishing he was an Army pathfinder. For all the shit they got for barely ever fighting real battles, it sure would have made his life a lot easier right about now.

Chapter Text

Fully aware that his potential lead on the Avatar was already a long shot at best, Xisheng wasted no time in determining the best course of action so it could be acted on immediately. Unfortunately, there were some problems that presented themselves right away, as he stood on the far bank of the river somewhere out in the woods. The problem was that he had no frame of reference for getting back to the others. Being unfamiliar with this area overall, he didn't actually know how to get back to the Overlord from where he was right now.

Sure, he knew the rough direction it was in from his current position, but with the amount of distance between him and the vehicle, even a slight miscalculation in trajectory could lead him pretty far astray. Not to mention that there was almost no distinguishable mark near all of this white fur to readily identify it upon returning to try and pick up the trail. Even if Xisheng did make it back to the Overlord, he'd be hard pressed to drive it back here so they could potentially follow this trail, if Azula felt like that was the right call.

So he was in a bit of a tight spot. If he could communicate with Azula at a distance, the issue would be moot, but they were lacking a bird for long-range communication. Thankfully, Firebenders had some other options available to them.

In the Army, Firebenders would launch special plumes of flame into the sky to signal other troops or their commanders, if no alternative was available. There were several ways to use these signals to get basic messages across, and most every soldier learned what all of those signals were during their training. Considering that the forest in this area wasn't particularly thick as far as the canopy was concerned, Xisheng could feasibly use such a signal to at least establish Azula's location.

There were two issues with this line of reasoning, however. For one, they were in enemy territory, technically. Launching large plumes of flame into the sky was giving away their rough location to potentially unwanted eyes. That said, they were pretty much in the middle of nowhere, completely in the wilderness of the Earth Kingdom. There were no trade routes, no locations to protect, no nearby city that troops needed to move to: while the risk wasn't completely nonexistent, it was very unlikely that anyone with the power to do anything was around to notice the signal. He supposed the Avatar's group could technically still be around to notice it, but it seemed unlikely, considering the seeming age of the fur trail.

The second problem was whether or not Azula would respond to the signal as Xisheng desired. These signals were standard knowledge for soldiers, but Azula was not a soldier. She hadn't gone through the same training Xisheng had. It was possible that she wouldn't know what the signal meant, how to respond to it, or what she should do.

That said, Azula was an intelligent young woman. Xisheng was fairly certain she was smart enough to figure out the most likely reason he would launch a jet of flame into the sky for all to see. Or at least, he sure hoped so.

With that hope in mind, Xisheng gathered energy into his right hand and threw it towards the sky, creating a fireball with a trailing steam that arced decently far into the air. Launching flame into the sky was the most basic form of Army signal, but then again, it was all that needed to be done to request the location of allies. The more complicated signals, which required pulses, timing, or manipulation of flames while they were airborne, weren't needed here.

When the flame reached the apex of its arc, it began dissipating into the air almost immediately. Without the chi of the bender, there was nothing to actually burn, so it was guaranteed to fizzle out before it accidentally started a forest fire or something.

By the time the flames had withered away completely, Xisheng had still received no response from Azula. Of course, there were plenty of reasons why that could be. Maybe Azula hadn't seen it, either due to obstructed vision or simply the fact that she hadn't been looking in this general direction. Or maybe she had seen it and didn't know how to respond. She could assume that he was in danger or something, and therefore choose to avoid signalling her presence due to the possibility of alerting enemies. Such was the problem with this kind of communication.

Still, at about the time Xisheng was considering firing off a second signal, he got the response he was looking for. A single ball of azure flame peeked over the trees off to his right, pretty far into the distance. As the flame reached its apex and began the glowing process of fading away, Xisheng couldn't help but admire how beautiful it was. Truth be told, Azula's fighting style meant you generally only saw her flames in small amounts and for short periods of time. It wasn't every day that you got to see the sapphire color of her craft in such a large and extravagant manner.

Honestly, Xisheng was kind of jealous. No matter how skilled or powerful he became, he would never be able to create flames like that. Or at least, he didn't think he would. Best as he could tell, it wasn't something one could just develop through hard work or will. However, it also didn't seem hereditary: everyone had seen the Fire Lord's bending during the Agni Kai with Zuko, and there had been no blue flame there. So it begged the question: why was Azula's flame special?

Xisheng couldn't think of any potential reason. It couldn't be her focus or her drive or intensity or anything like that. Plenty of other Firebenders had such traits over the years. If anything, it was ironic that someone of Azula's disposition created flames that were so gorgeous. Ultimately, Xisheng figured it was something he would have to ask her. Assuming Azula even knew herself why she had such a special trait.

Shelving those thoughts for now, Xisheng quickly marked the direction of Azula's flare in the dirt around him, while also making sure to mentally mark a particular tree that was in the direction he would soon need to go. Before that though, he had to find a way to mark this location so he could lead his comrades back to it.

Thankfully, fire had some users in regards to somewhat longer-lasting signals as well. Wasting little time, Xisheng cleared a decently large area on the ground around him, before gathering some branches and brush in the immediate vicinity. After gathering up some rocks from the riverbed, he had everything he needed to create a long-lasting fire that wouldn't spread to the forest around him and cause some sort of accident. Lighting his contained kindling, Xisheng waited until the flames started to grow before searching out a bit more fuel that would add longevity and more smoke to the process.

Once the fire was raging well enough and smoke started rising into the sky, Xisheng turned back in the direction he had marked thanks to Azula's flare. At a decent jog, the fire he had created would last plenty long enough to reach them, and the smoke would serve as a waypoint to get back to this place. With all of that in mind, the Fire Nation officer locked his direction and made sure to keep it dead ahead as he crossed the river and started jogging through the forest.

The problem here was that he still only had a general direction to head in, which meant he could still get lost, especially if his straight line was interrupted by on obstacle, like any one of the many trees in the forest. But despite not being an Army Pathfinder, he had worked with enough of them during his career to know a few tricks: if an obstacle got in the way of a straight line, counting your paces and circling around it using right angles would ensure you ended up very close to your original trajectory on the other side of it. It was better than nothing, at least.

Xisheng used this method to stay on course as best he could, but he had only been moving for a few minutes when he was distracted.

"Gohan, hey!"

Placing a hand on a nearby tree so he could keep his current bearing relative to the way he was facing, Xisheng turned his head to the right to see Ty Lee, who was several dozen feet away and had clearly been moving in the opposite direction. She was moving towards him now, a worried look on her face. Xisheng figured he would dispel any worries first.

"Ty Lee-"

Before he could address her presence, the brunette was in Xisheng's face.

"Gohan, are you alright?! I saw that fire through the tree canopy. Is that bad? Is something wrong?"

"Calm down, Ty Lee, nothing is wrong. I used that to signal Azula after getting a little lost. She sent one back so I could figure out what direction the Overlord and the rest of you were in. Didn't you see her do it? Speaking of which... why is it just you out here? What, did Azula send you by yourself to see what was up?"

For some reason, a kind of sheepish look crossed the brunette's face.

"N-no, I wasn't actually with Azula and Mai when I saw your flames... I was, uh, taking a walk! In the woods. For relaxation and stuff."

"Just after bathing?"

"Y-yes?"

Xisheng looked back in the direction Ty Lee had come from, doing some mental calculations as to what direction she may have been going prior to noticing his signal.

"Ty Lee... seems to me like you were heading back to the river..."

The acrobat turned Avatar hunter took a step back as she blushed, waving her arms frantically.

"W-what?! No! Don't be silly, Gohan!"

Xisheng leveled a doubtful look at her.

"Really? Ty Lee, lying isn't a good look for you. Were you... coming back to spy on me?"

The blush on Ty Lee's face went completely crimson, matching the soldier's uniform almost perfectly. It basically confirmed Xisheng's suspicion immediately. Surprisingly, he wasn't as embarrassed himself by this notion as he would have assumed he would be. Maybe the fact that she was so flustered made it easier for him. Either way, Ty Lee did say something back, and that response in and of itself was kind of surprising.

"Y-yeah, so what if I was?! It's only fair, you spied on me too!"

Reminded of the gorgeous nakedness he had witnessed not that long ago (he was surprised he had managed to forget at all), now it was Xisheng's turn to feel flustered.

"On accident! T-that's not the same as doing it intentionally!"

Seeing that she could counterattack and thus limit her own embarrassment, Ty Lee swiftly took the offensive, hand on her hips in a somewhat judging pose.

"Well you sure didn't seem all that invested in looking away, did you? You seemed pretty happy to ogle me, you know!"

"Well you seemed pretty happy to be ogled by me, you know?! It's not like you covered yourself! Besides, it's not like it was just you!"

Contrary to the intent, the reminder that two other girls had been involved actually didn't seem to make Ty Lee feel any better about the situation. She folded her arms and everything.

"What kind of guy complains about getting such a great show, anyway? The least you could do is take responsibility for seeing everything..."

Forgetting that there was actually something bigger at hand, Xisheng focused on this conversation about nudity and all, having not expected it in the slightest.

"I didn't see everything. You were facing me sideways initially, you know..."

His voice trailed off at that, prompting Ty Lee to cock an eyebrow at him.

"Try not to sound so disappointed, Gohan. Not an ounce of shame in you, even after stealing the purity of several maidens! And you know, Azula's the Crown Princess and all that, not to mention kind of young for you. You should feel bad for all this, don't you think?"

Honestly, Xisheng was surprised that Ty Lee was holding this all against him. She had been eager to show off for him earlier, so what the hell was with this? He didn't get a chance to question that, since Ty Lee was looking at him with a smug expression at this exact moment.

"You know, I bet Azula and Mai would be really excited to learn about all of this..."

Of all the people to threaten him with certain death, Ty Lee was the last person that would have come to Xisheng's mind.

"Hey, hey, are you trying to get me killed?! I thought you liked me!"

In response to that, Ty Lee donned a mischievous smirk as she leaned forward to put their faces closer together.

"I do like you, Gohan. That's why I'd be willing to overlook all of this shameless behavior if you just paid me back in kind. I just want to be compensated for showing you my perfect body and saving your life from Azula and Mai at the river."

With the girl so close to him, a charming smile on her face, and decidedly lewd thoughts and implications on the table, Xisheng couldn't help but lean back to try and get some air into his overloading brain. Ty Lee had a point in saying that he had gotten to see her naked, but it was an accident. That wasn't the same as someone requesting you to give strip show.

"N-now hold on, like I said, I didn't see everything!"

Gaining a lot more confidence seeing how well her attack was going, Ty Lee somehow failed to miss a beat, saying completely embarrassing things without herself seeming too flustered herself.

"Fair enough. Then I guess you just have to show me your chest and your butt, right? Then it's even."

"T-T-Ty Lee, that's ridiculously scandalous!"

The brunette leaned towards him again, constantly ensuring that the space between them was sparse.

"I think I know what Mai and Azula would find ridiculously scandalous..."

"Hey, are you seriously going to blackmail me like that?!"

Giggling to herself, Ty Lee backed away to give him some space.

"Of course I'm not, Gohan. I know what those two would do to you. But come on, don't you think it's only fair? And are you really upset with the fact that a hot girl wants to see you naked?"

Xisheng had to admit, that idea was kind of flattering, in a way. There was a certain appeal to knowing for certain that someone was interested. But still, this felt like a little much. That said, Xisheng tried to find a way to divert this line of thought to something else entirely.

"Er, T-Ty Lee, there isn't time for this right now! I launched that signal because I needed to get back to Azula and report something right away."

Maybe finding his claim to be a little dubious with how suddenly he was injecting it into the conversation, Ty Lee put her hands on her hips.

"Oh really?"

"Y-yes, really! Look, I need you to keep going the way I came until you reach the river. I started a fire on the shore of the river so I can follow the smoke back there, and it would really help me out if you could go and keep an eye on it until I return, alright?"

Ty Lee followed the finger he pointed back in the direction he came, figuring that Xisheng wouldn't make something like that up just to dodge this conversation. After all, it would be too easy to reveal such a lie for what it is.

"Alright, Gohan..."

She stepped forward again and gently pressed her index finger against Xisheng's chest.

"...but don't think I'm going to forget about this. I can't just let you go around fantasizing about my naked body if I don't get to do the same thing with you. So don't be surprised when I bring this up again!"

With that, the acrobat jogged off in the direction Xisheng had come from, giving him a dainty wave and a smile as she did so. One would never have assumed she had just been openly discussing something so promiscuous two seconds ago.

As for Xisheng, he was frozen in place for the moment, wondering how on Earth this turn of events had taken place. Where had this crazy situation come from? Maybe it had been too naive of him to think that what he had witnessed at the river would be a one and done occurrence that had no lasting effects or consequences. After all, maybe it would actually be kind of ridiculous to expect Ty Lee to not follow-up on what had happened at all.

Still, this was technically a minor thing that shouldn't have been taking up his focus right now, so Xisheng moved it to the back of his mind and returned his attention to what mattered right now.

Having thoughtfully kept his bearings even during that flustering conversation with Ty Lee, Xisheng set himself on the right path once again, a decent jog carrying him forward. Hopefully, it would only be a few more minutes before he arrived at this destination.

Being in great shape due to the nature of his career and combat arts, Xisheng covered distance at a fairly rapid pace. After another few minutes, he questioned whether or not he was still going in the right direction, but within sixty seconds Xisheng broke through the light tree cover and found himself standing in a clearing. A quick glance around proved that it was indeed the right clearing, as he could see the Overlord several dozen paces to his right. He had come out a little off to his exact destination, but honestly Xisheng was proud of how accurate his trajectory had been. Maye he could have been a scout, after all.

With little time to waste, Xisheng trotted over to the Fire Nation transport, finding the people he was looking for on the far side of it. Mai was sitting on one of the metal steps of the vehicle, her focus consumed by some sort of maintenance with a contraption on her forearm. Xisheng had never noticed it before, but he assumed she hid the thing under her spacious sleeves.

Azula, on the other hand, was standing with her arms folded as she stared right above the treeline. One of her slender fingers was tapping impatiently against her armor. Xisheng imagined she was waiting for some sort of sign or indication of what Xisheng's flare had meant, whether that came from his actual arrival or something else.

Unfortunately, Xisheng's slightly off-target trajectory had spit him out behind the Princess. Xisheng couldn't imagine that she was the type of person to get spooked, but he knew as well as anyone that someone on edge could be easily startled, regardless of their normal disposition. He'd once been knocked upside the head by a Fire Nation guard with a polearm when Xisheng had come to relieve him.

That said, all he could really do was announce his presence as sensibly as possible, and hope neither girl present was the type to react before identifying the source of a disturbance.

"Princess."

To her credit, Azula didn't really whirl on him with a gout of flame or anything. But Xisheng noticed the mild alarm all the same. She turned to face him with narrowed eyes, and her hands had swiftly taken the shape of her preferred Firebending stance. Her body had moved to a battle position before her mind even acknowledged that the sudden voice was friendly. Honestly, Xisheng would chalk that up to instinct and reaction time before jumpiness.

Even Mai, stony as she usually was, visibly tensed at his arrival, and that was to say nothing of the fact that a knife had appeared in her hand in the blink of an eye. Thankfully, both girls quickly discovered little need for concern, seeing as how the arrival was a friendly one. Honestly Xisheng was glad they both had such good reaction times. It was a good trait to have in their current line of work.

That aside, Azula was quick to ask about the meaning of all this.

"Lieutenant: I assume there's an explanation for all of this?"

Bowing to her since this was customary of a report, Xisheng did his best to make everything concise. He also tried to determine the best way to word everything so it all seemed reasonable in the first place.

"Yes, Princess. While at the river, I encountered a very large clump of white hair. Seeing as how no animal should have their winter coat around this time of year and that the fur was clearly from a sizable animal, I made to investigate its source. Further down the river, I found a trail of similar fur in suspicious spots: the tops of trees, caught on branches and the like, seemingly indicating that the fur fell from above the treetops. I know this is hardly a solid lead, but I felt it was prudent to bring this to your attention: this fur could belong to the Avatar's bison."

Instead of answering immediately, Azula's hand went to her chin, the girl's brow furrowing as she considered what she was being told. Mai, on the other hand, was a bit more vocal in her own thoughts.

"Not that I'm an expert or anything, but isn't that assuming a lot? It's not winter and that bison has a white coat to begin with, so plenty of other animals could just have white fur year-round. And how many Earth Kingdom animals are you familiar with anyway? That fur could be from any number of creatures you don't know about."

Xisheng wasn't at all bothered that Mai said any of this. After all, she was right about all of that. He'd said himself that the lead was less than solid.

"You are right about all of those things. Still, it's worth calling attention to, at any rate. Ultimately it's the Princess' call as to whether or not we pursue it."

Having raised her points, Mai merely shrugged, returning to what she had been doing with the contraption on her arm. She supposed it didn't particularly matter to her where the party went. She was mostly along for the ride anyway, so North or East or off some vague trail didn't matter that much to her.

Azula, on the other hand, couldn't be so flippant about the decision. It's not like the group was on a strict timetable to achieve any particular goal. But that didn't mean they could just go off on any detour that came their way. And even though they didn't have a specific deadline to achieve their goals, obviously it would be better to catch the Avatar as swiftly as possible.

Having lost his trail and with no reasonable way to get it back, Azula had figured that the best thing to do was to go to a Fire Nation military base and be appraised of the overall war situation. At least then she could determine what other ways her group could contribute to the war effort, since she would hardly be content to traipse about in the wilderness with no lead on the Avatar.

All of that said, she figured that it wouldn't be too detrimental to investigate this fur trail Xisheng had brought up, even if it was a long shot. If it seemed like a viable pursuit, they could follow it, and if it didn't, then they wouldn't have lost too much time investigating regardless.

"I believe it's worth a look, at the very least. Mai raises some valid points, but unlikely and impossible are far from the same. Although, how exactly do you plan on getting back to the trail's location...?"

"I started a controlled fire near it. The smoke should be rising above the treetops any minute now. Ty Lee should be keeping an eye on it: we crossed paths in the forest on my way back here."

Azula's raised brow implied that she was a little confused as to how the two of them had met up in the woods, but she supposed Ty Lee was the kind that was predisposed to wandering. It was probably just a coincidence.

"Very well. To the vehicle then, there's no point in waiting around."

Xisheng bowed to the much shorter girl again, turning from her as Azula made to enter the car she called home for now. Instead of moving directly to the driver's cabin himself, Xisheng turned his attention to Mai, who was just getting up.

"Mai, could I trouble you to ride in the driver's cabin? The view port for the Overlord is too narrow for me to really look up into the sky: I may need your help to stay on course towards the smoke signal."

To her credit, Mai didn't immediately show any signs of being discontent with the suggestion. However, that only lasted for a moment. Maybe because she put some thought into it.

"What, do you want me to hang out the open door or something?"

Realizing that this did sound a bit more troublesome than he had worded it initially, Xisheng smiled apologetically. Truth be told, if Mai didn't agree to do this, he'd have to stop the Overlord every few minutes and step outside himself to make sure they were going the right way. That would be remarkably inefficient.

"I'm really sorry to ask it of you, but you would really be a great help, Mai. I'd be very grateful."

With a sigh, the dark-haired girl decided against resisting any further. Didn't mean she was going to be particularly gracious about it, though.

"Fine. But only because you're so desperate about it."

Instead of claiming that his plea was more earnest than desperate, Xisheng figured he would settle for the victory he had.

"Thank you, Mai."

For some reason, his simple gratitude spurred the girl to turn away from him and head for the driver's cabin, a tiny frown that seemed less about displeasure and more about irritation of some sort.

"Let's just get going already."

Xisheng smiled to himself, glad that he had enlisted Mai's much-needed help, but even more pleased that he had flustered her a bit. Something about breaching her impervious emotional barrier was just immensely satisfying. Maybe he was being presumptuous, but it felt like something he could do that others couldn't. Hell, he hadn't seen Azula or Ty Lee get some sort of notable emotional rise out of her, and they were her actual friends with years of experience with her. Maybe that was a bias governed by his narrow perspective, but he enjoyed it nevertheless.

Of course, now that she was walking away from him, Xisheng's attention drifted away from that innocent enjoyment and towards a memory from earlier that day. It was weird how her loose clothing actually did more to accentuate particular curves rather than hide them. Maybe it was because there was nothing else to rest on. Or maybe it was just because he actually knew what was hiding under there now.

Aware that he was probably going to be spending a fair deal of time with her today since her help would be needed, Xisheng tried to clear his head of such thoughts. The last thing he needed was that kind of distraction on his mind when there was something important to focus on. Surely he was professional enough to keep a clear head, right?

As he failed to immediately disperse some distinctly perverse thoughts, Xisheng finally understood why the Army was so ridiculously strict about uniform: everyone looked the same in armor, and there was nothing to get excited about regardless of gender. Until now, he hadn't really appreciated the rationale of that principle.

---

Once the engine was fueled and the and the Overlord was ready to go, the team was ready to meet up with Ty Lee and take a look at the trail Xisheng had discovered. As Mai had predicted, she had no choice but to leave the door to the driver's cabin open and lean out of it in order to direct Xisheng in the direction he needed to go. The view port of the Overlord made it impossible to look too high into the sky, since it was designed to offer maximum protection for the driver. There would be no way to see the smoke signal Xisheng had created from within the confines of the cabin.

Fortunately, that smoke signal had indeed reached into the sky by this point, with the column being tall enough that Mai could see it over the treetops and steer Xisheng in the right direction. Thankfully, the rather sparse tree canopy allowed her to keep track of it even while they were in the woods. As before, Xisheng had acknowledged the possibility of such a signal drawing unwanted attention, but there had really been no alternative other than wandering around and hoping they didn't waste too much time doing so.

Besides, they were really out in the middle of nowhere: Gaoling was really the only major city in the southern Earth Kingdom, and that was back West. There was practically no major settlement even worthy of being mentioned on a map to the East of Gaoling. It was essentially wilderness all the way to the ocean on the EK's eastern shore. Considering that there was nothing to even defend way out here, and that the Fire Nation didn't have any notable presence in the area since a staging area blocked off by the Si Wong desert was pointless, the chances of any sort of Earth Kingdom patrol being out here were practically nil.

Assuming that Xisheng was actually right and the white fur he had found did indeed belong to the Avatar's bison, then it was possible his group was in the area: but if they did see the smoke, it was possible that it would actually lure them in, which would ultimately be beneficial for them. Got rid of the hassle of a chase, at any rate.

Considering that the destination in question wasn't that far away, it didn't take long to reach it, even though the Overlord had to take some winding paths around trees, which slowed them down. Thankfully, Mai's sharp gaze kept them going in the direction they needed, so that type of hassle didn't cause them too much of a problem. It was a bit odd to have Mai leaning out of the open cabin door to give him directions, but thankfully they were moving slow enough that she was in no danger of harm. Admittedly, Xisheng was worried about the danger to her person if she was needed for following the trail of fur, if Azula authorized it. He would probably need her to do the same thing in that situation.

One way or another, it wasn't long before the vehicle broke through the woods and reached the bank of the river they were looking for. On the opposite side of the river was the very bonfire Xisheng had left as his marker, with Ty Lee kneeling down some ways from it, keeping a watchful eye on the flames and ensuring that they didn't grow out of control. Thankfully her job wasn't very hard, since Xisheng had created quite a large fire break around it.

Considering that the team would have to get to the opposite bank anyway and he assumed they didn't want to get wet while fully clothed, Xisheng went ahead and plowed the Overlord into the water, after telling Mai to shut the door and keep herself dry, of course. Frankly he wondered how Ty Lee had gotten across without getting wet herself: while the river was rather narrow at this point, it would have been impressive if she had actually managed to jump it. Then again, maybe she had just taken off her shoes and waded through it. With such a raging fire nearby, drying off wouldn't have been much of an issue.

When the crossing was over and done with and the Overlord was safely parked, Xisheng and Mai disembarked the vehicle, with Azula following suit from her much roomier cabin. With the three of them approaching the large bonfire, Ty Lee wasted no time in excitedly waving to them and making some proclamation about getting lonely out here. As for Xisheng, he quickly took control of the bonfire's flames with his bending and extinguished them. Their purpose had been served, leaving only a smoldering pile of tinder.

With a specific purpose in mind and with the intent to waste as little time as possible, Azula was quick to summon Xisheng's attention.

"So, Lieutenant: where is this suspicious trail of yours?"

Xisheng traced his steps to where he had spotted the white fur when he was first here. Once he was confident that he was standing in the same spot as before, the soldier peered into the woods before him. Even knowing what he was looking for, it took him a few moments to spot the first tuft of hair that was their objective. There was a lot to take in within his field of vision, after all.

"Right there. Can you see it?"

He pointed directly at the first white spot he saw, hanging off of a tree branch. Both Azula and Mai came to stand next to him, trying to follow his outstretched finger to its implied destination.

Unsurprisingly, Mai saw it first. As always, her sharp eyes impressed.

"Yeah, I see it. And the next one too, stuck on that vine. There's a third one a little further away. I'll admit, the placement of this fur does seem to indicate that it fell from up high."

While not as quick as Mai, Azula quickly picked up the trail herself.

"I concur. Of course, that doesn't necessarily mean this is tied to our prey, but I can see why you would find it prudent to bring this to my attention, Lieutenant. Good work."

"Of course, Princess."

Now that he had finally done his job as far as this situation was concerned, Xisheng had little to do other than wait. At this point, their course of action was up to Azula and Azula alone. Unless she asked for their input, there was little else for the others to say.

That being said, it didn't look like Azula was going to ask any questions right away. Her hand on her chin, it was fairly obvious that the Crown Princess was deep in thought, perhaps weighing their options and the merits of both.

Having lost the trail of the Avatar after Gaoling and having no way to accurately pick it up again, Azula's intention had been to continue eastward to make contact with the nearest Fire Nation outpost, which Xisheng had assured her rested on the west coast of the Earth Kingdom. The reason for this was simple: blindly searching around for the Avatar when he could have been anywhere in the world by now was a waste of valuable time. Instead, it would be more productive to return to Fire Nation territory and be appraised of the current war situation if possible. If pursuing the Avatar was a waste of time due to a lack of a trail, then there were surely other war efforts Azula and her companions could contribute to.

Such things were outside of the general scope of her mission: even hunting the Avatar was something her father had not explicitly told her to do. However, it wasn't as if Ozai had told her that she was forbidden from doing anything while abroad. He trusted in her judgment and discretion, and likely would have applauded her for trying to do greater things that were within her power. He had always told her to settle for nothing less than all she could achieve, after all.

As for getting back to Fire Nation territory and being appraised of the war situation, one would think they could have just turned around and returned to Omashu instead of making for a remote outpost. There were two reasons why they hadn't done this.

For one, returning to Omashu was actually a more time consuming ordeal than heading for the remote outpost to the East. Between Omashu and Gaoling was mountain lowlands and a huge forest that couldn't be skirted. Xisheng had experienced quite a degree of difficulty in navigating all of it on their initial journey here. On the other hand, the path to the remote outpost was mostly easy terrain for the Overlord to navigate. Once they left this forest they were in now, which was already sparse, there would be little in the way of obstacles to slow them down. Ultimately, reaching the outpost in question would take less time than going back to Omashu.

Of course, there was a second reason Azula had foregone Omashu. That was because there was only one real operation left in the war's entirety: capturing Ba Sing Se. The South Pole was negligible, the North was suppressed, Gaoling was no threat and Omashu had been recently neutralized. Pockets of resistance from the enemy may have existed across their territories, but Ba Sing Se was well and truly their last remaining stronghold. Once that was over and done with, the war would be well and truly over, at least in an official capacity. Azula had no doubt guerilla warfare between the Fire Nation and rebel forces would continue for some time after the official conclusion of the war.

Point being, Azula was very confident in saying that the next military operation would be against Ba Sing Se. And if she wanted to contribute to that operation, she would have to reach Ba Sing Se. Unfortunately, Azula and her retinue were on the literal opposite side of the continent from the city, and the Si Wong desert separated them, among other things.

Reaching Ba Sing Se from Omashu was actually very easy, if one took an aquatic path. There was a channel one could enter near Omashu that led right into Full Moon Bay, which was about the closest one could get to Ba Sing Se as far as its shores were concerned. However, Full Moon Bay was currently the epicenter of a large refugee evacuation for the Earth Kingdom, and was heavily fortified. Moreover, news of Omashu's fall had almost certainly reached Ba Sing Se by now, so such an obvious route would be fortified even further.

This was also why Serpent's Pass, the land route, was off the table. While the East side of the Pass was technically under Fire Nation control, it wasn't very tight. Ships weren't occupying that space in great numbers, due to constant Earth Kingdom entanglements and the titular serpent that resided in those waters. Traveling that route on land in hopes of flagging down a Fire Nation ship to take them the rest of the way was risky and complicated, not to mention likely to fail altogether.

So ultimately, it was a simpler matter to travel to the East Fire Nation outpost on the Southern shores of the EK, at which point Azula and her allies could take a ship around the easily accessible waters on the Eastern shore of the continent, all the way to land near Ba Sing Se. At that point moving safely on land would be easy.

The question was this: was this potential lead on the Avatar worth delaying that entire plan of action for an undetermined period of time? Would it be worth delaying hours, days, or even weeks? What if it ended up being nothing? What if it was just some wild animal that had white hair and was shedding? Azula would be particularly disgruntled if they wasted a ton of time chasing some pointless lead.

But there was no way to determine whether or not this was a worthwhile risk or not. All she could really do was guess.

With no words from Azula forthcoming for several moments, it was clear to everyone else that she wasn't particularly confident on making a decision one way or another. But no one had anything to say to help her make a decision. Or at least, Xisheng and Ty Lee didn't.

Mai, glancing back at the Princess from her position nearest the forest and the trail being considered, debated whether or not she really wanted to say anything. On one hand, she didn't particularly fancy the idea of following this trail through the woods, especially since she knew she would have to play a major part in the pursuit. She wouldn't be able to just relax while they pursued this lead, if they chose to.

On the other hand, it's not like the alternatives were really any better. If they ignored this trail, they would just be driving East for several days, according to Azula. In all that time, Mai would have little to do other than lay around, and that was even more dull than doing something that she didn't care much about. Besides, if they did follow this trail, she would have to stay in the driver's cabin to help Xisheng follow it with their vehicle. The two of them hadn't really talked at length since the conclusion of his duel with Azula earlier. Not that she would admit that the notion of talking with him again lifted her spirits, but she was somewhat curious about a number of things following the huge debacle that had gone down. Namely, she wanted to know how he had gotten Azula to take a loss so well. Mai really hadn't thought that was possible.

In the end, she decided it was worth speaking up. Anything was better than standing around here, right?

"Azula, if you want to investigate this, you don't have to worry that much about wasting a lot of time."

Surprised to hear an interjection from Mai of all people, Azula cocked an eyebrow at her.

"Is that so?"

"Think about it: if this is just some animal and not the Avatar's bison, then following the trail will lead us to something that makes that obvious pretty quickly: an animal path, a nest or a den, hunting grounds... if this fur is from a wild animal from around here, there will be signs that make that clear before we have to follow it too far. If that happens, we can just get back to what we were doing."

Xisheng was quite impressed with this deduction, though he didn't say anything since Azula was the one being addressed.

"I suppose you have a point... I must say, Mai, I didn't expect you to be this well-versed in tracking. Doesn't seem like something you'd have experience in.

To this, Mai merely shrugged.

"I'm not. Just seemed obvious to me."

There was a small twitch in Azula's expression, probably a disgruntled one that had to do with the implication of something obvious eluding her, but ultimately she said nothing about it. The thing about Mai was that she often called things as she saw them, so it was very unlikely that she was actually trying to insult anyone in situations like these. Throwing a fit over it would just waste time.

"Well, one way or another you're right about this. That said, I suppose we can spare a little bit of time to investigate this since our current objective wasn't tied to a particularly tight timetable. Although, if this does happen to lead to the Avatar..."

Azula petered off again at this, her hand going to her chin as she glanced back at the parked Overlord.

"...we'll probably need the Mongoose Lizards to engage him. Out here in the wilderness, they'll have plenty of avenues of escape available. Not only will we have to catch them on the ground, but we'll have to close the distance and attack very quickly so they can't run before we actually have a chance to strike."

At this point Xisheng stepped into the conversation as well.

"Rapid deployment could be a problem. With the smoke from the vehicle, we'll hardly be sneaking up on anyone paying attention. I'll be driving of course, and I'll need Mai with me in the driver's cabin to navigate for me. That means the two of us won't be able to immediately mount the Lizards and deploy. As for you and Ty Lee, you'll probably have to stay in the car with the Lizards themselves to quickly deploy from the vehicle and attack immediately."

Needless to say, Azula didn't look particularly happy about sitting around in the same car as their mounts. While they weren't nearly as bad as Ostrich Horses, Mongoose Lizards still weren't particularly pleasant company, especially for a Princess. Even so, Xisheng had a point.

"Well, let's wait until we're certain of what we are pursuing before worrying about that. No need to put ourselves into an uncomfortable situation prematurely. But assuming that they will be needed: Ty Lee, do you feel that they're ready to go right now?"

The brunette looked a little confused by the question, wondering how she had been saddled with the job of animal ringleader. Apparently, she had been appointed due to being slightly more knowledgeable about Mongoose Lizards than any of her friends. Darn that one summer at the circus, giving her such a skill set...

A little dismayed to have the job but understanding why she did, Ty Lee figured it would be best to just roll with it. She had been paying more attention to the Lizards than anyone else, after all. It was usually her that made sure they stretched their legs, stayed fed, and remained generally docile. Thankfully that wasn't hard since Mongoose Lizards were actually pretty tame. They didn't get too antsy in the car of the Overlord since it was usually warm, and there was a certain rhythm to its movement.

"Well, they went out while we were parked for most of the day, and they ate not that long ago, so they should be ready to go on another trip if you want to leave right now."

Content with that, Azula merely nodded.

"Very well. We should get underway immediately then. You and I can wait in the main cabin, Ty Lee. Lieutenant, alert me via the communication pipes if something of import arises."

Xisheng bowed at that, watching as Azula retreated to the main cabin of the Overlord, Ty Lee on her heels. The latter was giving him a sort of disgruntled pouting look, perhaps unhappy with the notion that he and Mai would be alone for an extended period of time. Frankly, Xisheng didn't know why the notion bothered her at all. They'd be busy, to start with, but on top of that he highly doubted that Mai had any sort of interest in him that would get in the way of Ty Lee's own, especially considering what the acrobat had made clear earlier today...

Remembering an extremely flustering conversation and the embarrassing implications that went with it, Xisheng turned to the driver's cabin, hoping to put those unprofessional thoughts from his mind by focusing on the task at hand. It only partially worked, so he decided to try harder by speaking to his new companion for the moment.

"Sorry about this, Mai. I'm sure you didn't really want to do this today."

Following him towards the driver's cabin, Mai sighed, but it almost seemed obligatory. She didn't actually sound that disgruntled.

"It's not like it's your fault the situation is what it is. I'm sure you didn't really want to do this today either."

"Well, I was driving either way, but I guess you're right in saying this is a little more tedious. It's not all bad though: I like having your company, and I doubt I would have had that if this situation hadn't come up."

Opening the door of the vehicle, Xisheng's hearing was somewhat impaired due to the groaning of metal on metal. Because of this, he didn't actually hear Mai's response.

"You could have just asked..."

Knowing she had said something but unsure of what it had actually been, Xisheng glanced over his shoulder.

"Sorry, what was that?"

Perhaps realizing that she had said something kind of embarrassing, Mai didn't repeat herself, instead opting for something else entirely as she fought down a mildly flustered feeling that would have broken her usually impeccable mask.

"I said it's a little sad you get so lonely. You'd think you would actually want a little peace and quiet after everything that's happened to you this week."

Accepting her altered response at face value, Xisheng merely responded to that.

"I suppose that's fair. But honestly, I don't find your presence taxing in any way that would necessitate avoiding you if I was tired or frustrated. You don't really infringe on any semblance of peace and quiet."

Xisheng said all of this as he stepped into the Overlord proper, lighting a lantern near the door that illuminated the cabin for its occupants. That wouldn't be necessary once the engine was running, but it was a preferable alternative to having to Firebend a light until that was accomplished. All things considered, he didn't see the somewhat gratified expression on Mai's face as she took his impression of her into consideration. It wasn't everyday that someone told you that, of all people, they didn't feel as though they ever needed a break from you.

Of course, before she took that to heart too seriously, perhaps it would be best to discern how he really meant it. It could actually be insulting, depending on how and why he had formed this opinion. Mai decided to investigate just a little bit as she stepped onto the door frame where she'd likely be spending a significant amount of time today.

"And Ty Lee and Azula do? Well, I can get why you might need to avoid Azula from time to time after the past few days, but you don't ever seem to get fed up with Ty Lee."

"As you say, there's definitely a certain level of exhaustion that builds up over time with Azula. She's very intense, and even when she tones that down a bit, you can never really relax: she's always plotting something, or trying to catch you off-guard, or expecting something of you. Admittedly, all of those things contribute to making her a very interesting person, but it also requires you to be constantly focused and attentive around her. Of course, a lot of that may simply be because she has deigned to teach me personally. I'm sure these aspects of her character are different for me than they are for you or Ty Lee."

Folding her arms as she waited for Xisheng to reignite the coal powered flames of the Overlord, Mai couldn't help but agree with that assessment. He was right in saying that it was a little different from the perspective of her friends, but Azula was indeed a demanding personality to be around. She had high expectations, lofty ambitions, a confidence that often bordered on disdain for others, and a penchant for holding everyone to her standards. She was difficult to please and easy to agitate. Like running a marathon, just being around her was an often draining experience that one needed to recuperate from. Frankly, Mai wondered if she would have ever become friends with her as children if it hadn't been more or less out of her hands. Probably not, honestly.

Realizing that she was thinking almost entirely bad things about Azula, Mai actually felt obligated to point out something good that justified them being friends. Otherwise she really had to question what on Earth she was doing here at Azula's behest.

She supposed the Princess was usually good to her friends, even if she was a little finicky from time to time. The debacle with Xisheng was evidence enough of that. Even though Azula very rarely said it out loud, there was a certain respect that she had for Mai and Ty Lee at least: she wouldn't have asked them on this mission or even have been friends with them as kids if she didn't appreciate their skills and abilities, and whatever else it was that the Princess considered important.

For Mai specifically, perhaps it was simply the fact that life with or around Azula wasn't and never had been boring. From mischievous second child to current teenage heiress, she was always pursuing something that was more interesting than whatever else Mai had to do. She had little doubt that this reality was a major contributor to their continued relationship. Admittedly, that didn't seem like very good grounds for a friendship, but it was what it was.

As the fires of the coal burning engine roared to life at Xisheng's hands, Mai realized she hadn't actually responded to him, which was probably something he had been expecting.

"OK, so that's plenty of fair reasoning for Azula. But you didn't say anything about Ty Lee. You don't ever really seem bothered by her presence."

Xisheng picked up a shovel that was constantly resting near the engine and shoveled in some coal to get it going. It was a wonder that he could hear Mai speak to him next to the roar of the flame. Hopefully that noise would block out anything condemning from entering the communication pipes and being heard by their friends: in hindsight, Mai hoped Azula hadn't heard everything they had just said about her...

As for Xisheng, there was a really weird expression on his face as the conversation turned to Ty Lee. Mai couldn't really tell what that was about, but the solider got it under control soon enough, so she forgot about it swiftly.

"Well I would never say that Ty Lee's presence bothers me, per se. But she is a very... enthusiastic person. Even when we're just talking about something minor, there's a certain level of energy she brings to the table, and a certain level of energy she expects from others, as well. I'm sure we both know that this level of energy is a lot higher than most people exude on a regular basis. I'm glad she's so energetic and passionate: someone who finds joy and happiness in everything is rare in this world to begin with, but having that kind of person in your life is especially rare for a soldier like me. You see so many terrible things in war, so many examples of humanity at its lowest, that it's easy to forget how to enjoy things in life. I'm glad that Ty Lee constantly reminds me that there are plenty of reasons to smile and laugh, even when things are rough."

For her part, Mai couldn't help but wonder about all of these "terrible things" Xisheng talked about in regards to his soldiering. It was kind of easy to forget that he had apparently seen a lot of people die, and that he'd probably killed a lot of them himself. He just didn't strike Mai as the haunted, brooding about dark deeds and darker realities type of guy. Maybe he just hid those memories away. Or maybe he just didn't have them. Mai certainly wasn't going to ask, at least not yet. She didn't think he would trust her of all people with that.

That being said, she didn't say anything, which gave the soldier time to finish his piece on why Ty Lee was someone he could arguably need a break from, even if they were few and far between.

"All of that said, if I'm too emotionally spent or physically exhausted, I could see it as being difficult to hold any meaningful interaction with Ty Lee that would be satisfying for both of us. It's weird to call her "demanding," but I feel as though she has a certain expectation for others to try and match her positivity and cheerfulness at all times. That, in its own way, can be tiring, depending on the circumstances. Of all the people in this group, I can't think of any aspect of you that's tiring, even in a small way like that."

Now that he had finished all of that and was moving towards the driver's chair, Mai actually did deign him with a response. Mostly because she was closing in on Xisheng's reasoning for not finding her exhausting. What she believed that reasoning to be, at any rate.

"So basically, the main reason you don't see me as someone who "infringes on any semblance of peace and quiet" is because I'm boring?"

Glancing over at her, Xisheng found that his partner in conversation actually seemed quite displeased by this notion. He supposed it made sense: Mai did hate boredom, after all.

"No, it's not because you're boring, Mai. You're... relaxing. Tranquil, almost. This may sound odd, but I don't feel as though you really expect anything of me, other than me being somewhat interesting and not a nuisance to you. I don't feel like I have to try and be a certain way with you, whether it's trying to be more ambitious, or cheerful, or dedicated to a certain goal. This is not to say that I'm faking those things when interacting with Ty Lee or Azula: but I feel like you aren't disappointed when I'm too tired to act a certain way, or when I just want to spend time doing something that ultimately might not be that practical or useful. Am I explaining this well?"

Having not expected this type of explanation at all, Mai wasn't quite sure how she felt about it. But ultimately, Gohan seemed to think of it all as a good thing and a good opinion of her. She supposed that mattered most.

"Well, it's a little weird to hear that what you really like about me is the fact that I don't expect much from you..."

"I really meant it more along the lines of being able to be myself in any emotional or mental state around you: so long as that state is somewhat interesting and doesn't annoy you. Not having to put in any effort to be a certain way around you means that your presence doesn't really cause any fatigue, so ultimately I don't feel as though I ever need a break from you. Maybe that makes more sense."

Probably unaware that she was even doing it, Mai smiled a bit.

"I suppose it does make sense. To be honest, I guess I kind of feel the same way about you... I don't really feel like you expect anything of me either. Maybe it's because you're just too passive to care, or maybe you actually understand me better than most: either way, I don't really feel like you ever tire me out either. That's a first..."

Getting as comfortable as he could in his chair, Xisheng smiled too, though his was combined with a bit of smugness.

"Oh really? Mai, are you saying I'm special to you?"

Averse to teasing as always, Mai's smile swiftly turned to a frown. She also wasted no time in turning her back on him, directing her gaze outside.

"You've cleared a low bar that the rest of humanity has somehow failed to, that's all. Don't get too cocky about it."

The tone of her voice, while irritable, wasn't truly unhappy, so Xisheng was able to tell that Mai wasn't honestly upset. That being the case, his smile widened even further as his situated his hands on the levers of the Overlord.

"So I'm the only one out of a very large number: what's the definition of special again?"

"Are we going to get going, or what?"

Chuckling to himself, Xisheng decided he would let the subject rest. He was more than content to simply know the things that had been revealed between the two of them in this conversation. Knowing that he had something uniquely special between him and all of his allies, even the prospect of navigating the wilds based solely on verbal directions didn't seem that bad.

---

Hours later, Xisheng was rethinking his sentiment in regards to the scenario not being that bad. It was true that he had company in the driver's cabin, and it was even company that Xisheng really liked. But having Mai with him was quite literally the only good thing about the situation. Everything else about it was bad.

For one, maneuvering the Overlord through forests was difficult enough under the best circumstances. With the addition of two cars to the main engine, the Overlord was arguably the largest land vehicle in the Fire Nation military, and considering that it wasn't the most maneuverable vehicle to begin with, there were many times Xisheng had to take a detour around terrain it simply couldn't pass.

That issue was compounded by the fact that their path was determined by tufts of white fur that Mai had to pick out of the scenery, meaning they had a very narrow range of maneuverability. Xisheng couldn't stray the vehicle too far from the path whenever an obstacle came up, or picking it back up again would be nearly impossible. That too took time and effort, being remarkably tedious. Honestly, out of all of it, Xisheng was most impressed by Mai's ability to keep the trail with little more than her hawkish vision. Sure, they had lost the trail a few times, but Mai always managed to pick it back up in the end.

Unfortunately, the nature of the exercise required a great deal of focus and attention from both of them, so there was little in the way of conversation between Xisheng and Mai over the course of the several hours they had been on the move. Sure, they'd managed to talk about a few things, albeit with interruptions every time Mai had to direct him towards the next step of their trail. The best they could really do the whole time was small talk, which wasn't really satisfying for either of them.

Finally, there was the fact that they had been at this wretched task for roughly six hours, with no break other than one for food, water and physical relief from biology's demands. Xisheng's ass and knees were both stiff as hell, and Mai had made it clear many times that her legs were killing her, no surprise considering that she had nowhere to sit for the duration of their travails. They hadn't been able to entertain the option of changing roles, as Xisheng didn't have her impeccable ability to follow a trail, and while Mai had driven the Overlord a little bit, she didn't have the experience to maneuver it around efficiently in such a tenuous situation.

There were only two things that could be considered good news at this point. For one, the fact that the trail they were following was still going, even after all of these hours and miles, made it highly likely that they were indeed on the Avatar's trail. Secondly, they had left the wooded forests behind some time ago, giving way to open ground that was much easier for the Overlord to traverse, and much easier for Mai to see long distances across. After what was shaping up to be a downright exhausting experience, they finally had it a little easier.

Unfortunately, even this turn of fate was completely unchallenged. Having left near noon prior to six hours of travel, darkness was beginning to fall. It wasn't the all-encompassing darkness of night quite yet, but it wouldn't be long before dusk reached that point. Now that they had a bit more leeway as far as focus was concerned, Xisheng made sure to raise a brief discussion about this.

"How long do you think you'll be able to keep track of the trail with it getting darker like this?"

Mai, leaning heavily on the door frame of the cabin to take some strain off of the legs she'd been more or less standing on for six hours, held up a hand to block her hair from flowing into her face thanks to the wind. No point talking with a mouthful of hair in your immediate future. Even after all of that, she was a little slow in responding. She was clearly tired.

"It should be a full moon tonight, and the skies don't look too cloudy... I should be able to keep an eye on the trail for a bit longer yet. Bank right towards that hill, by the way."

Xisheng did as he was told, completely blind to whatever trail Mai was following. Every once in awhile, he felt like he could see some of the white fur they were looking for, but more often than not it ended up being a trick of the light. He pretty much had to trust her senses, but she hadn't steered him wrong so far, as best as he could tell.

Of course, depending on how tired she was, the accuracy of her tracking could suffer. The fact that she wasn't even complaining much about this objectively shitty situation was evidence enough that she was actively conserving energy for the task at hand. To say this worried Xisheng was a major understatement.

"Since it's getting dark, I feel that our chase will come to an end sooner rather than later. Even the Avatar has to sleep."

If this made Mai feel any better about the situation, her words didn't make it obvious.

"So do his hunters."

"That's true. Azula and Ty Lee may be fine, but if we do come across our foes, I'm worried about you. Leaping into action after so many hours of standing isn't as easy as it sounds."

Mai kept her eyes on their surroundings since missing any part of the trail could cause them a significant setback.

"Me? What about you? You started this day off getting beaten up by Azula. Then you had to sit around in that metal chair for the same amount of time I've been standing here. If anyone should sit things out when the fighting starts, it should be you. Did you even have time to treat your injuries before all of this started?"

Xisheng could admit that, objectively, his situation must have looked pretty bad from Mai's point of view. But for him, it didn't strike him as that odd.

"It's not so bad. I've actually had a lot of experience with this type of thing. You stand around on guard duty for four or five hours, then have to leap into a fight to hold the line. You get injured in the heat of battle, and you just have to keep fighting until it's over. You know, one time an Earthbender split my shoulder, and I had to crawl away-"

Having cast his gaze towards Mai in some sort of macabre bragging about the old days, Xisheng cut himself short when he saw that she had turned her head enough to glare at him. Naturally he felt the need to cover his mistake somehow.

"Sorry, guess you have to be a soldier to get a kick out of that."

Mai turned her attention back to the outside, but she still sounded pretty irritable.

"So soldiers get a good laugh when they hear stories about their friends getting hurt? Are you all just psychos? And bank left towards the third mountain from the prow."

While getting directions threw a weird interruption into the conversation, Xisheng didn't let it distract him from the subject at hand. Maybe Mai had a point. He wouldn't want to hear about her or Ty Lee or Azula being hurt, even if the instance was in the past. No sane person really wanted to dwell on gruesome injuries their friends may have suffered.

Of course, all of his soldier comrades back in the field would have laughed about it. They also laughed about the Kebab thing once a week. But maybe that was just the kind of atmosphere that existed between people who knew they could die on any given day at their job. Dark humor was a good way to cope with the stress and trauma... but only around people who had gone through the same and got it.

Maybe it wasn't a good thing that they all got it. Maybe it was the normal people back in regular society that were right, acknowledging that there was something fucked up about people like Xisheng making a joke out of their suffering. Sure, it was his suffering, and in a way, he had a right to treat it however he wanted... but he could also understand why those who cared about him would be unhappy if he treated said suffering as a joking matter. If he cared about them in the same way then he should have the presence of mind to understand how they felt about it.

Coming to that conclusion, Xisheng figured he had to apologize again, though for a different reason.

"Sorry, Mai. I guess it does seem crazy from a normal person's point of view. It's just... well, you, Ty Lee and Azula are kind of the first friends I've had in years outside of the Army. I've... forgotten what it's like, really. I'll do better, I promise."

Feeling something very unusual for her (pity, maybe?) Mai tried to clarify that she hadn't really meant it that way. She didn't want him to feel like he had to hide or tone down an aspect of himself. Such things were exactly what she had hated about her own childhood. If anything, what she was really upset about was how nonchalantly he considered all the crap he'd been through. People like that, too selfless to consider themselves slighted or too sheepish to feel like they deserved some sort of respite from their struggles... something about it just pissed her off.

"I don't want you to do better, I just want you to be a little more- wait..."

Mai cut her statement short as she squinted out at a point in the sky, trying to identify something. Considering the task at hand, she had no choice but to shift her focus even though what she had to say was important. It would have to wait until later, considering what she had in her sights.

"Over there, above that copse of trees to your right: I think I see the Avatar's bison flying away from us. Do you see it?"

Ever the professional, Xisheng likewise shelved their conversation to focus on the mission. He had to lean down to increase the angle of his upward view, but ultimately he was able to see what Mai was talking about. Granted, to him it was just a white spot in the sky, but he could tell by the somewhat unnatural movement that it certainly wasn't a cloud, and it was visible from too far a distance to be a bird.

"I see it. Did you only just notice it?"

"No, it came up from the trees. Must have just taken off."

"Hm. Guess they must have seen us coming. No surprise, what with the big trail of smoke from the engine and all. I wouldn't be surprised if Toph could sense the approach of something this heavy with her Earthbending either."

While she kept her eyes on the target so they could keep following it, Mai nevertheless glared at the implication.

"If that's true, we're doomed. Anytime we get close they'll just fly away again. Hasn't this all been a waste of time?"

"Not necessarily. It's called endurance hunting: they may be able to outpace us in a sprint, but if we can overtake them in a marathon, then ultimately we win. That bison is an animal, so it'll tire out eventually. We have a machine that never falters. As long as we can keep track of them..."

Mai didn't seem nearly as optimistic about this assessment.

"We've been driving for hours already. Hard to talk about endurance considering the situation. I don't think I can keep this for a whole lot longer."

Even though Xisheng had far more experience in long shifts in uncomfortable positions than Mai did, he definitely saw where she was coming from. This type of scenario wasn't great for them: with he and Mai exhausted and cramped from the situation, half the team would be either greatly hindered or out of the fight entirely, against an opposing team of three powerful benders: plus the Water Tribe boy. It wasn't particularly good odds. And that was assuming their enemies even stopped again within a reasonable time frame. Experienced as he was, Xisheng was with Mai on the fact that he probably couldn't keep this up for another four to six hours.

That said, he didn't believe it would come to that. The fact that the Avatar and his gang were on the ground out here in the middle of nowhere meant they were likely preparing to stop for the night, which meant they were likely tired or approaching a time that they were usually sleepy. Even if they had the wits about them to abandon sleep and flee at this point, they'd probably tucker out eventually, likely choosing to stand and fight before they collapsed out of sheer exhaustion. Besides, kids more easily succumbed to sleep than their elders.

That said, they had options as well. Unlike Azula's team, which required two people to follow the Avatar, his group didn't have to go in any particular direction: only one of them needed to stay awake to guide their bison, if any of them had to stay awake at all: maybe the bison was perfectly capable of running away without any direction. Point being, many of them could sleep on the pretty spacious back of their animal transport while fleeing from their Fire Nation pursuers. Xisheng and Mai didn't have that luxury.

"I personally don't think we'll have to. I'll not pretend to know the limits of that bison's stamina or their own ability to stay awake overnight, but even if they don't tire out, I wouldn't be surprised if they choose to stand and fight just out of frustration. If Toph is with them, she may even try and persuade them to do just that for the sole sake of fighting Azula..."

Mai didn't know what she was expecting: perhaps some sort of answer that would have allowed them to rest or call of the chase, but she had known from the start that wasn't going to happen. That being said, all she could really do was sigh.

"Regardless, I'm not helping with the fight. My legs are killing me."

"That's fair. Either way, I'm going to alert Azula regarding the situation."

Since the Overlord could continue driving so long as it had fuel in the engine, there was no issue with Xisheng leaving his chair to head for the communication pipes near the back, using the opportunity to stretch as he did so. In that regard he had been better off than Mai for most of this ordeal, since she couldn't really leave her vantage point, lest they lose track of the trail they were following.

Leaning towards the pipes, Xisheng simply assumed that Azula was listening in, or that he would be loud enough to awaken her if she were sleeping. Frankly, Azula struck him as a light sleeper.

"Princess, we have eyes on the Avatar. He's fleeing in the opposite direction with his bison. Presumably, our approach was detected."

For a moment, there was no answer. However, it didn't take long for that to change, even though Azula's voice was a little distorted through all of those pipes between the cars.

"Very good, Lieutenant. Continue the chase, and alert me when a confrontation seems likely."

With little else to be said, the conversation ended, leaving Mai with room to sigh yet again.

"Typical. Not even a little grateful that we're doing all this crap."

Still near the pipes, Xisheng didn't say anything to that, lest it be heard by his superior. Mai may have been safe talking at a low volume at her distance, but Xisheng certainly wouldn't be, and he wasn't going to risk that.

That said, another voice came across before he could return to the driver's seat. This one was Ty Lee's.

"Gohan, are you and Mai alright? You've been cooped up in the front all day. Have you had any more water since we stopped?"

Xisheng couldn't help but smile at this: while Ty Lee had certainly made herself a rather... awkward existence earlier today, somehow she still managed to negate that lewd image entirely when she was so sweet and considerate. Odd, how such a pervert could turn completely around on a whim. Then again, maybe it was presumptuous and rude to assume that perverts couldn't also be very nice and caring people.

"We're fine, Ty Lee. Well, I'm fine. I'm sure Mai would disagree with that assessment."

Rather than agreeing with that, Mai scowled and kept her attention on the Avatar and his bison. Losing sight of them now would just cause an even bigger hassle for them. Of course, considering that they could fly, their prey would definitely escape her sight sooner rather than later, but knowing which direction they had gone in at all was certainly helpful.

Naturally, Ty Lee didn't know how Mai had responded, but she was probably well aware anyway. Anyone who knew anything about Mai would know how she would react in this situation.

"Alright, but when this is all over, you and Mai had better forget everything and just rest, alright? I bet it's been really uncomfortable up there this whole time."

"Yeah, remind me to tell our military's development branch to make some cushions for these seats. I doubt they sat in them even once before saying this thign was fit for service."

"Oh, we should have gotten you one while we were in Gaoling, maybe-"

Perhaps foreseeing why this conversation was getting too long for its own good, Mai interrupted it.

"Gohan, do I need to remind you that you have to turn this thing to keep following the Avatar?"

"Right, fair point. Sorry Ty Lee, back to the driver seat for me."

Since it was true that he couldn't afford to lose track of their prey, Xisheng didn't wait for whatever response he may have gotten, instead hopping back into the driver seat posthaste. It was just in time, since Mai had to guide him to a new direction. Not for the first time, Xisheng couldn't help but wonder how much easier this all would have been if dragons were still around in the Fire Nation. Whatever happened to all of them anyway?

---

About an hour later, the fact that it would be a long night was only further cemented in the minds of the Avatar's pursuers. As expected, the Avatar's bison outpaced them readily enough, once again leaving Mai to keep track of things. Thankfully, their prey had yet to realize that the beast was shedding, and with plenty of hair to go around, tracking the bison wasn't all that hard. It was always understood that the Avatar would outpace them: like Xisheng had said, it was just about lasting longer than their foes in the long run.

With the the trail getting tighter and narrower, Mai had already assumed that the bison had slowed down and likely stopped moving not too far off from their current position, so Xisheng had already alerted Azula and Ty Lee that they may be on top of the enemy soon. The Princess had merely acknowledged this notification and left him to his task.

Right now, the Overlord was navigating a winding mountain path at a decently high elevation, leading both Xisheng and Mai to believe they were rapidly closing in on their target. At most, they may have had a few minutes. Mai was using the time to gripe about the situation.

"Would it kill them to do the decent thing and surrender? This is driving me crazy."

Keeping his eyes ahead because failing to do so could throw the vehicle off a cliff, Xisheng nevertheless responded.

"I imagine they feel much the same way. Hence why, if we're lucky, they'll stop to fight out of sheer irritation at some point."

"If they don't stop soon, they'll see what sheer irritation looks like."

"I'm sure Azula will say something about how much of a hassle they've been for us."

Mai, kneeling at this point to take some of the strain off of her legs, didn't seem particularly enthused by the notion.

"Whatever she manages to say will still be an understatement."

Xisheng may have said something to that, but with his eyes on the path ahead, he was distracted by exactly what they were looking for. Near the top of this winding mountain path, where things seemed to plateau, stood the Avatar and his three companions, looking down at the vehicle that had been chasing them all night.

"Looks like they've gotten tired of the chase already. Alert Azula, would you? Tell her we're on a narrow path, the enemy is uphill, and that I'm going to turn the Overlord so the car doors are facing them."

"Got it."

Thankfully, while the path was generally narrow, there was enough space for Xisheng to maneuver the vehicle to the side. This way, Azula and Ty Lee would at least be able to engage almost immediately. Droning out what Mai was saying to his comrades over the pipes, Xisheng couldn't help but wonder why Toph didn't just send a rockslide their way or knock them clean off the mountain. Having seen her capabilities before, he didn't doubt that it was within her power. Even if she couldn't move the entire Overlord, stopping it in its tracks shouldn't have been too difficult. Maybe she just really wanted an actual fight. She had seemed pretty excited about it back in Gaoling.

Either way, Xisheng managed to bring the vehicle to a stop with the doors facing their foes. From outside, he heard the steam of the door opening on one of the other cars, or perhaps it was both of them. With the vehicle safely stopped, he wasted no time in rising from his chair himself, which garnered him a look from Mai.

"You're really going to go out there?"

"Well, it is my job. More importantly, if either one of them gets hurt because I was sitting out instead of watching their back, I would never forgive myself."

As Xisheng left the car, Mai sighed in defeat. Even she couldn't argue with that logic, which was probably why she begrudgingly got to her feet as well. He had a point: if someone ended up dying or crippled because she was too irritable to help, even she would probably be guilt-ridden for life. Or at least a few years, minimum.

When Xisheng exited the vehicle and stepped outside, he swiftly took stock of the situation. The Avatar and his friends were still at the top of the winding mountain path, choosing to fight but apparently believing that Azula and company were too far away to attack at the moment. That seemed reasonable as far as Aang and Katara were concerned, but Xisheng couldn't help but question the distance at which Toph could manipulate the earth. It was either a shorter distance than the one between them, or she simply chose not to do it.

Azula and Ty Lee had evidently released the Mongoose Lizards, finally revealing their purpose in being brought all the way from Omashu: they would allow for the traversal of a great distance at a much shorter time than running allowed. That was critical when one had to close the distance with a number of benders, especially when two members of the team were limited to close or medium range combat. Besides that, Mongoose Lizards could be fairly dangerous in combat themselves.

However, there were only three of the reptiles, and Azula and Ty Lee had already mounted two of them. The Princess diverted her attention to the arrival of the other half of her team for a moment following their arrival.

"Good of you to join us: it seems the Avatar and his merry band are willing to wait for a good fight, much to our fortune. But I won't bet on that courage remaining for long, so mount up, would you?"

Mai sighed in frustration as she begrudgingly brushed past Xisheng and stepped into the saddle of one of the Lizards. Naturally, this left the only professional soldier a little flat-footed.

"Uh, I suppose I'll catch up...?"

Azula seemed to find the notion of him trailing behind on foot amusing, but she nevertheless refused the concept.

"Don't be ridiculous, you're with me. Attacking the Avatar in tandem is our best chance of victory against one so evasive. For obvious reasons Mai and Ty Lee aren't the best suited to defeat him. So get on."

Xisheng supposed that Azula had a point: with the ability to fly, Ty Lee faced great difficulty in making physical contact with the Avatar, and with his wind manipulation, Mai's projectiles would be hard-pressed to ever stay on target. Both of them could only really fight Aang if they caught him by surprise or if they had support to distract or box him in. They did have that support, but since the Avatar had support as well, it wasn't like they could all focus on just Aang.

All of that said, Xisheng realized that being 'with' Azula in this scenario meant sitting behind her on the saddle. Despite being a pretty receptive person in regards to equality, he had to admit that the notion of being the only one who didn't know how to ride among a group of all girls stung a bit.

Azula seemed to pick up on his malcontent with the notion, something that seemed to amuse her greatly.

"Well? Any day now, Lieutenant."

Knowing full well that he couldn't delay the mission for something as petty as unease or embarrassment, Xisheng stepped up towards the Mongoose Lizard Azula had claimed, seeking to distract himself from the situation as he settled on the back of the saddle, a spot not designed to be ridden but capable enough of allowing it.

"Where did all of you learn to ride these things anyway?"

Azula merely scoffed.

"Please, I'm a genius."

Ty Lee simply shrugged sheepishly.

"You know that 'experience' with Mongoose Lizards I talked about before?"

"You never actually talked about it."

The acrobat seemed unwilling to divulge whatever secret experience she had, so Mai decided to explain herself in the silence, though not very well.

"The usual way. Got bored."

Somehow, all of their answers did very little to explain anything about their riding skills or where they had gotten them from. But Xisheng didn't have time to think about that, since Azula was eager to begin the attack. The Avatar and his crew were being quite patient, after all.

"Don't you think you might want to hang on, Lieutenant?"

While it sounded like Azula was suggesting he hold onto her, Xisheng couldn't fathom the idea. What, like, around the waist? Yeah, maybe their relationship had advanced beyond mere soldier and superior, and beyond subject to Princess, but this seemed like a big leap in comfort and familiarity. He just couldn't bring himself to make that leap so suddenly.

"I'm certain I'll manage, Princess."

There was a brief moment in which an irritated expression crossed Azula's face, but ultimately she just shrugged and accepted his answer.

"Suit yourself."

With a snap of the reins, Azula's mount shot forward at an alarming speed, and Xisheng's upper body did about the same thing in the reverse direction, with his already stiff legs barely holding him in place. Now that they were moving, it was fairly obvious from his perspective that Azula's motivation in telling him to hang on was purely practical. Unlike her, who had the benefit of a saddle to keep her rooted, Xisheng didn't really have any other option than to hang onto that rooted person for his own stability.

So, while it was uncomfortable for a number of reasons, Xisheng did what he had to do, leaning forward to wrap his arms around Azula's waist. The last thing he needed to do was waste even more energy trying to stay mounted as inefficiently as possible. This was practical: all practical, he told himself. Surely that was the only way Azula saw it, so why not him? Besides, he may have been pressed up against her smaller back, but he'd also punched her in the face earlier today, so it wasn't like he had never been this close before. Hell, she'd stepped on him once or twice in the early days of sparring.

That sounded a little weirder than it really was in reality.

Thankfully, any room for awkward thoughts was eradicated by the prospect of battle. While Toph hadn't done anything to prevent the approach of the Overlord, she apparently felt a little differently about the Mongoose Lizards and their riders, as she used a series of quick movements to force out spikes of earth in their immediate path. However, the agile Mongoose Lizards either sidestepped or climbed over all of them. Frankly, Xisheng wondered why these animals weren't more commonly used in military operations. They seemed quite useful.

Toph's next attack was a little more wide-ranging, choosing to erect an entire wall that spanned the path available to them, while also being at least two dozen feet high. It didn't really seem like it would be that useful though. Didn't the Lizards already prove they could climb well? Maybe she was just creating time for them to run. Then again, Xisheng knew a thing or two about Earthbending, and he knew that the style often involved multi-stage attacks...

"Azula-"

His warning was apparently unneeded, as Azula cut him off.

"I know. Everyone, jump!"

It was a good thing that everyone understood that she meant to have the Lizards jump, rather than jump off of them. Because if they had done the latter, the poor beasts would have been hammered by the oncoming salvo of square rocks, being launched out of the wall Toph had erected as rapidly as she could throw them. But with the Lizards commanded to leap by their reins, their impressive acrobatic ability launched them over the attack, and consequently, the wall obstructing them.

It was clear by the looks on their enemies' faces that they had not been expecting this level of jumping ability from the reptiles, giving the Fire Nation hunters a brief window to act before they were under attack again. Azula clearly intended to use this window to dismount, as she planted her feet on the saddle, consequently forcing Xisheng to release his grip.

Well, he supposed now was as good a time as any to get into the fight. He just hoped the stiffness in his legs wasn't going to make it a troublesome affair. Unfortunately, as he followed Azula's example and leaped from the airborne Mongoose Lizard, he definitely felt the tension in his legs hold him back from doing as well as he would have liked. He hadn't jumped nearly as hard or far as he had wanted, forcing him to botch his landing with a pained grunt and a staggered roll to his feet.

Trying his best to ignore the fatigue, Xisheng found himself a few feet from the Water Tribe Boy, Sokka. He didn't seem that eager to jump immediately into a fight.

"Tough day?"

Acknowledging the dark bags under his opponent's eyes, Xisheng nodded, feeling a certain sense of solidarity.

"Yeah, you could say that."

"Wanna just call it quits and forget about all this so we can rest?"

As flashes of blue erupted from Xisheng's right, he decided the moment of friendly banter had to come to and end.

"Sorry, but no."

As for Azula, she wasted no time in beginning the offensive, simply trusting that her allies had landed safely and would engage in battle at their own discretion. The only thing she did see from her team was the trio of Mongoose Lizards landing, all of which began to hiss and circle the Avatar's bison immediately, which roared back at them defensively. Predator and prey: nature's way of things, evidently. If they were lucky, the reptiles would actually wound or even kill the Avatar's mount, but it wouldn't pay to bet on that outcome.

Besides, if Azula could just do what she needed to do here and now, then it wouldn't matter if the bison came out of this in one piece or not, hence why she was attacking Aang right away. Said Airbender barely managed to leap away from her initial inferno, caught off guard by the dogged attack on his person within the first two seconds of combat. Even some of his clothes had caught fire.

Of course she had a whip of water coming her way almost immediately afterwards, but a swift jab of her own flames dispelled that problem, revealing the irate attacker that had sent it, scowl on her already exhausted face.

"Tch, I thought Zuko was bad, but you're a literal cockroach. Why are you so persistent?"

Naturally, Azula felt a great deal of ire being called such a thing, but it wasn't going to rile her. She'd heard worse.

"Why, I'm glad even a lackluster peasant like yourself can note the difference between a pushover and an elite like myself. Then again, if you were capable of that, you wouldn't be stupid enough to embarrass yourself by facing me, would you?"

Clearly already in a bad mood, probably due to extenuating circumstances and a lack of sleep, Katara didn't react to Azula's rebuttal particularly well.

"We'll see how smug you are when I mess up the other side of your face. You trip and fall while you were distracted by your ego?"

Finding her jab to be a little weak, Azula merely smirked as she turned her attention back to the Avatar, who had thankfully been occupied by the Mongoose Lizards harassing his bison during this brief exchange.

"Cute. If you don't mind, I have a real fight to get to."

Now truly furious, Katara readied another glob of water between her hands.

"Oh, I'll show you a real-hey!"

This cut off was due to a slab of stone jutting up between Katara and Azula, with said slab actively shoving Katara away a moment later. It was no mystery as to who had done this, but Toph's words of challenge left no room for doubt.

"You're right about that: you and me, right now! C'mon, let's do it!"

Azula sighed in frustration as she turned her head to appraise the situation. To her left, Toph stood entirely unmolested, arms crossed in a confident pose of challenge. She apparently had no issue with the fact that she had just sabotaged one of her own allies. Not that Azula was above such things herself all the time, but she'd never do that in the heat of battle. It was just inefficient.

Speaking of inefficiency, she couldn't help but address her comrades.

"If the Avatar is over there, the peasant girl was facing me, and Miss Beifong is free to accost me like this, what on earth are all of you doing?"

Near the wall Toph had erected earlier, Azula found her allies recovering from a massive slab of earth that had launched them all off of their feet. Apparently Toph had neglected holding back against anyone in the way of her duel with Azula. Mai, grumpier than usual thanks to the situation at hand and the one that had preceded it, sniped back at her.

"What were you doing while we were getting thrown around, other than trash talking the stupid Waterbender?"

Azula heard some objection to being insulted from the vague direction that Katara had been pushed in, but she ignored it.

"That's fair enough, I suppose."

Fed up with being ignored, Toph shouted her intentions once again, a little more brusquely.

"Hey! I want this to be a fair fight but if you don't focus up I'll just smash you over the head with a rock!"

The Crown Princess glanced back in the direction the Avatar had fled, trying to discern her best course of action. After all, while she acknowledged that a large part of her really wanted to battle another prodigy, even one as loud as Toph, the practical part of her better judgment dictated that the Avatar was the most important target. However, said Airbender was a little busy trying to protect his pet bison from a trio of vicious reptiles. Besides, it wasn't like he was the type to up and flee without his friends in tow.

On top of that, Toph was arguably the most dangerous of the enemy, to the best of Azula's knowledge. And she was the best of their own number. So it stood to reason that it would fall to her to fight Toph in this situation.

"Very well, I suppose I did tell you to search for even greater foes in life. Lieutenant, if you and the others could attempt to take down the Avatar while I'm preoccupied here, I'd be most grateful."

Eager to fight now that Azula was taking her seriously, Toph settled into an aggressive stance. Truth be told, she was a little miffed about the way Azula had spoken of her abilities back in Gaoling, regardless of whether or not the Princess had a point. She's briefly witnessed Azula's prowess in battle when she had pit her against Aang and his friends, but that hadn't been enough to determine whether or not she had been justified in everything she had said.

As for Xisheng, he figured it would be best to follow Azula's wishes. Even without them, it was obvious that they had to get the Avatar above all else, so it was what he would have done anyway. With Mai and Ty Lee at his side, he was about to beckon them forward, only for one particular male to step between them and their goal in the distance. Xisheng had kicked Sokka away earlier, deeming it more important to focus on the more dangerous members of his group, but apparently the boy hadn't learned his lesson, brandishing his boomerang and a club with only mildly perceptible trepidation.

Maybe Xisheng should have just taken him out for good, but honestly it hadn't even seemed worth it. He'd never actually faced someone in combat that he hadn't perceived as a threat before. Maybe he would have to rectify that, since this obstacle was still a hindrance, however minor it may be.

"H-hold, if you want to go any further, you'll have to go through me!"

Particularly irate for a number of reasons, Mai brandished some of her knives with a little more menace than usual.

"I don't think I'll have any problem making these go through you."

Sokka gulped, no doubt visualizing an imminent and grisly demise. Frankly, Xisheng didn't blame him. With Mai's precision, the lethality she could bring to the table was no joke. This was especially true for someone like Sokka, who couldn't rely on an earth wall or block of ice to protect him at his whim.

Speaking of a block of ice, Sokka was fortunately (for him, at any rate) joined by his sister, who was fuming about Toph even as she took a stance.

"Ugh! Why did we even let her join?! She's been nothing but an obnoxious brat this whole time!"

Sokka, perhaps wisely realizing that he didn't need anyone else trying to beat him up at the moment, simply stayed quiet. He wasn't going to score Toph's ire, i she happened to be listening, what with all the exploding rocks and balls of blue fire behind him. He was scared to even look back at what kind of battle was happening over there.

Ty Lee, on the other hand, had no such qualms in regards to Katara. Xisheng actually found it amusing that the Waterbender was the one person his brunette friend would get all snappy and offensive with. Katara had apparently rubbed her the wrong way at some point.

"I don't see the problem: if she's like that, you two are practically twins."

Already irritated by a lack of sleep, not to mention the friction with Toph and a stinging insult from Azula, Katara decided against fighting back verbally and settled for the much preferred physical violence. Attacking someone was downright cathartic at this point.

Said catharsis came in the form of a wide, horizontal whip of water that aimed to strike all three of her enemies. Both Mai and Ty Lee moved to get out of the way, but Xisheng opted for kicking a vertical line of flame to intercept it, slicing the water attack in half at the middle and effectively nullifying its threat, as the to halves fall harmlessly to the ground short of its targets.

Waterbending was interesting, like that. A wave was only dangerous as long as it remained a cohesive whole. If the center was suddenly vaporized, the attack lost most of its force. Of course, if a Waterbender was swift enough to take control of the remaining water, they could mitigate this, but that was hard to do in the heat of battle. After all, Katara's attack had been nullified in a split second. It wasn't a lot of time to react.

Since dodging was unnecessary, Mai used the opportunity to scatter a half dozen razor discs at both of their foes. Clearly expecting Katara to protect them with an ice wall, Sokka did a double take when his sister merely dived to the side, leaving him to scramble to do the same. His late barrel roll earned him a clean but not entirely deep slice on his upper arm.

Xisheng was actually impressed by Katara's keen reaction. Had she raised an elemental barrier, she would have risked losing some of her precious ammunition to a Firebending attack, much like their fight in Gaoling. They'd only fought once, but apparently, she had already learned her lesson. The fact that she was a quick learner just made her more dangerous, of course. She would only improve more and more each time they fought.

Of course, the obvious solution to that was eliminating her. Xisheng had already promised her that he would kill her, if she continued to resist. And of course, he had no qualms with that. But thinking about it now, any opportunity he had to kill her or any other member of the Avatar's team would be witnessed by all of his allies. That thought actually did give him pause. If she saw him kill another human being, even if she was an enemy combatant, right before her eyes, would Ty Lee see him as some sort of monster?

The thought wasn't pleasant, but it also wasn't to say that Xisheng wouldn't do it regardless. Objectively speaking, getting rid of a physical threat to himself and his teammates was more important than the opinion of others, even his friends. He supposed he would consider the problem more seriously if he actually had a chance to land a killing blow.

"Alright; Mai, you keep harassing them from back here. Ty Lee, come with me. I'll cover you so you can close the distance on the Waterbender and take her out."

Ty Lee seemed to have no qualms with this plan, either eager to team up with Xisheng in a fight for the first time or eager to cut Katara down to size, or perhaps both. But Mai didn't agree right away.

"I thought Azula said to get the Avatar?"

"If we ignore our other enemies to go after him, they'll either follow us and make our fight harder or try to take down Azula, who already has her hands full. You can't worry about other enemies when you have some right in front of you."

"You and your Army doctrine..."

"Actually, that one was just common sense."

Choosing to throw another two knives at Katara instead of answering, as well as one just to scare Sokka, Mai made it pretty clear that she was onboard with the plan. Since everyone was in agreement, Xisheng swiftly motioned for Ty Lee to follow him, before charging at Katara. Sokka was more than safe to ignore in this situation.

With little actual distance between them, Katara acted fast to try and intercept her approaching foes, creating two icicle spears to launch their way. Unfortunately for her, direct attacks of this magnitude were easy enough for Xisheng to deflect with Firebending. Such was the weakness of Waterbending: their power in battle was almost entirely dependent on the volume of water available to them. With only the pouch of water she had available, there was no attack Katara could muster that Xisheng couldn't overpower. If she survived this encounter, perhaps she would consider carrying more ammo around.

Perhaps realizing that she had to work that much harder with a disadvantage, Katara opted for two streams of water controlled by each hand, as she weaved them through the air in spirals to try and avoid interception. Unfortunately, this strategy still wasn't enough: after all, it wasn't like Xisheng had to be accurate in his interception: a large plume of flame in the general direction of the attacks was more than enough to nullify them. Moreover, whereas Waterbending relied almost exclusively on the utilization of the arms, Firebending used all four limbs to achieve its goals. Xisheng was easily able to intercept both attacks with a few kicks, then follow up in Katara's direction with punches of flame.

His opponent reacted by rolling to the side, once again proving that she had taken up the code of evasion instead of blocking. Ty Lee, on the other hand, used the opportunity to jump onto Xisheng's back and leap off of him, startling the soldier but giving the acrobat a solid springboard to close the remaining distance. She flew through the air and practically landed on top of Katara, jabbing for the opposing girl's shoulder right away.

Surprisingly, Katara's reflexes were good enough to save her even as sleep deprived as she was, as she succeeded in raising a small ice shield to block Ty Lee's fist, causing the brunette to reel back in pain. Katara took this opportunity to manifest a very pointy shard of ice around her other hand, which was swiping at Ty Lee in no time.

Thankfully the acrobat managed to back step away from what would have been a nasty gash, though she nevertheless expressed her surprise at Katara's very aggressive maneuver.

"Hey, you know that would kill me, right?!"

"You know that you're all trying destroy the world, right?"

Noting with an almost proud expression that Katara of all people was taking the fight as seriously as required, Xisheng prepared to move in for assistance, but he was cut off by the sound of a metallic clang to his right. Glancing over, he found Sokka's boomerang tumbling through the air, having been knocked off course by a heftier knife from Mai. Much as he hated to admit it, that boomerang could have knocked him clean out had it made contact. Maybe he wasn't a completely negligible threat.

On Azula's side of things, she was completely unaware of the surrounding situation. Sure, she heard it all: the roar of the bison, the hiss of the lizards attacking it and the Avatar, the sounds of fighting from her comrades: but for once in her life, she was actually forced to devote her full attention to the battle at hand. It was a begrudging admittance to such a thing, but she couldn't deny that Toph was pushing her far more than most foes did.

Of course, perhaps it was also the fact that Toph was her very first Earthbending adversary of any note. She obviously didn't count Lao's goons. To say that fighting an Earthbender was an entirely different experience than any other element was an understatement. Unless a Waterbender was fighting you on a literal block of ice, both they and Firebenders attacked in a very direct manner. Fighting a clever Earthbender like Toph was anything but. Attacks could come from almost anywhere, and Azula couldn't even be sure of her own footing, since that too was earth.

And unlike most Earthbenders who simply chose to throw rocks in some manner or other, Toph took advantage of this. When Azula evaded an obvious boulder to the face, the ground beneath her feet almost always shifted, or even tried to suck her in, effectively nullifying any attempt to make a solid recovery. When Azula did get a chance to attack, a slab of earth was always in the way.

So in essence, Azula's defensive maneuvers were compromised, and her offensive capabilities were limited. Her usual tactics regarding relatively average power in exchange for precision and speed weren't going to work here. Apparently Toph sensed her difficulty as well, as she reveled in the chance to point it out as Azula ducked under a particularly hefty boulder.

"C'mon, is this all you got? After all that crap you had to say?"

Toph's disappointment was punctuated by the particular piece of earth Azula was occupying launching the Princess into the air. While initially startled, the prodigious Firebender realized this was advantageous for her almost immediately, swiftly choosing to launch two fireballs to her left and right and curving them inwards to strike in a pincer fashion as she fell back to the ground. To the best of her limited knowledge on Toph and her abilities, the young Earthbender should have been helpless to discern this maneuver.

Considering the lack of reaction to the strike, Azula quickly deduced that her hypothesis was correct. Toph chose to throw several small fist-sized rocks into the air in the general direction she assumed Azula was, completely ignorant of the spheres of flame approaching her from the left and right. Not only did her follow up attack miss Azula quite cleanly, but it wasn't until Toph could literally feel the heat from Azula's pincer attack that she realized she was in danger.

And yet, even though she only had a second or two to react, the prodigious Earthbender nevertheless managed to raise walls on either side of her to bloc those attacks, just in the nick of time. Her reaction time was truly impressive, there was no doubting that.

Still, as Azula landed back on her feet none the worse for wear, she couldn't help but smirk to herself. Dangerous though she might be, Toph still had very exploitable weaknesses, as the most recent exchange had just proven.

"Don't get ahead of yourself, Miss Beifong. Only a fool goes all out before seeing if it's even necessary. I'm not in near enough trouble to show you 'everything' I've got."

With a prominent scowl on her face, perhaps from realizing how close she had been to getting toasted, Toph raised a spherical disk of earth out of the ground.

"You think I've been going all out either? Just watch!"

In another moment, the several foot wide disk was flying at Azula's midsection, intent on bludgeoning her to death in a single strike. Azula handily leaped over it, using her earlier strategy of attacking in the air so Toph couldn't see what type of attack was coming. This time she opted for a ball of flame going overhead. As she landed, she saw Toph pull a fist back, which prompted Azula to jump again in a neat little spinning motion that allowed the disk from before to pass under her a second time.

"Sorry, but I've seen that move twice already."

Sensing the heat of the incoming attack from above, Toph actually used the earth beneath her to launch her backwards rather than block out this time.

"Damn, who's out there stealing all my moves?"

"If you think you're the first person to come up with a technique that simple, then I've really had too high of an opinion of you this whole time."

Toph frowned at this statement.

"Man, you are seriously mean. I want to come up with some sort of insulting nickname for you, but I feel like you'd call me something a hundred times worse."

Honestly, Azula found it pretty amusing that she could banter like this with someone she was actively fighting. Despite the very serious levels of violence they were throwing at each other, it honestly felt like a competition more than an actual conflict, which was, in a manner of speaking, actually fun. Was this what it was like to have a rival?

Still, they were fighting here, and on a technicality, Toph was just an obstacle in the way of her actual objective. While she did enjoy the chance to test her skills, Azula could still see that, rationally, she had bigger fish to fry. Thankfully, a quick glance in the Avatar's direction showed that he was still having some trouble with the Mongoose Lizards, attempting to bat them away with large air attacks. Apparently, his unwillingness to do harm to wild animals was holding him back from taking care of the problem more quickly.

There was no telling how long that would last, of course. So Azula figured it would be best to try and take Toph out as swiftly as possible.

"I may hold back on the insulting name if I was feeling generous. But you'd have to impress me first."

"Oh don't worry, I will."

Instead of waiting for an attack, Azula launched herself into the air this time, knowing it was her greatest advantage. Toph must have been getting a little sick of it, because she responded much more aggressively this time around. Instead of trying to pinpoint Azula's airborne location and hitting her with a precise strike, the Earthbender chose to simply throw an entire slab of earth in Azula's general direction. Needlesst to say, it was more than large enough to cover any position Azula may have been in.

As far as she was concerned, Azula didn't like testing out new techniques in the heat of battle. Xisheng had proven in his fight with her why that wasn't a great idea. But she didn't have much of a choice here, since she was about to be splattered by a flying block of earth six times wider than her.

Xisheng had only briefly explained his new Firebending technique to her, to an extent where Azula had understood that it really wasn't that complex or even innovative. Basically, he had just used his Firebending as a propulsion force for his actual body, only in a particularly concentrated area. This was something Azula herself had thought of plenty of times before. Heck, she had even used a similar technique in the past to propel herself in a forward motion.

The only reason she didn't bother with the technique that much was because she rarely found a need for it. Normally speaking, Firebending didn't require a lot of airborne action. Besides, overusing a technique that required constant bursts of great power would swiftly be exhausting.

Either way, said technique was her only option now, so Azula stretched her arm out to her side and swiftly concentrated her significant power into her palm, releasing it but a moment or two before her imminent demise. The blast was more than enough to propel her out of harm's way, but it also launched Azula further than she had intended, and also jammed her arm into her torso quite painfully. She'd used too much power, and probably at a bad angle. Theoretically simple the technique may have been, but that certainly didn't mean there was no finesse or skill to it.

Sent careening through the air a little less gracefully than she had intended, Azula nevertheless managed to launch tendril of flame at Toph. She would have considered lightning, but that was out of the question at this juncture.

Definitely not expecting Azula to reposition so quickly or so far, Toph was unable to react this time, though Azula's aim was a little off. The azure bolt of fire struck the younger girl in the shoulder, burning through her clothes and scorching the skin beneath. Toph clutched the fresh wound with a pained grunt, but still managed to locate Azula when she landed on the ground again. This airborne business was getting on her nerves, so she came up with a good plan to take care of it.

The first part of that was throwing a rock in Azula's direction, to which the Princess predictably jumped into the air again. Certain that she would reposition to get a clear shot again, Toph swiftly erected a dome of earth around her entire person.

Certain that her opponent had made a mistake, Azula prepared to conjure a bolt of lightning to demolish the shield and possibly end the fight, but she was only halfway through the movements when Toph's domed shield exploded outwards in all directions, fractured into several dozen pieces. This area attack made it so Azula's position in the air was irrelevant: it covered all angles.

Certain that even small chunks of stone could do her serious harm at the speeds they were going, Azula did the only thing she could on such short notice and placed her arms in front of her vulnerable face, trusting in her armor to take the brunt of any blow to a critical area. It was the best defense she could muster, even though it was paltry, and it showed when her body was showered by shards of stone that, while small, had enough force to hurt like hell in any unarmored part of her body.

With her attack ruined, Azula landed back on the ground, with a variety of cuts and gashes, as well as some spots she was certain would bruise in no time. Despite being in pain and being very unhappy with getting injured a second time in one day, she wasn't all that upset. This is what made for a fight between prodigies: when both opponents were so good, they had to come up with new techniques and strategies in the heat of battle to keep the fight going. It was kind of exciting, in its own way.

Elsewhere on the small battlefield, Xisheng was unaware of Azula's situation or how dire it may have been. He was dealing with a situation of his own, after all. His side of the fight was not going as well as expected, surprisingly. Perhaps it was his own fault.

He'd already sent Mai away from them to try and nail the Avatar while he was distracted protecting his bison. He had no idea how well that was going, but perhaps it had actually been a bad idea. Somehow, both Sokka and Katara were still standing, neither of them having been incapacitated in the few minutes they'd been fighting.

Katara was the main problem: despite being at a disadvantage, she was striking in a wild frenzy that seemed to have no end. With attacks far more vicious and aggressive than any of their previous encounters, it was actually Ty Lee who was struggling in close quarters. While the acrobat only had to land a single blow to severely hamper Katara's ability to fight, said Waterbender had found her idea of icy sword arms to be extremely effective, especially once she made them a little longer.

Ty Lee was a better fighter in melee, there was no doubt about that. But fact of the matter was, she had no means of protecting herself. She wore no armor at all, making blades and other sharp edges particularly dangerous for her. Even though Katara was less skilled in this kind of combat, it was enough that it was too dangerous to get close to her. Ty Lee could only dodge, and trying to trade a blow for a blow was just too risky. All of the vital points Ty Lee could strike to instantly incapacitate Katara were difficult to hit in a direct fight like this, so she would have to land several strikes to disable Katara completely. Meanwhile, Katara only had to land one strike to potentially kill or cripple Ty Lee for good.

Maybe Ty Lee could have still come out on top, theoretically, but the danger to her person was revealing a serious weakness of her own: she may have been a martial artist, but she wasn't a warrior. The very real and imminent possiblity of being seriously hurt or worse was scaring her. She was too focused on trying to protect herself to really fight at her maximum potential.

Of course, Xisheng had tried to support her throughout the engagement, but this too proved difficult. Ty Lee was often too close to Katara for him to use any really powerful attacks, forcing him to also get close. But he was constantly forced to divert his attention to avoid that boomerang from Sokka, whom he couldn't take the time to eliminate lest Ty Lee get seriously hurt in his absence. The Water Tribe boy was wisely staying at a distance that would require too long for Xisheng to close without risking his partner's safety.

And on top of that, despite telling himself that he was used to fighting in such conditions, Xisheng was far from his peak performance right now. His day had been rough as hell: it started with an intense fight against Azula, in which he'd been wounded. Those burns still stung him even now. After that, he'd been forced to sit in the uncomfortable steel chair of the Overlord for hours on end. And on top of that, he had been awake for many hours past the norm on most days.

He was tired. His body ached, his actions and reactions were more sluggish than they should have been, and even the speed at which he was processing the situation was suffering a bit. Exactly what he had feared would happen had happened: even though the Avatar's group had been unable to sleep very well or for very long, their day had been nowhere near as grueling as his. Katara, tired though she was, was in significantly better shape than him. Even as he raised a knee to strike her in the abdomen, she easily raised an icy shield in defense.

Before he could follow up with anything else, Ty Lee's voice warned him of that damned boomerang again.

"Gohan, look out!"

Warned early enough, Xisheng ducked under the projectile, hearing it slice through the air over his head. That kid really did have uncanny aim with that thing. Unfortunately, the moment of distraction was enough for Katara to blast him back with a small but potent gush of water, all while swiping at Ty Lee again with a foot of icy dagger. She was like a wild animal at this moment in time.

With Ty Lee backing off and Xisheng staggered, Katara launched a small trio of icy needles at Xisheng, all of which he was unprepared for. One bounced off part of his armor, another merely grazed him, but one stabbed into an unarmored part of his body.

Maybe she was just tired of running, or maybe the sight of one of her friends getting injured spurred her to act beyond her fear, but either way Ty Lee stepped forward to try and take Katara out of the fight, jabbing for a pressure point on her abdomen that would make it very hard for her to stay upright. She was close enough to make the strike that Katara couldn't really react optimally, but she did still react on reflex, swinging her bladed arm low to high at her opponent.

From Xisheng's position, the scene didn't look good. There was an arc of blood, a cry of pain, and Ty Lee reeling back from her opponent with a contorted expression on her face. Katara fell over backwards too, her legs seemingly refusing to hold her up. But she, unlike Ty Lee, was clearly uninjured. Furious by the thought of what may have happened, Xisheng charged over in a heartbeat to get involved.

He was worried about Ty Lee of course, but that was going to have to wait. If he had even the slightest qualm about killing his current foes before, he certainly didn't now.

Xisheng stopped right above the grounded Katara, noticing a feeble attempt to raise her arm and attack him with waterbending. Unwilling to let that happen, Xisheng stomped down on that arm at the wrist, pinning Katara down as he reared a fist back to strike the fatal blow. The only thing on his mind was whether to crush her directly under his fist or incinerate her from where he stood. The terrified expression of a young girl beneath him did noting to elect any pity.

While he had every intent to strike, Xisheng didn't get a chance to. A determined yell from off to the side cut him short, swiftly followed by Sokka tackling him. Said tackle didn't work very well: Sokka was smaller than Xisheng and undoubtedly weaker. Even with his legs worn out, Xisheng was in a fairly stable stance. So ultimately, he was only pushed back a few steps. But it was more than enough to piss him off.

Much stronger than the young man tackling him away from his sister, Xisheng grabbed Sokka by the shoulder and shoved him back, using the power he had already charged for Katara to blast him in a manner not all that dissimilar from the way Azula had done to him in their duel earlier that day. Sokka was sent flying backwards, smoldering and quite literally on fire.

Xisheng ignored the cries from his victim's sister and instead returning his focus to her, charging up another attack to deal with her as well. But fate apparently had other plans in store, as it saw fit to interrupt him a second time, though it was a lot more effective this time around since it came in the form of a foot wide boulder smashing into his arm. The impact flung him away from Katara and garnered the attention of some of the other combatants in the area.

Azula berated herself for allowing Toph an opening to interven in an entirely different fight. Mai, who had been having little success aside from poking a few holes in Aang's glider, diverted her attention to the rest of the battle just as Aang took off towards it to help his friends. While this presented an opportunity to strike at him, she instead turned her attention to Toph, who was unmolested for the moment since Azula was recovering from some sort of attack. For some particular reason that may have involved Gohan getting smashed with a rock, Mai really wanted to attack her.

A lone dagger in Toph's direction was how she started, but even though she was the farthest away and had yet to attack her in any way, Toph sensed the attack through Mai's motions and blocked it with a wall.

"Nice try, but don't waste my time with your silly parlor tricks."

Now even more irritable, Mai aimed above the wall and threw another knife a little easier than usual, as well as a second one behind it with a little more force. Naturally Toph sensed these motions as well, but judging from the way Mai's arms moved from Toph's perspective, she was just missing terribly.

"What, you so upset that-!"

Toph's derision was cut short when Mai's first knife passed over her stone wall, only for the second one to impact said knife at the perfect angle to deflect the first into a downward spiral that planted the edge into Toph's forearm.

"Argh, what?! How the-?!"

The Earthbender looked like she wanted to retaliate, but the voice of her one Airbending ally stopped her from doing so.

"Toph! Sokka and Katara are hurt, help me get them out of here!"

Instinctually, Toph didn't want to do this, since it meant they would be running. But even blind, she could see that the situation was bad. Sokka hadn't moved since being blasted by the soldier, and Katara had never gotten back to her feet after the strike from the jumping girl. And of course, she herself was hurt as well, a sensation and experience that was new and unwelcome to her. Even Appa had taken a few bites and slashes from those reptiles, though he had ultimately scared them off once he'd blown one of them away with his tail.

Taking all of this into consideration, Toph flung a few more boulders at both Mai and Azula as distractions before running in Aang's general direction so she could use her Earthbending to get them all to Appa quickly.

Azula dodged those boulders and prepared for another attack while Toph's back was turned, but for her team, it was Mai who called her off.

"Azula, we're in bad shape too! Gohan and Ty Lee are hurt!"

Casting a glance in the direction of the mentioned allies, Azula confirmed the situation. Ty Lee was on the ground, holding bloodied hands to her chest, which was likewise smeared with crimson. Xisheng was kneeling beside her, seemingly functional, but his left arm was dangling at his side in a manner that hardly seemed good.

To her credit, the sight did stir up some sort of feeling in Azula: anger, mostly, but some weird sort of protectiveness as well. It was an odd sensation she didn't know how to really identify considering her unfamiliarity with it, but at the least, she could tell that she didn't like it.

The Crown Princess swiftly considered their options. Azula herself had also suffered some degree of injury, though it wasn't bad enough to prevent her from fighting. Mai was seemingly unscathed in her entirety. Technically, they were better off than their opponents, since the Avatar was the only uninjured one of their number. But Toph was still good enough to fight, even though she was hurt, and that damned bison could probably be a threat too.

She could continue to attack. Maybe she and Mai could actually win. But it seemed like the Avatar wanted to flee with his friends, and engaging them could drag them back into a fight, putting the already injured Xisheng and Ty Lee at risk. Some small part of her told Azula that such a thing was irrelevant, that there was no reason to just let the enemy run when she could still fight, but a much bigger part of her acknowledged that it wasn't a safe choice. The more cornered the Avatar felt, the more likely he was to do that glowy special crap that had been reported from some of his encounters with Fire Nation troops. If that happened, Azula's mostly injured team probably wouldn't be able to stop him.

But even ignoring that, she found herself asking a strange question: what would the person Xisheng had talked about before do? That potential future leader he supposedly believed Azula was going to be? Considering that this theoretical future version of herself was of Xisheng's imagination, Azula couldn't say with certainty what she would do. But she felt that needlessly endagering her allies for only a slim chance of achieving their objective wasn't it.

So she did nothing. Aang called his bison over to him, and Toph used her Earthbending to lift their entire team onto its back before it took off as fast as it could manage. Azula did nothing to oppose them, even though she considered shooting some lightning at the creature as Mai passed her in a very rare rush to check on their wounded.

Observing the Avatar's retreat, Azula catalogued a variety of different thoughts that would need to be factored in to their strategy from here on out. Maybe next time their main objetive should have actually been to just kill the bison. But on the other hand, the mere existence of that bison meant that, in situations like this, the Avatar would retreat rather than press Azula's weary and wounded team.

All of this and more was something she'd have to think about. But for now, she shelved all of it in favor of following Mai over to Xisheng and Ty Lee's position, to assess the damage if nothing else. She certainly hoped the Avatar's group had at least left as worse off as her own.

Chapter Text

The sight that greeted Mai's eyes as she rushed towards her friends in the immediate aftermath of the battle made her extremely anxious. Gohan was clutching one of his arms, staggering up from a position on one knee. He was gritting his teeth as he made the attempt, clearly pushing through pain to make it happen. The sight of it worried her to no small extent, but the fact that he was getting up at all made her feel as though her attention was needed elsewhere.

Ty Lee was a little further way, lying on her back and clutching her hands to her chest: hands that were slicked with liquid crimson. She was gasping and staring down at her hands like she couldn't quite grasp what had actually happened to her. Mai didn't know much about serious injuries, but that didn't seem like a good thing.

Sprinting over to her friend, Mai swiftly stooped down next to her to try and assess the damage. It didn't occur to her that she'd have no idea what to do if the injury was too complicated. One step at a time.

"Ty Lee, let me see! Let me see it!"

The brunette thankfully managed to at least focus her attention on Mai's presence, but her reaction definitely indicated that she wasn't in a good mental state. Maybe Gohan would know more about that kind of thing.

"N-n-no, I can't! W-what if, what if it-?!"

Unsure of how she could possibly help if she couldn't even see the wound, Mai grabbed Ty Lee's wrists, certain that she'd have to use force to get a look. Ty Lee seemed to catch onto her intent immediately, and she tried to pull her hands away, panicked.

"N-no, if I let go, I'll... I'll-!"

Having never dealt with this kind of situation, Mai had no idea what to do about it. It didn't seem like a good idea to force her when she was in such a state, but what else was she supposed to do?

"Mai, stop. Let me do this."

Glancing over her shoulder, Mai was shocked and displeased to see Gohan standing behind her, still holding his left arm tightly to his torso. The armor on that side was cracked and dented, so she could only imagine what his arm looked like underneath that. This was to say nothing about a clearly bleeding wound on his flank. She could see his lifeblood staining the cloth parts of his armor.

"Gohan, you're injured too, if you didn't notice!"

While there was a clearly disgruntled expression on his face, the group's lone soldier didn't seem like he was going to take that statement as an indicator to rest. All he did was kneel down next to her and in front of Ty Lee.

"I've been injured before. Trust me, I can afford to wait a minute. Ty Lee, look at me."

With his attention fully turned towards the bloodied Ty Lee, Mai didn't get anything else out of him. He did get Ty Lee's wild hazel eyes to focus on him though, at any rate.

"G-Gohan, am I... am I going to die? It h-hurts so much..."

Xisheng saw the pure terror in the girl's eyes, and while he found it mostly unwarranted, he also found it very understandable. This was probably the first time Ty Lee had lost so much blood due to getting hurt. Most people panicked when they didn't have the knowledge to understand the severity of their own injuries. Xisheng was admittedly no medic, but he had been injured many times and also seen many injuries during his time in the military. He at least had the knowledge to tend to a variety of relatively 'basic' wounds.

Allowing his wounded arm to hang for a moment, Xisheng took his good hand and placed it on Ty Lee's shoulder as he pointedly looked into her eyes.

"Ty Lee, I know it hurts, but you aren't going to die. You're lucid, and you can still move your body just fine. You haven't passed out and even though there's a lot of blood, it's probably not as bad as it looks. But I need you to take your hands away for just a moment so I can look at it. I promise, I'm going to take care of you. Just let me see."

Ty Lee heaved a few more breaths as she contemplated what Xisheng had said, hopefully finding comfort and assurance in his eyes. After a few more moments, she gingerly moved her hands away from her chest, grimacing just as Azula staggered over to the scene as well. The princess took in the injury, but looked away after the initial glance. Whether that was because she was uncomfortable with blood or because she was stunned by the reality of an injury to one of her allies was unclear.

"Lieutenant, is that... is that bad?"

Although Ty Lee's face was scrunched up in an attempt to avoid looking at her own gore, Xisheng breathed a sigh of relief as he took in the vertical gash that rested pretty neatly along the girl's sternum. It was about three or four inches long, and the skin was split very cleanly, rather than being ragged. Katara's ice blade had apparently possessed a nice, razor sharp edge. Despite the cut flesh, it was actually looking fairly good.

"It's not as bad as it feels, Ty Lee. The bleeding has already died down a lot, so nothing important was cut. I can't see any bone either, so it isn't that deep. It's even a preferable type of cut. You're not going to die, I promise. Still, put your hands back on it and keep some pressure until the bleeding stops completely."

There was a clear expression of relief on Ty Lee's face, though she was forced to grimace once again as she put pressure on her very fresh and tender injury. Hearing that her wound, no matter how frightening, wasn't going to kill her helped the girl calm down a bit and focus on something other than being hurt.

"Whew, t-that's... that's good. Um, what about you...?"

Placing his one good hand over the small puncture wound in his lower abdomen to staunch the bleeding, Xisheng tried to take stock of his own health. Based on the location of his wound from Katara's icy needle, he knew he hadn't actually been hit in his stomach. It had really hit his muscles more than anything else, which were thankfully pretty dense based on profession alone. Not that it had negated a deadly projectile by any means, but it had certainly penetrated less than it would have hitting in a fleshier, softer bit. He was confident that he could treat that with what he had available.

As for his arm, that was a little harder to determine, because the whole thing had been smashed by a pretty heavy weight. He couldn't tell much besides the fact that it really fucking hurt. Other than the throbbing throughout his whole arm, he couldn't tell how badly it was actually damaged.

"My bleeding injury isn't that bad either. Nothing that can't be fixed and it won't cause any permanent damage. But my arm... no idea. Can't tell without getting my armor off to see it."

With that assessment made, he turned his gaze towards Azula for a moment, noting that she looked worse for wear as well.

"Princess, what about you?"

Under ordinary circumstances, Azula may have said something along the lines of being hurt, but considering the state of two of her allies, she was hardly going to complain. Even she couldn't find it in herself to do that in good conscience.

"I'm barely scratched. Worry about yourselves."

