"Who's the Dragon of the West? And why did you get so excited?" Sokka asked Toph once Iroh left.
"The Dragon of the West is one of the greatest generals to ever live. He conquered half the Earth Kingdom and he even broke down the outer wall of Ba Sing Se and marched an army in. He could have taken the capital. But for some reason he just stopped, he pulled out his forces and left for home. Nobody in the Earth Kingdom knew why. Now I think I do." Toph ended sadly.
"But if he fought for the Fire Nation why do you sound like you admire him?" Sokka asked her, surprised not that he was sitting across from once Fire Nation's best general, but that Toph seemed to admire him.
"Because he's a badass. And I can respect badassery no matter what side they fight on. And I'll tell you this. If half the stories were true, in his prime he probably could have taken all of us and Azula.
Sokka gulped and looked off into the darkness where the two firebenders had left. Suddenly he felt much less secure about his safety.
"Wait", Aang cut in, "if he is the dragon of the west, who was he referring to as the dragon of the East?"
( - )
When Azula and Percy made it back to the tank train they found both of their friends wringing out their hair and looking miserable. Well, Mai looked slightly more miserable than usual and Ty Lee looked slightly less happy.
"What happened, I thought you had the two peasants captured?" Azula snapped at them.
"The Avatar's bison woke up and blasted us into the river. The attack knocked the mongoose lizard out and Percy took the other. We had no way across the river." Mai reported dryly.
"Fine." The princess ground out, grudgingly remembering her own defeat at the hands of that damn beast.
"So now what?" Ty Lee asked after a brief silence.
"We'll have to continue searching the countryside until we pick up the trail again," Azula said confidently although she knew it wouldn't be so easy anymore. The Avatar knew of his beasts shedding and would be more careful in the future.
"Princess Azula?" One of the engineers stirred her from her musings.
"What?" She snapped at him.
He gulped, obviously terrified of her. "It's a message from war minister Qin. It came by a hawk while you were hunting."
"Give it here." She commanded impatiently. The man handed her the scroll and bowed hastily before fleeing.
"What is it?' Ty Lee asked curiously after giving her a moment to read it.
"A better option." Her mouth curved upwards into a vicious smirk. "We know the Avatar likes to play hero, I wonder if he can resist playing hero for an entire city?" She mused aloud.
"What are you talking about?" Percy asked her.
"Why it's simple Percy, we're going to conquer Ba Sing Se."
( - )
Percy was standing on an ocean. Waves crashing all around him, nothing else as far as the eye could see, no clouds in the sky or signs of life or land of any kind. Just blue sea and rolling waves.
"The Library."
Percy whirled around, searching for the source of the voice. The voice sounded familiar, where had he heard it before?
"Who's there?" He called out.
"Go to the Library." The voice was louder now.
"What are you talking about? What library? Who are you?"
