By the time Ying delivered her baby, Hope, the day had turned from morning to late afternoon. After parting from Than, Ying and Goma, Zuko hops on the back of Appa and relaxes as Aang takes the reins to fly them back to the inn that they had gotten the previous night in the lower ring. As the hours slowly tick by and the sun begins to get lower and lower in the sky, Zuko begins to feel anxious over what he's about to do. What if Azula hurt Mai to lure him out? What if she tries to kill him? What if she accuses Mai of treason for writing him letters? Questions like these plague his mind as he tries to focus on his training with Toph. Try as he might though, he can't hide his anxiety, especially from her. The young earthbender could detect the slightest change in a person's attitude or speaking due to how acute she's tuned both her hearing and touch to be. He still isn't sure just how far away she can 'See' things with her seismic sense. He had tried to kill some time by asking if she could teach him some more about earthbending out behind the inn they're staying at.

"Look Sparky, training is only going to work if you actually focus on what we're doing. What's got you this bothered anyways?" Toph asks which snaps Zuko's attention back to her, he didn't even realize he had spaced out. "And don't try to lie to me, I can tell when you're lying."

"How do you do that?" Zuko asks, trying to evade the question.

"Your heartbeat has been weird today, and I can tell when people lie because their heartbeat speeds up, their weight shifts and I can hear even the smallest shift in their voice too." Toph explains but she then folds her arms and shifts her weight to one leg before asking the question again. "What is bothering you? Katara's been acting weird too since yesterday when you split up from us."

"Fine, if I don't tell you Katara probably will anyway. I'm worried about my girlfriend. Mai, the girl in Azula's group who throws knives and sighs a lot." Toph smirks when he says this which was the opposite reaction he was expecting out of her. "We've been writing to each other ever since we met again in Omashu. But, I got a letter from her yesterday that's been worrying me. It's short, written with no emotion behind it and it's a different handwriting style than hers."

"So you think she was caught?" Toph asks, and all Zuko can do is nod at her question.

"Yes, and I'm afraid for her life. My sister is ruthless, she was groomed since childhood to be the perfect weapon. After Avatar Beifong was killed and I was born, my father ordered the fire sages to start their search for the avatar. Before my banishment we were told that the avatar was a member of the royal family, my father assumed it was my sister and began grooming her to be the perfect weapon." Zuko explains, motioning for her to take a seat beside him so he can tell her this. "However, I was lied to." Toph feels him get angry when he says that, hearing the growling undertone in his voice when he speaks. "I was told that the sages made a mistake and that the avatar was supposed to be an airbender or that Avatar Beifong was still alive. So when I found Aang, I attacked him thinking that he was the avatar and I even managed to capture him without a fight. Then, next thing I know he's broken out and I'm sent flying into the icy depths wearing full steel and brass armor that weighs almost 50 kilos."

"Was that how you learned you were the avatar?" Toph asks. "How did you survive?"

"Yeah, that was the day that I found out." Zuko replies before taking a deep breath to calm the anger in his voice. "As for how I survived, I used the avatar state but you haven't seen me use it yet. Each time I've used it I haven't remembered very much. All I can remember is gasping for air, having the water enter my lungs then I woke up on the deck of my old ship." Zuko says, recalling the events from his point of view. "Uncle says that I exploded out of the ocean with a tornado of water around my legs. With only a wave of my hand I saved my men who were also thrown overboard and stopped Appa from escaping with Aang, Katara and Sokka."

"This mean you have fought everyone in our group?" She asks and Zuko chuckles to himself realizing that he basically has fought everyone in their team.

"I don't think my sparring sessions with Yue and my uncle count, but when I was learning waterbending I accidentally scalded Yue. At the time the only thing I could do with waterbending was make the water boil." Zuko recounts, beside him Toph is swinging her feet on the bench they're sitting on. "I've sparred with my uncle on a few occasions but when he teaches, he demonstrates then has me try to do it on my own. After the duel with my father, my uncle has been... reluctant to actually firebend at me."

"You saying this because I'm being too hard on you?" Toph asks but Zuko scoffs at the question. "Because I'm not letting up on you, sparky."

"I was about to say you were too soft." Toph scowls at this statement before punching Zuko in the shoulder hard enough to knock him off the bench. "Rude. It was a joke."

