Azula lay on a small cot in a forgotten closet on Admiral Zhao’s flagship and tried to get some rest. Stuffy and dirty, it was not nearly as comfortable as the room on her former ship. It didn’t help that her body still ached from the blast that she'd barely survived a week ago. If she'd been in her room rather than on the deck...she tried not to think about it.

  She looked at the ceiling and bared her teeth. A few floors above her, the man who’d tried to kill her (she had no doubts it was Zhao, even though the actual assassins were pirates) was plotting his assault on the great Northern Water Tribe city of Agna Qel'a. A massive fleet had left Fire Nation ports. They would arrive soon, bearing catapults that could launch dangerous fireballs. It would be a great battle. Azula wished she was part of it. She could see herself as a great general, dispatching death and destruction upon the enemies of her great Nation.

  Instead, she was hiding from her own people in a cramped room. How’d she fallen so low? She’d been the favored child, once, but Zuko had weaseled his way into their father’s good graces. When she’d tried to prove she was the better one, everything had gone horribly wrong. The scar over her eye burned with the memory.

  “Princess,” a voice whispered from the door.

  She walked the foot from her cot to the door and opened it. Lieutenant Jee stood before her. He bowed, holding out some bread and cheese. “General Iroh says that we should be arriving at Agna Qel'a within a day.”

  “Thank you, Lieutenant.” Azula accepted the gift. “Your help is most appreciated." To think, for most of their time together on the boat, she hadn't realized the loyalty of her men. Still, she'd learned to esteem their hard work. "Where does he have you working?"

  Lieutenant Jee scowled. "Third Officer: in charge of the night shift as well as checking all our attack boats and gear. To think, I was in charge of my own vessel."

  "You will be again, if I have anything to say about it."

  He smiled. "Yes, Princess."

  She nodded. "Tell General Iroh that I will be ready.”

  The sailor waited there for a moment.

  “Is there something else?” Azula said. The longer they talked here, the greater the danger of getting spotted.

  “General Iroh would like to know your plan.”

  Azula smiled. “Would he now?"

  Lieutenant Jee chuckled. "You two have the strangest relationship."

  She grew serious once more. "I'll meet him at sunset.”

  "Yes, Princess."

  ***

  Sailors rushed about the deck of Zhao’s flagship, preparing the great weapons for the attack. Azula had dressed herself in the red and gold military garb, even donning a mask. It should do to keep her from being discovered. She made her way to the rendezvous point, otherwise known as Iroh's room. Her shoes clanged on the iron deck.

  She’d circled a smoke stack and turned toward a stairwell. She'd almost reached it when a man stepped in front of her. He stood tall and stiff, and his hair held the first dusting of gray.

  “You there!” he said, pointing at her. “Where do you think you’re going?”

  Behind her mask, her eyes widened. She tried to deepen her voice as much as she could. “To get some food for General Iroh.”

  The man tilted his head. “How old are you, son?”

  She swallowed. “I’m of age.”

  “Every year, the men get younger,” the man murmured, shaking his head. “This war is exacting a terrible cost.”

  What was he talking about? The Fire Nation was powerful. It owned the resources and manpower to wage war for the next twenty years, didn’t it? That's what she'd always been told. Azula frowned.

  “Well,” he said, his eyes sad and kind. “Carry on. Don’t let me see you loafing about.”

  “Yes, sir,” she said. She turned to go down a stairwell to Iroh’s room. She knocked on the door.

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  Iroh was already waiting for her and ushered her into the room. He stroked his gray beard. “Admiral Zhao attacks at sunrise, for it is then our power will wax, and the waterbenders' will wane. Are you sure you want to do this?”

  Azula grimaced, thankful he couldn’t see under her mask. “I must be avenged.”

  “To pursue vengeance is like willingly going before Koh the Face Stealer. You may succeed in your task, but at what risk and at what cost?”

  “Zhao tried to kill me!” she said. "You know it's true. No one else had the means and motive, and don't you think it was too convenient that he caught and executed those idiot pirates so quickly?"

  “I am not disputing that,” Iroh said.

  "Neither of us is safe while he lives.”

  He turned away from her and cleared his throat. “I just fear for you. I had a son, once. I don’t wish to lose a daughter.”

  In her current state of cold, calculating fury, Azula thought she was past weaker feelings. She was wrong. A tear slipped from her eye.

  “Thank you,” she said. No other words came to mind. Without thinking any further, she hugged him. It was the first hug she’d given in years. She quickly stepped back and smoothed her uniform. “Have you brought the items I asked for?”