While her words were gruff, Xisheng could tell that the young girl was just having some trouble admitting to any sort of concern. Maybe it was because everyone was around her at once.

Since Mai was clearly unscathed, Xisheng acknowledged that the team's injuries had been assessed for the most part. And while it wasn't officially his place, the soldier felt that it was his job to issue some commands here. He knew that none of the girls would be able to take the lead on their current situation.

"Mai, please help Ty Lee to the Overlord. Get some water and find my medical kit. It's lying next to the driver's seat in the front cabin. Just get everything prepared, I'll come to help you shortly."

The dark-haired marksman seemed a little stunned to get direct orders from him, but that was only for a moment. She wasn't used to taking orders, but based on her experience with Gohan so far, Mai felt that he was a reasonable person to obey when he did order things. He never asked anyone to do something that didn't make sense. Besides, she had to admit that she was still pretty nervous about everything, since she had never seen a serious injury and had no idea how to treat one. His calm demeanor and guidance was actually quite reassuring.

"R-right, I can do that. No problem."

With that, she turned her attention to Ty Lee so she could figure out how to physically help her up.

"Alright Ty Lee, keep your hands on your chest, use your knees..."

While they were doing that, Xisheng directed his attention at Azula, a pensive expression on her face.

"Princess, sorry to trouble you, but could you please assist me with removing the damaged armor on my arm? It'll be difficult to do with one hand."

Azula looked a little irritated by the question, though it wasn't for the reason Xisheng thought. It was apparently just the way he had worded it.

"Do you ever actually get rattled, Lieutenant? So meek, even in a situation like this..."

Even in a fair deal of pain, Xisheng managed to smirk for a moment.

"I get rattled more by social interactions I have little experience in than physical strife. And I can hardly order you around, Princess."

Getting down on one knee so she would be low enough to actually help Xisheng at his current height, Azula frowned as she took in the cracked and broken pieces of armor plating on Xisheng's left arm. The sight of it filled her with some sort of negative emotion she couldn't quite put a name to. The fact that she couldn't do that was the real reason she was frowning.

She wasn't used to a wide array of negative feelings. Jealousy and irritation were the ones she was mostly capable of identifying as familiar. And as always, she hated not understanding her own feelings.

"What do I take off first?"

"The bracer can go first. Then the pauldron. After that you can get the plate on the upper arm. Just please, be careful. The arm is in quite a lot of pain."

Considering that Azula often wore armor of her own, she didn't need to be told how to get these parts off. The armor of an elite soldier was not nearly the same make or quality as the armor worn by a member of the Royal Family, but the basic principles of armor construction were the same. That being said, it didn't take her long to get the straps off the bracer.

On the other hand, touching someone 'gingerly' definitely wasn't something she was used to. It was nearly alien to her, being this careful in touching another person. Maybe that unfamiliarity was why Xisheng still grimaced as she removed the armor from his forearm. Following that, they both had a hand in rolling up the sleeve of the cloth underneath, which revealed the skin of his arm.

Xisheng noted that he was mostly unscathed here, which was no surprise since the impact from Toph's boulder had been closer to his shoulder. While the pauldron had been utterly destroyed, it was Xisheng's hope that it had taken a large brunt of the impact.

"Well, that looks alright at least. Let's hope it doesn't get too much worse further up."

Azula cocked an eyebrow at him.

"You know I'm not the type for blind optimism."

"Neither am I, but times likes this are appropriate for dabbling in it. Let's keep going."

His very regal nurse didn't seem to find his brevity very admirable. From her point of view, there was nothing to joke about right now, or even anything to take remotely lightly. She still wasn't sure why the situation bothered her so much. Trying to undo the straps to the shattered pauldron as gently as possible, Azula tried to put some logic to the tumultuous emotions she had right now.

Of course it was understandable that she wouldn't feel good about any of this. From a purely tactical perspective, half of her forces had been injured. It was unclear to what extent thus far, but it was safe to assume that their injuries would impair their performance to an meaningful extent. Moreover, it was unclear how long their recoveries would be, so their performance would be affected for an unclear amount of time. From any logical point of view, it was a bad situation that someone in charge would be upset about.

This severely affected their mission. Pursuing the Avatar with her team in its current state was completely pointless and would only lead to failure. That too was something to be upset about, objectively. And yet, as she removed the destroyed armor from Xisheng's person, rolled up his sleeve even further, and witnessed the mottled blue, black and purple skin, Azula knew that she wasn't upset because of these objective reasons. Too bad that didn't help her put a real answer to her feelings.

"Your arm looks... terrible. Is it broken?"

Xisheng's expression was a strange mix of a grimace and odd appreciation for the state his arm was in. Azula couldn't understand that last half in the slightest.

"Hard to tell like this, but I don't think so. There's no obvious deformity to indicate a bone is where it shouldn't be, and while it's hard to say for certain considering the situation I got hit in, I don't believe I heard a snap on impact either. Despite this horrific bruising, there's no obvious swelling either. And even though it hurts like hell..."

The soldier slowly moved his bruised arm around, clear pain on his face as it moved to different positions. Azula couldn't imagine how much that must have hurt, but apparently he could bear with it for the sake of a diagnosis.

"...there's no apparent loss of mobility or function. Not that free range of motion guarantees it isn't broken, mind you."

By the time he was done saying all of this, Azula was not feeling very good about the situation as a whole.

"So basically, you have no idea if it's broken at all. What good does that do us!?"

Xisheng lowered his arm slowly back down to his side, grimacing as he did so. That said, his expression was a bit confused by Azula's irritability.

"Princess, are you... upset about this?"

Frankly, Azula seemed offended by the question. Almost like she was upset by some implication carried within the question itself. In a rare occurrence, Xisheng couldn't actually determine what that implication may have been.

"I do have the presence of mind to be concerned for a subordinate's health, Xisheng! Did you expect me to berate you for getting wounded? Belittle you for daring to get injured while serving under me? Is that what you expected me to do?"

Xisheng was clearly taken aback by her outburst, but while it did stun him outright, it also gave him greater insight into why Azula was upset after all. He didn't always get everything the first time, but he was very quick at picking things up when the clues were obvious.

"N-no, no... I'm sorry, I wasn't trying to imply that. I just... didn't think this would bother you enough for it to be... um, obvious? I uh, hope it doesn't sound presumptuous, I just... don't understand why. I mean, I can get why you'd be displeased with the obvious logical setback this situation creates, but you've handled a lot of setbacks before, and they usually didn't, uh... elicit an outward response."

Azula was honestly surprised by the open way Xisheng said all of this. It was always so weird with him: most of the time, he was the ideal image of a soldier, always bowing, always addressing her properly, always speaking in an appropriate manner... and then sometimes, he acted like he was talking to just any old person. Not to say that he was being disrespectful, but there was a certain degree of frankness one just didn't take up with a member of the Royal Family.

The Crown Princess inwardly acknowledged that he only ever got like this with her when they were talking about her feelings and why she felt the way she did about situations that gave her pause. Maybe he felt such situations gave him the right to supersede protocol. Azula could see why that kind of thing should have been reprehensible to her. And yet, she honestly didn't have any qualms with it. Whether or not she would admit it to anyone, she could at least admit to herself that Xisheng was more than a mere soldier to her. She trusted him to be loyal, competent, and truly invested in her success. He was more like... a vassal.

Of course, maybe the fact that had a special distinction in her mind was exactly why she felt the way she did about this whole situation.

"...people under my command have been injured, while carrying out orders I gave them. Doesn't that make those injuries my fault?"

Frankly, Xisheng was caught off guard by these words from the girl kneeling next to him. Not to diminish her, but he really hadn't expected Azula of all people to be this affected by the injuries her comrades had suffered. He certainly didn't think she was the type to feel at fault for those injuries. Of course, they had only just started talking, but in a way, Xisheng was kind of proud. Maybe Azula was shaping up into the leader he believed she could be, even faster than he had anticipated.

Now he just had to find the right way to answer her question.

"In a manner of speaking, I guess. Generally, the person in charge of any sort of operation is responsible for its outcome. But that doesn't mean everything that happens within the operation is their fault."

The expression on Azula's face made it clear that this explanation didn't really track with her right away.

"How can someone both be at fault and be blameless at the same time? That's illogical."

Clutching his arm to his side as he did some math on the best position to immobilize it in for the near future, Xisheng nevertheless put more thought into this conversation as well.

"There was an order my platoon got, one time on the front lines. The people in charge were getting a little antsy about the stalemate and wanted to take advantage of a weak spot in the enemy line that had sprung up while the Earth Kingdom was replacing their troops with fresh ones. So, my platoon got the job of making a direct charge, as a distraction for other troops to maneuver without scrutiny. Part of some bigger strike, or something."

Xisheng noted with some macabre fascination that his now injured arm was the same one that had been messed up in the story he was telling.

"During the charge, an Earthbender nearly split my arm from the rest of my body with an earthen wedge. My armor saved me that time too, and I had to crawl back to friendly lines to get treated before I bled to death."

There was a grimace of sorts from Azula that made it clear she didn't enjoy even thinking about what he had said, But she figured there was a point to this whole story, so she didn't intervene, which allowed Xisheng to continue.

"A lot of other soldiers got hurt or killed in the attack, but ultimately, it was a success. The Earth Kingdom line was broken, and the Fire Nation was able to advance our own lines by roughly two miles before the enemy was able to stonewall us again. Doesn't sound like much, but it was a huge success. Naturally, the colonel in charge of the whole operation got all the credit, just like he would have received all the blame if it had failed. But after the attack, that colonel came to the tent for the wounded and thanked us all for our sacrifice. He acknowledged that we had been injured while enacting his plan and gave us the credit for the victory. Our injuries weren't his fault, but he took responsibility for them. That's what it means to lead people into battle."

There was silence for a moment as Azula took in his story, but it was only a moment. Ultimately she didn't seem to get his point.

"Very admirable of this colonel to bother checking on his wounded, but how can you take responsibility if it's not your fault? Those are the same thing."

Xisheng sighed, figuring that maybe his explanation hadn't been that good after all. He supposed it was kind of confusing.

"It's... hard to really put into words. Yeah, I was only in that battle because of the colonel's orders, but it was my fault I was injured in the fighting. But even though my personal safety on the field rests on me alone, the colonel takes responsibility for the outcome I suffered because I went in on his orders. As the leader, he acknowledges that soldiers are sent into battle on his whim, and thus, every injury or death they suffer rests on his shoulders. But that doesn't mean he's at fault: fault would imply that he did something wrong. But he made a good tactical decision. Technically, our forces suffered low casualties, and it led to a great win for the Fire Nation that day. Someone who leads others into battle has to acknowledge and accept that the people they lead could be hurt or killed. Responsibility is valuing that potential sacrifice and ensuring that it has meaning. Fault is wasting those sacrifices with no concern for them."

By the time he was done saying all of this, Azula was sighing herself. For some reason, she felt like she was getting a lesson from a much older man than the one she was talking to.

"Admittedly, that still sounds like little more than semantics to me. Besides, I wasn't just the leader, I was also a combatant. Toph only managed to attack you because I didn't pressure her enough to command her full attention. One can't argue the difference between 'responsibility' and 'fault' there."

Figuring that he would probably need to go and help Mai with Ty Lee fairly soon, Xisheng struggled to his feet, being sure to avoid jostling his arm. Other than manually feeling for broken bones, he couldn't do much more for his injury right now, and needless to say, he wasn't too keen on causing himself more pain if it wouldn't make much of a difference. At this point, broken arm or not, the only remedy available to him was immobilizing the arm via a sling.

Meanwhile, he still had to offer some sort of answer to Azula. It was odd, how often he found himself giving advice to her these days. Wasn't he supposed to be the student?

"Well, that just goes to show that no matter how skilled a warrior you are, you can't control everything on the battlefield. It's an inherently chaotic place: even the sharpest fighter can't pay attention to every factor around them. That's just the way it is."

As she rose to her feet as well, Azula placed her hands on her hips. She clearly didn't see the situation in the same light Xisheng did.

"You know, one could be forgiven for being a little upset about getting injured due to the incompetence of their teammates."

Already walking towards the Overlord, Xisheng barely glanced back at the much younger girl as he responded to that.

"It's not a big deal, Princess. Don't worry about it."

If he had continued focusing on Azula, Xisheng undoubtedly would have noticed that she certainly appeared to still consider it a big deal. But since he hadn't, the sole male was none the wiser. Right now, we he was mostly worried about Ty Lee and her injury. It hadn't been all that bad objectively speaking, but it still had to be taken care of properly for things to stay that way. Treating a negligible injury in a poor manner had the potential to make it a serious injury.

Ignoring his own throbbing pain and stepping into the Overlord, Xisheng quickly took stock of the situation within. Ty Lee was propped up in the bed Xisheng assumed was hers, with the acrobat still clutching her hands to her chest and Mai standing next to her. The latter had acquired both of the things Xisheng had asked of her, that being the medical kit from the driver's cabin and a pot of water. With those two things, Xisheng was certain they could take care of Ty Lee's wound with little issue.

Well, that wasn't to say it wouldn't be harrowing for the girl in question, but from a practical point of view, tending to her posed little in the way of difficulty.

"Alright you two, let's take care of this. Ty Lee, you can take your hands away now. It'll be fine."

Looking a little pale, Ty Lee leveled an expression at him that was hardly the epitome of confidence.

"A-are you sure?" Won't I bleed more if I don't put pressure on it?"

"Your blood has probably clotted by now. If you were going to bleed out, it likely would have happened already. Trust me, I've dealt with injuries like this one plenty of times."

"I'll pretend that makes me feel better..."

Ty Lee said this as she lifted her bloodied hands away from her chest, though most of it was dried at this point. She averted her gaze from the wound itself, something that Xisheng couldn't really hold against her. Mai wasn't quite as squeamish, which was good since she was pretty much going to be Xisheng's hands for this whole endeavor. She even asked about their plan.

"So, uh... now what?"

"First, I'm going to boil this water before we use it to clean the area around the cut. That's going to take a minute or two, so I need you to help me immobilize my arm while we wait. We should save whatever bandages we have left for Ty Lee, so I need one of you to sacrifice some clothes for a makeshift sling."

Having said all that, Xisheng lit a flame in his good hand and held it against the pot of water Mai had secured for this procedure. The marksman may have remarked about using their clothes for a sling under normal circumstances, but she seemed to be in a more obedient mode of thought at the moment, as she didn't hesitate to go over to one of the chests in the room to dig through the clothes there. Xisheng assumed she was too out of her element right now to really snark about anything: it was easy to be nervous when you had to help in a serious situation you weren't well-versed in.

It didn't take her long to come back to his side with what looked like two pairs of pants or leggings. Frankly, Xisheng couldn't tell who they belonged to, but being of the darker variety, he assumed they belonged to Mai.

"If we tie these together, they should be able to go all the way around your body. How should I tie it?"

Xisheng placed his injured arm in a position that was comfortable and didn't cause him any extra pain beyond the incessant variety that couldn't be avoided.

"This position will be fine. Tie the cloth diagonally across my body. Messed up arm to opposite shoulder."

"Alright, I can do that..."

It didn't take Mai long to fashion a sling of sorts out of the clothing she had procured. Once that was done, she began the process of securing his arm with it, though she was clearly nervous about hurting him. Thankfully, it was easy enough to take care of that, as Xisheng just had to tell her when to stop once she began tightening the black fabrics around him. Fortunately, the water started boiling at around the same time that was finished.

"That's tight enough, Mai. Thank you. I'm going to hold the boil for a few minutes, then use my bending to cool it down faster. Go ahead and open up the medical kit, we may as well set aside the things we're going to use while we wait."

Before she followed through with that, Mai pointed down towards Xisheng's abdomen.

"And what about that?"

Having truly forgotten about it thus far since his arm hurt a lot more, Xisheng glanced down at the puncture wound Katara's icicle needle had left.

"It's not bleeding that badly. I'll keep pressure on it until we're done tending to Ty Lee, then we can take care of it."

"If you say so..."

With that temporarily concluded, Mai grabbed the brown bag that was nearly a foot across, undoing some of its latches and straps to reveal its contents. Within were things one would need to tend to basic wounds: some small surgical tools, a few natural remedies, bandages, and the like. With the Fire Nation having no chance of defeating the Earth Kingdom's superior numbers, with their own, a quality over quantity approach to warfare had ensured that most Fire Nation soldiers had access to things like this. It was better for a small nation like them to heal injured soldiers and return them to the battlefield when possible, rather than replace them.

"Alright, grab the needle, that coil of thread, the bandages and that little vial in the corner. That's all we should need."

Xisheng saw Ty Lee gulp at the mention of a needle, no doubt well aware of why it would be needed. He couldn't blame her for that reaction. Who liked needles anyway?

Mai said nothing as she laid out all the things Xisheng had indicated. By that time, the soldier was using a lesser utilized aspect of firebending to draw the heat away from the water he had just boiled. They'd be sitting here for some time if they had to wait for it to cool naturally, and they certainly couldn't use it on Ty Lee while it was still hot. The last thing she needed was to be burned. At the same time, he laid out the process they were going to be doing.

"So, first thing we're going to do is clean away the blood. Then, we're going to take the contents of that vial and apply it to the area around the wound."

Before he could continue, Ty Lee cut him off from the bed.

"Um, what's in the vial?"

Xisheng began to give an immediate response, but stopped himself short as he acknowledged that he didn't actually know the answer for certain.

"I... can't really remember what all is in it, specifically. But it helps with pain. You're going to want it, trust me."

Ty Lee whimpered at this, prompting Xisheng to reconsider how blatantly he said that. Maybe he shouldn't be telling the person they were about to treat that the process was going to hurt. But it was too late now.

"Don't worry Ty Lee, the ointment is very effective. Anyway, Mai: I don't suppose knitting is something you've tried your hand at over the years?"

For the first time since things fell apart tonight, Mai managed to return to some semblance of her usual self.

"Really? You think I could find knitting entertaining?"

"Just asking."

"Well no, I haven't. But I already know why you're asking, and I'm pretty sure I have the necessary skills to do it. Even though I don't really like the idea..."

While Ty Lee didn't know much about medical treatment, she at least knew what needles and thread of any sort implied. The thought of getting stitches didn't sit well with her for a variety of reasons. But since she knew it had to be done one way or another, she didn't say anything against it. It was mostly just more whimpering.

Xisheng ignored it since he needed to be the face of calm here. He was the most knowledgeable and comfortable in this situation, and the girls needed to know that he had no doubts regarding anything they were doing.

"Once we stitch the wound up, we can bandage it to keep it safe from the elements, and that's all there is to it. It'll be fine, Ty Lee, I promise."

"Will it? What if it leaves a really ugly scar? Oh, that'll be terrible!"

With the water he had boiled sufficiently cooled down, Xisheng grabbed some of the bandages Mai had laid out and motioned for her to help him, since there was no reason to delay Ty Lee's care at this point. He could afford to take pressure off of his minor wound for a minute or so. It wasn't bleeding that badly at this point.

It was time to clean away the blood so they could actually see what they were doing. As he stepped closer to Ty Lee and made eye contact with her, Xisheng figured he had to tell the truth, though he'd be sure to comfort her at the same time.

"I'm not going to lie to you Ty Lee, there will almost definitely be a scar. But the cut isn't too deep, so it probably won't be that bad. Besides, you don't have to worry: something as minor as a scar isn't going to detract from how pretty you are."

Even though she knew this was a blatant gambit to comfort her, Ty Lee nevertheless manged to smile. Sometimes it didn't matter if the underlying motive was obvious. Mai frowned for a moment, but the expression was quickly wiped away. She was hardly going to raise any objection under the current circumstances, and she couldn't even understand why the exchange irked her in the first place.

With nothing else to say, Xisheng motioned for Mai to help him with the current task. With both bandages and clean water available to them, the process was a swift one. It was a little awkward, wiping around Ty Lee's bosom, but it was easy to ignore any unscrupulous thoughts considering the situation: it was hard to think about anything sexy when they were cleaning up blood and looking at an open wound. Even the proximity of the patient's breasts really couldn't overpower those sobering aspects of the situation.

Ty Lee winced a few times whenever they got too close to the edges of her cut, and the group went through several bandages cleaning everything up, but within a few minutes, most of the acrobat's blood had been wiped off of her body. With nowhere else to put the soiled linens right now, Xisheng simply lied them aside on the ground.

"OK. Mai, hand me the needle you're going to use so I can sterilize it. While I'm doing that, apply the contents of that vial to the skin around the wound. Don't get it into the cut, that'll sting a lot."

Mai moved to do as she had been told, clearly a little uncomfortable with the warning.

"No pressure, I guess. Honestly, how often have you had to do this?"

While Xisheng required two hands to hold the needle and apply a small flame to its tip, thankfully it was only his arm that was hurt. His hand on that arm was actually perfectly fine, so it wasn't a problem that he had to hold the implement in that hand.

"Half a dozen times, probably. When there's a big battle on the front lines, there's usually more wounded than professional healers to take care of them. Lots of normal soldiers learn how to treat basic injuries in those situations. Skill born of necessity, and all that."

Ty Lee winced as Mai got a little too close with the ointment she was rubbing on her, prompting the dark haired marksman turned nurse to focus her attention more acutely, though she still managed a response.

"Guess we should be grateful for that..."

Since Ty Lee really had nothing to do other than be tended to, she commented on the process she was forced to go through as Xisheng finished his task.

"Eh, my skin's getting kind of tingly..."

"That's good. That means it's numbing the skin. It won't completely negate the pain, but it'll make it a lot more tolerable. Mai, do you know how to cross-stitch?"

Mai reached for the needle Xisheng offered her, as well as the thread from the medical kit that was made of something she couldn't identify.

"More or less."

"Well, you're going to do that until the skin is pulled back together. When that's done, you'll tie the thread into knots so it doesn't come undone. Simple enough, right?"

"Yeah, I suppose..."

Xisheng thanked the stars that Mai wasn't overly squeamish as she leaned towards Ty Lee. He wasn't sure what they would do if she couldn't handle this kind of thing. He noticed Ty Lee lean away from the approaching needle, the girl clearly a lot less comfortable with what was going on. Ultimately, she couldn't take it.

"W-wait! Gohan, hold my hand!"

The brunette offered the hand closest to Xisheng, which was still caked in dried blood since they had only focused on washing the skin near the wound. Of course, considering the situation, Xisheng had no qualms with taking hold of her hand in his own. He was hardly going to deny her in this moment over something like that. Besides, he'd touched blood plenty of times, considering his profession.

With the two of them now holding hands (it was more like Ty Lee trying to crush his hand, but thankfully she wasn't that strong), Ty Lee nodded towards Mai, signalling that she could continue. Naturally, the brunette averted her gaze from the operation entirely. Looking at it certainly wasn't going to make her feel any better.

She winced when the needle first touched her skin, though Xisheng had of course expected that.

"I-it's not that it hurts that much, but it still feels really uncomfortable... ugh, Gohan, distract me! Talk about something!"

Eager to help in any way he could at this point, Xisheng wracked his brain for something he could talk about that would take Ty Lee's mind off the fact that Mai was threading a needle through her skin at the moment.

"Tell me how you learned chi blocking, Ty Lee. Was it really some guru on top of a mountain somewhere?"

This question actually put a small smile on their patient's face.

"Heh, no. That's just what I tell people. I learned it at the circus, of course. Where else have I even been over the past few years?"

"Well, I have to hear about that. I always thought circuses were mostly about stunts and tricks with animals, but every time you talk about it the circus seems to become more and more wild."

"Come on Gohan, when you think about it, a lot of stuff at the circus is just people showing off weird things they can do. Strongmen, ladies with beards, conjoined twins... Pippinpaddleopsicopolis the Paralyzer just knew about chi blocking. Not that the normal people who came to see his 'magic powers' knew that."

Even busy as she was, Mai couldn't help but exchange a confused glance with Xisheng at the ridiculous and practically impossible to repeat name. On the bright side, the conversation was seemingly distracting Ty Lee. She was still twitching and wincing a little whenever Mai had to pierce her with the needle, but it seemed more like an automatic response than the result of her dwelling on it. That being the case, Xisheng made sure to keep it going. That was easy, since he was genuinely interested in this.

"So you learned this extremely useful martial art from a performer at the circus?"

Ty Lee gave him a look that said she found his question a little confusing.

"No. He just taught me how to block a person's chi through their pressure points. There is no 'chi blocking' martial art."

"But... you use it in a clearly martial style."

"Yeah, but that's all stuff I made up myself. Chi blocking is just a thing you do, like punching or kicking. It's not a 'style' until you incorporate it into a means of fighting. Well, I think. Maybe I don't really know what I'm talking about."

Taking her words into consideration, Xisheng ultimately figured that she had a point.

"No, no, you're onto something there. But are you telling me you're a self-taught fighter too?"

"Hm, I guess I am! Chi blocking might be the only thing I didn't actually teach myself how to do, now that I think about it."

"Well, how did you convince this Pippin Paralyzer guy to teach you his super rare and mysterious skill, then?"

Xisheng briefly glanced at Mai's progress as he awaited Ty Lee's answer, noting that the raven haired girl was about nearly done with her stitching.

"He was just getting old, that's all. He wanted to retire soon and he was a major draw for the circus because of his niche skill, so he passed it on to me because I asked. Simple as that!"

"I would have assumed you were already doing acrobatics for the circus."

"Not at the time, they had another girl already doing that. I didn't get to focus on circus acrobatics until... you know what, never mind."

Xisheng raised an eyebrow at that, immensely curious as to what mysterious part of her backstory Ty Lee was hinting at now. Honestly, of all the people in the group, he hadn't expected her to have such an expansive and interesting array of tales from her past. Just went to show how little he really knew about her beyond her personality. He would have inquired further to sate his curiosity, but didn't get a chance to, as Mai announced the conclusion of her task.

"I'm done."

Since he was probably the one who actually knew what stitches were supposed to look like, Xisheng peered over at Mai's work at the same time that Ty Lee dared to take stock of it. Thankfully, it was especially neat and proper. No surprise, considering Mai's deft hands.

"Looks textbook to me. Congratulations Ty Lee, you're well on the way to recovery. Let's wrap this up to keep it away from the elements."

Since Xisheng only had one free arm available, it clearly fell on Mai to do that as she grabbed what remained of their bandages. Apparently they wouldn't be able to afford getting hurt again after this. Or at least, not until they were able to resupply.

Ty Lee breathed a sigh of relief since the worst of her ordeal was over. Before anyone could comment on that, Azula's voice finally joined their little party, from the direction of the open door.

"Well, this seems to have gone well."

Xisheng glanced over his shoulder to look at the new arrival, noting that Azula's hair seemed a little more rustled than when he had last seen her less than half an hour ago. He wasn't able to ask about it, however, since Ty Lee beat him to speaking.

"No thanks to you! Azula, I needed emotional support! Where were you?!"

Naturally, Azula's response to this accusation was an irritable one.

"Rounding up our Mongoose Lizards before they wandered off! In case you haven't noticed, everyone else was busy in here! You should be grateful I didn't make you do it, those petulant creatures are a nightmare!"

"Animals can sense ill feelings Azula, it's no wonder they didn't want to listen to you."

Azula merely rolled her eyes at that, not deigning it with a response. Xisheng picked up the silence.

"Princess... what's our next move?"

There was a small degree of trepidation in Xisheng's voice, something that Azula managed to pick up on just fine. Evidently, he had some concern that she would demand a pursuit of the Avatar or something. Well, that certainly wasn't the case.

"There's absolutely no point in pursuing the Avatar in our current condition. It'll be weeks before we're in fighting shape again, so we may as well use that time for something productive. We're going to head for a Fire Nation outpost to the East, to learn the state of the Nation's upcoming plans. Not only is this outpost the nearest military base relative to our position, but I'm fairly certain taking Ba Sing Se is the next major step. This outpost is near the sea, so we'll be able to take a ship up north and skip the Si Wong desert altogether. As for tonight in particular, I don't think there's any need to rush: resting would be the smart thing to do, wouldn't it?"

Xisheng breathed a sigh of relief as he heard good news. It wasn't that he had explicitly expected Azula to push them even after their harsh battle, but he hadn't seen the possibility as being zero. He was glad to hear that they could take it easy for what was left of the night at least.

"Well then, I suggest we eat something and go to sleep as soon as possible. We all need to rest after today."

Neither Azula nor Ty Lee had any dissent to offer to that idea, but Mai did. Well, it wasn't really dissent.

"Aren't you forgetting something, Gohan? You've still got a hole in you!"

"Ah, right... sorry, I'm going to need your help with that. Don't worry, I'll walk you through it..."

---

With everyone far too tired to wait for any sort of meal that wasn't a quick one, dinner was fairly simple, even for the ladies. In fact, it was mostly eating provisions that didn't require cooking at all. Bread, dried meat, and things of that nature were all anyone cared to dine on when resting seemed like a much more important thing to get to.

Unfortunately for Xisheng, resting meant facing certain difficulties in his current situation. Like every other night with the Overlord, his only options for sleeping were the very uncomfortable chair of the driver's cabin or the ground outside, which happened to be a whole lot of rock and little else at the moment. Far more exhausted and sore than he had been at any other time during the trip, he wasn't particularly looking forward to either option.

But, such were the options he had. Right now, Xisheng was standing outside of the driver's cabin, debating which choice would be better for him, if only marginally. Unfortunately, the two options were so equally undesirable that he couldn't really find any metric to raise one above the other, short of having a roof over his head if it happened to rain.

Before he could come to a decision either way, his evaluation was interrupted by the approach of one of his companions to his left. A quick glance revealed it to be Mai, arguably the only person in the group who didn't look much worse off than any other day. She wasted no time in speaking to him.

"What are you doing?"

While there was still a dull aching in his arm, Xisheng managed to shrug with only a little difficulty.

"Trying to decide if rock or metal makes for a better pillow."

"How would you like an actual pillow instead?"

Xisheng cocked an eyebrow at her.

"Are you offering to lend me one?"

As for Mai, she pointed her thumb over her shoulder, back at the main cabin.

"Actually, turns out there's enough spare bedding between our three beds that you could sleep pretty comfortably on the floor of the main cabin. Don't know why we weren't doing that to start with."

"Well, surely three women would be a little uncomfortable sleeping with a guy in the room? Did Azula agree to this?"

It was slight, but the small upturn of Mai's mouth showed that she found his line of thought amusing.

"She was surprisingly gracious and cooperative with the idea. Didn't even offer one of those 'fine, but I'll complain about it' things she usually does. Who knows, maybe she's actually started to worry about you?"

"I won't complain if she has. Still, I don't want to make anyone uncomfortable."

Mai folded her arms, apparently displeased that he was still resisting.

"Seriously Gohan, I think you've reached the level of familiarity with all of us that goes beyond something that petty. I mean, maybe it'll still be a little awkward, but with you jumping at the chance to die on our behalf at every conceivable opportunity, I don't think anyone is going to object to letting you sleep comfortably at least."

Xisheng felt like he needed to defend himself to some extent.

"Now hold on, I'd hardly word it like that..."

"I'm just saying, we trust you enough to sleep in the same room. It's not like you'd live very long if you tried anything anyway."

"That's... true. I guess I should just be grateful."

Mai motioned for him to follow her as she walked back towards the main cabin.

"You're welcome. It was my idea."

"Oh? So generous."

"Don't look too far into it. I'm just the only one besides you who actually knows how uncomfortable that damn chair is. No one should sleep in that thing, even when they aren't hurt."

Xisheng smiled since Mai couldn't see him do it, amused by her mild hypocrisy. She probably didn't even realize that she was just like Azula in regards to doing nice things under the pretense of it being something negligible or complaining about it. Neither of them were 'gracious' nice people in most circumstances. But Xisheng didn't mind. For one, Ty Lee tended to fill that role very effectively. Second, he was more of an intent over delivery kind of guy. Knowing that Mai had thought of his comfort and well-being was what made him happy, not how she went about saying it.

Stepping up to the main cabin of the Overlord, Xisheng quickly took stock of the situation. The bloody bandages they had used for Ty Lee earlier had already been thrown away, and any mess from that ordeal had been cleaned. Both Ty Lee and Azula were already in their own beds, though the latter appeared to be sleeping already. The Princess had seemingly fallen asleep with her arms folded, as though she were disgruntled or contemplating something. Whatever it had been, sleep had at least replaced whatever consternation that had been on her face with a peaceful expression. Xisheng briefly noted that she hadn't even bothered removing her armor before ending up in this situation.

Mai, on the other hand, frowned at the sight of it.

"We're the ones who had the toughest day, and she falls asleep first? The world really is unfair."

Recalling Azula's seeming distress over the outcome of the battle, Xisheng felt the need to defend her.

"She had a tough day too, just in a different way. We should hope she sleeps well."

Azula stirred a little, maybe bothered by the voices, but ultimately she just rolled over, leaving a still awake Ty Lee to comment on the exchange.

"Aw, you're always so sweet, Gohan. The world doesn't deserve you, and yet, Mai thinks you should sleep on the floor. You can sleep in my bed you know, there's enough room."

From behind him, Mai leveled a clearly venomous glare at her friend, once again feeling a surge of some emotion she couldn't exactly identify. Irritability, obviously. Jealousy? Maybe. But like always, she didn't even know why that kind of emotion flared up in these situations. It seemed to have no rhyme or reason. Maybe it was just Ty Lee's incorrigible antics that bothered her: the girl was so loud and pushy even when she had been hurt as badly as she had. Yeah, that was probably it.

As for Xisheng, while he blushed at the idea put forward, he decided to decline. Tired and wounded though he may be, he didn't know if he'd be able to sleep easily if he was lying in bed with a girl he'd seen naked not that long ago, and a girl who had expressed a desire to see him naked at that. He needed to rest well, not spend an hour awake due to a racing heartbeat.

"You're very generous Ty Lee, but if I did that, I'd be ignoring the sacrifice Mai and Azula made with their spare bedding, and that would be kind or rude, wouldn't it?"

As expected, his response earned a frown from Ty Lee, but it was less of a pout and more of a legitimate expression of malcontent.

"It just bothers me, alright? You work so hard for all of us, and what do you get? You have to sleep in a metal chair, or the ground, or the floor! You deserve a bed more than any of us!"

Taking a knee on the pile of blankets and the few pillows that were on the floor between all the beds, Xisheng tried to dispel Ty Lee's not entirely unjustified misgivings.

"I appreciate that, Ty Lee. Really, I do. But honestly, it's been so long since I've slept in a truly soft bed that it would probably be harder to rest in one than on the padded floor. "

This time, the brunette did give him more of a pout.

"Your life is way too hard, Gohan..."

Since everyone was present and there was no reason not to, Mai closed the door to the cabin, which was an unfortunately loud noise considering the metal hinges. Azula didn't stir though, and Mai wasted no time getting into her own bed after it was done.

"For once, I agree with Ty Lee."

Smiling ruefully at them both, Xisheng situated himself with his makeshift bed.

"Your concern has been noted and filed. I'll get the lights."

With his firebending, the wounded soldier easily dismissed the flames that were flickering in lanterns around the cabin. With little choice but to lie on his back considering his arm, Xisheng found himself in the greatest amount of tolerable comfort at night since leaving Omashu. There was enough padding that he wasn't feeling his shoulder blades dig right into a solid surface, but enough firmness that he felt supported everywhere. Perfect, in the soldier's opinion.

With a very long and arduous day behind him, and a new set of injuries sapping his physical strength, Xisheng didn't even have the energy to feel nervous sleeping in the midst of a bunch of girls, and it wasn't long before he was dozing off in the darkness.

However, he didn't make it all the way to slumber before something got in the way.

"Gohan? Are you still awake?"

For a brief moment, Xisheng felt a pretty prominent flare of irritation at Ty Lee's whispering voice. He really just wanted to sleep at this point, and he couldn't imagine that Ty Lee was in much better shape. Was whatever she had to say important enough to bother him right now?

Despite feeling this way for a second, Xisheng dispelled the irritation quickly enough. Ty Lee knew he was tired, and she was usually very aware of his needs and comfort, or lack thereof. He doubted she would get in the way of his rest for no reason. Maybe she was in pain from her injury or something.

"Yeah. Are you alright?"

After a moment of silence, the brunette's voice quietly emanated from the darkness again.

"Um, well... could you come over here for a second?"

Pushing down a grumble since he didn't want to get irritated at the girl, Xisheng begrudgingly pushed himself up onto his knees and lit the tiniest of flames over his index finger. In total darkness, even a candlelight could illuminate a room, but hopefully this would be dim enough to avoid bothering Mai or Azula while still allowing him to see where he was going. At any rate, neither Mai nor Azula seemed to stir when he did this.

Crawling the very short distance to Ty Lee's bed, he placed his elbow on the mattress so he could see the brunette lying there.

"What is it? Are you in pain?"

To the best that he could tell in the dim lighting, the brunette didn't appear to be in any meaningful discomfort. But he wasn't going to assume. She had to have called him over here for something. Naturally, Ty Lee began to explain what that something was without any delay.

"No, no, I just wanted to..."

Instead of continuing what she had to say, Ty Lee leaned forward without warning and placed her lips directly on Xisheng's own, catching him completely off guard. Groggy and tired, for a moment the soldier questioned whether or not he had actually fallen asleep and was just having a very nice dream. But the silken sensation on his lips felt real enough.

It was brief, only lasting a second or two, and when Ty Lee pulled away she sported a blush and a sheepish smile, though she nevertheless managed to finish saying what she had started.

"...thank you for taking such good care of me. And for taking care of my friends. You really are the best, Xisheng."

Still reeling from the encounter, Xisheng didn't say anything even as the girl that had just kissed him leaned forward and cheekily blew out the tiny flame he'd been using for light.

"Goodnight, Gohan."

Left in darkness, Xisheng at least had the presence of mind to say goodnight back to her. But after that, he didn't manage to do much of anything other than go back to his bed and dwell on what had just happened until exhaustion finally took him.

Chapter Text

There were not many positive things that could be said about getting injured. However, there was one: when you were finally able to reach a point of exhaustion that overcame your pain, you slept like a rock. With all the energy spent in the days before and the energy required of the body to begin the healing process, Xisheng slept exceptionally well the night of the battle that had seen him wounded. Even the tumultuous thoughts in his head after Ty Lee had kissed him had ultimately been overcome by exhaustion. He hadn't even dreamed of anything. Maybe sleeping on actual bedding for once had helped.

Or at least, he was fairly certain he hadn't dreamed, as he as slowly dragged back into the world of the waking the day after. When he hit that point of awareness that allowed one to realize they were waking up, the injured soldier couldn't recall any sort of dream. Besides, even before he opened his eyes, he was already focused on other things.

Surprisingly, his confusing situation with Ty Lee was not the first thing to surface when his mind started functioning again. Instead, it was the fact that the Overlord was in motion, made clearly evident by the faint rumbling of its treads throughout the vehicle, as well as the occasional bump. Acknowledging this fact actually surprised Xisheng greatly, as it could only mean that Mai was currently operating the vehicle while he slept. Of course, she had driven the Overlord before, but never without him present. This also meant she had gotten up presumably early to drive it in his stead.

People could say what they wanted about Mai, but she really did have a sweet side buried in there somewhere: unless Azula had just pestered her into doing this. One could never be sure.

Speaking of the Princess, Xisheng finally cracked his eyes open so he could tilt his head around and view his surroundings in an effort to locate her. She'd been the least injured out of everyone who had gotten hurt, but she had been injured nevertheless. More than concern though, Xisheng was expecting some sort of complaint about the fact that he was still sleeping. However, a quick perusal of the cabin revealed that the Crown Princess was not present within it. That could only mean that she was in the driver's cabin with Mai, though to what end, Xisheng could only guess.

The only person who was present in the cabin with him was Ty Lee, though she was seemingly still out cold. Not really a shocker: she'd lost a fair deal of blood the day prior and was probably exhausted. Xisheng was glad that she was resting, but more importantly, he was glad that she wasn't awake to talk to him. It was a rare day indeed when the soldier thought such a thing, but he couldn't help himself.

After all, wasn't the air between them growing more and more awkward? It seemed like, over the past few days, their relationship as friends had rapidly accelerated into something a lot more confusing. When they were stretching together, very flirtatious and suggestive things had been said. Then, Xisheng had seen her naked and she was alright with it. Then she'd expressed a desire to see him in such a light, and finally, she'd kissed him.

Even a complete idiot wouldn't be able to miss signals that were so numerous and so straightforward. Unless Ty Lee was the type of person to treat nearly any male this way, which Xisheng didn't believe for a moment, then it seemed like she was genuinely and thoroughly interested in a relationship that stepped into the romantic.

From a purely superficial point of view, Xisheng was perfectly alright with that. The brunette was a total knockout in the looks department, and she was very kind and considerate. She was apparently pretty perverse, and she could even fight, and what man wouldn't like all of that?

Objectively though, the situation was a bit more complicated than that. It wasn't just the dynamic between the two of them that would be affected if they did pursue a mutual relationship like that, since they were traveling in a group. Xisheng couldn't really see Mai being too bothered, other than being disgruntled about having to bear witness to any public displays of affection. But Azula, on the other hand...

They had quite literally just resolved an altercation that erupted from the way he spent time with Ty Lee. Granted, Xisheng was sure that the Princess had been irked from the perspective of an authority figure rather than a woman, and she had seemingly learned a few valuable lessons from that experience. That being said, Xisheng wasn't sure if immediately hooking up with her friend was a good idea.

After all, that almost made it seem like he had been waiting for an opportunity to justify it. Convince Azula that he was loyal to her and that, despite spending time with them, his relationship with her friends wouldn't impede on anything vital, and then immediately get together with one of said friends... despite whatever growth as a person Azula may have undergone due to their conflict, Xisheng didn't think that would go over particularly well.

Glancing at the sleeping, peaceful face of one of the girls in question, part of Xisheng wondered if it was really such a big deal. Theoretically, he should have been able to date someone if he wanted to, without it having much of a bearing on his duties or behavior in a professional sense. But at the same time, he knew that wasn't entirely true.

Xisheng was still a soldier and his ultimate loyalty was supposed to be to Azula, his charge. If he developed some sort of deep and meaningful romantic relationship with someone else in the group, what would happen if a situation arose in which he had to pick one or the other? What if both girls were faced with a lethal attack they couldn't escape, and he had to choose who to save? What if Ty Lee decided that she didn't want to do this anymore, and wanted him to go with her as opposed to staying with the person he was duty-bound to serve?

Theoretical situations these may have been, but Xisheng understood that the implications still mattered. If Azula thought the same way, he couldn't actually say that she would be unjustified in shutting down a romantic relationship between him and anyone else in the group. There were actually practical reasons to consider such relationships unacceptable.

Frankly, the soldier was amazed he even had to consider this situation. He would never have dreamed initially that he would even have a chance to initiate some sort of relationship with any woman so amazing as Ty Lee, least of all under these circumstances. That's what made it suck all the more that, lucky though he may have been, there were serious obstacles in the way.

Maybe it didn't have to be anything that deep? Maybe physical intimacy was all Ty Lee wanted out of it, and he wouldn't have to become deeply engrossed in the actual consequences of a meaningful and personal relationship?

While Xisheng acknowledged that such a thing would be less complicated, he couldn't honestly say he liked the thought. Maybe he was just naive and idealistic, but the idea of using a relationship for physical pleasure and nothing else bothered him. He considered that type of physical intimacy to be something special between people that really cared about each other, so he probably wouldn't be comfortable doing it with someone unless they were well and truly committed to each other.

Ultimately, there was nothing that Xisheng could conclusively discern while Ty Lee was asleep, since he would need her input to understand just what exactly the situation between them was. So he wasn't really accomplishing anything here dwelling on it. Painstakingly pushing himself off the padded floor, Xisheng was unable to contain some pained grunts even though he tried to keep all pressure off of his wounded arm. Sitting up, he was able to assess how bad said arm appeared to be.

It still wasn't particularly swollen, even though it was such an ugly mottled color. It certainly wasn't as engorged as one would have thought, presuming a bone had been seriously fractured. There was still a constant throbbing pain that was fairly excruciating, but that was to be expected a mere night after such a gruesome injury. It was far from the worst pain Xisheng had been through in his career, even if it was unpleasant. He would have to grin and bear it until the pain subsided, likely some days from now.

With that assessment made, Xisheng quietly got to his feet and approached the communication pipes that would allow him to speak to the occupants of the driver's cabin. Honestly, he could have just laid back down and attempted to go to sleep, but it was hard for him to do that, even while injured. Not that he had a problem with other members of the party doing work, but from the earliest days of military training, those in charge drilled into you how wasteful it was to just sit around. It was a hard habit to break.

Since the rudimentary communication system was two-way, Xisheng first leaned towards the pipes to determine if he could hear anything. Yeah, eavesdropping was kind of rude, but Xisheng couldn't deny that he was curious: admittedly, he hadn't seen much of Mai and Azula interacting with each other with no one else present. He couldn't help but wonder what their relationship was like without any external factors getting involved.

Unfortunately, he couldn't hear anything being said through the pipes. Whether that was because they were talking quietly or that they just weren't talking at all as anybody's guess. With that little investigation concluded, the wounded soldier figured he should just go ahead and announce his presence. He tried to keep his voice down since he didn't want to bother Ty Lee, but he had to speak loud enough to be heard since the driver's cabin included the loud roar of the coal-burning engine.

"Princess? Mai? Anybody home up there?"

A response wasn't immediate, prompting him to wonder if he had been heard at all, but after a few moments Azula's slightly distorted voice came back through the pipes.

"Lieutenant, thank goodness..."

For a brief moment, Xisheng's heart was warmed by the thought that Azula had expressed such concern for him, but the feeling was quickly dashed when the young royal finished her sentence.

"I thought I'd have to put up with Mai myself for several hours longer. What do you say we switch places?"

Xisheng heard some faint grumbling from Mai, though he couldn't quite tell what she had said. Since she was the target of Azula's barb, the soldier figured he'd take Mai's side in response.

"I'd be more than happy to relieve you of your station, Princess. If Mai doesn't mind, of course."

This time, the marksman in question spoke loud enough to be heard over the pipes. "I think anyone would be a step up in company at this point."

Xisheng was certain he could hear Azula make some sort of displeased sound herself, but there were no words as the Overlord gradually began to decelerate. For the life of him, Xisheng questioned how serious these jabs at each other really were: they sounded mostly sarcastic to him, but it was hard to tell when it came to Mai and Azula. They both had that quality that allowed them to say offensive things without really being obvious about whether or not it was in good spirit.

Glancing over his shoulder, Xisheng saw that Ty Lee had shifted a bit in her bed, but she had yet to actually awaken. They'd see if that remained true after the cabin's hydraulic doors were opened. Those things were pretty loud.

Being the heavy vehicle it was, it took about a minute for the Overlord to stop completely, at which point Xisheng pulled the switch to open the doors. As expected, the movement of heavy machinery and the expulsion of steam made for a pretty loud experience. Presumably, both Ty Lee and Xisheng himself had slept through it earlier in the day, but they'd probably been more exhausted at that point in time.

This time, his weary brunette companion wasn't able to ignore all the noise as the door opened, as she blearily raised her head from the bed to try and assess what was going on. She looked pretty groggy, a state that was accentuated by the way she rubbed her eyes.

"Ugh... Gohan, what's happening...?"

While he was still feeling a little awkward about the girl in question, Xisheng was able to push that down in favor of actual concern for her health. That was more important than anything else.

"Nothing's wrong, Ty Lee. How do you feel? Are you in pain?"

Clearly tired, the acrobat laid back down on the bed, trying to make an assessment of her health now that she was aware of her physical feelings again. "A bit, but... it's not that bad. Was I asleep a long time?"

"Only about as long as me. I don't know how long it's been, I'm about to talk to Azula and Mai and find out."

Ty Lee made an effort to get back up again, though it was clearly something she didn't want to do. "O-oh, then I guess I should get up too..."

Seeing the moderate discomfort in her expression, Xisheng stopped her short. "Just lay down, Ty Lee. You need to rest."

It was clear by the look on her face that Ty Lee found this statement a little silly. "Shouldn't that be true for you too, Gohan?"

"Don't worry about me, I've been through this kind of thing before. Just focus on recovering, alright?"

The soldier didn't give her a chance to answer as he stepped out of the vehicle, something he did partially in hopes of extricating himself from the situation before Ty Lee thought to mention anything about last night. Not that he had any guarantee she would even bring it up so blatantly, but he didn't have any clue how to deal with it right now if she did, so it was best to just avoid the situation until he had a better grasp on it.

Stepping into the world outside, Xisheng quickly took stock of where they were, or at least what type of terrain they found themselves in. He had no idea how long they had been driving, after all. Things hadn't changed much though: they were still in a craggy area with a sparse array of trees, grass and shrubbery scattered about. Judging by the slightly arid weather, Xisheng would have assumed they weren't that far south of the Si Wong desert. They must have been heading East.

Considering that Mai and Azula were exiting the vehicle at about the same time he was, Xisheng didn't find himself alone for very long, though he was surprised to find the two of them bickering. Probably had something to do with the somewhat disparaging remarks they had made about each other when Xisheng had announced his presence. Azula was currently the one attacking.

"It's really not my fault you have such boring interests, Mai. I tried to be sociable, but you didn't want to talk about anything that was actually interesting."

A frown on her face, Mai wasted no time in offering a response. "Maybe if your idea of 'interesting' wasn't something that would terrify a murderer, there wouldn't have been a problem. Seriously, who wants to theorize on the effects of a lightning strike on a human body?"

"As if you've never wondered what your blades would do to a person if you aimed a little to the left."

If Mai had something in particular to say about that, she didn't get a chance to, because Xisheng took that moment to intervene. He didn't really get the feeling that the two of them were actually fighting so much as just sniping at one another, but he figured it would be best to cut the situation short regardless.

"Glad to see that the two of you are feeling up to this kind of behavior, at least."

Both girls turned their attention to Xisheng, which as what he had been aiming for: if he could direct their ire his way a little bit, maybe he could get them both off of each others' backs. Oddly enough though, neither of them seemed overly perturbed by his quip, instead expressing different sentiments: something Mai managed to do first.

"I'm just glad you're even up to standing after last night..."

Xisheng ignored the somewhat questionable imagery that phrasing brought to mind, though it wasn't like he had a chance to comment anyway, since Azula spoke before he could.

"Don't be too glad, Mai. It's quite possible that the Lieutenant is barely holding it together and a stiff breeze will incapacitate him."

This comment was taken more seriously by Mai than Xisheng would have assumed, considering the expression on her face. This time though, the soldier managed to fit a word in edgewise.

"I promise it's not as bad as all that."

The girl that had been driving all morning folded her arms and gave him a somewhat distrustful look. "Which is exactly what you would say if it really was as bad as all that, isn't it?"

Xisheng wondered where these two had gotten it into their heads that he was this type of person. But he didn't have to wonder long, since Azula so graciously explained the sentiment in response to Mai's rhetorical question.

"It certainly is. I believe you have expressed several times how death was the only thing that would stop you from doing your duty, correct? Doesn't that mean you'd push through any injury or amount of pain to do what you're supposed to do?"

For the first time today, Mai smirked a little, though it was at his expense. "Really? Only death? What a drama queen..."

Feeling a little slighted, Xisheng figured he could dispel these notions, though he liked to think they were roundabout ways of the girls expressing concern for him.

"Look, if I was really in that bad of shape, I would have had no problem staying in bed and letting you do all the work, Mai. The thing about the Army is that we're a lot bigger on gender equality than your average citizen, you know?"

The girl offered a huff of sorts to express her displeasure with that notion, but Azula found it amusing. "Alright then, I suppose we should take you at your word that you at least aren't needlessly pushing yourself a mere day into your recovery. If you made your situation worse, you'd be of less value to the team and the country, so don't do anything reckless."

Frankly, Xisheng was surprised to hear Azula advise a cautious recovery, rather than demanding he push through any pain to do his duty. He had to admit, the Princess really had grown a bit in the leadership department since he had first began serving under her. Of course, this was just a small thing and nothing major was at stake, so it was impossible to know if she would apply this wisdom on a bigger scale, and with people she had no personal investment in. One step at a time, he supposed.

As for Mai, she still didn't seem particularly convinced. "Fine, so you aren't dying or anything. But it's only been a single night of sleep for you, so it can't be all sunshine and rainbows, right?"

Tenderly touching his immobilized arm and suppressing a minor wince, Xisheng figured there was no point in lying. Sure, he didn't want his comrades to worry, but at the same time, it was important for the members of his team to know his true status. He didn't think they'd be getting into any fights anytime soon, but if something unforeseen came up, they would need to know what kind of performance could be expected of him.

"I won't lie: I'm in a fair deal of pain. I don't think this arm is going to be any good to me for at least a week, and even after that I'm sure I'll be far from fully recovered. Anything that can be done with one hand, I can handle, but this isn't the type of injury I'll be pushing past through sheer willpower unless we're talking life and death."

Mai seemed to ignore most of everything he said after the mention of being in pain. "Don't you have any medicine for that? Like the stuff you used on Ty Lee last night?"

The soldier shook his head. "Anything that would be potent enough to numb an injury like this isn't something a soldier would have in a field kit. It's fine, Mai. It hurts, but I'm not in complete agony or anything."

Even at this point, Mai didn't seem particularly convinced of his words. He couldn't help but wonder what was spurring this level of concern: maybe she felt a little guilty that she was the only one who hadn't been hurt at all last night?

Either way, Azula changed the topic of the conversation before it could go any further. "Well then, your condition seems acceptable for now, and I assume Ty Lee's is as well...?"

Acknowledging that this was an actual question, Xisheng answered. "She's exhausted, but fine."

"Excellent. Then I see no reason why we shouldn't continue our journey."

This put a scowl on Mai's face in a heartbeat. "Uh, how about the fact that I need a damn break? It's been three hours since we stopped last, I'm not going to work this hard for the sake of punctuality or something."

For the briefest of moments, there was a flare of great anger on Azula's face, which raised no small amount of concern from Xisheng. She'd learned to be a bit more reasonable as a leader lately, but Xisheng got the feeling that Mai most often and most pointedly pushed the boundaries of what the Princess considered forgivable behavior with a member of the royal family.

And yet, the young girl ultimately reined in whatever wrath had peeked out and settled on folding her arms as she glared at her childhood friend. "If you must know, I would like to reach the outpost we are heading for swiftly, particularly due to the fact that they may possess supplies that would allow us to better treat our wounded. I'm so sorry that inconveniences you, Mai."

It was an odd day when Azula used the moral high ground to get the better of others, but surprisingly, it actually seemed to work quite well. Apathetic though she often appeared to be, Mai did actually look somewhat ashamed and guilty to have been caught complaining when Azula's reasoning had actually been for the benefit of their comrades.

Still, Xisheng found himself looking for a way to defuse the situation in favor of both sides. He got the feeling this had gone from somewhat playful disparaging to actual malcontent with each other, which definitely wasn't good considering that the two of them would probably be doing more of the group's overall work with both Ty Lee and Xisheng injured. Oddly enough, he couldn't recall them really snapping at each other like this before now: maybe they weren't used to being completely alone with each other for this long in one sitting.

"I truly appreciate your concern, Princess, but even at our fastest pace, the outpost is still several days of driving away. Any urgent medical problem would have to be addressed before we arrived regardless, and both Ty Lee and myself have already been stabilized. Reaching the outpost in three days won't benefit us anymore than reaching it in four."

Azula frankly didn't seem happy that Xisheng was taking such a stance, but ultimately, her ire was limited to a huff of annoyance. "If you say so. I suppose a break is acceptable, then. That said..."

She turned to Mai before continuing. "I hope it's clear that, due to the Lieutenant's condition, driving will likely fall to you consistently for the foreseeable future. Try not to complain too much."

With that, the Princess walked off towards the cabin that currently housed Ty Lee. It seemed she really was learning the value of visible concern for her friends. Heck, Xisheng hadn't even had to recommend that the Princess check on her. He considered that to be real and valuable progress.

On the other hand, this whole exchange left a considerable scowl on Mai's face, which prompted Xisheng to approach her. "If it's any consolation, I actually do think I could drive the Overlord with one hand. You won't have to do all the work."

This didn't elicit the happy response Xisheng had hoped for, as Mai still had her arms crossed and her face scrunched up. "That's not the issue."

"Uh-huh... I've never seen the two of you fight like that before."

"That happens when the two of us get stuck together for so long. Usually we have a mediator like you or Ty Lee around to interject before things get too venomous. Though I hate to admit that Azula had a point this time..."

Seeing that somewhat guilty expression return to her features, Xisheng figured that it fell to him to offer some condolence. "Come on Mai, there's no need for survivor's guilt when everyone is still alive. You remember that conversation we had about everyone's problems being serious for them? Just because we got hurt and you didn't doesn't mean that there aren't any things worth complaining about on your end."

All of this earned the slightest of smiles out of the girl, as well as a bemused shake of the head. "You're unbelievable. Here you are with a busted arm, telling me I have every right to complain about taking just one thing off of your shoulders. Do you ever get upset?"

"I'm not nearly brave enough to get upset with you of all people."

While this was said in jest, it did put a frown back on Mai's face. "Now hold on, just what is that supposed to mean? You can't possibly be implying that you're more scared of me than Azula."

Xisheng shrugged his shoulders just slightly. "I mean..."

"Good to know I'm so terrifying to you..."

Surprisingly, Mai did sound upset about the notion, which prompted Xisheng to clarify how much he was kidding. "C'mon Mai, I'm just talking about your skills. You personally are a bundle of joy, I swear. Although, if you wanted to make yourself a little less intimidating, I'd feel a tad safer if I shared those skills, you know?"

The girl next to him scoffed as she cocked an eyebrow at his suggestion. "What, now you want me to train you too? Don't you know how to just rest? I didn't take you for a masochist that would take on so much tedium of his own free will."

"Depends on whether or not you consider learning cool skills tedious, I guess. And having a good-looking teacher always helps too..."

Xisheng mumbled that last part, so Mai didn't hear him clearly, though she was able to tell he had said something a little questionable. "What was that, Gohan? Because it sounded like-"

"Like I said a good teacher helps. Unless you're saying you'd suck at it?"

With the query subtly deflected, Xisheng succeeded in turning Mai away from what he had initially said. In hindsight, he wasn't sure why he bothered saying things that he'd be too embarrassed to repeat a second time in the first place.

Either way, he'd managed to direct Mai's attention back to her teaching skills, or lack thereof. A look of seemingly genuine consternation dominated her face for a moment.

"I don't know Gohan, I'm already taking on your driving, do you really expect me to do you this favor too?"

Picking up on the fact that her consideration was mostly a jest, Xisheng followed suit with his own response. "Well, it would be most generous of you to simply do this out of the kindness of your heart, but if all else fails, I feel compelled to remind you that you owe me a favor."

By the look on her face, it was obvious that Mai didn't actually know what he was talking about off the top of her head. "And how do you figure that?"

"You don't remember a little mishap involving a giant rock and some harpoons that I took your blame for?"

"Ugh, right..."

With a cheeky smile, Xisheng confirmed his victory. "So then, Master Mai, where do we begin my tutelage?"

"You can start by never calling me that again. Come on, let's find somewhere that an amateur like you can't hurt anyone but yourself."

---

As Xisheng had stated, Azula did indeed find Ty Lee awake when she entered the cabin with their beds. That said, she was actually quiet and resting, which was not something one could often say about Ty Lee when she was awake.

Admittedly, it was the most passive state Azula had ever seen the acrobat in. Figuring it would be best to leave her since she was resting and there was hardly anything Azula needed from her anyway, the Princess was quick to turn on her heels, but she didn't make it out of the cabin before being identified. Ty Lee and that damn sixth sense of hers...

"Oh, Azula? Did you really come to check up on me...?"

Caught red-handed as it were, Azula contained a sigh. She remembered the last time she had to express normal human vulnerabilities with Ty Lee, and it hadn't exactly been a comfortable experience. Showing concern and empathy wasn't really something she was used to. In the not so distant past, she would have considered such things to be undeniable signs of weakness, things that would harm the image of fear that kept your subordinates in line.

But she was trying to test the waters with all of this trust and companionship stuff Xisheng had talked about, and admittedly, such behavior had resolved her last group conflict in a way that made everyone happy, so there was no reason to reject the strategy as of yet. That didn't really change how out of her element she was though.

Maybe it was just a matter of perspective. This wasn't an emotional thing, and it wasn't any type of vulnerability. She was the leader, so the morale of her subordinates was of import to her, and she was logically justified in checking on the status of those subordinates.

Having grabbed hold of that perspective and using it as a means of solace in the face of her unfamiliarity with this kind of thing, Azula ultimately managed to turn and face Ty Lee, and with no distinguishable discomfort at that.

"Try not to sound so surprised, Ty Lee. I'm a little insulted."

Not quite spry enough to chuckle right now, Azula's acrobatic friend nevertheless managed to smile at her. "Well, I didn't mean it like that. I just can't remember you ever being worried about someone, is all. Though I guess no one around you has ever gotten hurt before... new experiences, huh?"

Azula briefly acknowledged the time someone was hurt around her, namely Zuko, but she categorized that as a different scenario compared to this one. For one, Zuko's health had been out of her hands at that time. Two, he had brought it on himself by having the gall to be so cowardly after having the gumption to decry a general in the midst of a strategy meeting, which had reflected poorly on both their father and Iroh, not that she cared about the latter. Frankly, he'd gotten off easy. At least Ozai had oh so carefully limited Zuko's injury to a superficial scar. If anyone else had been fighting her brother in that Agni Kai, it would have gone a whole lot worse.

Some part of Azula was aware that most people would frown on her callous attitude towards the travails of her brother, but a much bigger part of her didn't care. It wasn't like they had enjoyed a particularly close relationship. Sure, she probably had something to do with that, but it was definitely a mutual distaste. She was hardly going to liken Zuko's position at the time to the one she found her allies in now. For one, she could admit, albeit begrudgingly, that she did care about said allies beyond their practical use to her. Secondly, she was directly responsible for their state of injury. If they were just mere tools in her eyes, that wouldn't have bothered her any, but she was trying to weigh the value of using less extreme methods of leadership, and she couldn't deny that, even beyond the argument of fear versus trust, she didn't view her current company as pure subordinates.

She couldn't help but wonder if her father would label these doubts and emotional misgivings as weakness.

"This is an experience I would rather not get used to. There are so many downsides to the people around you getting hurt: usefulness in battle, usage of supplies, efficiency in operation..."

Ty Lee interjected with a raised eyebrow. "Concern for your friends' health...?"

"Yes, well... seems like I've been forced to broaden the scope of my emotions quite a lot recently. Can't say I really like it."

Immensely pleased to hear Azula admit to feeling actual concern, Ty Lee smiled just a bit. "It's not all bad, Azula. Feeling worried about people is natural."

Folding her arms, Azula expressed her disagreement on that front. "I hardly see any benefit to feeling anxious. It does nothing for the people you're worried for and just makes you feel vulnerable. Sounds all bad to me."

"It does do something for the people you're worried about, Azula. It lets them know you care about what happens to them. That does all sorts of good things. Well, I guess all I can say is that it makes me happy, but I bet Gohan would be able to say something about how helpful it is for leadership and all that."

With a bemused look on her face, Azula glanced back into the world outside the cabin. Neither Xisheng nor Mai could be seen from where she was standing.

"Oh, I bet... Xisheng seems to have a somewhat irritating penchant to tie personal growth into everything he possibly can. Sometimes it grates on my nerves, but... hm, how do I put this...?"

From her spot on the bed, Ty Lee accurately pinpointed exactly what Azula was trying to put into words. She always had a pretty solid understanding of how people were feeling, so maybe that shouldn't have been a surprise.

"It's nice to know that someone really believes in you, isn't it?"

There was a brief expression of surprise that crossed Azula's face when Ty Lee said this, almost like she had not actually known that her friend's sentiments were the answer she was trying to formulate. Was that really it? Surely it wasn't something so simple as being believed in, right? It wasn't like that was even a new thing for her: her father believed she was capable of great things.

Or did he simply expect great things of her? Was there a difference in expecting something of someone and believing they were capable of more? Azula didn't really have the time to ponder that right now, and she wasn't sure she had the wisdom or knowledge to conclusively answer it anyway. Ultimately, she simply acknowledged that Ty Lee was right: it was pretty nice.

"Yes... yes, I suppose it is."

As for Ty Lee herself, she did not miss the pleased tone of her voice or the slightest of seemingly genuine smiles from Azula as she said that, prompting a number of tumultuous thoughts of her own. But she didn't have time to dwell on them, because Azula was swiftly breezing past that topic to focus back on why she had come in here.

"Anyway, I was thinking, once we get to the outpost, you should consider getting some sort of armor like myself. A breastplate like mine would have protected you against the injury you suffered."

While she was certainly still worried about the thoughts that were on her mind after their most recent exchange, Ty Lee stored such thoughts away for later. She needed time to process them anyway, and that wasn't going to happen while she was having a conversation with someone. Besides, this wasn't an entirely uninteresting line of thought from Azula. Ty Lee would be lying if she denied the fact that she'd thought about the notion of wearing armor.

"I guess you're right, but... you know my skillset. Won't armor have an impact on my agility? And the weight might be a problem..."

Azula cocked an eyebrow at her friend, surprised that she had put any thought into this at all. Of course, she was also making several silly assumptions, but that kind of made sense: most people didn't actually have any experience wearing armor, so few people knew how it really felt to wear any.

"It's not as much of an issue as you think. You've seen me move, and while I may not quite compare to your agility, I think it's fair to say that my mobility is quite impressive. Well-made armor does very little to restrict your movement, and it doesn't weigh terribly much either. I don't think your performance would suffer much at all, and you would be much safer."

Ty Lee seemed a little surprised to hear this, but truth be told, there were actually other things that she considered an obstacle. Two big things, in fact. Unfortunately, she didn't really have the gumption to outright say what those things were, so she started off by beating around the bush.

"Well, that might be true, but... will there really be any armor at this outpost just lying around that can, uh... accommodate me?"

There was a slightly confused expression on Azula's face, showing that she didn't really get what Ty Lee was talking about. "You may be a little thinner than the average soldier, but there's plenty of women in our military, so there will probably be something that can fit even on your shoulders at the outpost."

Seeing that Azula was clearly not getting her drift, Ty Lee blushed a little as she raised her hands up to her chest. "No Azula, I mean like... here. Like, there might be armor for girls there, but it would probably be too tight, don't you think? I mean, if I tried to wear your armor-"

Feeling a vein bulge on her forehead as Ty Lee so blatantly made this statement, Azula restrained herself from outwardly expressing that irritation as best she could. After all, reacting to that would mean that she was insecure about it, and that surely was not the case. Her voice still came out sounding a little testy though, despite her relatively reasonable words.

"I... suppose that does make you a less common body type for armor. Maybe you could wear some bracers or something..."

"Oh, that's a good idea!"

"Or subdue those monstrosities, why don't you..."

With that last comment muttered irritably, Ty Lee didn't hear it properly. "Hm, what was that?"

"Nothing. Just get some rest, why don't you?"

Ty Lee smiled at Azula's discomfort with general friendliness, but on the inside, she was still trying to put some of her own feelings into words, at least for her own thoughts. She wasn't going to share them with Azula of course, even though the Princess was the source. Ironically, she felt that there was probably only one other person to potentially talk about this with, even though he was one of the major players in the whole fiasco.

But all things considered, that was probably going to have to wait, so Ty Lee decided that the best thing to do was keep it under wraps and appease Azula. Besides, she was still quite tired, so it wasn't like she was against the idea of taking it easy. Even her most recent worries probably wouldn't be enough to keep her from sleeping again.

Was Xisheng this exhausted? He had said he was fine, but in Ty Lee's opinion, his injury had been worse, so shouldn't he have been even more tired than she was? She couldn't help but feel that he was pushing himself unnecessarily. Surely, he was having a bad time right now...

---

"Just so you know, I'm not taking any blame if you cut yourself during all of this. The whole thing was your idea to start with."

Mai and Xisheng had trekked a somewhat considerable distance from the Overlord, going so far as to be out of sight of the machine. Apparently, Mai's reasoning for this was simply to avoid any serious accidents, which Xisheng found somewhat unnecessary. Sure, he understood that throwing blades around was very dangerous, but was there really any chance of him lobbing one completely behind him and hitting somebody when he was aiming forward?

Well, he had never actually thrown a bladed weapon at anyone before, so maybe it was possible to be that bad.

Either way, he figured it would be best to try and allay Mai's concerns. "Well, it may not be my primary skillset, but I did have to learn a few things about bladed weapons in training. I promise I at least know how to treat it seriously and keep the pointy end away from myself and others."

His impromptu teacher didn't seem particularly enthused by his statement. "So, the absolute bare minimum of common sense, huh? That doesn't exactly inspire confidence."

Seeing the frown on her face, Xisheng copied her expression. "Really Mai, I know I said you owed me a favor, but if you aren't comfortable with this, I won't force you. They're your skills to share, not mine to demand."

Getting the feeling that her partner was getting the wrong idea about her misgivings, Mai tried to clarify a bit. "Look, it's not that I'm necessarily against the idea of sharing, it's just that... well, the last time I tried that, it didn't go particularly well, and do you really need to get hurt again in your current state?"

For the life of him, Xisheng was most focused on the fact that she had apparently done this before. "Gotta say, I'm surprised you took a shot at teaching someone else how to do this. When was that?"

It was immediately obvious that Mai wasn't terribly keen on going into detail on that front. "A long time ago. But... well, don't let it go to your head, but you're probably a bit more competent than he was at the time, being like, twelve or something."

Xisheng got the feeling that he knew who Mai was referring to, but before he could go any further with the topic, the girl drew one of her curved black knives from the confines of her sleeve.

"OK, listen. First of all, this is one of my favorite knives, so if you throw it off into the woods and we can't find it, you'll be sorry."

Feeling that she was not exactly kidding, Xisheng tried to find an alternative training approach. "In that case, shouldn't we use a knife that isn't your favorite...?"

"The only other weapons I have on me are arrows and razor discs. Neither of those is fitting for an amateur, and arrows use launchers anyway."

The wounded soldier cocked an eyebrow at her. "Wait, like, you have all of that on you right now? Why?"

Mai folded her arms, finding this question to be silly, apparently. "Because, we live in a world where people like you are technically armed all the time, with scary things like fire blasts and flying boulders. Do you even realize how hard it is for a non-bender to really feel safe when you stop and think about how much more power so many other people have?"

Even though they had come out here to practice something, Xisheng found himself getting distracted by this tangent from Mai. For one, it was truly interesting to think about. Two, he had never expected the notion to put be raised by Mai, of all people.

"You're absolutely right... I've never really thought about what that must be like. But do you actually feel unsafe like that? Like, all the time?"

The teacher who had yet to teach him anything scoffed. "What? No. Prior to this whole misadventure, I've only ever been threatened by benders one time, and that was just a few days before we met in Omashu. I'm not really the type to seriously worry about every potential threat that's out there either. But like I said, when a huge part of the world's population is technically armed all the time, it's only practical to do the same, in my opinion."

Getting that explanation, Xisheng smiled. "I should have known. I'd find it hard to believe that you're scared of anything."

"I'm scared of some things. Just nothing that I would tell anyone or make obvious."

Knowing that he probably wouldn't be able to convince Mai to share such things out of the blue, he focused in on something else she had said earlier. "By the way, arrow launchers? Where did you get those? Did you build them?"

This question earned an incredulous look from the girl. "Do I strike you as someone who has fun by building things? I'm a nobleman's daughter, finding people to make stuff that I want isn't that hard. Now, are you going to keep interrogating me or do you actually want to learn something practical out here?"

Xisheng decided against admitting that he greatly enjoyed interrogating Mai, though he honestly enjoyed doing that with anyone he was close to. He liked learning about people, because it was an adventure in and of itself. For instance, he never would have imagined that Mai had the types of thoughts and feelings she did when he had first met her. The same was true of Ty Lee and even Azula. And everything you learned about someone else deepened the value of your bond with them.

But Mai had a point: the two of them were actually quite prone to getting lost in some tangential conversation that was separate from their original goals. Xisheng considered that a good thing, a sign of two people having very compatible personalities, but it was often an obstacle to getting anything done. That being the case, he figured he could tone it back and focus on what they had actually come out here to do.

"Alright, alright, practicality it is. At least I still have the use of my dominant arm for this..."

Mai twirled the knife in her hand so that she was holding the dangerous edge and holding out the safer handle for Xisheng to grab. "There's no way I would have agreed to this if you only had your off hand, so yeah, that's a good thing. I'm honestly surprised you aren't ambidextrous..."

Xisheng gingerly grabbed the proffered weapon, well aware that a razor sharp edge needed very little to cut someone. Maybe that was why Mai wore those gloves all the time?

"Well, I can't have it all. Maybe one day, if I practice this kind of thing with my left hand..."

"Remind me to be nowhere near you when you're doing that."

"I find your lack of faith disturbing."

Ignoring that, Mai focused on how she was going to explain the nuances of her skill to an amateur like Xisheng. Throwing weapons was second-nature to her. She didn't really have to think about the technical aspects of doing it, even though she obviously knew those technical aspects by heart. All of that being the case, it was kind of hard to put it all into words, and especially words that an amateur could derive some knowledge from. Not to mention that the last time she had done this, a certain someone had almost cut his thumb off.

Coming to these conclusions, the whole situation kind of irritated her. Teaching seemed like such a hassle, and what good did it even do her, the teacher? She didn't get anything out of it. It was a wonder that someone like Azula had ever agreed to teaching, honestly.

Thinking about that particular bit of knowledge, Mai realized that both Azula and Ty Lee were teaching Gohan unique things, making her the odd one out. That put the situation in a bit of a different light. Not that she cared from some weird competitive standpoint: she didn't have anything to prove to either of them. But for some reason, the notion of her two friends having designated time with Gohan all to themselves made her kind of jealous. This wasn't the first time she'd felt such a way either, which made it particularly irritating since she couldn't determine a reason as to why she was experiencing something she'd usually label as irrational and stupid.

Well, she had considered a couple of possible explanations for such feelings, but Mai had dismissed most of them as being ridiculous.

"Uh, Mai? Is everything alright? Seriously, if you don't want me using this knife, just say so."

Realizing that she had likely been quiet a little longer than was normal, and that she had been staring at the knife in her partner's hand, Mai hid any flustered feeling at being caught in such a state behind one of her usual masks as she directed her gaze back to Gohan's face. That handsome face, which was always looking at her so attentively, always listening to what she had to say, always validating every odd thought and feeling that she had, always making her feel like she was important... and all while having those damned gorgeous eyes.

Suddenly feeling a lot of heat rising to her cheeks that even she didn't think she could control, Mai turned towards the tree in the distance that they were going to use for target practice and tried to focus on why they had actually come out here.

"N-no, it's fine. I'll probably be able to see it even if you do miss. Now listen, the easiest way to throw for a beginner is to place the blade between their thumb and their index finger. One day, you might be able to throw it straight directly at a target, but for now, you'll want to throw it in an arc so the blade flips, which will make it easier to actually hit the target with the part you're supposed to. That all makes sense right?"

Mai watched as Xisheng locked eyes on the target and smiled eagerly. "Yeah, that all makes sense."

Taking in that smile and everything else she had acknowledged in the last minute or so, Mai couldn't help but reevaluate the possible explanation she had considered as the root of her jealousy.

Maybe it wasn't that ridiculous at all.

---

While Ty Lee had initially listened to Azula's advice and attempted to rest more, there had eventually come a point when she had been too bored to consider doing that. Even injured as she was, the acrobat hadn't been so deprived of energy that she could just sleep in bed all day. She wasn't sure if her natural energy could be depleted that severely under any circumstances.

Of course, she'd been a little worried about Azula getting onto her for getting out of bed, but upon doing just that around the time dusk fell, Ty Lee had been unable to find her friend anywhere. If she had to guess, the brunette would have assumed Azula was off training somewhere. The Princess hadn't possessed a lot of time to do that lately.

Similarly, Ty Lee hadn't seen Gohan nor Mai around the Overlord when she got out either. Normally, being alone would have upset her, but right now, she actually didn't mind. As she sat in a small patch of grass next to the Fire Nation transport and focused mostly on leg stretches since they caused her no pain, Ty Lee was glad to be alone so she could sit and think without interruption. If Gohan were around, he almost definitely would have picked up on her odd demeanor, and he definitely would have asked her if she was alright. She really liked that about him.

But seeing as how he was the problem at the moment, it might have been a little difficult to talk about. Well, maybe it wasn't accurate to say that he was the problem, so much so that the problem revolved around him.

That she really liked Xisheng was not a great mystery to her at this point. In fact, she'd known that for quite some time now. Last night's kiss was actually a bit misleading: sure, she hadn't been lying with all of that talk of gratitude, but in reality, she had just been frustrated as hell.

The flirting, showing off at the river, blatantly discussing scandalous things, the kiss... really, she was just trying to find ways around obstacles she herself had erected without actually getting past the barrier.

The fact that her problem was self-imposed was salt in the wound. Humble though she was, Ty Lee had no delusions about her status as a very attractive girl. She'd been subjected to dozens of attempts from men of all stripes to woo her during her tenure in the circus, so much so that it had become a sort of running gag among her peers. There had literally been betting pools on how many men (and women, occasionally) would try and convince her to go on dates after a performance.

And if she could command the attention of the old, the young, the meek and the freaks just by existing, Ty Lee felt that it was safe to say that she was a conventionally attractive woman that could be considered very desirable.

All of this was to say that, if all bets were off, Ty Lee was very certain that she could convince Xisheng to enter a romantic relationship with her. He had made it pretty obvious that he liked her personality and he definitely liked her physically, so there was no question on that.

What actually was the problem then? Ty Lee's own self-imposed restrictions. She had already considered the ramifications of dating the group's sole male in regards to the dynamic between them all, but it had mostly been theoretical. Maybe Azula would be upset, maybe Mai would care, maybe it would cause some sort of rift in the group.

But that uncertainty had been washed away today, in that brief moment Xisheng had come up in the conversation between her and Azula. It was only a moment, but in that moment, Ty Lee had received irrefutable evidence of the situation she had feared. In that moment, Azula's aura had shifted to unmistakable shades of happiness and contentedness. And that was to say nothing about the rarely if ever seen genuine smile, or the almost gentle tone of her voice: two things that almost never happened in regards to Azula. Ty Lee frankly couldn't remember any time in their experience together when the Princess had sounded, looked, or acted that way when talking about another person.

There was no actual question now: whether or not she knew it herself, Azula cared for Xisheng way more than a mere soldier. More than a pawn or even a comrade. She cared enough for there to definitely be a problem if Ty Lee actually pursued Xisheng romantically, she was sure of it.

The girl sighed as she almost forgot she was injured and tried to stretch an arm. Thankfully, a sharp sting in her chest stopped that short. With that being a bust, and already being done with most leg stretches that could be accomplished in her state, Ty Lee had little choice but to look up at the slowly darkening sky as she further contemplated her issue.

A not altogether small part of her said that it wasn't really her problem. What, she couldn't pursue a relationship she was interested in because someone might be unhappy with that? First of all, Ty Lee knew damn good and well that she had liked Xisheng this way long before anyone else had. Two, if Azula or anyone else wasn't going to act on their feelings, what made her obligated to hold back on her own? And three, Xisheng was more than capable of picking his own relationships, and it would hardly be her fault if Ty Lee was his pick.

These thoughts occurred to her pretty regularly, but unfortunately, Ty Lee was a good person. God dammit, she was a painfully good person. Even though she had every right to act on her own feelings, knowing that she could get in the way of her friends' happiness always stopped her short.

Well, it stopped her from going all the way, at the least. Even prior to today, she'd often forsaken her self-imposed restraint just because her situation was so frustrating. Toeing the line with Xisheng made it a little easier to not cross it entirely, ironically. She felt like an addict who swore to avoid something, but she always allowed herself just a little bit to keep the cravings at bay. Not exactly healthy, but it was the best she could do. She was the self-destructive type of good person too, unfortunately. She was disciplined in many things, but keeping her emotions in check wasn't exactly one of them.

Unfortunately, her lack of discipline on that front was almost certain to cause some problems now. If she was trying to avoid the trouble that would come with pursuing a relationship with Xisheng, it probably would have been prudent to avoid teasing him in the nude and kissing him in the dead of night. There was no way someone as intuitive as him could miss what those types of signs meant, and because he wasn't the kind to sit on issues that affected himself or others, he would certainly ask Ty Lee about all of this at some point. And then what was she going to do?

Before the acrobat could dwell on exactly how she would handle that theoretical future situation, Ty Lee's thoughts were interrupted by the realization that said situation might be upon her earlier than expected. Or more accurately, she could hear the approaching voices of some of her friends. It sounded like Xisheng and Mai were returning from wherever they had gone, with their voices getting clearer as they got closer to her. It sounded like they were coming from the other side of the Overlord.

"...yeah, everyone thinks war is serious all the time, but no one ever acknowledges the times some poor sod has to rush from the outhouse to the bunker with his pants down because the enemy started a bombardment while he was taking care of business."

Ty Lee didn't think she had hearing any more exceptional than a normal human being, but she could have sworn she heard Mai giggle. Well, maybe it was more of a snicker or a subdued chuckle, but as far as her typically reserved friend was concerned, that was practically the same thing. Oh yeah, things were even more complicated than she thought.

"Then you must have plenty of humiliating stories about yourself to share, right, Gohan?"

"Nonsense, my entire military career was the height of decorum and heroism, I swear. Well, other than the cabbage incident-"

Before their dialogue could continue any further, Mai and Xisheng rounded the corner of the vehicle, allowing Ty Lee to lay eyes on them: particularly the relaxed smile and committed focus of her friend's gaze on her male conversation partner.

'More complicated' might have actually been an understatement.

Naturally, Xisheng spotted Ty Lee sitting in the grass outside of the Overlord quite quickly, which prompted him to cut his sentence short and focus on her instead.

"Ty Lee, are you feeling well enough to do that? Stretching might be a bad idea when you have a healing injury..."

Even though she was troubled at this exact moment, Ty Lee couldn't help but smile a little bit. His first thought as always for others, something that she also liked immensely about him. In fact, he could have stood to be a little more selfish in some scenarios.

"I'm fine Gohan, I'm just stretching my legs. I know I should be resting but I can't stand sitting around in bed all day. Neither can you, apparently."

With a sheepish smile, the soldier nodded. "Yeah, I guess I've got no room to talk. Well, it's your body, so as long you feel that everything is alright, don't let me tell you otherwise."

Mai, on the other hand, folded her arms as she said her piece. "Well I think you're both being too reckless too soon. I can't believe how hard it is to convince either of you to take it easy even when you're hurt. Boundless energy sounds tiresome."

Xisheng gave her a somewhat smug look. "But Mai, if I had stayed in bed today, we wouldn't have enjoyed such an enlightening conversation or great company. And besides, who knows how much longer Azula would have forced you to drive if I hadn't interrupted?"

Ty Lee noticed the slightest of flustered looks from Mai, but ultimately it was hidden behind a mask of faux disgruntlement. "Fair enough. Where is the taskmaster anyway? Kind of surprised she's not here to chew our heads off for being gone so long..."

The two of them both directed their gazes to Ty Lee, since she would be the one to know where Azula was, presumably. Ultimately though, the brunette merely shrugged, albeit gingerly.

"I don't know. She insisted I sleep a little longer after checking on me, and she wasn't here when I woke up a little while ago. I figure she's off training or something."

Mai's expression grew a little more sour at this. "Wish she'd show me that kind of consideration..."

When neither of her friends had anything comforting to say in regards to that, the marksman merely sighed. "Alright, I'm going back inside to do some maintenance on my knives. Who knows what kind of edge damage your amateur technique caused..."

Xisheng spoke after her even though Mai was already walking for the cabin. "Hey, I think not cutting myself is more than impressive enough for my first day, we can worry about edge damage or whatever later."

Mai made some airy gesture with her hand that probably equated to dismissal, before disappearing into the main cabin of the Overlord. Naturally, this left Ty Lee and Xisheng effectively alone, with the prior commenting on his recent activities.

"So now you're learning from Mai too? You sure move from interest to interest pretty fast. You've only had one day of practice with me!"

"I'm just the type of person to try and learn as many useful things as I can, that's all. Besides, I have every intention of continuing my training with you, if you'll still have me. Though I guess that might be kind of hard to do with both the teacher and the student injured..."

"Y-yeah, I suppose so..."

Immediately after this exchange, the air became tense. That made it abundantly clear that Xisheng was just as aware of the awkward situation between them as Ty Lee was, which was bad for the latter. It meant she couldn't just delay the conversation they no doubt needed to have, unless she was willing to tolerate this awkward air between them for an undisclosed amount of time, which she really wasn't. That was why she figured she would just get it over with.

"Um, Gohan... do you think we could go somewhere and, er, talk?"

Admittedly, there was a look on Xisheng's face that said he wasn't quite prepared for this conversation, but that didn't stop him from nodding his agreement.

"Yeah, I think we should. Do you need help standing up?"

"N-no, I'm not that hurt. Is it alright if we just walk?"

Ty Lee demonstrated her capability with ease as she got to her feet, with Xisheng gesturing an invitation to walk beside him back the way he and Mai had come from. Awkward as she felt, the acrobat accepted that invitation, acknowledging that this may have been the first time she was actually uncomfortable with Xisheng, though not because he had done anything wrong.

The fact that the situation was so awkward meant neither of them started talking right away, even as they got further from the Overlord. But that was actually kind of nice. It gave Ty Lee a chance to put her thoughts in order.

She had already considered the situation a mess when she was just taking Azula into account. But now she had to factor Mai in as well, which was not something Ty Lee had been counting on. She'd hardly expected Mai of all people to catch feelings, for a myriad array of reasons. She didn't really seem to be the type to swoon, she hardly seemed to enjoy getting to know new people, and Mai had always been the type to make some comment along the lines of 'gross' or 'ugh' whenever the topic of romance came up.

Which had always seemed a little hypocritical, considering the certainly more than platonic fondness she had held for Zuko back in the day. That too threw Ty Lee for a loop. Mai had been utterly miserable for almost an entire year after Zuko was banished, constantly pining after him or fretting over him or just lamenting his absence. Even when that kind of behavior died down, it really seemed more like Mai had just grown tired of expressing those feelings, rather than ceasing to have them. She found even complaining tedious when it would have no impact on anything, and it had become pretty obvious at some point that the chances of never seeing Zuko again were not all that insignificant.

Which, in hindsight, meant that Ty Lee probably should have considered the current scenario from the start. She didn't doubt that Mai had been very serious about Zuko: she had even expressed an interest in seeing him again when they had first reunited at Omashu. But three years and some change was a long time to maintain strong feelings for someone, especially when those feelings were mostly just a crush, albeit a potent one, that you had when you were a kid. Ty Lee felt that it was a likely possibility that Mai and Zuko could rekindle that flame if they actually met again, but to say that said flame was burning hot in the interim between that theoretical reunion and their parting was probably a stretch.

Mai hadn't seen or heard from Zuko in more than three years, and knowing her, she probably hadn't made any new connections with other guys between the day of Zuko's banishment and the day they had all reunited at Omashu. Ty Lee really hadn't expected that to change when they all met again, but apparently there was something about Xisheng that Mai considered worth her attention.

Well, Ty Lee knew what that 'something' was. He was kind, attentive, intelligent, reliable, strong and handsome. A girl would have to be completely crazy to not at least consider him. Ty Lee just honestly hadn't believed Mai would actually care about any of that. She'd half expected her to obstinately stick to her old feelings for Zuko.

Suffice to say, she hadn't seen it coming, but Mai and Xisheng had somehow hit it off splendidly. Maybe years of mounting frustration had finally exploded or something. Maybe she had rationally determined that pursuing an unlikely hope of seeing her old flame again wasn't worth ignoring all other good opportunities. One way or another, Ty Lee had to admit that maybe she just didn't know her friends nearly as well as she had thought she did.

"I think this is the longest silence there has ever been between the two of us."

Startled from her convoluted musings by Xisheng's voice, Ty Lee quickly acknowledged that they had been walking for some time in complete silence. Who knew what her companion thought was going through her head in all that time.

"Uh, yeah... it is really weird, because it's not like we're mad at each other or anything... w-wait, you aren't mad at me, right...?"

While her concern was completely legitimate from her own point of view, Xisheng apparently thought otherwise, since he actually chuckled to himself at the mere thought of it.

"Frankly, I don't know what you could possibly do for me to ever be angry with you. It's honestly hard to even fathom you doing anything to a friend that they'd be justified in getting angry about."

Ty Lee was obviously glad to hear that Xisheng had such a high opinion of her, but it was a bit bittersweet, since her whole dilemma was about potentially angering her friends for her own desires. Even humble as she was, Ty Lee knew she was much nicer and more forgiving than most, but she didn't think she was incapable of slighting other people by any stretch.

"W-well, that's good to hear. But, um... if we're not mad at each other than it shouldn't be this hard to talk, right? Shouldn't it be easy to be honest with each other?"

Xisheng's expression grew thoughtful for a moment after she said that, but ultimately it evened out into a more resolute look. "Yeah, I suppose it should be. So, uh... Ty Lee, how serious are you about me?"

His brunette companion was clearly caught off-guard by how suddenly that had come up, even though she had just mentioned being honest with each other. She still hadn't expected him to ask outright like that five seconds later, which was a big problem because she didn't know how she wanted to answer.

Obviously, the most truthful answer to his question was 'extremely serious.' Ty Lee had been subjected to a lot of male personalities in her life even at her young age, so she knew for certain that Xisheng was not the type of guy you had a chance to be with very often. Not that she was pursuing him from some selfish standpoint of 'bag the best man I can like some sort of trophy,' but objectively, a guy as good as him was a rare breed, and a girl who wanted to find the best partner that she could to be happy with wouldn't want to just write him off.

But at the same time, Ty Lee viewed this reality as a reason she shouldn't act. Based on personal experience, she knew that she would probably have no shortage of suitors in her lifetime, so as far as probabilities were concerned, there was a pretty good chance she would meet someone great like Xisheng again. But Mai and Azula on the other hand...

Hell, Mai had seemingly not made a single new friend in three years when she was left to her own devices. She hadn't even really made friends herself when she was a kid: Ty Lee and Azula had kind of just dragged the girl into their friend group. If they hadn't been so aggressive about it, it was actually pretty likely that Mai would have spent her whole childhood mostly alone, and if her exact same friends hadn't come to get her from Omashu, it didn't seem like that much of a stretch to assume that Mai would spend most of her adult life alone too. She just wasn't the proactive type, as far as padding out her social circles was concerned.

And Azula... well, frankly Ty Lee was amazed that Azula had encountered a good man that wasn't completely put off or terrified by her, who actually wanted to support her without any sort of coercion or threats. What were the chances of that happening again? Ty Lee had always figured that Azula would be a solitary woman her whole life, either because she viewed love as a weakness or because no half-decent man would ever consider her as a partner. At best, she imagined an arranged marriage that lacked even an inkling of actual fondness.

All of this way to say that, mathematically, Ty Lee considered holding back on her own feelings as not as much of a loss compared to Mai and Azula missing a shot with someone who was actually worthwhile for them. With the way those two were, they were lucky to even get a normal chance at romantic happiness, and if it slipped away this time they might just never have that happiness at all. Ty Lee was an outgoing, sociable person who existed in a space that attracted a lot of attention. She was likely to have many chances to meet an ideal partner in her life.

Naturally, a pretty big part of her said that none of that was her problem. Her friends were their own people and finding love and happiness was completely their responsibility. Ty Lee wasn't obligated to sacrifice her own desires to facilitate mere chances for them to find happiness, because it wasn't like her holding off on Xisheng was guaranteed to lead to anything between him and anyone else. It seemed stupid to squander her own opportunity just to give her friends a chance they might not even want, or just might not take advantage of.

And yet, that was what she found herself doing. She was just that type of self-destructive good person, the type that would willingly choose to suffer just to try and make other people happy. The only time in her life she had actually chosen herself over anyone else was when she ran away from home to join the circus, and that was only after she had been pushed to the absolute limit of frustration and misery with her home situation. And even after doing that, she had been miserable for months anyway, constantly ridden with guilt over her decision to do something selfish at the expense of everyone else around her.

The worst part was that she knew it was self-destructive and objectively kind of stupid. That made it even more frustrating that she said what she did, all while trying to inject some degree of brevity and lightheartedness into her voice.

"Well, I... don't know if I would call it serious, Gohan. You're just so cute when you're teased, I can't really help myself. But it doesn't really mean anything, y'know?"

Frankly, Ty Lee wasn't sure what she was going to do if Xisheng was hurt by her saying that. She didn't know if she could handle being the reason for causing him pain, disappointment and embarrassment. And yet, nothing about his aura or his expression changed to indicate such feelings. Actually, he just cocked an eyebrow at her.

"Lying isn't really a good look on you, Ty Lee. You're not every good at it."

Needless to say, this caught Ty Lee by surprise. "Eh, what-"

"Listen, I don't proclaim to be psychic, but I do think I'm pretty good at reading people. And from the day we met, it was obvious that you don't bother to hide how you're feeling, or maybe you just can't. You smile when you're happy, you frown when you're upset, you laugh when things are funny and blush when you're embarrassed. Both Azula and Mai can usually hide how they're feeling when they want to, but not you. I guess that's to say that you're not a very good actor, but it's nice. No one has to wonder if you're hiding something behind a false expression, because you never are."

While Ty Lee was aware that this was all being said as praise by Xisheng, she had to admit, she felt a little offended that she was being made to sound so simple.

"Well, shows what you know! I can hide things! I'm hiding things right now and you don't know what they are!"

Xisheng smiled, seemingly finding her reaction a little amusing. "I know you can hide what you're thinking, but what you're feeling? Ty Lee, you didn't even manage to hide how you felt about what I just said. And if you were really so good at concealing your emotions, why was it so painfully obvious that something was bothering you tonight about things between us? If teasing me was just some sort of game for you that you had no emotional investment in, why do you always get so flustered in those moments? I don't always know why you feel a certain way, but I think it's safe to say that I know how you're feeling most of the time. Or am I wrong about that?"

Ty Lee sighed in defeat. She should have known better than to assume she could honestly pull a move like that on Xisheng of all people. Even your average person who barely knew her could easily tell how Ty Lee was feeling in most cases, never mind someone observant and emotionally intelligent who actually spent time with her. He was right about the fact that Ty Lee had almost no ability to hide how she felt most of the time.

"N-no, no... you're not wrong. Guess I should have known that trying to mislead you wasn't going to work. I'm sorry I even said something that might have been potentially hurtful."

As always, Xisheng didn't seem to mind at all. Heck, sometimes he gave Ty Lee a run for her money in the forgiveness department. "That's alright. Knowing you, there's some altruistic motive behind it. Can't say I have any idea what that motive might be though. If saying you weren't serious was misleading, that means you are, right...? But why wouldn't you want to admit to that?"

Caught with her feelings laid bare whether she wanted them to be or not, Ty Lee struggled to find an answer. Damn, maybe it would have actually been easier to talk to someone who could easily be lied to. When she didn't want to outright tell the truth and didn't have much of a chance of lying successfully, that left her in a tough spot.

"Well, I... I do really like you a lot, Xisheng. But, there's... reasons I don't want to take it anywhere."

Her vague explanation put a concerned frown on Xisheng's face. He'd half expected to be flustered during this conversation: Ty Lee had just quite openly admitted to liking him, after all. But seeing that she was struggling with something that was making her uneasy, he found that of far more import.

"Ty Lee, if there's some sort of personal issue in play, I promise it would never affect how I view you. You don't have to be embarrassed about anything."

More than anything, Ty Lee was just curious as to what he was assuming as possibilities. "Personal issues? Like what?"

Having not expected to be called out on that specifically, Xisheng now did find himself a little flustered. "Ah, well, you know... things that might make you feel less... desirable as a partner, I guess...?"

"Such as...?"

"I-I mean, you know, things like... maybe you've had a serious physical relationship with someone before now, or you can't like, have kids or something... o-or, maybe you killed a man! I don't know, I've heard a lot of crazy concerns from female soldiers in the Army when this kind of thing inevitably comes up when people are drunk... n-not that I'm saying you seem particularly predisposed to those issues, or anything!"

Honestly amused at how worried he got about possibly insulting her even in such a roundabout way, Ty Lee couldn't help but giggle at Xisheng's expense.

"Sometimes you think about things a little too hard, Gohan. It's nothing like that. And besides, wouldn't it be normal for a soldier to have killed someone...?"

Glad that she wasn't offended by anything his words may have insinuated, Gohan cleared his throat as he calmed down a bit. "Well, I meant more of killing a man in a way that was probably illegal and outside of the military... but if it's nothing like that, then...?"

Ty Lee briefly considered just being honest, and telling Xisheng that her issue was with the possible impact of a relationship between them on the group as a whole and on her friends' futures in particular. But for several reasons, she didn't think that was a good idea. For one, it made some pretty broad assumptions about Azula and Mai's feelings and what they wanted, and putting ideas into Xisheng's head that might not be entirely accurate could cause a lot of trouble for him. Two, it would really put him into an unfair spot to say 'hey, three different girls you're close to might have feelings for you, find a way to handle all the ramifications of that problem.' Especially since it was possible that things might not even play out like that.

But if she wasn't going to say that, then what was she going to say? It was already pretty clear that she couldn't lie to him convincingly. What other options were there? Although... if Ty Lee's penchant for being a good person who would accept undesirable things for the benefit of others held her at bay so often, maybe it would work on Xisheng too. After all, he also struck her as the type of person that wouldn't want to cause problems for his friends, even if it meant he had to do something he didn't quite like.

"Gohan, I know this is something you probably don't want to hear, but I... can't tell you, right now. I really do like you a lot, but I just... don't want to take that a step further right now, which I know is kind of hypocritical of me to say since I'm the one usually flirting with you... I-I can stop that, if you want. I mean, I know how unfair it probably seems from your position for me to flirt so strongly with you, only to say that I don't want to actually commit to anything serious... p-please don't be mad at me..."

For his part, Xisheng was mostly just lost. Well, not lost on what Ty Lee was saying, but confused as to why this was her answer. She was obviously quite conflicted on saying all of this, which meant she was being honest about liking him, and that there was something serious somewhere that she considered a valid obstacle to doing anything with those feelings. Unfortunately, the possibilities were immense in number.

Was she just lacking confidence? Was she not sure what kind of longevity her feelings would actually have? Did she fear that there was no point in pursuing a relationship because he might die on the battlefield, or because they would be forcibly separated at some point? Or maybe she liked him as a person but couldn't get over the fact that he was a soldier? He knew that bothered her.

Point was, there were way too many possible reasons for Ty Lee to say what she was saying right now, and Xisheng couldn't possibly hope to know which of those possibilities was the right answer. He supposed he could get angry with Ty Lee for 'taunting' him so to speak, only to hold back on anything meaningful, but he wasn't going to do that. Xisheng still firmly believed that Ty Lee wasn't the type to be malicious or selfish. He couldn't possibly imagine that her reason for all of this was a bad one that deserved to be condemned.

"I'm not mad at you, Ty Lee. I'm sure you have a good reason, and I'm sure you have a good reason for not telling me what that reason is. I don't think you have any ill intent and I certainly don't think you're trying to play games with me."

The look of relief on Ty Lee's face was unmistakable, though there was still a great deal of worry there as well. "T-then, we can still be friends, right? I know it'll probably be a little weird for you considering what you know, but... it's not going to get in the way of us being friends and spending time together, is it?"

Donning a reassuring smile, Xisheng tried to placate her fears. "I could hardly say that I'm not mad at you if I proceeded to treat you like that, could I? I mean, I guess it will be a little odd, all things considered, but I don't think it should get in the way of us being friends. If it's all the same to you, I'd rather maintain our friendship if it's within my power to do so. You'd have to be the one to call it off."

Finally smiling in a way far more reminiscent of her usual happy self, Ty Lee let him know how she felt about that. "Well, all of this other stuff notwithstanding, I don't think I would ever do that. Friends as good as you don't come around too often, you know."

While the whole situation was just as complicated as before, if not more so, Xisheng was honestly just content to see Ty Lee genuinely smile without a hint of worry or anxiety. He hadn't expected to come out of this conversation with more questions and uncertainties than he had before it, but he was alright with this outcome for now. The most important thing was that there was nothing threatening the good relationship they already had, and whatever obstacle was in the way of taking that relationship further was no fault of his own.

Now he just needed to determine if maintaining the status quo was actually a good or a bad thing, in regards to both their situation and his own personal desires. Unfortunately, that answer would probably require a bit more time and soul-searching to find. Containing a sigh since Ty Lee might misconstrue it as exasperation, the soldier wondered how they had gotten here.

He never thought that Ty Lee of all people would hold the title of most perplexing and complicated member of the group. Azula had been the reigning champ for so long.

Chapter Text

The trees that had once graced the agents of the Fire Nation had long since given way to dirt, dust, and rocks. Such was the dominating terrain of the eastern Earth Kingdom. For the most part, plant life was limited to shrubbery. Under normal circumstances, traveling through such an area for an extended period of time was problematic, since it was difficult to resupply out here. Food was hard to come by in any decent volume, and sources of drinkable water were few and far between. If one was using a coal-burning vehicle like the Overlord, that too became a problem, as there wasn't much hardwood around to use as a fuel substitute if the need arose.

Thankfully, the travelers from the Fire Nation weren't too far off from their destination, that being a friendly outpost on the easternmost shores of the Earth Kingdom. According to best estimates from Xisheng's perusal of a map, they only had about one more day of travel before getting there. They would arrive before they encountered any supply issues.

That said, there was a problem with the terrain as far as training was concerned. It hadn't really occurred to Xisheng until now, but the presence of trees was actually pretty helpful for a lot of things. Right now, he had nothing to actually throw a knife into, since most alternatives were rocks, and Mai would kill him for trying to stick a blade in one of those.

Ordinarily, he'd have options, since there was also Firebending and chi blocking to practice, but in his current injured state, those options were more limited than usual. He couldn't really work on his new Firebending technique with his arm the way it was, since said technique required great physicality. Lessons with Azula over the past few days had been more theoretical than practical. Obviously sparring was out of the question.

As for chi blocking, while Xisheng could technically practice that in theory, it wasn't very useful to do so in the way he could right now. He could sit down alone or with Ty Lee and learn the precise locations of the pressure points he needed to strike, but that wasn't nearly as useful as being able to spar, so he could practice using the art while in a dynamic situation much closer to the scenarios in which he would actually be using it.

So out of everything he could actually practice in his off-time, throwing knives was the most logical choice. Training his precision and throwing technique wasn't nearly as physically demanding. Of course, he didn't have any targets to throw knives at, so right now, they were mostly landing in the dirt some distance away from him, as he was mostly just training his throwing technique. He was still at the stage where he had to make the knives spiral end over end to fly with any accuracy, but he was managing to throw them in a tighter arc now, as opposed to lobbing them like he was firing a trebuchet.

