The next day, they came in sight of the capital.

Kouji stared openly, never having seen it before. He didn’t even protest as Haru lightly bound his hands to Appa’s saddle, even though they’d stopped tying him days before. “Wow…”

Zuko, face set, was explaining to the others about a passage into and out of the palace he’d found when he was about six, seeing as it was their best chance of getting in sneakily. Leilani waited until they were finished, and softly asked what they wanted her to do.

“…You should probably stay here with Appa, Kouji, and Shang,” Aang said, after a minute. “If…if it goes wrong, then you can always say we captured you. You probably won’t get in too much trouble.”

She nodded, and Shang said, “I’ll look out for her. It’s mostly my fault she’s here anyway.”

“No, it’s not,” Katara said immediately. “We would’ve rescued her if we found out she was there anyway.”

Shang neglected to point out was that his presence had been what had caused them to learn about her, and instead tugged lightly against his bindings.

“Don’t try anything stupid this time,” Sokka snapped at him, double-checking the knots.

As they were leaving, Zuko muttered, “Unless you three get attacked.”

“They’ll be fine,” said Teo encouragingly. “Aang taught Kouji how to fly Appa in a worst-case situation.”

Zuko nodded. “All right, it’s this way,” he said, and took the lead.

Aang was behind him; the rest of the group arranged themselves in a line with Haru bringing up the rear. The tunnel was right where he said it would be, and let them out in the palace, at which point they split up: most of the group would be dealing with the palace guards; Aang, of course, would go to deal with Ozai.

“Let’s cause a great big distraction,” said Haru with a grin, “and get our parents back.”

“I’ll come with you,” the Duke said immediately.

“Glad to have you along, the Duke.” Haru suited action to words and bent a large portion of the palace floor into a series of small rocks which he then used as projectiles to attract attention away from Aang.

And then he was hit from behind, several times, quickly, and couldn’t move. Startled, the young man toppled over and barely managed to keep his face from hitting the floor. “What the—!?”

“Hi, there!” a bright, female voice said, and the girl it belonged to plopped down to sit on him. “What’s your name?”

Haru blinked up at the girl. Several things came to mind at the same time, but all that came out of his mouth was a slightly stunned, “…huh?”

“…Well, that’s a weird name. I’m Ty Lee.” She was still smiling.

“H-Haru.” Ty Lee, he knew that name, where did he — oh, shit.

“It’s nice to meet you, Haru. Although I suppose it would be nicer if you weren’t invading. Oh, well.”

“Uh,” he managed eloquently. The shirt she was wearing was rather low-cut, giving him a very good look at her breasts. The fact that she was straddling him did not help his situation at all. He tried to marshal his thoughts and finally got out a complete sentence. “Could you… not sit on me, please?”

“Sorry, Haru, can’t do that. If I did, you might get up if I didn’t realize you were unparalyzed fast enough,” Ty Lee pointed out.

“Then can you not sit there?”

She got it. And gave him a very mischievous grin. And slid forward. Slowly.

Haru groaned, closed his eyes, and pictured a glacier. Which inevitably brought Katara to mind. Dammit!

Ty Lee giggled, and reparalyzed an arm that was starting to get feeling back. “So! As long as I have you here…”

“Excuse me?” Haru asked, trying to get his brain working again. She was not making it easy. Where was — oh, no, the Duke! Was he all right? Frantically, Haru tried to find the boy.

The Duke had gotten ahead of Haru at some point before Ty Lee had shown up, and was leading a group of guards on a merry chase around the palace. He was fine.

“We should talk or something. Or we could just stare at each other. That works, too!”

“Uh, if it’s all the same I’d kinda like to find my dad…”

“Well, I’d love to let you, but that would mean letting you go. And, cute as you are, Azula’s scary and she’d get mad at me for letting my prisoner walk away. So, sorry.”

Haru flushed. “Um.”

“Um?”

“…I can’t think of anything,” he said, blushing harder. “It’s… not easy to think.”

“Oh?” She tilted her head and studied him. “How come?”

By now, his face could have blended in with the Fire Nation flag, it was so red, and he stammered. She grinned, and leaned down to play with his hair. “So, where are you from?”

The change in position gave him an even better look at her feminine attributes, and he hastily looked at her face. “Uh. Earth Kingdom.” He named a village near his.

“Hmmm… I don’t think I’ve ever been there. What’s it like?” She shifted position slightly to kick back and reparalyze his legs.

He described some of the local scenery, trying to think of a way out and trying not to notice her very adult body against his.

“Sounds pretty!” she said. “You must miss it.”

“Yeah. I do.” His tone was flat.

She sighed, and hit a few more pressure points. In response, Haru closed his eyes and tried to divorce his mind from his body. “…Hey, can I try something?” she asked, after a minute or two.