  He nodded. “I would ask if you had a plan, but I know you do.”

  “The only chance I’ll have to kill Zhao without being seen is in the chaos of battle.”

  “I fear he is planning something terrible,” Iroh said. “He keeps mentioning that he plans to destroy the waterbenders’ power from the moon spirit.”

  “Interesting,” Azula said. "I wonder if I gave him that idea..." Her mind drifted back to her first meeting with Zhao and her somewhat useless threat that she'd sooner sail the world alone until the moon spirit died and the world turned to desolation. Perhaps he'd taken that a little too literally.

  "Let's hope he doesn't succeed," Iroh said.

  ***

  At midnight, Azula left on a small boat that Lieutenant Jee had provided. She’d dressed herself all in black so the darkness would cover her. If she was spotted by Zhao's men or the defenders of Agna Qel'a, neither would hesitate to kill her. She paddled quickly and silently across the black water toward one of the great cliffs that defended the harbor of the Northern Water Tribe.

  When she reached an icy cliff, she stood up in the boat and took off her dark outer garments. Underneath, she’d dressed in grayish-white clothing. It would be the perfect camouflage. She picked up some grappling gear and attached herself to the cliff. She leaned over and put her hand as close to the bottom of the boat as possible. Blue fire erupted from her hand and melted a large hole. The little boat sank quickly. She smiled. On this mission, there was no going back.

  ***

  It took most of the night and early morning to reach the outer wall. The deep, frigid cold forced her to periodically use a technique that her uncle had taught her called "breath of fire". Unfortunately, part of the technique required exhaling her flame. Whenever she stopped to use the technique, she covered her mouth with her hand to ensure no one on the wall spotted the light.

  She reached the Water Tribe’s outer wall around noon the next day. Already, the Fire Nation ships were pummeling them with every catapult they had. The fireballs blew holes in the wall, but the waterbenders reformed them. It was a race to see which group would break first.

  Unfortunately for the Water Tribe, Azula was a loyal daughter of the Fire Nation, one who needed to get Zhao away from his men so that she could kill him. She spotted a relatively undefended area on the wall and leaped down to it from the top of the cliff. Right before she landed, she blasted two jets of fire from her hands to slow her fall. She rolled when her feet touched the ground and immediately jumped up.

  Only three waterbenders defended this section. They turned their heads in surprise and started to bring their hands up to attack. They were too late, however. Azula blasted the first one with a fiery punch, knocking him off the wall into the water below. The second and third were also no match for her. She knocked them out cold with quick blasts.

  It was strange to look at the battle from the waterbenders’ perspective. A mindbogglingly large fleet of ships faced her. Fireballs crashed against the wall upon which she was standing, exploding huge gashes in it. The whole wall rumbled with each impact. The waterbenders froze many of the fireballs and created icebergs to block their advance.

  She needed to let her people in. She pointed her palms down and channeled the most powerful, most intense heat she could. It melted through the ice like a hot knife through butter. Steam hissed from the rapidly liquefying ice. She stepped back so as not to fall into the massive crevice, which had formed. By the time she'd finished, it'd gone all the way down to the ocean below.

  She smiled in triumph, and then she looked up. The Fire Nation ships had noticed and were targeting her section of the wall. Fireballs were coming her way. She looked over. Waterbenders had seen it as well, and were running towards her.

  It was time to go. She jumped off the wall onto a roof. She continued hopping from roof to roof until she reached the ground of Agna Qel'a. Then, she disappeared into the alleyways of the city made of ice.

  Phase one of her plan was complete. Phase two was about to begin. Now she had to sneak all the way to the Spirit Oasis, which was in the very back of the city, far from the walls she had just opened. There, in that most protected, most sacred place, the moon and ocean spirits resided. There, she would wait for Zhao.

  With everyone’s attention being commanded by the attack, Azula easily slipped in and out of shadows and alleys. Many houses were abandoned as women and children fled the attack. Close to sunset, she made her way past the palace and arrived at the Spirit Oasis behind it. Verdant, peaceful grass covered the ground, and trees reached toward the heavens above, where the moon was first making its appearance. Many blissfully calm pools of water dotted the landscape. Even Azula could sense the tranquility of this sacred spot.

  However, she knew she couldn't let it stay that way. This place was about to become a battleground, for everything was going according to plan. She could hear the Fire Nation troops in the city.

  Her plan was to wait. And then she saw Katara and some white-haired girl standing over an unconscious Aang. The arrows on his head and arms, and even his eyes, were glowing a bright white.