If it were up to him, he would have been doing this far enough away from the Overlord to avoid even the chance of hitting anyone, but there were two reasons why he couldn't do that right now: one, Mai was the only one who owned knives for him to practice with, and she didn't want him throwing them around without her supervision. Two, she had been driving for a good portion of the morning, and while they were taking a break, she wanted to rest on something comfortable, that being the bed in the second car of the Overlord. So, Xisheng had no choice but to practice near the vehicle.

Of course, he wasn't sure if Mai was actually watching from her position in the car. Every time he glanced back at her, it seemed more like she was sleeping. But every once in a while, she would comment on his technique or criticize his form, so apparently she was checking in on him from time to time.

As for everyone else, Azula was mysteriously absent, though Xisheng assumed she was just making enough room to conduct her personal training. He was certain he had heard the distant crack of lightning about half an hour ago. Part of him really wanted to ask her if she would teach him such an amazing move, but for now, Xisheng figured it was pointless. She was the teacher, so she decided what to teach. Besides, it wasn't like he would be able to practice it right now anyway.

Ty Lee was currently entertaining the Mongoose Lizards, ensuring that they stretched their legs and got to spend some time outside for once. The reptiles actually fared quite well in enclosed spaces, especially those that were warm, but they still needed to get out every once in awhile. Xisheng imagined that it wouldn't be much of an issue in another day or two, since they probably wouldn't be bringing the animals with them on the next leg of their journey.

Of more import was his situation with Ty Lee: unfortunately, he couldn't say that there wasn't still a bit of awkward air between them, following the enlightening conversation they had shared a night or two ago. While the situation that had been making things awkward had come to light, and the two of them had assured each other that their friendship was as strong as ever, Ty Lee had been right in saying that the mere knowledge Xisheng possessed regarding her thoughts and feelings changed their dynamic a bit.

Even though they managed to act normal for the most part, there was always that niggling awareness in the back of Xisheng's mind that the brunette liked him in that way. It wasn't exactly something he could just forget about. In fact, even while training, he had spent a fair deal of his free time since that conversation wondering about the mysterious issue that acted as a barrier for the girl. It was hard to imagine that the problem was him if she liked him, though it was foolish to assume that liking someone meant being incapable of disliking anything about them.

Still, he was more inclined to believe that the issue was external, and not something between the two of them in particular. He hadn't managed to come up with any new theories though. He only had the ones he had come up with that night.

Despite it all though, Ty Lee was much happier these past few days, doing away with the gloomy demeanor that had plagued her before they had talked. While Xisheng couldn't deny that the situation had his curiosity, for now he was content that Ty Lee was happy. Presumably, figuring out their odd situation was something that would come in time.

"Hey, pay attention to what you're doing. That knife was four feet to the left of where you were aiming."

Recalled to reality by Mai's voice, Xisheng realized that his lack of attention had caused him to throw one of Mai's knives particularly poorly, with it being far off from all of the others lying in the dirt. He could have offered up some sort of excuse, but since Mai was totally justified in calling him out, Xisheng simply acknowledged his mistake.

"Sorry. I should know better than to let my mind wander."

From her reclined position on her bed in the Overlord's second cabin, Mai shrugged. "I can't particularly blame you. Throwing knives at the dirt is pretty boring. Hate to say it, but even relaxing right now is pretty boring... what was on your mind, anyway?"

It had been a long time since Mai was standoffish with Xisheng, but even though they had been on friendly terms for some time, the soldier had still found Mai to be even more open with him than usual the past few days. She was usually open to conversation initiated by him, but she had gone out of her way to initiate conversation herself many times in the past few days. naturally, this was pretty important for her, as it meant she was interested in the person she was talking to.

Xisheng wasn't really sure if something in particular had happened to cause this mild social growth from her, or if it was just a natural part of their gradually deepening relationship. At this rate, he wondered if he would soon face a situation not all that dissimilar from the one between him and Ty Lee...

Mentally scoffing at the thought of it, since it almost seemed presumptuous to assume Mai felt similarly to Ty Lee on that matter, Xisheng tried to focus on an answer to her question instead. For some reason, he didn't want to outright say that he was thinking about a romantic relationship with her acrobatic friend, or a lack thereof. It was curious, because frankly it shouldn't have mattered to Mai anyway, but even so, Xisheng felt it would be better to keep that under wraps. Besides, it was the right choice just out of courtesy for Ty Lee: he had no idea whether or not she wanted this whole thing to be kept private or not.

"I was just wondering what the next leg of our journey will be like. It should actually be pretty relaxing for awhile, since we'll be taking a boat to Ba Sing Se. I don't think any of us will be in charge of sailing it."

Mai scoffed. "That's what I would have thought before I ended up coming along, and look where I am now: driving a military vehicle every day."

"Fair enough. But sailing any decent sized ship takes a crew of people, so it won't fall to us this time. We should be able to relax for the entire trip. Hopefully we'll also have someone else to drive us around once we disembark as well."

"Why exactly are we doing this again? I thought Azula wanted to take down the Avatar. I get that he might go to Ba Sing Se, but it's not like we'll be able to do anything about it: that place is the size of an entire country."

Now a little more focused, Xisheng managed to throw his next knife with much more precision, landing it relatively close to the others he had thrown thus far.

"I imagine Azula just wants to contribute to the ongoing war effort in the best way possible. Truth is, we aren't making much of an impact right now, and we got absurdly lucky even running into the Avatar out here again, only for him to slip through our fingers. It's unlikely we'll ever really be able to take him down like this. Catching him is hard enough, and preventing him from escaping afterwards is even harder. That said, I believe Azula would prefer for us to go to Ba Sing Se, the likely destination of the next and final major offensive of the war. That's somewhere we can actually make a difference."

For the life of her, Mai couldn't see how Xisheng considered this a better use of their time. But then again, maybe it was just a lack of perspective on her part.

"Stupid question maybe, but how exactly does one go about capturing a city that size? Isn't Ba Sing Se several times bigger than the whole Fire Nation landmass? I know we've been winning for most of the war, but I don't see how we could possibly do anything to a city that size..."

Having actually thought about this fairly frequently since the attack on Ba Sing Se was a looming operation for the whole military over the past decade, Xisheng didn't take long to formulate an answer, though he made sure to keep it simple since Mai probably didn't care for the full intricacies of the future conflict.

"It's really just about getting through the outer wall. Ba Sing Se is a self-sustainable city: it can keep its population going with food and water from within its walls, so even if we could surround the entire city, which we definitely can't, starving them out isn't an option. That said, the vast majority of their farmland lies in the outer ring. Once that farmland is compromised, Ba Sing Se will have a big problem on its hands, especially since there are no other major settlements for it to trade with outside of its walls. If we capture or destroy enough farmland, they'll be on borrowed time from then on. Without a sustainable food supply, they can't hold on forever."

Odd as it may have seemed, Mai did actually find this pretty interesting. Or maybe this was just a side effect of being interested in the person talking. "You make it sound so easy..."

"It's anything but. Getting through the outer wall is already a major hurdle. We've only managed to fully breach it one time, and that was after two years of concentrated bombardment on a single area. It's pretty obvious to me that a frontal assault isn't going to work, but we'll just have to wait and see what the higher ups have in mind. Who knows: we might need Sozin's Comet just to breach their outermost defenses."

Glancing to the sky, Xisheng forgot that he was supposed to be keeping things simple. He couldn't help himself. "Assuming we do breach the wall, we'll have to move our forces in quickly enough to secure a foothold before that breach can be closed, and we'll have to fortify it well enough to avoid being pushed back out at a later date. Once that's done, we'll be able to commence operations in the immediate area, but if the enemy is smart, they'll sabotage resources that would be lost to us anyway before we can get to it. That means we'll have to create and maintain supply lines to our forward operating base, and that supply line will get longer and more difficult to protect the further into enemy territory we advance..."

Mai was about to interject since there was a pause, but it turned out that Xisheng still wasn't done. "On top of all of this, we'll be in enemy territory that we haven't even laid eyes on in a century. We'll have next to no intelligence about terrain, areas of interest, or potential hazards. Meanwhile, the Earth Kingdom will be able to use their bending to move about unmolested through their own territory, harassing us at every turn... I wouldn't be surprised if reaching the capital took several more years of fighting. This may be their last stronghold, but it's also their most formidable."

Sensing that the young man really was done this time, Mai sighed. "I hope Azula doesn't think I'm going to stick around for several years just to see this city go down. That's way too much of my life to waste on something like this."

Knowing full well that he would probably be forced to go through the entire campaign against Ba Sing Se no matter how long it lasted, Xisheng did away with a slightly hurt feeling: Mai probably didn't consider the fact that he'd be there as long as it took, and even if she did, it would be unreasonable to expect her to stick around for the entire campaign. Besides, what would she even do? She wasn't a soldier, she wasn't a tactician, and she wasn't logistics personnel: there would be nothing to do but observe for her.

"Well, that's just a grim prediction based on current tactics and technology. It was only a rumor, but before I joined Azula's retinue I had heard about the development of craft that could fly: there was some sort of setback if I recall, but even so, if something like that is completed, the battle would go much more quickly. We'd be nearly invincible if we could attack from the sky, especially if these flying craft were ready by the time the Comet arrives."

Mai tried to picture a vehicle that could supposedly fly through the air, but she had no idea what such a thing would supposedly look like. Would it be shaped like a bird? Or maybe a flying insect? She couldn't think of anything else that actually flew around in this world, other than giant buffalo, apparently.

"Would the Earth Kingdom even fight at that point? I mean, what would they even be able to do against something like that? Seems like resistance would be pointless."

"I suppose they could try throwing rocks at us, but depending on how high these new vehicles can fly, that won't be of much use. Unfortunately, the Earth Kingdom is nothing if not stubborn: I wouldn't be surprised if they refused to surrender even against an enemy they cannot harm. Honestly, the wisest move would probably be to wait until these new machines are done before even bothering to attack Ba Sing Se, but I doubt the people directing the war effort are going to allow that. Overall patience for the war wears thin: soldiers and commanders alike want it to be over and done with already. And of course, people who care more about glory are unlikely to wait around..."

Frankly, this conversation had hit a point that was too complicated for Mai to personally care about, but she could tell that Gohan was interested in talking about it, so she didn't mind extending the discussion. Even she knew how to make sacrifices.

"But a lot less people would die if we just waited to attack, right? Who would really rush things for personal glory if that were the case?"

Pausing in his training for a moment, Xisheng glanced over his shoulder at the girl, wearing an expressing that was almost pitying: like he was looking at a child who had just uttered the most naive thing he had ever heard. Mai had half a mind to be offended, but she couldn't help but wonder if he had some personal experience that made her question sound so foolish to him.

As for an actual answer, the soldier was never able to offer it, as the two of them were interrupted by the return of Azula, who had just walked around the rear of the Overlord. Apparently, she had overheard what they were talking about.

"Make no mistake, Mai. There are scores of incompetent and foolhardy people in the higher ranks of the Fire Nation. Most of them men, naturally. Even before I left the country for this adventure, there were many politicians and officers that wanted to launch an attack on Ba Sing Se, even though Omashu was still unoccupied. The lives of soldiers don't mean anything to them and their ambitions."

Mai cocked an eyebrow at the new arrival, wondering what she had been up to all this time. "Not at all like you, right?"

Azula wasn't sure if Mai had actually meant for that question to be so heavy, but seeing as how Xisheng, a soldier, was right there, it certainly felt pointed. She even saw Xisheng peer discreetly at her: he was obviously interested in her answer. Unfortunately, it wasn't a question that she could answer automatically.

After all, she'd be lying if she said she really cared about the common people on a personal level. Why should she? She didn't know any of them. They had no faces, no names, no personal sentimental value to her whatsoever. But that was just from a personal perspective. At the very least, she could say she cared about them in a particular regard.

"I'm not going to pretend like the lives of every citizen weigh on me from an emotional standpoint. I will never know the vast majority of them. For all the difference it makes, they are just some vague idea of 'the people.' That said, I am against blatant and unnecessary inefficiency, and I'm well aware that keeping a happy populace is for the best of the nation. Suffice to say, I care about the people in the sense that I don't want them to be needlessly wasted for pointless things like pride and glory."

Personally, Mai felt like that answer was pretty troubling, but Xisheng didn't seem to think so. If anything, he actually looked somewhat content with her answer.

"That's the most anyone could ask of someone in charge. Now, if only more of the military's upper echelon thought that way..."

Azula seemed amused by the notion. "I'm sure I'll find plenty of fools to dismiss from their posts once we reunite with the regular military. Though I'll need to replace them with competent sorts, of course. That said, after all this time, I would feel a little odd calling you 'Captain' or 'Commander."

The young Princess seemingly thought nothing of this, but Xisheng stopped what he was doing in surprise as he stared at her following these words. He seemed quite pleased to have Azula imply that she would promote him. Heck, he looked so happy about it that Azula was almost embarrassed: enough to try and diminish the admiration he was displaying, at any rate.

"I mean, of course you would have to prove capable first... you've proven to be a very competent soldier and subordinate when it comes to our small group, but that's not a great indicator of your ability to lead much larger numbers of people..."

Even though she said that, Azula didn't really think it was completely true. If she were being totally honest with herself, she already fully believed that Xisheng was a perfect fit for military leadership. After all, if he could teach even the Crown Princess a thing or two about leading, surely he had what it took to guide his fellow soldiers.

Azula had to admit that it was a mostly foreign feeling, to have that kind of confidence in someone. She was so used to expecting everyone around her to be incompetent. It was kind of a nice feeling though, knowing that there was someone you could trust in nearly every regard. Maybe it would be preferable to exercise a leadership style that spurred more people to be like him in her service.

Speaking of leadership, Azula glanced at Mai, who was still reclining in the cabin of the Overlord. While the girl had expressed great displeasure in having to drive the vehicle initially, she had not been quite as vocal about that displeasure as of late. Sure, she was never really happy about it, not by a long shot: but she mostly kept her malcontent to a bit of grumbling and a sigh. Azula wasn't sure if Mai had just accepted her fate or if she had found some reason to view the task as mildly more tolerable.

On the other hand, Azula had afforded her friend more breaks in driving than she had Xisheng, so perhaps she realized that she was actually getting a decent deal. All of that said, they had been taking a break for some time already, and there were still several hours of daylight left to get some traveling done.

"I'm aware that it's hard to get back to work after resting, but we do need to cover more distance before the day is out. A few hours, at most."

This was all obviously directed at Mai, who heaved a heavy sigh at being called to action. This seemed to be her punishment for ever taking an interest in driving the Overlord: now she had to drive it all the time, far more than she wanted to. The only consolation for this was the fact that Xisheng would probably be with her, since he, as the actual most experienced driver, often felt the need to supervise just in case something went wrong. After all, if there were some sort of mechanical error, it wasn't like Mai would know what to do about it.

"Fine... guess it's no worse than just sitting here."

While she would have much preferred a less sassy attitude from her all the time, Azula figured it would be for the best to leave it alone. In fact, she figured she would try the opposite, since she knew that Mai didn't react to negative reinforcement very well at all. Likely due to some repressed issues with her childhood, she tended to handle that kind of approach poorly.

"I appreciate your assistance, Mai. I'm sure you can find some way for the Lieutenant to repay you for doing his job at a later date."

The marksman did seem a little surprised to be thanked, but she only offered a grunt of acknowledgment as she scooped up some bedding and a few pillows from the spare ones Xisheng had been sleeping on, presumably to use as cushioning for the metal chairs of the driver's cabin. Instead, she focused on the soldier she had been training.

"Go get my knives."

Said soldier offered a mock salute as he ran off to do what he was told, Azula's gaze on him as he did so. The Princess was a little miffed by the fact that they had not been able to do any intense Firebending training lately, but she had chalked that reality up to his physical state and an inability to do so. But on top of that, he seemed quite eager to learn all of these non-bending skills from her friends. He wasn't nearly this proactive when it came to learning from her...

Or maybe it was just the fact that he was already familiar with Firebending? Learning new things was interesting, naturally. And while knowing how to bend didn't mean there was nothing to learn about it, he must have been excited to learn something entirely new from Mai and Ty Lee. Either way, Azula could admit to herself that it upset her a little bit. Maybe he'd focus on her tutelage with as much gusto as before if she offered the secret to lightning?

Stepping into the cabin of the Overlord, Azula mentally scoffed almost as soon as the thought occurred to her. Bending lightning was a closely guarded technique of the royal family. Teaching it a commoner, even one she trusted, was a huge breach in decorum, among other things. Then again, it sure wold be nice to have someone else who could do it at her side in battle...

Deciding that the notion was at least worth considering, Azula nevertheless shelved it for now as she took to her bed, considering that there as nowhere else to sit while the Overlord was in motion. She'd find some other technique to focus on for now, though it would probably have to wait until this leg of their journey was over. Oh well: she was nothing if not patient.

---

As Azula had predicted, Mai had only been able to get in a few more hours of driving before it became too dark to continue safely. Naturally, Xisheng had kept her company in that time, though it had mostly been spent with her trying to talk him through various aspect of the art she was currently teaching him. Verbal lessons weren't quite as efficient when it came to physical skills as actual practice, but ultimately, Xisheng didn't doubt their usefulness. He was certain that the things they discussed could be put to good use the next time he tried sharpening his skills. That said, he wasn't really sure how long it would be before he would consider himself good enough to throw knives at anyone in a serious fight.

Based on where they stopped for the night and the best estimates of those who could read a map, there would only be a few hours' worth of driving to do tomorrow. Unfortunately, Azula had made it clear that she wanted them to leave pretty early in the morning, so even though it wasn't terribly late right now, most everyone was getting ready to sleep. Mai, for one, was already tired from driving all day, and Azula had turned in early specifically because she knew she would be waking up early as well.

That left only Xisheng and Ty Lee still awake and outside at night, the two of them sitting around a fire that Xisheng had mustered through bending and some available kindling. They'd been talking for awhile, managing a surprising sense of normalcy between them despite the conversation they had shared some days ago. Honestly, Xisheng was surprised that his brunette friend was able to do this: he would have expected Mai or Azula to be capable of putting on airs relatively easily, but he would have thought that Ty Lee would have a harder time of acting so casual after confessing embarrassing things to him.

Then again, perhaps Xisheng was no different. One would think it would be difficult for him to act normally around Ty Lee after what she had told him, but the fact that it wasn't constantly looming over their interactions made it an easy matter. Perhaps it was actually because neither of them was making a big deal out of it. If Ty Lee's demeanor had been seriously affected by it, perhaps Xisheng would have been in the same boat.

Either way, the subject of their conversation wasn't overly affected by the nature of what they knew about each others' feelings, as Xisheng brought up something he had been thinking about.

"I think we should take a look at your injury, Ty Lee."

With their conversation having been focused on a story about Ty Lee's old chi-blocking teacher previously, she was a little surprised about the shift in topic.

"Why? It doesn't feel bad. Well, no worse than what you'd expect from a big cut, I guess."

"I know you said it's felt fine lately, but we should still look at it. You can't always feel a problem with your body, you know? It's only prudent to check on a healing injury every one in a while."

Ty Lee gave him a wry look. "You sure you're not just trying to get my shirt off?"

A little surprised that she would flirt so straightforwardly, Xisheng nevertheless managed a response. "Your torso is wrapped in bandages, remember?"

"Bandages that you'll have to take off to see what you're looking at, right?"

Xisheng recalled that, during their special conversation, Ty Lee had offered to stop being so flirtatious considering her unwillingness to act on her feelings and how unfair it appeared to be for the soldier, but he had never actually told her to stop. Frankly, Xisheng would almost not even feel that she was the same if he asked her to intentionally restrain herself from acting how she would have naturally. Sure, it was a very odd situation to have open flirting between two people who admitted to liking each other while also refusing to go anywhere with it, but Xisheng had come to accept such things as his lot in life ever since joining Azula on this journey. Nothing had been ordinary since that day.

"I don't think I'll need to remove the bandages enough to see anything scandalous, Ty Lee."

The girl pouted a little, but ultimately relented. "Fine, I guess I can trust you with my body."

Not nearly dense enough to miss the intentionally suggestive wording, Xisheng couldn't help but blush a little, though he found the confidence to retaliate.

"I think I've proven so far that all three of you can trust me with your bodies, don't you think?"

Clearly a little miffed to have the others brought into this, and in such a light no less, Ty Lee swiftly tried to turn the focus back to herself. "A-alright you, just help me get my shirt off..."

Under any other circumstances, such wording would have been highly suggestive, but the current situation actually justified it easily. Ty Lee's black top from her Earth Kingdom disguise had been slashed in two, so she'd gone back to her usual pink and red getup, which had a top that was pulled over her head. While she hadn't exactly been crippled by her wound, the necessary arm movements to get that top off would probably be quite uncomfortable for her. It was Xisheng's understanding that either Mai or Azula had been helping her with it since then.

This meant that Xisheng had to help her get this top off, an exercise that may have been a little flustering in some other situation, but as of right now, he was more concerned with making sure he didn't hurt her. Besides, in Xisheng's opinion, helping someone get dressed or undressed without proper atmosphere was awkward more than arousing.

Even though Xisheng only had one arm to help with, it didn't take long for Ty Lee to be free of the cloth, on her upper body at least. Of course, she was just as modest as before, since her breasts were hidden behind bandages. Xisheng hadn't really taken note of it until now, but the tightly wound linens made a pretty big impact on how busty she appeared to be.

Now that this step was done, Ty Lee motioned for him to turn away. "OK, I can do this part myself. Don't look!"

Xisheng considered mentioning that Ty Lee had already shown him her bust in all its glory at the river, but ultimately he figured he wouldn't. Far be it from him to determine what the difference was in letting him see now versus then. Maybe, having already been caught naked, she had simply experienced a 'go for broke' moment in which she figured there was no reason in being shy at that point.

Either way, the soldier turned around and averted his gaze so Ty Lee could undue her bandages in comfort. Of course, it didn't take that long to do, so it wasn't long before the acrobat was prompting him to turn around.

"O-OK, you can look now..."

Turning his attention back to Ty Lee, Xisheng was greeted by the sight of her bandages completely unwrapped and hanging loosely around her waist. Her arms were raised, hands covering the most tantalizing parts of her breasts as she glanced at him shyly, a blush on her face. Admittedly, even though she was much less exposed here than at the river, it was somehow almost even more erotic.

In hindsight, the way the bandages had been tied around her meant that Ty Lee was going to have to expose herself somewhat. Had this occurred to Xisheng earlier, he would have suggested that Mai or Azula do this for her instead. Then again, it wasn't like he was unhappy with this scenario. He'd be lying if he said that he hadn't imagined laying eyes on these voluptuous breasts again. He was the type of person to respect a girl's modesty, but if he did get to see them in all of their natural glory, he wasn't going to feel bad about it.

Under his gaze, Ty Lee's blush grew more prominent. For some reason, she felt more bashful in this situation than the more scandalous one she had been in before. Of course, Xisheng didn't fail to pick up on this, so he tried to alleviate her embarrassment by focusing on actual practicality. Hopefully, he managed to school some of his own embarrassment off of his face as he leaned in to get a better look at the healing wound Ty Lee still sported. The light of the campfire wasn't quite enough to get a good look at it, so Xisheng lit a small flame in his good hand to provide better lighting.

With an actual thing of import to focus on, it was easy to clear his mind frivolous thoughts. This was relevant to a friend's health, after all.

That said, Xisheng wasn't exactly a medical professional. Of course he'd be able to tell if there was a really glaring problem, like a surface infection or something. But other than that, his analysis was pretty amateur. The cut itself appeared to be healing fine, and Mai's stitches were holding up well, as best as Xisheng could tell. If anything was wrong, he couldn't discern it.

"I know you said as much already, but you haven't felt any pain at all? Nothing seems amiss?"

Clearly still immersed in her own thoughts, Ty Lee nevertheless managed to give him an answer. "N-nothing that I can think of... I mean, it stung for awhile after the cut, but that's the kind of pain I'd expect from getting hurt. I haven't felt that anything was really wrong outside of the ordinary."

With little reason to infer that any action had to be taken, Xisheng leaned away from the girl and allowed the flame at his fingertip to dissipate. "Then I guess everything is fine. Will you be able to wrap your bandages again on your own?"

Ty Lee looked a little sheepish. "Well, uh... I didn't pay that much attention when I was unwrapping them, so I'm not sure how to put them back..."

"Turn around then, and I'll put them back from behind."

Naturally, Ty Lee did not object to this, since she had clearly been more reluctant to expose herself today compared to last time. At least with her back turned, nothing too private would be exposed. Of course, Xisheng was the type of person to appreciate a toned back and slender shoulders as well, so it wasn't a total wash as far as he was concerned.

While there were a few times his hand accidentally brushed a delicate place while reapplying Ty Lee's bandages, said incidents went without particular comment from either party, and soon enough, Xisheng had finished his work and helped Ty Lee get her shirt back on. At that point, he figured it was as good a time as any to go to bed, since the air had grown somewhat awkward, but he was forced to re-evaluate that sentiment when Ty Lee accosted him.

"Alright, your turn!"

"My turn? For what?"

"If it's a good idea to check how an injury is healing, there's no reason we shouldn't look at your arm, right? That only makes sense, so take your shirt off."

Maybe Xisheng was the only one who thought the atmosphere had grown a little awkward. Or maybe Ty Lee felt it too, but thought it could be dispelled if she forced the embarrassment to switch hands to him instead of her. Either way, Xisheng felt compelled to remind her of a particular fact.

"Ty Lee, I'm pretty sure we won't have to take my whole shirt off just to look at my arm..."

The girl pouted at this, but also raised a good counter-point. "Do you really think it would be a good idea to roll your sleeve up your arm? Because that's the only way we can look without taking your shirt off all the way."

Thinking about it for a moment, Xisheng couldn't say that Ty Lee didn't have a point. It would probably be easier to just remove his shirt all the way than to try and roll a sleeve up his battered arm. Of course, this was still not really necessary. Naturally, he had checked on his own injury at least once since acquiring it, and it wasn't like Ty Lee had the required knowledge to make any sort of useful observation about it. So there wasn't really a practical reason to do this.

But as he had determined already, Xisheng figured that practicality may not have been the only thing worth considering. Maybe equivalent exchange would make Ty Lee feel more comfortable. Or maybe she wanted to see how bothered he really was or wasn't by what he had learned from their conversation a few days ago? Maybe she would perceive refusal to do this as a sign that he was not really comfortable with her.

Or maybe she just wanted to see him shirtless. There wasn't always some deeper hidden meaning to things.

Either way, while it was a little embarrassing, Xisheng figured it was only fair to allow this. After all, he had seen Ty Lee completely nude once, and topless just now. It wouldn't really be fair to act as though she was asking too much of him at this point.

"OK, I guess you're right... it couldn't hurt to check. Help me get this sling off first, and be careful."

Naturally, Xisheng's 'sling' was still just some of Mai's garments tied together to achieve this simple aim. But thus far, it had actually served him quite well, and it wasn't like they had any alternatives. At the very least, this made it quite easy to remove it, since it was as simple as untying a knot. Once that was done, there was the slow and tentative process of getting his shirt off. Admittedly, Xisheng's arm wasn't in as excruciating of pain as it had been immediately after the injury, but he was definitely not without suffering still: he had really just settled into that state of extreme soreness and stiffness. Moving it around was not particularly pleasant, but he didn't imagine a desire to cut his arm off like he had before, in hopes that it would somehow be better.

While he wasn't actually wearing his armor right now since it wasn't like it as needed anyway, Xisheng was of course still wearing the parts of the uniform that went underneath it, which included a shirt that had to be pulled over one's head. This was good for insulation, but bad when one needed to get their shirt off with an arm that was no good and in pain.

Still, with Ty Lee's help and some careful maneuvering, he did manage to get undressed to that extent, though he hadn't been able to contain a few contained grunts throughout the ordeal.

If Ty Lee were being honest with herself, she would readily admit that her motives had been mostly impure and carnal. While she knew just from his stature and poise that Xisheng was built, she had never actually been able to get a look at just how much, which didn't seem terribly fair considering how many times he had seen her in a state of undress by now. She couldn't lie to herself and pretend that a big part of the plan here hadn't just been to ogle the guy she had a crush on.

But now that she actually could, the acrobat found it hard to derive any enjoyment from the sight: not because she felt guilty, nor because Xisheng's physique was a letdown, since he was toned and muscular. It was just that she hadn't expected to see so many marks of pain etched into his torso.

The arm was obvious, and quite painful to look at, considering its mottled hues of red and purple, but she had been expecting to see that. But she had not been expecting the numerous array of scars that marred his flesh. Long streaks of pale flesh that signified a grievous wound of the past, patches of skin that had clearly been singed before... it wasn't accurate to say that Xisheng was covered in scars, but no matter where you looked, your gaze didn't have to travel far to find one.

Sharp as always, it didn't take the soldier very long to identify that her expression wasn't what he had been expecting. He'd predicted some impure ogling, and had expected to be somewhat bashful about it, but this reaction was certainly not that. More than anything, Ty Lee looked saddened now that he was shirtless. That kind of stung a bit.

Ironically, while he was pretty intuitive in some regards, there were other ways in which Xisheng was quite oblivious. That was probably way he assumed that the girl sitting next to him was disappointed or put off by all of the scars across his body.

"Yeah... being a soldier really does a number on your body. It's not pretty to look at, is it?"

In a heartbeat, Ty Lee's sorrowful expression was replaced by one of those cute frowns that symbolized displeasure with someone's perception. "You idiot, it's not like that. These scars don't change anything about how handsome you are. It's just..."

Gingerly reaching out with her fingertips to brush against the scar on his shoulder from a wound that had nearly taken his life, Ty Lee's countenance shifted to its prior state once more.

"You've been through so much pain... to get hurt this much, and you're barely any older than me... how much more will you have to endure if you've already suffered this much so early in life?"

Admittedly, this was not a notion that Xisheng had thought about much before. In retrospect, it was true that he had been dealt many serious injuries for someone his age. Far more than was ordinary, for certain. But he had always just accepted that as the reality of being a soldier. There was nary a soul who had actually fought on the frontlines for any respectable amount of time that had not accrued a scar from their battles.

Maybe Ty Lee had a point though. He wasn't even at the halfway mark of a natural lifespan, but he'd almost been killed several times and had been grievously wounded many times more. Was it just the way his life was doomed to progress?

Either way, he sought to placate Ty Lee. "It's true that I've been hurt a lot, Ty Lee. But it's not like I'll be a soldier forever. One day, I'll..."

Xisheng petered off at that, because now that he was thinking about it, he wasn't actually sure what he would do 'one day.' Not that he actually expected to serve in the Army his entire life, but he just hadn't really thought about what he would do when it was all over. Being a soldier was all he knew. Fighting and Firebending were his skills, and he wasn't sure how those could possibly transfer to civilian life in the long run. He had no clear goal for his future after the military.

Ty Lee must have picked up on his reason for petering off, because she decided to fill out his statement for him. "One day, preferably sooner than later, you'll retire as a hero with a beautiful woman who loves you very much. You'll have a really nice house in a super scenic location, provided by Azula as thanks for everything you've done for her and the Fire Nation."

Xisheng was going to say that he liked the sound of that, but perhaps he underestimated how invested Ty Lee was in creating this narrative, because she kept going.

"You'll have a wonderful kid with your wife, but just one though... maybe two, but hopefully not twins! You can teach them all of your cool moves, and Azula and Mai can be those kind of scary aunts the kids love, but we always have to be a little wary-"

The brunette stopped herself short when she realized that she had implied something quite embarrassing just then. That she was the beautiful wife in this hypothetical scenario was no great mystery. Xisheng, suitably flustered by the insinuation, figured he could call Ty Lee out on it, but that would just be awkward for both of them, wouldn't it?

It would be better to just play it off like he had totally missed the implication. Besides, he could probably get a smile out of Ty Lee while doing it. "Yeah, that kind of life... it doesn't sound so bad. I'd like to have something so wonderful when I'm finally done fighting."

Xisheng couldn't tell if Ty Lee bought his faked obliviousness, but she seemed pleased by his answer regardless. Perhaps she had thought he was determined to spend his entire life as a career soldier, with no retirement in sight. While Xisheng was certain that he would spend many years still serving his country, he had every intention of leaving the struggle to someone else at some point in the future.

More importantly, he once again found himself completely bewildered. For a girl that apparently didn't want to take their relationship any further than it was right now, Ty Lee sure didn't have much reluctance in imagining herself as his wife, even in a purely hypothetical scenario. At this point, he had no clue what was really going through her head: she couldn't make it any clearer that she was serious about her feelings, but what then could be a potent enough obstacle to stop her from pursuing it?

Frankly, the soldier had to acknowledge the possibility that maybe he just wasn't as good at reading people as he believed himself to be. Though if he were being totally honest, Ty Lee's logic and actions conflicted in a way that seemed to defy reason, or at least what he considered to be reason.

Either way, as he glanced away from the blushing brunette and started thinking of a normal way to draw the conversation to a close so they could all go to bed, the soldier concluded that he was going to have to either start investigating seriously or simply accept the fact that he had no clue what was going on.

---

As Xisheng had estimated the day prior, there wasn't much driving the next day. The group had awoken fairly early in the morning, about eight or so: but by noon, they had already laid eyes on the dark steel of a Fire Nation outpost on a rocky cliff overlooking the seas surrounding the Earth Kingdom. Mai had been sure to breath one of the only sighs of relief that Xisheng had ever heard from her, and even the soldier had to admit that he was somewhat looking forward to a change of pace.

Considering the remote location of this outpost and the fact that an distinctively Fire Nation vehicle was approaching it, the one sentry at the front gate didn't look terribly alarmed, and he didn't inform any of his fellows that someone was approaching. Xisheng was a little bothered by the nonchalant behavior from a sentry, but he cut the soldier some slack: the odds of this out of the way outpost getting attacked by the enemy was very low, and if it was going to be attacked, it probably wouldn't be via some sort of subterfuge involving a Fire Nation vehicle.

Besides, at the very least, the soldier did motion for them to stop while they were approaching, thankfully from far enough away that Mai had time to do so. He wasn't so complacent as to not even check what an unscheduled arrival was about, it seemed.

Upon bringing the vehicle to a complete stop, Xisheng opened the door to the driver's cabin so he could speak with the sentry directly, the latter of which had stepped around to the side of the vehicle.

"Well met, soldier. The Crown Princess of the Fire Nation is here to inspect your humble outpost."

This sentry being one of the non-bending kind that didn't wear a mask, Xisheng was free to witness the unconvinced look on his face. He didn't blame him: the odds of the Crown Princess showing up all the way out here were practically nil: Xisheng wouldn't be surprised if this outpost hadn't even received news that she had left the country. Besides, this introduction did sound like the kind of prank a soldier would pull on one of his comrades.

"Real funny. What regiment are you from? We don't have a supply run scheduled today."

Seeing as he didn't have a current regiment, Xisheng didn't really have an answer to that. The sentry leaned a little to the side to peer into the cabin, his expression being replaced with bewilderment as he identified a young woman who was clearly not a soldier operating the vehicle. Mai simply looked back, seemingly unbothered with his observation.

This probably would have led to a lot more questions, but thankfully, the hydraulic door to the passenger cabin opened at that time. Naturally, the sentry warily turned his attention towards the disturbance, though his face drained of color when he identified one of the people stepping out of the vehicle. He spared one utterly flabbergasted glance back at Xisheng, who merely shrugged. Then he was swiftly bending at the waist so he could properly bow to Azula.

"P-P-Princess! It is an honor, I mean, w-we're most grateful, er... there was no word that your Highness was gracing us with her presence today!"

At one point in time, Azula had found it amusing when people reacted like this to her presence. Granted, she did still find it a little amusing, but more than that, it was also a bit annoying. Either way, she wasted no time in getting to the point of her business there.

"Indeed. Take this vehicle into the outpost and do with it as you will. There are three Mongoose Lizards in the rear compartment. Oh, but take everything out of the second cabin and neatly store it. I will decide later what to do with those goods."

The soldier bowed once again, clearly worried that he would somehow incur Azula's wrath. Frankly, Xisheng had forgotten that a lot of people in the regular military held this view of Azula. Of course, his own perception was more than a little biased at this point, all things considered. Either way, he and Mai made to exit the vehicle, since the sentry would need them to vacate it in order to do what Azula had commanded.

As he followed Azula towards the gate of the outpost along with Mai and Ty Lee, the soldier couldn't help but cast a wistful gaze back at the Overlord as it receded. The look didn't go unnoticed by Ty Lee.

"What's wrong, Gohan?"

"Oh, nothing... I'm just a little more bothered by leaving the Overlord for good than I thought I would be. I guess it hasn't been that long, but it's kind of grown on me."

Mai clearly didn't share his sentiment on the matter. "Really? I can actually say with confidence now that driving that thing sucks. What is there to miss?"

Feeling like he had to defend himself somehow now, Xisheng tried to put the sentiment into words. "I don't know, it's just... the Overlord has more or less been home base since we started using it. It's offered protection and solace, and been very reliable. Look, maybe it's just a soldier thing: it's easy to get attached to something that has served you well and kept you safe, even if it is just a tool. It's not unlike you and your knives, if you think about it..."

Not expecting this comparison, Mai seemed to give it a serious moment of thought. Ultimately, she decided that he may have actually had a point. Sure, she couldn't care less about the Overlord, but she did understand what it was like to have a personal significance attached to a tool or weapon. She'd be quite disturbed herself if she had to part with her favorite set of knives.

Walking into the outpost itself, the group was able to lay eyes on its relatively unimpressive existence. There were a few metal buildings, and the walls were steel, but most of everything else was either tents or ramshackle structures. Unlike more heavily fortified bases, the ground was left entirely alone, remaining as stone and dirt: if this base had any actual chance of being attacked, it most certainly would have laid metal sheets to act as flooring for it. It was the only way to stop Earthbender from waltzing right under the defenses.

Of course, the fact that no one expected an attack here was probably why this was not a concern. Truly, this outpost was in the middle of nowhere, seeing as how even the closest Earth Kingdom cities were still days' worth of travel away while using the Overlord. The Earth Kingdom didn't even have an equivalent ground transport to the best of Xisheng's knowledge, so it would take even longer for them to get out here. Chances were, they didn't even know this outpost existed.

But it wasn't like this outpost served some great function: to the best of Xisheng's knowledge, it had been built decades ago on the off chance that the Fire Nation circumvented their world to come all the way over here and create a staging area for an invasion of the EK, but for many reasons, it had ultimately been unnecessary.

For one, the Fire Nation would have had to march an ungodly distance from here to reach anything of importance. Secondly, it had just been more efficient to sail directly East from the country to the Earth Kingdom and deploy everyone from there. That being the case, this outpost continued to be manned only as an observation point. It was unlikely that the tattered remnants of the Earth Kingdom navy would even attempt to launch an attack on the western coast of the Fire Nation, but it wasn't impossible, and the job only required a small group of men.

While Xisheng was thinking about all of this, Azula was looking around for another soldier to address. The one she found was clearly transporting a box of some sort, but he was quickly beckoned over when he realized that the Crown Princess of the Fire Nation had been summoned out of thin air at his remote base. In but a moment, he had approached and bowed fervently, much like the sentry from before. His voice almost came across as panicked.

That was understandable though: when you manned a base this far out in the sticks, you probably didn't care much for protocols, and you certainly didn't expect a sudden visit from the Royal Family. Who knew what kind of objectively lamentable things were happening here? There was probably a squad of soldier gambling in one of these tents, and who knew what else.

"Y-y-your Highness! How may I be of service?!"

If Azula was bothered by his speech or tone, she didn't show it. "I require the directions to your commanding officer, as well as whoever is in charge of treating the wounded. Assuming this place has an armory, point out its location to me."

While he was still stumbling a bit, the soldier that had been ordered quickly pointed out the various buildings, as well as one tent, that were home to all of the things she had requested. Once he had done that, the Crown Princess dismissed him, which allowed the poor man to scamper away. It was almost kind of funny, seeing an adult react such a way to a teenage girl.

With the information she desired acquired, Azula turned towards her group. "I'm off to speak to the commander of this outpost about the next leg of our journey. Lieutenant, report to the medical tent immediately. Ty Lee, I suggest you peruse through the armory for any sort of protection that can keep you safe the next time we have to fight. Mai... do as you please, I suppose."

Her instructions given, Azula turned on her heel to walk towards the largest metal cube in the outpost, where the commander would be. Ty Lee had a pouty look on her face as she watched her friend leave.

"Hey, how come she doesn't care if I go to the medical tent?"

Xisheng was going to mention how Ty Lee's injury was already treated as best as it could be, and short of intentionally opening it up, which was a terrible idea, there wouldn't be much even a trained medic would be able to do about it. But instead, Mai ended up speaking first.

"At least she expressed some concern for your health. It's not like I wear armor either."

"Which is probably a bad idea, right? Why not come check out the armory with me?"

Xisheng couldn't see Mai actually wearing armor, mostly because she needed to be able to reach a hand into her clothing to draw weapons, but he would be lying if he said he didn't like the idea of her being more protected. What had happened to Ty Lee was much too close: he honestly would have preferred if all the girls equipped themselves as he did, though he knew that wasn't going to happen.

Still, Mai did have an obvious interest in edged weapons, so unsurprisingly, she wasn't entirely against the idea. "Sure, that sounds fine."

Since the two of them would be going a different direction, Ty Lee waved back at Xisheng. "Gohan, don't do that guy thing where you act like you aren't hurt that bad and don't need attention! You'd better be honest with that medic!"

Xisheng waved back to the girls. "Don't worry, my masculinity isn't so fragile that I have to lie about being in pain."

With a satisfied nod from Ty Lee and a look of mild concern from Mai, the two girls walked off in the direction of the armory, leaving Xisheng all by his lonesome. Of course, since he had things to do, he wasn't exactly planning on standing around. As he walked towards one of the many nondescript tan tents in the outpost, Xisheng had to admit that it felt a little odd being back in this situation again. While it hadn't actually been that long, it felt like an eternity since he had been inside of a military base, albeit a small one, and surrounded by fellow soldiers.

It was hard to explain why: he supposed it was just the vastly different dynamic he had been subjected to lately. Admittedly, the sense of solidarity he had once shared without question with fellow soldiers had deteriorated somewhat. Not that he felt he didn't belong among them, but he did feel feel and truly different from his fellow troops, whereas before he had perceived himself as just another grunt. Well, as long as he didn't let that go to his head, he supposed there was no harm in it.

Since the outpost was small, the trip to the medical tent took only a minute. Upon arriving in there, Xisheng quickly confirmed what he had already suspected: this outpost probably had next to no need for a dedicated tent like this. Of the several cots in this tent, only one was occupied, and the soldier within it looked bored out of his skull moreso than in grievous pain.

The person who was actually the medic, identifiable due to a white patch of paint on his shoulder pad, was reclining lazily in a chair near the entrance. Naturally, he was utterly shocked to see someone who was actually injured walking into his tent, though that was only the first of his questions.

Of course, he asked who Xisheng was, seeing as how contingent of men here was pretty small and most everyone knew each other, as well as where he had come from and what had happened to him. Considering the dull life of the soldiers here, he had been able to regale the two men that, now that Xisheng was saying it out loud, did sound truly unbelievable. What, with a common soldier ascending to a position of importance to the Crown Princess, hunting the Avatar, and all that.

As was the usual for these types of conversations, the medic shared some stories of his own, but it was mostly just complaining about how boring things were around here. According to him, the man in the cot just had some sort of stomach ache (and he had doubts as to whether or not it was genuine), and the worst injury he had seen while on duty at this outpost came from a man who had smashed his finger in one of the metal doors around the outpost.

Part of Xisheng worried about whether or not this guy had the right experience considering his station and what he had to deal with regularly, but as they got down to business and the young medic began examining his arm, it became clear that he knew what he was doing. From there, the process was about what one would expect: praise for how well the injury had been tended to under the circumstances, a whistle of appreciation from the unpleasant sight of the arm itself, and a lot of poking, prodding, and requests for Xisheng to move his arm in various ways to try and determine the extent of the damage.

The whole process had to be done without any sort of painkillers, even though the medic had them on hand. Of course, that was because pain was a good indicator of when something was wrong, and it was usually hard to discern how grave an injury was if the patient couldn't feel it. In fact, Xisheng had heard it said before that the wounds you couldn't feel were often the ones that killed you.

Ultimately, the medic concluded that Xisheng's arm wasn't broken, and that as best as he could tell, there was no reason to expect any permanent damage to come from this. His best estimate for functional recovery was two weeks, while his best estimate for when he would no longer be pained by it at all was three, though he did state that the pain was likely to subside to some extent over time.

After that, it was just a matter of situating Xisheng so he could be on his way. The medic provided him with an actual sling for his arm, and showed him how to properly secure his arm with it so he wouldn't have to use Mai's clothes as a makeshift sling any longer. He also provided Xisheng with a few vials of liquid that would supposedly help numb the pain, but the base itself didn't have much to spare, so it wasn't like it would last him the whole two weeks. He would just have to save them for the worst days.

With his checkup done, Xisheng bid farewell to his new acquaintances, since he was sure Azula wouldn't want him loitering around to chat. Stepping back outside, he found that most of his party was already back, though Azula was still missing. Ty Lee and Mai had apparently found things they liked in the armory, though he was a little surprised by what they were.

Ty Lee had gone in for armor of some sort, but she had not come out with much. In fact, the only thing she had acquired was a pair of bracers and some light gauntlets that covered her hands, but not her fingers. Better than nothing, especially since Ty Lee's fighting style often meant extending her arms towards an enemy, but Xisheng certainly would have wished for more.

Mai, on the other hand, was twirling around a knife as usual, but this one happened to be on the end of a rope. Presumably, she had acquired this from the armory, though Xisheng had no idea why such a niche weapon would be present. Then again, supply shipments often included some things that weren't intended.

As he approached the duo, he figured he might as well ask about their findings. "I see the raid on the armory was successful, though I must admit, you two didn't come back with what I was expecting..."

Since she now had another person in close proximity on her other side, Mai shortened the length of rope that she was spinning around, though she didn't actually stop. Normally, Xisheng would be a little worried about the close proximity, but he had full confidence in Mai's ability to not hurt anyone near her unintentionally.

"Tell me about it. They actually had a whole crate of these things in there. Is this a normal weapon for soldiers in our country?"

"Decidedly not. Must have been some sort of logistics mix-up or something. You want to give your soldiers weapons that are easy to use and learn, and I don't think a knife on the end of a rope fits that description."

Ty Lee weighed in on their conversation. "Mai seems to be pretty good with it already. Though, do you even need something like that? How is that any better than throwing normal knives?"

If Mai had any deep technical answer to give, she didn't. Instead, she merely shrugged. "I don't know. Just thought it would be interesting to try. That doesn't mean I'll ever use it in a fight."

Since that kind of answer was perfectly fitting coming from Mai, Xisheng figured there was nothing more to discuss on that front. He imagined you could do some cool things with such a weapon, but they would undoubtedly be beyond him. He'd love to see what Mai could do with it, though.

Instead, he focused on Ty Lee. "And what about you? Was that all the armor you could find in there?"

Ty Lee looked a little sheepish. "Well, they did have some other stuff, but most of it was no good. The boots were too big and also kind of heavy, which would be bad for balancing. The only chest armor they had was one of those kinds with the shoulder pads attached, and I wouldn't be able to raise my arms above my head like that. I kind of need to do that for my technique, y'know?"

Xisheng was surprised to hear about older model armor being in the armory, but he supposed it made sense for a remote outpost like this one. They weren't in dire need of the most advanced equipment, so providing them with surplus armor from an earlier time wasn't that big of a deal.

Mai commented further on Ty Lee's explanation. "There were a few helmets, but even with the ones that had straps, I figured they would probably shift around and fall over Ty Lee's eyes a lot while she's jumping around and all that. That also seemed like a bad idea. But the arm pieces will let her protect herself a bit and not get in the way of her usual fighting technique."

Taking all of that into consideration, Xisheng figured they had a point. Without armor that was altered to her specific needs, it was going to be difficult to find any that meshed well with the way Ty Lee moved and fought. Standard issue armor was designed with standard combat in mind. Still...

"Well, what about you, Mai? You could probably afford to wear some of that without any of it getting in your way."

The marksman seemed to find the suggestion a little silly. "And gallivant around with all of those odds and ends sticking out of me? No thanks. I know it sounds weird, but I do have some semblance of style."

"I'd rather you prioritize your safety over that... even if it's just gauntlets and bracers like Ty Lee grabbed, those could protect you from a grievous wound in a pinch. Plus, they're smooth and would even match your outfit. Will you at least consider that much for me, Mai?"

While her initial reaction was to grumble about being pestered over it, Mai found it hard to do that. Admittedly, she was a little happy that Xisheng was so determined to have her protected, even if it was only a little more than usual. Plus, she was finding it really difficult to say no when he looked right at her like that. Damn, when had she become so weak?

"I, uh... guess it wouldn't hurt to grab some, just in case..."

Pleased to hear that, Xisheng was about to thank her for accommodating him, but he didn't get the chance to, since the door to the main outpost building opened and Azula stepped out, with a small group of soldiers, one of which was a mustached commander looking type, filing out behind her. They all started moving to the rear end of the base, where the cliffs were. Azula came up to them instead, wasting no time in explaining what was happening.

"Well, the good news is that this outpost does have a ship. The even better news is that there are enough spare soldiers around here to crew it. The bad news is that the vessel is one of those small transport ships and it isn't terribly fast, so we're going to be at sea for some time. Unfortunately, it's the only vessel they have here. That being the case, I have no intention of sleeping in a place that's beneath me for that long, so we have a little bit of time while we wait for the residents of this base to carry our nice amenities down the cliff and to the boat."

Mai stopped twirling the rope dart she had acquired. "Well then, I guess I should head back to the armory real quick..."

Knowing full well that Xisheng was greatly concerned about their safety, Ty Lee actually agreed with that course of action. "I'll go too. Maybe there is something else I could actually use in there?"

Mai shrugged to the notion of her company, leading the way to the armory once again. Azula was quick to announce her plans as well. "I'm going to speak to the communications officer here so I can have a message sent back to the capital. Not that my father doesn't trust my discretion, but I'm sure he'd like to be appraised of my intentions and location after all this time. Do what you will until it is time to leave, Lieutenant."

Once that was said, Xisheng was swiftly left alone once again, something he wasn't actually that used to. It was a rare day when everyone was doing something else, and he wasn't involved in any way. Problem was, there wasn't really anything for him to do now. There was nothing particularly useful he could put his time towards. Since this was the case, he had no choice but to relax. Seeking some way to do that, he made for the outpost wall that overlooked the cliffs and the ocean, scaling the stairs so he could get a good view.

From here, one could see a seemingly endless stretch of deep blue out to the horizon, as well as the foot of the cliffs the outpost was situated on. He could even see the small transport vessel they'd be taking, all the way at the bottom. Some soldiers carrying crates were walking down a winding path to reach it. The trek didn't look pleasant, especially considering that said soldiers might have to move up and down the trail several times.

Choosing to focus on the ocean instead, Xisheng had to force himself to try and relax. The urge to do something useful was quite strong, though it was a little weird that it struck him so potently right now. It wasn't like he had never relaxed before: maybe it was just the fact that his contribution to the team had been severely hindered after his arm had been busted up. It felt like other people had been carrying his weight these past few days. That was probably the main reason he felt so antsy about standing around while everyone else was doing something valuable with their time.

Hopefully it was an isolated issue, because if this kind of thing was going to bother him in the future, then perhaps he would find it quite difficult to ever retire...

"Is this ocean truly so interesting? It hardly looks any different from the one that can be seen from the Fire Nation's shores."

Mildly startled out of his musings, Xisheng glanced over his shoulder to find that Azula had approached him from behind. Whether that was because she was that stealthy or because he just wasn't paying attention, he wasn't sure.

"Finished with the communications officer already, Princess?"

Coming to stand beside him as she peered out over the same view, Azula responded to that. "I simply had to relay what I wanted written in the message. Actually getting that message where it is supposed to go isn't my concern. Ignoring that, you didn't answer my question: are you actually admiring this view, or are you simply dwelling on something?"

In the old days, Xisheng would have been surprised by the notion of the Crown Princess being invested in his thoughts, but he was used to it by now. Presumably, she felt that he was worth listening to sometimes.

"I was just thinking about the future. Retirement, and whatnot."

From the corner of his eye, Xisheng noted a surprised expression from Azula. "Retirement? Lieutenant, you're hardly much older than myself. It's a little early to even dwell on that."

"Well, I don't mean any time in the near future. I know I have many years of service still before me. But at some point, I will have to choose whether or not I want to continue serving or if I'd rather leave the Army and return to a peaceful life. I was just thinking about what I'll actually do if and when that time comes."

Azula folded her arms, one of those subtle mannerisms Xisheng had determined to mean that she was not particularly happy or enthused about the topic of discussion. Why though, he had no idea.

"What would you even do, Xisheng? Far be it from me to claim I know everything about you, but being a soldier seems to be your main motivation in life. But even more than that... you're a warrior. I can tell that, professional as you strive to be, you love fighting and challenging yourself in combat. Do you really think you'd be happy living some peaceful life back in the homeland somewhere?"

She had a point, Xisheng couldn't deny that. Most of his existence right now was being a soldier. He also loved to fight for its own sake, in a pure, challenging sort of sense. But surely, there were ways he could put those skills and desires to use outside of war, right? Maybe he could start an officially sanctioned dueling ring, or something? Or he could go on to train other soldiers, but that wouldn't keep him satisfied as far as challenges were concerned...

Frankly, thinking this far in advance was tedious, and to some extent, kind of silly. Who knew if he was even going to live long enough to worry about any of this? With that in mind, Xisheng shook his head, amused by his own sentiment.

"Well, you may be right, Princess. But thinking about it is kind of pointless anyway. I've got no intention of retiring as long as I'm serving alongside you. So it's not like I need to worry about it until you don't need me anymore."

Having cast his gaze out to the sea again, Xisheng totally missed the shocked expression from his companion, who swiftly tried to hide it lest the soldier turn back and notice. Honestly, Azula was a little surprised that she still got floored by things such as this: it wasn't the first time he had said something similar. Even so, such a nonchalant declaration of support and allegiance flustered Azula a bit. For some reason, the fact that he didn't even consider such a thing as special or unordinary made it even more so.

He'd stick around as long as she needed him, was it? Well, who was to say what types of needs she'd need fulfilled in the future? He hadn't specified any sort of context those needs had to be in. Such a thought was one that would ordinarily be considered ridiculous, unthinkable, even laughable, and yet... she still considered it.

Unbeknownst to him, Xisheng had unwittingly prompted Azula to think about her own future, and in a light that he never would have guessed. As far as he was concerned, they were just sharing a comfortable moment of silence as they awaited the next stage of their journey.

Chapter Text

"Just hold still, I know it hurts..."

Currently on the shores of a river near the mid Earth Kingdom, Katara tried to calm her brother, who was convulsing in pain. She had submerged practically all of his body except his face in the water, hoping that it would both ease his suffering and provide her with plenty of water to further treat his wounds. Toph had used her Earthbending to help carry him over here. Aang was tending to Appa for the moment, something that actually irritated Katara a bit: her brother was in immense pain and should have clearly been everyone's first priority, but part of her acknowledged that the young Airbender was probably still reeling from the reality of their situation. Or maybe he was having trouble coping with yet another of his friends being scorched by flames, after that first time with Katara herself.

Not that this was remotely close to the same. Katara's injuries during Aang's brief mishap with Firebending had been superficially painful, but quite light, particularly in comparison to the shape Sokka was in. His burns were utterly gruesome, with layers of skin burned away to depths Katara didn't even know existed. She had, of course, experienced the types of burns that simply left one's skin red, but there were spots on Sokka's body either a pure white or a charred black. like coals from a fire. Most of that damage was concentrated near his abdomen, where that bastard Firebender had struck him. Naturally, this was also where Katara was focusing most of her healing efforts. Sokka had other, lighter burns elsewhere on his body, but those clearly were not as threatening.

Worst of all was the fact that Katara had no idea if she was really helping that much. It had been a few days since Sokka had sustained this terrible injuries, and of course she had done her best to tend to him immediately after the fight and in every waking moment afterwards. But her brother barely seemed any better off now than he had been right after the fight. He was still constantly slipping in and out of consciousness, and whenever he was awake, he was nearly mad with pain. He'd barely spoken or even eaten in the past few days.

And what if there was just nothing she could do? While she had frowned on all of those healing lessons at the time, Katara remembered everything she had been taught about the art while at the Northern Water Tribe. According to all of the masters, healing didn't miraculously overcome all wounds. It just directed the body's natural recovery towards the injury with more focus, which accelerated the healing process. That was great and all, but it also meant that no matter how skilled a healer one was, they couldn't restore injuries beyond the body's natural ability to recover. Unfortunately, Katara had no idea if that was the nature of Sokka's wounds: having been out of the war for most of it, even the masters of the Northern Water Tribe had not imparted much knowledge on treating burns of this magnitude.

As her brother convulsed with another surge of pain and loosed a stifled cry, Katara did her best to apply more soothing water to what she imagined must have hurt the most, all the while muttering meaningless words of comfort that Sokka probably couldn't hear and that she didn't really believe.

While doing this, the vial of water from the Spirit Oasis was burning a metaphorical hole in Katara's chest, where it rested thanks to being around her neck. Of course, when she had first gotten a chance to appraise Sokka's wounds, she had immediately decided to use it on him, but in a surprising moment of lucidity, Sokka himself had told her not to, on the logic that their supply was incredibly limited and that it may be needed for a more important cause in the future: namely, Aang.

Of course Katara understood his reasoning: the fate of the whole world rested on the shoulders of the Avatar, and powerful though he may have been, Aang wasn't invincible. There could come a time when he would need the water from the Spirit Oasis to stay alive. But even so, this was her brother. Watching him suffer was gut-wrenching.

Reaching for the vial tied around her neck, Katara was stopped short when Sokka unexpectedly managed to get an arm on knee, though this was not the result of a spasm. Though they were scrunched up in pain, his eyes held her own steadily.

"I told you... don't do that. We have to save it... for Aang. J-just... y'know, just in case..."

Unfortunately, the hoarse and raspy tone of Sokka's voice didn't do much to make his plea more convincing. Frankly, Katara had no idea how he was this strong. She was pretty sure she was crying and she wasn't the one who was hurt at all.

A few feet away from this scene, Toph had been standing quiet, listlessly casting her flawed eyes around as she listened to the exchange. Now though, she spoke up. "Gotta hand it to you, Sokka. You're tougher than I gave you credit for. Being able to handle all of this makes you more of a man than I thought."

Despite the pain he was in, the Water Tribe warrior managed a short, hoarse chuckle. "T-thanks... I just wish I could be man enough to protect my sister without ending up like this..."

Wiping the tears from her eyes, Katara was quick to try and assure him. "Don't say that! If it weren't for you, I'd be..."

Thinking on it, she couldn't help but recall the terrifying situation that had led up to all of this. That moment in which her life had come within an inch of being snuffed out. Not like it was hard to remember: over the past few days, Katara had her sleep plagued by nightmares involving the incident. That man, standing above her, rendering her helpless with his boot. That look of hatred and wrath, that loathsome glare as he charged a hellish flame in his palm to smite her... except in these nightmares, Sokka didn't appear to intervene. She didn't wake up from that nightmare until the flames engulfed her.

Seeing the consternation on her face, Sokka did his best to smile, though it was quite pained. "Yeah, I guess I did do pretty good. It's over now, Katara. That kind of situation won't happen again, I'm sure of it."

Katara's next words proved that she didn't agree with that sentiment. "Yes, it will..."

Unfortunately, there was nothing her brother could say that would convince her otherwise. Instead, he just stayed silent as Katara continued to tend to his wounds, having elected to respect his wishes regarding the water from the Spirit Oasis.

---

Hours later, with Sokka's treatment taking more time than anticipated, the group decided to simply set up camp where they were, rather than try to make any more headway during the night. Despite the earlier situation in which the Fire Nation had hunted them down, they had seen neither hide nor hair of them and their tireless machine in the past few days. For now, they were willing to take it easy. Maybe they didn't really have a choice, considering everyone's state.

Sure, technically everyone except for Sokka was unharmed, since Toph's wounds had been light enough to heal completely with Katara's help, and her own wounds had been tended to as well. And naturally, Aang had escaped unscathed. But even so, there were other wounds to consider: the psychological kind.

Their group had always taken their fight seriously. Not once had Katara viewed their struggle against the Fire Nation as some sort of game that could be taken lightly. She and everyone else had fought their enemies with the awareness that they could get hurt or worse. And yet, despite all the times they had scuffled with the Fire Nation, not a one of them had ever been wounded as grievously as Sokka had a few days ago.

It was impossible to guess why that was. Maybe they had just been consistently more skilled than the foes they were facing. Maybe their enemies had been trying to capture rather than kill them, or maybe some soldiers actually held back against kids, even if it was subconsciously. Maybe it was just that they were finally facing someone who was not only completely willing to kill them, but was skilled enough to do it.

Sitting on a rock near the river that was far removed from the camp where her friends and brother rested, Katara almost scoffed at how ridiculous her state of mind was right now. One of her foes from that group of hunters was able to shoot lightning from her fingertips, and yet, Katara found herself more frightened of the seemingly ordinary soldier that fought by her side. There was allegedly nothing special about him other than the fact that he was a good fighter. But having stared right into his eyes as he was about to kill her, Katara now found herself terrified of him.

It was hard to place why, but maybe that fear was borne out of knowledge. Maybe she had just never been close enough to one of her enemies to really see into their eyes and know what they were feeling, but so far, Katara didn't think she had faced anyone who really, truly wanted to kill her. Fight her, of course. Hurt her, likely. But even when she had come face to face with Zuko all those times he tried to capture Aang, she had never gotten the feeling that he wanted to, or was willing to, kill them just to achieve his aims.

Not like that man... he had said as much at the Beifong estate, but Katara had perceived it as little more than intimidation. But after their last battle, she knew that he was more than willing to kill any or all of them. It was sobering, and to someone who had never really felt their life threatened to that extent by someone who could actually make it happen, terrifying. Though she knew it was likely inevitable, the young Waterbender couldn't deny that she really didn't want to fight him again.

She didn't get to keep to her thoughts much longer, as a voice she instantly recognized made itself known to Katara. "There you are. Are you alright?"

Even now, Katara wondered if Aang intentionally sneaked up on people or if his footsteps were just naturally that light. She was always surprised by how quietly he could approach anyone regardless of the terrain. Glancing over her shoulder to appraise the young monk, Katara identified the unease that was on his face. Whether that was because of the overall situation or because he was talking to her right now, she had no idea.

"Alright is a strong word... I just can't get the fight out of my head."

Coming to stand beside her, Aang cast his gray gaze out to the river. "Yeah... it was definitely one of our worst... all of those fights with Zuko seem like kid's games now."

Sighing, Katara followed his gaze out to the river as well. Truth was, there were some thoughts she had about the matter regarding Aang that she was certain would upset him. Part of her wanted to express those thoughts, but a bigger part didn't want to be unnecessarily combative, even if she thought her feelings were justified. Really, she was just too tired to go out of her way to start a fight. Still, she wasn't particularly happy with Aang at the moment and she would have preferred to be alone, so she chose to just sit quietly rather than carry on a conversation.

If Aang was aware of her desire, he either thought a conversation was still worth a shot or didn't have the common sense to listen to his instincts. "I wonder if that girl is alright..."

Katara narrowed her eyes as she questioned what Aang had just said, though she got the feeling she knew who he was referring to. "What...?"

"You know, the girl with the braid. She looked pretty bad when we ran away. I hope she's okay..."

Despite her earlier sentiments, Katara felt immense fury welling up within her. She couldn't help but snap to her feet as the anger overtook her. "Are you serious right now, Aang?! Would it kill you to actually be angry at them?! Do you even care what they did to Sokka?!"

The way the young Airbender recoiled from Katara's ire made it clear that he hadn't expected to receive it. Still, he was able to muster a response."W-what? Of course I care about Sokka! I'm upset, Katara, why would you even think I'm not?"

"Because you're standing here, worrying about whether or not the people who hurt Sokka are alright! He could have died and you're standing here next to his sister legitimately concerned for their health! What's wrong with you?!"

Having not predicted this outburst at all, Aang was clearly on his back foot. He really had no idea where this had come from. Well, sure, he knew Katara wasn't in the best of moods right now, but he hadn't expected her to lash out at him about it.

"Katara, they're still people..."

Already in the thick of her anger now, Katara wasn't placated by that. She'd actually had thoughts such as these before, but she'd never felt the need to express them, least of all to the one person she knew would be most bothered by them.

"They're monsters! Monsters who hurt and kill and steal and worse for selfish, greedy reasons! When are you going to stop treating them like misguided children that can be brought back to the light and start acknowledging them as evil people who made their choice?!"

Getting a little riled up himself since his beliefs were being called into question, Aang tried to defend his point of view. "It's not just about how I perceive them, in my culture, all life is sacred-"

Having a particular thought about that she just couldn't keep under wraps, Katara cut him off. "Yeah, well, what about our lives, Aang?! Are they not sacred enough to protect? What happens when you're so busy trying to spare the lives of the people trying to kill us that they actually succeed?!"

Stopped in his tracks, Aang was clearly shaken by that assessment. "That's not what I-"

"Can you look me in the eye and tell me that you weren't holding back all of these times we've fought them?"

Completely silent in the face of this question, Aang's eyes fell. Some part of Katara felt bad for doing this to him, but at the same time, she felt that these things needed to be said. Things were different than they used to be. They couldn't afford the luxury of holding back against people like this: like that man.

"I know you missed a hundred years of their brutality, Aang, but you've got to accept the fact that some people need to be gotten rid of. It's for the greater good. You just need to accept that before they-"

Unexpectedly, this time it was Aang that snapped at her, suddenly finding some source of fire due to her words. "Before they what, Katara?! In case you've forgotten, no one has more right to be angry than me! My entire race is gone! My culture is a tattered memory that no one remembers or cares about! I'm well aware of what the Fire Nation has done, and I know what they could do from here on!"

Realizing that she had been somewhat insensitive, not to mention being cowed by the very rare display of anger from Aang of all people, Katara's own disgruntlement subsided somewhat, as she averted her eyes to the water once again.

"You're right... so why do you still care what happens to them? They took everything from you. They threaten to take away what you care about now. What more motivation do you need?"

With his own fury dissipating, Aang loosed a sigh. "It's not that simple, Katara. Like I said, I'm the last remnant of my culture. If I abandon its tenets, there will truly be nothing left. I just... don't think I can let it go. I know that even Monk Gyatso killed in his final moments, judging by all of those soldiers around his body, but I'm sure he thought that someone was going to survive him. That he could abandon our ethics to make sure they lived on at all... I'm not in that kind of position. There's no one to carry on my culture if I choose to abandon it."

Personally, Katara didn't quite agree with that sentiment, but she wasn't going to contest it. Even as agitated as she was about what had happened to Sokka, she wasn't about to condemn Aang for being so attached to what remained of his people, even in an idealistic manner. Still, she did have something else to say on the matter.

"But you know, you won't always have to be the last Airbender... in the future, you can pass on your culture to the next generation. But you do have to actually survive long enough for that to happen, you know?"

"Yeah, I know... it's just that this world already has so much fighting in it... I don't want to bring in even more suffering. Violence breeds violence."

Katara may have had something to say to that, but she didn't get to. The voice of the only other female member of the group cut in from behind the duo. "But in the end, it has to be this way. It's a world at war, Twinkletoes, not a world at peace. The fighting is going to happen whether you want it or not, and it's the kind of fighting that can only be stopped with violence."

Both Aang and Katara glanced over their shoulders to appraise the blind girl that had approached their little spot on the shore, though it was the latter that spoke.

"Is Sokka alright?"

Toph seemed to think the question was silly. "What, you think I left him squirming and crying back at camp or something? I know you don't really like me, but give me some credit."

Feeling a bit of irritation, Katara muttered to herself. "Well your attitude never does you any favors..."

The young Earthbender ignored her entirely, even though she probably heard what had been said. "Anyway, while I'd much rather just clobber someone directly, I'd like to remind you that Earthbending is very good at stopping people without hurting them too bad, Twinkletoes. Bury someone who isn't an Earthbender up to their neck in dirt and bam, no more problem, still no body count. My point is, I thought you wanted me to train you, but these past few days we haven't done crap."

It was once again Katara who had something to say to that. "We kind of had more important things to worry about these past few days, Toph."

"No, you had more important things to worry about these past few days. Aang was moping. You got your butt kicked and your friend got hurt so you spent the last few days being sad. Ugh, makes me sick! Getting thrashed that badly should motivate you to train so you can whip them next time!"

Aang scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "I guess you're right about that..."

Meanwhile, Katara cocked an eyebrow at the blind girl. "Oh yeah? Then why haven't you been training these past few days? You didn't do so well yourself in that fight."

Toph folded her arms as she donned an indignant expression. "Excuse me? I was going toe to toe with their strongest fighter, and I was definitely winning before I had to stop and save all of you."

Noticing an irate expression on her face before she said anything at all, Aang stepped in before another spat broke out between these two. Initially, Aang had expected the inclusion of another girl to be to Katara's liking, but she and Toph didn't seem to get along at all. He didn't really know enough about girls to get why this was the case, but he did know it was better to intervene before things got heated. Once these two got going, there was no stopping them.

"Alright, alright, I think Toph has point, but really, we should all train extra hard. Right now though, it's pretty late. First thing tomorrow, I promise."

Toph cocked an eyebrow at nobody in particular. "Doesn't seem that late to me."

Since they were going back to camp, Katara motioned at the darkened skies around them as she passed the younger girl. "That's because it's a cloudy new moon night for you every day, Toph."

The young Earthbender snorted as she turned to follow the two of them back. "Better than having to be blinded by your self-righteousness every day..."

Needless to say, the two of them started quarreling almost immediately after that exchange, prompting Aang to sigh. Really though, he would prefer this any day of the week compared to the heavy air of fatigue and depression that had cursed them these past few days. With the two of them squabbling like this, he could almost convince himself that there was nothing bigger to worry about at the moment.

A part of him wondered if the injuries that girl with the braid had suffered had caused similar problems for the warriors of the Fire Nation.

---

"Ugh... this is terrible..."

Hearing this lament, Xisheng cast his gaze over to a particular acrobat, who was leaning over the side of vessel they had commandeered from the Eastern EK outpost. They had only set sail a few hours ago, and dusk was settling over the ocean. Right from the start though, Ty Lee had handled the whole thing very poorly, being forced to spend a lot of time hunched over the rails of the boat.

With nothing better to do right now, Mai was near him, leaning against the main cabin instead of on the bench Xisheng occupied, as they both rested near the rear of the vessel, watching its wake form and disappear behind it. She seemed morbidly amused by Ty Lee's predicament.

"Of all the people to get seasick, you? You're flipping around through the air all the time, shouldn't you be used to this kind of sensation?"

Irate due to feeling miserable, Ty Lee responded somewhat snappily. "The sensation is under my control at those times, it's not at all like this! Stop enjoying this!"

Mai mockingly raised her hands in surrender, pretending to be interested in placating her friend. Azula, who stepped around to the back of the boat with the rest of them at that moment, wasn't so merciful. She had clearly heard the exchange.

"I think it's just a cruel whim of fate, Ty Lee. Irony truly saw fit to deal you a nasty blow. Don't worry, you'll only have to put up with it for a week or so."

Instead of answering that verbally, Ty Lee just groaned. With both of her friends being a little callous, Xisheng called out to her. "You should ask the soldiers on board if they have anything for seasickness. It seems likely they would, all things considered."

With a weak smile, the brunette forced herself to her feet. "Good idea, Gohan. Thanks for not being like those two."

Neither Azula nor Mai seemed particularly bothered by the accusation, so silence followed Ty Lee's words, which allowed her to follow up with something else once she was heading towards the front of the mid-sized ship.

"Oh, looks like it's going to rain..."

Peering around the edge of the main cabin so he could see what Ty Lee was seeing, Xisheng acknowledged a host of gray clouds in the direction the ship was sailing. They didn't look particularly stormy, but they most certainly seemed like they would drop a lot of water on top of them. Hopefully things would be pretty tame.

Whether they would be tame or not, Mai didn't seem interested in waiting around to find out. "Well, that means I'm going in."

Azula seemed inclined to agree with her sentiment. "Good idea. I'm not too keen on getting wet."

As for Xisheng, he remained seated. "I suppose I'll join the rest of you later. Unless you need me for something, Princess?"

The girl in question cocked a curious eyebrow at him. "I don't need anything in particular of you right now, but why stay out here? You're just going to get wet."

Xisheng smiled as he glanced out to sea. "I quite enjoy the rain, especially out at sea. It's a very unique experience so long as it doesn't get too stormy."

Having not left yet, Mai didn't seem convinced by his explanation. "What's so special about rain out here? We've all seen rain before."

"Yeah, but have you ever seen rain when the only surfaces for miles around are more water and your boat? It's kind of like watching rain landing in a puddle, except it's one giant puddle and you're a tiny speck in the middle of it. The way it looks and sounds is something you can't really experience in any other situation. I find it relaxing. Besides, there's an awning above us, so unless the wind blows at a terrible angle we'll probably be fine."

Azula scoffed at his explanation, though she did move to sit on the bench next to him. "I don't know if I've ever heard such an ill-fitting sentiment for a Firebender in my life. Still, I haven't traveled by sea too often, and I'll admit, you've somewhat piqued my interest..."

Mai glanced between the two of them, probably wondering if they were both crazy, but ultimately, she sighed and took a seat too. "Whatever. Nothing better to do, I guess. But if I get soaked out here, I'm blaming you and I won't be happy."

A little excited that his friends were taking an interest in this, Xisheng didn't miss a beat in his response. "I'll take full responsibility for warming you up afterwards if that happens."

His eyes out on the ocean, Xisheng missed the blush that his words spurred, even though said blush didn't exist for very long before disappearing. For now, they had nothing to really do other than wait for the boat to enter the rainy area that Ty Lee had spotted earlier. Small talk dominated that span of time, at least until Ty Lee returned to them some ten minutes later, expressing how she felt a little better thanks to some medicine the ship captain had provided to her.

Naturally, she had inquired about what they were all doing out here, and Xisheng had quickly filled her in on the plan. Of course, the brunette had been more than happy to join them for the spectacle that Xisheng claimed to be so mesmerizing.

Thankfully, they didn't have much longer to wait after that. Within a few more minutes, the sky above them transformed from the tones of dusk to the colors of rain clouds, though there was no rain right away. In fact, they sat for a good few minutes under those clouds with nothing happening, something that spurred a bit of sarcasm from Mai about how enthralling the situation was turning out to be.

But not long after, the first drop of water fell from the heavens, splattering against the corner of the metal awning that covered them all. It was soon followed by two more, which were then followed by hundreds of thousands. In the blink of an eye, a curtain of water from the sky was falling into the ocean around them, creating a constant cacophony of water impacting its earthbound kin. Loud though it was, the consistent sound of their reunion was oddly soothing.

As for the once calm surface of the ocean, it was distorted into something altogether otherworldly as the splatter of raindrops created millions of tiny waves and ripples that somehow formed a visage of beauty despite its uncontrolled and chaotic nature. Glancing around at his comrades in the midst of all of this, Xisheng was happy to see that not a one of them was disappointed.

Even Mai, the most stoic among them, looked quite amazed by the spectacle. "Wow... it sounds crazy, but I think I could fall asleep to this. It's so relaxing..."

Ty Lee had a big smile on her face as she rested her chin in her hands, eyes focused on the ocean. "It's so beautiful... I wonder how many people never see something like this, even though it must happen every day all over the world."

Azula was a little less straightforward about her appreciation for it all, though it was appreciation all the same. "Well, I think it could use a bit of thunder and lightning to spice things up, but... this is quite nice. I never would have thought you had an eye for the artistic, Gohan."

With an amused smirk, Mai added on to that. "With how much this guy stares out at the horizon all the time? Come on, it's a miracle that he didn't wind up as a painter."

The soldier smiled sheepishly. "I won't deny that I've wished for talent in that art more than once. Think of all the things you could share with people that they would otherwise never see."

This earned a bemused shake of the head from Azula. "So naively altruistic..."

Ty Lee sought to amend her statement for her. "So charming, you mean."

With that, the group fell into silence for a little bit, each of them enjoying the rare performance nature had put on for them. After a while, Ty Lee voiced a thought that they were all no doubt thinking.

"I hope it rains again while we're out here."

Staring up at the sky as it continued its deluge, Xisheng wholeheartedly agreed. "Yeah. That would be nice."

Chapter Text

Initially, Xisheng thought that riding on a boat would be pretty much the same as riding on a larger vessel, but after a full day out at sea aboard the relatively small ship Azula and company had commandeered from the outpost, he had determined that this was not really the case. When you were aboard a warship large enough to house a small village of people, it took significantly powerful and testy waves to really rock it and bother the crew and passengers.

On a smaller ship, the scope of rough waters required to shake the boat was significantly less. While it had only been a day, Xisheng couldn't think of a time since they had embarked that there hadn't been a fair amount of swaying. Needless to say, this hadn't been very favorable for Ty Lee, who was oddly the only one among them that seemed unusually prone to seasickness. Thankfully, the captain had plenty of medicine aboard to combat this exact ailment, likely due to the common nature of it. For now, that seemed to keep the acrobat relatively comfortable, though Xisheng was certain she would prefer to be on dry land again as soon as possible.

Having spent nearly all of their time in the prior weeks traveling with the Overlord, Azula had seen fit to let everyone just rest and get their bearings on their new mode of transportation thus far. Xisheng was actually a little proud of her for that; it wasn't long ago that she likely would have been irritated by the idea of them not doing something valuable with their time. Well, maybe she was still irritated, but her better judgment seemed to win out.

Then again, there weren't too many options available when it came to practical things to do anyway. This ship, primarily designed for light transport and towing, was not large enough to do much training on the deck. Mai dared not throw her knives around up here, out of fear that she might lose one in the ocean. Xisheng doubted that would happen, since it would first require Mai to miss whatever she was aiming it, but while he considered that impossible, he supposed the girl in question knew better than he as to how valid of a concern it was.

There also wasn't really enough deck space to do any serious Firebending training. Sparring was completely out of the question, as there wasn't much room to move around in the first place, and the deck was usually occupied by actual crew members doing something of import. Any training on that front would have to be limited to shooting flames out into the ocean from the side of the boat, but Xisheng wasn't sure what that option could really offer them. He supposed if Azula thought of something, that would change.

So for now, he was mostly limited to one type of training, which didn't need much space; Ty Lee's chi-blocking. Both she and Xisheng were currently sitting on the same bench that they had occupied to watch the rain yesterday, with the brunette tracing spots on her arm with her finger as she held it up against Xisheng's own.

"See, because I'm smaller than you, you're going to have to compensate for that when trying to strike a pressure point. They're still in the same spot. I mean, everyone has them in the same spots, but there's going to be a slight difference between you trying to hit yours and hit mine. I have less mass than you, so my pressure points are actually smaller too. You have to be even more precise to land a clean hit that's going to completely paralyze someone. A glancing hit will still make them kind of numb, but it's not going to completely immobilize them."

Watching as she pointed out various pressure points on her arm, Xisheng made an observation. "It seems like women have a defensive advantage against this art, no?"

"Well, I guess so. Guys do tend to be bigger, so there's a bit more leeway in hitting them where you need to. It's really just a difference in hitting a small target and a really small target, you know? I didn't have the best view, but when you were fighting Azula that time, it did look like you got pretty close. Which is pretty impressive, since it was your first time really using it, and it was in the heat of a fight."

"Thanks. I'm glad to hear it almost worked, at least. Azula is a pretty small target..."

With a smile, Ty Lee commented further. "Yeah, but y'know, being small isn't the only thing that can help. Just look at Mai."

The girl in question was leaning against the railing of the ship a few feet away, having been 'occupying' herself (it was more likely that she was bored out of her mind) by staring out at the horizon, but she turned her attention to the conversing duo with a clearly maligned expression. "Excuse me, what the hell is that supposed to mean?"

With a smirk, Ty Lee took a lighthearted jab at her friend. "What are you upset about, Mai? I thought you didn't like being small?"

Considering the lack of subtlety, it wasn't hard to miss Ty Lee's implication. A normal girl might have blushed at the insinuation, but Mai just scowled further, though that did still prove that she wasn't happy about what was being said about her. For a moment, Xisheng wondered if she actually had a complex about that. So far, he had only heard Azula really reveal a sort of complex about her growth, that one time she had miscalculated his distance from the group.

He didn't get to dwell on that for very long though, since Ty Lee cleared the air. "I'm joking, just joking! I was really talking about your clothes. They're loose fitting and don't accentuate your body much at all, so if I was trying to chi-block you, it would be a lot harder to aim properly and hit you in a specific spot. Especially if you were moving, because that added motion with loose clothes makes it even harder to tell where any part of your body really is. Actually, it's kind of funny..."

Mai cocked an eyebrow at her. "And how is it funny?"

"Well, it occurred to me just now that you've worn clothes like that ever since we started this journey, so Gohan has no idea what you look like at all under there, you know?"

Naturally, Ty Lee knew quite well that Xisheng had seen under Mai's clothes before. But for obvious reasons, she couldn't quite divulge that information. Still, that mind it kind of rude that she was bringing this up, because it made things awkward for him. Mai probably thought that Ty Lee was right, while he knew for certain that it wasn't. It may have been a sin of omission more than anything else, but it did make him feel a little guilty that he was allowing Mai to be deceived in this regard.

"W-well, I'm pretty sure I have some sort of idea..."

Either not catching onto his plight or finding it too amusing to stop, Ty Lee continued pressing her point. "Which is just another way of saying you have no clue, right? She could be super muscular under all that for all you know! Or maybe she has a hideous birthmark? Or, maybe, there's something completely unexpected that would change exactly how you view 'her.' You know, there are some boys that really like to dress in girls'-"

At this point, Mai cut her off, and quite forcefully at that. "Hey, stop giving him weird ideas about me! Gohan, you've never thought anything like that about me, right?!"

Admittedly, Xisheng was incredibly surprised to see Mai actually get so riled up about this jesting on Ty Lee's part. Usually the extent of her ire was just a scowl and some irritability. He wouldn't have thought that teasing like this would be the kind to elicit a reaction such as this from her. Still, she was a girl. Xisheng couldn't imagine that any woman would be happy to be spoken of in such a manner.

Taking all of this into consideration, Xisheng sought to placate her. "Don't worry, Mai, you're much too pretty for me to mistake you for a man..."

This answer did seem to calm Mai's irritation a bit, but Ty Lee stirred it back up almost immediately. Xisheng couldn't tell if she was doing this on purpose or if she was oblivious to the fact that Mai was genuinely agitated with this line of conversation. But Ty Lee was usually so good at reading people, it seemed impossible that she could actually miss that...

"I don't know, I've seen some incredibly pretty boys out there, Gohan. If they were hiding their body under a bunch of clothes you'd never be able to tell the difference."

Instead of snapping at that remark, Mai glanced down at her current wardrobe with obvious insecurity, which was frankly not something Xisheng had ever expected to see on her face. That kind of expression almost seemed alien on her. Xisheng didn't quite like this look on her either: something about how foreign a lack of confidence in herself was made it even more unpleasant.

That said, he wasn't sure what exactly he could do about it. He couldn't very well offer assurance in the form of 'don't worry, I know you're hot because I saw you naked one time when you didn't know I was there.' No, that certainly wasn't an option at all...

And yet, it turned out he didn't need to say anything. Mai's troubled expression only lasted for a moment before it was replaced with an annoyed, yet weirdly determined look. She huffed before turning her back on Xisheng and Ty Lee and faced the ocean again.

Xisheng would have thought that was a sign that she was going to ignore them, but her change in direction was not followed by silence. He didn't know that she had turned around to hide a rare, shy blush.

"I'm... slender."

Not at all expecting something like that to come out of her mouth. Xisheng wasn't sure what to say to that, or if he was supposed to say anything at all. Apparently, his single second of silence prompted Mai to amend her description.

"B-but, not in the sense of being a twig, or anything! Ty Lee's not the only one who, uh... I mean, not in the same way, but..."

Frankly, Xisheng was astounded by what was happening right now. He wasn't sure if he had ever even heard Mai stutter, never mind be truly flustered about something. She was embarrassed enough to require a pause to even figure out what she wanted to say. Or maybe, she was just trying to pluck up the courage to say it. Either way, say it she did, and with a surprising lack of bashfulness considering her trouble before.

"Let's just say that I'd have a hard time getting Ty Lee's leggings on."

Xisheng did a double-take, almost physically recoiling backwards at this statement. His mind was reeling.

Did she just... inform me that she has a nice ass? No, more than that, she's going so far as to brag about it in comparison to another girl!

Admittedly, Xisheng was not a girl, nor had he a great deal of experience with girls prior to the start of this particular adventure. But he was fairly certain that girls didn't care to compete in this regard unless they actually cared to win said competition in the eyes of the third party. He hated to make an assumption, but what other explanation was there...?

Apparently, Ty Lee was stunned by this claim as well. Her eyebrows had shot up into her hairline, perhaps because she, of all people, had not expected Mai to ever be so straightforward about something of this nature. And yet, after a moment of utter shock, her expression grew smug.

"Of all the things to finally be competitive about... that statement seems kind of dubious, Mai. I mean, how can you expect Gohan to believe that without any evidence? I mean, if anything, he should be the one to make that judgment, right? We just have to let him compare-"

While she had regained some composure before, Mai shot a shocked glare over her shoulder now at this suggestion. "What?! No! Why do you have to make everything weird? I just don't like you running around telling people that I'm ugly, alright?!"

This time, it seemed like Mai was truly irritated, as evidenced by the heavy scowl that Xisheng was able to see before she turned back to face the ocean. Damn, now he was just more confused than before. Was she really just annoyed that Ty Lee was spreading misinformation about her? Heck, even if he didn't particularly want someone to think he was attractive, he could see himself asserting that he looked good to other people if someone was implying otherwise. Still, the way she had gone about asserting that was still a little suspicious.

The worst part was, he didn't know if wishful thinking was clouding his own perception of things. That made him a lot less confident in making any sort of assertion on the matter. He knew how easy it was to see things you wanted in situations where there was a coincidental connection at best.

Unsure of what to do now since the conversation had grown awkward, Xisheng didn't say anything. Ty Lee probably sensed the tension too, but her means of tackling it involved trying to diffuse said tension, at least between herself and Gohan.

"Oh, well. I guess we won't have a competition then. But you can still check me out if you want, Gohan..."

Naturally, Xisheng was too stunned by this blatant offer to stay focused on his previous thoughts. He was immediately preoccupied with finding some way to answer that.

"H-hey, it's not like a competition was needed in the first place..."

To be fair, it shouldn't have come as a surprise to him that this response backfired immediately. After all, there was an insinuation to be made there, and Ty Lee didn't miss it. After all, she, unlike Mai, had different context to consider, because she knew what kind of knowledge Xisheng was privy to. But even though she was irked by the implication she had in mind, at least she still had the awareness to lean in and whisper to him so Mai wouldn't hear anything potentially incriminating.

"Hey, what exactly is that supposed to mean?"

While he had not meant it as such, Xisheng knew what insinuation she had perceived from his statement. She was obviously assuming that he saw a competition as unnecessary because he, who had already seen the two assets aiming to compete, had a clear winner in mind. Well, he hated to acknowledge that this was the case, but she wasn't exactly wrong about that. Ty Lee had no competition among her friends in the upstairs department, for certain. But the exact same thing could be said about Mai for the other end of the spectrum.

Not that Ty Lee didn't have a nice ass, but there was still a tier list of sorts. Sort of like the difference between an expert and a master...

Maybe this sentiment was written on his face, because Ty Lee seemed immediately peeved even though he hadn't answered her question. So now, she was annoyed with him, and Mai was clearly agitated as a whole. Suddenly, he found himself in hot water, even though he hadn't done anything remotely worth condemning or criticizing during this entire discussion. It wasn't often that he actually experienced that whole 'woman is mad at you for something you didn't do or say' thing that some of the other soldiers had talked about over the years. This didn't really seem fair.

Thankfully, he was rescued from this lamentable situation by a most unexpected savior; none other than Azula, rounding the corner of the ship's main cabin, presumably to locate her companions, considering the fact that she was speaking to them immediately upon getting close.

"I take it the back of the ship is where we'll be-"

Once she was actually around the corner and able to see everyone, Azula swiftly noted the seemingly problematic situation Xisheng was currently in. Mai's stiff posture was a certain sign of agitation, to say nothing about the way she was pointedly staring out at the horizon, away from everyone else. Ty Lee's arms were folded, and while her annoyed look was still remarkably pouty compared to most people, it was obviously a look of some actual irritation, and not just one of those jokingly irate things she sometimes did. Xisheng looked ill at ease with the entire situation, prompting Azula to believe that he was somehow responsible for it.

"...what did you do, Lieutenant?"

With a deadpan tone of voice, Xisheng figured he should just be honest. "Exist, I think."

Ty Lee huffed and looked away from him, proving that he was specifically the source of her irritation at this moment. Mai continued staring at the ocean, so while she was clearly agitated, Azula couldn't say for certain if Xisheng was responsible for it. Honestly, the young princess was amazed that her trusted vassal was actually capable of getting himself into this situation. To the best of her knowledge, she was the only one who had actually gotten mad at Xisheng thus far.

Even she felt a little bad for thinking it, but Azula was actually kind of glad. Having the distinction of being the only person who had gotten angry with Xisheng didn't do her any favors. In fact, this was a good opportunity to earn some 'benevolent leader' points, among other things. Here were Mai and Ty Lee, clearly putting him in an unpleasant situation, and Azula was the only the only one who could rescue him from it and provide good company. She'd been irritated with the undeniable disparity in time that Xisheng had spent with her friends compared to her these past few days, so this was a golden opportunity indeed.

Realizing that she was thinking about this from a perspective that had nothing to do with practicality at all, Azula beat down the internal notion of this having any personal meaning to her. She was just annoyed that she and Xisheng hadn't done any worthwhile training in awhile, that was all. Why else would she even care, otherwise?

"Well, since 'existing' seems to be all that you're doing right now, it seems to me that you should have enough freedom to train with me. It's been some time since we've focused solely on Firebending."

While Xisheng might not have specifically known that Azula was throwing him a lifeline, he nevertheless perceived her offer as one. "You're right about that. I'd be happy to train with you, Princess."

Azula subdued a minor spurt of satisfaction at his sentiment, instead focusing on getting rid of her friends, for now. "Excellent. That said, the back of the boat is the best place to do it. It's the only area that is free of the crew most of the time. Deepest apologies, Mai, Ty lee, but I'd appreciate it if you gave us some space back here."

Mai offered no resistance to this notion, immediately pushing herself off the railing that she had been leaning on. "Whatever."

That was all she said before walking away, likely returning to the interior of the ship. Xisheng watched her go, clearly worried by her irate behavior. Azula wasn't sure why he cared that much; maybe he just hadn't realized that she was often like this. Mai had been in relatively good spirits for most of the trip since leaving Omashu, at least compared to the old days. Xisheng probably didn't understand that she was really just like this, normally.

Ty Lee, on the other hand, seemed a little less eager to go, even if she was a little annoyed with the previous situation. "Why do you need space? You're just going to be shooting fire out into the sea, right? It's not like there's enough room to spar even if no one else was back here."

Certain that a brow was twitching, Azula couldn't help but wonder if Ty Lee had always been this perceptive of her ulterior motives, or if she just hadn't made it so obvious when they were kids. Either way, she found it somewhat annoying. However, she didn't have to actually say anything. Oddly enough, Xisheng reinforced her sentiment.

"Even if we'll be aiming our bending away from the ship, it's still dangerous, Ty Lee. Accidents happen. Plus, a strong gust of wind could blow any flames back towards us. Rather than relying on myself or Azula to nullify any possible risks, it would be safer if you just weren't in the vicinity, since it's impossible for you to get hurt that way."

Initially, Ty Lee frowned at this, seemingly upset that Xisheng would go along with the idea of her leaving. But ultimately, the brunette just sighed, perhaps finding it hard to be irritated by Xisheng's explanation. After all, he was being completely logical, so she couldn't see his agreement with Azula on this front as being anything other than practicality on his part. Still, she was a little worried that she had upset him with this last conversation of theirs...

Unfortunately, it wasn't like there was anything she could do about it right now. So Ty Lee simply got up from her place on the bench, putting up a mostly insincere smile so she didn't leave on a bad note. She didn't want Xisheng worrying about whether or not he had upset her while he was out here practicing.

"Well, I guess I can't argue with that. But if it's really all that dangerous, be careful, alright?"

"Always. See you later, Ty Lee."

That was all Xisheng got to say before the acrobat made her exit, leaving he and Azula alone on the rear of the ship. The silence between them didn't last long, courtesy of the younger.

"Well done, Gohan. You're almost as good as I am at getting your way with her. That's quite impressive."

Xisheng cocked an eyebrow at the girl beside him, somewhat amused that she had reached such a conclusion about his motives. He'd only said what he actually thought: persuading Ty Lee to leave for any other reason had been the furthest thing from his mind. Frankly, it was kind of sad that Azula could sometimes see only manipulation in a normal exchange.

He wasn't going to say that out loud though. He didn't think that Azula even did it intentionally; the notion of using words to bend others to your will had likely been ingrained so deeply in her that she couldn't help but see it as the default way of communicating sometimes. She had been raised in an entirely political atmosphere, after all. Maybe one day she'd be able to grow beyond the many harsh lessons of her childhood, but today was too soon to hope for something that grand.

"I only said what I really believed, Princess. It is dangerous for non-benders to be in close vicinity to training Firebenders. I've seen my fair share of mishaps over the years."

There was a dissatisfied expression on Azula's face for some reason that Xisheng couldn't quite discern. But whatever she was thinking, she didn't vocalize it, instead choosing to comment on something else he had said.

"Over the years, is it? You always speak as though you've been in the Army for a long time, Xisheng. But you claimed to be only seventeen back in Gaoling. How much experience can you really have? Not to say that you're making up any of the stories you tell, but you have to admit, it's somewhat suspicious."

When she put it that way, Xisheng couldn't help but agree a little bit. He supposed it did sound a little off for someone as relatively young as him to speak as though he were a grizzled old veteran. But when you started early...

"I was only about your age when I enlisted. Fourteen or so. If you want to include the several weeks of training, I've been serving in front line combat for about three years and a few months. Well, I guess it wasn't all fighting, what with downtime and any time spent recovering from injuries, but since I spent nearly all of my service in the most contested area between the Fire Nation and the Earth Kingdom... well, let's just say that a lot can happen in three years of heated fighting. I'm sure if I were a soldier in a more peaceful time, I wouldn't have enough stories to sound like a two decade veteran."

Azula seemed taken aback, which seemed odd to Xisheng. Then again, maybe being a royal didn't automatically mean that you knew every policy in your country.

"Fourteen? I wasn't aware that we even allowed people to serve at so young an age."

"Well, forced conscription is only for those that are at least sixteen, but voluntary service is allowed earlier. Considering the size of our nation, manpower is one of our scarcest resources. That would be true even if we hadn't been at war for a century, consistently suffering casualties. Needless to say, the Fire Nation is reaching further into the population to produce more soldiers, and that includes both younger and older people. That's why even kids like myself at the time can enlist. Even a scrawny teenager can contribute to the war effort somehow, and our country isn't in a position to refuse."

Xisheng didn't say what else he was thinking regarding all of this; honestly, the Fire Nation didn't have long to finish the war at this point. They could only reach so far back for young men and women in the population before they reached a critical point of no return that would cripple their society for several generations. Admittedly, there was still some manpower to call on from the colonies, but mostly only from the longer-established ones that considered themselves Fire Nation citizens. Newly acquired territories would sooner revolt than allow themselves to be conscripted into the armies of their conquerors, and that would just open up new areas of conflict that would cost more of the soldiers the FN was gradually running out of.

Frankly, Xisheng predicted that his nation only had another two decades of fighting left in it before they simply ran out of the manpower needed to continue. Thankfully, the last several large battles, including the North Pole and Omashu, had resulted in few (or zero) casualties. But even though they had gotten very fortunate in those large-scale offensives, deadlocked fighting was still very heavy in the areas around Ba Sing Se. Back when Xisheng had been stationed in the region, only a few months ago at this point, most skirmishes had resulted in at least a few dozen casualties. It didn't sound like much, but when said skirmishes occurred every other day, the numbers started to add up.

That was why they really needed to secure the final victory needed at Ba Sing Se, and soon. If they failed to take down the city even with Sozin's Comet to assist them, the FN could be looking at a forced stalemate or worse. They just didn't have the steam to keep going for much longer after how long they had been fighting to begin with.

A part of Xisheng wondered if Azula ever thought about these things, or at least, if this current conversation had brought such things to mind, but as she opened her mouth to respond to his explanation about his young age of enlistment, she said nothing about any of it. In fact, she focused on the seemingly most unimportant thing that Xisheng had uttered.

"What exactly do you mean by 'kids like myself', Xisheng?"

Not entirely sure what she was getting at, the soldier could only answer honestly. "Just that I was at an age where I'd consider someone a kid, I suppose...?"

Perhaps due to his lack of understanding, Azula's expression grew more irate. "Yes, fourteen, as I recall. Are you aware that I am fourteen?"

Xisheng internally winced, now that Azula had spelled out her grievance. But admittedly, he had forgotten. Not that Azula had ever explicitly stated his age to him directly, but just based on relatively basic knowledge of the royal family that most citizens should have possessed, he had known somewhere in the back of his mind that Azula was around that age. Considering that she was a very proud and competent person who held a position of authority over him, it wasn't surprising that she'd be aggravated by the designation of "kid" from Xisheng, even if it hadn't been directly applied to her.

"Ah, well... I meant no disrespect, Princess. If I'm being honest, it's easy to forget that you're so young. You have the demeanor and intelligence of a mature adult, after all."

Thankfully, these words dispelled Azula's visible irritation almost immediately. Heck, she seemed a little flattered, actually. It was a little ironic; just earlier, he had been thinking about how sad it was to see manipulation in every interaction, but just now, he had intended to manipulate Azula a little bit. Not that he had lied to her, but he would be lying if he said that wording his answer in a defusing way that would please her was not his intent.

Regardless, Azula seemed unusually pleased with his assessment. "Yes, well... one's mental and emotional maturity really matters more than physical age, does it not? I'm essentially eighteen, considering my many traits. Or perhaps even older?"

Xisheng subdued a smile before Azula could notice and question it. It was kind of funny; being concerned with people perceiving you as older than you were was typically something reserved for the childish. It was ironic that Azula perceived herself as so mature while being bothered by the notion of someone perceiving her as young. Naturally, he wasn't going to say any of this out loud to her. Besides, it was nice, being able to see this rare, admittedly cute side of her. Xisheng supposed that even prodigious Firebenders of the Royal Family had to have insecurities about something.

"You are certainly beyond your years in many ways, Princess. I couldn't have said the same about myself at fourteen."

Maybe Xisheng had put Azula in a particularly good mood, because she was very quick to oppose his notion. "I find that hard to believe, Xisheng. I have no doubt that war would force even the most immature person to grow up quite quickly, but you possess many qualities that I'm certain are not a result of simply being a soldier. I doubt they all appeared out of thin air in the past three or four years."

Even though this wasn't the first time Azula had said something along the lines of genuinely praising him, Xisheng was still a little stunned. It was still always a little unexpected, to get the feeling that the Crown Princess of all people genuinely respected him, a commoner and a grunt. Moreover, was it just him, or was Azula starting to call him by name, nickname or otherwise, far more often than she once had? He was certain she was; prior to recently, he couldn't recall her ever calling him by anything other than his rank with the exception of special occasions. She had certainly never called him by name in the presence of others.

Granted, they were alone right now, but now that he thought about it, he distinctly recalled her calling him 'Gohan' yesterday when he had invited everyone to watch the rain with him. Well, maybe it wasn't all that surprising; people that spent a lot of time together were likely to start acting more familiar, weren't they? But then again, Azula hadn't invited him to directly call her by name yet. Was he making more of a big deal out of this than was warranted?

Between the exchange with Mai earlier and now this, Xisheng had to wonder if he had missed a major dynamic shift, or if he was just drawing conclusions based on what he wanted rather than reality. He was definitely going to have to pay explicit attention to these things from now on, if he was going to figure out just what was really happening. The last thing he needed was to get any funny ideas because he misconstrued something that was well and truly nothing special.

For now, he figured it was best not to leave Azula hanging. "I appreciate that, Princess. You're too kind."

"Yes, well, my benevolence is also one my charms, I'd say. Try not to forget it."

Usually, Azula simply reacted to praise as a matter of fact, like she was entitled to it and had no reason to take it positively due to that. So admittedly, it was curious that she was being so adamant about the notion of Xisheng acknowledging her good points. Ordinarily, he'd be well aware of what that typically meant when coming from a girl, but there were plenty of other possibilities besides that.

For one, it could just be a matter of narcissism. People who thought highly of themselves often wanted others to acknowledge their perceived greatness as well. Though it was a little cruel to say, Xisheng was well aware that Azula had some narcissistic traits, so this was a distinct possibility. On the other hand, it could just be the exact thing he had considered earlier: even though Azula was a prodigy far beyond her years, she was still young in many ways. She may have just been insecure about some aspects of herself, and was eager to receive acknowledgement from others, even if it meant fishing for praise.

Either way, there were many options besides 'girl wants a guy to notice her good points for obvious reasons'. Considering the girl in question, there was no way Xisheng was going to make an assumption like that one unless he had absolutely irrefutable evidence, and it wasn't an assumption at all. It was just too risky to jump to a conclusion like that when the person in question was the Crown Princess of your country. Just the political ramifications alone were colossal, and that was to say nothing about the other areas of concern.

Xisheng didn't get to dwell on his thoughts much longer, as Azula continued speaking without much pause from before. "Well, back to the point at hand... it's been far too long since we've done any training on Firebending. I know I've admitted to Mai and Ty Lee's skills being useful, but at the end of the day, bending is your greatest weapon, and you'll certainly need it in even greater spades in the days to come, I'm sure. Even if we somehow never encounter the Avatar again, I don't doubt that there will be severe fighting at Ba Sing Se."

Putting his earlier thoughts to rest for now at least, Xisheng focused on the topic they were discussing now. He agreed with Azula completely. He truly believed that Ba Sing Se would mark the most intense fighting of the war: or at least, of the final thirty years of it. It was the most formidable city on the planet, with nigh impenetrable defenses, a self-sustaining economy, massive territory, and likely the largest concentration of Earthbenders in the world. Naturally, Earthbenders were the best suited to defensive warfare as well. The siege and subsequent invasion, assuming things got that far, would probably be hell.