He jerked back to reality and stared at her. “Wha?”

“Can I try something?” She grinned at him, a little mischievously.

“…why in the world would I agree to letting you try something while I’m helpless?”

“Well, it’s a little… unorthodox.”

He stared at her. “I think this entire situation is unorthodox,” he pointed out.

“So, is that a yes or a no?” she asked, eyes sparkling.

“…will saying ‘yes’ put me in an even worse situation?”

“I hope not,” she said, sincerely.

“…I guess…”

“Great!” She bent forward and kissed him. His eyes snapped wide open, and he made a muffled noise of surprise. She pulled back. “Now, did that put you in a worse position?” she asked, grinning.

It took him a very long moment to remember how to speak. “…no?”

“Great!” she said, and did it again.

Haru’s body began to react, and he did his level best to control it, by reminding himself that the girl was the enemy, and was keeping him from reaching his father and their allies and freeing them. His body, however, was not inclined to reason, and then he realised that he was kissing her back. He tried to justify it, as distracting a very dangerous enemy, but eventually gave in that this Ty Lee was a very pretty girl and he wanted to kiss her.

Teo wheeled quickly after Haru and the Duke, not even pausing when a girl came out of nowhere and took Haru down. He didn’t even slow down when they came to the stairs. This was, in retrospect, a mistake; the wheelchair teetered out of control on the last few steps and Teo was thrown from the chair. Only barely did he manage to keep hold of the crossbow he’d constructed weeks before. “…okay, could have planned that one better.”

“Here, let me help,” the Duke said, doubling back to help Teo get back into the chair.

“Thanks,” said the older boy, dragging himself back to his seat and pulling the crossbow back into his lap. “Which way do we go?”

“Um… that way,” the eight-year-old said, pointing in a random direction.

“Lead the way,” Teo ordered, cocking his weapon and settling it carefully in his lap. “I’ll watch your back.”

“‘Kay,” he replied, and scampered off down the hallway, rounding a corner out of sight.

He was out of sight for all of ten seconds when he came pelting back. “The other way! Let’s go the other way! Also, DUCK!” He took his own advice and dropped flat on the ground, narrowly missing being stabbed by sharp fingers of rock.

Teo rocked his chair hard and sent it skidding to the side; at the same time, he raised the crossbow and fired down the passage over the Duke’s head. He wasted no time in reloading and re-arming the weapon, firing a second shot and then a third in rapid succession.

One of Teo’s bolts hit, and one of the two Dai Li agents pursuing the boys fell back with a faint curse, a bloodstain spreading on his uniform. The other agent picked up speed, and flung more rock fingers.

The spaced-out barrage caused the flying stone to be sent out somewhat wildly, or the young inventor would have been in real trouble. He dropped the crossbow into his lap and hauled back wildly on the rear wheels of his chair, throwing himself back around a corner. “The Duke, come on!” Reaching into a side bag, he grabbed one of the small explosives he’d constructed with Sokka and hurled it back around the corner.

The Duke launched himself to his feet and pelted after Teo. “In here!” he suggested, yanking open a door. “Quick!” Once Teo was in, he barricaded the door (which proved to belong to some sort of broom closet) with every object in there he could reach and move.

“This,” said Teo quietly, when he’d got his breath back, “was not according to plan.”

“Nope,” the Duke agreed, perched on his barricade and listening for sounds of pursuit. After the explosion had gone off, said sounds had stopped. “I think we threw them off. But we should prolly stay in here anyway, just to be sure.”

“Were they guarding the prisons? Or was that just the wrong way?” Teo laid one hand against the wall. “We can’t stay in here forever – that’s stone.”

“I dunno. I didn’t see much beyond the freaky secret police.”

Teo groaned. “Well, we’re going to have to leave at some point. They might be like Toph and able to see us in the stone.”

“Guess so. But we should prolly wait here a little bit, first. ‘Cause moving all the stuff I used to block the door’s gonna make a lot of noise.”

Teo nodded. “Makes sense.” He sighed.

The Duke shifted a little uncomfortably on his perch and pressed his ear to the door again. The older boy coolly checked his stock of crossbow bolts (down by twenty, he must have lost some when he tumbled out of his chair) and of bombs (five left). He reloaded his crossbow as quietly as he could.

“…I don’t hear anything out there,” the Duke said, after a long moment.

“Then I guess we’re good. Should probably go slow in moving the stuff, though.” Teo reached out to lend as much a hand as he could.

“Right,” the younger boy agreed, climbing down off his barricade and starting to shift the cleaning supplies. When he could no longer assist, Teo wheeled around so that when the door opened, he’d be able to get off a shot if there were Dai Li on the other side.

