Before I start, major thanks to everyone who reviewed last chapter, and to my beta reader, passionrenewed.

Almost every night, Zuko moans or mumbles in his sleep. But tonight, he wakes up, cold and clammy, as if he has seen Death itself. In his eyes there is a look of fear, a terrified expression never present during the day.

But it is there for only a moment, and then it is gone, making me wonder if it was only a trick of the light.

I am at his side in an instant, moving quickly despite my old joints. Something pops in my haste to get to him: he is the only one I would move this quickly for.

He looks up at me, golden eyes shining into my tired, brown ones. "Uncle," he says slowly, suddenly looking down, away from me. "Am I… like my father?"

"No," I say firmly, thinking of the man atop the flaming throne. Zuko is nothing like Fire Lord Ozai. Since my son's death, I have made it my mission to make sure that he did not fall that far astray.

Ozai was unconscious for almost a week. On his sixth day of bed rest, his fever broke and he finally woke up.

I was the only one at his bedside.

He sat up, sick and confused, his face still flushed red from his fever. After a moment, his unfocused eyes finally found mine. "Iroh?"

I smiled. "It's me." I took in his dazed appearance. "Do you feel better?"

He shrugged. "I feel hot, Iroh," he said sulkily, wiping his head, which was beaded with sweat.

Then, he looked around the rest of the room. "Is Dad here?" he asked weakly, sinking back into the silken pillows. I shook my head, not making eye contact with him.

"Could you get him?"

Though it was the last thing I wanted to do, I nodded, venturing out into the rest of the palace, hunting down my father. I finally found him, meeting with some advisors in the throne room. It took some convincing (and begging), but I got him to agree to come see Ozai.

When father walked into the infirmary, Ozai's eyes lit up. Remember, he was only six—our father was his idol. To Ozai, he could do no wrong.

But even Ozai realized that father wasn't paying any attention to him; he came in, irritated to be pulled away from his work for something so trivial as his son.

He didn't even bother to sit down. He just stood next to Ozai's bed, looking anywhere but at Ozai. The only times my father ever looked awkward were when he was dealing with his family. At state dinners, meeting with officials and ambassadors…that's where he was in his element. Yet he could barely stand still to look at his six year old.

"How are you feeling?" he asked, twiddling his fingers on the fine gold embroidery of his robe. I watched this scene from behind him, in the doorway, feeling strangely mournful.

"I feel better, Daddy," Ozai said joyfully, reaching his pudgy arms up to Azulon. The Fire Lord, though, spurned this gesture of affection, turning away to a nurse who had suddenly appeared.

"Make sure he's taken care of," he barked to the stunned young woman, who simply nodded and retreated to her medicine cabinet. With no goodbye, our father left.

Ozai looked up at me then, hurt etched in all of the lines of his face. "Iroh," he asked, sounding on the verge of tears, "Does Daddy not like me?"

Okay, so maybe I hit Twinkletoes a little hard. But I am handling the situation just fine, thank you very much, until Sokka shows up and freaks out.

He has his hands on his face, and is shrieking like a little girl. "Oh my gosh, Toph, what did you do to him?" He then takes out his boomerang and starts poking Aang. Idiot. "Is he even alive?"

I slam my foot into the ground, and Sokka goes flying, and finally shuts up. I kneel down by Aang's unmoving body.

"C'mon, Twinkletoes, wake up," I whisper, shaking him by his shoulder. No response.

Sokka approaches from behind me. "We'll get him back to Katara," he says, his voice surprisingly calm, and in the earth I can feel him, squatting and picking up Aang. "She'll know what to do with him."

I nod. As much as I sometimes don't like 'Sugar Queen', she is a healer. And we need to get Aang back to camp, anyway. In the woods, with only me and Sokka conscious, and only me being a bender, we'd probably be just asking for someone to attack us.

I am slightly surprised at how ironic this statement is when Sokka turns to me, filling me in on what he heard in the village. Like usual, I tune him out, only paying attention for important phrases: Fire Nation, and nearby.

Talk about bad timing. The one time I accidentally knock Aang out, and it turns out soldiers are practically on top us.

We crash our way into camp, loud enough that the Fire Nation can probably hear us miles away. Sokka unceremoniously deposits Aang on top of Appa, while I gather my few possessions. It is only then that I notice Katara.

Her face goes red, practically purple, and she storms over to me, again creating noises so loud that Fire Nation soldiers could track us by her footsteps alone.

That, and maybe the steam coming out of her ears. Sugar Queen's status: melted down.

