Tadashi, Aki and Sikumi struggled to move as they stared in surprise at the small girl who held them in place with her earthbending. Although they had thought this a possibility, the idea that they would have met her here of all places was surprising indeed. Earth Rumble VI was the sixth earthbending tournament to be held in Gaoling, an underground fighting event which featured numerous competitors throwing large rocks at each other. Held by the former fighter Xin Fu the event that Tadashi and his friends had decided to visit was a prelude to the aforementioned one, a smaller qualifier that would determine who would be allowed to enter the 6th annual fighter. To their surprise the winner wasn't some huge muscled man but rather the small 'Blind Bandit' who swept her opponents with ease. Their surprise only heightened when this same girl started questioning the trio by trapping them within the surrounding Earth of the stadium after many of the participants had left.

To say that their situation was unforeseen would be quite the understatement.

"How did things end up like this?" Tadashi asked quietly.

"It's your fault though…." Aki murmured.

"Not helping!" Naoko chided.

Indeed, the two girls had been convinced to enter after talking with various locals about the event. The shortlist of muscle for hire that the Beifong family had provided were merely adequate but would not suffice for such a high profile target like the Avatar. By the time the trio were ready to give up they only had three more names on the list before getting word that there was an event that evening where powerful Earthbenders were going to duke it out.

The event was to take place on the outskirts of the town, inside a large hill like area that had been hollowed out specifically for the event. On the way there were various stalls where one could purchase food. Though they were mostly empty a few faces could still be seen there, including some older fellows and one suspicious looking man who wore a black cloak with an intimidating sword by his seat.

"Hello and welcome to the last qualifying tournament before the anticipated Earth Rumble VI!"

Everyone cheered as Xin FU, the announcer, hyped up the crowd.

"Today we'll find out who is joining Headhunter, The Gecko, The Gopher, Fire Nation Man, The Big Bad Hippo and The Boulder in the roughest of the toughest matches you'll see all year!"

The crowd once again cheered as Tadashi sat with his two companions, the three of them wearing cloaks and sitting as far back as possible.

"That are looks empty, why don't we go there?" Naoko pointed to a section of the stands that was barren.

"Um…. there's probably a reason for that," Aki whispered, shrugging slightly.

Before they knew it the tournament had begun and the three quickly saw just how violent and rough this contest could become. One fighter, wearing a shell on his back started spinning as he created a bowl shaped pit to trip up his opponent and launch them away, gaining some cheers from the crowd, however his reign was short-lived as a lean looking man came in and flipped the shelled man several times over with well-placed slabs of rock.

Every now and then the fighters would change, some wining several bouts and others failing to beat their opponents once. Of course it all changed when a small figure stepped onto the stage.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, our next combatant is one of our most anticipated contestants yet. The Last Champion of the Earth Bending circuit, a real powerhouse…The Blind Bandit!"

The crowd went wild, screaming and shouting their support for this new entrant though a few booed, perhaps in the spirit of things they supported the man still standing in the ring. Tadashi looked around briefly, despite their cloaks and hidden appearance there were others that were similarly dressed. The young boy made the assumption that others, perhaps nobles too, were here for the event and they couldn't publically show their faces. At the same time there were some more unsavoury faces that were seemingly hidden, one that happened to glance at Tadashi as he looked at the man. The short exchange of looks told Tadashi enough about him that made the boy turn back instantly.

"Hey, isn't that…." Naoko started saying as Tadashi turned to watch the match.

Tadashi made a small gasp as he recognised who the small girl was, none other than the only child of the Beifong family.

Tadashi, Aki and Naoko watched in shock as the small girl walked to the stage with a big confident smile on her face, her steps deliberate and bold yet still carefully taken. The man already on stage, a huge hulking figure known as 'The Fortress', looked on in contempt as his opponent stood opposite him.

"You are no match for my unbreakable defence," the hulking figure spoke with his stocky almost foreign voice.

"Unbreakable? I've seen Moo-sow with better defence than you!"

The Fortress tightened the expression on his face, the huge figure of a man who must have been late into his years moved in an almost ancient manner. The onlookers watched in anticipation as he slowly raised his foot, sending a wave of earth towards the Blind Bandit in an attack that would impress even the most advanced of Earth Benders.