“Okay, this is the last bit,” the younger boy said, hauling a box of soaps out of the way.

“I’m ready,” Teo answered, cocking the bow.

The Duke then counted to three under his breath, and wrenched the door open.

It was distressingly anticlimactic. There was no one on the other side.

“…well. I guess we keep going, then.”

The Duke nodded. “Which way?”

“If you’re looking for the prisons,” said a new, familiar voice, “you might want to follow me.”

The Duke jumped. “Shang! I thought you were with Kouji and ‘Lani!”

The young soldier emerged from the shadows, a lance in one hand. “I was. I told the kid to take the bison and move it somewhere high.”

“… how’d you get untied?”

“I told you all the last time. I have older cousins.”

Teo rolled his eyes and aimed the bow at the soldier. “Why are you here?”

“Point that somewhere else,” said Shang calmly. “Believe it or not, I came to help.”

“…Why should we trust that?” the Duke asked, reasonably.

“I thought you’d wonder that. Here, hold this.” He lightly tossed the lance to the Duke and reached behind him, then dragged out the unconscious body of a Dai Li agent.

The Duke caught it, startled. “…Whoa. How’d you do that?”

“I’m a Li, kid. We’re all trained in combat as soon as we’re co-ordinated enough to do it. Plus I have a talent for hand-to-hand.” Now Shang grinned. “And I got him from behind.”

“That’s more like it,” said Teo dryly, slowly lowering his crossbow.

“…And you know where the prisons are?”

“I know the layout of the entire palace, kid. Toss me that back, will you? My family has plans for almost every place we might possibly be stationed. You didn’t think Zhao made it to lieutenant without knowledge like that, did you?”

“…who’s Zhao?” the Duke asked, tossing the lance back.

“The late Admiral Zhao is my most-unlamented second cousin on my father’s side,” Shang said cheerfully after catching his weapon.

“…oh.” That didn’t really answer his question, but he supposed he could bug Shang for more details later. “So, how do we get to the prison?”

“Well, the benders are kept in a separate facility, but the others – Princess Azula’s specials as well – are kept in the bottom of the palace. Easy access, I suppose. Follow.”

The two boys did, keeping a wary eye out for more Dai Li. After seven minutes or so of travel, Shang found a locked door and frowned. “This may take awhile,” he announced. “I suck at lock-picking.”

“Let me do it,” the Duke immediately said.

The soldier stepped aside and took a guarding position. “Please — feel free.”

The eight-year-old dug in his pockets for supplies and, in a couple minutes, the lock clicked open. “Okay! Done!”

Shang whistled. “That’s the fastest I’ve ever seen a lock picked. You’re good, kid.”

“I only ever get caught when I’m stealing food,” he replied, brightly, pushing the door open.

A startled guard on the other side started to rise, but Shang slipped in and took her down with three quick strikes from the blunt end of his lance. “Go!”

The Duke scampered off down the hallway, peeking around corners to make sure there weren’t any more Dai Li. Fortunately, there weren’t; apparently Azula felt that she couldn’t spare any of her ‘souvenirs’ to guard prisoners.

After about five minutes of wandering, the Duke finally found what looked like a long row of cells. Ignoring — or perhaps not realizing — that there might be other prisoners, ones that he’d probably be better off not releasing, he ran to the closest door and started trying to pick the lock.

He got lucky. From inside came a voice. “Duke? Is that you?”

“It’s the Duke,” he said, exasperated, and kept picking the lock.

“Hakoda!” cried Teo gleefully, wheeling right past Shang to brake by the cell the Duke was working on.

“Teo? What are you two doing here?”

“Picking the lock on your cell door,” the eight-year-old said, matter-of-factly.

“I meant in the general sense,” was the dry reply.

Teo laughed. “We’re getting you all out! Are the others in here?”

“Everyone except the benders,” replied Hakoda.

“Where’re they?” the Duke asked, still poking and prodding at the lock. It was bigger and more complicated than the one on the door used to access the hallway.

“We were spaced out,” explained the leader of the invasion. “Probably to keep us from plotting. I’m not sure where everyone is situated.”

“I could start looking,” volunteered Shang.

The lock clicked. “I’ll come with you,” the Duke said. “You’ll need me to open the doors!”

Hakoda stepped from his cell and, on noting the soldier, promptly went on the defensive. Shang just as promptly dropped his lance and held out open hands. “Relax,” he said soothingly. “I’m not with the Fire Lord.”

“He’s with us,” the Duke confirmed.

The Water Tribe chief relaxed marginally, but still kept a suspicious eye on the younger man even as he picked up the lance. “I’ll guard the door, then.” His tone brooked no argument.