"That's true. It's hard to feel that there's any level of preparation that would actually make me comfortable with the battles to come... even against the Avatar and his friends in our last battle, I barely felt capable of really hurting the enemy. Not for the first time, I've acknowledged that fire is a very disadvantageous element compared to the others: any of the other three can deny all but the most powerful attacks with relative ease. I just don't really know what to do about it, right now..."

Azula was silent for a moment as she observed Xisheng's expression. But after that moment, she turned her gaze back out to the ocean. "Indeed. Fire has to work quite hard to overcome the other elements in direct confrontation. That's why we've had to supplement our abilities through other means in this war, don't you think? Machines, superior tactics, logistical superiority... it's a shame, but your average Firebender is rarely a match for an average combatant of the other elements. As someone who pursues the pinnacle of Firebending as a combat art, that truly irks me."

Admittedly, Xisheng was surprised to hear Azula speak of such things. Had she always felt this way, or had he rubbed off on her a bit? Either way, she didn't pause for long before continuing. Maybe she just needed to take a breath.

"But I believe we Firebenders have a much higher ultimate potential than our counterparts. All of the other benders are limited to manipulating their element in a physical regard. Only we are capable of using our chi to create our own element, wherever we may need it. There's much more that we can do with our flames, if we just master that facet of our art."

Azula generally wasn't the type to wax philosophical, but though it had been awhile, Xisheng did recall that she tended to get like this when discussing Firebending. After all, she wasn't wrong about being an avid devotee of the art. Many people saw bending as a mere means to an end. A way to fight, or to make life easier. Azula was not such a person. To her, bending was untapped potential to be seized by human hands. A goal to be pursued, attained, molded into its ultimate form; it was an admirable devotion that she possessed. Whereas others sought to grow in bending prowess just so they could be stronger, Azula pursued perfection in Firebending solely because she knew such perfection had not been attained yet, by anyone.

It was the drive to pursue a superior version of yourself for no other reason than because there was a superior level to achieve. Even if she reached a point where no other Firebender in history could possibly hold a candle to her, Azula was the type of person to continue striving for the next degree of mastery so long as it existed. The drive to achieve things just because there was something to achieve; that kind of determination was likely what made Azula such an incredible bender and warrior. It was probably also why she would continue to surpass all expectations and ascend to even more absurd heights.

Xisheng just hoped that her pursuit of unparalleled mastery wouldn't hinder her growth in other areas of life. One day, she'd have more responsibilities than the mere pursuit of skill. But he didn't say any of this to her right now: he knew that it wasn't the time for these concerns.

"This undiscovered potential sounds great, but... how does one reach it?"

"Why, experimentation, of course. Testing the waters with new ideas and theories about what you can do is how all bending techniques came into existence. Firebending has an objectively most powerful technique right now, but that is only true until a new one is developed that can surpass it. And speaking of which..."

Oddly, Azula fell silent again as her expression shifted to one of consternation. Whatever she was thinking of saying, she was clearly giving it a lot of thought. That alone made Xisheng somewhat nervous. After all, Azula wasn't the type of person to hesitate when it came to speaking her mind, which meant she was unsure of what she was going to say. Being unsure was also unlike her.

But ultimately, the young Firebender did settle on the words she wanted to say. "I believe you are capable of reaching great heights in Firebending, Xisheng. That is why I am considering teaching you a very special technique. But loathe as I am to say it, my perception is not flawless. What I believe might just be wishful thinking on my part. So, I want you to prove it to me."

At this, Xisheng raised his voice in confusion. "Prove... my potential?"

Azula turned to face him this time, looking him in the eyes. She looked quite determined in this decision now that she had made it. "Exactly. All techniques are simply the result of different fundamentals being combined into something greater. I will not be teaching you the special technique I am considering today. However, I will be teaching you something that is an absolutely vital component to said technique. Obviously, if you can master this vital component, I will know that you have the required ability to take on the more advanced technique that builds upon it."

"Well, that certainly makes sense... for someone with very limited experience as a teacher, you're very good at it, Princess. Most people don't have such a good grasp on the fundamental concept of teaching."

Clearly not expecting an earnest compliment after they had gotten so serious, Azula's expression grew slightly sheepish for a moment. But it wasn't long before she was trying to dispel any flustered feelings.

"Yes, well, it seems that I'm even more amazing than most people realize, doesn't it? Don't think flattery will cause me to lower my expectations of your performance!"

"I'd be disappointed if it did."

Having regained some sense of composure, Azula folded her arms as she prepared to get academic on her pupil. "How much do you really know about chi, Xisheng?"

This was not a question that was often asked of anyone, so it took Xisheng a few moments of pondering to sort out his knowledge on the topic. "Well, I know that it's a natural energy possessed by humans. A sort of generalized concept like 'vitality' or 'stamina'. We use it for bending, but it's tied to our physical state overall as well. Being physically exhausted makes it harder to bend, and there's a limit to how long and how vigorously one can bend before their performance starts to suffer. I suppose there's no way to specifically quantify how much chi someone has, but it's obviously finite, albeit regenerative. It's like running a marathon; there's no specific way to quantify stamina, but it is finite and it is being consumed by what you're doing, and it can be restored by resting."

Azula seemed satisfied enough by this answer. "Good enough, I suppose. That's all you'll really need to know about it for our purposes. Chi is indeed required for bending, but it's not as simple as being used or not being used. There are specific ways to use your chi that affect how your bending works. Certain methods of using your chi can allow you to accomplish more with a limited amount, or manipulate an element to a different degree. Earthbenders that wish to bend very small amounts of Earth require great precision in how they use their chi. Without precise control over their chi, someone who would have a simple time of lifting a boulder may struggle to restrain themselves effectively enough to lift only a pebble. Of course, precision and control is generally not a problem for disciplined Firebenders."

Naturally, Azula was right about that. Firebending, unlike the other elements, was directly proportional to the chi of the user. This meant a lack of precision in how much chi you were using could result in a wildly oversized blast of flame that could potentially hurt allies, your surroundings, or even yourself. Precision and control were incredibly important in Firebending because their element was created by their chi alone. For the other elements, if someone didn't have precise control over their chi, it wasn't likely to be a big problem. It just meant an Earthbender would have trouble limiting their control to a tiny bit of their element, or a Waterbender might struggle to control the thinnest of icy needles compared to a large torrent of water.

An inability to restrain yourself to the actually desired level of power in Firebending could be catastrophic. Granted, most Firebenders never mastered precision to the level that someone like Azula had: being able to conjure up tiny darts of flame, but still be able to propel them with lethal speed and force was a difficult feat when it came to precision and control of one's chi. But regardless, Firebenders tended to have a fairly good grasp on this aspect of chi, mostly out of necessity.

Of course, since that was true, the point she was trying to make must have been something different. That became obvious soon enough, when Azula continued her explanation of their upcoming training.

"There is, however, an aspect of chi manipulation mostly unique to Firebending; compression."

At first, Xisheng didn't really understand what she was getting at. "Compression?"

"Indeed. More power in a smaller package does wonders for Firebending. It's the difference between a dozen weak punches all over an enemy compared to a single strike with the strength of those dozen punches. Concentrating your power into a narrower point of impact allows you to produce more devastating Firebending attacks. You understand what I'm saying, don't you?"

Admittedly, Xisheng was fairly certain he understood what Azula was saying, but he felt the need to make sure."Sort of like... black powder, I suppose?"

Azula didn't seem to catch on to his own meaning right away. "You'll have to be more specific before I can answer that."

Well, perhaps it made sense that someone like Azula lacked knowledge on explosives. Even Xisheng wasn't an expert, but there was enough black powder and blasting jelly being used in military applications that most soldiers knew the general mechanics of how it worked: to avoid getting themselves killed, if nothing else.

"If you spread black powder along the ground and ignite it, it will burn, but fizzle out quickly without really doing much. But if you pack it into a tight space and then ignite it, you get a powerful explosion instead. In this case, our chi is the black powder, right?"

With his own example explained to her, Azula nodded without delay. "Precisely. Even if you use the same amount of 'black powder' in both cases, its power it exponentially increased when compressed. The same applies to Firebending. Perhaps a practical demonstration would be to your liking?"

"I certainly won't say no to it."

Stepping up to the railing of the ship, Azula took a Firebending stance. "Very well. Observe."

With that, she punched an arm forward, shooting a fairly generic fire blast, blue shade notwithstanding, out into the ocean. It was your typical fireball with a trailing plume, a technique that nearly every Firebender was capable of. When the flames impacted the water, there was a fair deal of sizzling and steam, but nothing really impressive. Of course, Azula no doubt intended for that to be the case.

"As you can likely discern, that was an ordinary fire blast. I did nothing other than the most basic of Firebending, pushing my chi outwards from my hand with no attempt to manipulate it in any way. The only thing I did was restrict myself to a relatively low-intensity effort. Now, observe this next strike: I will use the exact same amount of chi in this attack."

Having said all of this, Azula reset to the stance she had been in before, though this time, there were some slight differences. For one, her expression was slightly more strained. Though it was slight, Xisheng had come to recognize the tiny downturn of her lips as a sign of effort. Secondly, she seemed to take an extra few moments to actually gear up for the attack. However, when she was apparently ready, the young prodigy thrust her fist out again, launching another azure flame towards the ocean.

But this one was quite different from the first. Instead of a fairly large sphere of flame with fluttering tail, it was thin and narrow, a streaking lance of sapphire that cut through the air more swiftly than the previous attack. Whereas Azula's first strike was akin to a boulder soaring through the air after being launched by a catapult, this current attack was more like an arrow, swift and precise.

This wasn't the only difference in the two strikes, however. When this blazing spear impacted the water, it did so with an explosive kick. The water shot up into the air and away from the point of impact, some of it turning into steam while the rest fell back down to Earth in a shower of droplets. It was as though someone had thrown an actual explosive into the water, as opposed to flames merely licking the surface.

Xisheng couldn't resist a cry of admiration. "Whoa, that was a huge difference! Was that really the same amount of chi you used for the first strike?"

With a satisfied smirk, Azula turned to face him again. "Indeed. Because this-"

She raised a hand and conjured a fairly tame ember of blue flame. Its tips only flickered a few inches above the palm that it originated from.

"-is much more powerful like this."

Upon this utterance, Azula's open palm curled inwards a bit, almost like she was squeezing something. The ordinary flickering flame in her hand shrunk down into a smaller sphere shape that was only a third as large as it had been before. Not only did this result in an even brighter, more brilliant blue with a tinge of stunning indigo in the center, but Xisheng could almost see the fire itself straining against its invisible cage, trying to flicker out into the open air as it usually would, only for the tongues of flame to be forced back into the sphere before they could do so.

Of course, aside from these rather obvious visual cues, Xisheng had a unique ability to perceive the difference in power Azula was showing him. He was a Firebender too, after all. He could sense the difference in firepower a few inches before him. That feeling of heat and energy had escalated from what it was before, growing in scope even though the area it occupied had shrunk.

Clearly determining that Xisheng understood and appreciated what she was showing him, Azula offered more explanation of what she was doing. "You see, think of your chi like a cage that you can completely envelop your flames in. All of that energy wants to go somewhere, but you force it into a tighter and tighter grip... naturally, that becomes increasingly more difficult as you force all of that power into a smaller and smaller abode. Overestimate your abilities, and you could end up with a nasty accident going off in the palm of your hand, but if you know your limits, it simply becomes a matter of knowing when to release your hold: preferably in the direction you intend, of course. If you can do that, you can turn even a weak torchlight into something more formidable."

She punctuated her sentence by aiming the compressed flame towards the ocean again, before said flame flashed out into the open air. The jet of fire only shot out a few feet, but considering that the ember she had initially conjured had been quite small, that was a significant increase in power.

Frankly, it was not that Xisheng had never done something like that. Obviously, when you were going for a powerful blast and wanted to funnel that blast into a tighter area, that required some degree of compression. But he had never used this technique to a level like the one Azula was displaying. Speaking of which, he did have a question about all of this...

"It's formidable indeed. But, if you don't mind my asking... if you know how to do this, and it's such a powerful technique, why didn't you use it against the Avatar in our encounters with him?"

Azula gave him a look that said she was a little offended to have this assumption made about her. "I have, Xisheng. Just not to the extent I've shown you just now. This technique is powerful, as it allows you to do more damage for the same amount of chi that you would use for any other attack. But it's not completely without drawback. Primarily, it takes extra time and concentration. That extra time may only be in the form of a few seconds, but against the foes we've faced thus far, a few seconds has often been too much to spare. The Avatar's agility and evasiveness calls for speed and precision over power, and Toph is, well... suffice to say that there were few openings to allow for compressed Firebending. And besides, the more power you try to condense for an attack, the more taxing these factors are. It has a time and a place, but it's not a technique that renders all other forms of Firebending useless."

"I see. That's fair. I'm eager to master this technique based on its own merits alone, but I am curious; what about this is the fundamental aspect of the 'secret' technique' you are considering teaching me?"

"Why, control over extreme degrees of volatile power, of course. The most powerful explosive in the world does more harm than good if it explodes without your intent. Mastering compressed Firebending is not as easy as it seems on the surface. But if you can, I will know that you are capable of taming an even more fickle beast."

If he were being honest with himself, Xisheng was fairly certain he knew what Azula was hinting at. But he didn't dare even hope for it. After all, no matter how much she trusted him, would she really divulge that secret? Was it even her right to do so? Would she get in trouble with her father?

Azula didn't seem to share any misgivings on that front. In fact, she seemed eager to begin now that she had explained everything that mattered. "Well, I suppose we should start by seeing what you can do now."

Having said that, the young warrior raised her hand, palm facing upwards like she had before. Soon after, she had conjured an azure flame above it. It was about the same size as the one before.

"Match my flame."

Following this instruction, Xisheng placed his good arm and hand in the same position as Azula's, then did his best to muster a flame of similar size to her own. Naturally, it wasn't anywhere near as gorgeous; just a typical red and orange fire, the likes of which any Firebender could produce. Even though he told himself, rationally, that it was silly to feel bummed out about being inferior to a literal prodigy from the Royal Family, Xisheng couldn't help it. Being able to manipulate flames was cool already, but somehow, you felt lame next to someone who could manipulate 'cool' flames. It was just double the awesome. He'd kill to have something unique like that.

But alas, he did not. He could only work with what he had, and at any rate, Azula didn't seem particularly disappointed with the flame he had created. "Excellent. Your goal, for now, is to take a flame of that size and compress it down to this."

To punctuate her statement, Azula started clenching her hand, and her blue flame was forcibly squeezed down into a sphere about the size of a dumpling, or maybe a good fist-sized rock. Like before, the flame seemed to actively resist this transformation, with little tendrils trying to reach back out in the air. Also like before, Xisheng noted the slightest of indigo hues, a shade that was similar, but still distinctly different from Azula's usual blue. Curious.

But for now, Xisheng had to focus on himself. It had been awhile, but despite that, he was a pupil who had been very graciously taken under the wing of a prodigy like Azula. Rationally, he knew that it would be foolish to be able to match said teacher on the first try. Irrationally, he didn't want to disappoint her. So he took a deep breath, and focused on the sensation of his chi fueling the flame in his hand. It was odd; technically, this sensation was incredibly familiar to him. He felt it whenever he was Firebending, after all. And yet, said sensation was so common, so innate, that it actually felt a little foreign to focus on it. It was kind of like remembering that you were breathing; it was usually an automatic process that didn't even register in your mind. But when you stopped and thought about it, you could actually focus on something that you normally didn't even notice, despite it being such an integral part of you.

Focusing on that feeling, Xisheng wondered how exactly to go about this. His chi was controlling every aspect of this flame right now; how hot it burned, how far it reached, and even the fact that it existed at all. Was compressing it as simple as willing the flame to do so? He supposed the only thing he could do was try.

Exerting his will on the element he himself had created, Xisheng actually found it rather easy. At least, for a moment. At first, the flicking pillar of fire did shrink a bit, and not because he was smothering it or giving it less fuel, but because he was successfully forcing it down into a smaller space. The initial sensation was akin to squeezing something soft and malleable. But that only lasted until he he got about a third of the way to the size of Azula's compressed sphere. At that point, it suddenly felt a lot more like trying to crush a rock with his bare hands. The shift in resistance was so abrupt and intense that Xisheng couldn't help but unwittingly express his shock.

"H-holy shit! What's with this resistance?!"

Azula seemed to find his sentiment amusing. "Come now, Xisheng. Did you honestly think this was something easy to do? If this were a simple, effortless technique, everyone would do it."

Still grunting with exertion, Xisheng tried to clarify his experience. "W-well, I didn't expect it to be easy, but this is really something else! I feel like I'm trying to crush a rock into dust with my bare hands and I'm not even halfway there! How did you do this so easily?!"

"The same way I do everything with ease; I train endlessly until something that was once difficult becomes a matter of simplicity. This technique is no different from anything else you've ever mastered in regards to Firebending. I'm sure there was a point in your life where creating a bigger fire blast than you 'maximum' seemed impossible. And yet, you no doubt surpassed that maximum eventually. Now, what was once a grueling hurdle is considered easy. I once found this technique as difficult as you do now. No one is truly 'good' at anything until they've put some effort into it."

Certain that a bead of sweat was rolling down his temple at this point, Xisheng ceased his efforts for the time being. As soon as he stopped trying to condense the flame, it sprung back into it's usual size and shape, though Xisheng allowed it to fade entirely soon after.

"You, having to put effort into things? I never thought you'd admit to once being incapable of anything."

While he meant this in a joking manner, Azula actually seemed a little offended by the notion. "Make no mistake, I am naturally gifted and possess more innate talent than most. But I'm as good as I am because I worked for it. I grasp the intricacies of Firebending at a level few do, but all of my skill has been honed through my own effort. Just look at Zuko; he's of the same bloodline as me and he was always a shoddy example of a Firebender. Well, at least he was back then. Always so busy mucking about, being coddled by that woman to make him feel better about his lack of drive and ambition... ugh, he was pathetic."

Xisheng was caught off-guard by this sudden shift in topic, though he got the feeling that Azula hadn't exactly intended to let it slip in the first place. In fact, she seemed a little flustered when she realized that she had swerved into this tangent. At any rate, she was quick to divert the conversation back to its original topic, clearly not looking to dive any deeper into her childhood or that woman. Xisheng had no idea who said woman may have been, but Azula's disdain and animosity towards her was obvious enough from the emphasis the princess had identified her with.

Clearing her throat as a means of breaking away from that tangent, Azula allowed her own condensed flame to expand back to its usual size before dispersing it, just as Xisheng had. "Regardless, my point is that you'll have to work hard to master this technique, just like I did. Granted, it will no doubt take you even greater effort, considering the disparity in our innate talent, but be that as it may, I believe you are capable of it."

As always, Azula's ability to subtly disparage someone was incredible. Though Xisheng supposed he could hardly call it an insult when she pointed out the difference in their innate talent. That was a factual observation, after all. Besides, she had also stated that she believed in his ability, so he couldn't help but focus on that more than anything else. Azula had always made it relatively clear that she believed him to have potential; after all, she wouldn't have brought him on this journey or agreed to teach him if she hadn't. But rarely was she this straightforward or vocal about it. It was motivating, to say the least. Now more than ever, Xisheng was determined to meet her expectations.

"I appreciate your faith, Princess. That said, I would certainly be grateful for any advice you can offer regarding this technique, seeing as how you went through the struggle of mastering it yourself."

Now smirking, clearly in a better mood than just a moment previously, Azula shrugged her shoulders. "Frankly, I think you should have to suffer through the same grief that I did. But I suppose it would be beneficial for you to master this as swiftly as possible, so I'll oblige your request. Just be sure to express your eternal gratitude for my charity."

"I'd never dream of denying you the credit you deserve, Princess. I'm hardly in a position to worry about pride."

"Good. I'm glad that you've separated yourself from the common chaff that is most males in that regard as well. Fools who let misplaced pride blind them to their incompetence are... well, suffice to say I'd have never even considered bringing you on this journey if you were the type to use bluster and arrogance to soothe your ego. Far too many men can scarcely conceive the notion of a young woman like myself being superior to them. Their incessant attempts to find some footing to defend their masculinity was oh so tedious."

He knew they were supposed to be training, but Xisheng was honestly curious about this. "Who in their right mind would make it obvious that they're trying to assert some sort of dominance over a member of the Royal Family?"

Azula scoffed, finding the question silly. "Oh, you'd be surprised. It's not that they intended for it to be obvious; their idea of subtle was just so pathetic that it was clear as day regardless. Members of the war council trying to poke holes in my strategic input, thinly veiled comments about my 'untested' abilities, and things of that nature. So many worthless fools grasping at some phantom straws for a leg to stand on, all because they were emasculated by the fact that they couldn't hold a candle to me. They disgust me."

Xisheng tried to imagine behaving in the way Azula had just described around her at any point. "I'm surprised any of these people are still alive."

"Well, of course I could simply dispose of them or maim them for their audacity, but where is the true satisfaction in that? Any simpleton with power can crush the weak, and it's not about that. It's about sending a message. I always made sure they had their comeuppance, but generally, by dismantling their flimsy premises and humiliating them in front of everyone. That's true superiority."

Xisheng hid his thoughts behind a smile. Incredible, how someone so terrifying can be worried about whether or not other people think she's mature...

Naturally, the young royal was not privy to Xisheng's thoughts. So she instead returned to the earlier point. "Anyway, I do have a few methods that may make your time mastering this technique a little easier. Be sure to listen carefully, because I'm only going to tell you these things once..."

With that, Azula went all-in on her 'teacher' mode. With her focus now completely on very technical aspects of Firebending, Xisheng had no choice but to give his complete attention to that alone.

Hours later, in the dusk of approaching night, Xisheng sat on the same bench that he had occupied earlier that day, though he was alone on it this time. He had spent some time training with Azula, but after she had coached him with all of the knowledge she possessed on compression Firebending, there hadn't been a whole lot for her to actually do. At some point, she had simply told him to continue practicing. She had gone to tend to other matters after that.

Xisheng couldn't blame her for that; after all, this training wasn't really something that required a teacher's constant vigilance. Azula couldn't 'see' flaws in his technique, since it was all internal. It wasn't like sparring. She could give him advice and question his difficulties, but at a certain point, the obstacle was just a lack of experience, not knowledge. At that point, there wasn't much Azula could do besides give him time to develop his fledgling skill.

So for the past few hours, Xisheng had been alone, struggling to meet the goal Azula had set for him. He had only been allowed one break, when one of the crew came to the rear of the boat to take a lunch break. He and Xisheng had shared some stories, though it was mostly Xisheng with the interesting ones; the poor soldier turned sailor had spent most of his deployment at the outpost they had departed from, seeing nothing even remotely close to action. Still, it was nice. While Xisheng most certainly loved the dynamic between the girls and himself, he had missed the universal camaraderie of soldiering. Even if other people were sympathetic and understanding, they'd never really get it, unless they had shared the experience to some extent.

But that respite had come to an end soon enough, and Xisheng had committed even more time to mastering his new lesson. Unfortunately, his progress hadn't been stellar. Glancing down at his right hand, Xisheng lit a flame in his palm once again, then tried to get it down to where he desired. Unfortunately, despite the strain of his muscles and the gritting of teeth, Xisheng was only capable of getting it down a bit more than he had initially. It was a bit more of a third of the way down to the size of the benchmark Azula had set for him, but not quite half either. With a sigh of frustration, the weary soldier released the flame into nothing once again.

He supposed that, even with special tutelage from a Firebending prodigy, it would be foolish to expect massive advances in capability in less than a day. Still, he couldn't help but be a little disappointed in the lack of progress. This leg of their journey wasn't going to take that long, and he would have preferred to have the technique mastered before they left this ship behind. Maybe that was unreasonable, but it was what he was aiming for nevertheless.

For now, Xisheng turned his attention back to what was in his lap; a scroll that he had procured from a member of the crew earlier when he decided he was done training for the day, along with a writing utensil. This scroll was blank, readily available for the scribbling of any particular individual. Ordinarily, Xisheng was not much for writing. He had pretty good memory, and there weren't many scenarios where he had to write something down for future reference. But with this new technique, he felt like he was struggling to really make any headway on it. He didn't know if it would help, but maybe writing down some elements of the process would help him make a breakthrough? Sometimes, you didn't realize an obvious solution until you spelled it out.

With that in mind, Xisheng started writing out whatever he felt was important about the compression technique and his experience with it; how it felt to try it, methods that had seemingly made it a little easier, the various pieces of advice Azula had given him, and the way the training was affecting his body. He didn't know what he was hoping to glean from writing any of this, but it wasn't like there was any harm in it either.

Unfortunately, he was in the middle of writing down an idea about trying to compress the flame with both hands when the boat rocked a little more severely than usual, causing the stroke of his implement to swerve off to the right. Granted, considering the fact that he was in a fairly uncomfortable writing position, with the scroll only pressed against his legs, it wasn't like his symbols were the epitome of elegant penmanship to begin with, but such sudden jerking definitely didn't help matters.

With a grunt of frustration, Xisheng decided he would be better off pausing for now. He was only writing with a thin piece of charcoal, so it wasn't like he had to worry about drying ink or anything. But as the boat rocked a little again, he figured now might be a bad time to continue writing for other reasons.

Placing the scroll and the charcoal to the side for a moment, Xisheng rose to his feet so he could approach the edge of the ship and peer into the ocean. Naturally, with the sun almost fully behind the horizon, he couldn't see that far, but the lights of the ship itself still made it plainly obvious that the waters were getting a little choppier than they had been throughout the day. He certainly wouldn't call it a brewing storm, but he couldn't imagine Ty Lee was having a good time, considering her earlier seasickness in much calmer waters.

As though his thoughts possessed some greater power, Xisheng heard the groan of a certain someone from a ways behind him. Glancing over his shoulder, he spotted Ty Lee, momentarily leaning against the side of the main cabin, other hand on her knee.

"Maybe you should be lying down, Ty Lee."

Surprised by his voice, the acrobat glanced back up from the deck of the ship. Maybe she'd been forced to take a breather before identifying that he could see her. Either way, she attempted to hide her discomfort with a smile.

"I think I'll be fine. I took some more of those herbs the captain gave me, it's just, ugh, these waves came up really suddenly, huh?"

Xisheng smiled back at her, hoping to offer her some comfort. "The sea is a fickle mistress. At least, that seemed to be a universal saying known by all the sailors I've ever talked to."

Recovering her stability somewhat, Ty Lee stepped closer to the rear of the ship. "Sounds kinda unfair, if you ask me. Why does the misbehaving ocean have to be a woman, huh?"

The soldier she asked this question of really didn't have an answer for her. Now that she mentioned it, he acknowledged that people often attributed a gender to inanimate objects or ideas, but for some reason, that gender was often female. From vehicles to weapons and of course, Mother Nature, it seemed like most people preferred to attribute the female gender to such things. Sometimes, it was disparaging, but just as often, it was actually good. At the very least, most soldiers he had met who referred to a beloved weapon as 'my lady, my woman' or something to that effect, had always done so in reverence.

He didn't get a chance to say any of this to Ty Lee, who was distracted by something else before he had a chance to express any of these thoughts.

"Hey, what's this? Are you writing something?"

Turning his attention back to her, Xisheng saw Ty Lee leaning over to peek at the open scroll he had left on the bench. Well, it wasn't like he had any reason to be troubled by this: it wasn't like anything embarrassing was written there.

"It's just a few things I wanted to write down about my training with Azula today. I thought it might help down the road."

Surprisingly, Ty Lee made a mocking pouty face at this. "Aw, that's not very exciting! What a letdown."

Xisheng cocked a bemused eyebrow at her. "What exactly did you think I'd be writing about?"

"I don't know, like... a journal, or something? You know, dreams for the future, daydreams and wishful thinking, secret, naughty thoughts you don't want anyone to know about..."

Naturally, Xisheng wasn't very surprised by this answer. All he could do was shake his head in amusement. "If I had secret thoughts I didn't want anyone to know about, wouldn't the best thing to do be to leave it all in my head where no one could ever learn about it unless I wanted them to?"

Ty Lee was caught flat-flooted by this statement. He kind of had a point, after all. "Ah, well... I guess I can't really say no to that..."

Glancing up at the stars, or at least those that could be seen with the light of nearby lanterns blocking some of them, Xisheng pondered the notion Ty Lee had put forward. "Still, even though I wouldn't write anything like that in it, maybe a journal isn't such a bad idea."

Surprised that he would say such a thing after seemingly considering the notion silly, Ty Lee raised a questioning eyebrow. "Really? But what would you put in it, then?"

"Just... everything that's happened, I guess. I mean, if you think about it, this whole journey has been pretty incredible; a common soldier ascends to the retinue of the future Fire Lord, then joins her and her quirky companions on a quest to destroy an archaic spirit of a bygone era to create a better world for the human race... it'd be a shame if a tale that grand and unbelievable weren't written down somewhere."

"Hey, what do you mean, 'quirky' companions?"

"Is that really what you're going to focus on, out of everything I just said? You can't honestly think you and Mai don't fit that description."

Clearly a little miffed with the notion, Ty Lee folded her arms as the faked pout from before became a little more real. Oh, well. Xisheng wasn't going to rescind what he had said. It was true, after all. Besides, quirky was a neutral descriptor. It wasn't good or bad on its own. Instead, he continued talking himself into the idea of a journal now that he had acknowledged its value.

"You know, this could become a future memoir or something. Like, if I become famous one day, people can read all about this mission. Or if I get a little forgetful in old age, I'll be able to reminisce about the good old days. Hm, this isn't actually a bad idea at all..."

Ty Lee directed her still mildly annoyed expression at him. "What all would you write about if you planned on other people reading it one day?"

"Well, naturally I'd have to leave out the racy parts that often arise due to a certain someone."

"Hey! If you keep saying that like it's a bad thing, I'll just stop letting those racy moments happen!"

Admittedly, Xisheng didn't want that to happen. Sure, those moments often created some trouble of their own, and they still confused him greatly, but in the most rudimentary sense, he surely didn't want an end to the promiscuity. He was still a red-blooded man, and he certainly wasn't going to wish away situations like the ones he'd found himself in thus far.

"Well, of course I'll leave all of the really detailed stuff in a separate version that I keep to myself. Besides, it's not like I can go and reveal all of the personal things any of you have confided in me to the world just for posterity. Aside from that being a huge breach of trust, well... I guess it's kind of selfish, but I like having those experiences all to myself. They're special."

In a heartbeat, Ty Lee's expression had gone from mildly sour to clearly joyous. Damn... maybe Azula had a point about him and Ty Lee.

"Aw, you! Have I ever told you how sexy sentimental guys are?"

Then again, maybe Ty Lee knew how to manipulate him just as effectively, even if there was no malicious intent. She had easily just put him on the back foot, since he hadn't expected such direct flirting completely out of the blue like that.

"Uh, you think so...?"

Whatever the brunette may have had to say about that, she didn't get a chance to. That was because the conversation suddenly had a third participant. "Hey! What are you doing out here?"

Surprisingly, this voice belonged to Mai, who was standing in about the same spot Ty Lee had been earlier. Clearly, she had been heading this way before encountering the two of them. Naturally, Xisheng had no idea what she was upset about. Ty Lee, on the other hand, sported a dawning look of realization.

"Oh, crap!"

She turned to face Xisheng again, smiling sheepishly. "I actually came back here to tell you that dinner was ready, but I forgot. Whoops!"

Mai didn't seem as amused by this as Ty Lee did. "Yeah, 'whoops'. If you're going to let food I bothered making get cold, you can eat whatever crap the rest of the crew has to put up with from now on! You think I enjoy cooking?"

Ty Lee didn't seem as invested as her friend did. "Calm down, Mai, it's just food! A lot of it literally grows on trees. It's not like cooking is really that big of a deal..."

Seeing the irritation in her eyes, Xisheng sought to intervene with a comment about how they really should appreciate anyone's effort to cook for them, even if it was begrudging. He didn't know what the deal was today; was Ty Lee just oddly oblivious lately, or was she actively trying to annoy Mai? Both options seemed unlikely.

However, the would be mediator didn't get to say his piece that would hopefully defuse the situation, because the choppy waves that had been pushing the boat around for the past half an hour were apparently unhappy to be forgotten. In this moment, a particularly tall one crested the edge of the boat: it wasn't a dangerously large wave, but this also wasn't a very tall ship, so a wave that was just a few feet taller than a person had no real difficulty making it over the edge.

Unfortunately, the edge it decided to crest over happened to be where Mai was standing. The whole world seemed to slow down for a moment; Mai's expression going from irate to blank-faced surprise in a flash, the frothy water of the ocean slowly falling towards her, the already cringing expressions of her friends... Xisheng had just enough time to consider shooting a blast of fire and maybe intercepting the wave, but by the time he even processed that thought, it was already too late. He was only human, after all.

With a loud splash of water on steel, the wave broke against the ship and faded away into nothing, leaving droplets of water falling from the walls of the main cabin, as well as a certain someone that had been in the area of impact. The wave hadn't been strong enough to actually knock Mai around, or even force her to stumble, but what it had done was soak her entire left side, from the strands of her hair to the bottom of her leggings. The immediate look on her face was murderous.

But oddly enough, it shifted to a deadpan nonchalance very quickly. That said, what followed proved that she was still very much furious, just in her own, special way.

"Excuse me while I go kill myself."

Xisheng tried to placate her with a raised hand. "Even if it's a joke, please don't say things like that, Mai. Just the thought of it is horrible..."

He half expected her to tell him off, but surprisingly, her expression did soften a bit. "Yeah, well, I hate being wet and cold, and I'm both right now. I think I have a right to complain."

"Yes, you do. But don't be too upset; I'll help you get dry, and even if our food gets cold, I can use my bending to heat that back up too."

Surprisingly, this offer did seem to appease Mai. She actually looked a little flustered by it. "Oh, uh... yeah, alright..."

While Xisheng was content to usher everyone back inside at this point, Ty Lee apparently decided that this conclusion to the situation wasn't to her liking. "Wouldn't it be much quicker to just take off your wet clothes, dry off, then put on some dry clothes?"

Mai glared daggers at the girl, her appeased expression shifting to barely contained malice once again. "Considering that this only happened to me in the first place because of you, don't you think you should go and eat your fucking food?"

With a near palpable threat in the air, even Ty Lee apparently concluded that it wasn't a good idea to push her luck. Maybe she realized that she had gotten on Mai's nerves a lot today. Either way, the brunette threw her hands up in surrender, before passing Mai and heading back for the main cabin. That left Mai and Xisheng alone, though the latter was quick to direct them inside as well. Honestly, he was eager to eat and go to bed. There had been a lot more tension floating around than usual today for some reason, and it was taxing. Hopefully, he could at least help Mai relax a little, which would probably be good for everyone considering how peeved she had been today, though not for unjustified reasons.

Naturally, the duo had to go into the main cabin as well, since that's was the only entrance to the handful of rooms on the ship. The trek included a few sopping, soggy steps from his companion, which only served to remind them both that she had been soaked through and through on one side. Soon enough, they made it back to tiny room that Mai was currently claiming as her own, though it wasn't like it had any markings that would have made it uncomfortable to be in. Other than a handful of her things, nothing in this tiny space belonged to her, and she'd only been occupying it for a day. Still, if they were going to tag-team the drying off process, it would probably be best to do that alone, just to avoid confused stares if nothing else.

Although, now that they were in here, Xisheng had to admit that Ty Lee had a point. Drying the clothes Mai had on right now would take a fair deal of time. It would be quicker and easier if she just changed clothes and let him dry what she was wearing now a little later.

With that in mind, he raised this point. "If you'd like, I could just take your wet clothes and dry them for you after we eat. It'll be faster than trying to get dry while wearing them."

Mai paused for a moment as she considered this, but that only lasted for a moment. "My other clothes are... dirty. I don't have anything to switch into."

She notably avoided looking at him while she offered this dubious explanation, something that Xisheng did not miss.

"Really? Even the outfit you wore in Gaoling?"

"Where have we stopped to wash clothes since leaving Gaoling, huh?"

Admittedly, she had a point about that. Traveling on the open road meant there was very little time or opportunity to do things like that. But then, the clothes she was wearing now probably weren't in any better shape. What was the difference in switching to non-pristine clothes that were dry if the ones you were wearing now were no better?

Well, far be it from him to determine why it mattered to her. It wasn't like she'd subject herself to this if she didn't have to, right?

"If you say so. You can sit on the bed if you want, but I guess that would just get the bed wet too. Although I suppose it's alright. I could just dry that afterward as well."

Taking his recommendation, Mai sat near the head of the bed, which left enough space for Xisheng to sit as well. "You may as well sit too. This is going to take more than a minute, right?"

"Yeah, probably."

Since she had invited him to do so, Xisheng sat next to her, before holding up his good hand just an inch or two away from her. Not long after, Mai felt a wave of heat wash over her shoulder.

"It's so weird that Firebenders can just... make heat."

Truth be told, this was a pretty rare thing for Firebenders to do. Generating heat with one's chi was just a big step down from creating actual flames, so there wasn't much reason to do it, most of the time. Xisheng imagined that all of the elements had niche techniques like that; weird things they could do that just weren't that useful most of the time.

"Well, it would be strange to be able to make flames without being able to make heat, don't you think?"

"Y-yeah..."

The duo fell into silence for a time after that, with Xisheng focusing on evenly applying heat to Mai's upper body as best he could. Whatever was going on in her head, he could only guess.

Maybe she found the silence uncomfortable, because after a few minutes, she spoke up again. "How's your arm?"

While he hated to admit it, Xisheng felt that she was searching for something to talk about just to fill the silence, though he couldn't imagine why she would feel the need to do that. Usually, they were comfortable being quiet around each other. He couldn't see how this situation was any different from their usual dynamic.

"It's alright. It still throbs a little, but nothing serious."

Xisheng didn't say anything more to that, not because he was trying to be curt, but just because his mind was full of other things. Ordinarily, he may have been flustered to be in this situation -alone with a girl whose damp clothes were sticking to her body, taking care of her as they sat together on a bed- but he had too much on his mind to really feel that way. On top of that, he was kind of tired, as he had been pushing himself all day to develop his proficiency with the compression technique.

Using his bending right now for a much more innocuous purpose, he couldn't help but dwell on his progress, or lack thereof. He'd been thinking quite deeply about chi and Firebending all day, after all. It didn't occur to him that Mai might have misunderstood the root of his silence.

"Gohan."

Drawn out of his thoughts, Xisheng glanced up at the girl he was tending to, who looked away from him sheepishly after she knew he was paying attention.

"Sorry. For, uh... making things so awkward."

From his perspective, Xisheng felt that this had come out of nowhere. Needless to say, he didn't know what she was getting at. "Awkward?"

His lack of understanding placed a more flustered look on Mai's face, probably because it required her to explain herself. "You know, earlier... I, uh... said something really weird..."

Thinking back to 'earlier', it didn't take long for Xisheng to realize what she was hinting at. "Oh. Oh. Right, that..."

Mai had her gaze affixed to the wall opposite of Xisheng. "Yeah... sorry. I know you probably didn't want to hear something like that about me... I didn't mean to make things weird, Ty Lee was just... getting on my nerves, was all."

She fell silent at that, leaving Xisheng to ponder what he should say in turn. He had to admit, with them directly talking about it, it was a little awkward, but he didn't want Mai to think she had somehow sullied their entire relationship. It wasn't like he was suddenly uncomfortable talking to her, which she seemed to think may have been the case. At the least, it would probably do to dispel that misconception.

"You worry too much, Mai. I don't really think it was that weird, and I don't feel uncomfortable because of it."

Unfortunately, his soaked companion didn't seem to believe him right away. "Really?"

"Yeah, really. I mean, I think almost anyone would get annoyed if someone else was implying that they weren't attractive. Even if you aren't vain, it seems pretty normal to me to try and defend yourself. That goes double for someone who actually is attractive, because then it's just insulting, right?"

There was a certain implication there that Mai didn't miss, but before she could give it much thought, Xisheng offered the second half of his argument. "As for making things awkward between us, well... that knowledge is a little, er, specific, but in order for it to suddenly make me uncomfortable around you, I'd have to have not thought of you in that light at all in the first place, you know? I mean, I've always thought of you as a girl, so it's not like I'm suddenly being faced with some aspect of you I've never considered before."

Frankly, Mai had to wonder if this man actually knew what he was saying sometimes. He always made it sound so innocuous, it was hard to tell if it was intentional or not. But he had just implied that she had every right to be annoyed with Ty Lee's affronts to her appearance because she was attractive. And he'd also just admitted to thinking of her in a particular way that people often considered when it came to the opposite sex. He had just laid out those notions pretty clearly, hadn't he?

She couldn't see his explanation as meaning anything else, and suddenly, Mai found herself feeling very warm in the face, which was interesting, since Xisheng was currently aiming his heat wave at her lower arm.

"Oh, w-well, good! I guess when you put it like that, it uh... it doesn't seem like such a big deal, h-huh?"

"Yeah. Uh, are you feeling alright? Is it too hot?"

Since he had obviously noticed the redness of her face, Mai suddenly found herself feeling much more frazzled than she was used to. Scrambling to find some way to save herself from further scrutiny, she got to her feet, a bit more stiffly than intended. Damn, she must have looked like an idiot right now.

"Yes, uh, actually, it is! I'm getting a little lightheaded, so, uh... I think I'll just change clothes after all. Get out. Uh, please!"

Knowing full well that her only hope to save any dignity at all was to just get rid of Xisheng as quickly as possible, Mai practically shoved him towards the door, before opening it and pushing the confused soldier out into the hallway. After that, she slammed the metal door on him, though only because she didn't have the wits about her to close it gently.

Unfortunately, while Mai had successfully extricated herself from the situation that had frazzled her beyond anything she'd ever experienced before, she was now embarrassed for another reason: namely, the assurance that she had just made a complete and total fool of herself. Mortified by her performance on top of the flustered feeling from Gohan's words, she was honestly surprised that the water on her clothes and her body weren't evaporating into steam right this moment.

As for Xisheng, he stood blankly on the other side of the door, completely stunned by the rapid change of situation that had just been forced upon him. Right this moment, he was doing mental gymnastics to try and figure out what had just happened and why. Had he said something he shouldn't have? Or, had he actually said something he should have, and she just wasn't ready to hear it?

Maybe it would be a good idea to write some other things down from now on too. Maybe that would help him make sense of the tumultuous waters that were these constantly evolving relationships.

For now though, he figured there was no reason he had to stand right here and think about it. He could just as well wonder what the hell just happened while he was eating.

Chapter Text

Time passed slowly out on the open ocean. Originally, the vessel of the Fire Nation natives had stuck close to the shores of the Earth Kingdom, but as the risk of being spotted by EK troops on those shores increased, they had gone further out into the ocean to avoid detection, though the landmass still wasn't terribly far over the horizon.

Needless to say, when there was nothing to see around you besides water, nothing besides the light and the celestial bodies ever changed. The monotony often made it feel like things were in stasis. For Xisheng in particular, the past three days felt particularly long, mostly because he spent them doing little more than practicing the new technique Azula had bestowed upon him. Progress had been made, but it wasn't particularly quick, which contributed to the feeling of slowly passing time.

While he still couldn't fully use his busted arm, he wasn't as in much constant pain as he had been before, and he was still able to use his hand on that arm. He had already begun attempting to condense his flames with both hands by now, which had admittedly helped him somewhat. He could now create a condensed fireball that was a little more than halfway to the benchmark Azula had set for him, and getting to that point didn't feel as grueling as it had before. Azula had been right: with constant training, a limit that once seemed difficult to surpass would eventually become manageable.

Of course, now he had a new limit that was difficult to overcome, so it wasn't like the whole thing had become a simple matter. He just had a new goal to overcome. He was glad to be closer to that goal than before, but there was still quite a ways to go. Unfortunately, he was certain that he could have been progressing faster, if only he wasn't somewhat distracted by other things.

He hadn't spoken to Mai since their little fiasco a few days ago. Not for lack of trying on his part: he was pretty convinced that the young woman was intentionally avoiding him. Not because she was upset, as best as he could tell. But rather, because she seemed... skittish, almost. Frankly, it felt very weird to even describe Mai in such a way. It wasn't something Xisheng had ever expected to attribute to her. But whenever they ran into each other, which hadn't been happening much since the girl had mostly stuck to her room the last few days, she always got a little stiff, and subsequently found something else to do that meant she had somewhere else to be.

So, it didn't seem that she was angry with him so much as uncomfortable around him, which honestly stung more than the first option. While he had a friendly relationship with everyone in the group, if there was one thing he could specially attribute to him and Mai, it was that they were practically never uncomfortable around each other. Whether it was just talking or sitting in silence, neither of them ever said or did anything that made the other feel uncomfortable in their presence. It was by far one of the main reasons they were always able to relax around each other. To have that unique aspect of their friendship jeopardized did not sit well with Xisheng at all.

Problem was, he couldn't really do much to investigate the cause of this disturbance, because he couldn't actually get Mai to stick around long enough to talk to him right now. At this point, he almost felt like he'd have to ambush and corner her, but considering that she already didn't want to be around him for some reason, that didn't seem like a great idea, and would probably make things worse before they got better.

With a sigh of frustration, Xisheng cast his multi-colored gaze at the flickering orb of flames in his hand. He would have liked to be able to focus on this: it was a technique Azula expected him to master, and it was a stepping stone to something even greater that she had hinted at. But as much as he knew that he should have been able to put other concerns from his mind, he was having trouble doing so. He enjoyed what he had going on around here, but frankly, life had been a lot simpler before all of this...

Before he could dwell on this further, Xisheng felt something press up against his cheek: glancing down and to the side to identify it, he spotted a slender finger doing the deed. Said finger was attached to a certain brunette that was giving him a quizzical look. She spoke after noting that Xisheng had finally acknowledged her presence.

"Geez, finally. I don't think I've ever seen you lost that deep in thought, Gohan. I called your name twice."

Since he didn't want to have a potentially dangerous sphere of flame that could explode in his hands if things went wrong with Ty Lee right next to him, Xisheng allowed said flame to gently expand back to its normal size before dissipating. He certainly didn't need something like that on his conscience on top of everything else.

"Sorry. I was just thinking about some things."

Now that they were actually talking to each other, Ty Lee retracted her offending digit. "You're telling me. Your aura's pretty subdued and not nearly as colorful as usual. Must not be happy thoughts on your mind, huh?"

Glancing back out at the ocean, which was mostly calm for now, Xisheng momentarily questioned the validity of Ty Lee and her aura talk, but ultimately decided that it wasn't that important. He was certain that any halfway perceptive person would be able to tell that he was a little down right now, with or without auras being involved.

"I guess not. But it's no big deal. Did you need something?"

The brunette next to him on the deck folded her arms as she offered him a look that clearly expressed her incredulity. "No big deal, huh? I think we both know that's not true. I don't think you've ever actually been worried about something that wasn't important."

"I think you give me too much credit."

Ty Lee gave him a mocking pout in response to that. "Oh, you think so, do you? I can always stop, if you want."

With a light snort, Xisheng said his piece on that. "Right, that's what you said about all the flirting, too. And yet, I'm pretty sure you've stepped it up, rather than cutting it back."

While he hadn't actually meant this to sound accusatory, Xisheng acknowledged that it may have come across as such. At any rate, Ty Lee looked a little troubled by his statement, akin to a puppy that had been scolded. Well, maybe that was just what her sad face looked like. Either way, the brunette apparently felt that his statement was expressing unhappiness, as evidenced by her response to his words.

"O-oh, that's... I didn't realize you wanted me to stop. You didn't say anything..."

Seeing that she was getting the wrong idea, Xisheng made to quickly amend his statement. "No, it's not that I necessarily want you to stop, it's just... well, why are you doing it? You still feel the way you did that night, right?"

Now aware that Xisheng wasn't necessarily upset, Ty Lee's dour expression lightened a little, though it was simply replaced with a look of consternation. She hadn't expected this topic to come up so suddenly. Unlike some people, she generally felt that she wasn't very good with discussing heavy topics without any prior warning. She needed time to think about what she wanted to say and why. Unfortunately, she didn't have that kind of time right this moment.

"Well, yes... I do."

Knowing that she was probably uncomfortable, Xisheng kept his eyes out to sea, to avoid putting any more pressure on his companion. "So, you like me. But you don't actually want to go anywhere with that right now. So why do you keep flirting with me the way you do? It's kind of contradictory, isn't it?"

Unsure of how to put her feelings into words exactly, Ty Lee fidgeted with her fingers for a moment as she examined the steel under her feet with great scrutiny. In her head, the logic made plenty of sense. But saying it out loud, she wasn't sure if anyone else would agree. Especially not someone rational like Xisheng.

"It's because, well... I don't want things to be awkward between us. I mean, I know that sounds weird: the situation is kind of awkward no matter how you look at it. But... wouldn't you be uncomfortable, if I started treating you differently? If I didn't know what to say or do around you, because I was trying to step lightly... wouldn't that be even worse? To feel like anytime we were together, there was tension? Would we even be able to enjoy being around each other like that...? I don't know, maybe that's stupid. It probably just sounds like ignoring the issue, huh?"

Xisheng was quiet for a moment as he pondered Ty Lee's reasoning. Ultimately though, he did agree that it made a fair bit of sense. "No... well, maybe, but it's somewhat understandable. I wouldn't want us to be uncomfortable around each other either. I suppose it doesn't really change the facts of the situation, but even if it's willful ignorance, I don't think it's a bad thing to try and keep things the way they were before. I know exactly how it feels now for things between friends to become estranged. In a way, it's admirable that you don't want to just sit back and let things grow tense, even if you have to embrace a bit of an odd situation."

While Ty Lee was glad to hear his opinion on this, she was curious about a particular line he had uttered. However, she didn't get a chance to ask about it, since Xisheng wasn't actually done talking. "That said... I don't suppose you could tell me what gives you pause? I'll admit, I've agonized over the possibilities quite a bit since you told me there was some mystery obstacle that you were worried about."

The brunette next to him donned an apologetic expression almost immediately. That was an answer before she said anything at all. "I'm sorry, Xisheng. But I still can't tell you that. It's... complicated, and I don't really know how to handle it yet."

Xisheng was obviously dismayed by this answer, but he didn't get visibly upset about it. "Could you at least tell me if it's something that's my fault? Or even if it's not something I did, something about me that's the problem?"

This time, Ty Lee was quick to dismiss his notion. "No, no, no, Gohan! It's not you, I promise! I mean, other than you existing at all being part of it, but... it's all me, I swear. Well, mostly me, I guess..."

Frankly, Xisheng did derive some relief from that, though some part of him acknowledged that Ty Lee might have been lying. But then again, he had also concluded already that Ty Lee wasn't very good at lying, and she usually made it obvious when she was. Still, that didn't mean it was impossible for her to lie successfully. Even so, Xisheng didn't want to mistrust her outright. She hadn't done anything to deserve that.

"Well, that's good to hear... guess I'll just have to keep on wondering, then. Though I hope it's something that has the potential to be resolved at some point."

"Oh? Gohan, are you saying that you're eager to be with me?"

This time, it was Xisheng who got somewhat bashful. Though admittedly, he was also a little nervous about his answer. He knew that it wasn't "yes", outright. Not because the idea of being together with Ty Lee repulsed him, but because there were many factors to take into consider. Committing to a relationship was more than just him and one other person doing what they wanted. He had to consider his career, his obligations, and whether or not he wanted to potentially drag someone along into a military life. Ty Lee may have been wooed by some of his good points now, but would she regret spending some of her life with a soldier when he was called away to the front for months at a time? What about when he came home, missing an arm or a leg?

He didn't think she was shallow, but being in a relationship with a soldier was not easy. It was far more of a commitment than your usual relationship, and some people didn't know what they were getting until it was too late. Most of all, he wanted her to end up in a situation where she could be happy, and while Xisheng was confident he could provide that right now, he didn't have any faith in his ability to do so long-term. The last thing he wanted was to blindly accept Ty Lee's attraction to him now, only for her to be miserable later when the full weight of that commitment crashed upon them. Even if he had to remain unhappy, he'd be willing to tolerate that if the people he cared about ended up better off.

Of course, he wasn't going to bring all of this up right now. That was too much to drop on Ty Lee's shoulders at a time like this, especially considering that she supposedly had her own qualms about a relationship for some reason. He didn't want to give her an even more convoluted burden to carry right now, and especially one that may have made her feel that she was part of the problem. That being the case, he kept his answer intentionally vague.

"Let's just say I've considered the idea."

Naturally, this wasn't quite the answer Ty Lee wanted to hear. She'd partly hoped he would just come out and admit to wanting to be with her: if he had, she could just dismiss her quandary altogether. After all, her main issue was trying to take everyone's feelings into account, and not pressuring Xisheng into a decision that might cause harmful friction between everyone. But if he just wanted to be with her without any prodding and unfair pressure on her part, well... she could hardly be held responsible for his feelings and what came of them, right?

But, well, he hadn't said that. She had half a mind to push him for a more direct answer, but Ty Lee knew that he would have given one if he wanted to. Besides, she hardly had any right to demand a straight answer, considering that she wouldn't give him one either. That being the case, she decided to not pursue it any further. She knew better than to try and rush someone in matters of the heart. She'd been friends with two incredibly difficult girls since they were kids, after all.

"Well, that's better than a no, I guess... you mentioned earlier that you knew how it felt for things to get strange between friends. You didn't mean you and me, right...?"

"Hm? No, not you and I. I meant..."

The man beside her fell silent at that, prompting Ty Lee to try and prod for an actual answer. But she didn't have to, since Xisheng apparently thought of what he wanted to say.

"Do you think Mai likes me too?"

Needless to say, Ty Lee had not been expecting this answer in the slightest, causing her to do a physical double-take. Sure, she had picked up on the fact that Xisheng and Mai hadn't been spending much time together over the past few days, but she hadn't imagined that the soldier was referring to her earlier. More importantly, what was his intent in asking this question...?

"That's, uh... sudden. Why would you ask that?"

Xisheng pondered how to word his situation for a moment. "Well... a few days ago, I said some things to her that, in hindsight, could probably be construed as flirtatious. I didn't really have any ulterior motive other than telling her what I really thought, but... well, she's been avoiding me pretty pointedly since then. It doesn't really seem like she's angry, so much as uncomfortable. Normally I would assume that I just upset her somehow, but like you said, things can get awkward between people not because they're actually unhappy, but just because they don't know how to confront how they're feeling... I just... can't help but wonder, is all."

Ty Lee did not offer any immediate answer. Mostly because she didn't know what she should say. If she were being completely honest with herself, the acrobat believed that Mai did have feelings for Xisheng, even if the girl didn't fully realize it. Initially, Ty Lee seemed to be the only one who was even aware of it. But now that Xisheng was considering the possibility, she found herself feeling a little anxious. There was a strange knot in her gut that wasn't entirely welcome.

Which was kind of ironic, really. The whole reason she hadn't immediately gone all in with Xisheng was specifically because she thought her friends might miss out on a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: an opportunity Ty Lee would probably have several more of, if past experience was anything to go by. But at the time, she'd only been considering the situation from a theoretical standpoint. Now that the possibility of said theory was becoming more real, Ty Lee wasn't sure if she was actually happy about it.

If she answered yes, would Xisheng be happy? Would his face light up? Would he breathe a sigh of relief, and smile like he didn't have a care in the world? Some part of Ty Lee told her that she should be happy for both him and Mai if he did. A much bigger part of her acknowledged that she'd be crushed. She did want her friends to be happy, but did she want it to be at her expense? This was like the decision to abandon everyone and run to the circus all over again.

It was a decision that still haunted her from time to time: choosing herself over everyone she cared about. Part of her acknowledged that she was practically setting herself up for another decision of that nature with what she was doing, but it wasn't like she could change how she felt. Then again, maybe she was just overreacting. Maybe Xisheng just wanted to know how things stood, and it had nothing to do with his own feelings. All she could really do was ask.

"Do you... want her to like you?"

Xisheng glanced at the girl next to him in surprise, though the look in his eyes was quickly followed up by uncertainty. After a moment of silence, the soldier opened his mouth to speak, and Ty Lee felt the lump in her stomach jump up to her throat. But what graced her ears next was not the voice of her companion. Rather, it was the clang of a bell echoing throughout one of the few communication pipes on the ship. Ty Lee had half a mind to ignore it, but Xisheng completely turned his attention to the rapid clanging. He'd heard that sound a few times before, during his time aboard a Fire Nation warship.

"The alarm...?"

Without a moment of hesitation, the soldier made for the main structure of the ship, leaving Ty Lee with little choice but to follow him. She wasn't happy to have the moment of truth interrupted, but she knew that Xisheng would be focused on whatever was happening now. The two of them entered the confines of the vessel soon enough, and Xisheng made for the metal stairs off to the side that would lead to the small room that counted a bridge on a ship of this size. That was where an alarm would have come from.

When he made it up to the room in question, he spotted the captain, as well as a few members of the crew. The captain was using a telescope to peer out of the wraparound window that offered 270 degree coverage. Xisheng almost instinctively stood at attention and waited to be addressed, a nearly automatic response after temporarily serving on another ship, but he caught himself before he could. He was technically a member of a special unit right now, and thus, he had special privileges. As someone serving Azula directly, he didn't have to actually observe typical military decorum in this situation.

"Captain. What's the situation?"

The captain in question, a middle-aged man with a black beard wrapping from one sideburn to the other, glanced back in his direction. He seemed unsure of how to respond first, likely because of that special situation Xisheng had just thought about. At the end of the day, he too deduced that Xisheng had special exclusion from normal procedure, as one of Azula's representatives.

"An Earth Kingdom warship is on the horizon. It's heading this way."

While it may have sounded like a very typical situation, Xisheng was actually surprised to hear this. He was quick to move up to the window with the captain. "An Earth Kingdom warship...?"

He held out his hand to the captain. "May I?"

There was a moment of hesitation on the captain's part, but perhaps Xisheng's politeness helped ease the tension. The man handed over the telescope so Xisheng could use it, then indicated the general direction of the enemy vessel, which made Xisheng's job a little easier as he started scanning the horizon. With the captain's guidance, it didn't take him long to spot the vessel in question: Xisheng hadn't really known what to expect, but the ship that greeted his vision was certainly not it.

On the horizon was a wooden ship about the size of a typical Fire Nation frigate. There were no sails that he could see, and affixed to the sides of the vessel were what appeared to be slabs of stone, though he couldn't tell how exactly they were fixed in place from this distance. Other than these facts, the ship was too far out to really distinguish much, other than the fact that it was indeed coming in their general direction.

"Huh... I've never actually seen an Earth Kingdom Navy ship before. Not sure what I was expecting... how formidable is this thing?"

The captain had, admittedly, never encountered an EKN ship either. However, since the purpose of his outpost of origin was to keep an eye on the seas in the area, he had been provided with information on potential enemy vessels that had been encountered before. At the very least, he had some information about what he was looking at.

"It's difficult to say. The Earth Kingdom has mostly removed itself from the naval war after their initial loss of naval supremacy at the start of the conflict. They don't have an organized ship classification system like we do: if they choose to field a vessel, they just send out whatever they can manage. That said, the lack of sails means this is an intentionally modified ship. Captured EKN vessels have been known to sport propeller systems powered manually by Earthbenders. Some sort of crankshaft system with actual benders doing the heavy lifting. Archaic by our standards, but still better than sails when you're facing Firebenders."

The captain took the telescope back from Xisheng and peered out at the enemy ship once again. "The vessel appears to be the size of one of our frigates: perhaps around one-hundred thirty feet in length or so. The lightweight stone slabs affixed to the sides are their form of armor, at least from fire blasts in close range. Their offensive power likely consists of boulders and rocks on the deck of the ship that will be manually launched at us via Earthbenders: the EK has never been much for mechanized weaponry."

That seemed to be the full assessment the captain had to offer, though it was followed up by a voice from behind them all. Said voice belonged to Azula, who had just made it up the stairs. She was just finishing affixing her hair ornament, and said hair looked a little wet. Seemed she had been interrupted in the middle of something. Either way, she had apparently heard enough of what the captain had to say.

"And just what exactly does that all mean in the end, Captain?"

The addressed man bowed to Azula before answering her. "It means we have no chance in a direct confrontation. The enemy ship is larger and faster than us."

"Then running doesn't seem to be an option. Surely we can set this wooden shape aflame if we get close enough to it?"

Xisheng spoke up this time, though he did credit the captain with the knowledge required for his assessment. "If the captain is correct about the enemy's offensive power, we can't risk getting close enough to attack with bending. With a ship as small as ours, a direct hit from a boulder of significant size could sink us easily. Even a near miss could capsize us. This is a transport vessel, and we don't have the speed or maneuverability to evade incoming projectiles while approaching. Even if we could get close to them, they have defenses in place to minimize the risk of fire, and if they bothered to prepare to that extent, I'm sure they have some means of extinguishing fires fairly effectively too. Even a pile of dirt on the ship that they could bend would make it fairly easy to extinguish flames unless the crew itself has been rendered incapacitated."

Though Azula couldn't actually see the ship without the aid of magnification, she peered out towards the horizon. "Fair enough. But you did say this ship was wooden, with stone shields attached, yes? I'm certain I could punch a hole through it with lightning."

"We'd still have to get close enough for you to do that, and that bears the same risks I mentioned."

The captain weighed in once again as well. "A single hull breach, or even multiple, also wouldn't incapacitate the ship immediately. It would take some time for it to sink, and we'd still be endangered during that process. Not to mention, if the Earthbenders have enough materials on board, they will likely be able to plug hull breaches fairly quickly. Your highness, with all due respect, we just don't have the firepower to confront this ship. If we are sunk this far out at sea, we will be captured or killed at their leisure."

Quite frankly, Azula didn't look happy about this assessment. However, she did seem aware of its validity. "Tch. Fine. What do you suggest we do then?"

"Our only option is to head for the coast and hope we can find somewhere to hide there. Hopefully, the small size of our ship means we have avoided detection thus far, but since the enemy vessel is coming in this direction, it's impossible to know if it's a coincidence or because they've actually seen us. Either way, getting closer to land is our only hope, even if it means giving us a way to abandon ship and escape to shore."

Azula's mood for the situation certainly wasn't improved by any of this. "I'd prefer to avoid losing this vessel if possible. I have no interest in being stranded in the middle of nowhere on the coast of the Earth Kingdom. We will make every effort to preserve this ship, even if it ultimately calls for drastic measures. Make sure your crew is aware of this fact, Captain."

The older man was obviously a little cowed by this statement, but ultimately he bowed to Azula and moved towards the communication system to give orders to the crew. Said orders also included a call for everyone to be prepared for combat if it was necessary.

Hopefully, that wouldn't be the case. The odds of this little tug and its crew taking on an actual frigate were very bad. However, Xisheng understood why they would have to fight if it came down to it. He didn't know where exactly they were off the coast of the Earth Kingdom right now, but he did know they weren't terribly close to their destination. While the EK didn't keep very good control of their seas, Azula and her group would be smack in the middle of their territory if they were forced to go on land. Without a vehicle to actually move them around, they'd be in dire straits: whatever food and water was on this ship, it wouldn't last terribly long out in the relative wilds of the Earth Kingdom, and they would be risking capture every step of the way to whatever destination they had in mind. Azula was right in saying that they really couldn't afford to lose this ship.

At this point, Xisheng wasn't sure what he should actually do, considering his lack of involvement with crewing the ship. He was reminded of his first time at sea, knowing that you couldn't really do anything other than rely on a bunch of other people you didn't know. Still, it wasn't like there was anything he could do about it: the ship had all the crew it needed, and it wasn't like they needed his help, even if standing around bothered him.

Maybe Azula picked up on his discomfort, or maybe she just actually thought there was something of more value for him to do. "Lieutenant, return to the deck. We have all the eyes we need up here. And perhaps appraise Mai of the situation if you see her."

While he doubted the usefulness of these orders, Xisheng was nevertheless grateful to receive them. At least it offered a pretense for him to do something of value. "Will do, Princess."

He offered a bow, mostly because they were in the presence of other troops, and turned on his heel to go back down the stairs. With little to do herself, and still curious about continuing their earlier conversation, Ty Lee followed him. It only took a few moments to get back down the short stairs that led to that part of the ship, so the two of them were back in the main cabin soon enough. However, they didn't remain alone for very long: or at all, rather. Mai had been approaching the ladder before the two of them started going down it, leading her to stop short. Incidentally, the unexpected meeting forced her and Xisheng to make eye contact.

For a moment, Xisheng hoped he'd actually be able to say something, but Mai was quick to shift her gaze elsewhere, looking a little uncomfortable with the situation suddenly thrust upon her. She did, however, notice Ty Lee right behind him. When she asked about the situation, it was obvious that Mai was directing her question to the brunette specifically.

"I heard the announcement. Something about a ship...?"

Frankly, Ty Lee was a little surprised. Objectively, she didn't think she was the right person to ask for a rundown of a tactical situation. She knew Xisheng had said something about them having tension of a sort, but Ty Lee hadn't expected Mai to just blatantly ignore him like this. Now she was curious about what Xisheng could have said to bring this situation about.

Still, Mai was talking to her, so she had to answer. "Uh, yeah... an Earth Kingdom ship is out there. We're going back to the shore to try and hide from it."

She didn't really know what else to say about it, so Ty Lee simply fell silent. Xisheng saw this as an opportunity to try and chime in, and maybe initiate some sort of conversation, even if it was a simple one. "We're heading out to the deck to keep a lookout. We could use your eyes, Mai."

Unfortunately, he didn't receive much in return for these statements. Mai still didn't look at him, since she suddenly found a rivet on the wall extremely interesting. "I'll... watch the back. I don't need any help."

That was all she said before turning around and heading away from them to go outside. Ty Lee watched as Xisheng's shoulders slumped slightly in defeat. Frankly, he would have preferred for Mai to be at the front of the ship, where her sharp vision might help them spot a nifty hiding space. But he obviously wasn't going to get that out before she ran from him. Maybe he'd ask Ty Lee to request her to switch places with him once they got closer to shore.

Since there wasn't much else he could do right now, Xisheng made for the door as well, with Ty Lee hot on his heels. She was still trying to make sense of this awkward air between her two friends. She couldn't imagine what Xisheng could have possibly said to Mai for the latter to act this way. She was almost acting like he had assaulted her or something and was too scared to speak up to anyone about it. Ty Lee had seen some girls go through that while at the circus. But she knew without a shadow of a doubt that Xisheng would never do anything like that. Plus, she couldn't imagine that Mai wouldn't just stab such a person in their sleep if they had wronged her in such a way.

Unfortunately, as they stepped out onto the deck and past a few bustling crewmen, it didn't seem like Xisheng was in the mood to talk about it. Aside from being put out from Mai's blatant attempts to avoid him, they were in a pretty serious situation and he was focusing on what he could do within that situation, even if it wasn't much. This left him and Ty Lee in silence at the front of the ship as well, but at least this silence was less awkward and more of a mutual understanding that now wasn't the time to talk about things that were relatively unimportant to their current dilemma.

And yet, while they were in an objectively urgent situation, it didn't really feel like it. After all, there wasn't really any immediate danger. The EK ship was too far away right now to see with the naked eye. The small FN transport ship did have a smokestack that could give them away, but with relatively little power needed to push it around, the black smoke that emerged from it was relatively tiny and dispersed into the air pretty quickly, so it was unlikely the EK crew would notice it unless they were pointing a telescope directly at them. They didn't even know if the EK ship actually knew they were present. And hell, if it was obvious that they were shifting to an intercept course, that would probably be announced over the pipes.

So basically, their 'urgent' situation was half an hour of sailing without actual threat. Although, by the time they were actually able to make out the shoreline of the continent, one could actually see a small silhouette on the ocean's horizon with the naked eye. The EK ship was definitely getting closer to them, though that was no surprise since they were headed in the same direction, and the enemy frigate was undoubtedly somewhat faster than them. It was a common misconception that small boats went faster than big ones: larger ships cut through the water at much higher speed, at least if they had the right propulsion power to go along with their size.

Around the time they were able to see land, Xisheng did ask Ty Lee to fetch Mai so she could stand at the front instead. Sure, even with her great vision, she wasn't going to outperform the captain and his telescope. But at the same time, the captain only had one pair of eyes and could only look one place at a time. It never hurt to have multiple people scanning for something when you had a lot of visual 'ground' to cover. Ty Lee almost considered it an opportunity to probe Mai about her behavior since they would be alone for a moment, but as before, now wasn't really the time. So she simply did as Xisheng asked and fetched Mai so she could move to the front. Xisheng, aware that she didn't want to be around him right now, was notably absent from the front of the ship by the time the two girls got back. He'd probably just made sure to move to one of the sides.

Admittedly, once it was Ty Lee and Mai alone at the front of the ship, the acrobat had really push to restrain herself from asking a bunch of questions. She didn't know how much Mai did or didn't have to focus in order to contribute to the situation. But it wasn't like conversation was her only means of making sense of the situation. Ty Lee was the observant type, at least when it came to people. Just taking in Mai's body language and demeanor helped pin down how she was feeling, at least to an extent. That information might come in handy when she actually had a chance to ask about it. There was only so much she could glean from her friend's convoluted miasma of an aura right now.

Ultimately, it turned out that Mai's eyes weren't needed. The captain, or someone else on the bridge, spotted a potential hiding place and directed the crew towards it over the pipes. After a heading adjustment, the ship was on its way towards a certain point on the shoreline, though Ty Lee wasn't able to tell what exactly they were going for until they got a little closer. When they did close the distance, she saw that it was a small cove of sorts in a cliff face: a small chamber of rock had been carved out by the elements. It wasn't large enough to be of much value, but with the tiny ship they had, it would serve as a decent hiding place.

As their tiny tug sailed into the mouth of this cave, the ambient light dimmed considerably. The opening was large enough to let a fair deal of sunlight in, but it was obviously darker in here than it was outside. Having slowed down considerably, their ship pulled up to some rocky outcroppings against the wall of the cave, a few dozen yards past the cave mouth. It was far from an even surface, but it would allow for some people to carefully walk along the path, and there were enough stalagmites nearby to anchor the ship with rope. Once they were close enough to disembark, several crew members hopped over the railing of the ship to do just that.

Xisheng returned to the front of the ship at around this time, taking stock of their environment and noting that there was a path of sorts formed by the rocks that could be followed further into the cave, up and above the water. Maybe it was just a funny formation in a dead end cave, but it did also look like it could lead somewhere to the surface. Glancing back at the girls a few feet away from him, Xisheng figured he could take one more shot at things.

"I think I'll investigate this path and see where it goes. Do you two-"

Before he could even finish, Mai was stepping away from him and heading towards the back of the ship. "No."

Ty Lee couldn't help but wonder if the girl had to be so abrasive, regardless of what her issue was. Xisheng honestly looked kind of wounded by the outright rejection, though ultimately, he just sighed and shook his head. "Yeah... yeah, alright."

Clearly a bit exasperated, he nevertheless managed to avoid sounding too irate as he spoke to Ty Lee again. "If Azula asks, let her know I'm checking out this path. I'll be back shortly, assuming it's not a particularly long path."

Normally Ty Lee would have gone with him on this little adventure, but frankly, she had better things to do right now. She was getting a little sick of this depressed aura swirling around Xisheng. She had noticed it somewhat in the past few days, but it was getting really bad now, and she couldn't help but hold Mai accountable for it. She really needed to find out what the deal was.

"I will. Be careful, Gohan."

The man nodded his affirmation before stepping off the boat and onto the rocks beyond it. Ty Lee was a little worried about him walking around out there with one arm still in a sling, but he wasn't exactly a klutz. He'd probably be fine. Besides, she had to focus on his other needs, apparently. Not knowing how long they'd be hiding out in this cove or how much time she would actually have to carry out a conversation, Ty Lee quickly turned on her heel and made for the rear of the boat, where Mai had retreated to. Being a small ship, it didn't take long for her to lay eyes on her moody friend, who was peering out at the wider ocean that could be seen from the cave mouth as she leaned on the railing.

For a moment, Ty Lee pondered trying to be subtle about this, but in the end, she figured that there was no point in beating around the bush. So she just opened up with her burning question as she approached. "Alright, what the heck is your problem, Mai? What's the deal with you and Gohan right now?"

Annoyed by this approach right off the bat, Mai glared at her friend as the brunette came to lean on the railing beside her. "I don't see why it's your business."

"Well, if it was just you being moody, not bothering anyone else, I guess it wouldn't be. But Gohan's miserable because you're giving him the cold shoulder for some reason. So, now it's my business."

Mai rolled her eyes. "That still just sounds like you sticking your nose in others' business."

Ty Lee frowned as she received this response. Mai hadn't really been all that combative or difficult since they reunited in Omashu. Maybe it was just because she'd found a few reasons to be in a good mood, but right now, Ty Lee was reminded of those years after Zuko had been banished: years where Mai had often been a dour, irritating person to talk to. It wasn't exactly a dynamic the brunette had missed. But in a way, it was something she was familiar with, and that meant she knew how to handle it.

"Well if I could trust you to actually address the problem and resolve your feelings, I wouldn't have to bother. But we both know you aren't going to do that. You don't have any intention of actually doing anything other than avoiding Gohan, right? You're just going to turtle up and hope whatever is bothering you just magically disappears, just like the old days."

Mai's glare intensified, though her tone of voice remained mostly even. "I don't want to hear that from the girl who ran away from the things that bothered her. Who are you to lecture me about dealing with my problems?"

Ty Lee fell silent at this, mostly because Mai had a point. If she were being honest with herself, it wasn't like Ty Lee had left to join the circus specifically because she wanted to do that with her life. She had been growing more and more discontent with her family situation and the feeling of not being special in any way compared to her sisters. She could have addressed the issues she had with her parents and her sisters, telling people how she felt and what she wanted, but the thought of doing so, and the thought of it all blowing up in her face, had been nerve-wracking. Ultimately, she had simply chosen to run from those problems instead of confronting people about them.

"Fine, you got me there. But there's a big difference, y'know? I may have run from my problems, but I didn't really hurt anybody in doing so. It's not like losing one daughter they had five copies of really bothered my parents any. You and Azula were the only ones who really cared about it, and even then, I don't think me leaving really crushed either of you. Unless you wanna tell me that you cried over me leaving for months or something?"

Mai didn't respond specifically to that comment. "What's your point?"

"My point is that the way you're handling this problem, whatever it is, is seriously hurting Gohan's feelings. I mean, according to what I've gathered, he's got no idea why you suddenly hate him."

This did earn a pause and a mild look of uncertainty from Mai, at least for a moment. "He's a man and a soldier. I doubt his feelings are hurt. Besides, it's not like I hate him..."

The last part of that was mumbled, though Ty Lee still caught it. "Oh, I'm sure. That must be why you fled in terror from him whenever he tried to talk to you today. And what does being a man or a soldier have to do with having feelings? He's not any less human than you or me because of his gender or his job. You know as well as I do that he's a sentimental person, but even if he wasn't, anyone would feel bad if someone they cared about started treating them like crap without any explanation. You know as well as I do that he probably thinks he did something wrong. He'd sooner blame himself than assume you're just being unreasonable."

Admittedly, Mai did seem a little bothered by this perspective now that Ty Lee had brought it up to her. She knew Gohan would probably be confused, but hadn't really considered that he might feel guilty of something. Or maybe she just didn't really think he'd care that much if they stopped talking. That was probably less of a misjudgment of him and more of a lack of faith in herself, however.

She didn't say anything back to Ty Lee's assessment, which prompted the brunette to press for a response. "So, what's the problem? Gohan said you started acting like this after he said some things to you. What, did he say something bad? Did he hurt your feelings, hm?"

Mai scoffed before she even realized it. "As if. He's not cruel enough to do that intentionally, nor stupid enough to do it on accident. He just... I don't know, said some stuff I wasn't ready for."

"OK, like... what, exactly?"

Now that she had to say it out loud, Mai clammed up a little. Admittedly, this sounded kind of stupid when she actually put it into words. "Just, you know... compliments, and stuff..."

Ty Lee did not offer any immediate response to this, which prompted Mai to glance over at her. Said brunette was offering a completely bewildered expression, which she soon extrapolated on. "So, you've been avoiding him and acting like he did something wrong because he... complimented you?"

"I mean, they were compliments about... me as a woman, and stuff!"

Ty Lee's expression only grew more incredulous. "I'm gonna be honest, Mai, this sounds really dumb."

Now a little embarrassed to have Ty Lee of all people condemning her, Mai grew more irate again. "You know, you've been kind of a bitch lately, Ty Lee."

"Look, I'm sorry about making fun of you a few days ago. I didn't think you'd honestly care. But you have to admit, this current situation sounds really silly. I mean, is this how you're going to treat the guy you like after he praises you? Don't expect to get a lot more of it if that's the case."

"Wha-hey, I never said anything about liking him!"

For once, Ty Lee knew how it felt to be the wiser, more informed person in a conversation. Was this how it felt to be a master who knew things the pupil did not? She kind of liked it. "What makes you think you need to say it? You go out of your way to spend time with him. You listen to him talk about stuff you don't really care about yourself. You do him favors and defend him when other people say bad things about him. Heck, you actually laugh and smile around him, which I would have considered unthinkable a few years back. You used to be pleased when he said nice things about you too. Not sure what changed about that in the past week or so. Either way, you couldn't convince anyone that you don't at least think about you and him sometimes, even if you just chalk it up to daydreaming. Do you really think I can't tell?"

Her black-haired friend stared pointedly at the water beneath her, though it didn't do much to hide a prominent blush from her face. Having all of this called out so brazenly was pretty embarrassing, especially for someone who wasn't used to displaying emotions so strongly that anybody could see them. She was used to being a lot more reserved than this, so having her feelings exposed to others kind of put Mai out of her comfort zone. She didn't like having things laid bare so easily. Not after all of those years of keeping her thoughts and feelings to herself at her family's behest. It was like having a supposedly infallible wall develop a big crack, and you couldn't have full faith in its ability to protect you anymore.

As for Ty Lee, she wondered if she should stop now while she was ahead. Technically, she wasn't doing herself any favors here. She had pretty much known how Mai felt before now, but confirmation was a powerful thing. Mai obviously liked Xisheng, but her inability to process her own feelings properly was holding her back from making anything of it. Even worse than that actually, it was actively tripping her up and creating a negative outcome. It would actually be good for Ty Lee's own romantic prospects to just let Mai keep to herself and bottle up her confused feelings. It would probably create an even bigger rift between her and Xisheng, which automatically advanced Ty Lee's own interests.

After all, Xisheng hadn't answered her question before. Maybe if Mai just confessed to him, he'd jump at the opportunity. In that case, allowing her friend to ruin her own chances would potentially remove that possibility from occurring. Objectively speaking, it would help Ty Lee get what she wanted.

Although, the brunette wasn't sure if that actually was what she wanted. Well, sure, at the deepest basic level, she wanted to be together with Xisheng. But the whole reason she hadn't jumped at the chance to just outright ask him to date her was the acknowledgment that her friends might benefit more from such a relationship than she would. That logic was self-sacrificial to the extreme, and heck, almost contradictory: that had been her reasoning at first, but she still hoped that Xisheng would just fall for her instead. In that case, why had she wasted her time not just going for it since that night?

Admittedly, maybe her qualms had evolved from what they started as. Sure, a part of her still worried about what might happen to the dynamic between the entire group: she was too good of a person to not care at all about how such a thing might affect her friends. But more than that, Ty Lee acknowledged that her initial quandary had only focused on how she, Mai, and Azula felt. She hadn't really taken into consideration how Xisheng felt. Was he even really interested in pursuing a relationship at all? If so, who did he actually want to do it with? At the end of the day, no matter how she felt about herself or her friends going after him, wasn't it up to him to choose what he wanted to do and why?

Point being, after Xisheng's vague answer to her about his feelings on her, and his complete lack of an answer regarding Mai, Ty Lee could acknowledge that his own feelings on this situation were ultimately the deciding factor over everything. So she didn't see any point in trying to manipulate the situation in her favor. At the end of the day, she would want him to pick her because that was what he wanted, not because she had sabotaged the competition, especially when that competition was her own friends. That being the case, she couldn't in good conscience leave things as they stood now, even if it would improve her own odds to do so. What kind of friend would that make her?

"Listen, Mai... I can't tell you what to feel. But, and don't take this the wrong way, this could be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for you, y'know? Even you and Zuko didn't get along as well as you do with Gohan. How many more times do you think you're going to meet such a perfect match for you? Especially when Azula is done forcing you to meet new people, and you settle into a comfort zone? This might be your last chance."

She had been silent for some time, but Mai's features settled into a frown at this. "Last time I thought I had a 'perfect match', his dad blew half his face off and he got banished halfway around the world. I don't have any faith in fate's willingness to let me be happy. What's the point in pursuing some childish dream that's guaranteed to end in failure?"

Personally, Ty Lee thought such a fatalistic outlook was extreme, but at the same time, she did kind of understand where Mai was coming from. An extroverted person like Ty Lee was bound to have many encounters in life. Just statistically speaking, there would be a lot more opportunities for her to hit it off with someone and end up in a happy relationship. Someone like Mai, on the other hand, didn't have particularly favorable odds. She didn't meet new people very often. When she did, they rarely perceived her as desirable, and it was even more unlikely that she'd find them desirable back. Just speaking to numbers, she had pretty low odds of finding a partner she'd be truly happy with in life.

And yet, despite those low odds, she'd gotten lucky enough to find such a person relatively early in life... only to have him cruelly snatched away by the whims of the world. For someone who might only get a few chances at that sort of happiness throughout her life, having the seemingly luckiest chance wither into nothing probably fostered a pretty negative outlook on future prospects. Some people were just like that: rather than assume one failure meant they'd be likely to succeed in the future, they assumed that one failure meant they were just likely to fail again. Personally, that wasn't an outlook Ty Lee was particularly fond of, but she understood that not everyone had such an optimistic view of the world.

"It's a little extreme to say "guaranteed", don't you think? Besides, if the end result of not trying is that it doesn't happen for sure, isn't it better to try and at least have a chance of success? I mean, if not trying is failure anyway, what's the point of not trying for fear of failure?"

This logic made plenty of sense in Ty Lee's head, but apparently it didn't do much to sway Mai to her side of things. Likely because Mai had her own side to consider. "This is probably hard for someone like you to understand, Ty Lee. Becoming invested in a person is difficult for me. Fully opening up to someone, allowing yourself to be vulnerable with them, trusting someone with your thoughts and feelings and happiness... it's effort. An expenditure. A leap of faith that has just as much of a chance of turning into a disaster as it does of paying off. And when it does fall apart, it's not like I get a return on any of that emotional and psychological investment. It's just gone. Opening myself up to vulnerability and pain and disappointment for no reason at all. Avoiding all of that isn't 'extreme', it's just..."

Still staring down at the water beneath them, Mai's expression grew particularly sorrowful for a moment. "...risk management."

Silence reigned between the two girls for a time after that. Mai had said her piece, and Ty Lee didn't know what to say in response. Honestly, the main issue was that she just couldn't really understand Mai's point of view here. They were fundamentally different in this regard. Ty Lee knew that everyone was different: some people perceived relationships and even human interaction in general very differently. But while she grasped the concept of what Mai was getting at here, she didn't really understand how it felt or why it would be potent enough to govern one's decisions when it came to something important. She supposed there was a big difference between understanding a feeling in concept and understanding it due to having experienced it oneself. No amount of theoretical discussion would impart one's own understanding of something as vague as this to someone else. Ty Lee just had to acknowledge that the way Mai processed relationships, and how they taxed her, was fundamentally different from herself.

Still, it wasn't like she had to alter Mai's entire way of thinking on this front. She was a grown woman more than capable of deciding whether or not she wanted to pursue something. But she was being a bit extreme here. It wasn't like this was a zero sum game.

"I... kind of understand. I mean, not really... it's not like I can sympathize, but I can kind of see what you're getting at. Even so... it's not like you have to go to this length, right? I get that you don't want to get hurt again, but do you really want to protect yourself by hurting someone you care about? It's not like you have to stop being friends. You know as well as I do that Gohan would understand if you told him you didn't want to be anything more than friends, and he'd never pressure you to do otherwise. I mean, not to diminish what he said to you, but I don't think he was trying to propose or anything. Shouldn't you at least tell him why you're going to cut him off if you are going to? I think he deserves that much."

Mai placed her chin in her palm. "I'm not going to cut him off... I just needed some time to think about what I wanted."

"So then, you're saying you know what you want now, right?"

Ty Lee's friend hesitated to answer, and when she did, her words didn't sound very convincing. "...yeah."

Mai barely sounded like she had convinced herself, so Ty Lee certainly wasn't convinced either. But if she had anything else to say, she didn't get a chance to, since the cave around them rumbled at that moment, and dust and pebbles started falling from the ceiling, which caused the two girls to look up at the ceiling. Mai spoke for both of them.

"Well that doesn't sound good."

Not long after Xisheng had left the boat and its crew behind, he had made it a good way up what passed for a rocky path on the side of the cave. Admittedly, a lot of it was just some weathered rocks jutting out of the water, which meant that there was plenty of algae and slippery surfaces to go around. With an already busted arm, he hadn't been too keen on slipping, so the soldier had paid careful attention to his footing thus far. Even his social woes weren't enough to distract him from doing that. After all, if he slipped and broke his legs out here, he'd probably drown before anyone actually found him.

That wasn't to say his thoughts didn't dwell on that social situation at all. Over the past few days, he'd kind of hoped that the thing with Mai would reach a breakthrough if he just found an opportunity to talk to her before she could mysteriously find something else to do. But today, when he'd actually gotten a chance to do that, she'd elected to either ignore him or just shut him down entirely. He was starting to think that things were more dire than they had first appeared. Maybe he was totally wrong about the source of the problem? Maybe it was something else that he was too oblivious to even recognize? Still, he couldn't think of anything recently that could have remotely sparked this behavior other than the exchange a few nights go.

But he didn't really understand why anything that had been said that night would result in such a frosty tension between them. Admittedly, it was possible he didn't know enough about her to understand why there was a problem. On top of that, was the problem actually him, or was it her? Was it similar to Ty Lee's supposed situation, where he was involved in the problem, but not necessarily the cause of it? Were all women this confusing, or was it just the particular women he had elected to coexist with?

Pushing down a sigh, Xisheng tried to focus on his surroundings, to take his mind off of things if nothing else. At least he may have actually been able to do something about this part of his life. The makeshift path had actually taken him pretty far away from the ship and the cove itself, guiding him to a higher elevation. If he looked back behind him, he could still see the ship, but the distance was several hundred yards. He was honestly surprised that the cave went this deep, though he had to acknowledge it might not have really been a cave, so much as an odd formation in the cliff.

In fact, as he continued his trek, Xisheng was fairly certain that he was coming up on another entrance. There seemed to be more light a little higher up, around a bend in the cave wall. Perhaps this did connect to the rest of the land somewhere? Eager to find out to sate his curiosity if nothing else, Xisheng continued along the path, which was thankfully a lot less slippery now that it was above the waterline. After another minute or two of walking, he did indeed come across a decent sized entrance that was about the height and width of two men. Beyond it lied some jungle trees and vines nestled into the rock formation Xisheng and his comrades were hiding in.

Glancing around, Xisheng took in the scenery. It was a pretty nice change of pace, after being at sea, even if they had only been away from land for a little under a week. He supposed anything was welcome after you had to put up with the sea for too long. That said, the most important thing here was informing everyone that there was another entrance they needed to keep an eye on...

Xisheng was about to turn around and head back into the cave, but just before he could do so, he heard a branch snap off to his right. Now, noises like that often occurred in the wild, but it was always prudent to be extra sure of what was around you, so naturally, Xisheng turned his head in that direction, half expecting to see a wild animal moving ponderously throughout the undergrowth. However, what he laid eyes on was no beast: or perhaps it was the basest beast of them all. Frozen with one hand pushing a vine out of his path was an Earth Kingdom soldier, a young man with a barely forming beard that looked scarcely older than Xisheng, if that. His green eyes were focused intently on the man across from him: a man currently wearing the uniform of a Fire Nation soldier.

Time seemed frozen for a moment. With such a completely unexpected meeting thrust upon them, neither soldier reacted right away. It was almost comical, like they were about to break into laughter after a moment's pause. Catching an enemy soldier off-guard was weird like that: in that moment, before anyone attacked, you really saw just how ordinary and human the other side was. You saw the stunned surprise, the racing thoughts, the reeling panic... and the shifting of expressions as time resumed its normal pace and both sides sprung into action to defend themselves.

Both men flung an arm out at the opponent, one emitting an arc of orange flame, and the other, pulling a chunk of earth from the ground around him. But Xisheng, used to ambushes and sudden battles to the death due to his previous deployments, reacted just a little faster, and with more accuracy. The piece of earth launched at him soared past his head, creating that intimidating swoosh as it cleaved through the air and smashed into pieces on the rock face behind Xisheng. His flame, on the other hand, caught the Earth Kingdom soldier square in the face, sending the young man flailing to the ground as he screamed in agony. In that one split second, someone's life had been ruined forever. That was the nature of war.

Knowing full well how serious this situation may have been, Xisheng was about to finish off the enemy in hopes that he was a lone scout, and that their position could remain unknown. But the screams of the fallen soldier did not fall on the deaf ears of the forest. In mere moments, cries of alarm echoed out from other Earth Kingdom soldiers not far off in jungle, rallying everyone around to action. Unfortunately, it was not one lone scout.

With the odds now against him, Xisheng wasted no time on the one soldier he had wounded already, instead turning on his heel and diving for the entrance to the cave. It was the right move: he just barely beat the avalanche of rock called down from higher on the cliff face, an attempt by his enemies to prevent him from escaping them. Xisheng crashed down onto the other side, coughing up some dust as he got back to his feet as quickly as he could. His enemy's haste had actually afforded him some extra time, but not much. It wouldn't take Earthbenders that long to clear away the blockage they had created. Fully aware of this, Xisheng rushed back towards the Fire Nation ship as quickly as he could, slowing down only to be sure of his footing when necessary.

Short on time, he didn't wait to reach the ship before shouting at the crew. He did that as soon as he was certain someone could hear him. "Hey! Free the ship, we have to get out of here! We need to cast off right now!"

Some of the sailors on the deck and the path heard his cries, but none of them actually moved to follow his instructions right away. Well, that wasn't too surprising. He wasn't a typical authority figure for them, so it wasn't like they were going to obey his orders without question or anything. With a grunt of frustration, Xisheng kept running, figuring he would have to inform someone who was actually in charge of the situation. Thankfully, either said people in charge had heard him yelling or one of the sailors had told them through the pipes that Xisheng was making a racket, as both Azula and the captain came out onto the deck by the time Xisheng arrived near the ship. Ty Lee and Mai had heard his voice echoing off the walls of the cave as well, so they also ended up coming to the front of the boat.

Knowing they didn't have long, Xisheng didn't wait to be acknowledged or given permission to speak. In fact, he didn't even wait to get right up to everyone, still being a few yards away as he relayed the dire situation. "We've got an Earthbender patrol of unknown size on their way down here right now! We have to go!"

By the troubled look that dawned on the captain's face, he understood why this situation was so bad. Azula didn't seem to pick up on it immediately. She probably didn't perceive a few Earthbenders as a significant threat to herself. However, she was probably also only considering the threat from the angle of a theoretical contest of skill where nothing else mattered. Azula often seemed to compartmentalize potential problems into whether or not it was something she specifically could handle. Problem was, there was a lot more to worry about in these situations.

"I understand that we don't want the enemy vessel to ascertain our location, but I don't see any reason why we'd need to panic so much because of a few Earthbenders, Lieutenant. We are undoubtedly superior to some backwater patrol."

Xisheng was struggling to catch his breath for the moment, so the captain explained the problem. Xisheng had to admit, he liked this guy: they seemed to have a common tactical understanding with one another. "Princess, we are situated in a cave made of earth. Regardless of whether or not we can defeat the enemy in a fight, it takes just one average Earthbender to collapse the ceiling on our heads. They could land one boulder on our vessel and sink it, or outright block our only avenue of escape. We cannot risk fighting them here under any circumstances!"

Having caught a second wind, Xisheng chimed in. "Exactly. Victory or defeat isn't always measured by combat. Our objective is to protect this ship. If we defeat the enemy but lose it in the process, we are defeated ourselves."

While he wouldn't have expected it, Ty Lee actually weighed in. "But what about the bad ship outside? We don't know if it's still around since we couldn't keep an eye on it. It could be right around the corner!"

Xisheng had to admit that she had a point. "Frankly, it probably is. I can't imagine why there would be any soldiers out here in the middle of nowhere unless they were a shore party for the frigate. Maybe they did see us come this way. Either way, we actually have a better chance of surviving on the open water than we do in here."

The ship captain started motioning to his crew, though many of them had already started releasing the vessel after they had overheard his concerns. "He's right. We're better off attempting to evade them in the water where we have some breathing room than in an earthen coffin. Make it quick, men! We need to be out of here yesterday!"

The entirety of the crew started hustling to get the ship free, which thankfully didn't take long since the vessel was a small one. Once it was free, everyone hopped aboard as quickly as possible, and began steering the ship back towards the cove entrance. Unfortunately, they weren't actually outside by the time the Earthbenders Xisheng had encountered were in the cave themselves. The FN crew still had a few yards to go before they were outside, and the enemy was halfway to their position, rushing down the cave walls with significantly more ease than Xisheng had managed, courtesy of their Earthbending, which they used to pull out clean, straight slabs to run on. They'd be upon them in no time.

Thankfully, however, Azula was still on the deck, and she was charging a bolt of lightning before Xisheng even had a chance to ask her to. Maybe the speed of her generation was just too quick, but it was more likely that the enemy Earthbenders had never seen lightning bending in their lives: either way, they didn't react in time to Azula's attack, which arced towards them as they raced forward. The bolt of lightning crashed against the wall right in the midst of them all, blasting the approaching soldiers off of their stone surface and into the waters of the cove. Alive or dead, who could tell?

With the crew on deck having never seen something as magnificent as lightning from the hands of a bender before, there was a raucous cheer from all the hands as the ship passed under the cove mouth and into the light of the sun once more. However, that cheer died in everyone's throats as they were able to lay eyes on the ocean waters again: Ty Lee's prediction had been right. The EKN frigate they had been running from in the first place was no great distance away from them, just a little further up the shore. While it wasn't in motion right this moment, it was close enough that you could see the ship's crew reacting to their presence. Xisheng could see someone on the deck pointing in their direction, and soon after, hear the distant peals of a bell that must have been their alarm.

"Ohhhh shit..."

The captain was quick to shout out to his men. "Push the engine to its full power! We need to get as much distance as possible!"

With their lives on the line, everybody scrambled to push their tiny tug to its limits. Unfortunately, even its top speed wasn't really all that impressive. It just wasn't built for that kind of thing. This was made obvious when, a few minutes into their retreat, the EK frigate was gaining on them, even though it had been forced to break off from its own resting position on the coast, a process that took a lot longer for a larger ship. Even with that delay, they were gaining ground on the Fire Nation vessel in their sights. Knowing full well that they would likely have to take evasive action, the captain had already moved back to the bridge so he could quickly issue navigation commands to the helmsman.

As the enemy frigate drew closer, Mai expressed some concern. "So, now what? What do we do about this?"

For once, Azula found herself in a situation that posed a danger to her, but that she had no control over. This was one of, if not the, only times where her life was completely in the hands of someone else, and it wasn't someone she knew personally or trusted particularly much. As the enemy ship loomed even closer, even she had to admit to herself that she was nervous.

Xisheng knew full-well what kind of bad situation they were in as well, but he had been in such dire straits before. That was not to say that he was free of worry, but he at least managed to keep it under wraps. "Does everyone know how to swim?"

Ty Lee cast a nervous glance at him. "That's not funny, Gohan."

"Then it's a good thing I wasn't joking."

Really, she hated to admit to something like this in such a heated moment, but Azula figured that practicality was more important than pride at this juncture. "I... do not."

Ty Lee cocked a quizzical eyebrow at her. "What, really? You went to Ember Island like, six times as a kid!"

Embarrassed to admit to lacking such a basic skill, Azula snapped at her. "And you'll recall that I swam exactly zero times in every instance! Swimming is a skill for peons who don't have barges and flagships!"

If the situation wasn't so tense, Mai might have said something snarky, but frankly, she was actually a little worried. At least Azula or Xisheng could shoot some fireballs back at the enemy or something, but there was literally nothing she could do. That was kind of nerve-wracking. Even Xisheng was considering the possibility of being sunk, which meant he thought it was likely they were going to get hit. That also meant that she could get flattened by a big boulder today. The thought of dying was scary, admittedly, but somehow, of even more concern was how this last day had gone. She wasn't really going to die with the last thing she'd said or done with Gohan being the cold shoulder, right? She wasn't even that sentimental, and she still acknowledged that as being way too tragic.

But it wasn't like she could apologize for it right this moment. She just had to hope really hard that they got out of this in one piece. Xisheng, on the other hand, was still focused on what Azula had revealed. "If the ship capsizes, try to stay on top of the hull. If it splinters, look for a floating piece of debris to hang onto. You'd be better off getting captured by the EKN than drowning out here, since you'd probably manage to escape in that case. If worse comes to worst and there's no debris to hang on to, grab onto me. I'll carry you."

There was a moment of surprised appreciation on Azula's face as Xisheng offered his own body in this theoretical dire scenario, but it was quickly replaced with one of incredulity. "I do so appreciate your commitment, but need I remind you that you are down an arm?"

Xisheng didn't seem troubled by this accurate assessment. "As long as you hold on to me and my one good arm is free, I can manage. You're light."

Frankly, Azula was impressed by his resolve to protect her. For a moment, she could have sworn she had a heart flutter. But, then again, maybe it was just anxiety. Whatever it was, she didn't have an opportunity to discuss their situation further, because apparently, the EKN frigate was in range to attack. They could discern this because a large boulder that was probably half the size of the Fire Nation ship was raised into the air above their deck. Earthbenders aboard the ship were preparing to launch it right at them. A few moments later, the boulder was soaring through the air, blotting out the sky as it carved a lazy arc through it. It was kind of funny, how slowly it appeared to move through the air, when it would undoubtedly capsize them if it hit.

However, this first boulder was nowhere near close enough to hit them. It fell far short, splashing harmlessly some ways behind them, though the splash was a magnificent one, launching water dozens of feet into the air and sending out a large rippling wave. Yeah, it would definitely be bad if they got hit by one of those.

Ty Lee, who had been clenching her fists tightly in anxious anticipation, honestly seemed surprised by the miss, and by how wide of a margin it had missed. "Maybe they aren't as close as they thought...?"

Xisheng didn't entertain her optimism. It wouldn't do them any good here. "More likely they're just getting a feel for their range. It's hard to judge the right distance at sea on the first shot. The next one will definitely be closer."

Unfortunately, the wounded soldier was right about that. When the next boulder came soaring through the air, it was obvious to everyone on deck that it was going to be way too close. Maybe even a direct hit. Thankfully, the captain saw it coming, and he had the helmsman pulling a sharp turn to change course but a moment after the rock was in the air. This time, the boulder landed off to their side, still missing by enough to avoid being a problem, thanks to the captain's maneuvers. But while they had avoided this one as well, it was due to their evasion, not enemy inaccuracy. That wasn't a good sign.

Indeed, the next boulder that was launched into the air from the enemy vessel came right at them, and it was even leading them: the enemy was aiming where the FN ship was going to be, not where it was right now. The helmsman made another drastic turn, but having bled some of their speed in the first maneuver, they didn't manage as significant of a course change by the time this next boulder landed: thankfully in the water, but only just. This time, it was close enough that the gigantic splash from the impact shoved the FN ship to the side, tilting the whole thing to an angle beyond forty-five degrees. Everyone was caught off-guard by the huge shift in their footing.

Thankfully for Ty Lee, she was near the cabin, and got pressed against one of its walls. Azula fell to her knees, but was otherwise alright. Mai, unfortunately on the far side of the end of the ship that kicked up into the air, went careening towards the opposite railing, which was nearly in the water itself at this point. Xisheng managed to grab her arm before she went too far, though stopping her required him to take a heavy bracing stance to prevent them both from flying. Well, martial arts had many uses, it seemed.

"Hang on, I got you!"

As the ship rocked back towards its original position, inertia yanked Mai back towards him, in a moment that might have looked a little romantic if she hadn't slammed into his torso with enough strength to knock the wind out of both of them. It forced a cough out of him, but Xisheng recovered quickly enough.

"Oof... you alright?"

She knew it was absolutely asinine to feel this way now of all times, but Mai couldn't deny that she felt a little flustered to be in Xisheng's embrace like this, held against him by his arm. At least her acknowledgment of how silly that was allowed her to get her bearings more quickly.

"Uh, y-yeah. Thank you."

Maybe they would have made a moment out of this, but Ty Lee interrupted it as she pointed up into the air. "Look out, there's another one!"

This time, the boulder coming at them came at a particularly impressive angle. You could tell it was right on target the moment in left the deck of the EKN ship. You could almost sense the impending hit. Worse yet, after two sharp maneuvers, the Fire Nation ship had lost too much speed to effectively dodge again. It wouldn't be a near miss this time.

Knowing that they had no other chance of surviving at this point, Xisheng released Mai so he could make use of his one good arm, which he promptly held out in Azula's direction. "Azula!"

In the palm of his hand was a flame that he was only partially condensing, as it flickered with only half ai invisible cage holding it back. Azula picked up on what he wanted immediately, though she wasn't quite sure how well it would work. Then again, it wasn't like they had time for anything else. Two Firebenders manipulating the same flame was very rare, but it could lead to impressive results. Holding out her arm to meet his, Azula wondered if they even had a chance to do this in time, as the incoming boulder was already halfway to its destination. But when her flame touched his, she was surprised by the sheer force of chi that compressed his side of the equation. It caught her so off-guard that it almost overpowered her own flame before she caught herself and pushed back.

Had he actually improved this much so quickly? Or was it pure adrenaline allowing him to push out more power than he ever had before? Many lives that he cared about were at stake, after all. Whatever it was, Azula admitted that she felt pride swelling in her heart as she matched the level of chi Xisheng was exerting on his half of their Firebending combination. Between the two of them, the flame between them was compressed to a tiny dot: a white sphere with an indigo center no larger than a small apple. The pressure this flame was under was so great that its actually whistled as it consumed the air around it, a shrieking wail that bespoke great fury.

