Island hopping across the Fire Islands was, for all the tasks Xing assigned Aang and his friends, largely uneventful. There were far too little soldiers and town guards to offer any real problems. With the earlier briefings from Iroh and Xing to guide him, Aang took to sabotaging in a thorough manner that his earlier adventures could never match.

In the dead of night, they flew through a poorly guarded factory complex covering an entire island, stopping only for Toph to seal up the metal wastewater pipes or Katara to reverse the water flow to flood and irrevocably damage the machinery and forges. Sokka had meticulously planned the routes they took, ensuring that maximum damage was caused on the factory island before the sun rose. The young Avatar chipped in as well, melting or cutting through structural beams, or helping Toph carve channels to send the hills of coal and ore rolling down into the coast or river. Dockyards and roads were also broken up with ample use of earthbending.

Just for added insult, Aang and Katara collected as much of the polluted water as they could, and then sent it upstream to flood the barracks and overseers’ homes, as well as taint their wells. It should serve as a good lesson, otherwise at the very least it’d still slow down the Fire Nation’s war effort that much more.

They hit other islands in a similar manner, destroying only the war factories and shipyards, with barely any real damage inflicted on the island’s populace or garrisons. It was somewhat comforting to know that even Xing and Azula were averse to targeting innocent civilians in their campaign of terror.

By the time they reached the outskirts of the Capital Island, Aang counted about four islands visited in just as many days. The gang hunkered down in an abandoned noble’s estate on the outskirts of Capital City. Supposedly, its previous residents had been…evicted by Azula due to corruption.

Aang tried not to think about it too much.

Questionable as her actions were, Azula was true to her word, just like Xing. The sprawling manor was some ways off the main road, which meant the risk of nosey patrols checking on them were minimized. It was also still stocked with supplies, as the old owners had been ejected in a hurry. Most of the food in the pantry and storeroom had rotted and had to be thrown out, but the sacks of flour and dried meat were still edible enough, and the overgrown garden still had fruits and vegetables to sate Aang’s diet.

Coupled with the residence being fully furnished (if a bit dusty), it was probably one of the gang’s more comfortable stays outside of Omashu and Agna Qel’a. The plan was to wait for the right day before moving out again, and seeing that their trip was far smoother than expected the gang had some days left to while away. Fortunately, the manor provided ample distraction during their wait.

Sokka spent a whole afternoon after their first night in the main study room and going through its displays of weapons and armor. Toph found a disturbing amount of amusement in listening to Katara read aloud various Fire Nation ‘romance’ books, while the waterbender spent the time outside of giggling along with Toph rifling through the noble’s vanity tables.

Not that Aang paid too much attention to Katara experimenting with makeup. No, sir, he was most definitely not stealing glances as the girl fixated on the mirror as she combed her hair or smacked her lips after applying lipstick.

It didn’t help at all when occasionally Katara would ask him for his thoughts.

“What do you think, Aang? Does this Fire Nation face powder make me look a bit like a mime?”

No she did not.

Katara applied just a fine dusting of white face powder to lighten the tint of her skin only by a smidge. The rouge on her cheeks and the highlights on her eyes made her look…nice. It was an interesting kind of nice, but still nice nonetheless.

“Uh…” But for some reason he couldn’t tell her that, only managing to shake his head vigorously.

And that made Katara freeze up and quickly turn away, and Aang might’ve been imagining the rouge on her cheeks darken.

The airbender tried not to stick around Katara’s alone time after that, and focused instead on his training. He recalled Iroh’s and Bumi’s lessons to refine his stance and movements, as well as the tips given by Katara’s and Sokka’s grandaunt in regards to waterbending.

It was disturbing to know that their bending arts were used towards brutal ends, but Aang could not deny that combat bending had made his movements sharper and more fluid. The difference between how Bumi and Yama earthbended - with quick bursts of chi that gave little time for anyone to react - compared to Toph’s raw but telegraphed moves was obvious once it was pointed out to Aang and Toph (to her annoyance at first), as was Kilin’s more ruthless and rapid use of water and ice compared to Pakku and Katara. Even Iroh had demonstrated the difference in traditional firebending and the pared down version used by skilled warriors.

In all cases, the emphasis was on channeling chi as efficiently as possible, which resulted in less bodily movements and faster bending. The amount of force used was secondary to the speed and accuracy in which it was applied.

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Where Katara focused on drawing water towards herself for a couple of seconds before sending out a powerful whip, Kilin would fling the water from its source to her targets in smaller but no less dangerous blades of water. She compensated for the lack of a shield in the blob of water Katara used by darting around a lot, and even with her advanced age Kilin managed to close the distance with Aang or Katara during sparring more often than not.

“In combat, being twice as fast as your opponent not only means you’ll hit him first, but you also get to hit him twice as many times.” Kilin’s cheery smile during her lecture was eerie. Not as sinister as Hama’s according to Katara, but it carried a sort of edge to it. The kind that warned Aang to be mindful about how close he sat next to Katara.

“A small but quickly formed water blade will cut just as well as a large one, and doesn’t take up much of your attention to wield. A small ice shield might shatter after catching one firebolt, but it’s easy enough to create that you’ll have five more thrown out as you make your escape, which is infinitely better than being stuck in place keeping a single bulky ice wall up. Slow and unwieldy bending leaves you open if the attack is avoided or the defense is breached.”

She finished with a casual shrug. “Of course, if you’re as powerful as you are fast, all the better... Three avalanches beat one any day. Just mind your stamina.”