“Right-o,” Shang agreed cheerfully, and strode off down the hall, peeking into different rooms. He realised quickly that a better idea would be to lift the Duke up so he could see who was in there, and suited action to thoughts.

“Pipsqueak!” the Duke shouted, elated, at the fifth or sixth door.

“Hi, there, the Duke,” the large man replied, grinning up at his friend. “Come to bust me out?”

“Yep! Shang, put me down.”

“As ordered,” said the soldier readily, setting the Duke down where he could get at the lock. He then turned to watch Hakoda at the door, exchanging terse words with Teo. Idly he wished that he could read lips.

The Duke talked a mile a minute as he picked at the lock on Pipsqueak’s cell, filling his old friend in on everything that had happened since the Day of Black Sun.

So, the prince lost his bending temporarily? That’s interesting, thought Shang, his hands closing on the lance he no longer had. Damn that chieftain, anyway.

Finally, the eight-year-old got the door unlocked, tugged it open impatiently, and ran to hug Pipsqueak. Shang took a prudent step to one side. This ‘Pipsqueak’ was clearly ironically named, and he had no doubts the man hit like a tank.

Pipsqueak lifted the Duke onto his shoulder and ducked out of the cell. “We should find the others,” he said.

“I guess I’ll go back to guarding the door, then?”

“Guess so,” the Duke said. “Me and Pipsqueak can get the rest of the doors.

Shang hurried back, telling himself he was not at all intimidated by Pipsqueak. Nope. Not him. “What are you looking at?” he damned irritably of the smirking Hakoda.

About ten minutes later, the Duke and Pipsqueak rejoined them, accompanied by the Mechanist, Bato, and a young woman in a tattered green dress.

“DAD!” yelled Teo when he saw his father, wheeling hastily towards the older man and near tears.

The Mechanist bent down and hugged him. “It’s good to see you again, Teo… “

Teo hugged him back desperately. “Oh, Dad, I missed you so much…”

“So. Uh. Are we going after the benders next? Or making more distractions?” Shang asked, a little away from the crowd. He didn’t like the way Hakoda kept looking at him.

“We should finish breaking everyone out,” the girl said, firmly. “Safety in numbers.”

He bowed to her. “As you like it, then. Follow me.”

She did so, pausing briefly to take the guard’s sword. The others followed, as well.

“Er, can I have my—” Shang started.

“No,” said Hakoda calmly.

“…okay, then.”

Teo had passed the bombs to Bato, who had the strongest throwing arm of them, though the boy kept his crossbow.

After ten more minutes — occasionally pausing to incapacitate the various guards they came across — they found another cell block, this one entirely made of metal.

“…I think this is worth trying,” the Duke said, sliding off of Pipsqueak’s shoulder to pick the lock of the first door he saw.

“Who’s out there?” The voice was raspier than Hakoda’s had been; older, too.

“It’s us, Tyro,” Hakoda said; he’d quickly taken command and had Bato keeping an eye on the Fire Nation soldier. “The Duke is getting you out now.”

After another few minutes, the lock had been picked and Pipsqueak pulled the door open.

A thin, weary Tyro stepped out, looking the worse for wear. Clearly his conditions had been poorer than those of the non-benders.

A few more minutes got the rest of the benders out of their cells, and now the group of freed prisoners was quite large. “Are we ready to move out, then?” the girl said, somewhat impatiently. Of all those that had been freed today, she’d been down there longest and was eager to get gone.

“Yes, we are,” said Hakoda. Weapons had been found and distributed to all but the plainly sulking soldier-boy.

“Good.” She headed for the door, apparently having decided that she was taking point.

With gestures, Hakoda directed the rest of the group to take positions, distributing benders and non-benders equally. “I don’t think Ozai is going to know what hit him,” he said with a grin.

“Forget him, I just want to make Azula bleed,” the girl spat.

Teo looked up at her. “…are you Suki?”

“…Yes,” she said, a little warily.

“Sokka’s been really worried about you!” Teo told her, smiling a little.

Suki cracked a smile. “Is he with you?” she asked.

“He’s in the palace somewhere,” the Duke supplied. “Not sure exactly where, we split off to rescue the prisoners, he’s being a distraction somewhere else.”

“Is Haru with him?” Tyro asked.

The Duke frowned. “I’m not sure. I sort of took off when we all split up. I haven’t seen anyone except Teo since we came out of the passage.”

“He’s probably fine,” Teo assured the bender. “He’s been practising a lot, and Toph has been teaching him, too.”

Shang muttered something under his breath.

“What was that?” Suki asked him.

“I didn’t say a word,” Shang replied innocently.

She rolled her eyes and considered kicking him. Then she decided that would be immature and settled for hunting the Bitch Princess instead.