"You're a lot of things, Zuko. But a comedian is not one of them." Toph says before she stands up and walks off. "Don't do anything stupid, or anything that Sokka would do."

"Aren't those the same thing?" he asks, causing her to laugh this time before she walks inside the inn as the first of the night's stars are beginning to shine. Feeling his stomach growl, Zuko decides to head inside as well. The smell of roasting beef-pork is carried on the smoke emanating from the chimney of the small Inn.

As the hours slowly tick by Zuko lays on his side in one of the beds, across from him in a makeshift hammock Aang is curled up with Momo having fallen asleep first. On the bed above him, Iroh snores with his hand draped off the side of the bed. Sokka and Yue have gotten a room to themselves and so did Katara and Toph. Once he's sure that Aang and his uncle are fully asleep, Zuko stands up from the bed before walking over to the table in the center of the room. He ignites a small flame onto the candle and grabs some parchment and an extra map that Sokka had given him in case they got separated. "Uncle, I may need your help. If you are reading this and I have not returned, get everyone together and come to the place I circled on the map. Katara will fill you in on the details." He stabs his pearl dagger into the paper and pins it to the table right beside the map.

Silently, Zuko changes his clothes back into his firenation armor, noticing that it feels tighter around his shoulders and biceps than it had been. His frame has bulked with muscle from months of training. His cuirass is almost difficult to put on due to how much muscle he's built up over the last five months. The ties that pull the shoulder pauldrons against his skin can barely be knotted together but he manages to get his armor on. Zuko grabs Aang's glider staff and an extra compass before he climbs through the open window. He quietly walks a good distance away from the inn before clicking the release of the wings on the glider. The orange fan wings expand outwards from the spring loaded mechanism allowing Zuko to throw the glider forwards then sprint after it and jump up onto the glider. He flies away into the dead of night that's almost pitch black.

Zuko circles the small outpost once held by the firenation trying to see if anyone else aside from Mai is there. The black haired woman sits alone looking into a fire, she's seated against a large rock with random bits of debris from the battle dotting the landscape around her. "She's alone, but the debris is creating shadows where someone could hide in ambush." He monologues. Freeing a hand, Zuko lowers his arm beneath the glider before creating a ball of fire in his hand trying to make it as bright as possible. Mai instantly looks up at the circling fireball orbiting her campfire before realizing that it's Zuko who's finally arrived. With the extra light, he swoops in low around the outside of the campfire, making sure no one can hide anywhere near Mai before he finally lands.

"Zuko." Mai says as he lands just in front of her, "Zuko you shouldn't have come here, she knows."

"I came here to rescue you, Mai." Zuko says as he tries to grab her hand but she pulls away and steps back. "Mai, please. If you stay she's going to hurt you."

"If I go with you, she'll hurt Tomtom, she'll have my family branded as traitors and banished... or even worse." Mai says, "Zuko you need to go. Please. Just..." She pleads but she trails off when she notices the embers wafting off the flames have changed. The floating orange embers drifting away flicker before turning a bright blue. Almost individually dozens of embers turn blue before vanishing into the night sky, then the flames themselves burn blue. The echo of her high heeled steel boots reverberates off the rock face cradling the outpost. "Well well well, you're certainly a hard man to track down Zuzu. But, when I caught that first messenger hawk I knew I had my chance to bring you in."

"Azula." Zuko growls as his sister walks up from the darkness, her armored form illuminated by the campfire Mai was sitting behind. "If you hurt her, I swear I will burn you and the entire firenation to ash."

"I haven't done anything, Zuzu... well not today at least." Azula says as she slowly walks around the campfire getting closer towards him but Zuko walks opposite of her his fists clenched in anger. "I will say, you certainly have a way with words Zuzu. I was actually excited to read your letters to her."

"What's stopping me from beating you, taking Mai with me and bringing Mai's family into hiding?" Zuko asks but Azula just laughs.

"I'm already a step ahead of you, Zuzu." Azula says as she stops moving before looking over to Mai. "I already have a messenger hawk ready and waiting to leave for New Ozai with the orders for Colonel Shinu to arrest Mai's family and have them brought to our Father." Zuko's anger begins to boil, clasping his hands tightly together, he bends fire into existence over his arms. "But... I will burn the letter if you do one simple thing."

"What." Zuko growls, the flames over his arms beginning to glow brighter and brighter as his anger boils.