Fully in sync now, the master and apprentice hurled the tiny orb of flame towards the incoming boulder, but it left their hands as a lance of scorching hot flame. One could see the air around it shimmer as it passed at the speed of an arrow. Its short flight led it directly into the center of the incoming boulder, where it culminated in a huge explosion of blue, white, and indigo flame, the beauty of which was marred only by the dirt and rubble of the target it had obliterated. When the dust cleared, all that remained of the boulder that would have spelled their doom was a few pebbles showering the Fire Nation ship.

Literally everyone was staring up at the spectacle in awe, even Xisheng and Azula, who hadn't really known what the end result was going to be even if it was their gambit in the first place. Azula was, quite frankly, exhilarated. It had been a long time since she had broken a limit in Firebending: even if it had involved a partner.

"Incredible... ha, those peasants are nothing compared to us, Gohan! We could destroy them easily!"

While he too was greatly pleased with the result, Xisheng wasn't quite as eager to go for another round. His arm was trembling, having never channeled that much chi that quickly. It almost felt like Ty Lee had jabbed him a few times. Needless to say, he didn't think he could actually manage another attack that powerful. They had well and truly disintegrated that massive boulder that was nearly the size of their own ship.

"I don't know, you might have to try lightning on the next one. Maybe that will be enough to..."

Xisheng's words petered off as he noticed the EKN frigate turning away from them. It appeared to be turning around. "Or not...?"

Ty Lee peeked around them to try and get a better look at the enemy. "Are they... running away? But why? Don't they have every advantage?"

Xisheng pondered this too as the enemy frigate completely turned around and started sailing back towards the shoreline. "I guess maybe... they're out of ammo? Maybe the whole reason they stopped by the shore was to restock on boulders? That would explain why they only had a few available by the time they needed to engage us."

Mai breathed a sigh of relief, having admittedly felt pretty stressed about the whole ordeal. "Yeah, but they still had those sheets of rock on the side of the ship, right? Why not use those?"

Realizing that his own heart was thumping hard as hell due to the stress and adrenaline, Xisheng couldn't help but laugh as relief washed over him. "Ha, who cares? Maybe they didn't want to sacrifice their armor to try and attack. Either way, we did it! Haha... whew..."

Even Azula was relieved that the situation was over, but she wasn't going to admit that to anyone, of course. "Shame. We could have taken the ship for sure if they had been foolish enough to come closer! The power of that new attack was too immense for scum like them to withstand!"

"Princess, I don't think I could have managed another one of those..."

"Well then, you'd better start building up your stamina. We will definitely be doing that again, make no mistake!"

Glad that she could even be excited after all of this, Xisheng slumped to the deck and took a seat as the crew started to cheer for their survival. Man, what a hell of a day.

Late into the evening, Xisheng was dozing off at the rear of the ship, on the same bench that everyone had sat on while witnessing the rainstorm a few days ago. He'd been pretty tired after the fiasco with the EKN, but had refused to go to bed early, on the grounds that he could still be helpful. That said, he hadn't actually done much since the fight. Azula had actually given him permission to rest: heck, she'd practically ordered him to before she went about whatever business she had.

Ty Lee had noticed Xisheng's shaking arm not long after the skirmish, and had done some pressure point voodoo to soothe his exhausted muscles before thanking him for his hard work and leaving him to rest for the day. Mai had thanked him a second time for catching her during the fight, but hadn't stuck around much longer after that. Xisheng had hoped a life-or-death encounter would have cleared up the air between them completely, but he figured that was better than nothing. It was progress of a sort.

So really, he hadn't done much the past few hours, and he wasn't doing much now. He told himself that he would enjoy the stars out here at night, but honestly, he'd probably fall asleep before making sense of a single constellation out there. Even now, his head was resting against the cold steel of the cabin, and his eyes were closed. He wasn't quite out yet, but he wasn't aware of much going on around him, that was for sure.

That was probably why he didn't notice that he wasn't alone any longer until he heard the shuffle of clothing right next to him. Cracking an eye open so he could glance over, he was surprised to see Mai sitting beside him, looking up at the stars in his stead. Even though she didn't look at him, she didn't miss his awareness of her presence.

"Hey."

Surprised that this was happening right now considering the past few days, Xisheng was caught a little flat-footed. "Oh, uh... hey...?"

Even though she had been the one to initiate this conversation, the girl next to Xisheng didn't say anything else immediately. Whether that was because she had nothing else to say or because she was wondering what to say next was a mystery to Xisheng. Ultimately though, she did speak, though she didn't say much.

"I'm sorry, Gohan."

"Do you have something to apologize for?"

At this, Mai actually looked at him, though it was a bemused look. "You don't have to try that hard to be nice, you know. I was kind of an asshole these past few days, you can say it."

"Oh? Were you ignoring me specifically to be an asshole?"

"Well, no, but... still, it must have seemed like it from your perspective."

Xisheng shrugged as he glanced up at the stars. "Honestly, it just seemed like you hated being around me for some reason. Probably worse than if you actually were just being a jerk..."

Mai's expression grew a little regretful. "Then I have plenty to apologize for, right? I... probably should have considered that you'd assume the worst if I just didn't say anything at all. Sorry. I didn't mean to make you think I suddenly hated you for some reason."

The exhausted soldier glanced over at her. "Well, then... what actually was going on, then?"

Mai fell silent at this as she pondered what she was going to say. Of course she knew the right answer to this question. Something along the lines of 'sorry, I'm a cynical and pessimistic piece of shit who's afraid of committing to a personal relationship that deep because I'm worried it's all going to crash down on me just like it did the first time'. Well, maybe that was self-deprecating, but now that she'd had some time to herself to ponder why the acknowledgment that she liked Gohan bothered her so much, Mai felt that it was accurate. It really had nothing to do with him in particular. She was just so wary of opening up to someone completely again, only for it to go absolutely wrong. That was the only experience she actually had with romance, after all.

Of course, it wasn't like Zuko specifically had betrayed her trust or let her down. That relationship had crashed and burned mostly due to external factors beyond his or her control. Well, maybe it was in Zuko's control, technically speaking. But she didn't think it was fair to expect him to have accurately predicted how his decision in the war counsel would play out that day.

Point being, that actually made things worse. If she just had to put faith in Gohan's ability to make it all worthwhile, she could actually do that. He always listened to her, always understood how she was feeling or why, always respected her boundaries, and always thought of her safety or happiness. She didn't actually have any fears that he would let her down, personally.

But what could he do against the whims of the damned world? Could he stop himself from dying on one of the many battlefields he'd find himself on in the future? Could he refuse some superior officer if he was sent away to some barren outpost in the middle of nowhere? Could he refuse Azula if she demanded he serve her for his whole career? The problem with her willingness to commit to a relationship that required Mai to put herself out there wasn't the other person, so much as the expectation that something was going to go wrong and ruin it all, and she really didn't feel like going through all of that again.

But she wasn't going to tell Gohan any of this. What would be the point, other than putting a weight on his shoulders that he didn't deserve? All it would do was make him feel inadequate somehow, since it basically amounted to her saying that she couldn't trust him. Even if she argued that it was external factors that she couldn't trust, it just amounted to 'I don't trust your ability to handle hardships that would get in the way of our relationship.' In so many words, it was just a matter of placing more stock in the world's ability to ruin things than his ability to make her happy. A 'I believe you'll lose if it comes down to you versus the cruel world'. Pragmatic, perhaps. But also not a very good place to build a relationship from. Gohan was a pragmatic person, but Mai also knew that he was much more idealistic than her. So she wasn't going to tell him any of this: it would just burden him with an insurmountable goal that he would probably endlessly strive to achieve, and she didn't want to be responsible for all of that wasted time and effort of his.

"...mood swings."

Honestly, Mai didn't think this was a very good excuse. But what else could she tell him to try and rationalize several days of drastic emotional difference compared to what he was used to? It wasn't like she could use her period as an excuse: he'd been around her for several months already and she'd never gone through a drastic mood shift because of that.

Her excuse was about as flimsy as she surmised, since Gohan obviously didn't buy it. "Mood swings...? And this just happens to be the first one you've gone though since we met, huh?"

Mai thought of trying to justify her excuse further, but ultimately found that too tedious. It wasn't like any amount of work shopping was going to make him believe it anyway. "Take a hint, Gohan. All you need to know is that it was me, not you. Let's just go back to the way we were before, alright?"

If he were being honest with himself, Xisheng could admit that he was not at all satisfied with this answer. He was getting a little annoyed with all of this 'problems I have involving you but I swear it's not you' going around. At this rate Azula was going to tell him something similar any day now, and he'd be three for three. He had to admit, it stung a little that his friends wouldn't trust him with whatever these issues were at this point. All it did was make him question their honesty on whether or not he was actually doing something wrong.

But for now, he knew it wasn't a good time to push. Mai had clearly spent several days working through her mystery problem to conclude that she wanted to at least maintain the relationship they currently had. The last thing he wanted to do was give her a reason to reconsider right afterward. So he would settle for this at the moment.

"The way we were before, huh? Does that include me saying anything nice about you, or do you want to cut that part out?"

Glancing away sheepishly, Mai grappled with that question. Rationally, she knew it would be a good idea to tell him to not do that. After all, if she wanted to stay away from a relationship like that, it would be prudent to curb any behaviors that could be construed as affectionate. But, well, she didn't really want it to stop. Unlike Ty Lee, she hadn't exactly gotten a whole lot of attention as a girl throughout her life. She did like hearing him say nice things about her. Besides, she had restraint, right? It wasn't like she'd fall to pieces because of a mere compliment. Even though that was exactly what she'd just done... but not from here on out, assuredly. She just had to get over the initial confusion and uncertainty of her feelings, and decide what to do with them. Which was, of course, nothing. It'd be fine from here on.

"I won't stop you, if you want to."

While he was still a little troubled by all of this, Xisheng figured now was a good time to ride the defused tension into a lighter mood. There was no need to push his luck. "Alright, if you say so. I'm just saying, I might not save you next time if you're being really cranky."

Mai scoffed. "We both know you'd save me even if I was being a total bitch."

"And aren't you glad about that?"

There was another moment of silence between them, though it didn't last long. After all, it wasn't like Mai didn't know the answer to that.

"Yeah... yeah, I am."

Chapter Text

Returning to some semblance of peace after a near-death encounter was always a bit of an odd thing. When close to death, you considered all sorts of deep existential questions, and often convinced yourself that you would radically alter the course of your life if you lived, generally to avoid regrets or something of that nature. But once you actually survived the situation, and your life was no longer on the line, you kind of forgot about that and settled back into your old ways. It was like those people who constantly promised to live a new year differently, but never actually did.

At any rate, it was a bit weird going back to relatively calm sailing on the open ocean after the occupants of the Fire Nation ship had almost been sunk to the bottom of it. But, so it was. The last few days had seen nothing even remotely close to danger following the encounter with the Earth Kingdom Navy vessel. Even Xisheng's personal life had mostly gone back to normal: his odd situation with Ty Lee was willfully ignored, as per the usual. That was easy to do, since they had talked about it a fair deal a few days ago. Needless to say, Xisheng was far from fully appraised of the situation, but he at least somewhat understood Ty Lee's current position on the matter of their relationship with a bit more clarity than before. He wasn't truly content with it, but he was happy to accept his small victories and not push his luck too hard.

As for he and Mai, they had mostly returned to their usual form, what with the introspective conversations, witty sarcasm, and contentedness in being alone with each other. But even though there was a veneer of the old normalcy present once again, Xisheng could tell that some elements of their prior situation still remained: every once in a while, he would notice Mai's expression grow a little awkward when they were talking. She'd get a little quieter and often focus on some far off point, though she never went fully silent or expressed discomfort in any other way. It was obvious that whatever problem had been bothering her a few days ago was not fully forgotten. But it was also obvious that the young woman was trying to push past the issue and not allow it to interfere with their friendship. For now, Xisheng could only hope that his own behavior was helping her overcome her qualms, whatever they may have been. He had some suspicions, of course, but for now he didn't know how to confirm them or even what he would do about it if they were confirmed. It wasn't the same as Ty Lee, who was likely to actually talk to him if he put her on the spot. Mai wasn't the type of person to react to that approach very well.

As for Azula, things were mostly the same as usual, but not entirely. Xisheng had underestimated just how excited she had truly been about their combined Firebending technique on the day of their naval skirmish. She had grown extremely invested in furthering his abilities afterward. Not that she hadn't been invested before, but prior to that fight, the Princess had seen fit to take a more hands-off approach to his advancement: she had provided him with the building blocks and left it to him to actually make something out of it.

Now though, Azula was so eager for him to master the technique that she had been giving very direct and involved tutelage for several hours a day since the skirmish. Needless to say, she pushed Xisheng harder than he likely would have on his own. But at the same time, her direct involvement really did make a big difference. Though it had only been a few days, Xisheng had greatly improved his ability to compress Firebending. He was not far off at all from the benchmark Azula had set for him at the beginning.

Of course, it wasn't like he was actually nearing her level just because of that. The young ruler-to-be made that very clear as she appraised her student on the rear deck of their small vessel, calmly sailing over the waves.

"Frankly, I'd say that using two hands to achieve a goal I set with one is cheating, but... well, I'd be a fool for criticizing the effective use of everything you have at your disposal. Good job, Xisheng, I'm impressed."

Honestly, Xisheng wondered if Azula was even capable of offering a pure compliment that wasn't backhanded in any regard at all. But ultimately, he didn't mind too much. He was too pleased by the very compact sphere of flame held between his two hands: an orange sphere that only slightly flickered in resistance, and sported the slightest of yellow tinges. It was indeed a far cry from Azula's compressed Firebending, but this was a monumental leap in ability considering that he had only recently started training in this technique.

Of course, as Azula rightly pointed out, it did take both of his hands to achieve this result, which was a bit misleading since Azula could achieve the same with just one. Xisheng's wounded arm, bashed by Toph some time ago, was not fully healed, technically. But it was nearly there. Xisheng practically had his full range of motion back, even if using that full range was still quite uncomfortable and even painful at the worst. Even so, it had healed enough by this point that Xisheng could freely use both arms, and compressing his Firebending with both hands made it a lot easier to achieve better results. After all, the ability to split the strain between two limbs significantly lessened the difficulty.

"Thank you, Princess. It's all thanks to you."

The young girl smirked. "Considering that you only even thought to try this technique because of me, yes, that is mostly true. Still, even the best teacher can't turn a hopeless case into a success. Even if you have to use two hands to achieve it, mastering compression to this degree in such a short time is very admirable. Your natural talent and drive to improve are both a large part of that."

Xisheng smiled. Humility still wasn't Azula's strong suit, but she really had become more generous with her praise and support lately. She always worded things in a pretty factual manner, but there was a time when you'd really have to drag any sort of genuine compliment out of her.

"Maybe so, but your focused tutelage these past few days really helped more than any amount of motivation or effort could have. Your explanation of chi management and accumulation really altered how well I was tackling the problem. Honestly, I feel kind of bad that I learn so much from you but never have any knowledge to offer in return..."

Azula's expression grew slightly sheepish for a moment. Honestly, she'd be lying if she said she hadn't learned anything from Xisheng since the beginning of their relationship. Even if it hadn't been in the form of a lesson, he had taught her many things simply by merit of how he carried himself: how to be a better leader, what it was like for those cogs and gears that made up the Fire Nation machine, the consequences and victories that could be the results of a leader's decisions, and the value of honest loyalty from those that served her.

She was not one for humility, but in the confines and safety of her own mind, Azula was willing to admit that she had learned more about leadership from Xisheng, someone who had never even been in such a position prior to their meeting, than her father, the sovereign of an entire nation. A big part of her hated to admit that: Azula truly admired her father and his resolve, ruthlessness, and tenacity. But his lessons on governance had extended little further than imparting some notion of 'be so strong and ruthless that your followers are too fearful to defy you'.

And to his credit, no one had openly defied Ozai and his rule, other than Zuko in that notorious war meeting. In the past, Azula would have considered that more than sufficient, but Xisheng's lessons, intended or not, had changed her perspective on the matter. People often hated things they were afraid of. And when you hated someone, you would often look for opportunities to cause them harm, however slight and inconsequential. Who could say how many servants had spread a nasty rumor? How many officers had sown subtle dissent? How many soldiers would abandon their duties if it came down to their life or their lord?

There was no telling how many malcontents and conspirators Ozai's policy of fearful obedience had created. Whether or not they had done anything so far, their mere existence posed a potential threat to the Royal Family and the government as a whole. Maybe they were too scared to try anything, or maybe they were busy plotting. Maybe they had plots in motion at this moment, and they just hadn't made themselves known yet. Either way, Azula now truly believed that her father's policy on leadership and rule had glaring flaws, though she would likely never share this sentiment with him.

She attributed this shift in perspective to Xisheng's influence, though she supposed it wasn't like he had actually been trying to 'teach' her anything, save one or two times. Azula wasn't sure if she should actually tell the man all of this: it might not be a good idea to tell a low-ranking officer that his actions were turning the political perspective of the Crown Princess against the political policies of the Fire Lord. She trusted him, but that didn't seem like a prudent decision. Still, she had to say something.

"At the very least, you've taught me how valuable the unwavering loyalty of a truly dedicated man and soldier is. I want to be glad for that, but I digress: I imagine the high expectations for my subordinates that you've instilled in me will be constantly met with disappointment in the future."

Xisheng couldn't help but chuckle. "That might be a little unfair to the rest of the rank and file, Princess. I've always been considered overly idealistic and invested by my comrades. People who join the military for a higher purpose are an exception, not the norm."

A little intrigued by this line of conversation, Azula folded her arms and cocked an eyebrow at her partner. "Is that so? Do tell, what else compels one to enter a life such as yours? According to you, your military career has been rife with stress, danger, and occasionally appalling living conditions. That seems like a lot to go into willingly if you lack some noble motivation."

Still attributing some of his focus to the sphere of yellow-orange flame in his hands, Xisheng shrugged. "Well, I'd be remiss to not mention the obvious: not everyone joined willingly. I don't know how this stacks up to the actual average across the board, but the last time we received new recruits on the EK battle line before the North Pole invasion, a little more than half of them had been drafted. There are plenty of people that didn't want to be soldiers and never would have become one if the government hadn't made them."

Azula wasn't sure what to say to that. "Fair enough, I suppose..."

"As for the rest of them, it could be a number of things. But it's usually the inherent benefits of joining the military. Worldwide travel with a bill footed by the government, the respect and prestige you'll have when you return home as a victorious warrior... but for a lot of people, it's just that being a soldier pays pretty well compared to a lot of other viable careers."

This time, Azula scoffed. "Money? Really? How does that make such 'soldiers' any different from mere mercenaries?"

Xisheng offered one of those looks that mildly irritated Azula. The 'you poor ignorant soul' kind of look. She knew he wasn't actually looking down on her, but the thought of someone pitying her lack of knowledge was still a source of agitation. That said, Azula didn't say anything, since she had already asked Xisheng a question and he was about to answer.

"Not to sound accusatory, Princess, but money is a very fair motivator for those who aren't a member of the Royal Family of a powerful nation. Unfortunately, living isn't free for the common masses. Paying rent to a landlord, buying land and paying for the construction of a home, food, clothes, medicine, tools you need for your trade, common amenities... people have to buy these things, and they need money to do it. If you don't make enough money, your quality of living, and that of your family, is in jeopardy. A lot of people do things they don't really want to do just to make enough money to live. That includes soldiers, many of whom enlist so they can make a hefty wage that can be sent back home to support their families."

Once again, Azula found herself unsure of what to say. She sometimes hated how easily Xisheng did that to her. Not that it mattered, since the man wasn't done talking.

"As for what separates soldiers who enlist primarily for the money from mercenaries... well, most soldiers still have loyalty and love for their country. They just want to make good wages while serving it. After all, if money was well and truly the only motivator for those men and women, why not just actually become mercenaries? There's no need to fight for the Fire Nation, submit to regimented subordinate life, or obey the orders of hapless superiors if profit is all you want. You could have much more independence and probably even more money as a mercenary. So, most soldiers do still want to contribute to their homeland, even if that isn't the sole reason they enlist."

Now sensing that he was done with his spiel, Azula breathed a sigh after pondering his words. "Xisheng, doesn't it tire you to constantly consider every perspective and every angle for every person in this wretched world? I never thought that I of all people would say this, but you truly do think too much about everything."

This time, Xisheng was the one who looked a little sheepish. "Well, that's what mind-numbing boredom on the front-lines will do to you... you have to find some way to entertain yourself out there or you'll go crazy. Guess I just chose to become excruciatingly philosophical. I was often told that I talk too much..."

"It's not that, Xisheng. I just don't know how all of this thinking about relatively menial things at every hour of the day doesn't drain you. I'm not sure we've ever discussed something that you didn't have a very lengthy opinion on. I like to dwell on things of import to me, but I honestly believe I could ask you a question about absolutely anything, and you'd have enough thoughts on the matter to write a small book. It sounds exhausting."

Not really sure if Azula was complimenting him, debasing him, or both, Xisheng tried to deny the girl's claims. "Come now, that's an exaggeration..."

Azula cocked an eyebrow at him. "Stop me when I mention something you have nothing to say about at all: economics, the spirits, human nature, colors, social strata, equipment production, political theory, morality, the animal kingdom, anatomy, gender equality, physics, language-"

Xisheng couldn't help but cut the Princess short. "OK, OK, I get it! Yeah, you might have a point..."

"Indeed. Some of those things aren't even important. What could you possibly have to discuss at length about them?"

"Come on, Azula: you aren't the slightest bit curious why everyone in the world speaks the same language even though we have distinctly different cultures? Or how color names are totally arbitrary and you could teach a kid all the wrong names and his idea of 'red' would be 'blue' for everyone else? Why did the Moon spirit take the form of a fish? Is there a physical manifestation of a Sun spirit somewhere? How many people have to agree that something is morally right or wrong before it becomes accepted ethics? And-"

His young conversation partner cut Xisheng short with a raised hand. "Enough, Xisheng. I stand corrected. No, I really don't think about any of that, nor do I care to. Life is too short to dwell on things that have no effect on me, in my opinion."

Even though he had been stopped, Xisheng muttered something under his breath. "Well, some of that has an effect on you, technically..."

Maybe Azula didn't hear him, or she just didn't think it was worth calling out. Either way, she continued with her own piece. "Still... I suppose someone has to think so hard about literally everything. Perhaps you can become a prestigious philosopher one day. So long as you can keep your focus when it counts. Now, I think it's about time you got rid of that fireball in your hands. Your fingers are quivering."

Glancing down at his hands, Xisheng realized that Azula was right. He had been forcefully compressing his bending over the past several minutes of conversation, hardly noticing the strain while engrossed in their talk. Now that he was paying attention again, the soldier couldn't ignore the slight shaking of his fingertips as the exertion continued to press him.

Knowing full well that Azula would rather see the destructive power his bending rather than him allowing it to dissipate, Xisheng stepped up to the railing of the ship and launched the compressed fireball out to sea. It wasn't quite as impressive as Azula's demonstrations, no doubt due to the fact that the bending wasn't as focused as her own. The lance of flame was a little less concentrated and didn't cut through the air quite as cleanly, but it was still a relatively narrow spear of orange and yellow fire that blasted water and steam several feet into the air upon impact. Not too shabby for a technique he had only learned a short time ago.

Azula apparently felt the same way, based on her appraisal. "Not bad, not bad at all... a far cry from our results against that Earth Kingdom ship, but to be fair, half of that was me. Either way, I think it's safe to say that your level of control over powerful chi is close to where it needs to be for... well, for the other things I am thinking of teaching you."

Naturally, Xisheng was excited to hear this. Technically, Azula had yet to actually identify this powerful skill she had in mind to teach him. But he couldn't imagine what else it could be besides lightning. To think, he would become one of the few Firebenders in the entire world, heck, in all of history, to possess such a powerful and legendary skill. He could scarcely imagine it. Maybe his excitement was evident on his face, because Azula commented on it immediately.

"Now, don't get too ahead of yourself, Xisheng. There's more to this technique than being able to control and focus large amounts of chi. This is merely a precursor capability you must possess in order to even dream of the using the ultimate Firebending technique. That said... I can't imagine that you won't have what it takes. Take pride in that: I'm not easily impressed."

Truly feeling the weight of such praise and acknowledgment, Xisheng earnestly thanked Azula for her faith in him. "I appreciate your confidence in me, Azula. I will do everything in my power to meet your expectations."

At this, even the Crown Princess couldn't help but smile a bit. "I know you will. That's a large part of my assurance. That said, we can't start right away. It will have to wait until we are on land once again."

Xisheng merely cocked an eyebrow at this, which was question enough in and of itself. Azula clearly picked up on the implication of his gesture, because she explained things to him immediately.

"What I have to teach is one of the most closely guarded secrets in all of Firebending. Simply put, I will not speak of the intricacies of this technique while those I do not trust implicitly are in earshot. There is nowhere to go on this ship to ensure that there are no eavesdroppers at any point in time. It will have to wait until we can be certain that we are alone to practice."

Admittedly, Xisheng was a little disappointed that he would have to wait even longer after his hopes had been gotten up, but at the same time, he understood Azula's reasoning here. Besides, he was a little happy about what she had said about implicit trust and who was included in that fold.

"I understand, Princess. But until then...?"

"Until then, keep practicing your compressed Firebending. The greater degree of control you can muster, and over a greater amount of chi, the better prepared you will be for mastering lightning. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to consult with the captain and see just how long we'll have to wait before making landfall."

Announcing her exit, Azula offered a slight wave along with it before taking her leave. Xisheng merely waved back, doing his best to rein in his excitement. It wouldn't do to waste all of that energy being giddy if it was going to be several more days before he was able to do anything with it.

The last few days of sailing to their destination were excruciatingly slow. They trudged by at a snail's pace, thanks to many factors. Aside from the typical monotony of traveling by sea, Xisheng's routine every day was practically identical. All it involved was sleeping, eating, and training. He'd wake up and eat whatever was being served to the rest of the crew, because even if Mai would tolerate cooking something in the later hours of the day, she was certainly not willing to get up early and do the same for breakfast.

Admittedly, going back to typical military rations after eating anything made personally by someone was kind of debilitating. Though he knew it was nowhere near the same as a married couple, Xisheng couldn't help but feel much happier eating something he knew was made with him in mind to some extent.

After that, he would assess the current situation on the ship, which was always the same: nothing out of the ordinary, with everything proceeding as planned. The only plus here was that Ty Lee would always be on the deck somewhere, going through some stretches in the light of the morning sun. Naturally, Xisheng took some time each morning to talk with her, but nothing of particular note was discussed on any of those days. Her wound was healing nicely, to the point that it hardly bothered her any longer. She always asked how his training was going and what he was writing about, but that was about it. Still, even though the conversations were merely casual exchanges, they were nice. The whole point of being comfortable with someone was that you didn't have to make every interaction something particularly deep or meaningful.

From then until lunch, Xisheng would continue training his compressed Firebending technique. For hours at a time, he would simply stand or sit around, and commit his time to trying to squeeze that sphere of flame smaller and smaller. With such focused commitment, he had made some more progress, being a mere hair's breadth from Azula benchmark. But at the same time, he'd discovered new problems with the whole thing.

It was difficult for him to focus so intently on just this one thing, especially when he had to do it everyday and the progress was so painstakingly minimal compared to his investments in time and effort. You had to focus so intently, with such dedication to the one singular goal, and Xisheng... wasn't really good at that. At all. Sure, he could focus on an important task, in a manner of speaking. But his focus always encompassed a dozen aspects of the situation at hand.

For instance, when they had fought Aang and his friends in Gaoling: his focus had been on the fight, but it had really been on many different aspects of it. What would the Avatar do next? Would Toph intervene? How were his allies faring? What would happen to the war effort if they won? What would happen to them if they lost? Should he strike high or feint low? All of this and more had constantly been on his mind while they were fighting.

This wide scope of awareness and forethought was helpful in many ways, particularly when it come to strategic planning and long-term prediction, but it was detrimental when you really needed precise, nigh unflinching focus on one singular thing. For instance, this compressed Firebending training. He needed to focus on one thing and one thing alone: the process of condensing his bending to a particular level. Everything else was irrelevant to his training.

But everything else still occurred to him anyway. Was there a better method to achieve the result he wanted? What if he couldn't do any better than this? Would Azula be disappointed in him? It wasn't just doubts either. Tactical applications, the value of this technique compared to others, how it could be applied to other aspects of his skill-set, how it could synergize with the abilities of his allies... even though he knew these tangential thoughts were impairing his progress, Xisheng couldn't prevent them from arising, nor could he completely stop himself from entertaining them. He just wasn't built that way. He was a thinker. He thought about everything, all the time, and he couldn't help himself.

Perhaps Azula had been right about this aspect of him being a liability as well as a boon.

While he certainly wasn't able to train with maximum efficiency due to this reality, it wasn't like Xisheng wasn't progressing at all, so at least he avoided the despair that an absolute skill plateau would have caused him. When lunch rolled around, he took a break and partook in it, then allowed his body to rest from its fairly intense chi exertions by getting more chi blocking tutelage from Ty Lee. Mostly theoretical aspects of the skill, considering their limited training space.

Azula would inquire about his Firebending progress and focus on direct tutelage for a few hours, then Xisheng spent what was left of the evening writing in his newly minted journal until dinner, after which he spoke to Mai for a time if she felt like talking, or retired for the night if she didn't.

All in all, the days were hardly bad by any stretch: but with an eagerness to finally get to land, not only for a change of pace but also to potentially learn one of the most legendary Firebending techniques of all time, Xisheng was utterly exasperated with how slow they passed. Heck, by the fourth day, he was mindlessly staring out to sea in the early hours of the morning, having stopped near the ship railing before even getting to the spot on the deck Ty Lee was usually doing her thing.

He wasn't really staring at anything. Just the great beyond, as the encompassing feeling of dreadful boredom and lacking motivation encompassed him from seemingly nowhere. Perhaps he had just been keeping it contained over the past few days. Damn, was this what Mai felt like when she was bored? No wonder she was willing to try almost anything to get a break from it.

For a moment, Xisheng pondered whether or not he really wanted to repeat the same routine again today. Obviously, the answer was no, but ultimately, that didn't mean he wouldn't. A big part of discipline was pushing yourself to do things you didn't want to just because you knew you needed to. Still, it was difficult to muster up the motivation...

Before he could possibly talk himself out of the whole ordeal, Xisheng's thoughts were interrupted by a clanging bell echoing through the communication pipes. For a moment, he was worried about its meaning, but it wasn't as urgent of a tempo compared to how the bell was used when something was actually wrong. This seemed more like something that was just used to get the crew's attention.

"Attention all crew, land ahead! Prepare to bring the vessel to shore."

Some other instructions were mentioned after this, but Xisheng didn't hear them. He was too busy getting excited over the news itself.

"Thank you, finally!"

"Tell me about it!"

Apparently, the soldier was so happy that he hadn't even noticed that he'd said that aloud. He did, however, recognize the voice of Ty Lee, who was walking up to the front of the ship where he was standing. Maybe she was coming up here to try and see the supposed land they were approaching. Either way, she continued her sentiment without pause.

"I can't wait to be off of this thing! I mean, it wasn't all bad with the captain's medicine, but I'll be much happier with solid ground underneath me again."

Xisheng smiled in understanding. "Sounds like something an Earthbender would say as opposed to the two of us. But I don't disagree. You don't realize how small a ship like this really is until it's all you have to look at for a week or two."

Now standing beside him near the ship's front railing, Ty Lee leaned over it a bit to peer out to sea. "That's way too true. But you know, I don't really see anything out there..."

Xisheng followed the girl's hazel gaze out to sea, noting that he also couldn't see anything that resembled land. "Well, the guys on the bridge have telescopes. I'm sure it will be a bit before we can see what they're seeing. But as long as someone sees it, that's good enough for me."

While she'd been happy for a moment, Ty Lee's face fell for some reason not long after Xisheng said this. "Yeah..."

Naturally, the soldier in question didn't miss this. "Something wrong? I can't imagine what part of finally landing would make you feel bad."

His comrade's expression grew a little sad. "Well, it's just that getting back on land means getting on track to more fighting, right? Other than that scary run-in with the enemy ship, this voyage was peaceful and relaxing, if a little boring. I kind of liked knowing that there wasn't much fighting to expect while we were riding this thing."

He hadn't thought of it that way yet, but Xisheng supposed that Ty Lee had a point. The encounter with the Earth Kingdom Navy had been a totally unexpected development. Aside from that, they had spent most of this leg of the trip feeling at ease and not expecting to engage with any danger. Something about that was kind of nice. Once they were on land again, they would surely be wasting little time in proceeding towards Ba Sing Se, which was expected to be one of the fiercest battles the war had seen in years.

Sure, they were technically riding this boat to move towards Ba Sing Se in the first place, but since it was just a transition period between ground travel, it had been easy to compartmentalize and ignore that aspect of the journey. That would be hard to do once they were on the ground again, since they would inevitably lay eyes on the giant walls of Ba Sing Se eventually.

"I get what you mean. But don't worry about it too much, Ty Lee. There's no way you'll be expected to fight at Ba Sing Se. That's a job that will be left up to soldiers like me."

While he thought this would be reassuring, Ty Lee's expression made it clear that it didn't ease her nerves at all. "Exactly. I don't feel better knowing that you're going to be in danger even if I'm safe."

Even now, Xisheng wondered how such sentiments slipped by his awareness sometimes. Of course it made sense that his friends would worry about him fighting a major battle. That only made sense. Maybe he always overlooked that because he took his participation in combat as a given. That was his job, after all.

"Well... maybe it won't be directly on the frontlines. Unless she relinquishes me to another commander, I'll still be answering directly to Azula at Ba Sing Se, and I doubt she'll be leading a charge right on the frontlines. Though I also doubt she'll sit back and choose not to participate at all..."

"I hope she does. A Princess should command from the rear, right? At least then we'll all be safe..."

Noticing the wishful look on her face, Xisheng refrained from saying what he was thinking. He didn't just doubt that Azula would sit out of the fight, he knew that she wouldn't. She just wasn't that type of person. They would fight in the battle, it was just a matter of how. Still, maybe it was possible she would leave Mai and Ty Lee out of it. They weren't soldiers, or any form of representative of the Fire Nation military. It would make sense to leave them out of an official engagement.

Xisheng's silence must not have been lost on Ty Lee, as she clearly picked up on his deeper thoughts, to some extent. While it could only have been a guess, she did a good job at nailing what he was thinking about. "Well, that's probably wishful thinking since we're talking about Azula. But I guess it'll be better if we get to fight together as a group. At least then I can protect you."

Ty Lee gave him a beaming smile at this, which caught Xisheng off guard. He hadn't expected her to carry such a sentiment, at least not specifically in regard to him. He couldn't help but smile back. "Hold on now, it would be even better if you didn't have to protect me. Hopefully I can take care of myself."

His partner cocked an eyebrow at him. "Aren't you the one who always talks about how no one person can be ready for everything on the battlefield?"

"Well, yes... but still, that doesn't mean I can't try to ensure none of you have to risk yourself to cover me."

"I guess that's fair... even so, you always protect us in fights so well. I'd like to be able to return the favor to you one of these days..."

While the sentiment was sweet, Xisheng couldn't help but frown at its mention. Prior to now, most of their combats had been fairly tame. Sure, Katara had actually gone for a killing blow in their most recent conflict, but that was about the only time their fighting had escalated to that level during their journey. At Ba Sing Se, it would be a full-blown military operation. Soldiers fighting soldiers, doing their best to kill each other at every opportunity. If there was a moment when Xisheng was in danger and needed to be protected... it was likely that protection would necessitate killing his attacker. Frankly, he didn't think Ty Lee was ready for that kind of thing. And if she somehow managed to bring herself to do it in the heat of the moment... he didn't even want to think about what that would do to her.

But he certainly wasn't going to say any of this to her. These concerns were valid, but there was no point in burdening Ty Lee with these thoughts long before they would be relevant. It would be far better to end this on a good note as they moved towards the next leg of their journey.

"I'll be glad to have you at my side regardless. I'll do my best to protect you too."

Ty Lee smiled at him, clearly happy to know he trusted her. Xisheng smiled back, doing his best to hide his dire thoughts for the near future.

Though they hadn't been able to see the shore when it was first announced that they were near it, it only took about an hour to make landfall after said announcement. The place they landed was nothing special: the foot of some cliffs that led up to the edge of a forest, with nothing of note present in the vicinity. Quite frankly, it seemed like they had decided to land at the very first point they had been able to lay eyes on.

Then again, Xisheng wasn't particularly surprised by this. For one, he certainly hadn't expected a Fire Nation base to be out here, as it was far too deep in EK territory. Secondly, there wasn't much of actual value out here as far as cities were concerned, and that meant few landmarks were marked on maps either. Oddly enough, the land to the Southeast of Ba Sing Se was mostly uninhabited, save for scattered, small villages. Maybe that made sense, since the Earth Kingdom hadn't been in much of a position to expand over the past hundred years or so.

Point being, they were far away from any other signs of civilization, which raised an important question: where were they going to go from here, and how? Certainly, the nearest Fire Nation base had to be several days of travel away, and that was if they had a vehicle like the Overlord available to them. Needless to say, the small boat that had ferried them here had been unable to bring along anything of that size. There just wasn't any cargo space for something like that.

That said, if they had to walk to the nearest Fire Nation outpost, which was probably quite far to the west of Ba Sing Se, they'd be on the road for weeks, if not months. Surely that wasn't the plan. At the moment, Xisheng didn't know how they were going to tackle this problem, but he was fairly confident Azula or someone in this outfit had a plan to get around it. After all, surely the Princess had considered this problem long before they had ever set sail in the first place.

Still, he was curious to know what the exact solution would be. Right now, the crew of the small tug was just finishing up with camp: after some time at sea, no one was going to frown on the chance to sleep on solid ground for as long as they had to be here. Considering the crew was only about fifteen men, said camp consisted of little more than a few tents and a patch of dirt carved away to make space for a campfire, but anything felt pretty good after sleeping on a rocking boat.

Placing down a crate of some food that he had helped carry to their new campsite, Xisheng glanced around to see where everyone was, or more specifically, where Azula was. He figured the best thing to do was just ask her about their next step. Thankfully, with a small camp and a small number of people around, it wasn't particularly hard to do that: off to the side, away from the bustling hands of the rest of the crew, Azula stood talking with the Captain, along with another of the men, who was currently tending to a large red-feathered bird of some sort. Xisheng wasted no time in moving towards them, so it didn't take long to pick up on their discussion.

"Do you know how long this is going to take?"

That question was asked by Azula, directly to the crew member with the large bird, which looked like some sort of hawk. Xisheng recognized it as one of the common messenger birds often used by the Fire Nation military, but off the top of his head, he didn't actually know what species it was. The man in question looked a little nervous to have the Princess speaking directly to him, but to his credit, he kept it together pretty well.

"I'm afraid I can't say with exact certainty, Princess. There are many factors that could impact the time frame in question, such as weather and hunting for food, but... I estimate it should only take about three or four days."

"In its entirety, or just to get there?"

Perhaps seeing a followup question as a sign of unhappiness, the sailor balked a little, but he ultimately reclaimed his nerve. "T-that's just for the bird to reach its destination, your Highness. I can't speak for how quickly the unit it reaches will respond..."

Azula looked a little miffed to hear that, but seemingly understood that the person in front of her couldn't be held accountable for what other people somewhere far away did or didn't do. She noticed Xisheng approaching them before she could respond directly to the statement made by the sailor.

"Ah, Lieutenant. I assume you are here to be appraised of the situation?"

"Yes, Princess."

The young girl motioned at the red-feathered bird not far from her. Said creature was remarkably well-mannered and quiet, though that was to be expected of any animal trained for military use.

"Well, as you can see, there's nothing of note around here, and as I'm sure you know, we are quite far to the southeast of Ba Sing Se. Wherever the nearest Fire Nation outpost is, it is undoubtedly somewhere to the west of Ba Sing Se, quite some distance from us. Needless to say, walking is not an option. Fortunately, we have a means of long-distance communication with us, since this problem was fairly easily to predict from the outset of this journey."

Xisheng glanced at the bird the sailor next to the Captain was holding as Azula continued. "This creature will make its way to the nearest possible Fire Nation outpost, relay our message, then guide a detachment with suitable transport back to our location. At least, that is how I believe this works."

Azula glanced at the sailor with the bird again, though the Captain spoke for him this time. "That is correct, your Highness. Not to worry, the hawks of the Fire Nation are some of the best trained messenger birds in the world. We'll have transport for you and your allies in no time."

Honestly, Xisheng was curious to know how that all worked. How did the bird know to fly west? What was stopping it from going east, or even straight north to Ba Sing Se? And even if Azula and company didn't move from this very spot, would it really be able to fly several dozen miles away, then fly back to this exact destination? That sounded kind of crazy.

Then again, he didn't know what these birds were capable of or what their training was like. There were some pretty amazing animals out there: you had mountable reptiles that could run over water, buffalo that could fly, and according to one story he had heard, some sort of shrew thing that could allegedly track a scent anywhere around the world. It wasn't too far-fetched to think that a bird had really good navigational ability.

"Sounds quite impressive. I suppose that means we'll be staying out here for at least a week?"

"So it would seem. Admittedly, I'd prefer to be on my way sooner than that, but I understand that there's nothing to be done about it. You and I will have some things to attend to during that time, but for today, you may relax. There is little for any of us to do other than wait."

Since he had been given express permission to do so, Xisheng bowed before turning to take his leave. Admittedly, it was a little weird to be ordered to relax right after landing, but he supposed Azula had a point in saying there was nothing else to do. Setting up camp for such a small contingent of people was already over and done with. Considering they were practically in the middle of nowhere, there was effectively no need for a patrol either. It would be prudent to have a sentry just in case, but that job would probably fall to someone else.

As for training with lightning... well, originally Xisheng had assumed that Azula wouldn't do that until their group had separated from the ship crew. But now that they were going to be with them for some time still, perhaps the Princess didn't want to wait so long. They'd probably just remove themselves significantly from the camp to train when that time came. Xisheng couldn't imagine what else Azula could have meant when she said they would have some things to attend to. It made sense anyway: Azula wasn't one to let an entire week go by without anything meaningful being achieved.

As for relaxing for the rest of the evening, that wasn't terribly hard to do: with everyone happy to be on land again, the crew broke out 'the good stuff' though it didn't really mean much more than a keg of barely passable alcohol and some rations that weren't the kind intended to last for six months. A far cry from a truly great meal, but it probably seemed great for the average enlisted trooper.

Someone started a campfire, and crates, suitable stumps, or simply clean patches of grass became everyone's seats. The light revelry began soon after, since there was almost no concern of being seen or heard out here. Even though that was the case, Xisheng didn't partake in any of the drinking: for one, he didn't see the appeal in it, himself. He preferred to remain in full control of his mental and physical faculties at all times. Two, he had seen what became of a drunk man when he got ambushed. Surviving a surprise attack was hard enough when you weren't wasted. You were either doomed yourself or putting a great burden on your allies if you weren't even in full control of yourself when an attack happened.

Sure, Xisheng highly doubted that they would face any danger out here in the wilderness, but that was what he had thought about the open ocean as well, and they had almost been killed out there. He'd prefer to play it safe. As for everyone else, the young soldier admitted that he was pretty curious about what they would do. Mai and Ty Lee were technically allowed to drink if they wanted to, by the most common Fire Nation laws. Azula technically couldn't, but she was the Crown Princess. It wasn't like anyone could stop her if she wanted to do it. That said, Xisheng couldn't imagine that either Mai or Azula would be able to stomach the cheap swill being passed around right now. Ty Lee, maybe, but that was only because Xisheng had no clue what she may have actually gotten up to in her circus days.

So far though, he hadn't seen any of the girls drinking. Ty Lee had been persuaded to put on a little bit of an acrobatics show by the eager crew: something she seemed to be having a lot of fun with, if the smile illuminated by the campfire were any indication. Ordinarily, Xisheng would be a little concerned about a young girl putting on a physical performance for a crew full of slightly intoxicated men with little female interaction. Not to say that all soldiers were degenerates, but he knew how taxing it could be on one's restraint when you ended up stationed at a base with no women for months on end. There were women in the military now, but Xisheng hadn't seen any at the outpost before they left.

But he trusted these guys, for the most part. Aside from the fact that their cheering and clapping and weirdly innocent praise for Ty Lee's performance didn't put off any bad vibes, Ty Lee herself seemed to trust them. By the way she'd talked during the sailing trip, she thought well of the crew. Based on a few things he'd heard in passing from the crew members themselves, it seemed they saw Ty Lee in a sisterly way more than anything else. Or maybe like a mascot. Either way, Ty Lee was a good judge of character most of the time, so Xisheng wasn't worried if she wasn't.

Besides, it wasn't like anyone could get away with much considering the situation. If Ty Lee didn't drop an assailant herself, said assailant would have to worry about her friends that would almost definitely be within thirty feet of her for most of this camping trip.

As for the other girls, it was difficult to pick Azula out in the darkness that had fallen over the wilderness, but a quick glance at the tents made it seem like she had retreated to the one she had claimed for herself. At least, her empty boots outside the entrance indicated as much.

Xisheng couldn't find similar signs of Mai hiding out in one of the tents, but he couldn't spot her anywhere around the campfire either. Well, that was no great surprise: she probably wasn't the type to care for all of the hooping and hollering going on right now. Still, after making a few glances around the immediate area, he was just slightly worried about her location. It was quite dark away from the fire, and unless someone had lit a torch for her, which he hadn't seen happen, it wasn't too far-fetched to imagine that she had tripped out in the dark somewhere. And with all this noise going on, they probably wouldn't hear her calling for help.

OK, so maybe that was all a bit paranoid and extreme, but Xisheng was thinking about it now, and it wasn't like he had anything better to do. So he rose from the dry stump he was sitting on, which caught Ty Lee's eye in the middle of one of her handstands. Answering her quizzical expression with a gesture of his own, Xisheng made it obvious that he was just walking away for a bit. The brunette seemed to get his message readily enough, as she simply smiled and waved as he made his exit: he wasn't sure if the chorus of cheers from the crew was them teasing her over that direct interaction, or just them being impressed that she didn't even need that second hand to hold herself up.

Leaving those sounds behind, it quickly grew quite dark for Xisheng, with the cloak of night before him and the firelight some way behind his back. He had half a mind to light a flame of his own to see, but on second thought, he elected not to. A firelight would illuminate his immediate surroundings, but make it very hard to see beyond that. He'd be better off waiting for his eyes to adjust to the dark: there were enough stars in the sky, along with a half moon, to illuminate the wilderness well enough.

After standing around for a minute or two, Xisheng was able to see in the dark much better, though it didn't initially help him with his search. He didn't see Mai anywhere in the immediate vicinity, at least not in the direction of the forest. He couldn't imagine that she would have wandered so far as to not be able to see the light of the camp, since Xisheng knew for certain that she wasn't that reckless. Still, he supposed she could have been reclining against a tree at an angle that was impossible for him to see.

Before committing to searching the forest, the young soldier perused the opposite direction, which mostly involved the cliffs that overlooked the ocean. It was grassy enough at the top of them, and there were a few rocks suitable for reclining against, so it wasn't totally out of the question that she would be around there...

Wondering how long it would be reasonable to search before becoming legitimately worried, Xisheng was not initially met with success as he searched in this direction with a sweeping gaze. However, upon a return inspection, he fared better: one would think that Mai's extremely dark hair would make it difficult to see her in the dark, but oddly enough, it was quite the opposite. The blackness actually stood out against the background, an inky dark spot that broke up the consistency of the sky and stars beyond. Maybe the relatively brightly lit sea helped with that.

Either way, Xisheng took a moment to wonder if he should bother the girl considering that she had clearly elected to be alone in the first place. But ultimately, he decided there was no harm in approaching. If she expressed a desire to be alone, he'd stop harrying her immediately.

With that thought in mind, the young Firebender approached quietly, not because he was trying to, but because the soft grass under his feet muffled his footsteps. It only took a few moments to come up behind Mai, who was reclining against an outcropping of rock and gazing out towards the ocean.

"I see our sailing trip has awakened you to the beauty of the open ocean, Mai."

Xisheng was a little worried that his sudden appearance would startle Mai, but she seemed perfectly calm as she glanced over her shoulder at him. Perhaps she had heard him coming, or she just wasn't prone to jump. Whichever the case, she replied to him immediately.

"You say that like it's terribly hard to see the open ocean in the Fire Nation. I have seen it before, you know. Honestly, the view is hardly any different here than it is anywhere else."

Turning her gaze back to said ocean, Mai smiled just slightly. "Still, I guess I didn't bother to just sit and stare at it for very long before. I'll admit, it has some charm once you stop to appreciate it. Particularly at night."

Following her gaze out to sea, Xisheng took note of the view. The water was quite clear, but in the darkness it was easy to see the bright reflections of the moon and stars, distorted only by the rhythmic passing of waves, the light sloshing of which could be heard even from up here. Indeed, it was even more amazing at night.

"I can't disagree with you there. For all of the drawbacks of being a solely island nation, I've always appreciated the Fire Nation's shores. Nice views, relaxing sounds, ocean-scented breezes: it's a nice plus. Kind of weird that a bunch of Firebenders have such a close societal relationship with water..."

Mai didn't say anything back to this immediately, prompting Xisheng to recall his earlier concern. "Anyway, I didn't mean to bother you, if you want to be alone. I just wanted to make sure you were alright out here. I'll return to the others, then..."

Xisheng didn't even get very far in turning around before Mai stopped him. "You don't have to leave if you don't want to. I mean, I did kind of want to be alone, but mostly just because everyone is so loud over there. I don't mind company, if it's you."

Admittedly quite happy to hear this, Xisheng took a seat next to Mai. The outcropping of rock she was leaning against was big enough for both of them, but that was fine. He had spent plenty of time in his life sitting without back support.

"High praise: I'm starting to wonder if anyone else receives such privilege from you."

The girl next to him picked up on his jesting tone without issue. "Probably not. I don't really consider you a person in that sense."

Needless to say, this exact phrasing threw Xisheng off, though he didn't immediately jump to conclusions since he figured Mai would extrapolate. Still, he did offer the young woman a confused expression, which didn't go unnoticed. Mai grimaced slightly upon acknowledging how her words had sounded.

"Yeah, I guess that probably sounds incredibly harsh... I don't really mean it in a bad way. I'm not quite sure how to put this, since I've never really had to explain it before... does dealing with people ever exhaust you, Gohan?"

Xisheng pondered his answer for a moment. "There's certainly people that exasperate me when I have to deal with them. But 'exhaust'? I don't know. Depends on what exactly you mean by that."

Mai glanced up at the stars as she internally questioned how to explain something that sometimes felt unique to her. At the very least, no one had ever expressed a similar sentiment to her directly.

"Well... I don't know, imagine it like the Overlord's engine. Throughout the day, being around people and interacting with them, it's kind of like putting coal in the engine. It's draining. And limited. If you keep shoveling coal in there, eventually you run out, and the engine doesn't burn anymore. I've got some coal every day, but when it runs out, I don't want to be around people anymore. I need time to myself, time to 'stock up' on more coal before I can tolerate being around others again. Pretty much everyone takes some coal to be around: strangers, my parents, Ty Lee and Azula... it's just a matter of how much they take."

Admittedly, Xisheng didn't really understand this line of reasoning, at least not as far as sympathy was concerned. Sure, he understood what Mai was saying: many introverted people needed time to themselves away from others on a regular basis in order to function normally. But he wasn't such a person himself. He liked having time to himself, but he didn't strictly require it. So, he understood the sentiment, he just couldn't sympathize with it personally. He didn't get to comment on this though, since Mai had to finish her thought.

"Then there's you... being around you doesn't seem to take any 'coal'. You don't even bother me when I'm already at the point where I don't want to be around anyone else. That's what I meant when I said you don't really count as a person in that sense. Unlike literally everyone else, I don't mind having you around at any time: it doesn't feel any different from being alone. I never really acknowledged it before, but that really does make you..."

Perhaps realizing where she was going with this before she actually spoke, Mai petered off, a somewhat bashful look on her face. Still, the word 'special' wasn't hard to pick up on even in the silence. Truly, now that she thought about it, Mai admitted that the whole thing was quite unique. Obviously her parents had always been the type of people to drain her, what with all of their demands on how she should act. She got along with Ty Lee and Azula, but even then, there was enough personality friction in some spots to make them a drain as well: just not a terribly taxing one. Even back when she and Zuko had been close, there had come a point every day when she'd prefer to be away from him for a time. He would occasionally get too loud, too ardently fervent about some lofty ideal, or just a little too whiny about life's travails. She hadn't held it against him, but he had fallen into the category of 'draining' just like everyone else, even if it hadn't been very severe.

What was it about Gohan that set him apart from all of those people? Apart from literally everyone else she had interacted with throughout life? Well, maybe it wasn't that hard to figure out: he understood her. He knew what got on her nerves and was always mindful to avoid those things. He never pressured her into anything, no matter how minor. He didn't try and force her to express herself if she didn't want to, didn't try and force her to have opinions about any particular thing, didn't try to force her to care about stuff that was only important to him. Granted, there were other people in her life who had never done those things, but those people had always expressed some sort of disappointment in her for failure to do them on her own.

Gohan not only didn't pressure her into anything, but it also wasn't a matter of him just pretending he was unbothered. He well and truly was perfectly accepting of how Mai was. He was fine with the way she acted, spoke, and thought at all times. Even if he didn't agree with something she said or did, he never actually condemned it on its own merits. There was never some backhanded remark about her being grim, or some passive aggressive comment about never smiling, or an accusatory assertion that she wasn't feminine enough. Everyone else in her life had, at least once, asserted that she would be 'better' if she changed in some way, but Gohan never did. Mai felt that he was perfectly content with her as she was, that he never looked at her and thought she was inferior to some 'better future self'. And thus, she was perfectly content around him.

It seemed that he really was quite special.

Perhaps misunderstanding the silence, or perhaps just feeling that it would be better to avoid a long silence at all, Xisheng spoke up. "Well, I'll admit, it sounds a lot better when you word it like that. I'm glad I manage to not tick you off even when everyone else does."

Admittedly, Xisheng somewhat doubted the absolute validity of Mai's words. After all, not very long ago at all she had been going to great lengths to avoid him. But then again, it was possible that this and that weren't the same. Maybe her motivations for avoiding him back then were wholly separate from this. Maybe, odd though it was to believe, the problem really had been her, and not him. Well, everyone needed some time to themselves to work things out occasionally. Either way, Xisheng wasn't going to express such thoughts. No need to ruin a good thing.

"And can I just say how amusing it is that the Overlord left such an impact on you, to the extent that you'd even turn to it for an analogy? And here I thought you didn't miss it at all."

Admittedly glad for a lighthearted diversion from their previous topic, Mai rolled her eyes. "It was a fitting analogy, alright? Don't look too far into it. It was still a bitch to sit in that chair."

"Come on, wouldn't you want to drive it just one more time? Maybe shoot some harpoons at a boulder for old times' sake?"

"Yeah, yeah... maybe just one more time."

For better or for worse, the rest of the night was spent with little focus on matters of intense import. Perhaps that wasn't a great use of anyone's time, but at the very least, it was relaxing, and no one was displeased with carrying on as they always did. Even so, there was no denying that new thoughts had taken root in a few minds, to be pondered in perpetuity, or until they would one day no longer be needed.

One thing that Xisheng hadn't particularly missed about regular army life was sleeping among lots of other people. Whether in the field or in the barracks, it was hard to deny that sleeping alongside many other soldiers was tough. Especially if any of them were loud sleepers. But the first night on the new shores of the Earth Kingdom, Xisheng hadn't been forced to return to that lifestyle, even though he had expected to. When he was ready to sleep for the night, one of the crew informed him that he had his own tent, as specifically instructed by Azula.

Subtle though it was, it was well and truly clear that he existed in a different echelon of value to her than common soldiers. Not that he had been unaware of that fact, but it was still a little shocking to know that Azula thought of such a small comfort on his behalf. That such a thing had even occurred to her at all spoke volumes of his current station.

Part of him was worried that the rest of the crew would be a little jealous about that, but after the escapade with the Earth Kingdom Navy vessel, Xisheng appeared to be on their collective good side. Made sense: he had played a vital role in keeping everyone alive there at the very end. Besides, it wasn't like this was really any different from the ship. He'd gotten his own small cabin there as well, rather than being forced to sleep in the crew quarters.

Either way, he had spent the night in a small but enclosed tent, which was nice. Unfortunately, he didn't get to enjoy the quiet of slumber for nearly as long as he would have liked. He wasn't quite sure what time it was when it occurred, but at some point in the early hours of the morning, Xisheng heard the flap to his tent being pushed aside, accompanied by a surge in brightness from the rising sun outside. Before he even got a chance to really respond to any of this from the grogginess of sleep, Xisheng heard what he could have sworn was a stifled yelp as the tent flap was closed once more, and quite suddenly.

Well, that warranted investigating. Especially since there were only three girls in camp, and it certainly wasn't any of the crew who had made a noise so... cute. Still, having been in the depths of slumber when this occurred, it took Xisheng a good minute to sit up, shake the stars out of his eyes, and stretch a kink out of his arm, coincidentally the one that had spent so long in a sling. Only after that did he manage to actually crawl towards the tent flap and push it open so he could appraise the outside world.

First, he noted that it was barely dawn. The sun was only just now rising above the horizon. It just happened to be at an angle that let it shine into his tent when the flap was open. Secondly, Azula was standing not far from said tent, with her back turned to him and fingers pinching the bridge of her nose. Of special note was the lack of her usual armor, which, in hindsight, Xisheng had rarely seen her without. Sometimes he forgot how slim and petite she really was under the imposing armor that added artificial broadness to her shoulders.

Either way, Xisheng was curious to know what was going on here. No one else appeared to be up at this time, so it wasn't like anyone else could have intruded on his sleep other than Azula.

"Uh, Princess?"

In what was a very rare display of nervousness, Azula jumped a little as she glanced over her shoulder at him, which seemed a little odd since she surely must have expected him to exit the tent after an intrusion. Or perhaps she hadn't thought he'd actually heard any of it. Either way, Xisheng noted that her face was beet red for some reason, almost matching the shade of her clothes. In this moment, she looked like a startled deerhound that had accidentally stumbled onto another animal. Needless to say, this wasn't a look Xisheng had ever seen on her, and he wasn't sure what to make of it. Granted, the early amber lightning of the dawn may have been responsible for the color he thought he was seeing, but still, her expression was confusing to him. Unfortunately, having just returned to the land of the living, he wasn't in any mental shape to start unraveling the mystery.

At any rate, Azula turned away from him almost immediately, crossing her arms and attempting to come off as nonchalant. Unfortunately for her, her nervous tone of voice, higher pitched than usual, betrayed her. That was to say nothing about the sense of her trying too hard to appear normal. She was way too stiff.

"Ah, X-Xisheng, good morning! What awakens you at this hour?"

The sleepy soldier cocked an eyebrow at her. "Uh, I'm pretty sure you did?"

"N-nonsense, my footfalls are hardly that loud. Surely you must be mistaken."

Xisheng squinted at the young girl's back, keenly aware of the fact that she was pointedly looking away from him and fidgeting a bit more than usual: fidgeting at all was more than Azula usually did. It didn't take an engineer to see that she was lying, and not very well at that, which was immensely surprising for her of all people.

Xisheng could press her on this matter further, but was it even worth doing so? The likely outcomes were that she would either continue to deny whatever was happening or she would get angry with him for not taking a hint. Besides, it always seemed smarter to him to investigate these odd moments in silence than to let people know he was thinking about them too hard, especially when said people were obviously trying to downplay the situation. For now, he'd let Azula think he was fooled. There was plenty of time to ponder this odd exchange later.

"I suppose so. I did have some weird dreams throughout the night, so maybe that just woke me up. Still, what are you doing up at this time?"

Under ordinary circumstances, Azula probably would have been very wary of things going this smoothly. But at the moment, she seemed more than content to accept what seemed like a win on the surface. "Well, I was coming to get you. I told you we would have things to do this week."

"That you did. This early though?"

"Of course. We have a long and hard-"

For some reason, Azula's face took on a bit more of that crimson hue for a moment, as she caught herself and rephrased. Very curious.

"-a task that will require a significant amount of time and effort to accomplish. E-especially if we wish to accomplish it before feasibly engaging in some battle once again. We mustn't let any time go to waste!"

Honestly, Xisheng was still really curious about Azula's odd behavior this morning, but knowing that she was referring to new lessons on the most powerful art of Firebending, he promptly shelved those thoughts in favor of the latter. Today was the day he might learn to control even the frightening power of lightning. He couldn't help but allow the thought of it to dominate his mind.

"Very well, Princess. I'm sure you know better than anyone. Just allow me to don my boots, and I'll be ready."

Honestly, Xisheng considered putting on his armor as well, even though it wasn't like he would really need it for anything. He was just so used to wearing it that he almost felt naked without it. But at the same time, he figured it would be nice to be free of the extra weight for a day. Besides, he didn't know what this training would entail, and perhaps the armor would get in the way. For now, he'd leave it in his tent. The possibility of needing it for some reason didn't leave his mind completely, but statistically speaking, he knew it was very unlikely, so Xisheng was comfortable enough with that knowledge.

Apparently, his decision to not further prod Azula about her odd behavior helped the young girl regain some semblance of stoicism, as by the time Xisheng had his boots on, she appeared to be back to her normal self. "Come on, then. We must find a place suitably removed from camp to train. I told the Captain last night to inform his men that they would do very well to stay far away from us during this training, but you never know what fool will disregard threats of death."

Xisheng cocked an eyebrow at Azula as he began to follow her away from the camp and towards the forest surrounding the camp. "Threats of death? Surely that's a bit dramatic..."

In stark contrast to but a few minutes earlier, Azula glanced back at him with deadly seriousness. "On the contrary. Bending lightning is one of, if not the most closely guarded secret in Firebending. I cannot allow that secret to be revealed to anyone that I don't trust implicitly."

Knowing full well that she wouldn't joke about something like that, Xisheng posed a question now that they had left the camp far behind them. He didn't know how much of this conversation was sensitive information.

"If you don't mind me asking, why is that? I've seen you use it, so I've no doubt that it's immensely powerful, but to be guarded that carefully?"

Azula returned her attention to the forest around her, likely looking for a suitable location to carry out their goals. "There are many reasons, I suppose. For one, it gives the Royal Family an edge in public perception. Our political system heavily relies on public perception of us being the most powerful and most suited to rule. Possessing a special technique that is nigh unheard of outside of the Royal Family certainly helps with that. On the other hand, it's just dangerous to have such a powerful technique available to the masses. It has the greatest range of all Firebending techniques, is extremely lethal, and even as far as I know, cannot be countered short of the attack being blocked or outright missing. It would be a very powerful tool of assassination. Call it paranoia, but I think it's fair that the Royal Family wouldn't want it to be common knowledge."

"Can't be countered...? Why? If a Firebender can generate lightning in the first place, it stands to reason that another Firebender could control it just like fire, right? You know, like when an opponent takes control of your fireball after you launch it."

To this, Azula merely shrugged. "Simply put, it's too powerful. I tried many times when my father was teaching me the technique. Loathe as I am to say it, even I could not exert my will over a bolt of lightning after it was in motion. With normal fire, you generate the attack, but it is easy to restrain and control. Lightning is also generated by you, but within moments it becomes too powerful to contain. Think of it like an explosion that occurs almost as soon as you light the fuse: while you may have been the one to light said fuse, the strength of the actual explosion is beyond your ability to control."

As the two of them continued walking even further from the camp, Xisheng figured he may as well keep asking questions. After all, this knowledge was all going to be relevant very soon. "But you said the entire reason I needed to learn compressed Firebending was to see if I could control large amounts of power. If lightning is too powerful to be controlled, what was the point of that?"

"That's a fair question. But you may as well wait for an answer until I am explaining the entire process, yes? It will make more sense in that context anyway. Besides, you won't have to wait long for it: I believe this location is far enough away from camp to avoid prying eyes and ears."

Looking around them, Xisheng noticed that they had stopped in a very small clearing. Honestly, calling it a clearing at all was probably a bit generous. There was only about thirty feet of space between any one tree and the one opposite of the clearing. "Here? There's not a lot of room to maneuver..."

Azula waved off his concern. "That's of no consequence. Generating lightning has little to do with the legs. You can perform the technique without ever moving from the place you stand, so a great deal of space is not necessary."

Considering that he had seen Azula generate lightning before in just such a fashion, Xisheng figured he wouldn't inquire any further on that front. Seeing that he wasn't going to ask anything else right away, Azula wasted no time in beginning her explanation of firebending's most legendary skill.

"Chi comes in two forms. Xisheng. Or rather, chi itself is a combination of two different types of energy. The physical, and the spiritual: yin and yang. All humans possess yin and yang energies, but they combine into chi on their own. This occurs naturally without any will or intent on a person's part, like our hearts beating or breathing. This is because the yin and yang energies are always striving to be together, to coalesce into a unified whole. Understanding this aspect of chi is the core principle behind generating lightning."

While he didn't quite understand where exactly this was going, Xisheng was at least following Azula's logic right this moment. "Alright..."

"These yin and yang energies may come together naturally, and there's nothing a bender has to do to make it happen. However, a Firebender can force the opposite to occur: you can separate the yin and yang energies from each other, dividing them into their raw states. It's incredibly taxing and can only be done very briefly, but that is all you need. You see, the yin and yang energies combine rather gently when left to their own devices. But when you forcefully drive a wedge between them, that changes. They struggle to reunite, pushing against the wedge holding them apart. When you take that wedge away, that reunification is unnaturally sudden, and thus, rather violent. There will be an explosion of chi unlike anything you have felt in normal firebending, and you will have to control it for the briefest of moments. That is why I had you train in compressed firebending before coming to this."

Xisheng stood quietly as he took all of this in. So far, it was all making sense. "I see. Er, what happens if you can't control that explosion of power? And how long do you actually have to control it?"

Azula focused her gaze on him. "Only for a moment. A split second, really. In fact, it's nearly impossible to hold onto it longer than that. Compressed firebending is as close as you can get to a similar experience, but make no mistake, it's several magnitudes less powerful. You cannot hold onto the power of lightning the same way you would a compressed flame. While difficult, you could feasibly compress firebending for several minutes and contain it without risk. Lightning is a different beast. As for what happens if you can't control it for the brief time it is required of you... suffice to say that the result is excruciating."

Considering that Azula had learned to bend lightning herself, and that she had admitted once to having to master things with time and effort just like everyone else, Xisheng couldn't help but feel a little anxious. What would someone like Azula consider 'excruciating'? Then again, he'd probably been hurt a lot more often than she had, so maybe her perception of pain was biased? Even so, that thought was only a small comfort.

"Well, I'll pretend that doesn't make me nervous."

"I'd say that you don't have to worry too much, but if I'm being honest with you, Xisheng, you will probably hurt yourself at least once or twice. I don't think anyone could master this skill without trial and error, seeing as how lightning bending is unlike any form of firebending you have done before."

"How so? Well, other than the whole separating yin and yang thing, of course..."

Azula took a fighting stance as she directed her attention to one of the nearby trees. "Unless you are an amateur, fire is always under the control of a Firebender. It does as you will, and does not stray from your control unless you allow it. Lightning does not bow to any master. Unlike typical firebending, which is well and truly manipulating an element in its entirety, 'controlling' lightning is only a matter of guiding its power in a direction of your choosing. Recall our explosive analogy: you can light the fuse, and you can choose where the explosion goes off, but you cannot actually control the explosion. You can only affect where it goes, and there is no stopping it once it occurs."

The Princess made a windmill like motion with one of her arms. "When you generate lightning, there will be an explosion. It cannot be contained, only directed."

She made the same motion with her other arm. "The explosion will start in your abdomen. It will attempt to spread throughout your body without direction or restraint at a frightening speed."

Azula pulled both arms together for a moment, the tips of her index and middle fingers on both hands hovering close to one another. "You must control it for a brief moment. Just long enough to guide it from your abdomen, through you torso, along your arm and through your fingers, to achieve...this."

The young girl jabbed her right arm forward, and a blue and white flash of light erupted from her fingertips. With the short distance between herself and the target, Xisheng barely caught a glimpse of the white streak of lightning she had created before it impacted a tree before them with an earsplitting crack. While Xisheng barely saw the actual attack, the aftermath was more than clear: the trunk of the target tree had split asunder, with its innards aflame. One half of the tree was falling to the earth moments afterward, thanks to the now lacking support of its destroyed trunk. The thud of the treetop colliding with dirt was difficult to even hear over the ringing in Xisheng's ears and the crackling flames that danced inside of the poor pillar of nature.

Releasing a breath, Azula glanced over at him as Xisheng admired her handiwork. "I promise you, anyone who had been hit by that directly would be dead. And though I hate to admit it, this isn't even the full potential of lightning. My father could generate a strike like that in the blink of an eye."

Xisheng swallowed hard, admittedly quite stricken by the destructive power of Azula's attack. It was hard to imagine what a direct hit against a human being would have looked like. For the briefest of moments, he had qualms about actually learning this, but ultimately, such doubts were swept away. If he did use this technique to take someone's life in the future, it wasn't like it was any different from doing it with any other method. If anything, an attack like this would probably result in much less pain simply by merit of how swift it did its work.

"It's truly incredible, I must admit. Do you... really trust me to learn this?"

Oddly enough, Azula actually seemed a little surprised by this question. It wasn't often that Xisheng expressed doubt in himself like that. "Well, I certainly trust that you won't use it for anything that would make me regret teaching you. As for whether or not I believe if you can master it at all, I wouldn't bother even trying to teach it to you at all if I thought otherwise. Try not to get too big of head, but... you are the best Firebender I know personally, outside of my family. You have my confidence on this matter."

Hearing all of that from Azula, and quite earnestly at that, Xisheng's doubts faded away. Certainly, Azula was someone who was certain of what she saw in others. He would surely meet her expectations. He had to.

"Thank you for your faith, Azula. I know that's not something that is given lightly."

Seeing that he was in a better mood, and specifically thanks to her, Azula hid a smile of her own by turning towards the tree she had destroyed a moment ago so she could smother the flames with her firebending before things got out of hand.

"Yes, well, let's focus on the actual mechanics of you pulling off this technique, shall we? The most important part of this entire technique is being able to separate the physical and spiritual energies that make up your chi, something you've never been required to do for any other firebending technique. Separating the physical energy is easy enough: you have plenty of experience in manipulating your chi from a physical point of view. It's the spiritual side of things that will be difficult to grasp at first. After all, it's difficult for some people to even get a firm grasp on what 'the spirit" is. What defines a person's spirit, Xisheng?"

Admittedly, this was kind of a hard answer to provide. After all, the concept of the human spirit was a little abstract. One could argue that it was like a person's soul, but then you had to ask what defined a person's soul, and that question was just as tricky.

"Well, uh... a sense of self, I guess? One's thoughts, emotions, consciousness, and the like. I can't really think of anything else that would describe a person's spirit, as it were."

"It's as good of an explanation as any, isn't it? And probably quite close to the truth. After all, would you say that anything lacking those qualities has a spirit? Rocks? Grass? Water? Spirit is a combination of all the things you mentioned, the things that separate the sapient from the inanimate. That said, mental and emotional control are how one goes about manipulating their spiritual energy. To bend lightning, you will need both in spades: razor sharp mental focus and perfect emotionless clarity. Only then will you be able to manipulate both your mental and physical energies to generate lightning."

Xisheng's face fell almost immediately upon Azula's words. Those sounded like the exact things he had serious problems with. Well, not the emotional clarity part: he didn't have too much issue with emotional turmoil even at the worst of times, in his opinion. But razor sharp mental focus? Exactly how sharp really was that? Would an errant thought interrupt the whole process of generating lightning? If something else demanded his attention in the middle of a fight, while he was generating the attack, would it fail? If he allowed any part of his mind to wander somewhere else, no matter how important that somewhere else may be, would it prevent him from accomplishing his goal? If any of that was true, well... suffice to say, it would likely end up being the largest obstacle he had ever faced in training for any skill.

But he didn't raise these concerns to Azula. The last thing he wanted to do before he even tried was plant the seeds of doubt in her as to whether or not he could do this. Because he didn't say anything, Azula took this as a sign to continue her explanation.

"Once you have the ability to separate your yin and yang energy, it's just a matter of holding them apart for a moment to facilitate that explosive reunion. Once that happens, it will be quite similar to your compressed firebending training. You'll have to contain that immense power, prevent it from flowing into your body as a whole and ensure that the path of least resistance is through your arm and out of your fingertips. Just do what you did before with your firebending, except, instead of compressing the energy from all sides, you'll compress it from every side except one: the one direction that you want the energy to flow."

Still worried about the spiritual side of this entire exercise, Xisheng acknowledged what he was being told, but nothing more. "I understand..."

Azula cocked an eyebrow at him, a little surprised that he had no questions or comments. "Is that so? Well, the good news is, the first part of your training is mostly going to be nothing more than meditation. After all, you've never had to manipulate your chi in such a specific manner before. You likely don't even know how it feels to try and pick out the specific elements of your chi to manipulate them in the first place. You won't be moving onto anything physical until you can manage that part. Unfortunately, that is also a part I can't directly help you with. I can't exactly tell you how to meditate, or how to search within yourself, or how to best 'feel' what you need to feel. I imagine everyone has different ways of doing those things, and you'll have to figure out what works for you."

The Crown Princess turned towards the general direction of the camp they had left behind. "That also means I won't be staying with you for this part of the process, seeing as how I have nothing to offer for it. If anything, my presence would only make it more difficult for you to achieve the focus you need. Plus, I'm sure I can find something valuable to do with my time rather than sit around and watch you meditate, don't you think?"

Secretly, Xisheng was glad that Azula apparently had no intention of sticking around at this juncture. That would make it much easier on him, as he grappled with some serious problems that he could already foresee with this training. "Indeed, Princess. You're right on all of those points. Am I right in saying that I should remain out here for the day?"

"Well, unless you make some sort of incredible breakthrough that would require you to fetch me for guidance on the next step, that would probably be for the best. Though I of course won't fault you for returning for food when you require it. I have no other responsibilities for you to attend to until we leave this place, so you may as well devote your time fully to your training."

"Very well. In that case, I'll begin right away. Don't wait up on my account. I know your time is precious."

Frankly, Azula felt that her precious time had been perfectly well-spent this morning, but she wasn't going to say that out loud. "Indeed. Carry on, then. I will be at the camp."

With farewells said, it wasn't long before Xisheng found himself alone deep in the forest, with only the occasional chirping of birds to disturb the quiet. Taking a deep breath, he glanced up at the sky and contemplated the imminent travails of his life.

"...shit."

The first day of Xisheng's training was very uneventful. He sat alone, in a pose one would normally adopt for meditation, and tried his best to gain a new understanding of his chi and the elements that comprised it. On the surface, that sounded like a pretty easy thing to do, but it wasn't really. How did one just... 'feel' something they hadn't before? Especially something so vague? It was like asking someone to feel the actual functioning of an organ or something. You couldn't really just sit down and actually feel your lungs working. Sure, you could feel it in the sense that they pushed on other parts of you body as you breathed, but you didn't actually feel the lungs.

Or, if you could, it was probably a feeling that barely ever registered in someone's mind. After all, the brain liked to do this nifty little thing called ignoring the sensation of natural bodily functions. If you were constantly aware of every bodily function happening naturally all the time, that would be maddening. So the mind tuned those sorts of things out. Sometimes, you could focus on them intentionally and feel them again, but it wasn't always easy. Needless to say, chi, or rather, the yin and yang energies combining to make chi, was a natural process that most people weren't even aware of. So it was mentally difficult to actually pinpoint it, to even be aware of it and how it felt.

Needless to say, it was harder to gain new awareness of one's internal body and mind than it seemed. It was also especially hard for Xisheng.

As he had already come to realize, he was not the meditating type. There were two types of meditation: the type where you focused entirely on one thing, and the type where the goal was to become so unaware of your surroundings that you entered some sot of zen state. Xisheng was not suited for either of these, for the same particular reason.

He was a mental wanderer, and someone who saw everything as part of a larger web of relevant thoughts or possibilities. Hearing the crunch of a branch in the woods wasn't something that just passed over him without import. He had to ask what made the noise, had to consider whether or not he should be concerned, had to ask what had led to the noise and if the thing that had caused it was a potential problem. Thoughts like that led to thoughts of what kind of wildlife may be out here, and what he might need to do if something dangerous came across him. And thoughts like that led him to wonder whether or not the camp sentry was paying attention all the time, and whether or not the camp had the proper gear with them to tend to a serious injury if one occurred.

This was just how Xisheng was. An integral part of his consciousness. He was always paying attention to his surroundings, and always considering the far-reaching implications of things that occurred to him, even if he could acknowledge that those implications were unlikely to matter. Some might call this a lack of mental discipline, but he thought it was a form of mental discipline in its own way. Sure, there was value to being able to hyper fixate on one thing and one thing alone, but there was also value in being able to spread one's focus along a broader spectrum.

Still, whatever value it may have had, it didn't help Xisheng in this particular endeavor. There were moments of internal clarity as he tried to focus on his chi and its flow, but they never lasted long. Needless to say, instead of making one big breakthrough with this, he was putting it together piece by piece. By the end of the first day, Xisheng was fairly certain that he had at least gotten a feel for both the yin and yang energies of his chi, but he hadn't possessed enough time to actually attempt manipulating them in any way.

He had spent practically the entirety of that first day away from camp, and didn't make it back until night had already fallen and most everyone was asleep, so Xisheng ended up eating alone and going to bed without speaking to anyone. The following morning, he reported his progress to Azula, who, to her credit, didn't seem displeased with what Xisheng considered slow progress. After that, he had returned to the same place in the woods as before, and continued his training.

Aware of what he was working on today, Azula had recommended that Xisheng start very, very small. To separate the yin and yang energies in a very small amount, and for a very brief period of time. No point in trying to generate a full power bolt of lightning on his first try, when he didn't even have a feel for it in the first place.

Unfortunately, even starting small was turning out to be a problem for Xisheng. Manipulating the physical part of his chi was easy: it was the spiritual part that refused to cooperate with him. And without that, the whole thing was bust. If you were trying to pull something apart, you couldn't do that by pulling on just one side of it, because the other side would move with it. You had to pull from both ends. Being able to manipulate the physical energy alone didn't actually help Xisheng separate it from the spiritual energy, which was required to generate lightning at all.

Undoubtedly, the issue was that 'razor sharp mental focus and emotional clarity' thing that Azula had talked about. You needed both to be able to manipulate your spiritual energy, and due to not having one, Xisheng was pretty sure he didn't have either. He'd focus for a time, but inevitably lose it before achieving any type of result. Was there a better way to do this? Did some workaround exist? What if he just wasn't capable of it? Would Azula be disappointed in him?

Thinking those things invariably brought other thoughts to the fore, any one of which was enough to ruin Xisheng's attempt at bending lightning. Naturally, such failures frustrated and agitated him, further compounding the problem. And that was to say nothing about the anxiety and fear he felt at the notion of just not being able to do it at all. He was one of the few people in the whole world being granted the privilege to learn this legendary technique. He couldn't be incapable of it after that.

The second day ended with no results. For his own sanity, Xisheng told himself it was only due to problems that could easily be overcome the next day.

His report to Azula that day had earned a momentary frown, but ultimately she'd taken it in stride, and offered advice that likely sounded quite helpful from her point of view. Things like 'focus on the moment' and 'pretend that nothing else anywhere matters'. She'd talked about certain bending motions, but the problem was that she took for granted that Xisheng could get to the part where lightning was being generated in the first place. But even so, Xisheng hadn't told his teacher that such advice was worthless to him. For him, focusing on a moment meant acknowledging all of the things that one moment affected. As for trying to ignore everything that mattered except what he was doing, he was incapable of doing that too. Those other things did matter, and he couldn't just eliminate awareness of them from his mind at any time. He just wasn't built that way.

Maybe he should have told Azula that his problem wasn't the actual bending, but rather the required mental and emotional state to make it happen. But for once, irrational fear won out over common sense. If he told her that, she might just write him off as having the potential to do it. After all, it wasn't like she could alter how his mind worked. So he didn't say anything. He'd figure it out by himself, let her think he was just having a little trouble with the spiritual energy bit, but that he would definitely get it and then return to her for guidance on the actual lightning bending. He didn't want to disappoint her.

Needless to say, Xisheng hadn't been in the mood to casually spend time with anyone on the second night either.

The third day was when Xisheng's frustration reached new heights. Having spent all morning to focus on this mountain of an obstacle, Xisheng had also skipped lunch to continue his seemingly fruitless efforts at generating lightning. It was currently that one hour that existed between afternoon and dusk, and the soldier was no closer to his goal than he had been the day before. At this point, he was beyond mere frustration. He was furious, entirely at himself for being so useless. The strongest technique in all of firebending, which he had only been taught the secret to thanks to the incredibly valuable trust of the Crown Princess, and and he couldn't fucking do it. It was maddening.

Desperate to make any sort of headway, Xisheng was essentially just trying to brute force it now. Something he was pretty certain he wasn't supposed to do. Maybe if he allowed his anger and agitation to hone his focus for just a moment, he could do it. Azula had talked like the whole process lasted just a moment. Surely, one moment of complete and total mental focus, even combined with a tumultuous emotional state, would be fine, right? If he could just generate the lightning to begin with, it was just a matter of guiding it physically. He just had to get to that part.

So he threw the controlled option to the wind. Xisheng channeled the components of his chi as best he could: in his uncontrolled anger, the physical energy was easily manipulated, yanked away from the spiritual probably a bit too hard. The spiritual energy failed to completely separate itself from the physical, still following it as it was pulled away, but Xisheng was certain that he had managed to separate some of it. Who cared if it was a clean separation? Supposedly, all you needed was for yin and yang to violently recombine. Did it really matter how much or how little, or if there was more physical energy and less spiritual energy reuniting?

Somewhere in the back of his mind, Xisheng knew that it did. That was why, just before those energies messily slammed together due to their incomplete separation, a thought intruded on his focus.

I really hope this doesn't kill me.

The yin and the yang slammed together, completely without balance due to the inherently unbalanced way they had been separated in the first place. There was indeed an explosion of power in Xisheng's abdomen, far beyond anything that he had experienced in firebending. It was also completely and totally without any semblance of control. In must have only been a split second, but Xisheng could feel it spreading out in all directions from the center, racing towards every inch of his body. Problem was, it wasn't doing it equally: perhaps because of the unbalanced nature of the reunion, the energy was spreading haphazardly, with more of it expanding one way than the other, some of it barely moving at all, and the rest doing whatever the fuck it felt like. There was nothing remotely predictable or structured about it.

Fearful, Xisheng instinctively tried to force force the energy towards his right arm, but that was immensely hard to do considering how wildly it was spreading. He couldn't tell how much he needed to push back and where, or where he needed to let it pass so it would really go where he wanted it to. It was impossible to really tell any of that thanks to the unpredictability of it all. This was probably why you were supposed to separate and combine the energies in perfect equilibrium: a balanced reunion of the two energies meant a balanced and predictable spread of energy from the point of impact, which would be much easier to guide.

By some miracle, Xisheng briefly got the explosion of chi under control, clumsily directing it mostly towards his arm, though not without a great deal of pain as it struggled to move fluidly. Maybe it was the fear and racing thoughts, or maybe it was because he just had no experience trying to control power of this magnitude, but Xisheng only partially succeeded in guiding the energy away. He managed to guide it to his shoulder, but lost his already tenuous hold at that time. A searing pain shot through both his left arm and his left leg a split second after losing that control, to say nothing about the way his abdomen cramped with more force than he thought possible for human muscles. There was no crack of lightning, no brilliant blast, just the sound of Xisheng crumpling to the ground unceremoniously as he folded in on himself like someone who had been knocked unconscious.

For a few moments, Xisheng was unable to do anything other than contort in pain, gritting his teeth as the sensation of burning limbs took over his left side. That said, it was nothing compared to the agony in his lower torso right now. He was cramping so uncontrollably that it was actually impossible to straighten himself, and he imagined the pain must have been similar to how it felt to be skewered on a blade.

Even several moments later, when the cramps subsided somewhat, the downed soldier was only able to cough and gasp as his torso was allowed to relax somewhat. Once he caught his breath though, it wasn't used for anything worthwhile.

"Fuck! Shit! Son of a bitch! D-damnit..."

Slamming the one fist that wasn't shaking uncontrollably into the ground, Xisheng cursed at the darkening sky above him. This was just too cruel. What ungodly twist of fate had decided that this would happen? He would rather have just never been given the opportunity to bend lightning at all, rather than receive said opportunity only to be unable to make anything of it.

The soldier took a few deep breaths to try and calm his frustration as he crossed his one alright arm over his eyes, but it didn't really help. That was probably why he didn't notice the sound of anyone else in the clearing around him.

"Gohan? H-hey, are you alright?"

Removing the arm that obstructed his vision, Xisheng was surprised to find Mai peering over him, a genuinely obvious expression of concern on her face. Oddly enough, the first thought that occurred to him was not an answer to her question at all.

"Mai... what are you doing out here?"

"Got bored, decided to take a walk. Stumbling across you wasn't hard after you started yelling."

Ordinarily, that sentiment might have been a little amusing, but for obvious reasons, Xisheng couldn't find any humor in it right now. Either way, Mai redirected the conversation back to her initial question. "Gohan, are you hurt? Your arm, and your leg... and, um... your face..."

She seemed a little sheepish at that last part, which was a little confusing. Xisheng touched his hand to his face, noticing that it was a bit wet. There had obviously been a few tears shed. Ironically, Xisheng was pretty certain they were tears of frustration, and not pain. The excruciating pain he had suffered was of that odd variety: so intense that you rarely shed tears over it. Perhaps Mai was sheepish to point this out because many men were embarrassed to be caught crying. Well, whatever. Xisheng wasn't so insecure about his image that he thought it ruined by such a thing.

"I'm... fine. Just training."

Mai glanced down at Xisheng's left leg, which was still constantly twitching, though not as badly as his arm was shaking. The look on her face was clearly unconvinced. "Uh-huh... you don't really think I'm going to believe that, right?"

"I meant I'm fine as in I'm not dying, not in regards to not feeling pain, or that I'm not bothered by anything."

This clarification obviously didn't make Mai feel any better about the situation. She knew what he was up to out here, since Azula had been quite eager to state, and quite proudly, that he was learning to bend lightning when Ty Lee had asked where Gohan was. Azula had mentioned that it would be difficult, but Mai hadn't expected something like this.

"I think you need to take a break, Gohan. For the rest of today for sure. Maybe tomorrow, we should practice some knife-throwing instead? It's been awhile since-"

Mai didn't get to finish her suggestion, since Xisheng snapped at her for what may have been the first time since they met. "Dammit, Mai, I'm trying to master the most valuable technique in all of firebending! I don't want to learn how to throw a fucking knife!"

Considering that it had never happened before, Mai was totally unprepared for this angry response, even recoiling out of her leaning position. Hearing something that hurtful from Gohan was the last thing she had expected, honestly. And man, it seriously stung. It always hurt more to hear something like that from someone you didn't expect it from.

Xisheng covered his eyes with his hand and took a deep breath, which caught a bit as he did so. "I'm sorry... you didn't deserve that."

Breathing a sigh of her own, Mai crouched down to get a closer look at her friend. "I sure didn't, jackass. You want to tell me what that was all about?"

Xisheng uncovered his eyes so he could glance at Mai again. "You aren't angry? I just said something pretty horrible to you."

"Well, I'm not going to pretend it didn't hurt. But I know you, so I know better than to take it too seriously. Plus it took you all of two seconds to sincerely apologize, so I can't be too mad. It's not like I can say that I've never lashed out at someone either. But I think this is the first time you've ever done it, so you know I can't help but ask."

Xisheng sighed. "Not like there's much to say about it. It's exactly what I said: I've got the chance to learn one of the most closely guarded techniques in all of firebending. Something a mere handful of people around the entire world know how to do. It's the literal definition of chance of a lifetime, and I... can't do it. I can't make anything of it. I can't believe I could have gotten so astronomically lucky only to have it end up like this."

Mai shifted around so she was sitting next to Xisheng instead of peering over him. Seeing as how he was laying flat on the ground, she took it upon herself to assume a similar position, so they were both looking at the sky. "You can't do it, or it's just something you aren't able to do now? Because if it's the latter, I don't think you need to rush this super special technique so much. It's not going anywhere."

"If only it were the latter... part of pulling this technique off without ending up like this involves something that's just... not how I work. And I tried, but I don't think I can do anything to change that. I mean, how do you just stop being you, even for a moment? The fact that I'm the only thing holding me back makes it even more frustrating."

The girl next to him kept her eyes on the sky, perhaps making a game out of picking out the stars that were slowly becoming visible. "You know what I hate the most in this world, Gohan?"

"Uh, orange?"

Though they were having a serious moment, Mai couldn't help but scoff. "No, you idiot. It's when people casually ask or tell me to change how I am, like it's not a big deal to do that. 'Mai, just smile more. Mai, just care about this thing for once. Mai, stop thinking the thoughts you think, or acting the way you are, or saying the things you do'. When people don't understand that doing any of that means not being myself, and that you can't just expect people to stop being themselves because you suddenly want them to. I hate that more than anything."

Xisheng stared at the sky as well, contemplating what Mai had said. "I get what you're going for, but isn't this a little different?"

"How so? If there's really something about this technique that's just incompatible with who you are, you can't do it. People can change as they grow, but if it was something like that, I don't think you would be this distraught. The way you've described it, the barrier to accomplishing this goal of yours is a fundamental part of who you are: something that's never going to change no matter how much you want it to. And if that's true, then every moment you spend trying to make this work is a moment you could dedicate to something else worthwhile. Besides, I can't think of any fundamental aspect of who you are that I dislike, so if something had to change for you to bend lightning, I don't think I'd be very happy with it."

While he knew that she was trying to alleviate his stress on the whole matter, Xisheng wasn't sure if he fully agreed with what Mai was saying. "Still, to just give up on learning something this rare and exclusive? Doesn't that seem premature?"

Mai shrugged, moving a bit of grass with her shoulders. "Depends on if you believe it's actually achievable or not. Giving up is when something could be done, but you just don't want to do whatever it takes to make it happen. Stopping yourself from continuing with an impossible task is just having a brain. Look, I can even use an army analogy for you: if I told you to defeat an army of ten thousand with five guys, is choosing not to do that giving up or just common sense? Or, what if I demanded that you take off into the air and fly like a bird right now? You can try to do that, but it won't work. If you stop trying, is it because you're giving up or because you know there is no point in attempting the impossible? If you ask me, there's a big difference between the two."

Xisheng couldn't really deny any of that. It was kind of weird to be on the receiving end of wisdom from Mai. Not that he thought she lacked wisdom, but she usually wasn't the one giving such lengthy and detailed advice. She had a knack for it though. In fact, it seemed she wasn't even done.

"And let's say that learning to bend lightning isn't really impossible for you, but just insanely difficult. So difficult that it'll take months or years and some unholy, unfathomable amount of effort to make it happen. Is achieving it worth all of the other things you could do with that time and effort? Maybe you could learn whole different skills with that time and fully master them. You could get really good at some other part of firebending, like that thing you did with Azula on the boat. Or you could make an entirely new technique, one that will be more useful to you or, hell, even be better than lightning bending in some ways. I get that bending lightning is super rare or something, but the difficulty of acquiring something doesn't make it any more valuable."

"I think most of the world would disagree with you on the correlation between rarity and value, Mai."

"Most of the world is stupid. The only things that have any value in this world are the things you put value on. I hear gemstones are pretty rare. Lots of Fire Nation nobles pay ridiculous prices to get one. As far as monetary value goes, they're definitely worth something. But I don't care at all if I have one. They're worthless to me, even if they're rare. Meanwhile, my knives aren't really that rare at all. They could be made pretty easily by anyone who knows how to smith, and even if they aren't identical, there are plenty of knives out there that are functionally the same. But they're valuable to me, because I decided they would be. Lightning bending is only as valuable to you as you make it, and if it's actually unachievable for you, then it's functionally worthless. A single minute spent on a goal you can achieve is more valuable than a thousand hours spent on a goal you can't. After all, time is the only valuable resource available to everyone."

Xisheng pondered all of this silently. He certainly couldn't deny some of the truths Mai was stating. Indeed, the value of anything in this world was subject to one's own perception of it, and time was one of the only objectively valuable things anyone possessed. It was also true that even the smallest amount of time well-spent was worth any amount of time spent on the impossible. But was it impossible? As Mai had said, maybe it was achievable, but it would require a massive investment of time and effort. If that were so, was it worth all of the other things he could do with those resources? And who knew? Maybe he would make some sort of breakthrough with the technique with just a few more days of training?

To all of this, he didn't have an answer. At least, not right now. But it gave him plenty to think about, and it had certainly taken the edge off of both his pain and his frustrations. "Y'know, Mai, I think my philosophical side might be rubbing off on you."

Finally glancing over at him, Mai cocked an eyebrow at him. "Don't give yourself too much credit, it's not like I didn't think about this kind of stuff before meeting you."

"Yeah, but did you ever wax so eloquently about all of it to other people? This whole conversation was mostly just me listening to you."

At this, the girl did look a little bashful. It was actually pretty rare for her to dominate a conversation like this. "Yeah, well, don't get used to it. I only have to get like this when other people need help getting their shit together."

"Yes, well, speaking of needing help, I might need a little bit to get back to camp."

The soldier motioned towards his left side, where both limbs were still a bit jittery. Not shaking nearly as badly as before, but it was still noticeable. Mai imagined that said limbs probably felt like jelly. Heaving a sigh, Mai pushed herself to her feet so she could help Xisheng stand.

"Fine, come on. Geez, I didn't expect to have this much work come out of a walk in the woods..."

Even with half of his body feeling much less solid than usual, it didn't take terribly long for Xisheng to get back to camp with Mai's help. It wasn't like he had to lean his total weight on her or anything: he just needed someone else to do the job of his left leg, which he wasn't sure would be able to actually handle walking right now.

That said, entering camp in such a manner didn't go unnoticed by anyone, as it was pretty conspicuous. Most of the crew around camp just offered quizzical looks. The first person to actually approach them was, naturally, Ty Lee. As always, she did nothing to hide the concern on her face.

"Hey, what happened?! Gohan, are you alright?"

Not willing to go into a full explanation of what had happened, Xisheng gave the acrobat a curtailed version, which mostly amounted to assurances that he wasn't seriously injured and that she didn't have to worry too much. As with Mai back in the woods, Ty Lee looked skeptical of these assurances. However, she didn't get much of a chance to press him on it, because the brief commotion didn't go unnoticed by Azula, who appeared out of the camp while the others weren't looking. The expression on her face was a little harder to read. Her brows furrowed, her lips pressed into a thin line, she said nothing at first, simply grabbing Xisheng's left arm and undoubtedly taking note of the slight shaking that was still plaguing it. Only after making that assessment did she speak. Her voice was stony, difficult to interpret on tone alone.

"Take off your left boot."

Absolutely confused about this order, Xisheng nevertheless did as he was told, using the stability Mai was still offering him to remove the designated article of clothing. Once it was off, Azula spoke again. "The sock as well."

Still confused, Xisheng obeyed, unsure of the purpose of all of this. Even after the sock was off, he didn't know why this had been asked of him. He began angling his foot around so he could look at it. The top of his foot looked fine...

At some point he angled the bottom in Ty Lee's direction, which prompted a hissing noise and a grimace. Xisheng knew that combo well enough: it happened every time a soldier showed off a gnarly wound to his comrades. Sometimes it was accompanied by an appreciative whistle, but Ty Lee didn't seem the type for that. A little nervous to look at whatever the brunette had seen at this point. Still, you couldn't tend to an injury if you didn't look at it, so he raised his foot enough to get a view of his own. Naturally, this meant Mai was able to see it as well.

"Oh, damn. You didn't feel that while walking back here?"

On the bottom of Xisheng's foot was a small patch of scorched skin, colored many shades and hues that skin normally wasn't supposed to be, including a lot of red blisters. Well, now he knew where all of that energy during his training debacle had gone.

"Guess not... must have been small time compared to the other pains. Kind of felt like I melted a bone in my leg, after all."

He said this with a bit of cheek, hoping to distract the others from being too worried about it. Although, now that his attention was actually on the wound, he sure felt it a lot more than he had before. The curse of awareness, he supposed.

Unfortunately, Azula didn't seem amused by his attempt at morbid humor. Her expression was still stern, and her voice still oddly devoid of emotion. "Treat that wound immediately, then rest."

The young Princess made sure to lock eyes with Xisheng for the next part. Difficult as they were to read, it was impossible to miss the undercurrent of disappointment. "Don't practice this technique again until I say otherwise."

With that, she turned to leave, not even waiting for Xisheng to acknowledge what had been demanded of him. That was probably for the best anyway. He wasn't sure he could have spoken clearly now that he felt like he'd been slugged in the kidney. Three days, and he'd already betrayed the confidence she'd placed in him. Just three fucking days.

Ty Lee offered to help him with bandaging his wound, but Xisheng gently turned her down, only asking for her and Mai to help him to his tent. He wanted to be alone with his thoughts at this point, and he didn't think either girl would want to see him gritting his teeth and bitching throughout the treatment process. While they both seemed reluctant to accept his request, it seemed that both girls also managed to detect his desire for solitude for the rest of the night, so they ultimately accepted his wishes and pushed no further.

Hours later, Xisheng laid alone in the dark, having already gone through the painful process of tending to his injury. He would have been asleep by now, but his tumultuous thoughts kept him awake. On one hand, he'd given more thought to the conversation he had shared with Mai, and he did consider many of the things she had said to be reasonable and logical. On the other hand, he couldn't get the look if disappointment Azula had given him out of his head. He wanted to wipe that away, to replace it with something better. He didn't want to let her down after she'd placed her faith in him, but at the same time, he didn't know if he was capable of doing what would achieve that.

At some point during his restless vigil, rain started to splatter off of the canvas tent above Xisheng's head. Not long after, there was a flash of light and a peal of thunder to be heard.

Truly, the universe had a cruel sense of humor.

Chapter Text

Despite his injuries from his training, Xisheng managed to fall asleep relatively easily the night of his catastrophe. Aside from a gentle rainfall that helped lull him to sleep, the exhaustion of the physical exertions that day had gone a long way as well. Even though the instance in which he had injured himself had not looked particularly spectacular, the damage had been extreme. His left limbs were still shaking up to the time he had fallen asleep, and they were still twitchy even when he awoke the next morning.

Sitting upright in his tent, Xisheng somberly appraised his left arm and leg. The twitching was not nearly as bad as the day before, but even with him doing nothing more than holding his arm up, the trembling of his limbs was easily discernible. Well, he supposed this was the kind of thing one should expect when chi-powered lightning ran amok within the body. Honestly, the thought was a little terrifying: this was the result of Xisheng partially managing to direct the lightning in one direction out of his body. Even though he had failed to do that cleanly, he could only imagine how badly things would have turned out if he hadn't managed to control his chi at all. What if it had raced into his heart? His brain? Somewhere else crucial? Death certainly seemed like a very real possibility in such a scenario.

That being the case, Xisheng had no choice but to spare a few moments to appreciate his fortune in avoiding an untimely demise. Said appreciation didn't last too long, however. After all, thinking about the situation that had led to this inevitably meant remembering Azula's expression after witnessing his failure yesterday. Undoubtedly, her disappointment was immeasurable. And between the physical ramifications of his failure and her reaction, the latter was by far the worse outcome.

He hadn't thought about it much until now, but with the power of retrospect, Xisheng was fairly certain that this was the first time he had actually failed her. She had been unhappy with him before, certainly. But this was the first time he failed to meet an expectation of hers. The first time her faith in him as a pupil and subordinate had gone unrewarded. Having never truly been on the receiving end of her disappointment, Xisheng didn't know what to expect. But considering how high her expectations were, and how valuable her trust was, he couldn't imagine it would be good. Then again, maybe it didn't matter. Regardless of how Azula felt about it all, Xisheng was still disappointed in himself. He felt like an amateur. A reckless fool that risked life and limb for pride. He knew he was better than that, but evidently, that knowledge was incorrect.

With a frustrated sigh, the soldier pushed himself to his feet on shaky legs and managed to exit his tent. The ground was a little damp from last night's rain, but the drizzle had been light enough to avoid making the camp itself muddy. Still, the sky was foggy, and a light mist hovered above the ground. The sun was obscured beind a gray curtain of clouds, dimming the light of morning. It was actually quite nice. Unfortunately, it was difficult for Xisheng to appreciate it, since standing on his left leg was incredibly uncomfortable right now. Not only did the limb feel much less stable and trusty than usual, but the patch of scorched skin on his left foot stung like hell even despite his treatment of it. Dammit, it had barely been that long since the last time he was injured...

Judging by the number of people actually out and about in the camp right now, Xisheng had slept a little longer than anticipated. Most of the crew was awake and out of their tents, either tending to some task that needed doing or eating a meal around the smolders of last night's campfire. Xisheng couldn't help but notice the curious looks he got from many of the sailors. He supposed he couldn't blame them: he had been almost carried into camp last night on the shoulder of a woman, hobbling around like a cripple. Then he'd been confronted by the Crown Princess, who hadn't looked terribly happy. Naturally, anyone who had seen it without understanding the context was going to be curious as to what had happened. Unfortunately, the prying looks only served to make Xisheng feel more ashamed of it all.

At least he wouldn't have to worry about anyone asking him about it. Not that Xisheng was unfriendly with the crew, but they knew better than to pry into the personal business of the Princess' retinue. Moreover, if they assumed the incident had something to do with his special off-limits training, then they had all surely been warned by the Captain to not get involved. So ultimately, none of the sailors came to bother him. This left Xisheng's attention readily available for someone who actually was interested in approaching him.

"Gohan!"

Glancing over his shoulder, Xisheng noted a certain brunette approaching him, curiously without her usual braid. Maybe she just hadn't felt like doing it today. Or maybe it had come time to undo it for a good brushing or something. Either way, it played second fiddle to the concerned look on Ty Lee's face as she neared him.

"Are you alright? I never really figured out what happened to you last night..."

In hindsight, Xisheng figured it was a little rude that he hadn't informed one of his close friends about what had happened to him in order to get hurt. Other than assuring her that nothing truly serious had occurred, he'd been in no mood to do anything other than retreat to his tent. A little immature of him, but also fairly understandable, at least in his eyes.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to worry you overnight. I just got a little too hasty and reckless with training yesterday. I don't think I'm hurt as bad as when that rock from Toph smashed me. I should be fine."

Despite his words, Ty Lee's anxious expression didn't lessen in severity. "You say that, but that wound on your foot looked really bad. And your arm..."