Tadashi watched as the wave moved closer to Toph, the peak of the wave almost the same height as the small girl herself, but she still looked onwards with a confident smile.

"It's going to hi-" Aki started saying before she was silenced by the Blind Bandit's actions.

The young girl stomped down with the rigidness of an old bull and launched herself into the air, where she somersaulted her way behind her opponent and landed onto the ground with her own shockwave. Though the feat was certainly impressive it did not do much to disturb The Fortress, however the well placed small boulders that hit the back of his knees surely did the trick, toppling the gargantuan man long enough for the Blind Bandit to shift her right foot forwards, bringing her arms in and pushing her chi outwards, creating a pillar that threw The Fortress out of the ring, winning the match.

The crowd went wild, pleased to see such a well-executed victory. The young girl herself seemed to revel in their joy, a bright smile that clearly found this arena homelier than the Beifong manner. In fact, as Tadashi watched Toph taking in the cheers of the crowd he felt a sense of unease as her unseeing eyes seemed to point in his direction, whether it was intentional or not.

The next challenger didn't have much of an impact. In fact, he was tossed out of the ring so quick the audience barely had time to cheer for the new crowd favourite. This carried on for quite a while until Xin Fu declared the event over and that the Blind Bandit would move on into the next event that would start in mere days. The crowd cheered before starting to disperse, the need to remain having left almost immediately. Tadashi scanned the crowd and noticed that the hooded man he'd crossed eyes with had disappeared far too quickly for his liking.

As the trio were making their way out, a sudden shift in their surrounding and a lack of light startled the three. As the walls that made up the hallway they took were closed off and the ground beneath them trapped their feet the three knew who they were about to face.

"So….it seems you know my secret." Toph said, her face very serious as a section of wall lifted to reveal her.

Tadashi laughed awkwardly as Aki struggled to get out, considering if she should use her fire or not.

"How did things end up like this?" Tadashi asked quietly.

"It's your fault though…." Aki murmured.

"Not helping!" Naoko chided.

"So, what do you want?" Tadashi asked.

"I want to know why you lied?" Toph almost immediately stated.

"Lied?"

Naoko and Aki glanced at each other before becoming very still.

"I'm not sure what you mean?"

"Last night, when you were dining with my Parents, you said you've never seen the Fire Lord…. but that's not true, right?"

The three quickly bore serious expressions on their faces, though this was mostly to hide the shock that they bore towards the girl who seemed on the verge of learning the truth about them. Not knowing what to do, Aki hesitantly chuckled.

"Well I've certainly never been in his presence." She said, watching as Toph's eyes furrowed.

"You're telling the truth, but how about you two?"

Naoko glanced at Tadashi before breathing deeply and casting Toph with a rather pained expression.

"I don't like….in fact I hate the Fire Lord. He's manipulative, brutish and will hurt anyone to get what he wants."

"Is that what you really think?"

Naoko looked at Tadashi who had his head down in contemplation. He didn't seem to be harbouring any strong emotions whatsoever but she could tell.

Something was definitively wrong.

"Well you're telling the truth too, geez I thought I was on to something…." Toph mumbled, seemingly unaware of the way Tadashi flinched for a second.

"Um…..Tadashi, are you ok?" Aki asked.

"Yeah, you haven't anything yet though from your little speech last time I might just let you off the…."

Toph jumped out of the way as a large wave of fire surged towards her, the blue embers that were darker than usual seared the rock around them and brightened the room tenfold.

"Tadashi!" Naoko called out, pulling harder at the stone trapping her feet.

"Shut up!" the young boy responded, when his face turned to face the ex-servant she saw that his eyes were full of rage yet harboured an undeniable sadness to them. Tears clouding his vision as his voice could hardly stay in form. "What do you know about him?"

Although Toph had avoided the attack she didn't retaliate yet, waiting to see just what would happen. Aki too had been caught off-guard by the sudden turn of events and was now desperately thinking of the quickest way she could calm him down.

"You need to-" she was about to say before Naoko interrupted her.

"What do I know?" She asked, "You're asking me, the person he burned and you clearly know that! He's a cruel person…. just like your sister. I bet he's the reason Lady Ursa disappeared!"

Aki grimaced. She couldn't take what Naoko had said lightly. Not only was punishment instilled by the Fire Lord supposed to be the right of the divine dragon but slandering the Royal Family was akin to treason, punishable by death especially in the face of a Prince.