And while Bumi personally preferred raw displays of power, he also had Aang focus on smaller, more accurate earthbending rather than the massive boulders and columns that he and Toph liked to use. “If you can thread a needle through a string, a boulder through a house becomes far easier.”

“Isn’t it threading a string through a needle?”

“Pfft. Where’s the difficulty in that? Anyway, once you get used to concentrating your bending into a fine point, it’ll make fights in difficult places a lot easier. Also helps if you’re worried about hitting the wrong people. Do it quickly, and you’ll get tired of winning so many fights.”

The advice from the elders made Aang, Toph and Katara shift their usual training to focus on speed and precision. Unsurprisingly Toph was the first to reach a minimum for her movements, while conjuring detailed sculptures from the ground instead of the usual columns and boulders. It was a little more challenging for Aang and Katara, but there was definite progress there. Even Sokka spent some time swinging his sword against armor racks taken from the study room, honing his skills to the point where he was practicing in eerie silence and only the slicing of the air could be heard.

The big day came a couple of days later, and the gang flew out at dawn. The accessories to Appa’s armor was fully deployed, covering the air bison in thick leather and plates of metal. Despite the weight that would slow him down, Aang’s careful use of fire bursts helped get the air bison up in the air in no time, and get them soaring towards their target at a rate much faster than Appa’s usual speed.

They did not hit the capital immediately, but instead headed for the main docks which led to the Royal Plaza. Appa swooped low, and the Avatar announced his presence by delivering a careful barrage of fire into the weapon ports of the guard towers looming over the plaza. Oversized bolt throwers were turned into twisted heaps of metal when the flames inevitably washed into the towers and heated up exposed bolt heads tipped with blasting jelly.

Aang felt some guilty relief at seeing the towers’ sentries limping out from the billowing smoke, singed but otherwise unharmed.

Those towers that did not explode fell victim instead to Katara’s barrage of ice shards cutting through cords and chains of the bolt throwers to disable them, or whole towers were toppled instead when Toph got bored and leapt off Appa, encased in metal.

The response from the defenders were annoyingly quick, and after the first attack run, Toph had to quickly climb back on for Appa to take to the safety of the skies. Bolts of metal and fire tried to bracket them in, but Aang and Katara kept the projectiles at bay with water and wind.

Sokka kept track of the retaliation, finding a pattern for them to exploit. “Right, it takes them at least fifteen seconds to reload those bolt throwers, it should be enough time for us to hit a tower and head back up.”

Aang felt like they could hit two towers with that time, but agreed with Sokka to err on the side of caution.

“And wait for it…aaand…now! That tower, right below us!”

They dove in, and Aang was quietly glad that the crew of the bolt thrower knew what was coming and fled instead of trying for a desperate reload. The airbender sent out a blast of air first, to knock them out of the tower, before pouring flames to set off the ammunition stored within. Appa took to the skies again with long seconds to spare, and they were well out of harm’s way when the next salvo of giant explosive arrows filled the air.

With Sokka’s timing, Aang repeated the stunt four more times in succession, each time feeling relief warring with his guilt as he hesitated just a fraction in his attacks to let the tower’s inhabitants clear out. Their objective here was to disable the towers and not slaughter everyone they could, Aang convinced himself.

He would not partake in bloody violence like Xing for as long as he could. There was enough guilt on his hands as is.

Appa was about to dive in for a sixth attack run when the gang noticed something from the horizon out at sea. A single line of white light pierced the sky. Xing’s signal.

“Right, the crazy psychopath is here,” Sokka noted redundantly. “So, do we stick around for another go?”

Aang shook his head. “No, we stick to the plan. It’ll take time to find Ozai, even if he’s in the royal palace.”

“Good point, though we can’t find him too fast,” Toph added with a nod.

Aang set off two brilliant blasts of fire into the air to answer Xing’s signal before Appa took the gang into the heart of the Fire Nation. The palace complex was directly before them, so they were circling above it in no time, trying to figure out the best place to land. If they got off at the wrong place and the Fire Lord was not there, it might take them too long to reach the other end of the palace.

“What’re the chances he’s hiding in one of the spires?” Katara posed.

Toph scowled. “I won’t be surprised, but I rather he hide in some underground room.”

“We need to get this over with,” Aang said to refocus his friends’ attention. “Appa will go in low, and it should get us a good look for clues on where we need to go.”

It was an unneeded tactic, because as Appa began his descent, the roof of one of the palace wings trembled and gave a metallic groan that caused everyone to wince. The whole top seemed to stretch upwards, and then burst like overstretched leather as something rose up from underneath it. Timber, bricks and shingles fell away, revealing a somewhat familiar shape.

Aang and his friends gaped in shock as a larger version of the Mechanist’s balloon rose lazily into the air, its entire hull glinting with a metallic sheen under the afternoon sun. It was shaped like a warship, possessing an upwards pointed prow, though the bridge and deck hung underneath instead. And on those decks, Aang could make out-

“Appa, move!” Just in time, the air bison dodged the sudden barrage of human-sized bolts that shot out from the warship. With a blast of fire, Aang helped Appa climb higher, buying them some distance from the new threat.

A metal airship. The Fire Nation had metal airships now. Not only that…

“The Fire Lord’s gonna be in that thing, isn’t he?” Sokka sighed.

“If he’s not, I’m going to really kick his butt once we find him,” Katara surprisingly added.