The brunette glanced down at his arm while saying this, so Xisheng followed her gaze. Sure enough, it was still trembling enough to be easily noticed by someone next to him. Feeling oddly insecure knowing that his vulnerability was so obvious, Xisheng clutched the limb with his other arm to forcefully put a stop to it. Thankfully, with his leg braced against the ground, its trembling was somewhat controlled. At the very least, Ty Lee didn't comment on it specifically.

Whether it was her alleged aura-seeing gift or just keen observation, Ty Lee clearly acknowledged that Xisheng was displeased with how noticeable his bodily state was. She at least didn't press him further right away. Not that she had a chance to, since someone else was joining the conversation from behind both of them.

"Hey... how do you feel?"

It wasn't hard to identify Mai by her voice. Unlike Ty Lee, she looked about the same as she always did. Well, a little more tired than usual, but that was all, not including an expression that displayed obvious worry, which was also pretty rare for her. Xisheng's immediate response was not an answer to her question.

"I'm surprised you're up this early, Mai."

The young woman crossed her arms as she cocked an eyebrow at him. "Just what time do you think it is?"

Xisheng glanced up at the sky, trying to glean a hint from it. Unfortunately, the clouds and mist made it hard to tell. "Not early morning, by the way you're talking."

"It's probably closer to noon by now. Anyway, stop avoiding the question. How are you feeling?"

Unsure how to even explain the tingling sensation in his left side and the inability to stop the shakes, Xisheng didn't bother doing so. "Like I did something extremely stupid."

Mai didn't seem entirely satisfied with his evasive answer, but perhaps she also realized that he normally wasn't the type for evasion. So if he was acting that way, he likely didn't want to get too deep into it. Ty Lee may have been a bit better at reading people, but it wasn't like her friends were incapable of it themselves.

"...are you hungry? Most everyone already ate something."

While it was difficult to notice past his bodily pains, Xisheng noted that, surely enough, he was a bit peckish. "Yeah. I don't suppose there are any leftovers?"

Mai glanced to the side a bit sheepishly as she spoke with a hint of exasperation that seemed more for show than anything else. "No. But I guess I could make you something, if you're hungry..."

Knowing full well that Mai's behavior was just a result of her being unused to acting graciously, Xisheng merely thanked her outright for the offer. Despite all of the other shit that had gone down in the past twenty-four hours, he couldn't help but feel a little happy that she was willing to do something like that for him without any pressure from anyone to do so. Under that veneer of indifference and general disgruntlement with life was a kind woman: well, a woman that could be kind to her friends, at any rate. Maybe not so much for humanity at large.

With the current plan agreed on, the trio moved towards the campfire, though it was little more than a few embers by now. Perhaps understanding that his presence would only be seen as an intrusion, the one sailor who had been sitting around it finished up the hard biscuit he was eating and got up to leave, giving a nod of acknowledgment to the newcomers as he passed them. Xisheng felt a little bad about running a comrade off from a place of rest, but then again, the sailor himself may have felt awkward in that situation, so it was likely that he had removed himself for his own benefit as much as theirs. At any rate, he had chosen to do so of his own volition, so there was nothing to feel guilty about.

"You feeling soup or something?"

Mai's question about food was answered without much delay. Xisheng didn't want to inconvenience her anymore than he already was, so he would just accept whatever she felt like making.

"That's fine. Thank you."

Since the fire was mostly dead, Xisheng swiftly used a bit of Firebending to rekindle it. Thankfully, whatever damage he had dealt to his body appeared to be limited to the physical muscles and nerves. Bending his chi in the usual fashion was not affected, as far as he could tell. With the fire roaring, Mai grabbed a few things laying around it in crates, including the utensils and pot needed, along with actual ingredients that were available. Well, it made sense for all of it to be kept around the fire where things would actually be cooked. Still, Xisheng had to acknowledge that he didn't really know what all the girl was grabbing in regards to ingredients and seasoning. He did, however, have faith that whatever she made would taste pretty good.

As for him and Ty Lee, the acrobat was quick to guide him into a sitting position on one of the closed crates being used for seating around the campfire. She then knelt beside him. "Show me your arm."

Immediately feeling a bit insecure again, Xisheng tried to dissuade her from this course of action. "Ty Lee..."

Unfortunately for him, Xisheng was not ready for the almost pleading, yet determined look she directed right into his eyes. "Please. I might be able to help you. Let me do that at least."

Unable to refuse her when she looked at him like that and spoke so gently, Xisheng conceded and freely allowed Ty Lee to examine his left arm. Without his right hand holding it down, the trembling was unmistakable. With an air of seriousness that was quite rare for her, Ty Lee ran her hands up and down his arm, feeling different muscles and their slight quaking. Under normal circumstances, Xisheng might have been embarrassed to have her touching him so brazenly, but knowing why she was doing this and seeing how seriously she was taking it, that type of feeling was averted.

After about a minute of her examination, the brunette questioned him. "How does it feel? Are you in pain, or is it just discomfort?"

"Uh, well... it's kind of tingly, like... when you accidentally fall asleep on your arm, I guess? It's not entirely numb, but it's not pain so much as discomfort. The shaking really doesn't help either."

Nodding in understanding of his explanation, Ty Lee moved her hands higher up Xisheng's arm, then began firmly feeling around for a moment. Xisheng found the contact a little embarrassing, but he didn't get to dwell on it for long anyway, as a mere moment later his brunette companion had pressed her thumb very deeply into whatever target she had been searching for.

For a brief instant, Xisheng's arm tensed up uncontrollably, a sensation that was not entirely dissimilar to when he had accidentally ran some lightning through it. But it passed quickly enough, and his entire upper arm relaxed afterward, eliminating both the feeling of strain and the trembling of the muscles. Ty Lee swiftly repeated this process with a different spot on his lower arm, after which Xisheng noted that the limb felt much better. Even the shaking had been lessened to a degree that was difficult to perceive unless you were trying really hard to see it.

Initially, Xisheng had intended to say nothing about his leg, since he already felt bad for inconveniencing both Mai and Ty Lee. But honestly, his arm felt so much better like this, he couldn't help but want the same relief for his similarly afflicted leg.

"Wow, that feels great... er, I hate to ask, but do you think you could do the same thing for my leg...?"

"Your left leg? Is the problem the same as your arm?"

"Y-yeah..."

With this said, Ty Lee wasted no time in treating his left leg as well. Of course, this included rubbing her hands up and down it, presumably searching for the pressure point she was looking for. Admittedly, this was even more nerve-wracking than the arm. He had a beautiful girl firmly feeling up his thigh, it was hard not to feel a certain way about it. However, Ty Lee didn't seem to be flustered by it. Perhaps she was taking the whole thing too seriously to even have such thoughts cross her mind. She was the type to do her best when it came to taking care of her friends, after all.

Thankfully for Xisheng's composure, the process of treating his leg didn't take that long. With a few moments of discomfort, the effects of yesterday's folly were greatly lessened. His relief must have been fairly obvious, because Ty Lee was quick to comment on it.

"Just know that this isn't permanent or anything. It should help for a few hours. But I can just do it again after it wears off."

Amazed with how well a few pokes on his body had helped him, Xisheng rubbed the afflicted arm just to verify how much better it really felt. "It's crazy what all you can do with this skill and knowledge you have. Why do I get the feeling there's a whole lot of other stuff you could do to the body that I don't know about?"

Some small part of Ty Lee acknowledged that she probably shouldn't answer with her immediate thoughts. But she couldn't help herself. Besides, Xisheng was in the dumps, and a bit of flirtatious brevity might help lift his spirits. She much preferred his usual vibrant and reassuring aura.

"I think you'll find there's a lot of things I can do to the body that have nothing to do with pressure points at all. All women have secret skills for that kind of thing..."

She intentionally petered off, leaving the insinuation vague. There really was no need to specify anything, because Xisheng's flustered expression and reddening cheeks made it obvious that he understood her implications. It was a little funny, actually: Ty Lee was able to flirt really well, but it wasn't like she actually had any experience in the stuff she implied. If it really came down to it, she probably wouldn't be confident at all in herself when it came to her first time being intimate with someone. Especially if it was someone she was really into and she was worried about making a fool of herself in front of them. Shit, now she was thinking way too hard about what the future could hold for her in that regard, and while sitting right next to the man she had in mind for such things. She'd intended to just rile Xisheng up a bit, but somehow Ty Lee had turned herself into collateral.

Mai certainly wasn't oblivious to this exchange, nor was she particularly happy with it. Before, she'd have questioned why she even felt this way, but by now, Mai had a pretty good idea why something like this ticked her off. She just wasn't sure if it was super serious, or just the result of a flight of fancy. She wasn't so incapable of understanding her own emotions as to not understand what attraction and jealousy felt like. She just didn't know if this was something to make a big deal out of, or if it was just the result of some external factors. Anyone with half a brain could see that Mai was a little short on options when it came to romance lately. So it was possible that what she felt now was more of 'no other choice' or 'path of least resistance' thing as opposed to real, committed feelings.

A small voice in the back of her mind immediately whispered something along the lines of 'you know which one it is', but Mai purposefully ignored it. She hadn't figured out what to do with that acknowledgment yet, so for now, she just wasn't going to acknowledge it. Still, she couldn't deny that the scene before her was grating on her nerves... thankfully, she had an easy way to curtail the situation before it went somewhere that irked her even more.

"Hey, your food's ready."

Xisheng must have been hungrier than he let on, because the mention of food did tear his attention away from whatever unscrupulous things he had been thinking. He seemed to entirely forget any embarrassment regarding intimate implications as he was handed a bowl of whatever soup Mai had concocted with what was available in the camp. Which wasn't much, naturally. It wasn't like the little tugboat they had used to get here had been laden with luxury ingredients. Still, after using a bit of subtle Firebending to cool down the soup, Xisheng found himself pleasantly surprised by how tasty it was.

When presented with relatively common and uninspiring ingredients, lots of people liked to season the shit out of everything, replacing what could have been a fairly balanced dish with a mouthful of salt, pepper, or worse. Failing that, they neglected to season it at all, or just didn't pair the ingredients in a way that complimented one another. Xisheng wasn't much of a cook himself, but he had eaten a lot of soup in his life, because aside from rice, that was one of the easiest things to provide to large groups of soldiers in camps. So he could tell a good soup from a bad one.

"Y'know, Mai, it's so weird to me how you're so good at something you don't even like to do that much. I mean, you put something that tastes great together so easily. I find it hard to believe you have no passion for cooking at all."

Mai did find herself feeling a little sheepish at the praise. "Cooking well is just a matter of common sense. It's nothing special."

Too wrapped up in enjoying the food to think of his phrasing, Xisheng simply allowed an intrusive thought to be spoken into the world. "Well, anyone lucky enough to marry you will definitely think it's something special. I know I would!"

Even Mai wasn't able to keep a blush off of her face after hearing that, especially considering a certain implication laced within those words. "Oh, t-thanks..."

Always aware of when her stoic mask was faltering, the young woman rested her chin in her hand solely so she could hide her face with it. It was a pretty nonchalant way to hide her reaction, though the way she turned her gaze way to the left was a lot less subtle. It was obvious to Ty Lee at least that she was happy and trying to hide it, and now it was her turn to feel a little disgruntled. Then again, she had no one to blame but herself for not having a territorial mark on Xisheng. She was the one that had established a boundary between them, however shaky said boundary tended to be.

Then again, wasn't this exactly why she was doing this in the first place? One big reason she wasn't moving forward with Xisheng was because she felt that Mai or Azula needed the chance more than her. So what was she getting so jealous and upset about when they actually seemed to be progressing on that front? Damn, was her rationale this flawed? Or was it just that one could make a sacrifice for others without being entirely satisfied with doing so? It was very possible to want an outcome that you actively avoided. Sometimes people had to choice between things that were both desirable, just from different perspectives.

Either way, Ty Lee wasn't going to make a big scene out of it right now. Xisheng was happy at the moment, and the least she could do was maintain that happiness right now. After all, everything she and Mai were doing right now was a temporary solution to his bad mood. They couldn't change what had happened yesterday or how he felt about it. Ultimately, it was how Azula acted beyond this point that would determine how well or quickly Xisheng returned to his old self. Admittedly, Ty Lee was a little worried about that fact.

She would be the first to admit that Azula was a better person today than she used to be. But at the same time, Ty Lee knew that her old shortcomings were far from nonexistent even now. And of all the things that pissed Azula off, one of the worst was how disgruntled she became when someone or something failed to meet her expectations. The young Princess had been so excited about teaching Xisheng how to bend lightning that she had even bragged on him to her friends. Needless to say, Ty Lee was certain that Azula was beyond disappointed right now.

The question was, what would she do with that disappointment? Most people would acknowledge that not everyone was a prodigy that could master a skill in a few days. But Azula was not most people. Would she lay into him? Call him a failure of a student? Or maybe she wouldn't be so upfront about it. Maybe she'd just act disappointed, which would honestly be enough to hurt Xisheng anyway. The only upside was that Ty Lee knew Xisheng was mature enough to avoid basing all of his self-worth on one person's opinion. Even so, she had little doubt that Azula's opinion was of great value to him.

Unfortunately, that opinion might not have been so far off, judging by the arrival of a certain someone on the scene, though she wasn't speaking to her friends. "...then just leave it in the crates we currently have. There's no point in unloading all of it for a few days of extra comfort only to package it all again. Though I'll be annoyed if we end up being out here longer than anticipated."

With the voice coming from behind them, Mai and Ty Lee glanced behind them to appraise Azula, who was walking beside the Captain and discussing something unbeknownst to them. Xisheng's body grew tense upon hearing her voice, and he didn't turn to look immediately, though he ultimately glanced behind him apprehensively as well. Considering the Captain's words, it seemed like they were catching Azula at the end of their conversation.

"I understand, Princess. I'm sure the escort will arrive soon, but my crew and I will be more than able to remain by your side until then."

"Very well. You may return to your duties, Captain."

Waving him off, Azula caught the gazes of her companions sitting near the fire. However, she didn't elect to say anything to them. After a brief moment of eye contact, she walked away once again, effectively ignoring the trio. Xisheng's expression soured immediately after the Princess turned her back, as he could only assume the worst by such a reaction. Azula usually wasn't the type to not even acknowledge her allies. He could only assume that she had no desire to talk to him right now: probably because he wasn't worth her time.

Admittedly, even Mai thought it odd that Azula would choose to say absolutely nothing right now. Surely she knew that Gohan was distraught over what had happened. But then again, maybe she didn't: as far as she knew, Mai was the only one that Xisheng had vented his frustrations to. Sure, the others could assume he felt bad, but only Mai knew his exact thoughts on his recent failure. Maybe Azula didn't think it was as big of a deal as it was?

Either way, Xisheng was only able to get a pat on the back right from Ty Lee right now to comfort him. "She's probably just busy, Gohan. Don't overthink things too much."

While the soldier put on a strained smile, it was obvious that he was just trying to avoid lowering the overall mood. "Yeah, thanks. I'm sure it's nothing..."

It was obvious to both girls that he clearly thought otherwise, but for now, there wasn't much else that could be done about it. Well, Mai thought of something she could do, but it would probably have to wait until later. Right now she would just do her best to keep Gohan's mind on other things. With Ty Lee helping out on that front, the two of them could hopefully at least do that much for a few hours.

By the time evening fell, most of the camp was quiet. There wasn't a whole lot for anyone to do at this point: the place had been established, everything that needed to be transported from the tug had been, and the people that needed to be on watch were. So most everyone was relaxing or tending to quiet tasks. This included Azula, who was standing near her tent, arms crossed as she peered into the forest outskirts. She had given all the orders required today, and as best as she could tell, everyone was appropriately focused on what they needed to be. So, at this point in time she had time to herself and her thoughts.

Not that anybody looking would know what she was really thinking. Mai honestly took some pride in her ability to present a stone face to almost everyone at all times, but as she looked at Azula from afar a few tents back, she could admit that Azula was good competition at least when she was alone with her thoughts. It was impossible to guess what the young Princess may have been thinking about, or if she was even thinking about anything at all. Maybe she was just spacing out, though Azula didn't really strike Mai as that type.

It didn't really matter though, did it? Whatever Azula was thinking about, Mai had deemed this the best time to talk to her. Gohan was having his injuries tended to by Ty Lee again, as the acrobat's initial aid via chi-blocking only seemed to last for a couple of hours at a time. They were occupied, most of the crew was busy or absent, and Azula was alone. Considering the overall lack of privacy around here outside of a tent, this was the best time to have a private conversation with Azula. Still, Mai was rarely the best at initiating a conversation she knew had the potential to be awkward. But as she thought of the distress Gohan was so obviously going through, the young woman pushed down the overall discomfort she felt with the situation and just decided to roll with whatever came to mind. Mai had plenty of things she wanted to say, she just had to figure out how to get to that point.

With that in mind, Mai quietly walked towards Azula who was lost in thought. Maybe that was why the young princess didn't notice her approach, though it may have also been Mai's natural light gait or the softness of the ground. Who could tell? Unfortunately, Azula's inability to notice Mai only made things more awkward for her, because it meant she absolutely had to initiate the exchange. Damn, going out of your way for others was such a pain...

With no idea what else to do, Mai settled for the best she could think of. It may not have been original, but it was a classic.

"...hey."

To the eagle-eyed, it was easy to see Azula's body tense slightly at the sudden intrusion, probably because she hadn't known that anyone was approaching her. She definitely wasn't the type to be unbothered with getting sneaked up on like that. Still, after her brain had enough time to register the voice and who it belonged to, Azula merely glanced over her shoulder to address the new arrival.

"Is something amiss, Mai? You don't usually come to someone to talk like this."

"Yeah, well, it happens sometimes."

"Not without a good reason, I imagine."

For most people, the swiftness with which Azula ushered this conversation to the main topic may have been uncomfortable. But Mai was actually glad: that allowed her to get past the awkward part of the conversation and to the part where she already knew what she wanted to say.

"Seems like a good reason to me. Listen, I'm just going to get right to the point: why haven't you talked to Gohan yet?"

This blunt question caused Azula to fully turn around and face her. "Excuse me? Where did that come from?"

"Where do you think it came from? Is that really a question?"

Mai didn't intentionally mean to sound accusatory, even though she felt it was justified. She was accusing Azula in her head, but she knew better than to do that out loud. Still, she wasn't the best at socializing, so maybe she hadn't done a very good job of it. At any rate, Azula reacted as though she had been accused.

"That's quite a tone you're taking with me, Mai. Watch yourself."

Mai would be lying if she claimed to be completely unfettered by this, but she didn't genuinely believe Azula would do anything to her for something as minor as getting testy with her.

"Then don't evade the question. There's no way you're oblivious to how bothered Gohan is by what happened with his training. You haven't said anything to him about it since it happened, and I want to know why."

For some reason, Azula's previously sharp gaze grew a little sheepish as she glanced away from Mai. "Well..."

"Is this some sort of punishment? Are you that disappointed?"

"N-no, it's just-"

"Do you have any idea how much your silence is-"

Apparently fed up with this accusatory line of questioning, Azula finally said what she was thinking, even though the admittance flustered her. "I just don't know how to comfort him, alright?!"

Stunned by the uncharacteristic outburst, Mai was left without anything to say for the moment. Ultimately, she only managed to question this unexpected admittance. "...really?"

Undoubtedly irritated by the fact that she had expressed such a sentiment, Azula furrowed her brow at her companion. "What do you mean 'really'?"

"I just... didn't expect this to actually be what was on your mind. You're actually thinking about this?"

"My pupil seriously injured himself while practicing a technique he should be more than capable of. What else would I be thinking about?"

Still somewhat confused, Mai folded her arms as she raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, but I figured you would only be considering it in a negative light. You said you don't know how to comfort him. You actually want to do that?"

Now it was Azula's turn to cast a quizzical glance. "I'm starting to wonder just what it is you and Ty Lee think about me."

Mai didn't seem bothered by this remark. "Come on, can you blame me? When's the last time you actually felt inclined to genuinely comfort anyone? Have you ever done that?"

"What are you talking about, I genuinely comforted you or Ty Lee all the time when we were kids."

Mai said nothing to this, instead choosing only to make her expression more incredulous. Azula was more than capable of getting the hint.

"Well, a few times, at least... at any rate, the rationale behind it doesn't matter. The point is, I don't know what to say. He knows me. It's not like I can lie and say that it's no big deal and that he shouldn't feel troubled by what happened. He wouldn't believe me even if I did say that."

"It might help if you weren't actually lying about that sentiment, Azula. You could just actually mean it."

Azula scoffed at this. "So just be intentionally delusional, then? It's the most closely guarded secret in all of Firebending, Mai. No one outside of the Royal Family has been taught this technique in over a century. It's a big deal. He should be troubled by his current situation: any sane person would be."

Recalling all of Gohan's earlier sentiments, Mai sighed in frustration. "Yeah, how about you don't say any of that to him? Thoughts like that are exactly what's tearing him apart right now."

The Crown Princess appraised Mai with curiosity. "And how would you know?"

Naturally, her friend didn't see any reason to lie about this. She didn't even see why anyone would care. "Uh, because he told me? Pretty much word for word: waste of opportunity and potential, cosmic injustice and irony, self-loathing and despair, y'know, the usual."

For some reason, Azula found this revelation incredibly vexing. Xisheng had told Mai all of this? He hadn't even told Azula that he was having trouble with the technique at all, never mind any doubts or concerns about his ability to do it. She was his teacher, and yet, her pupil had opened up to Mai instead.

A big part of Azula acknowledged this as reasonable: Xisheng was a smart man. He undoubtedly knew that a very influential factor in Azula's fondness of him was his confidence, devotion, and commitment. And he undoubtedly knew that she was the type to demand the best from everyone, especially those she was putting her faith in. So it only made sense that Xisheng wouldn't want to express such vulnerabilities to her. It would be the first time he let her down in many ways... as a pupil, a vassal, and most importantly, just as the person she had come to know him as. And honestly, Azula would be lying if she denied being somewhat bothered by recent events. The Xisheng she knew was a reliable man that was always confident, at least to the extent that she always felt he was tackling life with everything he could muster. Despite sustaining grievous injuries throughout this journey, not once had Xisheng's image as a trustworthy and steadfast individual been shaken in Azula's mind. Even when she had accosted him, threatened him, and beaten him senseless in a fight, Xisheng's tenacity and willpower had never faltered. He never let fear get the best of his efforts. He always tried his best and was comfortable in knowing that his best was all he could do.

To see that same man filled with doubts and fear of failure was troubling for Azula. This just wasn't the same man she had come to trust and rely on. Which was, of course, probably the reason Xisheng was so downtrodden in the first place. Azula had made it abundantly clear that her trust was very rare and valuable, and did not come easily to anyone. That being true, Azula was more than capable of seeing why someone who had so painstakingly earned that trust would be scared of betraying it, even unintentionally. She herself had experienced such feelings before. In fact, this whole situation was not all that dissimilar from a piece of her own past...

"Uh, Azula?"

Realizing she had been lost in thought, the young Crown Princess returned her focus to the present. "...when did he tell you all of this? Did he come to you directly?"

Perhaps realizing that the girl was mildly irritated by the information Mai had provided, said girl tried to placate her. "Calm down, it was nothing special. I was bored out of my mind and walking around the woods. He was nearby when the accident happened and I heard it. I showed up before he even got back up from the ground. He was just frustrated and talked to the first person to come along: yelled at me and everything. I'm sure he would have said the same stuff to you in that situation."

Azula refrained from stating that she knew otherwise. Xisheng would not have shared these sentiments with her. He didn't trust her: not with his vulnerabilities. If she were being honest with herself, Azula knew that Xisheng was almost a different person when he was around just Mai or Ty Lee. Or rather, he allowed a more complete version of himself to exist with them. There was a part of himself that he hid in Azula's presence. A large part of that was probably just decorum, though that had fallen away before: Xisheng had been far more candid with her than usual the day of their duel. But another aspect of it was undoubtedly his fear of failing to meet her expectations in any number of ways. He wanted to be the best soldier, the best subordinate he could be for her. And that meant having no blatant weaknesses or doubts about himself and what he could offer her.

Most nobles would claim that this was the way it should be: your subordinates should display no weakness in your service, and any vulnerabilities that did exist should have been hidden, never to bring shame to the lord. Not terribly far in the past, Azula would have undoubtedly believed the same. But now, she didn't find the prospect so desirable.

"If it was immediately after the incident, he was probably quite blunt with you. What do you think he wants to hear from me, Mai?"

The questioned noble was silent for a moment as she contemplated her words. "What he wants to hear is probably some super secret training technique that will let him master this lightning thing, so he can feel worthy of your respect. What he needs to hear is that you don't think any less of him for failing, and that you never will, even if he's never able to actually do this."

Azula glanced at the ground as she contemplated this. "Is that so...?"

Mai, on the other hand, continued with her sentiment. After all, it would be wrong to minimize Gohan's feelings to just this. "Don't get me wrong, it's not like Gohan is upset solely because he thinks he's failed you. Even ignoring any of the rest of us, he wanted to master this technique for himself, and he hates that he can't do it. He understands how rare of an opportunity it is to learn this stuff, and that just infuriates him more. But getting past that feeling of self-loathing is going to be on him. If he feels that he let you down, you can fix that. If he feels that he let himself down, nothing any of us say will change that."

Now that Mai appeared to be done with her spiel, Azula found herself in thought again. "You've left me with a lot to think about. I think I'll need some time to contemplate what I should say."

This was said somewhat dismissively, making it clear that Azula likely wanted to be alone, but even though Mai got the hint, she didn't leave immediately. "Azula."

Surprised that Mai was still sticking around, Azula once again cast a quizzical gaze at the girl. "What?"

Mai was generally someone with a pretty serious looking face, but that was usually just the result of her not being very expressive. When she was actually leveling a serious look at you, it was a bit more intense: the sharp gaze, the furrowed brow, the stern set of the mouth... she was quite good at the dire look.

"Do you really want to help him?"

"...why do you ask?"

Her friend's gaze didn't falter. "Because, he did let you down. You trusted him to achieve a goal and he failed. You expected him to be capable of something and he wasn't. I've seen how people that did that to you were treated in the past. Comforting them was the farthest thing from your mind. You didn't even want to look at them."

Azula was quiet for a moment as she contemplated this. After all, she couldn't quite deny Mai's words. Azula knew very well the makings of her own past. Ultimately, the young ruler to be turned her back on Mai, focusing her gaze on the trees in the distance as she had been before this conversation ever started.

"The mind of a child tends to favor the extremes. I've come to realize that what truly irks me about people failing is the knowledge that they could do better if they really tried. If the reason they fail is because they didn't do their best, it means they didn't value whatever they were doing enough to put all of their effort into it. Lots of people have failed me in such a way, and I still think extremely little of them for it. But if there is one thing I can claim to know for certain about Gohan, it's that he always tries his best. Specifically, he always does his best for me. Maybe his best isn't enough to reach every goal I have, and in the past, I may have begrudged him for that and that alone. However... this is not the past."

Having heard all of this, Mai scoffed, though there was a bit of a rueful twinge to it. "You still tend to favor a lot of extremes, you know. That said... you've changed, Azula."

With a rueful look of her own, Azula glanced over her shoulder at the girl. "Are you unhappy about that, Mai?"

"Not at all. I'm heading back to my tent. Gohan's in his, when you're ready. See you tomorrow."

With her mission complete, Mai turned and returned to camp, with nothing more than a wave to mark her exit. Left alone once again, Azula turned her focus to the sky, pondering the extent of Mai's observation. She'd changed, had she? Well, looking back on the experiences of her childhood, there was no denying that. The question was, had she changed for better, or worse? Sometimes she missed the version of herself that was beholden to no one. Life was easier to navigate when you only cared about yourself. The version of herself that her father had approved of... answerable to no one, strong enough to have whatever she wanted, unladen by weaknesses such as concern for others or consideration for anyone. The type of person that would undoubtedly make a strong and unchallenged ruler.

And yet, thinking of it now, Azula could only wonder: did her father have anyone he truly trusted and relied on? Did he know how it felt to have someone at your side who did their best for you, not because of coercion or compensation, but because they wanted to? Was there anyone he actually enjoyed being around? Was he actually happy with his life at all, or did he just tell himself he was because he had power and influence?

Deep in her heart, Azula knew that she would have never earned the loyalty of someone like Xisheng if she were just like her father. And knowing that, she was faced with the very unfamiliar feeling of seeing her father as something other than a desired ideal. She wanted what her father had. But she wanted to get it without sacrificing what she had now. Considering that, Azula had a distinct opinion about how she had changed in the past few months. She was different from how she used to be, and she liked it. She'd probably continue to change from here on out, if she kept her present company. And if she were being honest with herself, Azula was actually eager to grow under a different type of tutelage.

The thought of really being disappointed in him was ridiculous. And even worse was the fact that he didn't know it.

With the moon already dominating the night sky, Xisheng found himself lying in his tent, staring up at the canvas. He needed to sleep. Heck, he wanted to sleep, he just couldn't. Even though Ty Lee had tended to his shivering limbs again less than an hour ago, he was too uncomfortable to sleep. Psychological discomfort often led to physical discomfort, after all.

Recalling the way Azula had pointedly ignored him since the training incident still weighed heavily on his mind. Before, he had been troubled by her silence, but now he was fearful of what would happen when that silence was broken. She would surely have something to say to him soon. Something bad, presumably. Xisheng's head had been filled with different potential outcomes when the time finally came, ranging from mere disappointment to discharging him from service, or even worse. Probably nothing more than a wild imagination for some of his fears, but even so, the thoughts were murder on his nerves.

When you knew something bad was coming, and you knew it was unavoidable, it was almost impossible for anyone to be free of anxiety. That anxiety was multiplied tenfold when you didn't know exactly when that bad thing was coming: only that it would be soon. Feel anxious for too long and you often started to feel sick, and that was how Xisheng felt right now. Heart racing, stomach queasy, thoughts disoriented: hell, this feeling wasn't all that different from his experience on the battlefield, when he had to stand in formation at the cusp of an impending battle. Anxiety ran rampant in men at arms at times like those.

Not that Xisheng would ever claim that his current dread really approached his battlefield experiences. As much as he was troubled by his current situation, nothing came close to the anxiousness and dread a soldier felt as he waited for bloodshed he knew was inevitable. Adrenaline washed those feelings way in the thick of combat, but before the fighting started, even the toughest of soldiers questioned whether or not they would die, if they would ever see home or their loved ones again. Nothing could compare to that feeling.

Still, less severe as his anxiety may have been in comparison to that, it was still unpleasant to deal with, and it was more than enough to prevent Xisheng from drifting into a peaceful slumber. He was wide awake, and that was why it was impossible to miss the rapping of knuckles on the wooden stake that served as support for a door made of canvas.

Xisheng's first assumption was that the visitor was Ty Lee, checking on him one last time before bed. After all, the girl had been making all sorts of comments about his aura while treating him. Apparently, his anxiety was so obvious that they were flashes of dark green to her. Or was it smatterings of dull gray? Honestly, he couldn't remember exactly what the brunette had said about it all. He hated to admit that he hadn't been paying attention to her, but Xisheng's thoughts had been pretty convoluted at the time.

Figuring that he should just allay the girl's fears, Xisheng crawled to the entrance of his tent, speaking before he even pushed the canvas flap out of the way. "Ty Lee, you don't have to check... on me..."

The young soldier's voice petered off as he identified the footwear in front of him. Namely, not the shoes and usually bare calves of a particular acrobat, but rather the plated shins of the one princess he knew. Following the legs up, he laid eyes on Azula's bemused expression.

"How often has Ty Lee been bothering you that you assume it's her so readily?"

Azula didn't seem particularly irate. If anything, she seemed like her usual self. Still, Xisheng couldn't help but feel the trepidation rising in his heart. The dreaded moment had come far too soon. "It's nothing like that, Princess. I just... didn't expect you at this hour."

"I imagine you wouldn't. I hope I didn't interrupt your rest?"

"N-no, I-"

Noticing his discomfort, Azula tried to assuage the man's nervousness. "Calm yourself, Xisheng. I'm just here to talk."

Ironically, this statement had the opposite of the intended effect. "That's... why I'm nervous, Princess."

Azula donned an expression that was difficult to interpret, but something about it didn't strike Xisheng was particularly dangerous or irked. He'd expected her to be annoyed with such sheepishness from him. He wasn't sure that he'd ever actually acted this way around her before. At any rate, the young girl didn't comment on it.

"Come on. We should find somewhere private to speak. While most everyone is asleep, I don't want to bet anything personal on that assumption."

With that, Azula turned and began walking in the direction of the cliffs that overlooked the ocean. Xisheng didn't follow immediately: he couldn't help but draw absurd conclusions about why they would need privacy. Was this the part where she told him that anyone who was told the secret to lightning but failed to master it was executed or banished? Imprisoned for the rest of their days, perhaps? Frankly, he knew the idea was silly, but the thought occurred to him all the same. Reluctant though he was to follow this situation to his conclusion, Xisheng knew he had no choice. Accepting it for what it was, he simply arose to follow Azula, disquieted by thoughts of what might be discussed in a few minutes.

Having been a little slow to follow her, Xisheng trailed behind Azula, who was already standing near the cliff edge by the time he caught up. Xisheng expected some sort of comment on his slowness, but the princess seemed unbothered. Well, he supposed it was just a minute or so.

Despite coming to stand beside her, Xisheng said nothing, nor did he look at her. The trepidation he felt at this moment was too great for that. Ironically, this feeling was not unlike when he had first encountered Azula, what seemed like years ago on that barge among all of the other Royal Guards. Back then, she had seemed far above the concept of an ordinary person that had thoughts and feelings you could actually relate to. More like a mortal deity that held your life in the palm of her hands. Technically, that aspect of Azula had never actually changed. At not point since then had her control over Xisheng's future waned: it had only seemed less likely that she would feel the need to ruin said future as their relationship advanced beyond mere lord and subordinate.

If he had a rational thought in his head right now, Xisheng would have acknowledged his awareness of reality: he didn't really think Azula would up and banish him to some backwater town or something. She had come kind of close to doing that in the past, but the young ruler to be had grown a lot since then. But even though he knew this, Xisheng still felt an irrational fear regarding this upcoming conversation. The fact that Azula had yet to look at him or speak didn't help. Her serious gaze was focused on some aspect of the night horizon as well.

This left Xisheng to stew in his growing anxiety. Azula was hard to read at the best of times, and right now he couldn't tell what she was thinking at all. But it had to be bad, right? It was the only logical thing she could be feeling considering what had happened. Such thoughts only made the silence between them even more difficult to bear. While Xisheng had initially not wanted to have this conversation at all, now he could only wonder why Azula was torturing him with this silence. Why wouldn't she just get it over with? There was no way she hadn't contemplated what she wanted to say prior to now. What was the point of extending his suffering like this?

As the seconds passed, Xisheng found himself more and more agitated that nothing was being said. Eventually, it reached a point where he no longer cared if it was a good idea to speak first: he couldn't handle standing around like this in silence for much longer.

"...I'm sorry."

Likely not expecting him to speak first, Azula cocked an eyebrow in his direction. "What?"

While he immediately felt foolish for speaking first, Xisheng knew there was no turning back now. He had broken the silence, so it would make no sense to keep quiet now. "I... I know that you're disappointed. You put your faith and trust in me and I failed. There's nothing I can say to excuse it, so... I can't deny that I deserve whatever punishment you have in mind."

Feeling that he had gotten the worst of this ordeal out of the way, Xisheng fell silent once more. After all, what more was there to say now? He had acknowledged his failure, made a worthless apology, and accepted his fate. There wasn't anything else to really say. Or at least, he was hoping as much. Even if the end result was the same, he still would have preferred to avoid hearing those exact things directly from Azula. But it was made clear pretty quickly that he wouldn't be so lucky.

"I am disappointed."

Even though he had fully expected to hear this, Xisheng still felt wounded by it. It really did hurt more to hear something like this be confirmed, no matter how convinced you were of it beforehand.

"But I'm not disappointed in you."

Unsure if he had heard correctly, Xisheng managed to turn his gaze back to the Princess. "Uh... what?"

For her part, Azula acted as though she had said nothing strange, even though her gaze was pointedly out to sea at the moment. "I am disappointed. I'm just not disappointed in you."

Unsure of what on earth that even meant, Xisheng's brow furrowed. "That... that doesn't make any sense. How can you be disappointed, just not in me? What else is there to be disappointed in? Azula, you don't have to lie about this. I get it, I-"

Instead of letting him finish, the young girl turned a sharp gaze back at him, though it was more of slight annoyance than actual anger. "Xisheng, I thought you knew already that I don't like it when people attempt to speak my thoughts for me. Do you want me to be lying? Is this some sort of guilt relief thing? You want to be told that I'm disappointed in you, is that it?"

"N-no, it's not that, I just... don't see how you couldn't be..."

"It's not so complicated, Xisheng. Of course I'm disappointed that you didn't grasp the technique. I was looking forward to your mastery of it for a number of reasons. But being disappointed in how things turned out doesn't mean I am specifically disappointed with you."

For his part, Xisheng still didn't understand what on earth she meant with all of this. "OK, but why not? You should be! It's not like it's anyone's fault but mine that things panned out like this."

"Did you try your best?"

For reasons difficult to pinpoint, Xisheng was floored by this question. Tried his best? Did that matter? Did Azula really care if he tried his best if he still failed? He couldn't actually wrap his head around the notion. That being the case... what else could he do but express that sentiment?

"Does it matter if I did?"

This time it was Azula that was rendered silent, though it was only for a moment. After all, she had already pondered how Xisheng felt about their relationship, and it didn't really come as any surprise that he would feel this way. Apparently everyone around her felt this way, and Azula couldn't rightly blame them for it. For as long as she could remember, she'd demanded excellence from everyone, and she hadn't exactly been forgiving when those expectations weren't met. And admittedly, that was how she still operated with most people today. But Xisheng wasn't most people. The standards she held him to were different than others.

"Do you think it doesn't matter to me?"

Feeling the weight behind this question, Xisheng didn't have a response. He hadn't expected the conversation to go this way in the slightest. Plus, he got the feeling that Azula was somewhat bothered by the implication that he felt this way. All of that said, he didn't know what to say back. This gave Azula an opening to say what she had on her mind. Thankfully she had spent plenty of time dwelling on what all she wanted and needed to say in this conversation. She'd played it out many times in her head prior to now, having concluded just how important it would be after that conversation with Mai.

"Do you know what I appreciate the most about you, Xisheng? You always try. Since I've known you, you've always tried, even when it was something insurmountable. In fact, this aspect of your character is why I ever took note of you outside of all the other soldiers: that day on the barge, when I ordered you to fight me. That other soldier didn't even try. Whatever the reason, he didn't give me his best or even a fraction of it. But you... despite an overwhelming obstacle, despite knowing it was fruitless, still tried your best. Why?"

Azula looked directly at him, making it clear that she was personally invested in this answer. She wanted to know. She wanted to have him be open about it. Xisheng was fully capable of understanding this, though he wasn't sure how exactly to answer now that he had been put on the spot.

"Because... that's just... I don't know. That's just how I am. For one, what reason is there to not try your best? An obstacle won't just go away if you don't. It still has to be confronted regardless of how much effort you do or don't put in. But more than that... I want to overcome the challenges I face. When you ordered me to challenge you that day, I wanted to meet your expectations... but I also wanted to win. Even though I knew it was next to impossible, I wanted to strive for that goal. It was a challenge from you, but it was also a challenge from myself."

To this, Azula smiled. Genuinely, which was rare for her. "Exactly. Xisheng, this is why I respect you. Because you're just like me. You tried your hardest when I ordered you to fight me. You tried your best when you confronted Iroh. You took a risk in asking me to train you so you could become the best version of yourself. When I gave you an insurmountable challenge to rise to, you faced it head-on and even bested me. When I give you difficult training, you tackle it with everything you have. I'm sure you do this to meet my expectations. But more than that, you do it for yourself. You do it because you want to, because it matters to you. Because perfection is worth pursuing regardless of the feasibility of attaining it. Because if you fail something due to your own shortcomings, you let yourself down, and failing yourself is consequence enough. That's you, Xisheng. That's also me. That's why you are... special. I've never met anyone else who treats life the same way I do."

Xisheng was honestly stunned to be so blatantly labeled as 'special' by the girl next to him. Even admitting something like that was allowing a great deal of vulnerability to show. Moreover, it wasn't just praise from a superior, accolades from an official. This was Azula, telling him that he was special to her, in some regard or another. Honestly, it was hard to even accept it at face value.

"Come on, Azula, that's a bit much... not even your father?"

"My father puts effort into life to achieve certain goals, to get things that he wants. Which I suppose it not entirely different from pursuing perfection, but I digress. You and I strive for excellence for its own sake, simply because we want to be the best we can be regardless of what we do with that excellence. My father strives for excellence as well, but not for such reasons. If he could have the power and control he desires without having to try hard for it, he would certainly do so. Not that I condemn such motivations. I merely acknowledge that said motivation does not align with my own. I also like having power and control, but the pursuit of it isn't the reason I want to be the best version of myself. That is something I do for my own satisfaction, same as you."

While touched by the reassertion that he was different from all others in her eyes, Xisheng still found it difficult to be truly satisfied. Perhaps Azula had a point: by wanting to be the best he could be all the time, failing to do so was truly difficult to accept.

"Even so, your best can actually achieve great things. Mine is nothing particularly great."

To this, Azula merely sighed. "You know, this self-pitying business is actually kind of annoying coming from you. I know this sounds strange coming from me, but you only failed once. It's not like the goal is forever unachievable now. Dare I say, even I think it's a tad ridiculous that you expected to accomplish so much in such a short time frame."

Though he knew Azula had a very good point there, Xisheng found it difficult to accept. Truly, he knew that he was likely expecting too much out of himself. But it wasn't like he could help it. Apparently, he looked as unconvinced as he felt, which prompted Azula to fall silent for a moment as she contemplated something. Frankly, what she was thinking about was something she had never told anyone else. But she felt that it would help make a lot of headway in this conversation. While the thought of sharing an actual vulnerability still cowed her somewhat, but then again, if there was anyone she actually trusted to hear it...

"You know, I was only allowed to learn lightning bending a few years ago. Five, perhaps? Maybe four. Regardless, it's not like I've had this technique mastered since I was an infant. And it's not like I mastered it immediately when told how to do it either. The reason I knew to look at your foot the other day... it's because the same thing happened to me. I had been excelling at firebending training: in fact, the reason my father felt I was ready for lightning was because I had manifested my first blue flame shortly prior. I felt on top of the world. I, a mere child, head and shoulders above most Firebenders. An unmatched prodigy that impressed even the Fire Lord and his son. I'll admit, I was quite full of myself: even more so than I am today, if you can believe it."

For some reason, it was the inclusion of a self-deprecating joke that really brought the weight of this exchange down on Xisheng. This was not the type of thing a Princess told a soldier. The type of thing a noble told a commoner. This was a humanizing, perhaps even embarrassing story. Something a prideful person like Azula would almost certainly not share with anyone, even people she actually did trust. He certainly doubted that Ty Lee and Mai had ever heard it. And yet, she was sharing it with him. There was no denying reality at this point: he'd be a fool to consider himself a mere soldier, servant, or student at this point. He was well and truly more than that.

As for Azula, she didn't seem privy to his revelation, so she continued with her story. "I quite foolishly believed that I was likely the best Firebender in the world. Even better than people like my father or grandfather. After all, they were incapable of producing blue flame as I was. Most assuredly the delusions of a haughty child, but you must understand: there was next to nothing that I had been unable to achieve prior to that point after putting my mind to it. I believed myself infallible. So you can imagine my shock when I found myself struggling with lightning. More than just struggling really, it felt insurmountable at the time, like trying to break a mountain into pebbles with my fists. I was furious at the idea of being incapable. And like you, I didn't ask anyone for assistance. I told no one that I was struggling, because that was akin to admitting defeat. Of course, that just led to even further complications, and I grew more and more frustrated with my inability to succeed."

Having experienced this exact situation very recently, Xisheng was certain he already knew where this was going. The similarity was uncanny. Maybe the two of them were that similar?

"Eventually I grew so frustrated and agitated with the situation that I attempted to achieve my aims through brute force. Very rash and very stupid."

She said this with a pointed glance at Xisheng, which admittedly made him feel a little sheepish, but not too much. After all, Azula was admitting to having done the same thing, which she confirmed with her continuing story.

"Needless to say, I lost control of the lightning. It raced wherever it damn well pleased and caused my excruciating pain in the process. Naturally, a great deal of it used my leg as a path the ground, and I received a very nasty burn on that foot for my troubles. It was undoubtedly one of the worst pains I've experienced in life. And yet, it wasn't the pain that caused the most damage. It was how people reacted upon learning of my failure. My father said nothing of disappointment, but you could see it in his eyes. My mother, on the other hand... tch, she railed on and on about how foolish and reckless I was, about how I clearly lacked the restraint to be learning such dangerous things. About how I couldn't be trusted with something like lightning. My father ultimately defended me against her, but I'm sure he was largely defending his decision to teach me. That damn woman still carried on, clearly more upset with the fact that I was learning something she didn't approve of than the fact that I was actually hurt physically or emotionally. Hmph, and Zuko wondered why I hardly cared that she-"

Perhaps realizing that she was saying more than she really intended to, Azula cut herself short, clearing her throat awkwardly as she glanced away from Xisheng. "Sorry, ignore that rambling. The point is, I know how it feels to think you've disappointed people whose opinion you actually care about. I also know how it feels to fail a task expected of you by those people. I know how it feels to have those people condemn your failure even though you gave it your all at the time. That's why I want you to know that I am doing none of those things to you. If you were someone else: someone who failed because they were just unwilling to try as hard as they could, someone who failed because they didn't think it was worth their time, I'd condemn you. But I know that isn't true. As I said, you're just like me in this regard, and I know I can trust your commitment because of that. I cannot think less of you for this incident unless I'd also be willing to think less of myself: and I think we both know that isn't going to happen."

Though she didn't explicitly state as much, Xisheng got the distinct feeling that Azula had said everything she wanted to say. Everything she needed to say. And frankly, he couldn't quite disagree. This entire conversation had lifted a weight off of his shoulders. Not just the weight of the current situation, but also a sort of burden he had carried since the very beginning of his journey alongside Azula: the burden of balancing the obligations of multiple roles alongside her. There was a difficultly to trying to be more than a mere subordinate while also respecting the boundaries that such a role demanded of him. But this exchange had finally cleared many vague questions about their relationship and what it entailed. There was truly no room to doubt it now.

"...thank you for that, Azula. I know telling anyone all of this couldn't have been easy for you. Have you... actually told anyone else this?"

Feeling a little bashful about that answer, Azula pointedly averted her gaze out to the darkened sea. "No... which is why I expect you to appreciate this, and what it means."

Though he had a feeling he knew what it 'meant', Xisheng felt compelled to ask anyway. He just wanted to have absolute confirmation. "What it means, Princess?"

Despite being a little embarrassed with this line of conversation, Azula nevertheless managed to look back at him. "Exactly the opposite of that. Surely it's obvious by now that we're not just a princess and some subordinate. From now on, when we're alone... or rather, when there's no one present to warrant the illusion of decorum, I want you to feel at ease around me. If it's just us and the others, you can ignore my noble status."

Somewhat amused by the shy discomfort of her saying all of this, Xisheng cocked an eyebrow at her. "Are you asking me to respect you less?"

"I'm asking you to consider us equals. Unless the idea repulses you? I can rescind this offer if you wish."

"N-no, not at all Princess! I mean, er, Azula... I'm... honored that you'd consider me your friend."

Perhaps seeking to diffuse a rather embarrassing situation for herself, Azula scoffed, though she pointedly avoided Xisheng's gaze. "Well, it seemed a little pathetic to only have two friends. I don't want to end up like Mai, that soon-to-be spinster..."

"I thought being a spinster meant not having a partner at a certain age. How does this stop you from-"

Perhaps aware that Xisheng was going to reach a particular conclusion very quickly, Azula cut him off. "Anyway, about your training: obviously you will need to leave it be for now. Considering how difficult it is already, and your particular struggles with it, it'd be foolish to attempt lightning again with your body still reeling from the last fiasco. Spend these next few days resting until you're healthy again. The effects of lightning arcing throughout your body will likely be felt for a decent period of time. In the meantime, we can discuss the obstacles you're facing and figure out how to overcome them. Stop letting this one setback get the better of you and go back to the you we all actually enjoy."

With that, Azula turned on her heel to return to camp, though not before Xisheng called out to her one last time. "Does 'we all' include you, Azula?"

Stopping briefly, the young girl glanced back over her shoulder. "It especially includes me, Xisheng."

Continuing on her way after that, Xisheng was left standing alone. His arm still tingled, his leg still shook, but his heart hadn't felt so light in ages. Truly, this was the last thing he had been expecting before this conversation had taken place.

While he had been given permission from Azula to take things easy for the next few days, Xisheng didn't get much of a chance to. Before he even had a chance to wake up himself the next day, an unusual amount of hustle and bustle around the camp did it for him. Upon being roused from sleep and feeling awake enough to present himself to the world, Xisheng perused the camp to see what the commotion was all about. To his surprise, there was an Overlord transport parked not far from the camp, and the presence of several soldiers that were not part of the crew they'd been traveling with so far. Many troops were carrying crates of supplies and amenities to and from the tents to the cargo cabin of the Overlord.

Laying eyes on a particular sailor tending to a familiar hawk was the last hint Xisheng needed: their ride was here, and quite a bit earlier than had been expected. He hadn't expected to be leaving this area for at least a few more days. Either that bird had a hell of a work ethic, or the soldiers it had made contact with knew better than to loiter when they were being summoned by the Crown Princess, indirectly or not.

Putting on his boots and stepping out into the world again, Xisheng was mostly ignored by everyone, since the whole camp was busy. It seemed like anyone that wasn't piling supplies onto the Overlord were instead preparing the boat for departure: after all, the crew that had ferried Azula and her allies here had their own post to maintain, and they were only ever supposed to be here long enough to hand the group off to another escort. Even so, it didn't take long before Xisheng was picked out of the crowd by one of his actual friends.

"Gohan! How are you feeling?"

Glancing over his shoulder at the approaching voice revealed Ty Lee. "Hey. Decent enough. Pain's not as bad but not entirely gone..."

The expression on her face showed that this wasn't exactly the answer Ty Lee had been looking for. "OK, but like... y'know, how are you doing?"

That she was asking for a more emotional or psychological answer was impossible to miss. How she knew to ask was a mystery though. Had Mai or Ty Lee known about Azula's conversation with him last night? He couldn't imagine that Azula would have shared the exact details of the conversation with them. Still, the brunette had some idea that an important thing had taken place.

"I'm fine in that way too, Ty Lee. Better than fine, actually. Can't you tell? I feel positively rosy today."

The brunette glanced him up and down, with an expression that was not entirely convinced. "More of a hibiscus if you ask me, which is good and all, I just didn't want to assume that it actually meant anything without asking. I gotta admit, you do look better. So... does that mean it went well?"

"Depends on what you're referring to."

"You know, the talk. Mai said Azula was going to actually talk to you. She did, didn't she?"

Xisheng smiled. "She did. And yes, it went well. Really well. Much better than I could have imagined, honestly..."

Ty Lee beamed at the mention of this, clapping her hands together. "Wow, this must be what a proud mother feels like! Azula's really changed from the old days... I mean, it was crazy to me that she would genuinely apologize just a little while ago, and now we're all the way to this! You've really been such a good influence on all of us, Gohan."

"And all of you on me, in one way or another. But as much as I'd love to talk, I feel like I should help the soldiers with all of this heavy lifting."

Grabbing hold of his arm, Ty Lee immediately stopped Xisheng from moving away from her. "I don't think so, Gohan. We should tend to your arm and leg first. You're still shaking even now: just not as bad as before."

Now that she had called his attention to it, Xisheng noticed that he really was still trembling a bit. He supposed he had actually gotten use to it over the past few days. But kind of like breathing, once his mind was on it there was actually some agitation.

"OK, but after that..."

Instead of letting him finish, the acrobat tugged him towards a crate that had yet to be moved so he could sit on it. "Not even then, Gohan. Sit back and let some other people work every once in awhile. Technically, they're getting paid to do this. You have a different job now."

"They're gonna give me the evil eye though, having to work while I get tended to by a pretty girl..."

"Well, they should have thought about getting a pretty girl of their own. Or three, if they're greedy like you..."

"Hey-!"

Ty Lee pulled him down to the crate to cut off his protest. "Alrighty then, show me your arm..."

Since he had gotten used to this routine by now, Xisheng quickly did what he was told without any confusion, allowing Ty Lee to tend to his arm and leg as he watched the men around them work. Apparently, most of them truly didn't care that he wasn't participating. The two of them barely got a parting glance as Ty Lee worked. At some point they were joined by Mai, who naturally wasn't helping lug a bunch of stuff around, nor had she been able to sleep with all of the racket going on. She'd asked some similar questions to Ty Lee, and even gotten some similar answers from Xisheng. She'd even expressed some similar amazement at how things had progressed between him and Azula. Ultimately, the three of them ended up sitting around and observing the rest of the camp, even after Ty Lee was done with Xisheng's physical therapy.

By the time someone was actually asking Xisheng to move so he could take his impromptu seat, a few hours had passed and almost everything was ready to go. It was around this time that Azula summoned her friends to the new Overlord that would take them to Ba Sing Se, though not before Ty Lee got caught up saying goodbye to almost everyone in camp that she'd gotten acquainted with. Xisheng couldn't blame the sailors for feeling that way: who wouldn't be sad to see someone like Ty Lee leave their lives? It was incredibly unlikely that she would see any of them again.

At any rate, Xisheng and the girls found themselves next to Azula, the Captain, and whoever was in charge of driving the Overlord, though it was impossible to tell the man's age under his mask. Azula swiftly opened up the conversation with her friends.

"Well, as you can no doubt tell, it's time for us to leave. Ba Sing Se awaits: I assume none of you have any pressing business before we depart?"

With shrugs or outright statements to the contrary, Azula got her answer quite quickly, prompting her to turn to the masked soldier in charge of the Overlord. "Well then, do start the engine, Corporal. I'd like to be underway as soon as possible."

With a silent bow, that soldier went off to do as he was told, leaving Azula to focus on the Captain that had been accompanying them thus far. The graying man honestly looked a little emotional, but in a good way. After all, this had probably been the most exciting adventure he'd been on in years, even if it hadn't really been all that much outside of that encounter with the EKN. At any rate, he would be able to tell all of his friends and family that he had personally escorted the Princess of the Fire Nation at one time, and that kind of clout would last him quite some time: if anyone ever believed him.

"Captain, allow me to say that you've served me well. Please extend the gratitude of the Royal Family to your entire crew. I will be sure to remember your outpost and its soldiers when the time comes to grant accolades for our success at Ba Sing Se."

The captain bowed low to Azula. "Your gratitude is reward enough for all of us, Princess. It was an honor to escort you and your retinue. Should you ever have need of our meager services again, you have but to bid for our aid. We will come, even if it means fighting through the Earth Kingdom Navy once again."

With a nod of acknowledgement, Azula turned towards the passenger cabin of the Overlord. Mai was right behind her, so she didn't waste much time in heading that way either. Since she hadn't gotten particularly involved with the captain, their only exchange was a customary bow from the older man as she passed, to which she nodded in return. Ty Lee, on the other hand, actually got a personalized farewell after the captain's bow to her.

"Lady Ty Lee, it was a pleasure to have you with us. I assure you, the men will be devastated to see you go."

For her part, Ty Lee looked a bit teary herself. Then again, she was the most social of them all, and had spent a lot more time growing fond of the crew. "Oh, Captain! You guys were the best bunch of sailors a girl could ask for! Even the constant seasickness was made bearable by all you guys!"

With a chuckle, the captain held out some of the medicine he had been sharing with Ty Lee since the beginning of their sea journey. "Even so, why don't you take some of this just to be on the safe side? Riding over land can be bumpy too."

Taking the medicine from the man, Ty Lee double-checked to make sure no one else was looking before she gave him a swift hug. Well, she wasn't one for decorum in most cases, so even though the captain looked stunned and more than a little flustered, Xisheng wasn't surprised. That marked the final goodbye between those two, with Xisheng moving forward as Ty Lee skipped to the Overlord. The captain had to clear his throat before speaking to him after that somewhat awkward debacle.

"Ahem... Lieutenant Xisheng."

The older officer held out a hand, instead of opting for a bow. A sign of mutual respect, rather than one of subordinate homage. Honestly, what Xisheng would have preferred from a fellow soldier. As he grasped the man's hand, the captain continued to speak.

"It was a honor to serve with such a dedicated soldier. I haven't met someone who embodied the values of duty and honor so completely in a long time. Not to mention the fact that my crew and I certainly owe you our lives for the part you played in the skirmish out at sea. Thank you."

"I can say the same about you and your crew's excellent skills and teamwork, Captain. It was an honor to be among men I could trust as my comrades so completely. Thank you for keeping the Princess safe."

Clasping his hands behind his back once the handshake was over, the captain nodded. "You only prove my point further, Lieutenant. And speaking of the Princess... it is clear even to me that you have the trust of all three of those young women. Not to threaten you on the back of a dignified exchange, but... you had best take care of them, soldier. You don't know how lucky you are."

Xisheng was about to respond, but was called from the Overlord before he could by Ty Lee. "Gohan, Azula says to hurry up!"

With a wave of acknowledgement, Xisheng turned to the captain one more time. "That's a fact I remain keenly aware of every day, Captain...?"

The way Xisheng petered off made it clear that he was probing for a certain response. It only just now occurred to the captain that he hadn't shared this information at any point prior to now.

"Tianhai, Lieutenant."

"Well then, Captain Tianhai, I sincerely wish for the day we can meet under the best of circumstances. Maybe at some grand victory feast when this is all over, eh?"

With a chuckle, Tianhai stroked the edge of his mustache before taking a few steps back towards the camp. Azula had expressed a desire to leave quickly, after all. "That is my wish as well. Farewell, Lieutenant. Best of luck on your endeavor. My men and I will be rooting for all of you."

With one last wave, Xisheng turned towards the Overlord, preparing to depart for the next leg of his journey. Hopefully, this sense of contentment wouldn't be replaced with foreboding until they were at least able to see the walls of Ba Sing Se.

"Alright, now this is definitely just them compensating for something."

With their current transport vehicle having come to a brief stop on its way to the Fire Nation staging area, many of its occupants were taking the opportunity to stretch their limbs. Ba Sing Se was not far off now: in fact, it was close enough to see the top of its massive walls in the far distance, just over the curve of the horizon. While they seemed small from this perspective, the fact that they could be seen at all from this distance was a testament to how truly massive they really were. Xisheng estimated that they still had about an hour of driving to get to the staging area, and even that was several miles away from the walls proper. Needless to say, the scope of Ba Sing Se's walls had not been exaggerated in the many tales Xisheng had heard about them.

Mai was the one who had commented on their size as she stretched a kink out of her arm. Although she had not been the one to drive an Overlord this time around, the transport they were currently making use of had not been luxuriously modified to Azula's tastes, so it was far less comfortable of a ride, even for the passengers. Ty Lee didn't seem to have as much of a problem with her body, but that was no surprise. She was already the most limber among them, so Xisheng doubted she got kinks as easily as the rest of them. At any rate, she didn't seem to have any such weaknesses as she stood beside her friends.

Xisheng also had to stretch, though he noted with some discomfort that his arm still shook a bit when he stretched it out fully. It was truly slight, but still, the fact that some residual consequence from his failure to bend lightning still existed even several days after the accident had occurred was troubling. He couldn't help but wonder just how long it would take to go away completely, since Azula had said he couldn't train with lightning again until then.

"Well, when you live in a country full of people who can manipulate earth, there's really no reason to not build giant fortifications. For the Fire Nation, building something of this scope would be a monumental undertaking that would require decades, speaking optimistically. Not to say it was easy for the Earth Kingdom, but I doubt it took them more than a few years to build these walls, even as huge and widespread as they are."

Ty Lee seemed curious about some aspect of this. "Why did they build them at all, though? I mean, it's not like they built them after the war started, right? What was the point of having such huge walls before there was any fighting to worry about?"

Xisheng pondered his answer for a moment. For one, he didn't know all the right aspects of the answer. Two, it was pretty complicated. "Well, it's not like the Earth Kingdom was peaceful prior to this war. This continent has been the battleground for many a faction trying to dominate it. Long before the Fire Nation was fighting them, the Earth Kingdom regularly fought among themselves. Which raises an interesting question I'd like to ask the Avatar about why foreign wars are unacceptable, but domestic ones are seemingly fine... at any rate, even ignoring wars, there may be other reasons they built the walls. Maybe they just needed something for people to do: providing jobs, and all that. Maybe they serve some public purpose for the city aside from defense. Admittedly, I'm not well-versed enough on Ba Sing Se's history to say with certainty exactly why they built them."

One of the girls may have had something to say about that, but the addition of another voice from behind the trio prevented that from happening. "Why they built these walls is irrelevant. All that matters is whether or not we can take them down."

All three of them glanced over their shoulders as Azula approached them. She had been conversing with one of the officers during the stop, rather than relaxing right away. As a member of the Royal Family, she technically served a military role of a sort, so she often had to stay abreast of things. Xisheng was glad that she took the initiative when it came to things like that. At least she didn't seem to find the notion of dealing with military affairs tedious. Anyone who felt that way didn't need to be in a position to make military decisions.

"Very true. Though I have to wonder if such a thing is within our current capabilities."

Coming to stand beside them all as she crossed her arms and appraised the distant walls, Azula frowned. "Well, loathe as I am to admit it, Iroh breached them once before. I see no reason why we shouldn't be capable of the same."

"Maybe, but it's also possible that whatever weakness Iroh was able to exploit has been rectified by now. I doubt Ba Sing Se is going to allow us to employ the same strategy that worked the first time. The opportunity that traitor squandered isn't likely to resurface."

Though he hadn't really intended to, Xisheng noted the fair deal of vehemence that crept into his voice while discussing Iroh's previous siege. What could he say? He had a very negative opinion of the man. Either way, Azula didn't seem to care.

"Be that as it may, you don't sound very confident at all, Gohan. It almost sounds like you don't think we can do it."

The young officer contemplated shooting down that notion, but figured there was no point in lying. "I'll admit, I'm mostly just worried about the plan of attack. For all of our military strengths, the Fire Nation has its fair share of foolish old generals who find strategy too difficult to grasp. Heck, even Zhao's plan at the North Pole just amounted to an all-out frontal assault, which only worked due to vast numerical and ranged bombardment superiority. Something like that isn't going to work this time: the walls are much higher and thicker, there's a lot more enemies, and there's a much bigger city behind those walls that has to be taken."

Azula's expression was difficult to interpret as she continued appraising the distant city in question. "Though I hate to admit it, I'm not well-versed enough in strategy and tactics to know the best way to approach our task. Nor do I know what our supposedly reputable generals are planning. According to our current crew from the war camp, War Minister Qin is in charge of the upcoming assault."

"I thought his job was to oversee technological advancement and acquisition? Why is a War Minister in direct command of a tactical operation?"

"Yes, well... other news from our new crew includes talk of some sort of never-before-seen massive weapon that will be used to siege the city. Apparently it hadn't arrived by the time the crew left the camp to come and retrieve us, but the rumors were already spreading even by then. If I had to assume, I'd say this weapon is some sort of pet project for Qin. He likely assured many a soul that his new toy could get the job done. And he probably didn't want to relinquish said toy to anyone else..."

Xisheng cocked an eyebrow at her. "Why is he allowed to make that decision? It may be his design, but he's still not a commander. Who agreed to let him be in command of an operation this critical?"

Azula cast a sideways glance at him. "My father, I imagine."

The young soldier grimaced, fully understanding why his words were problematic in retrospect. Doubting the decisions of high command aloud without knowing who made those decisions meant you could end up questioning the Fire Lord's judgment without even knowing it. Not that Xisheng was willing to rescind his statement...

A small part of him expected Azula to be upset at this implication, but she didn't seem to be that bothered. If anything, she almost seemed to agree with her pupil. Then again, Xisheng had come to realize that her father wasn't a complete and total figure of adulation for her.

"Unfortunately, we are a culture that prefers to give people a chance to prove themselves when they proclaim their own competence, rather than simply allowing fools to bluster on without giving them anything at all. It either reveals someone of great value or gives you a chance to put someone in their place. That's effectively why Agni Kais became so popular in the first place. Perhaps my father wants to see if Qin can live up to his claims. If he does, all well and good. If not, well... I'm sure there will be some consequence."

Xisheng didn't say anything to this immediately. He understood that there was a time to test the competence of your subordinates with actual field experience. But this was not such a time. This attack could be the most crucial operation in the last two decades of warfare. Thousands of lives hung on the decisions that would be made during this operation, there was absolutely no reason anyone other than the most qualified commanders should be in charge of it all.

He must have made some sort of face while thinking of this, because Mai pretty accurately managed to guess his thoughts. "Maybe he still has a military advisor or something? Or maybe he's just in charge of the weapon, and someone else is still making the big tactical decisions?"

Sighing in consternation, Xisheng tried to take some solace in such thoughts. "One can hope..."

As for Azula, she decided that there was no point in continuing with all of this hypothesizing. "Regardless, sitting around here and guessing won't reveal anything real to us. We won't know the situation until we get there. Let's return to the Overlord. We'll know how things stand soon enough."

Mai groaned at the thought of returning to the uncomfortable seating of the vehicle, but said nothing to dispute Azula's command. Those hard metal chairs still beat walking. Ty Lee patted her on the shoulder as the two of them walked back towards the Overlord, seeking to offer some nonverbal comfort. Xisheng would have made to follow them, but he was stopped by Azula before he could. Clearly, she wanted a moment alone with him.

"How's your arm doing?"

Xisheng subconsciously clenched the arm in question, wondering if he had been shaking without noticing. Was he really incapable of even telling now if he wasn't thinking about it? Although, maybe that was a good thing. Either way, Azula seemed to notice his apprehension right away.

"Calm down, it's not that I saw anything troubling. I'm merely curious to know how much it's been ailing you lately. Aren't I just such a caring teacher?"

Seeing that she was trying to lighten the mood with her humor, Xisheng managed to calm his nerves. "It's fine. The shaking has stopped almost completely when at rest. It's onlywhen I really stretch my arm or leg out all the way that I notice."

"I imagined as such. That's about the experience I recall from years gone by."

"Frankly, I'm still surprised you shared that story with me."

The young Princess cast her gaze elsewhere for a moment, perhaps trying to hide a bit of bashfulness. "Well, it was either that or allow you to wallow about in self-pity for an untold amount of time. I can hardly see any reason to let you waste your time and energy doing that. Besides... sharing that story seems to have worked wonders, doesn't it?"

Well, Xisheng couldn't deny that. Knowing that even Azula had faced similar struggles as his own during her training was uplifting, in its own way. Comparing yourself to someone who was perfect and never failed guaranteed you would feel unworthy. Comparing yourself to someone who was very good, but had gone through the same travails as you to achieve their ability, was much less demoralizing. Such a person also made for a much better teacher: who wanted to learn from someone you never felt you could actually live up to? It almost felt pointless to do that. Xisheng didn't really think he could reach Azula's level of prowess, but at the same time, he believed that he could get reasonably close to it in time. That she had trusted him enough to share a story that could be considered evidence of her weakness was not lost on him either. She was a good teacher, but also a good friend.

Not to say that she trusted him with absolutely everything already. There was that strange bit about her mother that had come up, but Azula had refused to elaborate on it as soon as it had been mentioned. It would obviously take some time before she was willing to discuss whatever troubled her about that aspect of her past. Xisheng would wait patiently for that time, even if it never came.

"I suppose it did. It at least made me feel like less of a fool."

Azula smirked, but it wasn't entirely malicious. "You're still a bit of a fool, Xisheng. Just because someone else made the same mistake as you doesn't mean neither of you made a mistake. It just means you were both foolish."

Xisheng leveled a questioning expression at her. "Don't you mean 'we', Azula?"

"Get back to the Overlord, Gohan."

While she had not agreed to that assessment, Xisheng nevertheless felt quite relieved that he could even jest with Azula like this. Not long in the past, the mere thought of implying her to be a fool would have been unthinkable. Times certainly had changed for the better...

That said, it was hard to be too happy about it as the soldier's thoughts turned back to Ba Sing Se. War would soon be upon them, and there was no telling who could get hurt or worse. All he could do was pray that his friends would stay off the battlefield, even if he knew that was selfish of him. He wasn't really sure how he would handle something happening to any one of them, short of killing everyone responsible. He was probably better off not thinking about it right now: there would be plenty of time to fret at the war camp.

The remaining drive to the war camp was allegedly an hour, but it felt much shorter than that. It seemed that Xisheng had only sat down for five minutes before he was stepping out of the vehicle again. In doing so, he found himself struck by a very powerful wave of nostalgia as he looked about the camp. Everything here was familiar territory: dozens upon dozens of prefabricated metal structures and walls, with a smattering of tents about to serve as substitutes until more such structures could be erected. Metal plates had been placed down as flooring in as many places as possible to prevent Earthbenders from tunneling into the camp. Steel walls had been erected around the place, with a watchtower every fifty feet or so.

Billowing pillars of smoke stretched into the sky in many locations, signalling smithies and workshops. The stench of such acrid smoke mixed with the metal and sweat of hundreds of thousands of soldiers to create a unique, unsavory, but not entirely unwelcome smell for one who was used to it. Dozens of soldiers milled about, carrying out one task or another. Delivering supplies, patrolling the area, maintaining equipment... this was the camp of a Fire Nation preparing for war, and it was an environment that Xisheng was intimately familiar with. He had spent many months in such places during his tenure on the EK Defensive Line.

At this point, those times felt like they were years in the past, and yet, Xisheng knew that it wasn't that long ago at all. Heck, was it even more than a year ago...?

Either way, he and his allies disembarked from the Overlord swiftly, after which the vehicle drove off, no doubt to return to a vehicle bay for maintenance. The young soldier noted all of the ladies with him wrinkling their noses to some extent, which wasn't a surprise to him. The scents around a place such as this were far from roses and green pastures. He also noted many soldiers glancing in the direction of the new arrivals, but none of them actually stopped what they were doing. Good; it was always heartening to see discipline and focus in the ranks.

Mai commented on the state of the place. "I'm not sure what I was expecting, honestly, but this... what's with the smell around here?"

Xisheng decided to give a brief explanation, leaving out the really gross stuff that none of the girls would probably want to know. "Gather thousands of people in one place with only the bare essentials to survive off of, and this is the kind of smell you get. Kind of hard to provide everyone with plumbing out here in the middle of nowhere, if you catch my drift."

The girl next to him suppressed a look of disgust. Xisheng imagined that she was worrying about whether or not she'd have to put up with the same conditions as the grunts. He didn't think she would: though what he said was true, Xisheng knew that there was often a few more luxurious installments made for high-ranking officers and nobles that may have been present at such camps. Generals weren't going to shit in the latrines with their men, after all.

Ty Lee or Azula may have had something to say about things as well, but neither of them had a chance to. One of the crew members from the Overlord had disembarked as well so he could guide them to the command post. After all, there were many things to discuss right now, and no time to waste. With that being the case, the group of Fire Nation nobles plus one followed a meek soldier that weaved through the camp with relative ease. Naturally the group ended up getting more looks from people as they passed, but that came as a shock to no one. You rarely saw nobles running around a war camp unless they were commanders high-ranking military officials. It was even rarer to see beautiful noble women about.

Sure, there were a lot more women in the military now than there used to be, but most of them were your average civilian, and even the ones that were extremely attractive were always in uniform when on duty, so half the time you couldn't even tell. Needless to say, Xisheng saw more than a few lecherous glances at the girls, directed a fair deal lower than their actual faces. He supposed some of them thought it was fine if they didn't get caught, and others may not have even known that one of the women present was the Crown Princess. Not everyone had seen her in person or even in a drawing.

Regardless, Xisheng felt a strong urge to glare back at every single one of these people. Which was a little silly, because he knew what was happening was harmless and too minor to get worked up over. But he couldn't help himself. Knowing that men were mentally undressing his companions at this very moment pissed him off. Sure, he had done that a few times himself, but... well, no one said being territorial was rational, right?

In the end, Xisheng simply did his best to ignore the problem, which did well enough for the somewhat lengthy walk to the command post. Seeing as how this was the primary staging area for one of the largest assaults in years, it was quite a large camp, and it took them nearly ten minutes to reach their destination, which was a large metal square structure with multiple floors that made it taller than the rest of the prefabricated buildings around here. Other than that, only the presence of Fire Nation flags draped over many sections of the walls designated this place as the command post.

The crewman that had led them here said his goodbyes and returned to his own devices once his job was done. Once the group was inside the building, it was obvious that it had been afforded some nicer luxuries than the rest of the camp: at the very least, it was very clean, and had installed wall torches instead of the haphazard braziers that illuminated most of the rest of the camp. Xisheng imagined there were also functioning toilets somewhere in this facility, among other things. Also in this facility was a certain War Minister Qin, waiting for them in the first hall. Apparently he had known of their impending arrival, and at least he seemed to have the wits about him to be present to greet the Crown Princess in person.

The graying man also knew how to bow properly, as indicated by the way his topknot became parallel to the floor for a moment. "Greetings, Princess Azula. I was most surprised to learn that you would be joining us for this operation, and by messenger bird no less. I trust your journey was a pleasant one?"

Naturally, Azula did not bow back. "As pleasant as one could expect from military hardware, I suppose. I'll admit, I was impressed by the swift response time in dispatching transport and retrieving my retinue. I hope that's an indicator of strong logistics here."

Qin seemed mildly pleased with the praise, but didn't let it show too overtly. "Indeed, this war camp has been established for more than two months now, and most of our affairs are in order. In fact, there is but one step remaining in our preparations before we are ready for our assault on Ba Sing Se."

"I'd very much like to know the details of this assault, War Minister."

With a much slighter bow, the older man motioned down the hall with his arm. "Of course, your Highness. Perhaps we should discuss this in the war room?"

Azula simply nodded to this suggestion, prompting Qin to guide the team down the halls of the command post. The building wasn't terribly large, so it didn't take long to reach a metal door guarded by two soldiers on the second floor. Qin stopped outside of it and looked back at the people he was escorting.

"Here we are, Princess. However, the war room contains sensitive tactical and strategic information, so your allies..."

Azula cut him off right away. "They have my trust. Take us inside."

It looked like Qin might have wanted to say something about that, but ultimately he held his tongue, which was probably good for his career. When both his and Azula's backs were turned, Ty Lee held a hand to her chest and smiled, clearly indicating that she was touched by her friend's words. Even Mai looked a little surprised that Azula had said that so bluntly and without hesitation.

The inside of the war room wasn't particularly special: it was a large rectangular chamber, with a window on each wall overlooking the base (not that there was much to see), counters along the walls that were filled with parchments and writing implements, and a sizable table in the middle of the room that had a map and several pieces on it to represent troop deployments. What wasn't present in this room, however, was other people. Xisheng was a little surprised by this: usually a war room for an operation this large included many individuals of the officer ranks. At the very least, he would have expected to see a commander or something around.

Perhaps remembering their conversation from earlier, Azula questioned this very reality. "Awfully empty in here, isn't it, War Minister? Where are your colleagues?"

"I'm afraid there are none, your Highness."

"Excuse me?"

"General Lu Bei was supposed to be participating in the tactical planning for the assault, and was called forth from his post two weeks ago. It was confirmed that he left his previous station with an escort, but they have not been seen since. His whereabouts are unknown, but needless to say, he isn't here. It's possible he was waylaid by enemy forces, or has been delayed by other issues."

Xisheng refrained from expressing his surprise at having General Lu Bei mentioned. The man had been the one in command of his old division back before he had been drafted into the North Pole Invasion fleet. While Xisheng had only seen him once or twice in person, Lu Bei had always been known to possess at least appreciable concern for his troops and an impressive tactical acumen. At any rate, the man had been solely in charge of Xisheng's section of the Defensive Line, and that line had held for the entire time Xisheng had been deployed there. He had a high opinion of the man, and sincerely hoped he was alright, wherever he was. Frankly, Xisheng would have been a lot more comfortable if the General were actually present.

It was unlikely that Azula knew any information that specific about Lu Bei, so it was no surprise that nothing was said about it. "I see... even so, surely there are others of a high rank involved in this assault? Who is in charge of the tactical planning here?"

"That would be me, your Highness. There are a few lower ranking commanders here, but seeing as how the entirety of this assault hinges on a weapon of my creation, it seemed only prudent that I be in command. No one else present knows the capability of the weapon better than myself."

To Xisheng at least, this admittance sent what little confidence he still had in all of this out the window. It sounded to him like Qin had just strong-armed some of the actually qualified people around here to have command of the assault for himself. This was undoubtedly just a shot at glory and prestige for him: if he could take down Ba Sing Se's walls with his project and claim that the success was solely due to his planning and ability, Qin would be set for the rest of his life in the Fire Nation. He would ascend to all-time war hero status and never want for anything all the way to the grave.

He supposed that the notion was understandable, but at the same time, it just seemed excessively greedy. Qin already had an incredibly prestigious position in the Fire Nation: there was only one War Minister, and he had control of an entire branch of military development. He was already pretty much set for life as it was, unless he made some huge mistake. Which naturally made this assault a huge gamble for him. Sure, if Qin's strategy and weapon worked, he'd ascend to the height of prestige and honor. But taking full credit for success also meant accepting full responsibility for failure, and if that happened the man could easily lose his position and worse.

All of that aside, Xisheng could never condone an officer using the lives of soldiers under his command as expendable currency to improve his own status. Too many lives were at stake here to waste on petty social power plays.

He hoped that Azula would feel the same about this kind of thing, but if she did, the sentiment was not made immediately obvious as she acknowledged Qin's words. "I suppose it is true that you'd know the capabilities of your fabled machine better than most. Though I hope that means you also know its limits. Either way, surely you could benefit from the tactical input of the commanders present in the war camp?"

With a smirk, Qin motioned towards the map on the table, which had surprisingly few markers for Fire Nation troop elements on it. "Fear not, your Highness. With my weapon, we will have little need for further troops or even much strategy. There is nothing those Earth Kingdom peons can do to stop it. It will win this battle almost entirely unassisted."

Despite not even knowing that much about warfare, even Ty Lee and Mai looked skeptical of this assertion. Xisheng's hopes for this battle plummeted even further. Not once in his life had he heard of an 'invincible super weapon' actually living up to the unproven praise heaped upon it. Anyone who thought a battle, never mind an entire siege, could be won with one tool was an idiot that couldn't be trusted. On the other hand, he was at least happy to learn that Qin didn't plan on fielding many troops. That at least meant that this inevitable disaster would result in less casualties and wasted lives.

If Azula was thinking about any of this, she didn't express it outright. "You seem to have a great deal of faith in this weapon of yours, War Minister. Perhaps you'd indulge my curiosity and reveal it to me for appraisal?"

For the first time since they entered the war room, Qin's confidence fell a bit. "It's not here just yet, Princess. The weapon had to be assembled and deployed from a factory quite some distance from here, and it's not particularly fast... however, I have received assurance from the crew that it should arrive at the war camp sometime tomorrow evening. Once it arrives, we can discuss the plan of battle and move on with the assault posthaste."

"I see... well then, it appears there is nothing left to discuss at this time, doesn't it? We will speak of this in greater detail tomorrow. Until that time, refer myself and my companions to our lodgings for the duration of our stay."

Probably glad to see that he wasn't being accosted for anything at this time, Qin bowed low again. "Of course, your Highness. I will have one of the soldiers outside escort you to your private quarters. Said quarters have been prepared to the best of the camp's abilities and resources."

Taking his leave for a moment to speak to the soldiers outside, Qin exited the room and left Azula's retinue alone for a brief time. Normally he wouldn't have been the type, but Xisheng took the opportunity to immediately express his doubts with all that had been shared here. Maybe a little too eagerly, at that.

"I don't like this, Azula. Qin is clearly way over his head and has no idea what he's doing. The fact that he even thinks this super weapon of his is going to win the whole battle by itself is ridiculous."

Azula herself seemed to be pondering some similar sentiments, or perhaps just the situation at large. "I won't say I disagree. Still, we should wait until we see what Qin has in store before we condemn or condone the battle strategy. His device could be more impressive than we know. Assuming the worst right away won't do us any favors."

While he would have preferred for them to just intervene in the proceedings right away, Xisheng knew that Azula was right. While he had no faith in Qin at this point, it was still better to have a full grasp of the situation before trying to do anything to influence it. Still, he'd be lying if he said he was happy about the idea.

Ty Lee must have noticed his discomfort (maybe his aura was dingy or something), because she moved to assure him. "Don't worry, Gohan. If that guy's plan really is stupid, Azula can just call it off. She's the Crown Princess, after all."

The Princess in question didn't confirm or deny this assumption, though she didn't have much time to do so. One of the soldiers outside opened the door to address the party after a bow. "Your highness, I can escort you and your companions to your lodgings whenever you are ready."

Azula responded to the man immediately, seeing no point in staying here. "Very well. Lead on."

The soldier turned and walked out of the hall, with Azula following swiftly and Ty Lee not far behind. This left Xisheng and Mai alone for the briefest of moments, which the dark-haired girl used to quietly comment to him.

"For what it's worth, I agree with you. I met so many blowhards like that back in the day for noble nonsense..."

"I just hope we can do something to alleviate the disaster this guy is planning. Assuming he's actually planned anything other than a direct attack..."

Unwilling to fall too far behind the others, the two of them decided they could harp on Qin more later if they wanted to. For now, it was best to follow the soldier to their new quarters for the foreseeable future. Hopefully, they were actually prepared as nicely as the War Minister had claimed.

The following day was an odd return to army life for Xisheng, though his direct involvement in it was limited. With little to actually do until Qin's wonder weapon arrived, Azula had asked him to take stock of the situation at the base as best he could, claiming that she could do so, but wouldn't actually know if what she was seeing was good or bad. While that was a fair sentiment, it was still kind of annoying to wake up early in the morning so he could investigate the siege preparations. At least the room he had been allowed to sleep in had actually been quite nice.

It did mean that he hadn't seen much of the girls today, since he had awoken before most of them to do what had been asked by Azula. Admittedly, it was a little odd to act as Azula's aide in such a manner: Xisheng was not a logistics officer and only had rough ideas of what a base and army should have to be considered functional. But he supposed there was no one else to ask. Or at least, no one else to ask whose opinion she would actually trust.

Thus far, Xisheng's perusal of the base had yielded positive results. The majority of the soldiers appeared to be well-equipped, and based on his visit to the mess hall during lunch, food didn't seem to be a problem either. The armory and warehouses were brimming with weapons and munitions, even while the smithies cranked out more and more. The smiths seemed to have no shortage of coal and metal coming in either, which was no surprise considering the large number of transports coming to and from the base every hour. No surprise there either: this was the largest siege since... well, since the last time Ba Sing Se had been besieged. Either way, logistics seemed to be in good order, with stable supply lines providing for every need of the base. Of course, no one would know how robust those supply lines really were until after demand went up due to fighting, but for now, they were sufficient.

As for the soldiers, most of them appeared to be in good spirits, if not somewhat bored. Many of them were simply assured that they couldn't possibly lose with this much mustered manpower, while others had faith in Qin's alleged superweapon. Granted, many of the men Xisheng spoke to were young, or still relatively fresh recruits even if they were older. There were plenty of veteran battalions present as well, but most of them weren't as blindly optimistic about the impending battle. Still, no one was shouting from the rooftops about how they were all doomed and life was meaningless. Morale was high enough that it wouldn't pose any problem for the initial assault.

But after asking around throughout the day, it was clear to Xisheng that strategic leadership was oddly absent. Qin had mentioned the mysterious absence of general Lu Bei the other day, but there weren't even many lower ranking officers present. A few commanders here and there, but no one that would be expected for an army as large as this one. At the very least, whenever Xisheng asked soldiers what division they had come from, they often revealed that they had been pulled from another high-ranking officer's command, rather than having that officer called to this staging area for the assault.

Needless to say, Xisheng was quite suspicious of this. The largest military operation in years, and it was allowed to ride on the shoulders of someone who wasn't even a military officer? Qin didn't even have any advisors telling him what to do. Did Qin really have enough influence to strongarm high command into being absent from the battle so he could have any and all glory for himself? Or even worse, was this assault not actually that important? It could be that this staging area only existed as a diversion, or to launch a diversionary attack, and all of the officers one would have expected to be here were planning something else somewhere else. But if that was the case, would Qin really keep Azula in the dark? Or did Qin not even know? Cutthroat politics were definitely the type of thing to involve an entire battle just to defame one rival... or worse.

Still, this was a lot of manpower and equipment to commit to a mere ploy. Far more than the Fire Nation had to waste on a diversion. No, the lack of high-ranking officers was confusing, but it had to be something else. Maybe Qin was launching the attack prematurely, before those officers had arrived? Maybe the attack wasn't even scheduled until a few more months from now, but he figured he could make a name for himself by taking the city without anyone's help. A totally reckless gambit, but no one would dare accost him if it actually worked. Or maybe there just weren't that many really high-ranking officers to actually be involved? It wasn't like any admirals would have anything to do with this, and generals... well, Lu Bei's absence was already accounted for, Iroh wasn't a general any longer for obvious reasons, last Xisheng had heard general Han Fu had been sent back home after falling ill... shit, who else even was there? Was he forgetting someone? Turned out that being part of the rank and file meant you didn't clearly remember every high-ranking officer in the military.

Whatever the reason, Xisheng figured there was nothing he could do about it. At best, he could inform Azula of his concerns and they could discuss what to do about it, if anything. Right now, he was just double-checking everything he had written down on a scroll today as the evening sun descended toward the horizon. He'd recorded a lot of information for his report to Azula: certainly more than he could remember from memory alone.

He was just starting to write an extra note about a lack of bows to go with all the arrows being produced when a slight tremor caused him to make an unsightly squiggle. Wondering is his arm had trembled a bit, Xisheng carefully braced the parchment against a nearby wall so he could write cleanly. However, as he moved to write another symbol, another tremor ruined it. Glancing at both hands carefully, Xisheng carefully appraised them for shaking. He didn't realize that nothing was wrong with his body until one of the braziers holding a torch rattled its loose fittings a bit. A few moments later, the same thing happened.

Glancing around the camp, Xisheng noticed that he wasn't the only one noticing this. Lots of soldiers were looking around as loose objects trembled and shook at set intervals. That could only mean one thing: the ground was shaking. A few soldiers panicked and started running for walls or metal surfaces. After all, their enemies were Earthbenders, so shaking earth was not a promising sign. But this magnitude was a little too much for an attack. Even an army of earthbenders would have trouble creating the tremors that were shaking miles and miles of earth around the base. Especially since those tremors were growing stronger.

Everyone was running around looking for some sort of explanation, but it was one of the watchmen on the walls that found the culprit first. "Over there! It's... I don't know, but it's huge! Spirits, it must be taller than the command post!"

Dozens of soldiers ran up the ramps to the wall so they could get a look, Xisheng included. Once he had arrived, and once he managed to actually get a look past the shoulders and heads that barred his path, he laid eyes on something difficult to describe. In the distance, approaching the base, was a giant cylinder laid on its side.

"Hoooooly spirits..."

Every few moments, another tremor shook the earth, and the thing inched a little closer to the base. The color was the same dark grey steel of Fire Nation vehicles, though the scope was beyond anything Xisheng could liken to a war machine he'd seen before.

"What is that?"

As it grew closer and closer, more details became clear: strange spike-like contraptions shot out of the metal worm every few moments, creating the tremors everyone was feeling that entire section of the machine used the leverage created by those spikes to drag the monstrosity forward across the protesting earth. Smoke billowed out of the rear of the machine, and upon closer inspection, the front appeared to be an absurdly massive drill.

Soldiers around Xisheng were awestruck by the sheer size of the thing as it drew closer. As it dawned on him what this machine's purpose was, Xisheng's sentiments were a lot less optimistic.

"What the fuck is that?!"

Chapter Text

"As you can see, this machine is truly titanic. A masterwork, if I do say so myself. I call it... The Drill."

Azula cocked an eyebrow as she sat at the strategy table in the outpost war room. Pinned against one of the walls was a large schematic on parchment that depicted the massive war machine that had arrived at the staging area recently. War Minister Qin was gesturing fervently at it with obvious pride.

"How very clever of you, War Minister."

Qin completely missed Azula's completely blatant sarcasm. "Thank you, Princess. This incredible machine guarantees our victory. Against it, the mighty walls of Ba Sing Se are but pebbles in our path to greatness!"

The Princess glanced to her side at Xisheng, who was likewise at the table at her behest. Qin had been too excited to question his presence. The young man's mouth was hidden by his interwoven fingers, his colorful eyes darkened by some indiscernible emotion as he stared at the schematic with a furrowed brow. The three of them were the only ones in the room: Xisheng had briefly mentioned a seeming lack of other officers, but only now was Azula realizing how right he was. It seemed like Qin was really the only person in charge around here, and he didn't have much of a support structure in place to assist him. She certainly wanted to inquire about this, but right now, discussing this gigantic drill was a greater priority.

"Is that so? I assume the intent is to drive this machine directly into the wall and simply... drill a hole?"

Qin gestured towards the part of the schematic that broke down the drill, though the drawings and annotations didn't really mean much to Azula. "Precisely, Princess. See, the drill is long enough to punch all the way through the walls of Ba Sing Se. In the past, it took Iroh months, years to breach the wall. With my masterpiece, we will be through in no more than an hour. The hydraulic technology moving it forward and powering the drill is cutting edge. There is no more advanced machine in the Fire Nation, domestic or military."

Azula was about to inquire further, but she didn't get a chance to. Xisheng spoke aloud for the first time since entering this room. "How do you plan to get it to the wall?"

At first, Qin narrowed his eyes at the much younger man, seemingly insulted to be questioned by him. Azula had never specified anything about Xisheng to him other than the fact that the young man was trusted by her. Though honestly, that should have commanded more respect in and of itself. Azula made sure to iterate this.

"Answer his question, War Minister. And any further questions he may have: assume that he speaks for me in this meeting."

Qin didn't seem happy about this notion, and Xisheng, surprisingly, didn't seem shocked to be granted this privilege. Perhaps he was too focused on the topic at hand to be appreciative of something like that. At any rate, Qin knew better than to deny or disrespect the Princess, so he got his ire under control, though his tone was just barely acceptable.

"As you may have noticed, the Drill is capable of locomotion. It is more than capable of advancing towards the walls."

Xisheng's expression was stony. "Across open ground? Across literal ground?"

Qin scoffed as he dismissed Xisheng's obvious concern. "Your fears are misplaced. What could Earthbenders possibly do against a machine of this size? Nothing short of them dropping the wall itself on it will stop this machine. And if that happens, I daresay we are still in an advantageous position."

Now with a prominent scowl on his face, and perhaps knowing that he had Azula's blessing, Xisheng rose from his position at the table and moved towards the schematic on the wall, gesturing at a part of the drawing that appeared to depict a multitude of legs, similar to a caterpillar.

"The drill uses these spikes to move, right? I saw them in action when it first approached the base."

Quite clearly annoyed with Xisheng's actions, Qin nevertheless managed to avoid saying anything snarky. "Yes. The Drill is broken up into segmented parts. The lead section retracts the spikes, extends forward, then plants them in the ground again. Then the next section retracts the spikes and extends before doing the same. And so on and so forth until the entire machine has moved forward. As I said, the hydraulics on the Drill are the very best the Fire Nation has ever constructed. What is your point?"

Xisheng pointed directly at one of the spikes in the drawing. "So what happens if there's no ground for these things to dig into? What if some Earthbenders get close and dig a big ditch, right along the legs? If some trenches suddenly opened up right where these things needed to be planted, the Drill couldn't pull itself forward anymore, right? Actually, if the ground these legs were bracing on was taken away just on the front segment, it would dip into the ground and obstruct the entire thing's locomotion, wouldn't it?"

Qin shook his head in bewilderment as he glanced at the drawing and back at Xisheng. "Please, that's... that's not going to happen."

"And why not?"

"Because those cowardly earthworms dare not leave their precious walls. They've barely made any offensives in years, even when they had prime opportunities to do so. They would much rather dig in and wait for the enemy to come to them. Besides, even if they mustered the courage to actually sally out and attack, of course the Drill will be escorted. Two platoons of tanks will guard it."

If this was supposed to assuage Xisheng's concerns, it didn't. If anything, he looked more agitated than before. "Two platoons-?!"

Foreseeing a more heated spat if she didn't intervene, Azula raised her voice momentarily to break the exchange. "Enough, Lieutenant. I understand that you have valid concerns. But let us hear the entirety of Qin's plan before we ask more questions."

Surprisingly, Qin seemed a little nervous all of a sudden. "Ah, yes, well... there is not much more to say in that regard, Princess. The Drill will advance and breach the wall. After that..."

It was fairly obvious to the other occupants of the room that Qin didn't actually have any plan after breaching the wall. In his mind, just putting a hole in Ba Sing Se's outer wall was the same thing as achieving victory. Xisheng was clearly about to speak on this, and likely not with any kind words, but Azula beat him to the punch.

"I see. Yes, I suppose the wall itself is the biggest obstacle to success. If I may ask, War Minister, how many people have you presented this plan to?"

"Well, I have the Fire Lord's approval..."

"Explicitly stated, or implied?"

Qin grew incredibly tight-lipped after being asked that, which was answer enough in and of itself. It was unlikely that Ozai had directly approved of this strategy. From Azula's own knowledge, she knew her father only occasionally participated in matters of wartime strategy. He passed on overarching standing orders to his war cabinet, but gave them a fair deal of leeway in achieving those goals. If a plan of action was agreed upon by the majority of the relevant war cabinet members, the Fire Lord did not have to give his explicit permission to launch those plans, as it was assumed that the war cabinet was acting in its best capacity to achieve the goals set for them by their ruler.

The system was not without its perks: at the very least, it meant the Fire Lord did not have to bothered with every trifling maneuver and plan of action on the battlefront. It also kept the Fire Lord free from political scrutiny and condemnation on that front. If a specific plan was not explicitly endorsed by the Fire Lord, then all blame could be pinned on the person who enacted said plan if it failed. The Fire Lord thus took no blame for military failures even if those failures occurred in his name, which helped protect his image as infallible ruler of the land, never to be questioned.

Of course, there were plenty of downsides, as made evident by the current situation. With the ability to approve plans without the Fire Lord's explicit and informed consent, members of the war cabinet had a perfect means to assassinate the careers of their fellows. If someone presented a poor plan that was likely to fail, they could approve it anyway, then wait for that inevitable failure. The plan's proponent would be punished to some extent or another, but regardless of the punishment itself, their military failure would tarnish their reputation indefinitely and possibly see them rendered politically insignificant.

Azula could imagine it already: Qin, an ambitious and short-sighted aging man who was dissatisfied with his lack of political ladder climbing at his age, proposing a flawed plan with little chance of success. Even worse, an incredibly resource-heavy plan. His rivals in the war cabinet probably leaped at the chance to approve it: aside from the shame of a strategic failure in and of itself, if the Drill was destroyed and unable to be recovered, Qin would be liable for the massive waste of resources as well. His career would be in shambles, if he even managed to avoid exile.

Honestly, the entire setup was something Azula found problematic. Fire Nation culture was very keen on individuals proving themselves and fighting their way to the top through any means necessary. To achieve this, people were given a fair deal of leeway in what they did, and they would reap either the success or failure of that leeway themselves. There was a time and a place for that sort of competition, but this was not one of them, in Azula's opinion. They were in the midst of a war that had already lasted a hundred years. Now wasn't the time to make strategic action a pissing contest for self-absorbed nobles and officers. When she was Fire Lord, Azula would certainly do away with this hands-off policy. This also explained why Qin had little to no oversight here: high command had given him the leeway to do as he pleased and to be the sole one responsible for the outcome.

"I take it this plan was majority approved by the war cabinet and never expressly shared with my father? You know what that means, don't you, War Minister?"

The graying man gulped, surely not missing Azula's implication. "Of course, your highness. Although, if you approve it here and now..."

Qin's implication wasn't missed either. If Azula personally approved Qin's plan of action, she would assume responsibility for it. Granted, that would mean sharing some of the glory of success, but in that case, it would still be Qin's plan and Qin's pride and joy making it possible. He would still get plenty of credit. And if the plan failed... well, Azula would bear the brunt of that, as a member of the Royal Family who had given the operation her blessing. Azula's approval would give Qin a massive safety net, something he likely wanted after Xisheng had planted some doubts in his mind.

"I'll have to mull it over. This is a major occasion, after all. I can't just approve such things lightly."

Qin grit his teeth in frustration, but did his best to hide any other telling signs of such feelings. "Of course, Princess..."

With a lot on her mind and the need to speak to her comrade without Qin present, Azula rose from her seat at the strategy table. "Let's take our leave, Lieutenant. I'm sure the War Minister needs some time alone to finalize his strategy."

Though he was still glaring at both Qin and the schematic on the wall, Xisheng said nothing, following Azula to leave the room. Qin bowed respectfully as the duo made their exit.

There was a guard outside of the room, so Xisheng held his tongue initially. But the moment he and Azula turned a corner in the hall and were alone, he spoke up.

"This is bad."

Though she knew he would say something like this, Azula answered nonchalantly. "You clearly don't approve of Qin's plan."

"His plan is to charge forward and pray that our enemies are the stupidest, most incompetent people on the planet! I can think of at least ten ways to render that machine useless and anyone with half a brain could figure it out!"

Azula gave him a slightly annoyed look. "I could only come up with seven."

Normally, Xisheng might have apologized for the perceived insult, but he was too riled up to do that. "All they have to do is dig a big trench in front of it, which they'll have all the time in the world to do since it moves at a spider-snail's pace! Or they could dig a cavern under its path and let its own weight crash it down! Heck, they could just create a downward slope in its path and the thing will become worthless! And to top it off, that moron plans to escort it with just two tank platoons?! A whole ten tanks?! If the Earth Kingdom tries, at all, in any capacity, to fight back, this plan will fall apart almost instantly! And the machine itself is so... spirits, just imagine how many tanks or ships or siege engines we could have built instead of that thing!"

Frankly, Azula was surprised to see Xisheng so vehement about this. He wasn't often the type of person to rant and rage about things. "Calm down, Xisheng. I get it, the plan is terrible. Truly atrocious, the more you think about it... this is definitely a political power play. Qin's blinded by hubris, and his fellows in the war cabinet are all too eager to let him take a shot and fail miserably. This entire thing never would have been approved by any sane person seriously attempting to achieve victory."

"Then you should be able to call it off, right? You're the Crown Princess, just tell him he can't do it."

Azula had expected this question to come up. She also expected Xisheng to not like her answer. "It's not so simple, Xisheng. Yes, technically I could overrule everything that's going on here, but... my political situation is too complicated to do that right now."

Xisheng did indeed look unhappy about this, but he didn't lash out or anything. "How do you mean?"

"On paper, I'm the Crown Princess and anything I say goes. In reality, I'm young and unproven. Much as I hate to admit it, I haven't actually accomplished much of anything since leaving the Fire Nation and embarking on this journey. I technically have the right to waltz into any camp I please and start dictating military strategy, but doing so will paint me as little more than an entitled brat jumping at opportunities to prove herself and earn daddy's favor. All the worse if I cancel this plan of attack but have no viable alternative. Then I seem entitled, brash, and incompetent. I know you hate to hear it, but my political reputation is important to my future as Fire Lord. I can't afford for my very first real impression on other figures of government to be a poor one. Just look at what happened to Zuko: it would require a feat of massive capability to ever truly erase the view everyone at home has of him."

Azula was right: Xisheng really didn't like to hear any of this. But though he hated to admit it, he knew that political maneuvering was more necessary than common people often made it out to be. Countries lived and died by politics, so to say it didn't matter would be foolish. Although it was terrible to think that a political impression was more important than people's lives.

"Alright, but... what if you did have a viable alternative? What if you have some better plan to put forward?"

The young Princess appraised him curiously. "Do you have some such plan?"

"...no. Not off the top of my head, right this moment."

He looked defeated, probably because he thought that his lack of contribution meant the Drill plan couldn't be axed, but Azula corrected him swiftly enough. "Even if you did have some better plan, I still couldn't call of Qin's strategy and implement yours. I could if I had more of a reputation to back my decision, but as it stands, doing that would be bad for both of us. For the reasons I mentioned earlier, it would paint me in a negative light. Furthermore, it would likely raise suspicions about you, a common soldier, and why I would trust you over the war cabinet. I'm sure a great many problematic rumors would spread about us if we were to go that route."

Admittedly, Xisheng could see where she was coming from. The young Princess axes a battle plan approved by the war cabinet, then enacts one proposed to her by a similarly young male soldier that she travels alongside... yes, he could imagine a lot of rumors about her favoritism and some sort of illicit relationship. Rumors like that really could do a lot of damage to Azula's image.

The look on his face must have been telling, because Azula made an addition to her sentiments. "Not that I inherently dislike the implications of such rumors, but, surely you see why they would be an issue..."

Surprised to hear her say that because it implied something very questionable, Xisheng glanced at Azula, but the girl was already looking away from him and clearing her throat.

"Here's what we can do, though: come up with a better plan. We must let Qin's plan run its course, but we can take every measure possible to ensure it is as least catastrophic as possible. Once he fails, I will have a perfect opportunity to suggest something better... or someone better. Between the two of us, I know you have the better mind for this type of strategy, Xisheng. So, I'm entrusting the creation of a new strategy to you. Can you do that?"

Xisheng didn't have any particularly great ideas right now, but in all modesty, he did believe himself to be fairly clever when it came to strategy and tactics. After all, he had impressed a lot of people at the North Pole. And admittedly, he had spent a lot of time pondering how the assault on Ba Sing Se would and could go. He didn't have any formal training, but... surely he could come up with something. Besides, unlike Qin, he would be perfectly willing to consult others.

"I'll do my utmost. Although, uh... when exactly do you need this superior solution?"

"Well, by the time Qin messes up would be ideal, but I know that's asking a lot. This is the most formidable city in the world, after all. I don't expect making a feasible plan to conquer it is easy."

"That's certainly an understatement."

Azula glanced over her shoulder for a moment, perhaps checking to see if anyone was coming their way. "Then I should allow you to begin working on it immediately. You have my authority to do whatever you need around the camp to facilitate your strategizing. I will check with you later tonight to hear what you have so far, but don't feel pressured to have a foolproof battle plan. I just want to be appraised of your thoughts so I can weigh in on them as needed."

"Very well. What will you do in the meantime?"

The girl beside him smirked. "Well that would ruin the mystery, wouldn't it? Aren't you always curious to know what I get up to at such times?"

"Uh... yes?"

"Well then, all the more reason not to tell you. Be on your way, Xisheng. You've got a lot of thinking to do."

