He leapt out after Iroh, assuming Zuko would be able to hold his own and meet up with them later. Iroh did not look so certain, torn between exasperation and fear. "You should have pulled him with you. Too late now. Come on." He grabbed Kouji's hand and started running.

"Where are we going?" Kouji managed to get out. He was young and quick, but he was barely able to keep up with the old former general.

"To get help to rescue him."

"Who from?" Unless it's the herbalist Uncle knows somehow, I can't think of anyone here who'd be able to help us — wait, does he mean Toph?

"His sister. She's faster than him, more skilled, and better controlled. Besides, she has Dai Li allies and the floor in that hallway was stone."

Kouji flinched. He should have dragged Zuko out with him. "I meant who are we getting help from."

"You'll see." The old man now seemed to be looking for something — they still hadn't left the palace grounds.

The boy made a face and twisted free so he could run without danger of overbalancing.

His search for whatever-it-was was cut short when one of the agents from the building they'd fled caught up with them. Iroh made quick work of him. "This will do. Kouji, may I borrow your belt, please?" Wordlessly the boy detached his bags from the cloth and passed it to Iroh, making sure not to lose his small arsenal. He tied the agent up and threw him over his shoulder. "And now we go get help."

"Right." Kouji fell into step behind the old man once again, keeping an eye, ear, and foot out for approaching trouble.

They ran into no further trouble as they escaped the palace. How Iroh knew where he was going was a mystery, but he led Kouji to a small, pretty house in the upper ring. There was an unmistakeably familiar animal out front.

"You have got to be joking," Kouji announced as Iroh unloaded his burden on the front porch of the house.

"I am not. Now quiet, this will be difficult." He pounded on the door.

It opened, revealing the Avatar, the Water Tribe boy... and Toph.

Kouji's jaw dropped. "Toph?" he squeaked.

"Hey," she said.

"We need your help," Iroh said, hard on her heels, while the Avatar and the older boy freaked out inside the house.

Now remembering Iroh's rejoinder to keep quiet, Kouji elected not to snap at the two boys behind Toph, instead nodding.

"You know these two?" the Avatar yelped.

"I met them in the woods once and knocked the old man down. Then he gave me tea and some very good advice," the tiny girl explained.

"May we come in?" Iroh asked, gently. Toph nodded.

Kouji followed Iroh inside, fidgeting nervously. The old man must have known all along that Toph was with the Avatar. No wonder the news of her being in Ba Sing Se had troubled him!

The old man didn't waste any time once they were inside. "Princess Azula is here in Ba Sing Se."

"She must have Katara!" the Avatar said.

Iroh didn't even blink. "She has captured my nephew as well."

"Then we'll work together to fight Azula, and save Katara and Zuko," the tattooed boy said grimly.

Kouji sighed in relief. Iroh had been right to come here after all.

Or maybe not. "Whoa there," Sokka said, stepping up from the doorway. "You lost me at 'Zuko'."

"Hey!" protested Kouji, glaring at him.

"I know how you must feel about my nephew," Iroh stepped in, forestalling a disastrous confrontation. "But believe me when I tell you there is good inside him." He grabbed Sokka's shoulders to emphasize his point.

"Good inside him isn't enough!" Sokka said, removing the old man's hands. "Why don't you come back when it's outside him, too, okay?"

"If there wasn't any good about him, he wouldn't have gone chasing after the sandbenders who kidnapped me," Kouji snapped at Sokka. "Don't assume you know everything about him because he chased you for three months."

"Yeah, well—"

The Avatar interrupted him. "Katara's in trouble. All of Ba Sing Se is in trouble! Working together is our best chance."

Finally, looking slightly ashamed of himself, Sokka nodded.

"Thank you," Kouji said, forgetting himself and hugging the Avatar.

He looked a little surprised, but, after a few seconds, hugged back.

"I brought someone along who can help us," Iroh said, heading for the door.

Kouji released the older boy and then trailed after him and his friends, already knowing who was waiting.

Toph raised the agent off the porch, trapping him between two slabs, probably coming closer to crushing his shoulders than was precisely humane. Iroh pulled the man's gag down, and he wasted no time in sharing his information.

"Azula and Long Feng are plotting a coup. They're going to overthrow the Earth King."

My surprised face. Let me show you it, Kouji thought.

"My sister," Sokka snapped, waving his machete. "Where are they keeping Katara?"

"In the crystal catacombs of Old Ba Sing Se," the trapped man replied, quickly. "Deep beneath the palace.

"Is Zuko with her?" was Kouji's demand.

"He hadn't been taken anywhere yet when I was sent after you."

The boy's shoulders slumped.

"Come on," Iroh said, and the six of them ran off to the older part of the city, near the palace.

Toph knelt and rested a hand on the ground. "Well, what do you know?" she said. "There is an ancient city down there. But it's deep." She started a tunnel in the middle of the walkway.

Kouji copied her, then sighed. "It's too deep. I can't pick it up at all." After looking to her for permission, he got the next bit out of the way.