"Surrender." Azula says. "You surrender, and I will forget all about that little letter of mine. If you surrender, tomorrow we will take Ba Sing Sei and we'll finally get to go home. You will be welcomed home as a hero, father will restore your honor and claim to the throne and you'd even get to reign as Firelord one day. All you have to do is help me and you will have your honor back." Once again, her tone feels so inviting, tempting and alluring but he knows it's all a trap.

"That's not what's going to happen." Zuko says, causing Mai to gasp with fear when he speaks, "I am not going to take any part in helping you destroy Ba Sing Sei. I will not help ruin the lives of these people any more than the firenation already has. You are going to keep Mai and her family out of this."

"Such a shame... father might actually kill you this time." Azula sighs before looking past Zuko into the darkness. "But fine, I accept your surrender." Azula says before making eye contact with Zuko again. "Ty Lee. You know what to do."

"Sorry Zuko." Ty Lee's cheerful voice almost startles Zuko as she appears from the darkness behind him but he isn't given long to process it. Five quick and surprisingly hard strikes hit him in the kidney, back, neck, leg and chest rendering him immobile as the nimble chi blocker cuts off his ability to bend.

"Nighty night. Sweet Prince." Azula says as Ty Lee chops Zuko on the back of the neck and knocks him out.

The sensation of moving begins to wake Zuko from unconsciousness. The churning of steam engines, turbines and gears reverberate quietly through the walls and floor making the whole room vibrate. His eyes slowly opening and adjusting to the crimson light in the room. As he awakens, a sore pain in his shoulders is present and his arms are touched by cold steel. Over his mouth is a muzzle with a small slit where his nose is and a small gap over his mouth with three small bars over it. His arms all the way to his biceps are locked in heavy manacles that are anchored to supports on the floor. His legs are bound together in both chains and leg irons that swallow up to his knees keeping him standing upright. As he turns his head to the side, he sees what is causing the pain in his shoulders. Long thin acupuncture needles with golden feathers at the ends stick out of his arms and shoulders. "Ty Lee...." Zuko monologues, seeing that the needles are embedded in chi points along his arms and likely his back. Deciding to test a theory, Zuko takes a deep breath in. Despite all the restraints, and even the chi point acupuncture needles preventing most of his abilities, it seems that Ty Lee didn't cancel out his bending entirely. The room he's in is solid steel with no carpet, and sconces only for the crimson torches that illuminate the room. The large steel doors ahead of him bear the logo of the firenation. With a creaking strain the doors suddenly open revealing Azula who is followed by Mai and Ty Lee. Mai can't bring herself to look into Zuko's amber eyes, she silently enters the room behind Azula walking timidly behind her.

"You could've had it all Zuzu but it's safe to say that you're just another failed incarnation of the avatar." Azula mocks as she gets up close to her brother, pinching the muzzle over his mouth, pulling his head in order to force him to look at her. "You could've come home a fully realized avatar, the one who ended the war for the sake of the firenation and crushed Ba Sing Sei beneath your heel. You could've had your honor back, been able to get married to Mai and one day rule as Firelord. You could have melted that frozen stronghold in the north, truly have earned the name The Dragon of the North... but what did you do? Tell me Zuzu, I don't think my memory serves me right about this."

"If you've come here to guilt trip me then don't bother." Zuko's voice is slightly muffled by the iron mask over his face but Azula scoffs when he says this. "I did what was right, what had to be done. Zhao was trying to kill the moon and it would have doomed all of humanity."

"So that gave you the right as the so-called 'Avatar' to slay a hundred thousand of your own countrymen? Is that it? Three years ago you spoke out in Father's war room, protesting General Mung's plan to throw a battalion of new soldiers in front of a highly trained and dangerous earthbender corp. You're no Avatar, Zuko. You're a hypocrite. Many of those same men you spoke out for that day, are dead beneath the frigid waves of the north pole." Zuko rolls his eyes at this statement.

"You're a fool, Azula. What do you think, in that piece of burnt charcoal you call a brain, would've happened if the moon was destroyed? I spared everyone I could, I didn't attack anyone who laid down their weapons and surrendered, the ones that judged our countrymen were the ocean and moon spirit. Not me." Zuko responds before glancing at Mai. "You're trying to leverage our people on me? When the people under your own control fear you, they don't respect you, they're afraid that if they so much as look at you wrong you'll maim them out of anger. Just like a Father did me, and just like a monster would." This statement causes Azula to grab her brother by the hair, sinking her nails into his scalp and forehead.