It feels unbelievably good to be back in the royal procession again, despite the added military flair to it. After weeks tracking my brother and uncle (and the Avatar), it feels good to be able to order people around again, to assert my authority.

Also, I have missed my bed. A sleeping bag is nothing compared to silk sheets, after all.

But, fortunately, my return is for a greater conspiracy—as I said to Mai and Ty Lee, we are, together with the Fire Nation soldiers under our (my) command, to right a decade-old wrong. We will restore the balance in the hierarchy of the world, reasserting the Fire Nation's position of total dominance.

I turn to the assortment of men, soldiers and politicians, warriors and bureaucrats, seated around me, respectfully following my every movement. This is where I belong. In control, with everyone's eyes on me.

"Any questions?" I ask, my eyes sharp on theirs.

One brave, foolish man speaks. He wears a medal, pinned to the chest of his uniform. "Forgive me, Princess, but this exact mission has been tried before. What makes you so sure we will not fail again?"

Despite my contempt for this man, for daring to contradict me, I was hoping someone would ask this very question—I have been looking forward to answering it, you see.

"May I see your medal, Commander?" I ask icily, smiling slightly when he stammers and hands it to me. I clench it in my hands, looking down, studying it for a moment, before I turn my attention back to my audience. "Why am I sure?" I repeat slowly, a devious smile gracing my lips. "I am sure we will succeed, Commander, for several reasons. First," I say, "we are much stronger than our Earth Kingdom adversaries. While they have grown weaker throughout the war, we have expanded."

"Second," my voice changes; it is hard, cold, and unforgiving. "We will not have weak leadership like last time. This time," I use my spare hand to tuck a stray hair behind my ear, "I am in charge. And I do not tolerate failure." My hand lights with flame, and I crush the medal in my hand. It splinters into a hundred pieces, before smoldering and melting away.

I turn, walking close to the map behind me, so close that my nose is inches away from it. "Ba Sing Sae will fall," I say, more to myself than to the rest of the room.

The first thing I see is the darkening sky above me as I come to, dusk setting in all around me. I shiver at the cold winds that blow through, ruffling Appa's fur.

I hear voices, and I look down to the ground. It is even worse down there; Katara and Toph are in a huge shouting match.

"What were you doing?" Katara yells, red in the face, her hair falling down from its elegant braid. Toph gets right in her face, screaming back at her. I am afraid one of them will bend and that they'll get hurt.

Sokka, even though he has to know it won't work, tries to get in between them. "Hey, guys, calm down—" he begins, but Toph has shoved him into the ground.

"Don't hit my brother!"

"I'll hit whoever I want!"

"Well, obviously. All you do is—" In the middle of Katara's sentence, I recognize Toph's movements, and realize she is about to get into fighting stance.

Time to play Avatar.

"Break it up!" I yell, jumping and landing softly next to them. "Look, you guys need to cool off. I don't know what happened, but…"

"What happened?" Katara shrieks, her eyes bulging. I back off. "She knocked you out! She could have hurt you!"

"Oh," I say dumbly.

Katara takes deep breaths, clenching and unclenching her fists spasmodically. "Well," I start weakly, "I'm fine, and no one got hurt." I give her my biggest grin.

"I think I got hurt," Sokka mumbles from somewhere in the dirt. I kneel and help him up onto Appa's saddle.

Katara and Toph both slam their things inside, and then sit down as far as they can get from each other. Which isn't far, when you're on the same saddle, but the gesture is understood. I climb up on Appa's massive head, sighing.

It's going to be a long trip…

Green light filters down around me, singing down through the gaps in the treetops.

Even in the forest, I try to be as quiet as possible—I don't want anyone to find me. Many would call this paranoid, but after my many encounters with soldiers, I call it safe. But still, I know that there is nothing to protect from encounters with Fire Nation soldiers.

So far, though, all I have seen are a few animals. There is no sign of civilization in sight. I feel like I have suddenly dropped off of the world, fallen away from the war.

Then,in the midst of this new sense of peace,footsteps crash behind me, and I spin so quickly I nearly lose my balance. The bushes part, and two men in full Fire Nation uniform emerge, both sitting astride on two massive Komodo rhinos. The beasts grunt and growl as their riders dismount.

I am frozen.

One of them binds my hands, the other removing my small pack and going through my belongings. By this time, I am trembling uncontrollably.

Apparently, I wasn't quiet enough. One of the soldiers tosses me onto his rhino, and we are off, stalking through the underbrush.

I do not protest as they carry me back into hell.

Anyway, I have one more request: if you have this story on your favs or alert list, please MAKE SURE TO REVIEW. And, even if you don't, please review anyway!

-sugarland31