"We should split up," Sokka said, rubbing at his chin. Maybe he thought it made him look smarter. "Aang, you go with Iroh to look for Katara and the angry jerk—no offense."

"None taken," Iroh said, shrugging.

"Zuko can be a jerk sometimes," Kouji added.

"And I'll go with Toph to warn the Earth King about Azula's coup," Sokka finished.

"Kouji, you go with them," Iroh said, in the same tone he'd used at the close of their argument about school.

"What?" Kouji cried. "But Zuko—"

"Kouji."

The eleven-year-old subsided unhappily.

"We'll find you when it's over," Iroh promised, then left with Aang.

"Because sending Prince Zuko's earthbending clerk to the Earth King is going to go over real well," Kouji muttered sulkily once the old man was out of earshot.

"Better that than Zuko having to watch Azula kill you," Toph pointed out. "Come on, we don't have much time."

The boy flinched and ran after Sokka and Toph.

"Come on, hurry up," Sokka said, irritated. He didn't seem particularly happy that Kouji was tagging along behind him and Toph.

"I'm going as fast as I can," Kouji shot back, annoyed. He really wasn't, but as a messenger he'd learned the importance of pacing. He got the feeling there would be a lot of running in the future.

When he saw the long, steep staircase at the entrance to the palace proper, his decision to pace himself seemed even wiser. "Gee, it's like I was just here," he muttered.

They climbed the stairs in silence. When they were nearly at the top, Sokka pointed at a man walking among the columns. "There's General Hao!" He put a hand on Toph's shoulder to stop her, looking around suspiciously.

Kouji promptly ducked behind the two of them as he saw what Sokka had seen. A pair of Dai Li agents shot themselves off from columns and sent long metal chains at the general's wrists. A third dropped from the ceiling.

"What's going on here?" the general demanded.

"You're under house arrest," Ceiling Agent informed him.

"The coup is happening right now," Sokka warned the others unnecessarily. "We've got to warn the Earth King!"

"Then go," Kouji hissed, pushing at Sokka's back. Now he increased his speed to keep pace with the Water Tribesman and blind earthbender. The only reason he didn't go ahead was because he didn't know the way to the throne room.

They made it to the throne room without running into any more agents or trouble.

"Thank goodness we're on time!" Sokka cried.

"In time for what?" the young man on the throne asked, puzzled.

Kouji tried not to stare. That was the Earth King? He looked more like an absent-minded scholar.

"Yeah, what are you in time for?" one of the girls in a green uniform and elaborate facepaint asked, then flipped over so she was about six inches away from Sokka's face. "Cutie."

Kouji flushed bright red and took several steps away from the girl.

"Uh... I'm kinda involved with Suki..." he said, apologetically.

"Who?" the girl asked, tilting her head, then was abruptly shoved aside by Toph. She took the hit gracefully, leaping up on top of the throne.

"They're not the real Kyoshi Warriors!" Toph yelled. The Earth King gasped in surprise.

"Sorry to disappoint you," the other girl said, smirking and flinging a handful of knives at them. Toph called up a wall to stop them, then shoved it back.

While the bouncy girl leapt down to deal with Sokka, Kouji darted forward, bolting for the Earth King. If they were fakes, they were with Azula, and Azula couldn't be allowed anywhere near the king. If he could just...

Azula beat him there. One hand rested on the King's shoulder, pulling him aside and exposing his neck. A small knife of fire danced above the first two fingers on her other hand. "This fight is over."

The boy screeched to a halt halfway there, his grey eyes flying wide. Where did she come from? he thought.

Better that than Zuko having to watch Azula kill you, Toph's voice rang in his mind.

Kouji bolted.

One of the Dai Li agents who had also appeared out of nowhere shot his rock gloves after him, and missed.

"Leave him," he heard Azula say. "We know where he's going."

Straight for Zuko.

Kouji hated being that predictable, but gods all damn it, he couldn't leave Zuko to his sister!

He kept running, making it outside and to the tunnel he and Toph had begun and that Aang had continued. Without hesitation, he ran straight down it. He paused only once to catch his breath, then continued on until he could see the light out the other end. He all but exploded out of the tunnel, sprinted across the room, and latched onto Zuko, panting and clinging desperately to him.

He barely noticed when, in the second tunnel, Aang and Katara barrelled past him.

Apparently, he'd been interrupting something, because it took Zuko a few seconds to respond. "Kouji? What...?"

He was breathing too hard to reply. "Zu," he managed to gasp out.

"What happened, are you okay?"

"'Zula," Kouji panted. "Coup..."

"Here, sit down..." Zuko dragged him over to one side, ignoring a slightly exasperated-looking Iroh. Clearly, whatever they'd been discussing had been Important, and Zuko didn't want to get into it in front of Kouji.

He started to sit, then his eyes widened again. He could feel people approaching. With a garbled cry, he flung himself behind a crystalline formation.

More crystals sprang up, trapping Iroh. Zuko spun around to see his sister, accompanied by two Dai Li agents, sliding down into the cave.

"I expected this kind of treachery from Uncle," she said. "But Zuko. Prince Zuko. You're a lot of things, but you're not a traitor... are you?"

