From Mortal To Divinity

"Please tell me you're here to kill me," says Mai.

By Agni the last member of our team is also emotionally unbalanced. It seems as if I'm the only normal one around here. Azula is too sadistic, Zuko is a professional at brooding, Ty Lee is far too happy and optimistic, and our final member, Mai, is… I don't even know what to call her. She's definitely not brooding, if I had to describe it I'd have to settle for dispassionate or unsentimental.

Like the other two ladies in the group, she's definitely beautiful, just a different sort from the other two. Whereas Ty Lee is the free spirited beauty, and Azula is the regal beauty, Mai is the cold type of beauty.

Azula and Mai stare at each other for a few seconds before breaking out into laughter.

"It's great to see you Mai," says Azula.

Ty Lee being Ty Lee decides to jump at Mai with her arms wide open, prompting Mai to catch her in a hug.

"I thought you said that you were going to run away to the circus? You said that you found your calling there" says Mai in her monotone voice.

"Well, Azula called a little louder" replies Ty Lee.

"I have a mission" interrupts Azula. "And I need you both."

Zuko, who is currently standing next to me whispers "What are we chopped liver"

Mai, either not hearing him or ignoring him, says "Count me in. Anything to get me out of this place. First though, there's a situation I may need your help with."

Azula smiles and answers "Anything."

Mai turns and walks towards a set of well made double doors as she says "Come on, you'll probably want to get all the details from my father"

Through the double doors is a moderately big throne room. On the walls are flags of the Fire Nation, a blue carpet leads from the doors to a raised dais. On the raised dais sits a throne with the back shaped like a three floor pagoda.

Azula walks to the throne and sits on it, Zuko and I stand on her left and right respectively while Mai and Ty Lee stand guard at the steps of the dais.

Once situated on the throne, she crosses her legs and asks "What is the situation?"

The governor of the city of Omashu, who's apparently Mai's father, kneels in a seiza and explains "Yesterday afternoon a plague swept through the city and infected the majority of the inhabitants. The only ones not affected were the soldiers and my family. I made the decision of exiling the affected, and the rebels took the opportunity to leave the city in the confusion. Worse, they kidnapped my son Tom Tom and are demanding a trade for King Bumi. The trade is set for noon today."

A few seconds of silence go by before I hear Azula heavily inhale, then exhale before she speaks.

"There are so many things wrong with what you just said," she says.

She taps her fingers on the arm of the chair for a few seconds before getting up and inclining her head to tell us to follow.

As she walks out of the room she says "You're lucky that I don't have time to thoroughly go over every mistake you made. Stay here. We'll take care of this mess for you."

Before she opens the door she stops and turns her head to the still kneeling governor and says "This will be the last time that you make such a mess of your assignment."

Her piece said she calmly walks out of the room.

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I stand in Bumi's cage as it's slowly brought down to the ground where the trade is scheduled to happen. On the right, Azula's group is already there waiting. It takes about two minutes before Aang's group arrives.

Aang stands about as tall a Ty Lee, a few inches shorter than Azula. He wears his regular yellow and orange monk outfit, staff/glider in his right hand and a yellow hat covering his tattooed bald head. Following him are Katara and Sokka, who interestingly enough look like twins. In the show one of them, I don't remember which, was the older sibling by about a year. Here they look to be the same age, with Katara standing about an inch taller than her brother. They both stand around as tall as Azula, have skin as dark as mine, brown hair and blue eyes, and wear traditional water tribe clothes without the winter jackets. Sokka, unlike his sister, has a cloth that seems to contain something, wrapped around his neck.

They approach Azula's group before stopping about fifteen feet away. Behind them, out of the corner of my eyes, I can make out Zuko climbing the construction platform and settling himself ten feet at their back.

Before anybody can say anything, I decide to completely ruin team avatar's plan and say "Those are interesting tattoos for a rebel to have on their hands."

Aang immediately tenses and turns his head to face me.

Before he can retort I begin to raise the temperature in the area and continue speaking "Paired with the staff and your clothes, one might mistake you for an air nomad."

Now his face loses a little color.

I still don't give him time to speak before I carry on "However that would be preposterous. The only air nomad left is the avatar, and there's no way that he's a twelve year old. Right?"

By now his face is completely pale and I can see sweat forming on his forehead. His friends aren't in better conditions as they too have begun sweating.

Azula, having caught on, speaks in an honest, yet somehow still condescending tone "Of course not Kagutsuchi. Are you stupid? The avatar is a master of all four elements, not some twelve year old brat."

Along with Mai, she approaches Aang and continues to speak "Now hand over the baby and take your crazy king so that we can go our separate ways."

Nodding, Aang hands over Tom Tom while I hop off the top of the cage onto the platform behind Azula. Mai takes Tom Tom and retreats back to where Ty Lee is waiting.

Azula makes a show of turning to leaving, only to face Aang again and break his staff in half using a lightning encased knife chop. Before Aang's group can process what happened, I move into the offensive and flip over their heads to land at Katara's back, and knock her out with a hit to the back of the neck. To my right, Zuko moves in and proceeds to knock out Sokka. I turn to face Azula just in time to see Aang fall unconscious from a lightning encased palm to the solar plexus.

I roll my shoulders, look at the unconscious group on the ground and say "That was far easier than I imagined."

Azula nods her head and replies "Yes it was. Good job catching on to their identities."

Zuko turns to face his sister and asks "Ok, we've captured the avatar. Now what?"

"Now, we convince him to take our father out" she answers.

"What? Why can't we do it ourselves?" asks Zuko.

Mai and Ty Lee, who had left to return Tom Tom to his mother, return with a squad of soldiers who tie up the avatar's group and take him away.

They join us and look to Azula to answer the question. However, before Azula can answer the question, I do "Politics"

Azula turns to me and asks with a smile "Have you finally figured it out?"

With a nod I answer "It took me a while but I did."

Azula stares at me with a raised eyebrow, and with a sigh I explain "If we were to take down Ozai ourselves we would have to deal with the nobles and generals who are loyal to him. This would most likely plunge the Fire Nation into a civil war and leave it wide open for the Earth Kingdom to attack. If the avatar takes down Ozai then the nobles and generals who are loyal to Ozai have no choice but to side with Azula, especially since they know that she is his favorite."

"Civil war?" asks Zuko. "Didn't you say that if it came down to it most of the soldiers would follow you?"

"I did. However, that's on the condition that the information is properly relayed to them. The generals loyal to Ozai will most certainly misinform them though."

The group nods in understanding and Azula simply smiles sadistically. She makes to speak again, only for me to interrupt her.

"However, if you go about it this way the Fire Nation will have to end the war and most likely give up a majority of the colonies back to the Earth Kingdom."

She nods and answers "That's fine. The war by this point is really pointless. No one remembers why Fire Lord Sozin started it in the first place. Besides, the other nations are crippled and will have to rebuild for generations to come while the Fire Nation will just keep improving."

Looking around the group I can tell that the others completely agree with her, so I shrug my shoulders and simply say "You're the Fire Lord… or would it be Fire Lady?"