With that, Azula gave a parting wave and walked away from Xisheng. A lot of thinking indeed... well, at least that was something he was good at.

"...and Iroh managed to get it down one time, but it was very gradual. There's no way the enemy will let a tactic like that work again. Surely they'll be extremely fixated on repairing any damage to the wall as it happens, meaning a battle of attrition is impossible. So it has to be quick, but how...?"

Xisheng was pacing back and forth in the metal cube on base that had been designated as his quarters here. It really wasn't much, but for a forward staging area, this was about the best anyone could ask for. At least it had a shoddy rug and solid walls, which was more than just about any other soldier in the base. Of course, Xisheng wasn't talking to himself: he had enlisted the aid of Mai and Ty Lee.

Admittedly, the two of them weren't the best people to ask. Neither of them had any real military planning experience, made evident by the general looks of confusion as they both sat on his shoddy bed and listened to him ramble. Xisheng imagined that he was boring Mai out of her skull, but the girl hadn't left yet, so maybe she was tolerating it: very admirable of her.

Perhaps trying to find some way to be helpful, Ty Lee raised a questioning finger. "I know you said it wouldn't work, but what did Iroh actually do? It's hard to believe anyone could actually get through those huge walls..."

Xisheng berated himself for not procuring a map of the city before all of this brainstorming. It probably would have helped explain things, as well as give him a nice visual planning aid.

"As I recall, it was a concentrated artillery bombardment utilizing hundreds of siege engines. But it took three months overall to slowly batter down the wall. Presumably sustained attacks from the other forces prevented the defenders from making repairs. Or maybe they just didn't think a breach was possible. I'm not entirely sure on that part."

This time, Mai raised a question. "I'm a little hazy on military history, but didn't the siege last way longer than three months?"

"Actually, it wasn't a siege. A siege is when you completely encircle a defender and cut off all incoming supplies to..."

He glanced back at Mai to see her cocking an eyebrow at him, either annoyed or just bemused that he was going off on some pointless aside. Seeing this, Xisheng corrected his course.

"...anyway, the battle lasted six hundred days. It's not like I have a full breakdown of what happened at every step, but I imagine a lot of it was just the planning and preparation stage. Then maybe a few failed attacks, some stalemate, some periods of recovery... it's not like Iroh's army was fighting every single day for six hundred days. Needless to say, we don't have that kind of time to pull off a similar strategy."

Mai didn't seem to catch his meaning. "Though I'm glad to hear we won't be camping out here for a year and a half, why exactly don't we have that kind of time? Where's the deadline stopping us from taking things slowly?"

Xisheng stared at one of his walls, imagining the map he had seen in the war room earlier as best he could. "The soft time limit? The Avatar. Every day he's out there, he gets stronger and more skilled, and potentially rallies more people to his cause. The longer the war drags on, the higher the chance he can cause some massive problem. If we can at least get our holdings in order and end open hostilities with the Earth Kingdom, we can be in a better position to deal with him. More resources to commit to dealing with him, and a stronger hold on everything we've claimed up until now. But as for a hard time limit... Sozin's Comet."

Glancing at the ceiling, Ty Lee clearly wracked her brain for relevant info. "That's the thing that happens every hundred years that makes Firebending really strong, right?"

It was a little weird to think that a Fire Nation native would even need that information affirmed, but realistically, it made sense. Ty Lee wasn't a Firebender, and the event only happened once a century. It was a big deal when it was close, but any other time, it made no difference to anyone. There was no reason to care about it from her point of view, until about right now.

"That's right."

Mai immediately grew incredulous. "Wait, so we want to take over the city before the huge power boost? Isn't that stupid? I know you said we want to wrap things up as quickly as we can because of the Avatar, but wouldn't it still be better to wait for a huge boon to our strength before attacking the biggest city in the world? That would have to make it way easier."

"That is also correct."

"So then why are we here right now? Why's this attack with the big drill happening?"

Xisheng sighed as he thought on exactly that. Granted, he had put a lot of thought into it before now, but now he had to put it into words for people that weren't that involved with the military or its politics.

"Keep in mind that I can't say this as an absolute certainty. But it's what I believe and the most likely explanation. The War Cabinet is an assortment of the Fire Nation's highest ranking nobles relevant to the war and the overall function of the military. Generals, admirals, advisors, arms developers like Qin, and the like. For these people, their worth is judged by how much of a positive impact they make on this war. This war that, by any reasonable assumption, should end for certain when Sozin's Comet arrives. That means that members of the War Cabinet have a limited window of time to gain as much prestige and honor as possible for roles in this conflict. Considering that there shouldn't be another serious conflict between sovereign nations anytime soon after this, Ba Sing Se is their last chance to secure a hero's status that would make them second only to the Royal Family in regards to respect and influence."

The young soldier narrowed his eyes at nothing in particular: he was just thinking about the men he was describing. "Other than Ba Sing Se, Gaoling is the only major Earth Kingdom city left to conquer, but it's a merchant city that should be no great challenge, and thus not worth much reward to whoever is responsible for taking it. Ba Sing Se is the most formidable city in the world, unable to be taken even by a renowned general and member of the Royal Family. Whoever is responsible for conquering it will become one of the greatest heroes in Fire Nation history, someone who wants for nothing for the rest of their life: someone whose children and children's children will be regarded as the elite. But that's only if they can do it without the help of Sozin's Comet."

He turned back to face his companions. "After all, almost anyone could brute force the battle with Sozin's Comet on their side. All credit for the victory would go to a cosmic event, not the person who used it to their advantage. Taking Ba Sing Se with Sozin's Comet is just an overall Fire Nation victory. Whoever can take the city without it will have that success attributed to them specifically. That's why Qin is here alone, pushing for a battle plan that relies exclusively on a weapon of his own design. If he pulls it off, his political career will be golden for the rest of his life. He's racing to take Ba Sing Se before any other member of the War Cabinet can come up with a strategy to do so themselves."

Ty Lee, unsurprisingly, looked quite aghast by the notion. "They'd really do all of this for that?! They're already pretty high on the ladder and have lots of influence, they can't just get people killed for a little more!"

Mai, on the other hand, looked more sullen. "They absolutely can, and will. The nobility of our nation has always stepped over whoever they need to in order to reach their goals, even if that goal is just a tiny fistful of extra power. You think any of those War Cabinet people care about how many commoners die along the way to what they want?"

Recalling the office of Mai's father, as well as his political career, Xisheng figured that she may have seen the cutthroat politics of the Fire Nation firsthand. She probably knew very well how ruthless and callous it could get. Still, Xisheng had to object to her statement a little.

"They care, just not for any good reason. Like I said, their future will be altered by how significantly they impact this war: both positively and negatively. If one of them hatches some stupid plan that gets a crippling number of soldiers killed, their career will be done for. Heck, maybe even their actual lives could go that route. That's probably why Qin is so adamant about his drill doing all the heavy lifting. Well, it's probably also hubris and downright idiocy, but I'm sure he considered the benefits of getting as few military assets involved as possible. Which basically means he has both committed to his plan too hard and also not committed to it hard enough. Only a fucking moron could be so impressively incompetent."

Both Mai and Ty Lee looked a little surprised to hear Xisheng speak so ill of someone, and in such an uncouth manner. He was often composed and well-spoken. To hear him outright call someone a fucking moron was unexpected. Ty Lee tried to ignore the odd feeling from the moment and focused on a question.

"You want him to put more troops in harm's way?"

Xisheng didn't notice either of the girls giving him weird looks. "No. His plan with the drill is asinine and doomed to failure. But it's even more doomed to fail than it already was because he won't even commit enough troops to the strategy. He's barely got a strategy at all: aside from blatantly ignoring the dozens of ways the attack will go wrong, he doesn't even have a plan for the next step if it somehow actually goes right. He's got no plan other than 'put a hole in the wall'. No strategy on how to secure and hold the breach, or how to continue to push into Ba Sing Se afterwards. It's better for everyone that he's not putting many lives on the line, but the fact that his plan was allowed to come to fruition at all is infuriating. A War Cabinet full of assholes who have never been to war or at the very least fought personally in one... it should be comprised of decorated officers..."

Seeing that Xisheng was truly bothered by the entire situation, Mai tried to at least guide him back to the main topic before he went on another tangent. "Alright, all of that notwithstanding... why do you have to come up with a plan? I mean, you're just a low-ranking officer. It's not like you could actually put any plan you make into action."

Thankfully, this did seem to get Xisheng focused again. "No, but Azula can. Once Qin's plan fails miserably, she'll have the perfect opportunity to take command of the situation herself and carry out a better strategy. As for why I want to do that... well, if we can beat all of those War Cabinet opportunists to the punch with a solid plan that actually works, we can curtail any further awful attempts like Qin's. Hopefully that will save lives and resources from any theoretical potential future disasters, which would probably only get more desperate at the Comet draws closer."

Though the topic of their conversation was dire, Ty Lee couldn't help but smile a little. She found it truly charming that Xisheng's motivation for all of this was saving other people from a pointless death. Despite all of that talk about how whoever took Ba Sing Se would get unreal glory and prestige, he seemingly had no interest in that. He even seemed willing to let Azula take any and all credit for the plan. Truly, he was the most admirable man she had ever met. That was why she really wanted to help him somehow, even though she knew so little about these affairs.

"Could you... hm... climb the wall with those fancy tanks we have?"

Xisheng didn't get a chance to answer. Mai did it for him. Despite her alleged lack of experience in tactics and strategy, she seemed to have a keen eye for it. "The whole wall is made of stone, and guarded by Earthbenders. They could send any climbing tank flying anytime they wanted."

"Well, what if we could drill through the wall, but like... with smaller drills? The big one is a problem because it will be easy to stop, but what if you could make a bunch of little holes?"

Admittedly, the idea itself wasn't without merit, but Xisheng had to shoot it down anyway. "Unfortunately, such vehicles currently don't exist. Even if we wanted to make them, they wouldn't be complete and ready to deploy before Sozin's Comet arrived."

The brunette looked a little put out, perhaps thinking that her ideas were all stupid. Well, everyone felt bad when their suggestions were all rejected. "Stupid walls... too bad we can't just go around them..."

Xisheng stroked his chin as he contemplated that sentiment. Going around the walls would be the easiest, but it wasn't really feasible. They obviously couldn't fly over them, and they wouldn't be able to dig under them either: at least not in a way that could facilitate the passing of troops required to do anything of value. Still, there was probably something in that notion he could use to their advantage. He just had to find the other factors to combine it with. For now though, he sought to assuage Ty Lee.

"Don't get too down, Ty Lee. If it was easy to come up with a plan to take this city we wouldn't be here. Even Iroh, for all his famed tactics, had a plan that amounted to throwing stuff at it until it worked."

While she didn't feel that much better, Ty Lee at least appreciated his sentiment. Mai, on the other hand, had yet to contribute anything to this impromptu strategy meeting. "Not to douse the fires of your passion, Gohan, but I don't think we're going to come up with some stroke of genius while sitting here. And it's getting late. Why not sleep on it? People usually get inspired when they aren't focusing on the thing they're obsessing over, right?"

The young soldier didn't look too enthused with the idea. "Yeah, but... I'm supposed to tell Azula what I have in mind so far, and I don't really have anything at all. Other than knowing we need to drop the wall near instantly, but knowing what needs to happen is a lot different than having a feasible way to achieve it... still, I know I'm kind of just dragging you guys along into something you don't really know much about. Sorry, feel free to go at anytime. It just helped a little to have someone to bounce ideas off of."

Seeing him be so meek and apologetic about it put a scowl on Mai's face, but not because she was upset. It was just that she knew already that it was going to get the best of her. "Well... if just doing that helps, I guess even people like us can contribute. But seriously, don't expect me to be up all night doing this, alright?"

Fully understanding that she intended to stay, likely along with Ty Lee, Xisheng forgot his troubles for a moment and smiled. He really did have wonderful companions.

Unfortunately, his thoughts turned back to the matter at hand mere moments afterward, and he was frowning once again. Truly, misery loved company.

The next few days saw little in the way of progress for Xisheng's planning. While he still had some rough ideas bouncing around in his head, none of them could come together in a feasible course of action that could actually be pulled off. He had done whatever he could do to try and find some inspiration: he had inspected the various weapons and vehicles on the base, spoken to various soldiers, conferred with both Azula and his friends, and even managed to get Qin to divulge some more information about his precious drill and how it worked.

But he had nothing attainable in mind right now. Xisheng was still at square one: he knew they had to take the wall down with one strike, but he didn't know how they could realistically do that. Even if they had Earthbenders of their own at their side, there was no tactic they could do against the wall by themselves that would quickly create a breach large enough to allow a force large enough to occupy the area to rush in. Any breach that was made would need to be quite large, quite sudden, and unable to be repaired for several hours. The damage had to be something that couldn't easily be fixed by Earthbenders, who would certainly rush to the site of a breach and attempt to block it right away. In fact, the ideal breach would kill the defenders on the immediate section of the wall and be so large that enemy Earthbenders had to go to ground level to even interact with it.

That was a huge ask, and right now Xisheng just couldn't see any way to make it happen. Worst part was, the notion didn't strike him as impossible: he felt that there was some way to pull it off, if he just had the right cards to play. And Xisheng was certain those cards existed too. The Fire Nation owned or occupied most of the known world, theoretically having access to almost every resource possible. Surely they had access to the answer somewhere.

But even if they did, they were unable to make any impact right now. It was the middle of the week, nearing noon: this was the time Qin had decided to launch his all or nothing attack at the enemy. The massive crew of the drill had already spent the last several hours preparing it for its one and only purpose. The handful of tank crews that were to escort the machine had likewise been preparing. Once all preparations were complete, the attack was to be get underway immediately. Unless of course, Qin decided to call it off after he received Azula's answer...

Currently, the War Minister, Azula, and Xisheng stood alone in the war room. Qin had just asked Azula for her final verdict on whether or not she would offer her official endorsement of his battle plan. After all, this was his last chance to get it if he still intended to launch his attack in the next few hours. As for Azula, she spent a moment on a dramatic pause, perhaps pretending that she was putting any real thought into it, but she already knew her real answer. She had decided on it far before now.

"No."

Qin's already strained smile faltered immediately. "Princess, the preparations are already being made. To cancel the assault now..."

Azula was obviously not as perturbed as the older man. "I said nothing about cancelling your assault. You do not have my explicit endorsement, but neither am I forbidding it. I'm young and inexperienced in matters of warfare: you're the War Minister of the entire nation. I lack the wisdom to exact judgment on your strategy. While I'd like nothing more than to receive some credit for the breaching of the wall of this detestable city, I'm not confident enough to take that risk. If you take the wall today, the credit will be solely yours, War Minister. I daresay you alone will deserve the reward of your actions. Bear in mind that I do not speak this way about just anyone."

Xisheng honestly wondered how anyone could miss Azula's true intentions here. Displaying herself as a uninformed young girl that could stand to learn a thing or two from the old guard, blowing smoke into Qin's sails with remarkably vague statements about his just rewards... maybe it was just that Xisheng knew her better than others, but it seemed obvious to him that she had expressed absolutely no confidence in Qin or his plan whatsoever.

But Qin clearly didn't pick up on it. He bought it all outright. Maybe his ego loved the idea of the Crown Princess deferring to his judgment: if he succeeded today, he would always be able to claim that his machinations were beyond even the Royal Family. Maybe he was one of those creeps who liked the idea of a usually haughty young girl acknowledging her place relative to him. Or maybe he was just blinded by thoughts of the prestige and influence that would be his after a theoretical victory. The smarmy look on his face made Xisheng think it may have been a combination of all three.

"I understand completely, Princess. Do not fret over it: I have had years of experience in matters of warfare. This battle will surely allow you to judge the actions of your subordinates with greater wisdom in the future. Even royalty can learn from experience."

Under ordinary circumstances, Xisheng imagined that Azula would have incinerated someone who talked down to her like this, even if it was subtle. But she was probably content knowing that she had this fool dancing to her tune without any inkling of it. Assuming Qin survived this battle, he would be utterly humiliated, and probably realize very quickly that Azula had simply allowed him to merrily march off to his political doom.

Of course, there was some very small chance that Qin would actually succeed, in which case Azula would look like the meek and inexperienced fledgling she was pretending to be, but after the last few days of discussion about the strategy between her and Xisheng, she was absolutely sure the Drill would fail spectacularly. Together, she and her companion had come up with at least fifteen relatively easy ways the defenders at Ba Sing Se could handle the situation.

"Which is why I will be eagerly watching your assault from afar, War Minister. If you take this wall, I imagine you will be in charge of the following barriers in the city as well. Even General Iroh never had the chance to achieve so much glory."

Qin seemed none the wiser to how badly he was being played. "Yes... yes, that is so. With this in mind, I must tend to the final preparations. I will be leading the assault personally, after all. If I may have your leave, Princess?"

"You may."

With a hasty bow, Qin made his exit, prompting Azula to don an amused expression as soon as he was gone. "Men. So pathetically simple."

Xisheng shared her amusement, though he was still a bit too dour over the whole situation to make much light of it. "Not all men, right?"

Azula shrugged. "I suppose I know one or two men whose egos don't outclass their brain. Still, you should be upset that so many simpletons are giving your entire gender a bad name."

"I'll be sure to hold them all accountable in the afterlife. What now?"

Turning serious, Azula quickly left their little exchange behind. "There's nothing else to do now but watch the debacle unfold. As we discussed yesterday, I've already instructed a group of transport vehicles to follow the assault force and evacuate troops back to base if the need arises. But that's all we can do now to minimize the ill outcome of this battle. Hopefully that deathtrap of his is at least easy to get out of. Come, we should at least observe the battle as best we can."

With Azula beckoning him to follow her, Xisheng soon found himself alongside the Princess on the tallest watchtower they could find. The watchman was more than willing to give up his post to them upon instruction, thankfully leaving his telescope behind for them to use. Granted, the Drill was so large it would be easy to see what happened to it even from miles away, but any smaller action would be impossible to see without some magnification. They didn't have to wait long before the ground started shaking periodically, courtesy of the Drill beginning its long march towards Ba Sing Se.

The problem was that it was truly painstakingly slow. It took more than fifteen minutes just for the thing to no longer be next to the base, and another ten before Xisheng and Azula could see the rear of the thing. It was a long, long way to Ba Sing Se, and no matter how pretty the girls in the city were, they'd probably be undesirable old ladies by the time the Drill got there. Considering its current pace and how far Ba Sing Se was, Xisheng estimated that it would probably be three hours at the minimum before any actual fighting broke out, and that was if he wanted to be real generous.

Azula clearly also picked up on this. "I... think we may have gotten ahead of ourselves. I see no reason to stand up here for the next several hours just waiting for something to happen, so I'm going to take my leave."

"Understood. I'll stay here."

The girl beside him cocked an eyebrow. "Oh, I didn't know you were the type to enjoy watching paint dry. Do you also find it thrilling to watch grass grow?"

"The only thing I've got to do right now is think, right? Might help if I do that thinking while staring at the problem."

To this, Azula merely shrugged. "If you say so. I'll return later, hopefully around the time there is actually something to look at."

With Azula leaving the tower for now, Xisheng was left alone to watch over the Drill's slow crawl of an advance, with two platoons of tanks at its flanks and several dozen transport vehicles trailing behind on Azula's order. He wondered if Qin had even noticed them, and if he had, if he had realized yet that Azula fully expected him to fail spectacularly. Xisheng didn't know if the war minister could see behind him in the elevated command tower the Drill sported.

The elevation mechanism for that command bridge was impressive on its own merits, as it was fully capable of laying flat against the Drill's body or raising it far above. As much as he hated to admit it, Xisheng could acknowledge that the Drill had lots of impressive engineering about it. It was just too bad that it was all being wasted on such a stupid idea...

But then, perhaps Xisheng was getting ahead of himself. He tended to be the modest type, and yet here he was, making preemptive judgments on what would or wouldn't work in a field he was a complete layman in. He liked to think that he had a good grasp of tactics and strategy, but his officer rank was not a result of academy training. Technically, he had no official claim to strategic knowledge or why anyone should listen to him. He just thought he knew what he was talking about. So even though he couldn't imagine the Drill having any success at all, maybe he was being presumptuous: Xisheng was just a guy who had made a few common sense recommendations to augment a battle plan once before. He had never actually planned an assault such as this one. Then again, he was pretty sure Qin hadn't either...

Xisheng acknowledged that he was just trying to calm his nerves and ease his burden: after all, if the Drill miraculously succeeded somehow, then he wouldn't even need to worry about coming up with some amazing plan to take down the wall. He wouldn't have to carry the responsibility of men's lives as they went into battle on his plans.

And yet, part of Xisheng did want it. The challenge of taking down the world's mightiest fortification, coming up with a great plan that no one else could... his drive to improve meant that Xisheng inherently wanted an opportunity such as this. He just didn't want to screw it up now that it was finally upon him.

Time continued to pass as Xisheng stared out at the Drill, inching ever closer to its target. Frankly, he was surprised that it had made it as far as it had. Surely the defenders at Ba Sing Se wouldn't wait for it to reach their walls when they could minimize the threat by intercepting it out in the open? But as time continued to trudge along with no combat that Xisheng could see breaking out, he acknowledged that perhaps the EK soldiers really would employ such a tactic. The question was, why? Were they afraid to leave their defenses and engage directly? Or were they simply that confident in their walls? Or, were they carrying out a different strategy that Xisheng simply couldn't see from here?

Eventually, Azula returned to the tower, four hours after Xisheng had first assumed his post. Three hours truly had been too generous of an estimate. Surprisingly, the Princess had her friends in tow: although maybe they were just curious to check on Xisheng since they hadn't seen much of him today.

"We're coming up, Lieutenant. I assume nothing of import has occurred yet?"

Xisheng answered before any of the girls had climbed the ladder to get up to him. "Not yet, your Highness. Although as best as I can tell, hostilities are guaranteed to break out soon: the Drill isn't too far from the walls."

The soldier scooted over to make some room as his guests entered the tower as well. He passed the telescope he had off to the girls so they could take turns and see what they wanted.

Mai was quickly bored with the ability to see nothing of import, so she spoke to Xisheng after passing the instrument along to her friends. "So, have you figured out anything helpful while standing around up here?"

Even though he couldn't really see anything with the naked eye from here, Xisheng kept his eyes on the horizon, where the silhouette of the Drill was visible. "As of right now? No. Well... maybe. Not that it's anything that will make for an actual plan, but I'm surprised the enemy waited for the Drill to get all the way to the walls before taking action. They surely saw it coming hours ahead of time. They could have intercepted it far away from the walls and lost almost no noteworthy advantages. They don't really need the high ground when they can be under the ground. Or just make high ground of their own at the site of a battle. They hunkered down at their walls even though it would have been better to sally out and engage away from them. After all, even if they were routed and needed to retreat, they could easily hop back underground and flee, with our forces being able to do almost nothing to stop them."

Azula scoffed as she peered out at the distant city. "Earthbenders: what can you expect from people who practically worship stone? They'd rather sit and wait for opportunity to come to them no matter how beneficial it would be to go out and seize it. That said, I'm curious why you value this observation so much."

"Knowing how the enemy will likely react to a threat is very valuable information. If they are almost guaranteed to hole up and wait for us to come to them, it gives us more breathing room. Heck, the existence of this base proves it: if Earthbenders from Ba Sing Se had been patrolling and attacking this place from the very beginning, we probably wouldn't have been able to set up this staging area at all. We would have had to establish it even further back. The enemy's unwillingness to do anything other than defend allows us to prepare any type of attack we wish with impunity. That means-"

Before he could finish his thought, Ty Lee, who had acquired the telescope, cut him off. "Wait, wait! I think something is happening! There's a ton of dust kicking up around the Drill!"

Forgetting entirely about his previous thought, Xisheng held his hand out for the telescope. "Let me see, quick!"

Once he had possession of the magnifying tool once more, Xisheng cast his gaze out to the Drill, which was indeed becoming somewhat obscured by dust erupting around it. It made it hard to see what was really happening, but the silhouette of the Drill was still clearly visible. Visible enough that Xisheng could be stunned for a moment when he saw the rear of the Drill lifted up into the air. Its little caterpillar legs left the ground completely, at least in the rear section. As soon as this happened, a massive cloud of dust exploded up into the sky and obscured most the machine, though it wasn't able to hide the flashes of orange light within it. Moments later, the transport vehicles Azula had sent out after the attacking force raced forward into that same dust cloud, and Xisheng was unable to see anything more.

Beside him, Mai cocked an eyebrow. "Kind of hard to see from here, but that didn't look good."

Xisheng sighed. "No, it didn't..."

As for Ty Lee, she just looked surprised. "Wait... is it over already? I mean, I know you said the whole Drill thing was a bad idea, but it couldn't really be over that fast, right? It took hours to get there, could they have really lost in like, two minutes?"

"If what I think happened did happen, then yeah, they could have lost that quickly. Well, I guess the enemy was probably operating for far longer than we saw, but still. I'll need to get a report from someone out there to confirm, but... shit, I knew this was going to happen."

Peeking through the telescope again, Xisheng tried to get a good view of what was happening, but to no avail. The dust was still too thick. At this juncture, all he could do was ponder what had happened, and what was happening now. But even though losing was no good for them in general, this little debacle had given the young soldier an interesting idea.

Over the next few hours, vehicles that had been dispatched for the assault trickled back to the staging area. Occasionally, it was one of the tanks that had gone to escort the Drill. But more often, it was one of the transport vehicles, laden with troops or crewmen from the now immobile beast. A good many of the returning men were unscathed, but a fair deal were injured too. On top of that, Xisheng was certain that not everyone who had left the base for the mission today was coming back.

Notably, Qin disembarked from one of the earliest returning transports: a vehicle that conspicuously lacked any other rescued personnel. The girls found this curious, but Xisheng knew full well why this was the case: the bastard had jumped ship as soon as he could, flagged down a ride, and ordered it to retreat immediately, everyone else under his command be damned. Honestly, Xisheng truly wished that the worthless scum had died out there. Any one of the low-ranking grunts that had sortied with him deserved to come back alive a hundredfold more.

The returning troops continued into the evening, until roughly four hours had passed since the Drill's inglorious demise. At Azula's side, Xisheng was able to listen in on the final report from a logistics officer that had been tallying losses: the Drill, according to eyewitness accounts, was completely irrecoverable, at least as far as the means of this base and its occupants were concerned. Of the ten tanks that had been sent to escort the Drill, seven had been lost, four of which included no surviving crew members. Of the three dozen transports that had been dispatched for rescue efforts, eight had been lost, though most of their crews had survived. Finally, of the five hundred men that had made up the crew of the Drill, approximately three hundred of them were dead or captured: Qin's magnificent vessel apparently hadn't taken easy escape routes into consideration, leaving many crew members trapped in the machine once it was totaled.

It was impossible to get an accurate count of how many Earth Kingdom soldiers had been wounded or killed, but Xisheng imagined that the trade between the two factions looked incredibly unfavorable. For the incredibly high price of soldiers' lives and an astronomical amount of time and materials, the Fire Nation had achieved literally nothing of value. That was why Qin was scrambling to cover his ass in the war room, making up any excuse he could to try and shift blame as he pleaded his case to Azula and Xisheng, both seated at the center table.

"Those worthless tanks didn't do anything! If they had guarded my machine properly, none of this would have happened!"

Qin stepping all over the graves of those tank crews he had doomed instilled Xisheng with a very powerful urge to kill the man on the spot, but for now, he restrained himself. Azula was speaking her mind at the moment.

"According to the reports from the various survivors, there was no enemy in sight, and everything was fine until your precious farce crashed through the ground. Did you somehow expect the tank crews to see underground? Or did you honestly believe a force of Earthbenders wouldn't employ this tactic that we explicitly warned you against?"

Based on eyewitness accounts from troops on the battlefield, Xisheng had learned exactly what had happened to the Drill. It was, unsurprisingly, one of the tactics he had easily predicted as being a huge problem. The Earthbenders opened a big hole directly underneath the middle section of the Drill. The middle section fell into the hole, bending support struts and connections with its weight, and lifted both the rear and front sections into the air. The front section was heavier since it had the actual drill mechanism, but even though it had not been lifted as high as the rear section, the end result was the same: the Drill was completely immobilized. It was only capable of moving forward if the various sections could stay somewhat aligned, and it needed the vast majority of its ridiculous hydraulic legs making ground contact to move at all. The only section with full ground contact right now was the middle, which was resting in a giant hole. Almost none of the rear legs had contact with the ground, and the front section couldn't possibly hope to pull the entire thing out of its current position. The machine was too rigid to move at the curved angle it had been forced to rest in, and the only way it would be able to move again was if it could be lifted out of the hole and straightened out again.

In other words, Qin's glorious masterpiece of a war machine had been easily trumped by the most basic of Earthbender tactics: they had moved some earth, the one thing everyone knew they could do. This was a strategy anyone with half a brain would have known was doomed to fail, but it had been allowed to go on anyway, thanks to the bullshit politics of the Fire Nation. For the first time in a while, Xisheng felt a modicum of serious disgruntlement with his country, or at least with its upper echelon. He couldn't condone a system that allowed blatantly stupid things to happen just to stroke egos or avoid blame.

None of these thoughts left his lips at this time. Right now, Qin was trying to find some worthwhile rebuttal for Azula. "T-that... a mere miscalculation, which we needn't focus on now. All we need to do is recover the war machine, and we can account for the Earthbenders next time..."

Azula cocked an eyebrow at him. "Recover the war machine? And how, exactly, do you plan to do that? Do you have some gargantuan crane ready to pull it out of the hole?"

"N-no, but perhaps we could scrap it piece by piece and repurpose it-"

"Which you will somehow manage to do while under the watchful eye of the enemy?"

At this point, Qin fell silent, the graying man clenching his fists and gritting his teeth as he tried to find some angle to salvage this debacle. But really, there was none, which Azula made very clear with her next statement.

"It's over, Qin. You're done, and you know it. A complete failure of an assault, directly under your supervision, and your supervision alone. Resources thrown to the wind in amounts I'm sure are staggering. And worst of all, a broken promise to your Fire Lord to succeed in his name. Your career is no more. Any prestige you or your family may have had is forever tarnished. When my father learns of what has transpired here, who knows? Perhaps you will not even keep your citizenship. On the bright side, he probably won't waste his time and effort executing a foolish wretch like you. I'll leave your ultimate punishment to the Fire Lord you've failed, but for now, it would be remiss of me to not dole out these consequences: you no longer have the title of War Minister. Leave my presence as once, and bring any and all items of strategic value to this war room. Once that is done, return to your quarters and await your fate. Bear in mind that I've already instructed the guard captain to execute you on the spot if you attempt to flee the base. Now begone."

His face devoid of color and his hands trembling, there was a moment where it seemed like Qin would make some sort of retort. But seeing the utter disdain for him in Azula's eyes, he seemed to think better of it. With shaking steps, the now disgraced man turned towards the door and made an unceremonious exit, perhaps thinking about where his life was going to go from here: or if he wanted to continue living his life at all. It was a bit morbid, but Xisheng could see someone taking their own life if faced with such a massive fall from grace. Frankly though, he didn't feel that bad about the thought: lots of men had lost their lives due to Qin's blind ambition. The world would be no worse off without him.

Once Qin was out of the room, Azula's expression softened a bit. Well, if there was no one to glare at, why take on the wrinkles, right?

"Well, now that we've gotten rid of that worthless trash... tell me, Xisheng: what do we do now?"

That the Crown Princess was turning to him for direction on their next move was a bit surreal. Not that she was necessarily deferring to him, but this was the first time Azula had asked for his guidance instead of asking for his opinion on a plan she already had in mind. It was more evidence that Xisheng was well and truly moving up in the world, even compared to the title of 'trusted vassal'.

"If you're asking whether or not I have a plan of attack yet... I do. But I need to know how feasible it is, and to do that, I need to talk to some people. More accurately, I need to know what level of authority I have right now, Azula."

The young girl focused her gaze on him. "At this moment, you technically have no authority. However, I could appoint you to have any authority I wish, theoretically. That said, Xisheng... we talked about this before. I will be taking a huge risk if I appoint you to a position of authority and things don't pan out. I'll be seen as a naive fool who let nepotism guide us to yet another catastrophe. The shame will follow me in political circles for years, even if I officially suffer no consequences. It's a big leap of faith considering your, no offense, lack of proven skill and talent in this area."

Though it was unpleasant to hear all of that, Xisheng couldn't deny that it all made sense. "I understand. In that case..."

"Do you believe it will work?"

Caught off guard by the interruption, Xisheng didn't manage much of a cohesive response. "Huh...?"

Azula, on the other hand, was looking him dead in the eye, clearly appraising his confidence. "Do you believe your plan will work? If you can tell me with complete confidence that you believe it will succeed, I'm willing to entrust this to you, risks included. So, do you believe it will work?"

Xisheng's brow furrowed as he seriously considered this question. He was happy to have this level of faith and trust offered to him by Azula, but he didn't want to jump at the chance to prove himself or please her. This was all too big to gamble on things like that.

"I need to speak with any high-ranking officers, whoever is in charge of logistics, the top-ranking engineer, and a communications officer. If I can do that, I can tell you whether or not the plan is going to work. I need to know what our forces are capable of before I can commit to a plan of action."

It was unclear if Azula was upset by this answer. Maybe she had been expecting a resounding affirmative. But ultimately, she seemed content with the response. "Very well. I can see no world in which that is unreasonable. That said, if you are going to need certain information before committing to a plan, it would be best to do this anonymously. We wouldn't want any odd rumors getting out of hand. If you are inquiring about these things on my behalf, it will give the impression that I have already appointed you to some position of tactical authority. So, tell me what information you require from these individuals, and I will have it gathered into a report for you to read tomorrow. Is that acceptable?"

Understanding that Azula was in a risky political situation, Xisheng figured this was the best that he was going to get. Besides, an on-paper report would probably be better than speaking to people directly: it meant everyone would have to double-check their information before providing it. It would probably be more accurate that way.

"More than acceptable. That should be enough."

"Alright then. If that's the case, then I suggest you retire for the night: assuming you get the information you want to hear, you may be very busy very soon, Xisheng."

Honestly, Xisheng doubted he would be able to get much sleep with how things were right now, but he simply agreed with Azula's assessment to placate her. He'd probably be up all night thinking about his battle strategy: anxious, but oddly eager to put it to the test as well. Hopefully, that didn't evolve into the same hubris that Qin had displayed today.

As expected, Xisheng didn't get much sleep that night. He spent most of it awake, not even lying in bed, pondering his battle plan. Perhaps it was foolish to do that, seeing as how he lacked all the information he needed to know if it was going to work yet, but he couldn't help himself. For many reasons, it dominated the mind: one, it was the biggest major event on the horizon for Xisheng's life. Two, it was a huge opportunity for him to advance to a new level, to prove himself worthy of even greater responsibility than he had now. Three, Azula's own status also partially rested on it. And four, he was excited for the challenge. Of course, this was all combined with an overarching anxiety regarding the lives of his comrades potentially resting on his shoulders, but that was a given.

Either way, Xisheng barely slept a wink that night, but he was so mentally awake that he hardly felt tired when morning rolled around. Although, according to Mai and Ty Lee, he certainly looked exhausted when they were all gathered for breakfast. Since he was not set to meet with Azula again until noon, Xisheng spent some time with the girls, mostly trying to let their presence take his mind off of things, but their time together passed quickly, and Xisheng was ashamed to admit that he didn't remember most of it. Ultimately, he never really succeeded in thinking about something other than his plan to take down the wall.

By the time he found himself in the war room again, Xisheng was both weirdly excited and quite nervous. Part of him wanted the report to tell him everything he needed to hear, so he could tell Azula that his plan could work. Another part of him hoped the information would reveal his plan to be unfeasible, because then he wouldn't have to bear the responsibility of something so great. Right now, he was tapping his foot nervously as he sat in a chair at the center table, sitting in silence with Azula next to him. Apparently, they were waiting for a soldier to bring the final compiled report the Princess had asked for.

Perhaps realizing that he was too preoccupied to carry on any meaningful conversation, Azula sat in silence alongside Xisheng, making everything feel a bit awkward. Thankfully, the two of them didn't have to sit for very long. A few minutes after they had both arrived, there was a knock on the door, which Azula answered with an invitation. The guest was a masked soldier bearing a written report requested specifically by the Princess. He bowed as he handed it over, leaving the room immediately afterwards.

When they were alone again, Azula silently handed the report to Xisheng, who unrolled the scroll with a slight amount of trepidation. Placing it on the table before him, the young officer bore witness to a detailed report including exactly what he had asked for. An approximate estimate of the available forces that were combat ready, as well as an estimation of how many troops could be efficiently organized and commanded at once with the current command structure present. An inventory of armaments and supplies either on the base right now or slated to be shipped to it in the near future, including siege engines, ground vehicles, ammunition, stationary explosives, and more.

And finally, and perhaps most importantly, a lengthy and detailed answer to a particular question posed to the most experienced engineer on the base. This answer was, strictly speaking, a theoretical one. After all, the engineer in question had not built Ba Sing Se's walls, nor did he know many of its exact specifications. But the man did know physics and how they applied to construction and architecture, and with that knowledge and experience, the engineer-in-chief had, albeit with plenty of complicated lingo and math, answered Xisheng's question with the following: 'potentially feasible.'

Having finished with the report, Xisheng took a deep breath before addressing the girl next to him. "...Azula."

Surprised to see him speak so suddenly after so much silence, the young Princess did not answer verbally, though she did give the man her undivided attention, which he did not miss.

"I believe this plan will work."

Azula took in the now determined and unflinching expression on Xisheng's face as he made eye contact with her, and so she took a deep breath of her own. "...very well. Then as of right now, you are 'Acting Commander Xisheng', whose actions and plans have my full support. Until I say otherwise, the forces at this base are at your disposal. That being the case... what are your first orders?"

Though he wanted to be excited and pleased with his sudden promotion, Xisheng was too weighed down by the gravity of his responsibility now. He couldn't help but remain serious.

"I need to speak to everyone who provided info for that report."

An hour later, the war room was full of more people than it had been since Azula and her group had first arrived. There were a dozen and a half officers ranging from relatively young lieutenants to older majors, men that Qin had not bothered to confer with during his own tenure of leadership. Among these commanding officers were also the engineer-in-chief, the head logistics officer, and the head communications officer. Naturally, the room also had Xisheng, who was currently in a corner, and Azula, who was responsible for summoning all of these men here. With no reason to waste time, Azula, whom everyone was standing before, gestured for Xisheng to come stand by her side as she announced how things were going to be.

"I'm sure that many of you are disgruntled with what happened the other day. Qin's leadership wasted time, lives, and resources. Some of you may have thought that, with his failure, this attempt at breaching the walls of Ba Sing Se would be swept under the rug, this base disbanded, and you and your troops returned to your previous posts. That will not be happening. I will not allow the gathered might of our nation to be squandered so easily. That is why, starting today, this man..."

She gestured to Xisheng, who was standing beside her.

"...will be the acting commander for our next operation against the wall."

This revelation caused a stir among the gathered officers, with plenty of murmuring and whispers to go around. Xisheng could pick out some of it: mostly disbelief and wounded ego. It wasn't hard to understand why. Even compared to the youngest officers of the lowest ranks here, Xisheng was notably younger than them. Not including Azula, he was probably the youngest person in this room. And if there was one thing Xisheng knew, it was that older people really didn't like the idea of being subservient to younger people, most of the time. Azula's decree would not be enough to guarantee their trust or loyalty. Xisheng knew that already.

Of course, it wasn't like Azula could miss out on the unrest, so she spoke on it quickly. "Silence. I understand that this is a drastic revelation for all of you, but know this: this man is my sword. He speaks for me. His orders are mine. Defying his command is defying me. Until I decree otherwise, he commands this base and everyone present here. Is this understood?"

While there were still plenty of looks of disgruntlement and judgment, the verbal response from the gathered officers was immediate and harmonious. "Yes, Your Highness!"

Pleased with the unanimous deference to her command, Azula motioned towards Xisheng once again. "Superb. Then, by all means, commander."

Taking a step forward, Xisheng took in the steely and mostly disapproving gazes of the many men before him. He did not have their trust, loyalty, or approval. And it wouldn't be easy to get it. It would take time and effort, but Xisheng had to start now. That being the case, what the heck should he say? Acknowledge that he was young? No, everyone knew that already. Politely request their aid in leading the next attack? No, that just made him sound like someone without confidence of his own. Maybe... maybe for now, it was best to just stick to business.

"...greetings, gentlemen. Allow me to lay out the general battle plan for our next assault on the walls of Ba Sing Se. Feel free to ask questions: every single one of you will be needed if we are to succeed."

This must have been a fairly good start, as there were a few sideways glances shared among the men that made it obvious Xisheng's first impression was not what they had been expecting. Hopefully it was better than whatever they had expected. Still, with no words forthcoming, Xisheng simply launched right into his plan: something he had not even fully laid out to Azula yet.

"This plan is, ultimately, tactically simple. It will be a significant challenge in regards to logistics, coordination, and organization, but the plan of attack is straightforward: we are going to tunnel under the walls of Ba Sing Se, obliterate the foundations with explosives, drop a massive section of the wall in one strike, and storm in with our forces to secure the breach and fortify the area to make way for reinforcements to support our future incursions into the city."

Silence reigned over the room for several moments, with most of the people present looking bewildered. Eventually, one of the younger lieutenants spoke up. Maybe he wasn't afraid to look like he didn't get it.

"Uh... how are we going to do that?"

Now that someone had broken the ice, the logistics officer spoke up too. "We don't have the mining equipment on hand to even dream of doing that. Last I checked we only have about a hundred digging tools, and they're all hand tools."

One of the older majors in the back added his take as well, with some very thinly veiled derision. "Not to mention the idea of tunneling underground against Earthbenders. That's suicide."

Having already anticipated such arguments, Xisheng quickly brushed them aside. "All fair points. That is why the tunneling will be done by allied Earthbenders of our own. Our nation has long had access to loyal Earthbending combatants, but we've relegated them to home guard brigades and militias out of some misguided sense of superiority. You-"

Xisheng pointed at the logistics officer.

"-are going to dispatch our transports to our longest established colonies in the Earth Kingdom and gather any home guard divisions, militias, and volunteers who are willing to engage in battle for their country. I know that Yu Dao alone has a home guard division that consists of hundreds of Earthbenders. It's high time we use our advantages to their fullest potential and give our colonists the chance to serve just like anyone else."

One of the old majors clearly wasn't happy about this. "You want to use Earthbenders to attack Ba Sing Se? Those disloyal earthworms would sooner defect to the enemy than help us take them down!"

"Yu Dao has been a Fire Nation city for longer than any of us have been alive. Longer than most of our parents have been alive. The people living there today were born Fire Nation, raised Fire Nation, their parents and their parents' parents were the same. They wear our clothes, eat our food, read our books, learn our history, and sing our songs. If you really think they would betray us for the residents of Ba Sing Se just because they share an element, ask yourself this: is there truly no Firebender in this world you would not wish harm upon? I doubt you have unyielding loyalty to every person in this world who shares your element based on that alone."

The old major fell silent at that, unable to say anything to retort. Apparently, Xisheng's justification was good enough for the assembled men to move on to the next point, raised by a fairly young captain.

"Even if we have Earthbenders on our side, how are they going to tunnel under the walls? The enemy will see them, or sense them directly underground and figure out our strategy."

Naturally, Xisheng had accounted for this as well. He had spent hours poring over all of these details already. "We will have many means of concealment and deception on our side. First of all, we know that the defenders of the walls rarely leave them unless it is required to stop an attack, as was the case with the Drill. We also know that they do not patrol the foot of the walls, because we have never used Earthbenders to actually mount an attack. It is unlikely that anyone at the top of the wall will be able to sense someone digging around underneath it. Furthermore, we will be launching a multi-pronged traditional attack to serve as a diversion for the sappers. Massive artillery bombardments will give the enemy the idea that we are merely attempting to replicate the previous success of the traitor Iroh. Our Earthbending sappers will also begin the tunneling process from visually obscured locations. In short, we'll be launching a diversionary attack designed to take advantage of our opponent's complacency as a cover for our true goal."

At this point, it was clear that Xisheng was actually getting some of the men to come around to his plan. There were many looks of contemplation, of people thinking 'this could work'. But there were still some other facets to consider, and they did not go unchallenged. That was good: it meant Xisheng had tactically competent people under his command. This time, it was someone asking about the actual matter of taking down the wall.

"Will it really be so easy to take down the wall? I mean, it sounds feasible in principle, but the wall is massive. I can't see it caving so easily..."

This time, Xisheng didn't even have to answer. The engineer-in-chief present spoke up, which made sense since he was the same guy who had been asked about this question last night.

"No, it could be possible if we strike at the right locations. If we can take down the foundations in either a wide enough or deep enough pocket, the wall's own weight will drag it down and create fractures. It'll practically destroy itself, as long as we can remove enough support from underneath it in one go. Granted, the amount of explosives we would need is... unprecedented, to say the least."

Now, the logistics officer chipped in. "I can have all available explosive supplies diverted to our base from nearby sources. Blasting jelly, black powder, explosive artillery munitions... if we go along with this plan, I could feasibly scrounge up enough explosives to blow off a mountaintop. Surely that would be enough?"

The old doubting major from before interrupted at this point. "Even if we can pull off all of this up to this point, we will need to secure the breach almost immediately to prevent the enemy from repairing it and wasting all of our effort. How are we going to do that?"

Finally, Xisheng was able to speak at his own strategy meeting once again. "The diversionary attack will double as our spearhead. Our forces will be close enough to rush the breach when it is made, but not so close as to prompt an enemy response other than hunkering down. Bear in mind that enemy forces will likely congregate at the sections of the wall that we are attacking, meaning they should be mostly killed or wounded if we manage to take it down. We should have a window of opportunity to storm the breach and secure a foothold in which there is little to no resistance. That said, I am considering dividing our forces into three separate attacks: three attempts to breach the wall, and three opportunities to seize a foothold. However, I won't decide on that variation to the plan until our full forces and resources are gathered."

There was a lot of nodding of heads and murmurs of approval as the many officers in the room glanced around at each other. It was obvious: they thought this plan could work. It wouldn't be easy to pull off by any means, but it could work. Not to mention, they had a commander who had actually thought all of this shit through, as opposed to the previous guy who had just thrown weapons headlong into the fire. It was a welcome change of pace for everyone. And with a sensible plan on the table, suddenly everyone was feeling a bit more hopeful about the whole ordeal. It was still hard to get behind such a young person being in charge, but then again... the last person in charge had been old, and his attack had failed miserably. And this young leader had a feasible plan with feasible ways to achieve it.

Needless to say, Xisheng was pleased that he at least convinced everyone of his strategy. Whether or not he would have their support and loyalty as subordinates would only be revealed later.

"If there are no more questions, then we had best start making preparations now. Communications, send a messenger to Yu Dao and other prominent colonies so they can prepare for the arrival of our transports. Logistics, send our transports out as soon as possible to get our reinforcements from the colonies and any explosives you can manage. Engineering, make sure our siege engines are in order: even if they aren't the main focus of our attack, they'll need to do their part. Combat officers... there's no need to explain the plan to your soldiers just yet. For now, just try to keep their morale up. When the time comes to attack, I need everyone at their best. I will keep all pertinent individuals informed as our strategy evolves. If there are no questions, you are dismissed."

Because Azula was present, everyone offered a salute before leaving. Some of them were obviously begrudging, but Xisheng was pleased to see that some of the officers did it gladly. Apparently, having a good plan was enough to at least get respect from some people right out the gate. Of course, whether or not that respect waxed or waned would probably depend on whether or not that good plan actually worked. Of course it all sounded great theoretically. But it was easy for a plan to sound perfect on paper. Real life was a lot trickier than the theoretical.

Soon enough, Xisheng and Azula were the only people still in the room. The latter was looking at Xisheng appreciatively. "For someone who wasn't initially confident in this plan, it's awfully robust. You came up with all of this over the past few days?"

Able to relax a little bit now that the meeting was over, Xisheng smiled. "Don't praise me too much, Azula. The truth is that I just spend an unhealthy amount of time obsessing over military affairs. Truth be told I've played with the idea of taking down the wall for years. I just didn't come up with an actually feasible way to do it until now."

Though he was trying to play off Azula's praise, it didn't seem to actually work. Azula seemed no less impressed than before. "Even so, your intellect is... admirable, shall we say? Just know that I'm very pleased with what you've come up with. And the way you handled the obvious distaste those officers had for you initially: well done, Xisheng. Very well done indeed."

"Thank you. That kind of praise means a lot coming from you. And speaking of which... I'll do everything I can to justify the faith you've put in me. I know your endorsement of me makes you responsible for any failures that come out of all of this, and that it could seriously affect you for years to come. I won't spare any expense for your success."

Now feeling a little sheepish herself, Azula tried to deflect. It was true that she was placing a lot of faith in Xisheng, but he didn't have to be so earnest about it...

"It'll be our success, Xisheng. If you pull this off, well... as long as we don't follow it up the same way Iroh did, you might become one of the most famous commanders of the war. Maybe even one of the Fire Nation's most respected commanders in history..."

"Even if that were true, I'd still be a commoner."

"Yes, well... there are ways to change that, Gohan. Now, while it may sound odd to do so at noon and right after you've assumed a mantle of responsibility, I suggest you get some rest. It doesn't look like you slept at all last night."

With that, Azula made her exit from the room too, though Xisheng couldn't help but watch her curiously as she left. Just what exactly had she meant by that? Ways to change being a commoner? He could only think of one way to do that, which was...

No, surely that couldn't have been what she meant. Right...? It would just be presumptuous to assume that. Shaking the thought from his mind, Xisheng focused back on the situation at hand. Granted, there wasn't much he could do right now since his orders had been issued. But on the other hand, he was probably going to have to get used to issuing orders in the first place. It was a pretty new feeling, but not entirely unwelcome. He'd have to see if that changed when the time came to order men into battle.

Chapter Text

"What if the debris from the wall blocks the advance of our troops when they try to get to the breach? It's not as if we're going to have a nice, unobstructed path left after this explosion we are planning."

Standing in the war room of the Fire Nation forward staging area, Xisheng listened to the concerns of a number of men that were crucial to the planning of his operation: currently codenamed 'Wallclimber'. A map of Ba Sing Se sat on the square steel table before them all, which allowed everyone to lean in and point when necessary. In the five days since Xisheng had first raised his plan of attack, the map had been marked several times: red x marks denoted the locations of the wall to be assaulted. Small flags on pedestals denoted the various troops that would be participating, and the formations they would take. Black arrows indicated which formations would move where when the time came to advance. All in all, a lot of details had been ironed out.

But there was still a great deal to discuss before the assault could be finalized. To Xisheng's right stood the man who had raised a concern about the debris leftover from the wall, Major Shairo. Black mustache and goatee, slightly graying near the tips as he approached his mid-40s. His hair was bound in an immaculate topknot, but all it did was reveal his constantly severe expression. This was one of the men who had been very vocal about his disagreement with Xisheng's command during the initial meeting, but the young commander had brought him into the ring of advisors for a reason. Shairo was one of the highest ranking officers on the base who still directly led troops into battle regularly. He had decades of combat experience, and the rank and file massively respected him. He was an antagonistic sort, but Xisheng knew his input was valuable.

To Xisheng's left was the chief engineer on the base, a man balding before his time, but making up for it with a full mustache and beard that took up half of his face. Chief Engineer Muzai, who had by now fully endorsed Xisheng's strategy, mostly just out of academic curiosity. Xisheng got the feeling that Muzai, professionally educated as he was, was still willing to try the absurd just for the sake of seeing what would happen. Well, it was the curious types who tended to enter such professions.

Stroking his long and slightly frazzled black beard, Muzai kept his golden gaze on the map before him. "It's also possible that the opposite could occur. If the explosion is too large, it could create a large crater that will be difficult for our troops to traverse at any decent pace. If the walls of that crater are too steep, it may be impossible to get past it at all, aside from our tanks."

Xisheng kept his green and blue gaze on the map as well, ignoring the hustle and bustle of lower-ranked officers in the war room handling other affairs around him. "This is an understandable concern. I'm hoping the Earthbenders we gather to our force will be able to mitigate these potential problems. I have every intention of having them integrated with our assault force, so they should be able to help clear debris out of the way or create an easier path in the case of a crater."

Major Shairo's dull amber eyes narrowed in Xisheng's direction. "You are placing a great deal of weight on the shoulders of Earthbenders for this battle, Commander. In fact, everything here is dependent on some Mudslingers, all of whom have questionable training and loyalty... you're putting the lives of loyal Fire Nation troops in their hands."

Xisheng refrained from immediately belittling Shairo's notion. It was biased and shortsighted, but also understandable. The Major had been fighting against Earthbenders for more than twenty years. He had probably seen many friends and comrades die at their hands. It was unlikely he had ever met an Earthbender that wasn't a foe. So it made sense that he distrusted them.

"I understand your concern, Major. But the reality is, we cannot get through this wall without Earthbenders. At least, not with the means available to our nation now. Any other option would cost far more lives. Besides, I don't plan on blindly trusting every Earthbender that comes our way to allegedly help. We will treat the incoming reinforcements with great scrutiny, and take measures to ensure they are properly prepared to fight alongside us. We're not accepting them as they are, we're accepting them into our ranks to mold them into the force we need."

Shairo did not seem satisfied with this answer, but he didn't say anything else. Maybe he knew there was no point. The entirety of this plan hinged on Earthbender support, and Xisheng did not seem likely to change the strategy now.

Ignoring the discourse about the Earthbenders entirely, Muzai muttered something to himself. "In the case of a crater, perhaps the Earthbenders could just make flat bridges over the gap? That would be quick and efficient..."

Xisheng was about to agree with this assessment, but he was cut off before he could by the approach of a young soldier with close shaved black hair and a small topknot. The approaching young man was Xisheng's adjutant: a fresh-faced recruit named Shinji, who had been assigned to assist Xisheng with any miscellaneous matters, such as the transfer of messages, the acquisition of requested materials, and the like.

When Shinji arrived next to Xisheng, he bowed deeply. "Commander, sir! Logistics Officer Aranai has requested me to inform you that the first wave of Yu Dao's Home Guard Regiment has arrived at camp, sir!"

Honestly, it was a bit awkward having someone bow so reverently to a young officer like Xisheng. He'd tried to tell the boy already that such devout reverence was unnecessary, but apparently, that had not stuck with Shinji. Xisheng could tell that his junior held immense admiration and respect for him, even though they had only recently met. Perhaps a recruit straight out of training camp was mesmerized by the fact that a soldier barely older than he was had been appointed the commander of such an important siege. It probably gave him all sorts of fantastical hopes for his own career. Xisheng didn't have the heart to tell him that nepotism from Azula had played a bigger role in his appointment than any actual merit. Not to say he had no merit, but a few good ideas from a Lieutenant would not have earned him a position commanding this battle without Azula's blessing.

"Thank you, Shinji. Gentlemen, I must go take stock of our new arrivals. I will return soon."

Neither Muzai nor Shairo bowed in a manner similar to Shinji, though they did salute his exit, simply because military decorum dictated that they should. As Xisheng moved out of the war room, Shinji followed slightly behind him. Being his adjutant and all, he was supposed to be at Xisheng's beck and call. Honestly, having someone like that at his disposal felt immensely odd for Xisheng. He was used to being the subordinate, not having one himself.

"Commander, Major Shairo glared at you as you left."

Xisheng cocked an eyebrow, curious as to why Shinji felt the need to point this out. The young man was very talkative, not at all as reserved as most grunts when in the presence of high-ranking officers. Maybe he believed there was some sort of kindred spirit between him and Xisheng. As far as Xisheng knew, the practically baby-faced boy at his side was only around two years younger than him.

Quietly, Xisheng acknowledged that Azula was around that age too, which really drove home how far beyond her age she was. Azula and Shinji felt nothing alike in terms of maturity. Xisheng could picture Azula on a battlefield easily, but Shinji seemed like someone who should have still been helping his parents with chores, not trying to kill someone else in a war.

"Major Shairo's distaste is known to me, Shinji. He's entitled to his own perceptions."

"Yes, well... I hope you know that a lot of us young guys are behind you, sir! It's a great change of pace to have someone who understands us better leading the charge for once."

Xisheng neglected to mention that age didn't really make them that similar to one another. Although, he supposed he may have been a lot like Shinji in the past. He'd joined the military at a similar age, and was eager to please his superiors too. Only time and battle had changed him into the person he was today.

"I appreciate the support, but don't think too badly of Major Shairo. He's seen far more battles than I, and no matter how disagreeable he may be, he's on our side."

Perhaps fearing that he had offended his new superior, Shinji changed his tune immediately. "Of course, sir, very wise, sir!"

Xisheng smiled ruefully. Maybe he hadn't been quite like this at Shinji's age. Still, enthusiasm was not a bad thing in the slightest. Every army needed passionate people ready to give everything they could for the cause. Without them, things would never get anywhere.

Exiting the command center, Xisheng took a glance around the base. It was the same as before, what with the rows of nearly identical square metal buildings, the walls, and the watchtowers, but it was a lot busier than it had been just a few days ago. Preparations for Wallclimber were in full swing: transports were constantly chugging in and out of the gates, bringing in tools, materials, troops, and munitions. The foundries were going full blast, pumping black smoke into the cloudless sky as a byproduct of the weapons they were pushing out by the dozens. Soldiers with no specific orders were constantly performing exercises at the behest of their immediate superiors. The din of an army at work was an assault on the ears, but oddly comforting as well.

Looking over to the main gate, Xisheng eyed the several Overlord transports, extra cars attached, that had pulled into the base. Irregulars that were clearly not standard Fire Nation military were spilling out of them, clad in greens, reds, and combinations of both. There were lots of people working out kinks and cramps: they probably had no experience in riding in military transports. There were still more transports coming in, so Xisheng couldn't get an accurate read on how many people there were, but they were already numbering in the hundreds. That was reassuring.

The young Lieutenant turned Commander gestured at Shinji. "Go and see if you can find the leader or spokesperson for the division. Bring them to me. If you can't locate them or they don't have one, just come back and tell me."

Shinji bowed without any hesitation. "Right away, Commander!"

The young recruit hustled off immediately, leaving Xisheng alone for a moment to appraise things. The reinforcements from Yu Dao were completely non-uniform. Some were old and graying. Many were as young as himself or younger. There were more than a few that were clearly not in great shape. There were just as many women as there were men. They were the epitome of a militia: people willing to fight, but likely not trained in the art of war. Xisheng had no doubt that very few of them had ever been in a real battle... and now he was about to thrust them directly into one of the biggest of the war. Their lives hung in the balance created by his strategy. He had acknowledged this already, but the more personnel came pouring into the camp every day, the heavier the weight of that knowledge became for Xisheng.

After a few minutes, Shinji began making his way back towards Xisheng with someone entirely unexpected in tow. Xisheng wasn't sure who he had expected to be the representative for the reinforcements from Yu Dao, but it certainly hadn't been an individual like this. When the two arrived before Xisheng, Shinji swiftly bowed before gesturing towards the person he was escorting.

"Commander, this is the representative for the Yu Dao Home Guard Regiment."

Before Xisheng was a young woman that appeared to be around his age. A brunette with short hair, bangs parted to each side and held in a bow at the back by a red ribbon. Warm brown eyes not all that dissimilar to Ty Lee, though far sharper and more serious. That said, there was some other uncanny resemblances to Xisheng's acrobatic friend, not the least of which was the baring of toned midriff, showing unashamedly below a green shirt covered by a red shawl. Her black pants had a hammer and chain type weapon wrapped around her waist.

This peculiar individual immediately struck a traditional Fire Nation salute with a crispness even many soldiers failed to match. "Commander, my name is Kori Morishita. I represent the men and women of Yu Dao who have come to fight for their country. It is our honor to serve!"

Well, Xisheng hadn't been expecting someone like this, but he wasn't disappointed so far. Everyone else directly involved in his plans was a man, so it was a nice change of pace to have an attractive woman as part of the inner circle. Assuming Kori made it that far, of course. All she'd done was introduce herself. Xisheng still had to appraise her before he could figure out what role she'd play in all of this.

The first order of business was making a good impression on her. Right now, she was the face of the Yu Dao Earthbenders, whom were absolutely vital to Wallclimber. Xisheng needed them on his side in more ways than one. That was why he returned the representative's salute, which did seem to catch her off guard: she likely hadn't expected her gesture to be reciprocated. That usually didn't happen from superior to subordinate.

"The honor is mine, Kori Morishita. You and all of your comrades have my sincere gratitude for answering this call to arms, and on such short notice."

Having clearly expected a more taciturn and stoic exchange with an older commander, Kori's serious expression grew mildly more confused. "It's no problem at all, sir. We're happy to be here."

"That said, I hope you don't take offense to this, but you're the representative for the Yu Dao Home Guard Regiment? You're quite young."

Kori cocked an eyebrow at him, donning an amused smirk before stopping to consider if she was breaching decorum. "No offense, but so are you, sir."

Beside Xisheng, Shinji opened his mouth to likely accost Kori for speaking disrespectfully to a superior officer, but Xisheng cut him off with a raised arm in front of the recruit. He got the feeling that Shinji was the type to jump to the defense of his heroes, even if said heroes didn't need it.

"I can't deny that. But generally speaking, there are special circumstances that allow people our age to enter such positions despite it. So, I'm going to need to know more about you, Kori. Why do the warriors of Yu Dao trust you to speak on their behalf? I doubt there's no particular reason for it."

To this, Kori's expression grew a little sheepish. "Well, I am the daughter of Yu Dao's mayor, sir. I'm sure that plays some role in everyone's trust in me. But I swear it's more than that, Commander! I've been training to fight since I was a little girl. I've bested many of the members of the regiment in sparring, even the older ones. I was also one of the first citizens to push for a larger militia, and a proponent for more equal representation of earth and firebenders in our defense forces... I'm sorry, I'm not trying to brag. I just..."

Xisheng spoke up as Kori petered off. "Don't want me to look down on you and your comrades?"

Kori didn't directly respond to this, but the way she glanced at the ground was answer enough, which prompted Xisheng to continue.

"Don't worry. I understand your trepidation: this is the first time in decades a colonial element has been summoned to fight on the front lines of a major battle. Maybe even the first time since the war began. And even though Yu Dao is a well-established colony that is Fire Nation in every way that matters, there are still those from the homeland that see colonials as second-class citizens. And that's to say nothing about the disdain many Fire Nation citizens hold for Earthbenders in general. There are many misconceptions stacked against you and your friends, and you want to prove them all wrong. Right, Kori?"

Surprised that the young commander before her would put all of that into words, not to mention actually acknowledge any of it, Kori answered quietly. It was a little embarrassing to have all of that spelled out. Now she felt overeager.

"Yes, sir. That's all true."

Xisheng smiled, donning a reassuring air. He still didn't really know that much about this young woman, but if her motivations were to carve a place of respect and acknowledgment for the Earthbenders of Yu Dao in Fire Nation society, that was a good sign. They were motivated to prove themselves, meaning they'd be willing to do whatever it took. At least, to an extent.

"Don't feel ashamed of your motivations, Kori. I'm glad to have a fellow colonial with such drive at my side during times as trying as these. It's clear to me that you are deeply passionate about your home, and earning it the respect it deserves. I'm sure that's one of the biggest reasons your comrades follow your lead."

The mention of being a colonial himself seemed to ease Kori's trepidation a little, though Xisheng's other reassurances probably helped a lot as well. "Y-yes, sir, maybe that is so. The people of Yu Dao will give everything we have to prove our worth as Fire Nation citizens!"

"Excellent. And while we are discussing your comrades, I feel inclined to ask: are they all Earthbenders?"

Kori glanced back at her people. "No, sir. A great many of them are, myself included. But there are also many Firebenders and non-benders in the ranks of the Home Guard Regiment. But we're all willing to fight! Everyone will do the best they can!"

"Very well. For now, return to your comrades and help them get organized. I need an accurate measure of their strength: how many benders of each element there are, as well the number of non-benders. I will send an officer to help get your people situated here at the base and take note of your head count soon."

The young leader from Yu Dao made another salute, though she also bowed as well compared to the first time. It seemed that her respect for Xisheng had grown to some extent during this conversation.

"Right away, Commander! And thank you for giving us this chance. We won't let you down!"

With that, Kori turned on her heel and hustled back towards the continuously growing group of Yu Dao citizens, courtesy of more transports. Personality notwithstanding, she really did bear a striking resemblance to Ty Lee. Even as she left, Xisheng recalled the time he had watched his acrobat friend walking away from him and towards some Overlords. Kori had a similar figure, down to... well, down to what Xisheng had appreciated about Ty Lee at that time in the past.

...it would probably be best if he didn't think that way of the troops under his command.

"You're from the colonies, Commander?"

Xisheng returned his focus to the world around him thanks to Shinji's question. The young recruit was leveling a curious expression at him.

"Yes. West Heiatu, to be precise. Not quite as long established as Yu Dao, but a very old colony besides. How about you, Shinji?"

"M-me? Commander, surely you don't care where I'm from..."

Xisheng raised an eyebrow at him. "I asked, didn't I?"

Nervous even to have this much attention paid to him, Shinji took a deep breath. Really, Xisheng wondered how the young recruit could have taken such a shine to him already. He supposed his circumstances were particularly exceptional, but they didn't even really know each other. Than again, Xisheng acknowledged that most people didn't actually know their heroes.

"It's nothing special, sir. I'm from the capital back in the homeland."

"Lots of soldiers are. It's nothing to be ashamed about. Why'd you enlist? You're young enough that conscription wasn't mandatory yet, meaning you volunteered."

Shinji's nervous expression grew moderately more serious as he glanced in the direction Kori had gone. "I've got a little sister. Her name's On Ji. She's twelve, and still in school. That Morishita woman kind of reminds me of her, actually. Well, On Ji is nowhere near that cool, but they kind of look a little similar. A-anyway, On Ji is always talking about how she's going to enlist when she'd old enough and become a hero. I... would like the war to be over before that ever has a chance of happening. I know I barely make a difference, but if I can help the war end even one day sooner, that would be enough for me. I don't want my little sister to ever set foot on a battlefield."

Taking in the motivations of his adjutant, Xisheng placed a reassuring hand on Shinji's soldier. "There's no cause more admirable than protecting your loved ones, Shinji. I too want this war to be over as soon as possible. That's why I need everyone's help to make it happen. We'll end all of this long before your sister ever has to worry about it: even if she will be a little disappointed. Come, there's still a lot to attend to today."

With a smile that proved how awestruck he was to be reassured by his superior officer in such a way, Shinji fell in behind Xisheng as the newly minted Commander began walking back towards the commander center.

"Yes, sir!"

Many hours later, Xisheng sat in a new room that had been provided for him after his sudden promotion to Acting Commander. The new quarters were far nicer than his previous one, with candlelit tapestries, a floor with actual rugs, a far comfier bed, and real windows to the outside. It was a room at the very top of the command center: one that probably belonged to Qin up until his recent eviction.

Gone were all of the War Minister's old belongings, but Xisheng hadn't possessed a whole lot to replace them with. Honestly, the whole concept of personal belongings had been a bit foreign to him since embarking on this quest with Azula all that time ago. Aside from his armor and a few clothes, he had nothing really to his name at this moment. But he had found some items to fill the space with: currently, a lot of maps and reports that covered the wooden table in the center of the room. As for the chairs, they were occupied by two of his friends, whom he'd invited. Azula was absent, supposedly because she had some matters to take care of. Like Xisheng, she was often busy, which was promptly pointed out by Mai, whom had an arm over the back of her chair and one leg over the other.

"So, this is the only time you really have to yourself these days, huh? I'm surprised that new flunky of yours doesn't keep you company even in here."

Though he had invited Mai and Ty Lee to the room to talk, Xisheng still had his gaze fixed on the maps and reports on the table before him, lit by some candles on said table. Besides, he was still listening to them.

"Shinji's a bit starry-eyed, but he's got a good spirit. He's been very helpful."

Mai scoffed. "A bit? The way that kid looks at you, it's like you've taken Ba Sing Se already. You'd think he was admiring a hero from a fairy tale."

On the other end of the table, head resting in her arms, Ty Lee smiled. "Maybe he's just the first of many to realize how amazing Gohan really is. I mean, you're younger than almost every other officer on the base, and you get to tell them all what to do. I bet Azula's very proud."

With a rueful smile of his own, Xisheng traded one scrap of paper before him for another. "I appreciate the support, Ty Lee. But everyone should probably wait to praise me until after Wallclimber works. If it works..."

Seeing a small amount of doubt creep into Xisheng's features, Ty Lee tried to reassure him. "It'll totally work. You've put a lot of thought into it. And you even said that all of the other people you talked to agreed that it was possible. By the way, why is it called 'Wallclimber' anyway? Isn't that like, the exact opposite of what you're trying to do?"

"Just in case the enemy gets wind of it. Short of any specific details, the name of the operation could hint at what we are planning to do. Better to give it a misleading name rather than an accurate one, just in case rumors reach the ears of the enemy."

Mai folded her arms as she contemplated this answer. "How would they even hear a rumor? It's not like we have people moving between this base and Ba Sing Se. Unless you're worried about spies?"

Xisheng raised his gaze from the table to look directly at the girl to his side. "We've brought in hundreds of new people from across the continent today, and there are still more to come. It's true that census records and paperwork have identified most of our reinforcements before they were brought here, but that doesn't mean too much. Someone who has lived a completely ordinary life in Yu Dao could be an Earth Kingdom sympathizer. Someone from a different colony could be an embedded agent. Or, for all we know, some Earth Kingdom agents infiltrated the convoy while it was on its way here. Hundreds to thousands of people are being moved. Even with records, the presence of one more could easily go unnoticed. All I'm saying is, the presence of spies is a distinct possibility that cannot be ruled out. That's why explicit details about the strategy are being kept to select individuals. If the enemy knows what we are up to before we begin, casualties will be enormous. In fact, I'm thinking of allowing some misleading rumors about the battle plan to circulate around the camp. Just to throw off any prying ears."

Ty Lee glanced down at the reports on the table in front of her, but most of it made no sense to her. "You're so smart, Gohan. You really think of everything."

"We'll see how true that is as things progress. But thank you."

The room grew quiet for a moment, as the trio of friends found themselves unsure of what to talk about next. The truth was, they hadn't gotten a lot of time together lately, thanks to Xisheng's new responsibilities. And the things that Xisheng had to deal with now were often out of Mai and Ty Lee's wheelhouse. It certainly wasn't anything that they could relate to. It was a real shame that he had grown so busy: they hadn't been able to do any of the things they normally did, like eat together or train, for the past few days. Both girls found themselves displeased with that notion.

That was why they were eager to try and find something to talk about, even if they weren't that well-versed in it. Mai took a shot with it first.

"I heard that most of the Earthbenders coming into camp are colonials. Any of them from your hometown, Gohan?"

"West Heiatu? I don't think so. It's a colony only a little smaller than Yu Dao, but it's also farther away from our position. We probably won't see any reinforcements from there for a few more days."

Mai sighed in response to this. "A few more days? Just how long is this all going to take? It sounds like we'll be spending months just getting ready to attack the wall."

Xisheng merely shrugged. "Sorry, Mai. But thorough preparations is the most important aspect of our success. Honestly, if this headcount from Kori is to be believed, Wallclimber could probably be pulled off with just the Earthbenders who came from Yu Dao, but I'd rather not take the risk."

As for Ty Lee, she focused on the least relevant detail of that entire assessment. "Who's Kori?"

"Oh, she's the leader of the Yu Dao Home Regiment that came in today. Or at least, their representative. A lot younger than I expected. Mayor's daughter. Reminds me a lot of you, actually."

The brunette at the table donned a curious expression. "How so?"

"A couple of ways. Her hair and eye color isn't too far off from yours. And she's got an athletic build too. Tall, slim... she looks like the type of person who might be pretty acrobatic herself. She also shares your penchant for baring the stomach."

Ty Lee frowned for a moment. "Sounds like you were paying a lot of attention to her body, Gohan."

The young Acting Commander looked at Ty Lee with a rueful gaze. "People tend to take in a person's full appearance when they first meet them, Ty Lee."

"Pssh, OK. I'm prettier than her though, right?"

"Of course you are."

"You said that so quickly that I'm not inclined to believe you."

Amused that she was so bothered by this, Xisheng put down the report he was reading. "Seriously, Ty Lee. You're-"

Xisheng was interrupted before he could finish by a knocking on the door to the room. In the past, the young officer would have been curious, but with his new position, he was becoming accustomed to people visiting him at odd hours. After all, there were plenty of reasons someone might have needed to speak to him.

"Enter."

With permission granted, a masked soldier stepped into the room and saluted. "Forgive my intrusion, sir. There's a matter that needs your attention."

Xisheng lowered the report he had been looking at. "Could I get a bit more detail on what this matter entails?"

"There's been a confrontation between some of the soldiers on the base and the colonial reinforcements in the mess hall. A sergeant in the immediate vicinity tried to get it sorted, but it seems like the colonials are unhappy with the resolution. They're demanding to speak to someone higher up."

With a sigh, Xisheng rose from the table. He had expected some friction between these two groups, but he hadn't expected it to escalate to this level on the first day. "Very well."

He glanced over at Mai and Ty Lee. "You two want to come with me?"

To this, Mai shrugged. "Well, it's more interesting than just sitting here, I suppose..."

Ty Lee decided to take Mai's lead, so the two girls followed Xisheng out of the room, who was likewise led to the mess hall by the soldier that had come to summon him. Really, mediating this dispute should have fallen to someone else, but Xisheng imagined that the conflict resolution going on wasn't exactly impartial. He had a good guess as to what he would stumble upon when he arrived.

The mess hall was one of many rectangular structures on the base, though a bit more elongated than the others. The inside was basically one big room, serving little purpose but to hold as many tables and chairs as possible, to feed as many troops in one place as it could. Only a kitchen area in the back broke up the uniformity. That said, there was plenty to pay attention to in regards to the people around.

A large group of people were gathered in the center of the hall, though roughly divided. On the left side, an obvious group of Fire Nation soldiers, all in uniform or at least in the clothes often worn under the armor. On the right, a significantly smaller group of people that were obviously from Yu Dao, made clear by their combination of green and red clothing. There was a lot of glaring going on between the two groups, along with a few nasty words getting thrown around. There were a few soldiers scattered around the hall, clearly attempting to mind their own business.

As Xisheng approached, a sergeant with a finely trimmed mustache stepped forward to meet him. "Am I right in assuming that you are an officer, sir?"

Xisheng was not surprised to go unidentified by the man: even though he had been appointed Acting Commander by Azula, only high-ranking officers had been present for that announcement. Most of the rank and file were unaware of their new leadership. Only direct subordinates of the higher-ranking officers had already picked up on the identity of their overarching commander at this point. There was probably going to be a big speech to the troops at some point to cement his authority, but Xisheng hadn't gotten around to it yet.

"I am the Acting Commander for all forces on this base. What's going on here?"

Xisheng earned a cocked eyebrow for his troubles. That too, was not surprising. He was at least a decade younger than the sergeant he was talking to. He was younger than even many of the grunts around here. It was likely difficult for people to accept his statement of authority at face value. That said, Xisheng did bear a golden right shoulder pauldron that identified him as a rank of at least Colonel or higher, courtesy of the young man's gradual wardrobe change over the past few days. He was mostly still wearing his old armor, but he was slowly getting new additions to help identify him in situations like these. Plus, a lot of his old armor had been damaged and in need of replacement anyway.

Point being, whether or not the sergeant was incredulous, the much younger man before him had the right identification to warrant answering to. Whether or not he was the acting commander of the whole base, he was at least a high enough rank to defer to in this situation. That was all he had to worry about.

"Just a small altercation between our men and the newcomers, sir. I tried to handle the situation, but the colonials aren't happy with my decision. Unfortunately, I'm unsure if I have authority over them, so I can't deal with their insubordination directly."

Someone with pretty good hearing stepped out from the Yu Dao group: a somewhat portly young man with black hair down to his shoulders and topped by a messy bun. He had round eyes, and large lips to go along with a pretty huge nose. His green clothes were topped off with some sort of red fur scarf. Whoever he was, he was shouting angrily before anyone could stop him. "That's because your solution was for us to just shut up and accept this! That ashmaker over there attacked my girlfriend! She's been hurt! We oughta-!"

Before he could continue, a hand appeared on his arm from behind, and Kori Morishita stepped up next to him, looking very worried. "Sneers, enough! Don't make a scene!"

Xisheng cocked an eyebrow, unsure if he had heard the name of this man correctly. Maybe it was just a nickname. At any rate, Xisheng wasn't able to get a word in edgewise before a soldier with a square jaw from the other side of the group spoke up.

"That's her fault for getting in the way. I was aiming for you, fatso!"

Sneers glared towards the man, clearly about to say something back, but Xisheng raised his voice to silence everyone. "Enough! Where is this injured girl?"

No one was forthcoming. Instead, Kori bowed deeply to him. "Please, Commander, don't trouble yourself with this. I'll accept responsibility for this altercation. The suffered injury is minor..."

Sneers didn't seem to agree with this at all. "You don't know if it's minor, Kori! You haven't had anyone who knows what they are talking about look at it!"

Xisheng got the feeling that Sneers was identifying Kori as the injured individual, but that didn't seem right...

"Kori, you're the one who was injured?"

The brunette girl clutched at her forearm, which Xisheng now noticed as having a cloth wrapped around it somewhat haphazardly. "Y-yes, but as I said, it's nothing. Pay no mind to Sneers, he's blowing it out of proportion."

Sneers started saying something to Kori about how she shouldn't have been trying to accept blame for anything, but Xisheng didn't hear it. He was too busy looking back and forth between the two of them. Sneers had said that his girlfriend had been the one injured, right? Kori was the one who was injured. So Kori was his girlfriend, right? That was kind of hard to believe, at first. Kori was very good-looking, tall, and fit. Sneers was... well, even being kind, he was a far cry from what one would consider conventionally attractive.

But, well, there was a lot more to relationships than looks, even though those were important. Maybe they had shared passions, or a similar sense of humor, or a common dream. Or maybe it was something less romantic. Sometimes people got together for money or just good sex. Really, it wasn't any of Xisheng's business, even if he did find himself curious.

At any rate, he had to get a handle on this situation. Relations between the people from Yu Dao and the regular army was absolutely vital to Xisheng's strategy.

"I'll be the judge of how serious this situation is. I want to hear what happened from you, Kori."

Naturally, Xisheng would take more than one perspective in, since it was better to get multiple sides presented to him before making a judgment call. But based on his perception of Kori so far, including her willingness to accept all blame for this incident to shield anyone else from consequence, Xisheng believed she would tell him the genuine truth.

"W-well, sir... we were directed here by the officer you sent earlier for meals. When we arrived, there weren't many other people here, so we got in line for the kitchen. Some soldiers filed into the hall shortly after us, and..."

Kori petered off, glancing at the strong-jawed soldier who had presumably hurt her. Xisheng quietly wondered why. She didn't seem scared of him. Rather, he imagined that Kori was concerned about portraying the fighters from Yu Dao in a bad light. This was their first day here. They were already disliked, as made evident by this entire situation. She probably didn't want to give a the commander of the entire base any reason to see them as a problem. Understanding this, Xisheng made to reassure her.

"Speak the truth. I will act fairly."

Perhaps due to her own experience with Xisheng thus far, Kori believed his assurance. "...the soldiers accosted us, claiming that we didn't deserve to be here and had no right to eat alongside them, let alone dig into their food before they got a chance to do so. There were some... other uncouth things said, but I won't repeat them. Sneers got angry and said some things in return. I tried to calm them down, but they started fighting. I couldn't Earthbend in here, so I stepped in front of Sneers to protect him. That's all that happened before the sergeant intervened."

Kori fell silent after this, rubbing her arm under the cloth as she did so. Frankly, Xisheng believed her story. He'd fully expected tensions to be high between some members of the two groups. The reasons varied, but they were there. Even so, Xisheng turned to the strong-jawed soldier that had allegedly lost his temper.

"Is this true?"

The soldier jabbed a finger in the direction of Sneers. "Hardly. This earthworm girl conveniently glossed over what was really said. This fatass said our troops deserved what they got at the wall during the last assault! My cousin was in one of those tanks!"

Admittedly, Xisheng could understand the anger stemming from a comment like that. To insult the death of a fellow soldier was already a high crime. Doubly so if that fellow soldier was also literal family. Still...

"And what did you say to Sneers here before he said that to you?"

The soldier in question fell silent at this. Sneers, on the other hand, had no issue repeating it. "That we were all going to be used as fodder, thrown at the walls so the real soldiers could use our bodies as stepping stones to climb it. And he called Kori-!"

Kori raised an arm in front of Sneers to cut him off before he could repeat the next part. Xisheng could only wonder why, as well as wonder what had been said. Soldiers often had quite uncouth vocabulary. At any rate, judging by the way Sneers tried to glare holes through the soldier's skull, Xisheng could imagine that the mystery word was pretty insulting.

At any rate, he had to find a way to resolve this. Moreover, he had to find a way to resolve it while trying to improve relations between the two groups that would be fighting side by side someday soon. To start, he turned to the soldier who had attacked Sneers and Kori.

"You have my condolences for your cousin. He never should have been put in that situation. And I can understand why you would be angry to hear his sacrifice besmirched. At the same time, you did the same thing to these people, demeaning their lives and their drive to be here. You really have no grounds to get angry at them for reciprocating your vitriol."

The soldier grit his teeth, narrowing dull yellowish-brown eyes at Sneers and Kori. He held his tongue, but he certainly didn't seem happy with Xisheng's assessment, which continued on.

"Moreover, attacking a comrade is unacceptable. You would not have lashed out to harm a fellow Fire Nation soldier, I hope?"

"O-of course not! But they're not-"

Xisheng raised a hand to cut off the protest. Then, he pointed at one of the soldiers a bit behind the aggressor. "You. Why didn't you stop him from attacking a comrade?"

The soldier in the back had clearly not expected to be called out. After all, he hadn't done anything. "M-me? Sir, I wasn't involved..."

"I see. And what about you?"

Xisheng pointed to another of the Fire Nation soldiers nearby, who was likewise caught off-guard. "It, uh... didn't seem to be any of my business..."

The young officer turned commander fell silent as his gaze swept over the assembled troops before him. Now that he had started asking this question of bystanders, they all seemed uncomfortable, perhaps wondering if there would be some punishment for their inaction.

This wouldn't do. This was not the type of army Xisheng needed. He needed more. More than a rank, more than someone who followed their orders and minded their business. So, now was the time to make a gamble. His face was stony, but in his mind, he was nervous: mostly because he was really, really hoping that he had a good read on Kori as a person. If he didn't, this little stunt was going to backfire horrifically, and he'd have to find some other way to play it off that was not at all what he was going for.

Xisheng turned his gaze back on the square chin of the soldier who had started the altercation. The man's expression was uncertain, wondering where Xisheng was going to ultimately go with this. He probably didn't expect what happened next.

Xisheng whipped his arm back, and conjured a powerful flame while glaring at the soldier who had sinned. The next moment in time was a tumultuous one: the soldier about to be incinerated recoiled out of reflex, too shocked to try and defend himself. Several of the soldiers and colonials around them all jumped or flinched. Mai and Ty Lee, whom Xisheng had almost forgotten about by now, gasped in utter surprise as Xisheng prepared to seemingly kill the man before him on the spot. And Kori...

"Commander, wait!"

Kori jumped in front of Xisheng before he could bring his arm back down, shielding the soldier that had harmed her behind her slender frame. Her injured arm was held up in front of her, trying to stop Xisheng from carrying out his strike.

"Please don't exact such a harsh punishment just for my sake! Our slight is not worth the life of a fellow Fire Nation citizen!"

Seeing this, Xisheng smiled slightly. His very risky gamble had paid off. Allowing his conjured flame to dissipate and his expression to grow serious again, Xisheng lowered his arm before motioning for Kori to move aside. She looked wary to do so, but ultimately followed his instruction. Behind her, the soldier Xisheng had allegedly been about to smite had fallen on his ass in fear, though he was staring gobsmacked at Kori. Well, until Xisheng took a step forward to be in front of him, that was. Then the soldier picked up his jaw and stared up at him fearfully.

Of course, Xisheng had no intention of hurting him. He motioned towards the woman who had just risked her life to save the soldier on the ground. "Despite what insults you've spoken against this woman, she has just risked her life for you. Solely because you are her countryman. That is the ideal a soldier of this nation should strive towards. To be willing to sacrifice their own life to protect their fellows. Even if they don't know them personally. Even if they don't particularly like them. A soldier's honor should transcend all of that: a soldier lays down his life for his comrades, and his comrades do the same for him. That is the brotherhood of men at arms, who risk their lives together for their country's sake."

The room had fallen mostly silent as Xisheng spoke to the soldier beneath him. Everyone was watching him with bated breath. This was the perfect time to address the group as a whole, so Xisheng raised his voice and moved his gaze across the gathered crown.

"Listen well, all of you. There will come a day very soon, in which you will all fight side by side on the field of battle. You will face the same foes. You will face the same trials and dangers. You will all be afraid of dying. But most importantly, you will all hope that the people you fight alongside would risk their lives for you. That they would fight hard to protect you. That they would not leave you if you were injured. That they may even go so far as to give their lives for you. Because that's what it means to fight among comrades. That's what separates us, honorable soldiers and warriors, from a band of mercenaries or brigands. We fight for our country, but even more than that, we fight for each other, for our brothers and sisters in arms."

Xisheng gestured towards both groups with each arm.

"You all come from different backgrounds. Even among fellow natives or fellow colonials, each of you is more different from one another than you are similar. What does connect you is what you fight for. Whether you're a politician's son from the capital or a farmer from a small town, whether you've led a life of comfort or hardship, you've all come together to fight for a nation that you love. A nation of your countrymen, many of whom stand here right now, because they too are here to fight for you. I want each of you to remember that when you look at each other. Homeland native or colonial, Firebender or Earthbender, bender or non-bender, these are the people you are both fighting alongside and fighting for. Your comrades who will, if truly honorable, fight for you as hard as you fight for them. Because ultimately, we will all shed our blood and sweat together in pursuit of the same dream. We are the Fire Nation Army. We protect our own, no matter where they are born or what life they lead. Because no matter what else you achieve in this war, even if you fell a thousand enemies... if you betray your comrades, you will have only shame. Decades from now, when you lie in your beds as old men and women, you won't fondly recall what you destroyed. Only what you protected."

Falling silent, Xisheng found that he still had everyone's undivided attention. That was a little awkward, because that was the end of his speech. He didn't know what else to say.

"Er... be aware that aggression against your comrades will bear consequence in the future. Be sure to share that with your other comrades who weren't here today to hear it. As well as the other things I've said. So... as you all were."

Turning on his heel, Xisheng began to walk away from the large group of soldiers and colonials. As soon as his back was turned, he heard the muttering of all those behind. A quick glance over his shoulder revealed the pensive and questioning gazes being exchanged between soldiers and colonials, as well as Kori offering a hand to the fallen soldier who had harmed her. A hand that, albeit begrudgingly, was taken, much to Xisheng's pleasure.

As for Mai and Ty Lee, they exchanged stunned looks for a moment before scrambling to catch up to Xisheng. When she caught up, Ty Lee leaned in close to whisper excitedly to him.

"Holy hippo-cow, Gohan! Did you come up with all of that on the spot?!"

Though he had been the image of stoic commander while speaking to the assembled troops, Xisheng couldn't help but feel sheepish now. "Uh, yeah..."

On his other side, Mai was smirking at him, though it wasn't without appreciation. She seemed genuinely impressed. "I always knew you were born to be a poet, but damn, that was something else. Even I felt a bit of swelling pride. I never thought I'd see the day."

"You know me, I do talk a lot. Although, speaking of things that need to be said..."

Xisheng turned his attention back towards the group he had left behind. Glad to find that, though a little awkward, the hostile and tense air had seemed to clear. Not that everyone was dishing out hugs and laughing now, but there definitely wasn't a hostile standoff like before. Some of the soldiers and colonials had even started to talk to each other. One person who still seemed pretty upset, however, was Sneers. His arms were folded and he was still glaring at the soldiers. Well, Xisheng supposed that was understandable: someone he cared about had been hurt, and technically, no justice had been meted out. Still, Xisheng had a few words to say to him away from the entirety of the amassed group.

Thankfully, Xisheng caught Sneers' gaze while the latter was looking around, which allowed him to motion for the man to come over to him. It was definitely begrudging, but Sneers did come his way. He was definitely disgruntled upon arrival.

"What?"

Any other officer probably would have been enraged to be addressed so bluntly and disrespectfully, but Xisheng ignored it. He had more important things to worry about than petty issues like that.

"Sneers, was it?"

"Yeah. What do you want?"

Despite Xisheng's own acceptance of the situation, Sneers' attitude did put frowns and displeased looks on both Mai and Ty Lee's faces. It felt kind of nice to have people that would get upset over things like that.

"I understand that a soldier spoke ill of your neighbors and friends unprovoked. I understand that he even injured someone you care about. Your anger is justified and I understand why you would retaliate. However..."

Xisheng's expression grew deathly serious. He couldn't help it: this was something that bothered him greatly.

"...don't speak ill of our fallen again. In the future, I won't stand idly by while those who sacrificed their lives for this country and their comrades are slandered. Is that understood?"

Xisheng probably didn't realize that he was glaring, but Sneers glared back. "Yeah. Can I go now?"

"Yes."

With no reason to stay, Sneers left the mess hall entirely, which surprised Xisheng. He had expected him to return to Kori, but the young man seemed even more disgruntled than he realized. Hopefully it wouldn't become an issue later.

Once they were alone again, Ty Lee quietly squealed a bit at his side. "Wow, Gohan! You've become so noble and commanding! Oh, the things you could get a girl to do..."

To his other side, Mai folded her arms. "Ew. Don't say stuff like that so happily."

Though she said this, Xisheng didn't miss a slight blush on Mai's cheeks. Maybe she quietly agreed with Ty Lee's sentiment.

At any rate, Xisheng breathed a sigh of relief. So far, it seemed like he was at least able to fill the new role placed upon him admirably, as far as everyone looking in from the outside was concerned. In reality, he was a nervous wreck having to deal with things like this for the first time. But at least he had gotten slightly more used to these new responsibilities over the past few days. Now he just had to keep the trend on an upswing.

The following afternoon, Xisheng stood near one of the windows in the command center, overlooking the gate as transports came piling in. All sorts of things came out of these transports: more colonials from places besides Yu Dao, raw materials, a few explosives, other actual Fire Nation troops... standing next to Xisheng was Logistics Officer Aranai, a young officer in his mid-20s who had no facial hair to speak of. His hair was neat and trimmed, held in an almost perfect topknot that even the Royal Family would have been proud of. Surprisingly, his eyes were green: Xisheng had learned second-hand that Aranai was a colonial too, and a mixed one at that.

At any rate, Aranai was running off numbers from a list he currently held in his hands.

"By the middle of next week, we should officially be in possession of two hundred barrels of blasting jelly, four hundred and seventeen caskets of black powder, and eight hundred and four explosive projectiles ordinarily reserved for siege engines. Though speaking from experience, we can probably expect twenty percent of that to either be lost in transport, never sent at all by the people who were supposed to, or defective in some way upon arrival."

Xisheng watched as some soldiers in the area outside unloaded some wooden barrels from an Overlord that had just come in through the gate. "Hopefully, that will be enough for our purposes. I suppose we could request supplies from the homeland, but it would take quite some time for that to arrive here."

"A month and two weeks, assuming the supply chain worked flawlessly. Which never happens, of course."

"Of course. Frankly, I'm surprised we managed to requisition this much as it is. There was hardly any issue in having our requests approved."

Aranai continued to pore over the scroll in his hands. "Yes, having 'by the order of the Crown Princess' attached to the requisition orders tends to have that effect. I only wish that all requisitions could go so smoothly. Or as rapidly, for that matter."

Xisheng cocked an eyebrow at the man. "A predicted loss of material equaling twenty percent is smooth?"

"Ordinarily, that number would be closer to thirty percent."

The young acting commander did his best to keep his surprise under wraps, instead turning his gaze to the outside world again. "I see. Concerning the explosive projectiles for the siege engines, we'll have to commit a fair deal of those to the diversionary attacks on the walls. The enemy won't buy it as a legitimate assault if we aren't even attacking them with the usual."

Though coming up with strategy and tactics wasn't Aranai's job, the young officer posed a suggestion. "Now that you have Earthbenders at your disposal, they could be used to fashion stone projectiles to launch at the walls instead of our explosives."

Admittedly, Xisheng had considered this possibility, but he had already elected to forego it. "I don't want to take any risks with the enemy picking up on aspects of our plan. Earthen projectiles could tip them off to the fact that we have Earthbenders on our side, since the Fire Nation generally uses manufactured projectiles. It may be a small risk, but I'd rather not take it. This isn't the type of strategy that we'll be able to try more than once. It needs to go as flawlessly as possible on the first attempt."

Whether or not Aranai had something to say to that was left a mystery. The voice of a certain royal from behind cut into the conversation.

"How goes the proceedings, Commander?"

Xisheng glanced over his shoulder, easily identifying Azula. The few other people in the war room right now had stopped what they were doing to bow already. Aranai was swift to do the same. As for Xisheng, it admittedly felt a bit strange to bow to Azula at this stage of their familiarity with one another. But they were in public and under the watchful gaze of many other personnel, so Xisheng needed to mind his decorum.

Once the proper reverence had been committed, Aranai excused himself, allowing Azula to take the place the man had been standing. Both she and Xisheng focused on the world outside the window once they were relatively alone.

"Busy lately, Princess?"

"Not as busy as you, I'm sure. Mostly just sending letters to particular individuals. Apprising my father of the situation, informing the proper individuals about what to do with Qin, things like that."

Xisheng glanced down at her. "What exactly are you telling the Fire Lord about this situation?"

Azula returned his look knowingly. "Don't worry, I haven't implicated you yet. I'll wait until the plan is a success before doing that. No need to place you in professional danger if it fails. I only mentioned that I was working together with officers at this base to carry out a plan of attack. Technically, that's true."

"I appreciate that you'd offer me that protection, Princess. But won't that reflect poorly on you if the plan does fall through?"

The young Princess shrugged, seemingly unbothered. "You will likely note that I left my own involvement vague as well. I won't be entirely capable of shirking blame, but... well, it is what it is."

"You aren't worried about what will happen if Wallclimber doesn't work? I'd imagine that your father has high expectations of you..."

"That he does. But he also isn't a blind fool who thinks the entirety of a large-scale strategic assault can be pinned on my shoulders alone. If this operation fails, it will be for many reasons, not because I didn't do something right. Besides, my father always told me to seize the opportunities presented by the weakness of others. You've pointed out a very glaring weakness of Ba Sing Se that we have the chance to take advantage of right now. I think he would prefer for me to strike than to hold back for fear of failure. Of course, I could be wrong. I cannot speak my father's exact thoughts. But this is all moot anyway. I firmly believe that we'll at least get through the wall, and as long as that happens, you and I won't be on the hook for anything we're doing now. Which is why I'd like to know how things are coming along."

Xisheng eyed Azula appreciatively, wondering when she had grown so mature. Well, she'd always been mature for her age, but it seemed like her leadership qualities were growing all the time. Not that he was going to call her our on this. She would probably just get embarrassed.

"About as well as can be expected. People and materials keep coming in at a steady pace, but it'll be several more days still before we have everything we need. It's likely that our base here will need to erect several new buildings considering all of the influx. The person representing the Yu Dao Home Guard Regiment seems very reliable and trustworthy, and I can tell that many of her people are eager to prove themselves. Major Shairo keeps giving me attitude, but so far he's not letting his distaste get in the way of doing his job and working with everyone. Everything's moving along fine, but this isn't the stage of the plan that is prone to issues to start with."

Azula followed the movements of some of the troops outside with her eyes. "So you say, but Ty Lee mentioned that you had quite an interesting altercation on your hands last night. Apparently you even threatened someone. I'm honestly surprised to hear that intimidation was on the table for you. Though also somewhat proud, I must admit."

Xisheng smiled, acknowledging how odd that compliment was. From Azula though, it did come across as genuine praise. "Sorry to disappoint you, Princess, but it was just for show. I really just needed a dangerous situation to prove a point to everyone there."

"Oh, so it was manipulation then? Now I'm even more proud."

The man beside the Princess cocked an eyebrow at her. "You say that like I've never manipulated anyone before."

Azula reciprocated his expression. "Have you? Since I've known you, at any rate."

"I don't know, have I?"

The Crown Princess narrowed her eyes, now quietly looking back on everything she could involving Xisheng. Just how much of it had been a means to push a certain agenda? Not to say she thought it was bad. Everyone manipulated others sometimes, and it wasn't always for nefarious purposes. Sometimes you just wanted to them to realize something, or experience a certain thing, or something like that. Still, she'd be a little miffed if she'd fallen for some of Xisheng's subtle ploys in the past. At the same time, she was almost certain that she had. Once or twice, at least.

"Hmph. Anyway, I've been thinking about your appearance lately, Xisheng. It's not really befitting of your new stature, is it? Other than the pauldron, it's impossible for anyone to know that you're important. How do you feel about a cape?"

Honestly amused by the suggestion, Xisheng scoffed. "A cape? Doesn't that seem like a little much?"

"Nonsense. It's only a little much if you aren't important enough to warrant it."

"Neither Admiral Zhao nor General Iroh had a cape when I was around them."

Azula smirked. "Need I repeat what I just said?"

"Alright, alright, but still. A double shoulder cape seems a bit garish."

"Fine. What about a single shoulder cape? I think that would be fashionable."

Xisheng glanced over his shoulder to make sure no one was eavesdropping. Not that they were talking about anything terribly important, but they were being very casual with one another.

"Is the point of this wardrobe change to make me identifiable in a practical sense or just to make me fashionable?"

His companion shrugged her shoulders. "Why not both? You'll need a way to be identified by those around you anyway, so you may as well look good while doing it. I think a single shoulder cape would strike a nice balance between stylish and respectable."

"Then how come you don't wear one?"

"Xisheng, I don't think anyone would take me seriously if I wore that."

"But they will if I wear it?"

"You're not a girl of my stature."

Xisheng took a moment to try and picture Azula with a cape. Admittedly, it was kind of a funny image. "That's true. Would probably look a bit silly on you."

Even though she had already said as much, Azula looked offended. "Don't agree with me, you simpleton."

Chuckling, Xisheng turned his attention to the world outside once again. The transport that had come in a few minutes earlier had been unloaded, and was now moving into the vehicle bay for maintenance. It would probably be leaving the base again in the evening. There was still a lot of stuff that needed to be brought here. Every available transport was needed to get things to and fro.

"...I suppose we don't necessarily have to wait for all of our supplies to be in order before we begin the offensive. Really, the explosives won't even be needed until the tunnels under the walls have been completely excavated. It's only at the very end that we'll need them, and digging under the wall will probably take some time. So we could get all of that underway before the last explosive shipments even arrive."

Now that they were returning to serious matters, Azula folded her arms. "Is that so? Are you ready to proceed to that step so soon?"

"Not quite. The actual plan of attack still needs some work. But most importantly, the Earthbenders that have joined our forces need some training. For one, they are all irregulars: I'm sure they've had some semblance of training back at their homes, but nothing quite similar to the military tactics and command structure that they will need to know. We can't have them lost or confused during an operation as important as this one. Furthermore, I think it best if we make a few trial runs with the underground tunnel digging prior to the big day. We shouldn't just expect it to go off without a hitch the first time."

Azula seemed to agree with this assessment. "You won't see me disagreeing with that. It's only prudent to practice, especially with something that no one is familiar with. Though that means you'll have to actually share the plan with some of the Earthbenders. Have you settled on a few you can trust with that information?"

Admittedly, only one face came to mind for Xisheng at the moment. "Not a few, no. But there is one of them I trust so far, and I trust her to select individuals that we can rely on."

The young Princess beside him gave him a curious look. "That Kori girl, I presume? Ty Lee mentioned her the other night, though in a somewhat jealous manner. You've taken a shine to her quite quickly. Happy though I am to see a young woman in a position of authority and influence, do you trust her so much already?"

"I can hardly say that I truly know her that well. But I have determined that her motivations are trustworthy. Unless she is a phenomenal actor, I firmly believe they are genuine. There is no doubt in my mind that she loves her home, and she firmly believes that home to be as much a part of the Fire Nation as the capital itself. She sees this operation as a chance to prove to all of her countrymen across the nation that colonials, and Earthbenders especially, are just as patriotic and deserving of respect as anyone else. She won't jeopardize the chance to make that happen."

"That is, unless she's an incredibly good actor."

Xisheng chuckled ruefully. "Exactly. Unfortunately, there's no way to be certain about something like that in the small window of time I have to appraise my options. After all, unless you've known someone for a long time, and in a very personal way, can you ever really know if the person you think you know isn't acting?"

"I suppose that's true. That's one of the core tenets of politics, after all. Well, if you trust her, you have my blessing. If she manages to break that trust somehow, we can just kill her."

"If she breaks our trust in a severe enough fashion, yes."

Azula seemed a little surprised that Xisheng would agree with that sentiment even to a small extent. He usually wasn't one to say such things. Granted, he had been very forthcoming about his willingness to kill other people if need be, not too long in the past. But he seemed to have a pretty good opinion of Kori thus far, so it was odd to hear him entertain the thought of killing her.

Then again, they were theoretically discussing what would happen if she betrayed them. Azula supposed it made some sense: being betrayed by someone you trusted was far more infuriating than being betrayed by someone you didn't really know.

And speaking of how well you knew someone... Azula couldn't help but wonder if she was going to see some new aspects of Xisheng's character in the coming weeks. Things about him that would only come to light due to the burdens of leadership. He had always been a leader of sorts, especially when the need arose, but this would be the first time that he had an actual position of authority over other people. People who had to listen to him, lest they suffer harsh consequences.

Would the power go to his head? Would he crumble under the weight of other men's lives on his shoulders? Even if he excelled, how would he do it? Would those who served him love or fear his command? Would they ride with him because they had to, or because they wanted to?

Azula was keen to discover the answers to all of these questions, for a multitude of reasons. For one, she wanted to truly get to know this aspect of Xisheng's character. This was a man she was considering for... well, being at her side for far longer than she had initially planned, all that time ago. So she very much wanted to know what kind of man he would be in this regard. Two, this entire operation was Xisheng's chance to really prove that his perspective on leadership was legitimate: that one could lead through trust and camaraderie as opposed to an iron fist. His philosophy on that worked well in a small group of peers, like Azula and her friends, but how would it fare with an army of strangers? Azula would one day be Fire Lord, and her authority would be over a nation of strangers that did not know her personally. This was a good field test to see if Xisheng's ideals could really bear fruit.