"Don't you dare call me that." She says, scratching her nails deeply against his scalp causing it to bleed. "You're nothing more than a traitor. Father is disgusted with you." Azula says before roughly throwing his head down and letting go of him.

"Ozai can go to hell." Zuko responds. While Azula doesn't notice the shift in temperature in the room, Mai and Ty Lee do, a wave of heat begins radiating off of Zuko causing a heat mirage to radiate around him. "Azulon and Sozin both can rot there as well. How many people have to die in this stupid, fucking war?!"

"As many as it takes for the firenation to rule the world." Azula responds before turning her evil sneer to Mai. "Your relationship with Mai is over, I suggest you two say your peace before we burn Ba Sing Sei to the ground." Azula says as she begins to walk out of the room with Ty Lee following behind her. "I'm going to be bringing you home, Avatar, after I've personally killed the earth king." Azula leaves the room, followed timidly by Ty Lee, slamming the iron door behind them as she exits.

With the two now alone in the room, a heavy silence falls over them drowning out the noise of heavy machinery. "Z-zuko... Zuko I'm sorry." Mai says, her normally stoic outward demeanor having vanished, now she's little more than a terrified girl sobbing before him. "She... she burned me." Mai says as she pulls up her sleeves revealing burn wounds along her arms. "It happened when she found me writing the first letter to you."

"You don't have to apologize." Zuko says, causing Mai to bend down and embrace him. "Azula is ruthless, she's a monster."

"She threatened to hurt Tomtom... said she was going to burn him like you." She cries and all Zuko can do is fester in anger over what Azula has done. "I love you Zuko. I really do... but I'm more afraid of her."

"I love you too Mai, and I'm sorry." Zuko replies as she silently sobs into his shoulder. As she does so, Zuko feels her accidentally dislodge one of the pins embedded in his arm restoring some of the feeling. He doesn't know how long she stays with him, silently crying into Zuko's shoulder but he's startled when the voice of Azula comes over the intercom of the strange vessel they're in.

"Mai. Come to the helm. We're going to make contact with the wall soon. Forget about the avatar and come up here. Now." Azula orders and the mention of her voice startles her.

"Goodbye, Mai." Zuko says as Mai picks herself up and dries her eyes with her robes.

"G-goodbye. Zuko." She says before standing to her full height and leaving the room.

Zuko watches as Mai takes one last look at him before exiting the room, shutting the giant steel doors behind her as she leaves. He waits for a few minutes making sure no one is going to be coming in before he makes his move. Shifting his shoulder and rotating his upper arm round in as big a circle as the manacles will allow. He manages to shake one of the acupuncture needles out of his arm watching as it clatters to the iron floor. Smirking, Zuko shifts his upper body and neck trying to position himself to get closer to the needle. Forming his lips as if he was going to whistle, Zuko inhales sharply and sucks in a large amount of air, managing to suck the needle into his teeth by the feathered end using his airbending. Now with the needle between his teeth, he leans over as much as he can towards his right arm and jams the needle into the lock on the side of the manacles. Time ticks slowly as he finagles the needle with his teeth inside the lock, poking at the tumblers until he finally hears one click. Hearing this he grins to himself as he manages to pick the two remaining tumblers inside the lock causing the latch to come undone. Using the needle he turns the lock around before shaking his arm repeatedly in order to free the latch from the holes it's fed through keeping the manacle together. The iron lock clatters to the ground with a heavy thud as it comes off allowing him to free his dominant hand from the restraint.

With his hand free he quickly pulls out the other needles from his left arm before picking the lock and freeing his other arm. Now with both hands free, he pulls all the needles from his right arm and his back before picking the locks over his muzzle then over his leg irons. After freeing himself from the restraints, Zuko stands to his full height and stretches. He takes a deep breath in and exhales sharply, igniting flames from his breath. "Attention crew! The drill is 1 mile from the wall. Battle stations." The voice of War Minister Ching comes over the intercom finally revealing just what sort of mechanical monstrosity Zuko is imprisoned on. "This means war. Azula." Zuko monologues before flexing his muscles and igniting two fireballs over his hands. He has calmed his anger and now all that's left is determination. The Crown Prince of the Firenation has to save Ba Sing Sei.