Still breathing heavily and frightened out of his mind, Kouji huddled out of sight, closing his eyes and just listening.

"Release him immediately," Zuko snapped.

"It's not too late for you, Zuko," Azula said. "You can still redeem yourself."

"The kind of redemption she offers is not for you," Iroh called.

"Why don't you let him decide, Uncle?" Azula called back.

Oh, gods, they're both pushing him and pulling him and not giving him any time to figure out what it is he wants... Kouji swallowed a whimper and huddled even further in on himself.

"I need you, Zuko," Azula went on. "I've plotted every move of this day, this glorious day in Fire Nation history, and the only way we win is together. At the end of this day, you will have your honour back. You will have Father's love. You will have everything you want."

He'll have everything you want. Kouji almost said it, but before he could he pressed his hands over his mouth. No! He wouldn't join in on this pulling of Zuko.

"Zuko," Iroh said, quietly. "I'm begging you. Look into your heart and see what it is that you truly want."

"You are free to choose," Azula said, waving her agents off. She walked away, down the second tunnel, in the direction Aang and Katara had gone moments before.

Trembling, Kouji crept from hiding as soon as she was gone.

Zuko was silent, staring at the ground. Then he started to take off his coat.

"What are you going to do?" Iroh asked.

"I'll figure it out when I get there."

"Z-Zuko...?" Kouji quavered.

"Get Uncle out of here," was all Zuko said, then disappeared down the tunnel.

"Be careful," the boy whispered, watching Zuko go. He then turned to the trapped former general and started carefully freeing him from his crystal prison. Iroh said nothing, just watching his nephew leave. Finally the old man was free, and Kouji looked up at him. "G-general—"

"What happened to Toph and Sokka?" he asked.

"I think they were captured," Kouji said, looking down. "We went to warn the Earth King, but it was too late. Azula and her friends got in the city disguised as Kyoshi Warriors. Azula got to him before I could, and I... I panicked...."

"Go find them. Help them break out," Iroh suggested. "I'll see what's going on in there, if Zuko needs my help."

Kouji gave the old man a torn, stricken glance. He wanted to see this through — he needed to see this through.

"Go find Toph and Sokka," Iroh repeated. "I'll handle things here."

Kouji's shoulders slumped, and he watched the old man go. He turned and headed off as he had been told... and stopped, just out of sight in the darkness. "No," he said softly. "No." He turned down the tunnel Iroh had disappeared down. "No more running." Taking a deep breath, he padded down after the general and the prince.

When he reached the big room, a column of water had shot up the top out of sight. Iroh had been trapped again, and Zuko was just... standing there, next to his sister, looking faintly stunned by whatever had just happened.

Kouji looked from Azula to Zuko to Iroh, then fell back into a bending stance and sent out a bolt of will, shattering Iroh's crystal prison for the second time. Zuko looked up, and did very little. It was hard to tell, in the smoke and rock called up by Azula and the Dai Li agents, but it looked like he was mouthing 'Run.'

Better that than Zuko having to watch Azula kill you.

Kouji's eyes went wide, and he turned tail and fled back the way he'd come, collapsing the mouth of the tunnel behind him. Hopefully, if he brought portions of it down behind him, it would slow the inevitable pursuit…

Between running as fast as his short legs could carry him and bending heavy rocks quickly, it was nearly too much for the eleven-year-old. On exiting into the open night air, he stumbled and almost fell, but just managed to remain upright. Not even daring to look around and get his bearings, Kouji increased his speed, terrified of capture. He couldn't trust what might happen to him, didn't know if Azula would use him against Zuko, had no idea what was happening now.

He ran smack into Sokka and Toph. The girl grabbed him. "Come on, this way, we have to get out of the city!"

Exhausted and frightened, Kouji could only nod and follow, scarcely noticing when his bag of dirt fell from the hastily-made rope belt. Toph — with Sokka keeping his grumbling objections to a barely-audible minimum — loaded Kouji up on the flying bison, next to the Earth King and his bear. Katara and the unconscious Avatar were on the bison's head.

Something started to glow blue, and Kouji balanced himself awkwardly on the bear so he could stand and peek over Sokka's shoulder to see what was happening. A small handful of silvery-blue water leapt into the Avatar's back and vanished. The boy's eyes went wide as he watched in silence.

After a few seconds, the Avatar's arrow flickered, and his eyes opened briefly. He smiled up at Katara, who hugged him, before he blacked out again.

"...what happened?" Kouji asked, his voice a whisper.

Katara glared up at him. "What's he doing here?" she spat at Toph.

The boy reeled away from that glare and pressed up against the bear, trying to hide in its fur, which was sadly too short. Toph carefully felt her way down to the head to argue in an undertone with Katara, as the Earth King, looking back over the city, gloomily announced, "The Earth Kingdom... has fallen."

Flinching, Kouji burrowed tighter against the bear, fighting the tears that were threatening to overcome him. It was becoming obvious to the boy that Zuko had made his choice.

Azula.

I have nowhere to go.