But she didn't say any of this out loud. The last thing Xisheng needed at this time was even the smallest extra burden on his shoulders. So she stayed silent, and for a time, the master and apprentice enjoyed a bit of quiet together.

"Is that the best you can do?! Do you maggots think this is going to cut it on the battlefield?! If you're this winded after a few laps around the base, just imagine how worthless you'll be when you need to run to a new position after four hours of fighting! This is disgraceful!"

Xisheng, Shinji at his side, found himself having flashbacks to the days of his training as they walked towards a stretch of dirt outside the walls of the staging area that was currently a bit busy. He couldn't help it, what with the blaring voice of a sergeant shouting insults and commands to a bunch of recruits. Under the light of an orange morning sky, dozens of colonial reinforcements from the colonies were slogging through a typical endurance exercise: running laps around the walls of the staging area while under the judgmental eye of a Fire Nation sergeant. The motley crew of irregulars was being shown no mercy. No concessions were being made for anyone, be it man or woman, young or old, bender or not. That also meant that the proceedings were very non-uniform: a normal regiment of Fire Nation troops would be expected to keep pace with one another as a unit, but the Yu Dao volunteers were all over the place. Some of them were moving fine, others, barely managing a light jog as their chests heaved for air. A few of them had fallen to their knees as they tried to find some sort of respite, which was probably why they were being yelled at by a sergeant.

Xisheng felt sympathy for them, but he also understood why this was important. One of the most important traits of a foot soldier on the front lines of battle was endurance. How much weight could you carry, how many miles could you run, how long you could fight effectively before fatigue rendered you more detriment than boon. Many practicing benders were relatively fit by merit of their art being of the martial variety. But physical prowess was not universal. Excelling in one area didn't mean you excelled in all of it. A lot of these benders probably had poise and control down, but that didn't mean their stamina was at the levels a fierce front line battle would demand.

Of course, Xisheng acknowledged that bending allowed people to circumvent some of these problems, but it was still good to train your purely physical prowess as well. Bending was not always the solution that would save your neck. Sometimes, you just had to rely on your body to get things done. Besides, this was a good way to find out just who among these volunteers was fit for the more demanding roles in the battle to come. Those who lacked the stamina to fight on the front lines could do other things to help, but you had to know who was who.

The newly appointed commander of the Fire Nation forces stepped up beside the sergeant overseeing the drills, a man with sharp eyebrows and a sharper glare. Sharp goatee too.

"How are things coming along here, sergeant?"

Glancing to his side, the sergeant struck a salute after identifying a superior officer. "Commander, sir! Not the best, sir."

Xisheng's identity as the new commander of the base had become slightly more public over the past few days. No doubt word had begun to spread among the rank and file based on his numerous appearances to oversee different aspects of the preparations. So, it didn't surprise him to be recognized.

"Do tell."

"Just look at 'em, sir. Pathetic, the lot of 'em! Maybe a fifth of these volunteers have managed to keep the pace they started with on the first lap. Half of them are barely managing a brisk walk! They should be ashamed to call themselves a regiment! It's only the third lap!"

Three laps didn't sound like a lot, but they were running around the entirety of the base, which was quite large at this point. For a bunch of people who basically did volunteer militia work back at home, Xisheng could understand why they weren't faring well.

"Unfortunately, there won't be enough time to whip everybody into shape, sergeant. We summoned these people to fight on short notice, and they won't have the benefit of weeks of training like ordinary troops. Will there be tactical drills later? Their ability to act in concert with the regular army on command will ultimately be more important than anything else."

"Yes, Commander. Tactical drills are slated for the afternoon."

"Excellent. Rein them in for now, sergeant. I need to speak to a few of them."

With another salute, the sergeant began shouting orders for the nearby colonials to hear. Of course, not everyone was present in the immediate vicinity at the moment, but as more and more militia members neared this section of their lap, they too were reined in to take a break. Thankfully, there were several jugs of water near the sergeant for them to partake in: the Fire Nation had learned long ago that dehydration was a serious concern when drilling their troops.

Xisheng actually had to wait some extra minutes, but eventually he spotted the person he wanted to see rounding the corner of one of the base walls. Kori seemed to be in good shape compared to most of her comrades: winded, for sure, but managing to keep a respectable pace and running form. Xisheng got the feeling that she was on her fourth lap, compared to the third many of her companions were on.

The young commander didn't bother her immediately, instead allowing Kori to catch her breath and a few swigs of water before approaching her. Even covered in sweat, she managed to look rather composed and dignified: maybe that had something to do with being a mayor's daughter. Appearances were important.

"You seem to have better breathing technique than many of your peers, Kori."

Bowing and saluting Xisheng when he approached her, the young woman smiled. "Well, I may not be a Firebender, but my father is, and he taught me many things. Good breathing technique is valuable for everyone to have, not just Firebenders."

"Very true. How's your arm?"

The brunette raised her left arm in front of her, which now had an actual bandage upon it. "Nothing serious, sir. Just a light burn. The medic said it would heal with no issue."

Xisheng was grateful for that. He couldn't imagine what it would be like to be summoned to fight for your country, only to get your first scar from a comrade in arms. "Glad to hear it. I have something for you to do, once you've rested a bit."

"Of course, sir. Anything you need."

"I need you to select ten Earthbenders to join you in a special training exercise that will be absolutely vital to the upcoming battle. Allow me to iterate this clearly: these ten Earthbenders need to have your absolute trust, Kori. These need to be people that you could entrust your life to. People that share your same drive to elevate Yu Dao to a place of prestige in the Fire Nation. The details that they will learn must absolutely not make it to the ears of our enemies, for any reason. I will trust your judgment, if you tell me that you have ten such people."

Kori's expression grew very serious as she took this in. To be trusted with something like this by the highest ranking officer on this base was a great honor. Her father would have been ecstatic to know that she had earned this degree of trust. Hell, she was over the moon and just barely managing to hide it. Still, Xisheng was making the gravitas of this situation very clear. He was placing a very important decision on her shoulders: and the way he worded it, one that was pivotal to the entirety of the battle he was planning.

With a flawless salute, Kori bowed deeply to him once again. "I understand, Commander. Thank you for entrusting this to me. I will pick the people I trust most to be loyal to both Yu Dao and our country."

With a nod of assent from Xisheng, Kori turned towards her fellows, many of whom were sitting in the dirt to rest, even while getting an earful from the sergeant overseeing their exercise. When she was out of earshot, Shinji leaned in towards Xisheng to speak.

"Sir, I didn't think about it until now, but... does this mean you trust me implicitly? I've learned a lot of details about the upcoming battle plan while serving as your adjutant..."

"Your assignment to me was chance, Shinji. I trusted you then as much as I would any other soldier. But at this point, I implicitly trust that you wouldn't do anything to jeopardize the war effort. After all, you've got a little sister to protect, right?"

"Yes, sir. Thank you, sir."

After a few minutes, Kori returned to Xisheng, with an array of ten Earthbenders behind her. There wasn't much similar about any of them: three were women similar to Kori's age or a little older. Four were young men of various heights and dress. One was an older man with gray hair. Another was a hulking giant of a man that reminded Xisheng of that Boulder guy from the Earth Rumble tournament. And one was a young girl that was probably around Toph's age. They all saluted in unison when they arrived before their commander. Not as crisply as Kori managed to do, but they tried their best.

Xisheng spoke to Kori directly. "Are you certain?"

The brunette before him stared him in the eyes, her serious expression unflinching. "Absolutely. Not a one of us would ever turn against our home or our nation. I can personally vouch for the trustworthiness of everyone here."

"Very well then. All of you, follow me."

With that, Xisheng turned on his heel and began walking away from the rest of the gathered colonial volunteers. Shinji, Kori, and her vouched for Earthbenders were hot on his heels, which he confirmed by glancing over his shoulder. In doing so, Xisheng briefly noticed Sneers among the gathered volunteers staying with the sergeant, watching them leave. He didn't look any happier than the other day, which Xisheng commented on quietly to Kori alongside him.

"Your boyfriend seems displeased."

Kori didn't look back at said boyfriend. "He's just worried about the workload I'm taking on, Commander. Please don't pay him any mind."

Xisheng kept his eyes forward as he led his assembled followers. "Worried about you, is he? He was rather quick to leave your side after you had been injured the other day. I don't think he was very happy with the fact that things ended peacefully between you and your offender."

The brunette beside him tried to hide an anxious look. "He's temperamental sometimes. I will keep him out of trouble, Commander, I swear."

"I certainly hope so."

Xisheng led the rest of the way in silence. Coincidentally, his destination was not back within the confines of the base. Instead, he was moving towards a different field of dirt (there was a lot of dirt outside Ba Sing Se) that had been agreed upon at an earlier time. When they got close to this destination, the group was able to see a number of people waiting for them, comprised of Chief Engineer Muzai and five Fire Nation soldiers. Muzai was quick to greet the incoming Commander and company, rearranging some scrolls in his arms as he did so.

"Good morning, Commander. I suppose these are our volunteers?"

The man stroked his frazzled beard as he looked over the assembled Earthbenders. If he had anything to say about them, he didn't say it. This left Xisheng with room to speak. "Indeed. Kori has assured me that they can all be trusted. I... didn't ask, but I assume they are all skilled Earthbenders."

"Let's hope so. A lot is riding on their shoulders."

Xisheng took a few steps forward so that he could have everyone present in front of him when he turned around. He had picked up on a few things about projecting his voice since he had taken a position of authority.

"Everyone, listen up, and listen well."

Understanding that they were about to get a speech or a briefing of some sort, the assembled group of both Fire and Earthbenders stood at attention, giving Xisheng their full focus. Even Shinji, which wasn't necessary since he wasn't actually a part of this. Xisheng elected to ignore that.

"You are some of the first people other than high-ranking officers to hear the details of our strategy for the upcoming assault against Ba Sing Se. Before I give those details, understand this: this is all absolutely confidential. You will not speak of this to anyone other than each other. You will not even hint as to what you learn to anyone else. This is not simply because of our desire to win. If the enemy knows of our plan when we enact it, the lives of your comrades, from across the Fire Nation and from Yu Dao, will be in jeopardy. The enemy would be able to directly counter our offensive and kill many of our comrades, and anyone who died to try and bring this plan to fruition would do so in vain if the enemy knows before we even begin. You will not speak of these details to anyone. Is that understood?"

The response was unanimous, even from the Yu Dao volunteers. Maybe the gravitas of Xisheng's words had gone so far as to instill a bit of military hierarchy even in them.

"Yes, sir!"

With a nod of satisfaction, Xisheng pointed out to the walls of Ba Sing Se, which were visible even from this distance, albeit faintly. "Our objective is to take down a large section of that wall. As you probably know, that wall is made out of stone. It is guarded by Earthbenders who can manipulate that stone quickly and efficiently, meaning our options to take it down are limited. We cannot simply walk up to the wall and Earthbend a hole in it, because that can be closed easily if the defenders drive us away. Not to mention that we would have to hold an area at the foot of the wall for an extended period of time while troops try to move through that hole. That course of action is not feasible for us."

Xisheng must have been getting pretty good at public speaking, because he had the rapt attention of everyone present. Well, maybe he had always been kind of good at it.

"So, here is what we must do: Earthbenders will tunnel under the walls, and create a large underground cavity beneath its foundations. We will fill that cavity with an unholy amount of explosives, and we will light the fuse. Ideally, this will take down a huge section of the wall in a split second, which will allow our forces to rush through a breach that cannot be sealed quickly or easily. We can then establish a defensive foothold and create a pathway for further reinforcements before continuing to press into the city. Naturally, this is the simplified version of the plan, but it is all you need to know at this time."

The Earthbenders glanced around at each other nervously, perhaps realizing that they would play the most important part of the battle. That was a lot of pressure, especially for a bunch of volunteers who had never served in a real army. One of the young men in the group spoke up amidst the concern.

"I'm sorry if this is out of line, sir, but... is this a suicide mission...?"

Understanding the concern, Xisheng sought to assuage it immediately. "Not at all. I have every intention of getting everyone who goes into the tunnels we dig back out alive. In fact, that is why you are all here today: to practice in a more controlled environment so we can determine the safest and most effective means to achieve our goal. We will be experimenting with different tunneling techniques now so we can negate as many risks as possible on the day of the assault. I know many of you have probably been looked down on for being Earthbenders. Rest assured, you are all as valuable to me as any Firebender in uniform. And with this operation, we'll make all of you heroes, getting the respect and recognition you deserve. I'm not interested in martyrs."

Xisheng's words seemed to calm the anxiety of his new subordinates somewhat. In fact, many of them looked eager now. With that out of the way, the young Commander gestured over to Muzai.

"Chief Muzai, if you will."

With permission granted, the balding engineer stepped forward to address his present company. "The tunnels we must dig have specific parameters. They must be deep enough to both avoid detection from our foes and get underneath the foundations of the walls. Yet, they must be wide enough that we can quickly and efficiently move materials through them. This means that the tunneling process will be difficult, and dangerous. The deeper beneath the surface our tunnels go, the more weight will rest upon their ceilings. These tunnels must be sturdy, on top of all of our other requirements. Even for Earthbenders, it will be a challenging prospect."

Muzai grabbed one of the scrolls he had in his arms and unfurled it to show to the assembled individuals. The parchment had a variety of drawings on it, each one depicting a different layout for a tunnel support system. These were the official different ways that Fire Nation engineers had braced tunnels in the past.

"We have experience with digging tunnels, and know effective ways of bracing them under many circumstances. However, rarely has our nation needed to dig a tunnel this deep, wide, and long. We cannot take our previous experiences for granted. That is why we will be experimenting today to find the best possible way to proceed with our goal."

Standing beside Muzai, Xisheng took the floor once again. "Today, only some of you will be digging. The rest of you will remain on the surface, ready to help extricate your comrades in case anything goes wrong. But be aware, you will not have such a safety net on the day of the assault. Earthbenders on the surface attempting to excavate their friends out of tunnels would promptly alert our foes as to our plans. On the day of the assault, you will have to start your tunnels from behind the cover of Fire Nation lines, and go all the way to the walls. If there is a tunnel collapse or some other problem, you will only have yourselves to rely on at that time. I know this is a lot to ask of you, but don't forget: if the enemy figures out our plan before it comes to fruition, you will be in even greater danger, as the enemy will actively seek to counter your efforts. This is another reason we are training now to figure out the best way to keep you all safe on the day of the assault."

There were a few gulps of trepidation among the assembled Earthbenders, but no one said anything. That was good: no one had lost their nerve yet. Xisheng took this opportunity to continue his briefing, gesturing at the Fire Nation soldiers present.

"We could send you in with lamps or torches, but I want the full focus of the digging team on their task, and I don't want to take any risks with the possibility of your light being extinguished. Firebenders will accompany you into your tunnels to ensure that you have enough light to work at all times."

The assembled Fire Nation soldiers said nothing to this information. They were too disciplined to do anything other than stand at attention and listen.

Xisheng turned his focus to the assembled Earthbenders again. "Which of you is the best at... er, 'hearing' things through the earth?"

He was worried that his request was too vague, but apparently, it was not. Before the group of Earthbenders could deliberate, the hand of the youngest girl shot up. "Me, sir! No one can hear the dirt better than me!"

A bit surprised to see the youngest girl be so vocal and forward about it, Xisheng appraised her short brown braids and freckled cheeks. She certainly seemed confident. Although, kids often were more confident than they had any right to be.

"Do the rest of you agree with that assessment?"

Kori shared a few looks with her peers before nodding. "Shishi has always had an impeccable ability to detect things through the earth. Shishi, can you hear what everyone back with the sergeant is doing?"

The young girl wasted no time in replying. "There's a steady tempo with a pause too big for marching. Might be side-straddle hops or something like that!"

Naturally, Xisheng was unable to hear or feel anything like that through the earth. But the Earthbenders present all knew one another, and they seemed to agree that this girl, Shishi, was best suited for the task. Honestly, Xisheng had some qualms about having someone so young participating in all of this, but he supposed they weren't actually fighting right now. The part that Shishi was playing today was not one that would exist on the day of the battle, so she wouldn't have to be there for that.

"Very well. Shishi, your job will be to stay on the surface and listen to the people who are digging. You will judge how noisy each method of digging is, as well as listen out for any problems. Once the briefing is over, I suggest that you and your friends work out some sort of simple code so they can communicate their situation to us here on the surface. Understand?"

Shishi saluted eagerly. That was kind of cute, coming from a girl her age. "Yes, sir!"

Xisheng then turned his attention back to the rest of the Earthbenders. "This is where you all will have to speak from experience, as I am no Earthbender. Five of you will dig. Five of you will stay on the surface so you can rapidly excavate your friends from the earth if such a situation arises. I don't know if it is better to have those with the most raw power up top to quickly dig everyone out, or to have them digging so they can use that raw strength to hold up the ceiling if they need to. I will leave the decision of who goes and who stays up to all of you."

With various nods, the group of Earthbenders deliberated among themselves for a few minutes. Once they settled on who would do what, they split into two groups. Kori was in the digging group, along with two other women and two men, one of which was the tall and muscular one. The logic behind their decision was a mystery to Xisheng, but he decided to trust their judgment. Surely they knew their capabilities better than he did.

"Excellent. As stated earlier, the tunnels you must dig on the day of the assault will be quite deep. But we won't start at that depth right away today. To minimize the risk when you are all just starting out, you will practice close to the surface. Engineer Muzai will now explain the various techniques we are going to attempt..."

With these words, a long and complicated training session began. Muzai explained in great detail various types of reinforcement and bracing techniques to use while tunneling. When it was all over, Kori led her team in creating a hole that would be the entrance to their tunnel, and they soon began to burrow their way into the Earth. A few things came to light rather quickly: first and foremost being the fact that all of that excavated earth had to go somewhere.

They couldn't just eject it up to the surface, as that would tip off the enemy during the assault. There was nowhere else to put it underground. It had to be taken out of the tunnel and moved through the entrance to pile up outside of it. For Xisheng, this aspect of the tunneling made it very clear that the undertaking would require a very large number of Earthbenders. As the tunnels grew longer and longer, the distance that newly excavated dirt would need to move extended significantly. There would probably need to be dozens of Earthbenders per team, operating like a bucket-carrying fire brigade to get things done with any amount of decent efficiency. Of course, Xisheng had reasonably expected this, but this training exercise just drove the point home. It would take a lot of coordination and teamwork among a lot of people to pull all of this off.

Once the tunnel was long enough that light actually became a concern, the assembled Firebending soldiers were directed into them as well to provide enough visibility to work. Ultimately, the first practice tunnel ended up being a solid hundred meters long or so. At no point did it collapse, but it was also only a few meters below the surface, so the weight wasn't that great. Furthermore, it took more than an hour to complete this practice tunnel, which was far too much time for something so short. The sapping tunnels on the day of the assault would probably be dozens of times longer than this practice tunnel.

Still, it was their very first attempt at doing this, so it made sense that it would take more time. That was the whole reason they were doing this: to get a better feel for what it would entail, to develop techniques that would make the process more efficient, all before they actually had to do it for real.

When the first practice tunnel was done and the digging team returned from the surface, Xisheng had them relay their experience and any insights about it to Muzai, as well as Shinji, who was taking notes on blank parchment. What method of digging seemed easier, how they organized themselves while working, what issues they may have encountered: eventually, hundreds of Earthbenders would need to be taught how to do this according to the needs of the assault, so it was better to master the technique with a few people now. That way they would already have the best version of the process to teach to everyone else.

After this discussion and a brief water break, a second training tunnel was started, twice as deep as the first, and testing a different bracing technique. With greater depth on the table, Shishi found herself actually required to fulfill her role, and soon the young girl was pressing her ear to the ground to listen to the work of her friends. She didn't seem to mind getting dust in her braids.

Shinji got to take notes during that process too, marking down Shishi's comments about how noisy or conspicuous the digging sounded at certain times. Whether or not she could hear the digging team talking or moving around, or how astutely she had to really pay attention to hear anything.

This process continued for a few more hours: the digging team would complete a tunnel, relay their experience to Muzai and Shinji, take a break or sometimes switch with members of the rescue team, then start a new, even deeper practice tunnel while applying various tunneling and reinforcement techniques. Shishi would carefully listen to their endeavors each time, judging how easy it would be for someone to detect them under ideal circumstances. Shinji filled scroll after scroll with details so they could be pored over later.

Admittedly, Xisheng didn't have to stick around for all of this. The whole reason this was all being written down was so it could be read later. He didn't have to personally witness this. But at the same time, this was the most important aspect of the entire operation. Being here allowed him to judge firsthand the obstacles that would need to be surmounted to pull everything off. Besides, there wasn't much else for Xisheng to do right now: most other preparations for Wallclimber were already underway and being supervised by someone else.

His thoughts may have continued, but Shishi's alarmed voice broke the relative quiet of the exercise. "The ground, I think it's about to-!"

She didn't even get to finish before the sound of the earth moving was loud enough for everyone to hear. A pocket of earth where the current tunnel was being excavated started to collapse, presumably into the tunnel below it. The rescue team Earthbenders were quick to try and stop it, though it wasn't like they could grab a hold of all the collapsing earth at the same time. Still, they managed to hold up a lot of it.

In moments, Shishi was speaking up again. "Hold on, I hear tapping... it's the code for cave-in, alright. They're asking to be dug out!"

Xisheng nodded towards the rescue team, all of whom started to dig away at the site of the collapse. The several minutes it took them to do this were riddled with anxiety, though somewhat lessened by Shishi's appraisal. There was a specific code for someone being seriously hurt, so as far as anyone on the surface knew, the digging team was alright, if under duress.

Eventually, the rescue team had a big pile of rubble placed off to the side, and the digging team was using Earthbending to lift themselves out of the hole that had been created. Everyone came out relatively unscathed. Short of being covered in dust and dirt, and one of the Earthbending men having some blood coming from his scalp, no one seemed seriously injured. That didn't stop Xisheng from inquiring.

"Is everyone alright?"

After a few coughs to clear the lungs, Kori answered his question. "I think so. Other than Hiro taking a rock to the head."

Xisheng took note of Hiro, the largest of the Earthbenders who currently had a hand pressed to his scalp to try and staunch some bleeding. "Even so, it's better to get that checked out. Return to the base and head for the infirmary, Hiro. The rest of you, report the details of your experience to Shinji so we can learn from this. Then return to the base yourselves. I imagine many of you haven't eaten lunch yet. We'll resume these exercises tomorrow at noon. Good work. And remember what I said about sharing any details with anyone."

The present company offered Xisheng salutes or bows before moving to do as they had been instructed. As for him, he didn't leave immediately, instead looking towards the hole that been created from the Earthbenders excavating their friends. No one had gotten seriously injured this time, but it was still concerning. It raised many questions that he would need to ponder: how many tunnels would be needed to pull off the mission? In ideal circumstances, just one per section of the wall that was going to be attacked, but that was assuming an absolutely perfectly situation.

They would not have enough time to gather truly meaningful data on the likelihood of each individual tunnel failing before the assault. At the very least, Xisheng would have to organize multiple tunnels to approach the wall, just in case one of them collapsed for any reason. They couldn't have their entire plan hinge on just one avenue of attack going off without a hitch: that was just the Drill all over again. But considering how many Earthbenders would already be needed for just one of the tunnels to the wall, how many was feasible? Two per section? Three?

After all, there was the other hand to consider. More Earthbenders digging more tunnels meant higher odds of a team actually reaching the wall foundations, but there were drawbacks too. The more people they had working on this method of attack, the more conspicuous it became. Even if the enemy's forces weren't intentionally listening out for diggers beneath the surface, they could still detect it, even during the din of battle. There were probably people like Shishi on the enemy side too.

And that raised the question of whether or not it was better to have the tunneling assault and surface diversionary attacks occur in the same area. If it seemed like the Fire Nation was going all out to attack the wall, would Ba Sing Se pool their defenders in that one area? And if they did, was it better or worse to try and tunnel to that part of the wall? More defending Earthbenders meant more 'ears' to possibly detect the sappers, though the din of battle could possibly offset that problem. But it also meant that a greater number of enemy forces would be killed or incapacitated if the wall went down in that location, making an easier time for the assault force to establish a foothold.

Or they could go with the opposite: the tunneling could take place farther away from the battle, but that had its own ups and downs. If there were still soldiers guarding the section of the walls that weren't under attack, their area would be a lot quieter, which could conceivably make it easier for them to detect the sappers. Though if the wall was unoccupied, there would be almost no chance of them being detected. But if the walls came down further away from the assault force, the enemy would have more time to try and fortify the breach before the Fire Nation could storm in...

Clearly, Xisheng needed to think about this, and probably run it by his other advisors to get their input. It seemed that every time he thought about his plan, it grew more complicated.

"Sir, I've finished taking notes from the digging team!"

Xisheng returned his attention to the people around him as Shinji presented several rolled up scrolls in his arms. "Excellent. Return them to the war room immediately. I'll look at them later."

Shinji couldn't salute with his arms full, but he got his deference across all the same. "Yes, sir!"

With the young adjutant making his way for the base, Xisheng watched everyone present as they started to do the same. Some were working out kinks in their arms. Others, eagerly inquiring as to what the exercise had been like. He was pleased to note that the Firebenders who had aided the digging team seemed to be getting along with them as well.

Still, he couldn't help but feel nervous. More and more elements were coming into play, and the battle wasn't even upon them yet. He had a lot of thinking to do.

Some hours later, after cleaning herself as best she could with the public amenities available on base, Kori was sitting in a pale white tent that had been erected among dozens of others in a cleared corner of the staging area. At this present time, the Fire Nation forces here had overestimated the influx of colonial volunteers eager to fight, and actual lodgings for those volunteers was in short supply. The base was being expanded even now, and new barracks were to be erected within two days or so, but until that time, the volunteers from the colonies, which now included several places besides Yu Dao, slept in a city of tents with varying degrees of comfort, generally determined by who had been smart enough to bring bedding with them from home.

The Fire Nation tried its best to provide such amenities upon request, but they just didn't have enough to go around. It would probably be another day or two before more of such goods were transported here. Kori wished she could say she didn't mind, but the truth was, she wasn't used to this kind of living. She was the daughter of Yu Dao's mayor, after all. She had mostly slept in pretty nice places. Even with some bedding to help, the ground felt exceptionally stiff and uncomfortable for her. She did her best to ignore it when she could, which was aided by a cursory check on her arm as she unwrapped the bandage on it.

Under the light of a small lamp, it was difficult to tell, but the injury didn't look all that bad. She'd really only been grazed, so even though the burn was scarlet red and stung quite a bit, it probably wasn't going to cause any lasting damage. That was probably good: she was trying to give as good of an impression as possible to everyone on base, but even though she had received a fairly genuine apology from Kazuma, the soldier who had injured her, it would have been difficult to be gracious if she was going to have a scar for the rest of her life.

"You shoulda let me sock that bastard, Kori."

The brunette glanced over her shoulder at Sneers, who was in the tent with her. He had his own, but he was often in hers when they had the chance. He was glaring at the burn on her arm, which Kori quickly began wrapping with a clean bandage.

"That bastard is still one of our comrades, just like the Commander said. A bit of name-calling and a minor wound aren't reason enough to cause a problem, especially so close to a big battle. Besides, he did apologize."

Sneers grunted as he turned his gaze down to an axe he was polishing. "You're always so forgiving of Ashmakers..."

Though she didn't turn to look at him, Kori glared in annoyance. "My dad is an 'Ashmaker', Sneers. I told you before that I don't like you calling Firebenders that."

"Maybe they should learn to make something else then."

This time, Kori did turn her full gaze on him, displeased with her boyfriend's attitude. "You are aware that, if we had kids, they could potentially be Firebenders, right? Would you treat them like that, too?"

Sneers' expression grew a bit sheepish at that, probably at the mention of having kids. But it was quickly followed up with a pronounced frown, probably from the idea of them being Firebenders.

"...the odds of that are low, right? I mean, you're an Earthbender, I'm a nonbender, so it would be super unlikely. Don't say such scary things out of the blue."

Kori grit her teeth as a flare of anger welled up within her. It wasn't like this aspect of Sneers was new to her. It had been very clear from the day they met that he had a great distaste for Firebenders. But Kori had hoped that living among such people in Yu Dao, seeing them as good and just people, would gradually change her boyfriend's outlook. He really was a kind and caring person most of the time. He was usually funny and considerate, and constantly worried about Kori's wellbeing... but despite all the time they had spent together, all the time Sneers had spent in Yu Dao, his overall opinion of Firebenders hadn't really changed.

And admittedly, Kori knew he had a very good reason for his ill feelings. But to outright state that he hoped their theoretical children wouldn't be born a certain way? That made her angry. That said, Kori was nothing if not diplomatic. She had learned how to be from her father over the years.

"Why did you come here, Sneers? To this base, I mean. We were told very clearly that we would be going to a Fire Nation military base, to help them with a major offensive. I know you don't like it here, and you don't agree with what they're doing. So why did you come?"

Put on the spot, Sneers kept his gaze fixed to his axe as he tried to come up with an answer. "I just wanted to make sure you didn't get hurt."

"And you're OK with everything else going on here? What it is we're preparing to do?"

Sneers was silent for a moment as he contemplated what he was going to say. Or rather, whether or not he should say it at all. Ultimately, he came to a conclusion and slowly looked Kori in the eye.

"It doesn't have to get to that point, you know."

A little worried as to where this was going, Kori's gaze grew a little suspicious. "What do you mean?"

Sneers' expression bore quite a bit of trepidation, but he was already at this point. He couldn't rescind what he had just said. "I mean we don't have to fight for them. We could just leave. You're an Earthbender, we could easily get out of here without anyone really noticing."

Kori's expression grew incredulous. "We talked about this before we even left Yu Dao, Sneers. I want to fight."

"Well why does it have to be for the Fire Nation?"

"Why wouldn't it be, Sneers? The Fire Nation is my heritage."

Growing a little irritable himself, Sneers finally put down the axe he had been using as a distraction. "It's half of your heritage, Kori. What about the Earthbending half? The Earth Kingdom half? You've got just as much reason to fight for it if heritage is all you're basing it on!"

Likewise growing annoyed, Kori acknowledged that this was probably going to end up in a fight. That didn't stop her from answering though. "My identity isn't based solely on what element I can bend! Yeah, somewhere, sometime, I had an ancestor who probably lived in a territory officially under the rule of the Earth Kingdom. But even ignoring how barely integrated Earth Kingdom territories have been with one another throughout history, the last five generations of my family have come from Yu Dao. And all five of those generations lived in that city while it was considered a Fire Nation territory. What possible reason would I have to fight for a country that the past five generations of my family haven't belonged to?"

Unsure of how to counter that argument, Sneers angrily got to his feet. "I don't know, maybe it just bothers me that you're so dedicated to siding with the country that killed my family! That heritage you care so much about fighting for is a legacy of evil and destruction! Or does none of that matter as long as it's not happening to you?"

Kori got to her feet as well. It seemed that her prediction had been very accurate. "The actions of a few dishonorable rogues doesn't condemn an entire people! Or should I hate all non-benders like you because non-benders have committed atrocities at some point? I seem to recall a certain story of yours about that 'freedom fighter' gang you used to belong to. The plan was to wipe out a whole town, innocent people of both the Fire Nation and the Earth Kingdom be damned, right? You're talking quite high and mightily for someone who was a part of that!"

"I-I told you that in confidence! Not so you could use it as some sort of tool to condemn me!"

"You're the one constantly acting like every Firebender in the world is some homicidal maniac that just loves killing people! I know that Firebenders did something horrible to you, but that doesn't justify you treating the entire nation, my entire nation, like literal trash! Especially not when you and your bandit buddies were planning on committing the exact same atrocity to other people who did nothing wrong!"

Unable to really muster any sort of believable defense for that, Sneers simply turned the topic towards something besides his past with the Freedom Fighters. After all, there wasn't much he could say to justify it: the plan to flood Gaipan had been Jet's idea, but Sneers and everyone else had been perfectly willing to go along with it. Even though the Avatar had foiled the attempt, the intent had remained. It would be easier to just try and deflect back into something that didn't focus on him.

"What's any of that got to do with invading Ba Sing Se? Why are you so eager to help Firebenders do the same thing to those people that they did to me?"

This time it was Kori who fell silent. It was a loaded question, and one that she did quietly ask herself. Did the Fire Nation really need to conquer Ba Sing Se? Did it somehow help the nation and its people to do it? They had already taken huge swaths of the Earth Kingdom, and it wasn't like Ba Sing Se was in any position to counterattack and take it all back. They weren't really a threat that had to be dealt with, as far as Kori knew. Was there any justifiable reason for them to go in there and feasibly destroy homes and lives, other than national pride?

She didn't know the answer. But right now, she wasn't going to completely fall apart.

"I told you, it won't be like that. This is a dignified army waging honorable war, not a group of barely supervised ruffians marauding around for sick pleasure. The Commander won't allow anything that dishonorable to happen."

Sneers clearly didn't agree with that assessment. "And you know that how? You don't know that guy at all."

"I have faith based on what I've learned of him so far."

"I'm sure the people of Ba Sing Se will be real grateful for that when they're dead or dying."

Not wanting to picture that in her head right now, Kori simply turned her agitation into a demand. "If you're just going to fight with me, go away."

Frankly, Sneers seemed totally fine with that. "Fine, I will."

He didn't offer anything else as he grabbed his things and roughly shoved the flaps to Kori's tent wide open. The daughter of Mayor Morishita was left alone quite quickly, but it didn't do much to help her quell her doubts.

Was this really the right thing to do? Why was it even happening? She did get the feeling that the Commander was an honorable man, but that was just her gut instinct. And even if that was true, it wasn't like he could control the actions of every single soldier on the battlefield. Who was to say what someone might do while invading another's home?

Dammit, this was all a lot simpler a few days ago, when she'd just accepted the notion of fighting for her country and securing honor for her people and home. It all seemed a lot less clear-cut now.

With a sigh, Kori finished reapplying the bandage to her burnt arm. Would the Commander entertain these questions if she asked them? Or would he write her off as a disloyal and doubtful incompetent for even thinking them? He didn't strike her as the type, but...

At any rate, Kori liked to imagine that the Commander was the type of person who thought about these things too. Maybe he was up at night, pondering the justice of his choices. Hell, maybe he was doing that right now...

"Ow, hey! Be gentle, would you?

Xisheng glanced over his shoulder as he sat in one of the chairs in his room. Behind him stood Ty Lee, whom he had crossed paths with on his way to retire for the night. One thing had led to another, and she'd been invited to speak with him for awhile. Right now though, she wasn't doing so much talking as she was poking, prodding, and massaging his back and shoulders. She'd offered to do it after Xisheng had mindlessly commented on the tightness of his back for the past few days.

The brunette didn't seem inclined to lessen the strength of her movements, despite Xisheng's request. "Gentle massages only offer temporary relief, you know. If you want to actually feel better, you have to put a bit of muscle into it. Just trust me."

Xisheng felt that there was some truth to her words, but it was hard to accept it as he felt his shoulder pop when the brunette pulled on his arm. Because it was mildly uncomfortable, he tried to distract himself.

"A-anyway, as I was saying before, I'm unsure if we should try and use multiple tunnels to get to the walls. Like, statistically, more tunnels means higher odds of success, but it also means there are more opportunities for things to go wrong. And should it happen closer to the diversion or farther away? What do you think?"

Ty Lee gave him a bemused look as she tried to rub a knot out of his shoudler. "I think you should stop thinking about the stuff that's stressing you out while we're trying to help you relax. You already spend all day worrying about this type of stuff now. At least try to think about something else when you're getting ready for bed."

"The problems don't go away just because I stop thinking about them, Ty Lee."

"No, but stressing yourself out at all times of the day doesn't help. It's just like Mai said before; it's usually easier to come up with a solution to your problems when you aren't so caught up in that problem to start with. At the very least, you won't have to deal with all this stress at every hour of the day. Your aura's taken a big hit in brightness lately, you know."

Xisheng sighed as he considered this, though it probably also had to do with that muscular knot getting massaged. "You might have a point, but... what am I supposed to think about to realx, then?"

"Come on, there's plenty of things. Usually stuff that you like is relaxing to think about. Beaches, nice food, your hometown, girls..."

Xisheng snorted as he raised an eyebrow. "Girls?"

From behind him, Ty Lee smiled deviously. "Of course. You like girls, don't you, Gohan? Maybe even brunette girls, who are charming and talented and take very good care of you when you're sore and stressed out."

Smiling to himself, Xisheng shook his head. "That does sound like the type of girl I'd like. Still, I've got lots of big things on my mind, you know? I don't know if thinking about girls is really going to cut it as far as distracting myself from them is concerned."

For a moment, Ty Lee considered not saying what she was about to, because she knew it was one of those 'giving mixed signals' type of things. But Xisheng did seem pretty tense, and he had to deal with a lot of very serious things during the day. And Ty Lee was certain she could actually take his mind off of things if she tried hard enough. What was the worst that could happen?

"Fine. Naked girls then."

This actually did cause Xisheng to do a double-take. "Wha-!?"

The man tried to glance behind him at her, but Ty Lee moved to the other side to stay behind his gaze. She was more confident teasing him like this if she didn't have to look him in the eye.

"What, you aren't going to tell me that even that can't distract you, right?"

Xisheng fell silent for a moment as he legitimatley questioned that. Of course, it only took a few moments to reach a conclusion. Even with the many serious things he had to contend with these days, this was a pretty good way to distract himself.

"Am I supposed to be thinking of that same brunette with the charm and the talent in this situation?"

Since she had very obviously been talking about herself, Ty Lee couldn't help but blush as she hid behind Xisheng's back. The idea of him thinking of her in such a way was flustering, but she had often wondered about it before anyway. Really, ever since that time at the river... she couldn't help but wonder how often Xisheng imagined her naked. Did he daydream about her? Do other unmentionable things with her in mind?

"Ah, w-well... m-maybe..."

From in front of her, Xisheng smiled to himself. He probably shouldn't have said what was on his mind, but it was just a joke. Besides, a bit of friendly banter was actually doing the most to take his thoughts away from the rigors of war.

"I don't think Sneers would be very happy to know I was thinking of his girlfriend this way."

Ty Lee's jaw dropped in aghast horror before she pressed her thumbs extra hard into Xisheng's shoulders. "Hey! Not that brunette, jerk!"

Xisheng flinched in mild pain even a he chuckled to himself. "Ow, come on, it was funny! You have to admit it was funny."

Having crossed her arms with a huff of annoyance, Ty Lee clearly did not agree. "Hmph. I think it was tasteless. What kind of guy says something like that right in front of a girl anyway?"

"The kind of guy you like, I think?"

With a mildly annoyed look, Ty Lee began walking towards the exit, which promped Xisheng to call out to her. "Hey, come on. I'm sorry. You know it was funny, it just happened to be at your expense. Be a good sport."

Opening the door to the room and sticking her tongue out at him, Ty Lee seemed determined to do the exact opposite of that. "The best sport I'll be is one who forgives you... tomorrow. Hmph!"

With that, she shut the door on him, leaving Xisheng alone, chuckling to himself. Ah, it was worth it. At the very least, it had made him laugh, and he hadn't been able to do much of that over the past few days. There was still a lot of serious things to deal with tomorrow, but for now, he had succeeded in pushing them to the rear, in no small part thanks to Ty Lee.

Leaning back in his chair, Xisheng considered Ty Lee's advice. Admittedly, thinking of naked girls probably would help him relax for the night. Especially if a certain brunette was a major point of focus during that time.

Chapter Text

"Currently, it seems like the diagonal cross frame is the best option. At the very least, it has had the best results so far. But who can tell if it will remain so as our tunnels get even deeper?"

Xisheng once again found himself standing out in the fields of barren dirt outside of the Fire Nation forward base. It had been three days since the beginning of the training exercises regarding the tunnel aspects of the upcoming assault on Ba Sing Se. In that time, some things had already changed fairly drastically: the base itself had grown in size, with new buildings being erected near the walls to accommodate the ever-growing number of reinforcements and supplies coming into the base. There had been some suggestion to allow the Earthbenders to simple raise shelter out of the earth a few days prior, but Xisheng had elected against it on a few grounds. One, even though it was probably a fool's errand to keep the presence of Earthbenders a secret from prying eyes at this point, he didn't want to make it any easier for them. Two, he wanted a sense of uniformity among the base: the less lines of division existed between the colonials and the standard soldiers, the better. Even something as small as different living situations could foster feelings of separation as opposed to unity.

This became increasingly more important as colonial volunteers from more places besides Yu Dao showed up. Other colonies were further away, but they had sent volunteers as well: it had just taken them longer to get here. There was even a hefty complement of volunteers from Xisheng's hometown, West Heiatu. He had kind of wondered if he would see anyone he knew among the volunteers, or if someone among them would recognize him, but no such thing had occurred. That made plenty of sense though: on top of not inspecting the volunteers individually, it had been several years since Xisheng had seen anyone from home. They might not be able to recognize each other even if they crossed paths.

But as far as the activities around the base were concerned, nothing much had changed over the past three days. Supplies were still coming in, and they were constantly undergoing inspection to see if they would be up to snuff for the assault. As Aranai had predicted, roughly a fifth of the predicted supply influx was either missing or defective so far. But even so, Xisheng was confident they had enough to complete the mission.

As for the tunneling part of that mission, the exercises had grown more and more harrowing in the past three days. Naturally, the training tunnels had been getting deeper and deeper. And naturally, they had been getting more and more dangerous. There had been a total of four cave-ins at this point, and unfortunately, they had not all gone as well as the first one. Everyone was still alive, but there had been at least one broken arm that had required the removal of a participant from the training. Because things had been growing more dangerous, Xisheng was here, talking to Muzai about the problem and what could be done about it at this point.

"What if the Earthbenders raised a support column in the center of the tunnel to further reinforce the ceiling?"

The older man beside him with the frizzy beard shrugged. "It's certainly an option, but it would greatly increase the difficulty of moving the explosives throughout the tunnel. Unless we make the tunnels wider, of course, but that just changes a variable and renders much of our findings thus far moot. If we do leave the tunnels at their current width and add a center support column, it could have a not insignificant impact on the time needed to set up the explosives."

Xisheng frowned as he contemplated that assessment. Safety versus time... one would think taking all the time you need to achieve maximum safety was preferable, but that wasn't always the case on the battlefield. Every moment the plan was being carried out was another opportunity for the enemy to detect their movements and take action against it. On top of that, a big part of the plan was a diversionary assault that would be endangering the lives of the attackers. The longer that diversion had to go on, the more casualties could theoretically be sustained.

But then, was it worse to have a higher chance of tunnel collapse in favor of speed? The tunnels were the absolute cornerstone of the assault, the most important factor that had to succeed. Though it was callous to say, Xisheng could afford to lose more troops in the diversion if need be. He couldn't afford for the tunnels to fail. One of those would result in a defeat, while the other would not. That was just strategic fact.

The young commander didn't get much more time to dwell on it, as the squeaky voice of Shishi called out to him from some distance away. "Commander, mission complete! This tunnel has reached the specified practice length with no complications! The digging team should be coming up soon."

"Very good, Shishi. How conspicuous was it throughout the exercise?"

The small freckled brunette put a finger to her chin. "Well, I could definitely hear it, but I'm also much closer to the digging. I don't think anyone on top of those huge walls could hear it, especially if a bunch of other racket was going on too."

"I see..."

He didn't get to say more, as a hole opened up in the earth and the digging team lifted themselves out of it with Earthbending. The amalgamation of Earth and Firebenders were caked in dust and and grime, but otherwise unscathed. Xisheng was happy to say that the two sides of that coin had bonded quite well, though that probably shouldn't have surprised him. Even now, the members of both elements genuinely congratulated each other and checked on seeing if everyone was alright. It seemed the shared sweat of the brow really did forge strong bonds. Hopefully the same would be true for the army and the colonials as a whole.

One person who didn't seem particularly excited to succeed, however, was Kori. She was on the digging team more often than not, but over the past few days, Xisheng had noticed some odd behavior from her. Nothing concerning, but she seemed subdued and a little troubled. Thing was, Xisheng had no idea what could be causing that. He didn't know her that well, and it was possible that it was some personal issue. Or maybe it was just that time of month. At any rate, he didn't think it was his place to ask, since it wasn't actually impacting her performance. Until that time came, it was probably best to be respectful of her boundaries. Besides, he didn't have the time to dive into the personal lives of every single soldier under his command.

For now, he just addressed the team as a whole. "Good work, everyone. We're making excellent progress, to be digging a tunnel this deep with no obstacles. I have no doubt that you're well on your way to success on the day of the assault. For now, everyone take a break: you can resume the exercises in an hour."

There was a chorus of affirmatives from the gathered individuals, though they were a tad tired. Well, Xisheng wasn't looking to dock anyone on enthusiasm points. With little else to do here for now, he turned back to Muzai.

"I'll take the written reports we have currently and return to the command center. Be sure to document anything else of value when the exercises resume."

"Of course, Commander."

With a lot of work to do today, Xisheng bid his comrades farewell and began walking back towards the base. With his thoughts preoccupied and his back turned, he didn't notice the eyes of a certain young woman on him as he left.

As the day wore on, Xisheng spent most of his time in the command center, working out different aspects of Wallclimber with his various advisors. Major Shairo still wasn't a very friendly person to work with, but Xisheng sensed that he had earned some modicum of respect from the much older veteran: perhaps it was the obvious level of deep commitment Xisheng had for the mission, or perhaps it was the fact that he actually had good ideas and was taking everything as seriously as possible. Shairo still rarely smiled and didn't really like the Earthbender presence on the base, but he had become somewhat less abrasive when dealing with Xisheng directly.

It was with Shairo's counsel that Xisheng decided on a three-pronged assault on the walls of Ba Sing Se. Though it would demand greater coordination, it was too risky to place all of their bets on one attempt. There was too much that could go wrong, so three separate attempts gave three separate chances for things to go right. But that also meant splitting their assault force into three separate units, which weakened their holding power when the time came to rush the breach. Hopefully, the destruction of the wall would render the defenders unable to mount any good defense, but that was a big gamble to take.

To combat this, there had been a discussion regarding the insertion of small Earthbender strike teams to go further beyond the walls and stir up trouble, or even convince the enemy that the real attack was coming from behind the lines, which would divert defenders away from the walls. That idea had not been totally sold yet, but at this current time, Xisheng couldn't see any reason to not implement it. They had Earthbenders to spare. And sure, it meant more tunnels, but without the need to move explosive materials through them, these extra tunnels could be very small and inconspicuous. Though of course, it was a very dangerous mission to entrust to volunteers with no professional military experience.

As ever, the plan was not without risks, but Xisheng agreed with the Major that it was the best way to increase their odds of success. Much of the rest of the meeting had been going over more specific details: the composition of the assault forces, the distance from the wall to engage from, the followup that would be required to secure any decent foothold after securing the breach, and so on. Hours' worth of planning, and by the time it was all over, Xisheng barely felt like they had made any progress in the grand scheme of things. Honestly, it was no wonder that people like Zhao settled for straightforward plans like 'attack until we win'. People like him probably didn't have the patience for all of this strategizing.

But of course, things were a lot different here than they were at the North Pole. Even though the North Pole had been a location greatly in the favor of the defenders, there were certain advantages the Fire Nation had possessed at the time to even things out. Namely, a huge firepower and range difference. All the Waterbending in the world didn't do the defenders much good in that scenario, because they couldn't get close enough to actually use it. Any boats they sent out to engage would have been targeted and destroyed by the massive Fire Nation fleet with ease, and their walls hadn't been tall enough to force a closer engagement.

The Fire Nation didn't have that kind of advantage this time. The walls of Ba Sing Se were so tall that even the mightiest of Fire Nation siege weapons couldn't lob a projectile over them. At least, not from the ground. Xisheng supposed that, if the siege engines could be elevated to a higher firing position, they might be able to lob things over the walls, but he didn't see the point. Bombarding the opposite side of the wall had worked because the target city had been relatively small and concentrated: the Fire Nation could actually hit important things on the other side of that wall.

Ba Sing Se was such a massive city that there was nothing of value to actually hit directly on the other side of its outermost wall. The middle and inner walls, sure, but the outer wall only shielded things that could not be destroyed by some explosive projectiles landing in a field. The Fire Nation could lob hundreds or thousands of projectiles over the outermost wall and hit nothing of value. No, getting through the wall was the only way to take this city. That has always been true, and it hadn't changed now. Xisheng just hoped his plan would actually manage to accomplish that...

Needless to say, though he had started the strategy meeting relatively early into the afternoon, it was late into the evening before Xisheng was dismissing everyone to go about the rest of their night. And even after that, he stuck around for about an hour afterwards, poring over different reports and theoretical strategies for the upcoming battle. The young commander was certain that his absence would be frowned upon by his friends, who were finding less and less time to speak with him these days, but he told himself that it would only be temporary. The more he got done now, the less he'd have to do later, right?

Well, ignoring the fact that he would still have an entire city to defeat after the walls came down. And relative to that, Xisheng wasn't sure if getting through the outermost wall could be consider the hard or the easy part.

At any rate, it was pretty late when Xisheng left the war room, looking to stretch his legs outside before anything else. He'd been standing in mostly the same spot for hours, so his legs were feeling a little stiff. He got a few salutes from guards as he made his way to the bottom level of the command post, but Xisheng was unmolested for the most part. Soon enough, he was stepping outside into the night air of the base, glancing up at a sea of stars only mildly obscured by a few pillars of smoke. Even at this hour, the forges were still hard at work. With the influx of volunteers from the colonies, there were a lot of people that needed to be armed or armored.

Xisheng took a deep breath, trying to ignore the less desirable smells of the war camp. They had been oddly comforting at first, but had since lost their novelty. He took a moment to think about what he'd do after his short walk, but that line of thought didn't get to go very far, thanks to the voice of someone off to his right.

"Commander...?"

A little surprised, Xisheng glanced back down to earth to eye one Kori Morishita, who had been leaning against the wall of the outpost. She'd cleaned herself up a bit following the tunneling exercises, but definitely still looked tired. Not to mention quite pensive. Though he got the feeling that she had been waiting her specifically for him, Xisheng decided not to jump to conclusions.

"Kori? Enjoying the night sky, or just taking a break on the way to somewhere else?"

Getting up off the wall, perhaps out of fear of appearing rude, Kori's expression grew a little more nervous. "N-no, Commander. I was just... er... wondering if I could..."

She seemed to be having some sort of issue with saying what she wanted, so Xisheng probed lightly to help her along. Besides, he could at least figure out her general purpose for being here easily enough.

"Speak to me about something, perhaps?"

"Y-yes, sir. Though I don't want to be intrusive. I'm sure you're very busy, so please don't feel the need to waste any time on me. It's nothing important..."

Xisheng cocked an eyebrow at her. "So you say, but I bet you've been waiting out here for some time."

Kori fell silent at that, though her sheepish expression was answer enough. Honestly, Xisheng was a little surprised to see her like this. This lack of confidence didn't seem to line up with her behavior since he had met her. Then again, there were things that made everyone nervous. Plus, Xisheng got the feeling that Kori still worried about somehow offending him as the Commander. She probably still thought about how her behavior reflected on her and her comrades. Xisheng was a colonial too, but he was also regular army, and an officer. Not to mention the most important officer on base at the moment.

So, Xisheng could understand her trepidation. But he hoped that he could dispel it. His ideal army operated on camaraderie and trust. It wouldn't do to have people under his command be afraid of him in some capacity.

"It's true that I'm quite busy these days, Kori. But I consider the well-being of those under my command to be one of my top priorities. You've been an integral part of transitioning the volunteers from Yu Dao into the greater strategy, and you've made every effort to be as accommodating as possible, even when members of the regular army have mistreated you and your friends. Lending you my ear if there's something on your mind is the least I can do to thank you for that. Rest assured, I'm happy to hear you out."

Kori looked a little flustered to hear all of that, which ultimately prompted her to bow a little awkwardly. "T-thank you, Commander! It means a lot to hear you speak so well of me. If you're sure, there is... something important I'd like to ask you."

"Is it fair to assume this might be a lengthy conversation?"

"Yes, sir. I apologize..."

"Not at all. Let's find somewhere to sit. I've been standing around too much today as it is."

Gesturing towards the rest of the base, where Xisheng knew some benches existed near the sides of some buildings, the young commander led his companion out to find a relatively private place of rest. Since it was pretty late, that wasn't hard to do. There were a few patrols around, but none of them would encroach on their privacy as long as they picked a good spot to sit. Ultimately, that ended up being a steel bench pressed up against the two mess halls. Xisheng imagined that Kori probably felt a little awkward sitting next to him so casually, but he was hoping to present a trustworthy, approachable figure of authority that subordinates would readily trust and rely on.

He must have been right about Kori feeling a little awkward, because she wasn't quick to speak even though she was the one that had something to talk about. Xisheng didn't mind though: he imagined that he had been a lot like this when first serving under Azula too. There was a gap to bridge between people who felt unimportant and those who held respected positions. It could be difficult to put yourself on their level, because it almost seemed presumptuous to do so. That said, Xisheng had no problem being the one who had to usher things along.

"So, what's on your mind? I noticed that you've been a bit... preoccupied, during training. Is it because of this thing you want to talk about?"

Despite all of his efforts to make her feel comfortable and welcome in this conversation, Xisheng noted the way Kori anxious wrung her hands as she looked pensively at the ground. Well, he was doing everything he could. It was up to her to overcome what she was feeling in that regard.

"Yes, it is. I apologize for not having my mind entirely on the tasks at hand. I know the job you've entrusted to my friends and I is very important for... taking down the walls of Ba Sing Se."

"No one can stop their mind from wandering all the time. What thought distracts you, Kori?"

The young brunette was silent for a moment, perhaps pondering the right way to word what she wanted to ask. After all, it had the potential to be a volatile question, which was why she was so nervous to ask it in the first place. But ultimately, she didn't know how to dress it up and make it seem less than what it was. The best she could do was ask it outright.

"Why... are we doing this?"

To this, Xisheng initially said nothing. He understood now why Kori was so hesitant to speak about this to him. She was not asking about why they were digging the tunnels, or why they had to attack the wall. She wanted to know why they were doing any of this, at all. Why did they have to attack Ba Sing Se in the first place? Why were they warring against the Earth Kingdom? Why did they start the war at all, all those years ago?

It was a question many eventually asked themselves when waging war. Few people fought wars blindly, without wondering why it was happening, and whether or not they were on the right side of the conflict. The answers that people came up with for those questions usually varied: some told themselves whatever they needed to accept it. Others became disillusioned. Some decided that they honestly didn't care. Xisheng had asked all of these questions of himself already, long ago.

But Kori didn't know that. For all she knew, he was a fanatically loyal Fire Nation officer who would consider even the act of questioning their goals as treasonous or seditious. Which wasn't an unreasonable concern: Xisheng knew there were many officers out there who felt such a way. To them, harboring any doubts about the justice of the Fire Nation cause was the same as condemning it.

"You want to know whether or not we are justified in invading this city, right? Whether or not there's some concept of justice or righteousness we can cling to when we inevitably destroy people's homes and lives. Some notion we can use to vindicate our actions and the suffering they'll bring. Am I right?"

Kori's expression was pensive, but seeing as how Xisheng hadn't condemned her just for having the thought, she felt safe in agreeing with his assessment. "Yes. That's exactly what I'm wondering."

Xisheng was silent for a moment as he contemplated the best way to go about answering this very loaded question. He knew what Kori probably wanted to hear. She wanted to fight for her home and her people, but she was also a good person. She wanted to be justified in doing those things. She didn't want 'fighting for her home' to equate to marauding around in the homes of others for no justifiable reason. Xisheng could certainly try to come up with some convoluted explanation about how this was all for the greater good, but he didn't think he could assuage Kori's concerns with some talk about spirits and the Avatar and the sanctity of human will and all that. Those were all very philosophical arguments, and most people weren't able to convince themselves to wage war and kill people for philosophical reasons alone.

So, he was going to have to put a different spin on this. One that was still absolutely true, but a different spin nonetheless. Besides, this was something Xisheng thought about all the time, so he already knew what arguments to make and how to word them.

"As to whether or not there's some moral high ground that justifies the Fire Nation's conquest of this city, or the entirety of the war itself... I'm sorry. There's nothing like that."

Honestly, Xisheng felt kind of bad about the shocked expression that came over Kori's face as he said that. Clearly, she hadn't expected him to say that, at probably not that blatantly. No beating around the bush, no attempt to defend the notion or anything. And to be fair, Xisheng could see why people would not expect this type of response out of him. He was pretty adamant about fighting on the side of his country, after all. So why would he speak ill of it? Well, from his perspective, he wasn't. That was why he kept going.

"Everyone would like to believe that their nation would only wage a war for some objectively moral and justified cause. But the fact of the matter is, countries as a political entity don't engage in something as time and effort-intensive as war for moral reasons. The Fire Nation launched this war a century ago for personal gain. Because doing so would benefit us. That's the only reason any nation goes to war: when the benefit to themselves outweighs the cost. Rarely does the notion of justice or righteousness factor into it, unless it's being used as a catalyst to convince people to fight."

Kori looked flabbergasted to have all of this said to her. More than anyone else, she had expected Xisheng to have some sort of airtight moral argument about why everything they were doing was justified and morally acceptable. To hear him so blatantly say otherwise, to readily admit that this war was just a matter of personal gain for the country, was shocking. She didn't know what to say, though she tried to say something anyway.

"T-then why... why are you here, fighting? How can anyone with a conscience fight for their nation for reasons like that?!"

Kori raised her voice at the end, perhaps feeling betrayed or disappointed with the sad reality Xisheng was speaking to her. But he didn't get upset about that. There was still a lot more to say.

"Well, I hope you'll allow me to extrapolate on this before you deem me a horrible person, Kori."

Perhaps realizing that she had raised her voice unintentionally, Kori relented. "O-of course, sorry. I didn't mean to imply that about you."

"It's alright, I understand where you are coming from. So allow me to continue. What nations fight for is always going to be inherently selfish: it might be a conquest for more territory or resources. It might be a ploy to unify a divided country against a divided enemy. Even if a nation went to war to defend another nation, it would only do so because it somehow benefits itself. All countries must operate by a system of self-interest: their obligation is to the prosperity of their own citizens, not the world at large. Some people have trouble accepting this as a justifiable reason to engage in acts as terrible as war. That's perfectly alright. I can understand why people, or you specifically, might feel that the overall benefit of our nation at the cost of others is not a good enough reason to fight."

Xisheng glanced up at the sky again, reciting thoughts he had pondered time and time again in his years as a soldier.

"However... the reason your nation wages war isn't the same as the reason you wage war. Though the motivation of a country may be mired in self-interest, the reason that individual warriors fight can still be just. And ultimately, when it comes to justifying participating in the act of war, whether or not you have a just cause to fight for matters more than your nation's reasoning."

Kori leveled a confused expression at him. "Forgive me for saying so, Commander, but that... just sounds like willfully ignoring wrongdoing to convince yourself that you've done nothing wrong."

"I suppose some might see it that way. I'm not saying fighting for a truly evil cause can be justified by your own personal reasons. If our goal was to march into Ba Sing Se specifically to murder every single person living there, of course I couldn't justify that by saying that I personally am fighting for a good cause. But as far as ordinary war is concerned, there's a great difference. A difference that is an unfortunate fact of life: there will come times when you must choose whether you care more about something important to you, or something important to a stranger. This reality is something you are already a great example of, if I might say so."

The brunette beside him cocked an eyebrow. "How do you mean...?"

Xisheng turned his gaze onto the young woman beside him. "Kori, how many of the people who came from Yu Dao to fight are your friends?"

"Many... I do not know an exact number, but many of those who came from Yu Dao are people I know and care about."

"And how many of them would have volunteered to be here and fight even if you had not come?"

Kori grew quiet for a moment as she contemplated the answer to that: and started to grasp the point that Xisheng was no doubt building towards. "Almost all of them... though there were a few that were convinced to come because of me, plenty of people from Yu Dao would have come to fight even if I hadn't come. Even if I had spoken against the idea."

Xisheng smiled, glad to see that Kori was catching on to where he was going with this. "Exactly... whether or not you condone or condemn the war or its reasons for being fought, your friends would be here, in harm's way. And this is where your personal sense of justification is what matters. You may not like the idea of nations taking from others to benefit themselves, but will you allow that to stop you from protecting your friends? Is the selfishness of your nation's cause more important than what matters to you? Your friends and comrades from Yu Dao will fight regardless of whether or not you morally agree with the politics of the war. If we somehow lost this conflict with the Earth Kingdom, Yu Dao itself could be taken by the Earth Kingdom, lost in some peace settlement. And I doubt they'd be happy to let anyone tied to the Fire Nation remain in that land after a hundred years of conflict."

Before the girl beside him could say anything to this, Xisheng made sure to extrapolate further. "This is not to say that the notion of defending what matters to you always justifies attacking others. It's possible that, if we just chose not to attack Ba Sing Se, the people of Yu Dao would never be in harm's way, and the Earth Kingdom would not try to get their old territory back if we had to make some sort of peace settlement. But in some ways, why you and I fight is not all that different from why our country fights. If we win here at the wall, with colonial Earthbenders being the cornerstone of the victory, you and your people will benefit greatly: it could be the turning point for you, the exact moment in history that elevates colonials to the same level of respect and dignity as every other person in the Fire Nation for the rest of time. Winning here could benefit not just your people that exist now, but their children, and their children, and even their children after that. It is true that we will hurt people who will not deserve it in attacking Ba Sing Se. But you have a hard choice about harsh reality before you: will you value the livelihoods of strangers from a foreign land over the future of your own kin?"

For a moment, it looked like Kori was coming around to Xisheng's argument. But she wasn't quite there yet.

"But that's assuming that this is the only way any of that could happen. It's true that participating in this battle and winning would mean a lot of good things for colonials everywhere, but it's not like it's the only way to make those good things happen. We don't have to hurt people from other countries to get the respect and acknowledgment we deserve at home."

"That's true. Though it would take more time, I'm sure that there are peaceful ways to achieve those good things for colonials in the Fire Nation. But wishing for a theoretical better alternative doesn't erase the reality of what's actually happening now. I had a friend say something a little similar to this once: 'the war is a thing that's happening, and a thing that will continue to happen regardless of what any of us think'. The fact of the matter is, whether or not you or I condone the war or participate in it at all, it will continue all the same. We cannot make a difference on that front. But we can affect how the war plays out: who dies and who doesn't, who benefits and who does not. Ideally, we'd live in a world where no one has to get hurt at all, where good people would never have to choose between the suffering of a friend or a stranger. But that's not the world we live in."

With a sigh, Xisheng looked up to the sky again, wondering if he was actually helping Kori with her problem or if he was just painting himself as a callous psychopath. He was sure that some people would think him the latter, even as he tried to explain why he thought this was all perfectly reasonable.

"For instance... say that I decide that this war is too unjust for me to participate in. I could resign from command tomorrow, and scrap this entire plan we've been preparing. Will I feel better about myself in doing so? Maybe. But as soon as I am gone, someone else will be put in charge. There will still be an attack on Ba Sing Se. Attacks headed by men like Qin, the one who came before me. Men who see the war as a way to gain fame and fortune for themselves, and care nothing for the lives of those who serve under them. If I chose to resign, and some new commander came in and launched a foolhardy plan that got wave after wave of my comrades-in-arms killed... would their deaths not be my fault? If the new commander does breach the wall, and he allows his troops to maraud across Ba Sing Se, raping and pillaging, would that not be something I could have prevented by remaining in command? By participating in this seemingly unjust war?"

Honestly, Xisheng wondered if any of his actual friends would think poorly of him for such thoughts. Well, Azula probably wouldn't care at all. If anything, she'd think it silly that he was putting so much thought into it. Mai probably wouldn't care just because. Ty Lee... well, Xisheng could only guess. She had seemed to come around to the idea of protecting what she cared about even if other people had to suffer, but to what extent could she actually justify that?

"What I'm saying is, I cannot control whether or not the war happens. Even if I refrained from participating on moral grounds, or outright opposed the conflict, all of the men and women here on this base would still be used to attack Ba Sing Se. What I can control is how that happens. I can control how many of my comrades have to die for this. I can impact how honorably our army behaves when invading the enemy's home. I can control how well we treat our prisoners, how much destruction is wrought in the pursuit of victory. And of course, participating gives me the opportunity to keep the people I care about safe. I can oppose the war on some moral grounds, and change nothing other than how good I feel about myself. Or, I can participate, and actually enact some good in an event that is going to happen with or without me."

Finally, he leveled a serious gaze directly at Kori.

"This war, this battle, is going to happen. Many bad things will occur because of this. You can abstain if you wish, but that will not change who and what it affects. If you feel that your moral obligation is to a higher concept of righteousness, so be it. My sense of moral obligation is to those whose lives are in my hands. If they die because I felt too upset about the reality of warfare, I doubt their families will be reassured because my sense of self-righteousness was upheld. You have to choose what matters to you, Kori: at the end of the day, justification is something that matters only to you. No matter what you choose as a 'valid' reason to act, there will be people who condemn it, and anyone who ends up suffering because of your choices will never care what you reasoning is. That is the best advice I can give you in these trying times."

Kori was silent as she took in the last of Xisheng's words. Undoubtedly, some people would call his perspective a warped notion of right and wrong. It was, somehow, both selfless and selfish as the same time, caring for other people, but only the ones you specifically cared about. But at the same time, there was a certain pragmatism to it. Kori couldn't deny that she would readily pick the lives or well-being of her family over a stranger in any given situation. Surely, any sane person would, right? And as Xisheng had stated, it would be one thing to harm a stranger unnecessarily just to better the lives of your own people, but if a choice was forced upon you, wouldn't almost anyone pick their own over people they didn't know?

The lives of her friends and countrymen would be partially in her hands. If she abstained from the battle or the war as a whole, and they died in a situation where she feasibly could have protected them... what would she tell their families? 'Sorry your son is dead, but at least I feel good about myself?' Even beyond that, would she really be able to live with herself, knowing that she had spared a faceless stranger suffering in exchange for someone she had actually grown up with and lived alongside? She had an obligation to protect her own, to fight for the people who trusted and relied on her... even if it meant other people had to suffer. It would be best if nothing bad had to happen to anyone, but if a choice had to be made, she could find solace in that.

So ultimately, she offered the young commander beside her a smile. "Thank you, Commander. I think I understand your reasoning, and it does give me solace. I do wish something as terrible as war could be avoided, but... if it is upon us no matter what I do, choosing to fight for my people and my home instead of abandoning them to some fate I have no role in seems righteous to me."

Glad to see that Kori had come around to his perspective, Xisheng smiled back. "I'm glad to hear that, Kori. Rest assured, I will do everything in my power to ensure we fight as honorably and humanely as possible in this battle. My aim is to dismantle the Earth Kingdom as a political entity, not destroy its people."

"And I will be more than happy to follow you as long as that remains true. Though I doubt it will ever change: since our acquaintance, you've only struck me as noble and wise. We're all very lucky to be under your care."

"I appreciate you saying so, though you may think too highly of me. I'm glad I managed to state my perspective clearly enough to be understood. I know that many people would disagree with me."

Since she had achieved what she set out to do, Kori rose to her feet, with a bit more energy obvious in her demeanor than before.

"Well, you are very well-spoken, Commander. I'm not sure how many people could convincingly argue the kinds of points you've made, honestly. But they have reassured me nonetheless. Thank you for taking the time to speak to me. I know that you're very busy and have to concern yourself with things far more important than a volunteer's misgivings."

Since it was obvious that Kori was about to excuse herself, Xisheng rose to his feet as well. After all, he did still have other things to do tonight. "This is my first command, and I certainly don't have a lot of experience with having this many people be my responsibility. That said, I'd like to be the type of leader that is trusted and relied on by their subordinates. I may not always be able to make time for each individual, but I don't want anyone to think that's because they are beneath me."

Kori's grateful smile widened even further. "I think that's a very admirable and respectable stance on leadership, sir. And though I can't speak for everyone, I believe many people here on the base can sense your intentions already. The way you handled the dispute at the mess hall, the sense of equality and mutual respect you use to speak to everyone, even colonial volunteers like me... I'm certain that both the regular army troops and us volunteers will be ready to follow you anywhere in no time at all."

"I certainly hope so. I'd be honored to have so many people put their trust in me."

With a bow, Kori finally excused herself. "Count me among those that do, sir. Good night, Commander."

Though he didn't have to, Xisheng lightly bowed back, smiling to himself as he watched Kori turn and head off towards the newly erected barracks for the colonial volunteers. Surprisingly, though he had not done anything to physically tend to his exhaustion, he felt a bit refreshed. Well, he was always excited to talk philosophy, and knowing that he had earned a loyal subordinate in Kori tonight was reassuring. Maybe that was why.

That said, it would probably be best if he didn't dwell on all the stuff that still needed to be worked out regarding the mission. If he did that, Xisheng was certain that this minor high would be squandered quite quickly.

Not terribly far away from the bench where this conversation had taken place, hiding around the corner of one of the many metal boxes that counted as buildings on this base, Ty Lee chewed on her thumbnail as she worked herself up into an anxious frenzy. Some hours ago, she had found herself with little to do as far as entertaining herself was concerned. Azula was busy with official affairs, Mai hadn't felt like leaving her room this evening, and there were way too many soldiers on base for Ty Lee to really get close to any of them like she had with the small crew of the ship they'd sailed on not that long ago.

So, a little dispirited, she had elected to wait for Xisheng to finish with his obligations in the command post for the day, some hours ago. That hadn't been particularly exciting either: in fact, she had almost fallen asleep while waiting around for him, as he seemed to be having a much longer day at work than usual. That was, until, she had spotted a certain someone take up residence next to the entrance to the command post. A young woman with brunette hair and a bun in a red ribbon, wearing a combination of red and green over most of her body except her midriff.

Of course, it wasn't like Ty Lee didn't know exactly who this was. Aside from the fact that Xisheng had described her before, Ty Lee had been present for that conflict in the mess hall that Kori had been involved in, so the acrobat had laid eyes on her and heard her addressed by name. As for why she cared about Kori's presence outside of the command post, well, it was a bit complicated.

Xisheng had really been mentioning Kori a lot lately. Anytime Ty Lee was talking to him about his day, she tended to get mentioned at least once. Not to mention, she was mentioned in ways that made it pretty clear that Xisheng was paying close attention to Ty Lee's fellow brunette. Xisheng often commented on how she was acting, or his perceptions of how she felt or what she was thinking. Though it was silly, knowing that Xisheng was watching Kori regularly bothered Ty Lee. Sure, Xisheng obviously talked to other girls: Mai and Azula were right there. But this just felt different somehow. Her friends were one thing, but a complete stranger? The thought of somehow losing Xisheng's interest to a stranger really rubbed Ty Lee the wrong way.

And of course, she wasn't completely oblivious: Ty Lee knew that this feeling was petty jealousy that didn't even have any real grounds for validation, but just because she knew it was a little silly didn't stop her from troubling herself with it. Plus, the feeling grew even more potent now that she was getting a good look at Kori again, without being distracted by a big problem. She was really attractive. Even worse, she was attractive in a way not that dissimilar from Ty Lee. They were both brunettes with similar heights and slender, athletic frames. Xisheng had even outright stated that Kori reminded him of Ty Lee. The idea of another girl possibly intruding on Ty Lee's relationship with Xisheng was one thing, but the fact that the girl was kind of similar to her aggravated the acrobat even more. That would be way too much to bear.

Sure, it wasn't like Xisheng had made any obvious implications about romantic or even purely theoretical interest in Kori, but that didn't stop Ty Lee from worrying about the possibility. Kori was an Earthbender, which, though obviously not the same as being a Firebender, added some sort of shared experience between her and Xisheng. Plus, she was effectively part of the army now, which would give her other things Xisheng would relate to over time. She was also a patriot just like him, and based on Xisheng's schedule and obligations these days, he was actually spending a lot more time around Kori than he was Ty Lee lately.

The young acrobat wasn't convincing herself that it was guaranteed to happen, just acknowledging that all the cards were right. And though she could acknowledge that it was pretty foolish to allow mere theoretical potential to bother her so much, Ty Lee couldn't help it. Being jealous over all of this was silly and irrational, but damn it, the thought of Xisheng falling for some girl that was 'Ty Lee, but better' drove her nuts. She had to either put her fears to rest or confirm them so she could think of the next step. That was why Ty Lee had decided to figure out what Kori was up to at the command post.

There was no guarantee that her fellow brunette was waiting there for Xisheng, but as more and more people left the command post, none of which were Xisheng, and Kori continued to wait outside of the place, Ty Lee couldn't help but feel that her suspicions were right. As minutes turned to hours, she grew even more troubled: what the heck could Kori need or want from Xisheng that would be worth waiting hours and hours outside of the command post for him? Sure, Ty Lee had been doing that, but she was actually close to him. Kori should have been nothing more than a subordinate, and something like this would have been totally weird for a professional relationship, right?

Ultimately, Ty Lee's concerns had proven true. When Xisheng finally exited the command post late into the evening, Kori had approached him immediately, and the two of them had started talking briefly before Xisheng guided her off somewhere else. Ty Lee, who had been discreetly in shadow at the time, had followed them as quietly as possible to spy. She felt bad about doing that to Xisheng, but at this point, Ty Lee considered it a greater good. She could be selfish every once in awhile.

Unfortunately, there hadn't been any good hiding places near enough the bench that Xisheng led Kori to. Because of that, Ty Lee had been forced to stay somewhat further away: too far away to hear anything. This was bad, because it left her with little to do other than watching the two of them speak from a distance. She couldn't get any sort of read on what that conversation may have been about, but it sure ended with a lot of smiling.

When it was obvious that the conversation between the two was over, Ty Lee hid behind the wall of her building again and started coming up with all sorts of possibilities to explain this strange late night rendezvous. Naturally, all of them were bad. It wasn't like they had kissed or even laughed it up or anything, but wasn't it super suspicious for a young woman to patiently wait hours for a young man to finish his work so they could retreat somewhere in private at night to talk? The late night secret meeting was a cornerstone of romantic stories, wasn't it?

Part of Ty Lee wished Mai was here, if only because her much more levelheaded friend would have probably talked her into acknowledging how ridiculous she was being, and to look at things with more rationality. Then again, there was probably no way that Mai would have wasted so much time spying on some random girl. Unless she was also concerned about the same thing Ty Lee was, but thus far, that didn't seem to be the case...

"Um, excuse me... are you alright?"

Shocked out of her ruminations, Ty Lee glanced up at the person beside her. Lo and behold, one Kori Morishita, glancing down at her curiously as she passed. In hindsight, this was the general direction of the barracks where the colonial volunteers were staying... and Ty Lee happened to be crouched down, gnawing on her thumbnail as she bore a hole in the ground with a furrowed gaze, next to a building on that path. She probably looked like a lunatic to the outside observer. Most people would have wanted nothing to do with that, but apparently Kori felt concern for the crazy woman hiding in an alley. Dammit, she was nice to a fault too. She was even more similar to Ty Lee than the acrobat had initially thought. Which, of course, only bothered her more.

Acknowledging that she should probably stop presenting herself like a nutjob, Ty Lee got to her feet and tried to act like she hadn't been doing anything weird at all.

"O-oh, yeah! Sorry, I just, er... saw an interesting bug! T-that's all..."

Damn, that didn't actually make her seem any less weird, did it? Judging by the confused eyebrow Kori was offering her, it clearly did not.

"Alright... well, forgive my intrusion. Good night."

With that, Kori began to resume her walk back to the barracks. Ty Lee immediately questioned whether or not she should use this opportunity to glean some information about her suspicions. It wasn't like she had too many chances to speak to Kori, and going out of her way to find her during the day would just look off-putting. This was as good of a chance as any, right? Though she didn't really have any idea how to start this conversation in any normal way.

"Oh, um... you were talking to Goh- er, the Commander just now, right?"

Clearly surprised to be asked this out of nowhere by the weird girl that only looked just barely familiar, Kori stopped and glanced over her shoulder with a perplexed look on her face. "Er, yes...?"

Man, Xisheng made talking look so easy sometimes. Ty Lee had no idea what to say here to achieve her goal without being blatantly obvious that she was fishing for private info. But she also couldn't just sit here for a full minute, trying to think about what to say while the person she was talking to had just asked her a question. Well, if the best she could do was to be straightforward...

"Um, what about, if you don't mind my asking?"

At this point, Kori turned around completely to focus all of her attention on Ty Lee. Rather than just confused now, she looked outright suspicious. Well, Ty Lee couldn't exactly blame her for that...

"I'm sorry, but who are you exactly?"

Kori's narrowed gaze made Ty Lee rethink her approach. Heck, at this rate, the Earthbender might think she was just a really bad spy or something. Maybe it was better to be honest to some extent.

"I'm a very close friend of Xisheng's. We've been through a lot together: you know, I was traveling with him for months, helping him fight bad guys and stuff."

It didn't look like Kori was going to take this at face value at first, but as she continued to look at the weird girl in front of her, she recalled why she looked familiar. This was one of the girls that had been accompanying Xisheng when he came to the mess hall to mediate her dispute with the regular soldiers. Granted, that didn't actually tell Kori much about who the brunette was, but it was obvious that she was connected to the commander somehow. He probably had plenty of people in his life that Kori was none the wiser to.

At any rate, Ty Lee's complete lack of subtlety in presenting herself as an important person to Xisheng gave Kori a fair idea of what this may have been about. De to this revelation, the severe expression on Kori's face lessened somewhat, though it was replaced with some degree of bemusement instead.

"I see... if that's true, why not just ask your very close friend what we were talking about?"

It was impossible to miss Kori's emphasis, though why she thought that was amusing, Ty Lee wasn't sure. Either way, she wasn't sure how to respond. She could hardly spill the details of her personal relationship with Xisheng to a stranger. That was private.

"Ah, well... that's a little complicated..."

"Be that as it may, I need to turn in for the night. I have a long day ahead of me tomorrow. So if you don't mind..."

Kori shuffled away, clearly trying to politely disengage from the conversation. At this point, Ty Lee acknowledged that she was being very pushy, but she didn't really have a choice. She had no idea how to go about getting the information she wanted other than being direct about it, and this was her best opportunity to do so. That being the case, she just decided to stop beating around the bush and say what was really bugging her so much. Unfortunately, she felt kind of embarrassed in asking this so blatantly, so the question came out a little more forcefully than Ty Lee intended.

"A-are you interested in him?!"

Not surprisingly, this question stopped Kori in her tracks, though mostly because she was just absolutely caught off-guard. Her stunned expression as she whirled around to speak to this stranger once again spoke volumes about that.

"Wha-?! That's quite a question to ask for someone who hasn't even told me their name!"

"I know! I'm sorry, I just... really need to know!"

With a rueful sigh, Kori wasted no time in giving this girl the answer she was looking for. She didn't mind answering, as Kori had already correctly judged the nature of this conversation a few minutes ago. Whatever relationship this brunette had with the commander, she clearly had romantic interest in him and was worried about competition. Well, all Kori could do was be honest...

"No."

Judging by the raising of eyebrows and the evident confusion on her face, Kori's conversational partner had clearly not expected this answer. "No? What do you mean, 'no'?"

"Well for one, I'm already in a relationship with someone else..."

"Not to imply that you're disloyal or anything, but being in a relationship isn't a guarantee that someone doesn't want to jump ship."

"OK, fair enough. But the answer is still no."

Honestly, Ty Lee probably should have just been happy to get that answer and left things alone. But she was having a hard time accepting it as face value. Maybe it was just the paranoia talking, but a simple 'no' without any explanation seemed less like the truth and more like an attempt to hide the truth. Hell, that probably was just the paranoia talking, but even so...

"Why not?"

Kori scoffed as she leveled an incredulous expression at Ty Lee. "Has anyone ever told you that you're really nosy?"

Recalling a few times either Mai or Azula had said that to her in the past, Ty Lee grimaced. "Well... yes. Sorry."

Finding a degree of amusement in all of this, Kori figured she may as well just assuage this girl's fears. After all, it wasn't like it was any sort of problem for her.

"Don't get me wrong, the Commander has my utmost respect. He's kind, noble, and wise. And I'm sure may women would consider him very attractive. But he's just not my type."

To this, Ty Lee didn't say anything. Instead, Kori just identified a completely disbelieving look on her face. Well, maybe that wasn't too surprising: she had just called the commander handsome and a good person, so to say that he wasn't her type made it sound like she didn't actually like those things in a man, which wasn't really what she meant. So, she decided to add a slight bit of clarification.

"What I mean is, I just prefer men who are more... robust. That's all."

Trying to process what that adjective even meant, Ty Lee finally recalled a few more details about that mess hall incident, including that portly guy Xisheng had dressed down at the end of it all. If she was remembering correctly, hadn't that guy insinuated that Kori was his girlfriend? Ty Lee supposed that someone like that could be considered 'robust'. Hearing Kori admit to some sort of preference for that also made that relationship seem a lot less unbelievable.

"Oh, that... that really explains a lot."

Kori's eyes narrowed as she detected a hint of judgment in that. "Why do I feel like I should be insulted?"

Admittedly, Ty Lee knew that she was judging Kori's tastes a little bit. She had wanted her to have no interest in Xisheng, of course, but at the same time, Ty Lee wondered how any young woman could do that. Well, the acrobat would allow this to be a lesson for the future: even an objectively great person was still only subjectively attractive on a person to person basis. What Ty Lee considered the perfect man didn't go for everyone. Though personally, she couldn't wrap her head around Kori's preference. Best to just accept her good fortune.

"N-not at all, it's just one of those things, y'know? Er, how does that saying go? Different strokes, or something...?"

Kori didn't seem convinced that Ty Lee wasn't judging her, but she didn't care to make a scene about it. She was very used to people questioning her relationship with Sneers. And it wasn't like she was oblivious as to why. In all humility, Kori knew she was decently high on the ladder of attractiveness, as far as typical convention was concerned. And Similarly, Sneers was often considered below average by most. So, from a superficial point of view, people often questioned why they were together. It was ignorant, but understandably so. In most cases, people at least had to find someone attractive on the surface before they took a romantic interest in them as a person. So it raised questions when a stranger saw someone they thought was ugly and someone they thought was attractive together.

At any rate, she was used to it, and not particularly bothered. "If you say so. Anyway, there's your answer. The Commander is a great man, and any woman would be lucky to have his affection. But I'm... happy with my own relationship."

The Yu Dao native glanced to the ground while saying that, not looking entirely convinced of her own words. But from Ty Lee's perspective, the issue that was troubling her seemed deeper than something like physical attraction. But she had already been very pushy and demanding with Kori thus far, so she didn't think it was a good idea to pry.

"Well, I'm happy to hear that. I'm really sorry to have bothered you so rudely tonight. I'd hate to take up any more of your time, so..."

Understanding that Ty Lee was awkwardly trying to disengage from the conversation they had been having, Kori shrugged her mutual approval of ending it. "It was no trouble. Good night."

With a swift bow, Ty Lee reciprocated the notion, eager to extricate herself from this after coming across as such a weirdo. "You as well!"

With that, the acrobat scampered off, leaving Kori to cock an eyebrow at her exit. "Even after all of that, she still didn't tell me her name... well, I guess I didn't tell her mine either, so I can't fairly call it rude. Still, is that really the type of girl the Commander is into...?"

Shaking her head of errant thoughts since she really needed to get some rest, Kori finally turned on her heel and headed back for the newly erected barracks for the colonial volunteers. It was a barebones structure that was mostly just small cubicle steel rooms with simple beds, but at least it still gave everyone a tiny bit of privacy, which was more than she had been expecting. Granted, there was little room to do anything in these rooms other than sleep, but that was good enough. Kori was happy enough that they had been given that kind of consideration. The regular army could have just left them to sleep in tents outside, so even a simple prefab steel building was nice to have.

The walk back wasn't particularly interesting: it was late at night, and aside from a few patrolling soldiers, most everyone had already retired in preparation for the next day of work. No one bothered her, and nothing else came up to get in the way of Kori's return to a bed she had claimed for herself only yesterday. So, after only a few minutes, she was standing in front of a roughly trapezoid shaped metal building that was three stories tall. It was a poor excuse for a building: it had no windows to speak of and only one entrance. The inside had to be lit with torches. But it was a building capable of giving hundreds of people a place to sleep, and it had been erected in just a few days. That wasn't bad, all things considered. Especially considering that there were two more identical buildings right next to it, and the Fire Nation engineers had been required to readjust the shape of the base walls just to fit these new structures in place.

Kori walked up to the steel door of the middle building, doing her best to ignore how uncanny it looked from the outside. You didn't realize how off the absence of windows was on a structure until you saw something like that. The inside of the place wasn't much better: the door led directly into a long hall with interspersed wall torches placed between soulless metal doors. After many dozens of meters, the hall reached an intersection that branched off into more halls that looked exactly the same, except the one on the left eventually led to some stairs that would take one to another identical floor above.

It was an ugly, drab building that existed solely to serve a practical purpose. Absolutely no one would want to live in it for long, but if it would just serve as a place to comfortably rest until one went back out into the world the next day, it was good enough for that purpose. Kori wasted no time in walking down the hall and taking the first turn to the right, making her way for a door that led to a simple room with a single bed and a candle for light. It was identical to the room everyone else had, with the exception of one particular addition resting near the door that was hers: normally, Kori would have had to carefully count the doors to come up to the one she had claimed, but tonight, someone was leaning against that very door, removing the need for such a thing.

Naturally, this person was Sneers, who was fiddling with one of his axes. He holstered it as soon as he noticed Kori's approach though, at which point he leveled a concerned expression at his girlfriend even as he placed his hands on her shoulders once they got close.

"Kori, where have you been?! Do you have any idea how late it is?"

With a tired smile, Kori placed a hand on Sneers' shoulder as well. "Yes, I know how late it is, Sneers. The Commander had something to talk with me about, that's all."

This explanation didn't seem to assuage her boyfriend's concerns in any way. "That Ash- I mean, that guy seems to have a lot to talk to you about these days. Every day, it seems."

"Don't get jealous, Sneers. The Commander is putting me to work, not whisking me away to seduce me. I'm just his liaison for us volunteers from Yu Dao, so I have some responsibilities."

Taking a step back from his girlfriend, Sneers folded his arms. "Responsibilities you still won't tell me about, I assume."

Kori refrained from sighing, just because she didn't want to make her exasperation obvious. She didn't want frustration to be the first thing she felt every time she met up with her boyfriend. But he was making it pretty difficult these days.

"We talked about this the first day it happened, Sneers. I can't tell you what we're doing. Neither can Shishi or Hiro or any of the others."

"What, because the 'commander' said so? For someone you only see in a professional light, you sure are quick to do what he says even if it means lying to your boyfriend."

This time, Kori did allow herself to sigh. She knew there were many reasons why Sneers had issues with things going on around this base, but he was constantly finding ways to turn that disgruntlement into attacks against her. She had just to remind herself that he had good reason to be so on edge, and to be patient and understanding... even if that was really difficult.

"It's got nothing to do with that, Sneers. We're part of something bigger now. There are good reasons why some stuff has to be kept secret, and the people the leader trusts with that information have to maintain that trust. I'm sure that was true in the Freedom Fighters too, right?"

Sneers' immediate reaction was to claim that it wasn't the same at all, but he didn't. He wasn't completely oblivious to the fact that Kori was irritated with his stance on things the past few days, so he could at least restrain himself sometimes.

"Yeah, I guess so..."

Honestly just glad that that they were able to move the conversation forward in a way that wasn't hostile, Kori put her hand on the door to her room so she could push it open.

"Come on, why don't we spend some time together not thinking about any of this? We haven't really had much of a chance to relax in private since getting here. So we haven't been able to do anything, y'know, intimate..."

"Er, I'm not complaining, but won't the room be a little cramped? Those beds are pretty small..."

"Small beds can fit two people if one is on top of the other. And I'm always on top, so I don't think it'll be a problem. Come on!"

Ignoring Sneers' flustered protests, Kori shoved the larger man into her room, doing her best to intentionally ignore the more underhanded nature of her insistence here. Not that she didn't enjoy physical intimacy with her partner for its own merits, but... well, Kori was no fool. She knew damn good and well that physical affection could serve as a distraction to Sneers' misgivings. After all, she knew already that she would never be able to convince him to agree with her perspective on the war. Even if she tried to use the Commander's thought-provoking argument that had assuaged her own concerns, she knew that wouldn't work on Sneers. His issue was specifically with helping the Fire Nation. If the tables were turned and this was an Earth Kingdom assault against a domestic Fire Nation city... Kori knew he would have no qualms with that.

Which admittedly, bothered her greatly. Kori's misgivings had been about hurting innocent people for selfish reasons, regardless of who they were or where they were from. Sneer's misgivings seemed more rooted in hatred than an actual concern regarding justice and decency. As the preparations for the assault on Ba Sing Se continued, Kori couldn't help but feel that more and more cracks were beginning to show in her relationship with Sneers: big,alarming cracks that couldn't be ignored, because they were rooted in integral parts of their personalities. These issues weren't some small things that could be worked on or willfully ignored.

On top of that, she knew that Sneers could sense it as well. That there were some aspects of Kori being revealed lately that he just couldn't come around to, and that it would likely drive a wedge of sorts between them. In fact, if Kori told him that she had spoken to the Commander specifically to have her confidence in the mission reaffirmed, and that she was more determined than ever to participate... the young woman was certain it would spell disaster for the two of them.

Which raised some introspective questions about whether or not they should continue to be together at all. If you knew that something important to you was incompatible with your partner, you knew the relationship was doomed to fail. Maybe Kori was just willfully ignoring that. Maybe she just really wanted it to work out: maybe if she just distracted him, the whole thing would blow over and get swept under the rug.

But as she closed the door behind her and prepared to work up a sweat in the privacy of her tiny room, Kori acknowledged that, to some extent, she was the only thing keeping Sneers in check. The fact of the matter was, she didn't trust him to not do something crazy if she weren't holding him back. And while that thought made her incredibly sad, it also meant that Kori had the power to keep both Sneers and her friends safe. All she had to do was get Sneers to value her more than whatever action he could take against the base and its occupants.

These hidden motives made the act of shedding her clothes and climbing into bed with Sneers seem almost twisted, but she was trying her best to balance her love for her partner and her countrymen. Kori couldn't shake the foreboding feeling that the two would soon come into irreconcilable conflict, but for now, she didn't want to think about that.

That tragic moment could wait until the time actually came to choose.

Chapter Text

"Tunneling efficiency is at approximately 86%. Frankly, I don't think we are going to get it any higher at this point, Commander."

As usual, Xisheng stood around the war room table at the command post for the base. Present was everyone who mattered: Logistics Officer Aranai, Major Shairo, Engineer Muzai, and of course, Azula herself. Everyone was present because they were in the absolute final stages of planning their assault. It had been another two days since Xisheng's conversation with Kori about justifying the battle, and in that time, everything of note had finished coming together.

According to Aranai, all of the supplies they had requisitioned were accounted for: granted, not all of them had made it, but the young officer had assured Xisheng that nothing else was coming. Everything they had on the base right now was what they had available to destroy the walls of Ba Sing Se. Furthermore, all reinforcements were accounted for. There were no other forces coming to join the assault. Ultimately, the Fire Nation forces had been joined by roughly two thousand colonials, though only about half of those were Earthbenders. It was enough to get the job done, Xisheng was sure of that.

Major Shairo assured Xisheng that all of the regular army forces were ready to go at any time. The formations they would fight in and the composition of the assault forces had all been settled on, and Shairo already had a chain of command planned out down to the grunts themselves. Engineer Muzai had calculated the best tunnel strategies and supports, and had drawn up multiple ways for any obstacles to be handled if they arose during the breach.

Almost everything was ready. All that was left to do was give the Earthbenders at large sufficient training for the tunneling process. Once that was done, it could all begin. Xisheng was just making sure every detail was accounted for now.

"I agree. It's impossible to completely remove the possibility of failure during the tunneling operation. This rate of success is already astronomically good. Even though it will likely drop during the actual operation, since the number of participants will increase, we can't delay forever while hoping to achieve some perfect odds. Assuming Her Highness agrees with our plan of attack, we will begin the operation in three days."

He said this while turning his gaze to Azula, who was on the opposite end of the table. Naturally, it wouldn't do to not get the final say-so of the Crown Princess on this plan of attack. Xisheng knew she trusted his strategy, but for the sake of appearances, she needed to weigh in on it in the eyes of the important officers. Especially since she was the one who had put Xisheng in charge in the first place. If she listened to the entirety of the plan and figured that it was a legitimately good one, it added some credibility to her reasoning for appointing Xisheng as a commander.

"Well, I can hardly condone the operation without hearing the plan in its entirety. From start to finish, tell me how this strategy will unfold, Commander."

With a nod, Xisheng pointed to a thick black line on the map of Ba Sing Se and its surrounding area. "Our line of battle will start six hundred meters from the walls. This is a hundred meters less than the maximum range of our trebuchets. Our reasons for getting this close are two-fold: first, it will put our forces in range of return fire from the enemy. Ordinarily we would avoid this, but since the siege engines are a distraction, we want the enemy focused on them as much as possible. If they are able to return fire, that in and of itself will demand more of their attention."

Xisheng dragged his finger from the black line to the walls. "Secondly, our Earthbenders will be starting their tunnels from behind this battle line. Shaving a hundred meters off of how far they will have to dig reduces the odds of something going wrong, and also reduces how many benders per tunnel we'll need."

The young acting commander pointed to three different areas on the battle line, each of them pretty fair apart. "We will be launching three separate attacks. Each assault will involve its own attack force, and each will include three tunnels attempting to reach the walls. Once a tunnel successfully reaches the target location, we will begin moving explosives through the tunnel. Once that is done and everyone has been evacuated from the tunnel in question, we will light the fuse and begin advancing our assault and hold forces immediately. According to Muzai's calculations, by the time the walls go down, our forces should only have around a hundred meters to cover before reaching the breach. This does place them in range of potential debris from the blast, but will also ensure that we can maximize the window of opportunity presented to us."

Now, Xisheng gestured at three large X marks on the wall. "We cannot guarantee that each section we attack will go down, so our plan has to be flexible at this point. Depending on the number of breaches made and the terrain on the other side of the breach, we may choose to pool all of our forces on just one area. Even if we succeed at breaching the wall in all three assaults, we cannot hope to hold three areas at once so close to enemy territory. So, we'll secure the immediate area wherever breaches occur, then decide which one is the ideal ground to hold and fortify it in preparation for more reinforcements. That in and of itself is complicated, but I see no reason to go into the details of the aftermath before the operation even occurs."

With everything said and done, Xisheng fell silent and waited for Azula's judgment. Not that he was worried: aside from the fact that she had already expressed confidence in him, Xisheng knew he had a good plan. Maybe even the best plan that had ever been considered for feasibly taking these walls down. Better than Qin's plan for sure, and probably better than what anyone who replaced Qin would have come up with.

Even so, Azula made a show of ruminating over it. She didn't want to seem too eager to immediately endorse the very man she had appointed. She at least had to make it look like she was judging the plan on its own merits. Then again, it wasn't like she wasn't doing that. If Xisheng had come up with an objectively stupid plan, she would have condemned it. She just knew that he was better than that.

"All things considered, I can see no reason to disagree with this strategy. It seems that all of your advisors agree with its feasibility, and you've gone to great lengths to finalize every detail. As such, this operation has my full blessing, as does its timetable. In three days, we will attack Ba Sing Se. A great deal rides on all of your shoulders: don't grow lax now. I expect each of you to give it your all in making the final preparations."

Everyone at the table, Xisheng included, bowed. That said, he was the only one to speak. "Thank you, Your Highness. Everyone, you know what tasks must still be carried out. Dismissed."

With nods, bows, or salutes from everyone else besides Azula, the assembled officers scattered to carry out important duties. Xisheng still wasn't universally loved, but at the very least, he was obeyed without much dissent. Once everyone had dispersed, Azula gestured towards the door to the war room, signalling that Xisheng was to follow her. Xisheng had no reason to refuse, so he was soon with her out in the hallway. Once they were alone, Azula allowed her stony expression to fall, replacing it with one that was actually a little excited.

"So, this is finally it, is it? I must say, the anticipation has been killing me. This could be the greatest military success of the war, you know. Just imagine the rewards you'll reap as the one who planned it all."

Feeling a little tired from all of the work and late nights he had been pulling lately, Xisheng rubbed the bridge of his nose, giving an honest answer to that. "It'll be reward enough if I can wrap the war up and get as many people home as possible. I couldn't ask for more than that."

Azula scoffed, shaking her head in disbelief. "It wouldn't hurt you to be a little selfish from time to time, Xisheng. People who work hard deserve compensation for their efforts. Hmph, maybe you just don't realize how much you stand to gain from succeeding here."

"Do tell."

"Well, as I mentioned before, I've no doubt you'd be granted a title of nobility for your massive contribution to our nation. You would definitely grow in wealth and prestige, and could likely afford a very nice home in the best of places. You could earn a place as one of the Fire Lord's chief military advisors. Even your romantic options would open up."

To this, Xisheng cocked a quizzical eyebrow. "Most of that makes sense, but how exactly will my romantic options be affected?"

For some reason, Azula glanced away from him. "Well, that is to say, you could be considered for marriage by women of nobility at that point..."

For the life of him, Xisheng didn't quite see the allure in that. "I don't think I'd be romantically interested in any woman who would only consider loving me if I passed some sort of social caste rating first. So I don't think that'll really change anything about my love life..."

Because he was busy rubbing some exhaustion out of his eyes, Xisheng didn't notice the distinctly displeased expression that took over Azula's features. "It's not always that simple. Some noble women have obligations in their lives that infringe even on their romance. Your romantic idealism isn't aligned with how our society functions."

"I'm just saying, I'm not marrying anyone who doesn't love me because of who I am. If being a noble is the all-important criteria that supersedes all others for their affection, it's not happening."

Folding her arms and glancing at a particular spot on a metal wall, Azula muttered aloud. "Good thing I met you early, then..."

Because this was said under her breath, Xisheng did not really hear it. "What was that?"

"Nothing. What remains for you to do before the assault?"

Xisheng eyed the younger girl curiously, but didn't press her to reiterate whatever she had said a moment ago. "Honestly, not much. Most of the final preparations are being carried out by my subordinates. Heck, I think I can actually rest... at least, relative to how little of that I've been doing. I guess I'll still be taking a lot of reports and whatnot..."

"Most assuredly. Even so, perhaps you should take it easy while you have the chance. It's been awhile since we had the opportunity to train together..."

"What about training with you is taking it easy?"

This earned an annoyed glare out of the girl. "You've gotten awfully cheeky these days."

"You gave me permission to, remember?"

With a huff, Azula pointedly ignored that truth. "At any rate, since you actually have the time to use for yourself, why not spend it well? Ty Lee's been complaining every day about how busy you are, and even Mai's made some sour comments about it. I can't imagine how hard they'll complain if they find out you had spare time and still ignored them."

Xisheng smirked at the Princess, pleased to hear that. "What's this? Princess, are you longing for the old days already? It was hardly that long ago, you know."

"Don't be presumptuous. I'm just tired of bearing the brunt of their complaints. Why should I have to put up with it when you're the one causing it?"

"So I have to spend time with just the two of them, right? Are you still busy?"

With a scowl that was clearly a result of being flustered, Azula snapped at him, though it wasn't harsh. "Just come eat dinner tonight, you upstart."

Raising his hands defensively, Xisheng smiled. "Alright, alright... I'd be happy to."

Annoyed, Azula huffed one more time before turning on her heel and leaving right away. Xisheng wasn't bothered, because he could tell that it was just a matter of petty ire. Admittedly, he had missed the idea of just relaxing with the girls greatly. He wasn't used to being this busy. And the idea that they missed hanging out with him was nice as well, though he hadn't actually doubted that before now. It was just nice to have that affirmed.

For now though, he still had a day ahead of him. He personally didn't have that much to do, but he had no doubt that there were many people still vying for his official time as commander of the base. For that reason, the young commander sighed before returning to the war room.

The following day started relatively early for Xisheng. As promised, he had eaten dinner with the girls in Azula's personal quarters the night before, which was a fun reminder of slightly simpler times, when the scope of his obligations hadn't been so huge. It was weird to say that, since his obligations had included personally protecting the Crown Princess of the nation before, but having the lives of thousands of people in his hands was more demanding.

At any rate, even though it was reminiscent of old times (old being less than a month ago, ironically), it had still been a unique experience. For one, it had undoubtedly been the least amount of complaining Mai had ever done related to cooking something. In fact, Xisheng dared to say that she had almost seemed glad to do it, which was incredibly rare. The only time she had even remotely acted like that about cooking was right after his lightning accident.

Ty Lee had been acting quite strangely too. She actually hadn't been very talkative, which was unusual. Despite that, Xisheng caught her stealing odd glances at him quite often. She always engaged in conversation when someone prompted it out of her, but outside of those times, she had been weirdly lost in thought. She wasn't exactly the introspective type, so Xisheng found himself wondering what could have been on her mind.

Azula had actually been the most talkative of the bunch for once, going on about all sorts of things that would happen after the operation was successful. She seemed unusually excited about the prospect of battle, but Xisheng didn't find it too difficult to discern why. This would be the first really big achievement to her name since leaving the Fire Nation. Sure, she had tangled with the Avatar a few times, but she hadn't actually accomplished anything in regard to that. She hadn't actually captured Zuko or Iroh either, which had been the original intent of her expedition. This was to say, she hadn't actually accomplished much of value since leaving the Fire Nation, and Xisheng was sure that she was eager to change that.

Ultimately, Xisheng had still been forced to turn in for the night early, as he was tired several hours before midnight. Probably the many late nights catching up to him. There'd been unspoken disappointment from the others due to this, but Xisheng had agreed to meet with them at the training field around noon the next day.

That was where Xisheng was now, as he sat on a closed steel crate near the edge of the flat, open area that was often used for troop training. He had already given out standing orders for the day, and had assigned Shinji to the job of running any important messages to him out here on the training field. Xisheng had a scroll with some scribbling on it, but he wasn't able to focus on it much as a continuous swishing sound of a blade swinging through the air commanded his attention.

The source of this noise was Mai, who was currently whipping around that rope dart she had gotten from all the way before their boat trip. Despite having only practiced with it a few times, one would never be able to guess as much as the young woman effortlessly spun it around her body in arcs of various sizes, occasionally even using her other arm to bend the rope at a second angle while in motion. The speed of the blade spinning through the air was astounding, which was funny considering that Mai was being fairly casual with her exercise. It looked more like an act of amusement for her than actual training. Maybe that was the deadpan expression at play, since it made it look like she wasn't worried or even concentrating on what she was doing.

Unlike Xisheng, who probably needed to do that.

"This is significantly more distracting than your usual training."

Mai did not pause her motions for even a moment, though Xisheng had not expected her to.