"Naoko!" Aki shouted, gaining the other females attention, "Think about what you're saying and who you're saying it to!"

For several moments Naoko remained silent, her anger fusing to cede until she realised just what Aki was trying to say to her. At first her thoughts went to Toph who was still present, though the look on her face clearly said that she'd stepped into something way beyond her understanding. Then as she glanced back towards Tadashi she noticed the clarity in his eyes.

"It's…. not true."

No one spoke, in fact no one knew what they could say to him.

"It can't be true, he'd never do that…."

Naoko glanced away in regret as she chided herself for speaking her mind so openly when she knew just how much her words could affect him.

"She's not a bad person….."

Aki had crouched down, using the blade on her belt to chip away at the rocks by her feet enough to break free.

"No!" Tadashi screamed, throwing fire at the ground which incidentally freed himself.

The next few moments were a blur for most. The blue raging fire that slept within Tadashi had almost taken over, it's fires aimed at Naoko and ready to take her life but some quick thinking on Toph's part saved the non-bender as Aki attempted to tackle the Prince to the ground. Tadashi however was not seeing eye to eye with everyone else and leapt passed Aki, bounding through the passage that Toph was hiding behind, the Earthbender too preoccupied with the heat that still seared the walls to notice Tadashi leaving.

With the Avatar as the primary goal and Azula ready to lead the four girls had re-joined the Princess's escort and started travelling to the nearest Fire Nation outpost, where a new model of tank was to await her. This vehicle was to aid the Princess in her travels across the Earth Kingdom, able to travel at frightening high speeds and covering multiple types of terrain without using tracks.

Inside the vehicle, driven by the twins Lo and Li, a small squad was deployed as suggested by the head of operations Hideki. To those who merely served their nation Sikumi must have seemed like a veteran warrior, her exploits having been told well over the past weeks since the Northern Water Tribe Invasion. A sleeper agent in this group has been aware of Sikumi's presence a day before she arrived at the Tank train and had requested for a set of standard gear be shipped to her almost immediately. Of course with a few well-placed parts inside the vehicles components the departure of the group was stalled just long enough for this shipment to arrive without any suspicious.

Sikumi, having come to terms with the systematic nature of Tadashi's division simply accepted the garb that made her look like a dragon and wore it with a sense of pride, for once feeling that she had certainly earned the opportunity to wear such clothing. But as she felt the scaled iron that made up her armour her thoughts went back to the days she was lounging about on that ship, bending and laughing with Tadashi, enjoying the sun and hardly worrying about the Avatar. As her thoughts went to the preceding events her face darkened slightly, though one wouldn't be able to tell as the golden mask blocked her expressions completely.

"Word has come in that the Avatar was spotted by a small town and that he's heading towards Gaoling." A soldier walked up to Sikumi, saluted and spoke with a hint of reverence.

As Sikumi nodded the man held his breath in the same way a kid would when seeing their hero in person. However, despite all the attention the waterbender felt more and more unease with the position she'd been forced into. Her thoughts quickly wondered just how Tadashi would act, whether it'd be bold and heroic or perhaps more stoic and calculative.

"Sikumi, we're going!"

Ty Lee had called out to the masked girl, the bubbly female quickly interrogating Sikumi for information about her personal life in the only way she knew. Again Sikumi sighed, it seemed like she would have to endure this for much longer before she could see the director again.

Aki swore.

It wasn't a good time to lose the Prince of the Fire Nation, especially when he was emotional and capable of inflicting great pain on others. She prayed that he would stick to the shadows and not attract attention but her thoughts were very pessimistic. It was times like this that the former captain would chastise her decision to let Tadashi go off alone without an escort. She was certainly proud of her own skills, her memories recounting the times she'd slain foes that endangered Tadashi's life, but there was only so much that one person could do.

Naoko was also in a mood of sorts, having felt terribly guilty about what she said, even though her words were not initially harsh.

"I can't believe I said something like that!" Naoko said for the third time as the two searched for Tadashi.

"It can't be helped, you've said it now so stop moping about and help look for Tadashi."

Aki grimaced as her thoughts went back to the moment Tadashi had fled. For several moments the ex-captain had no idea what she should do though her first priority was to get Naoko free of the dirt before she hurt herself. Fortunately, Toph was more than willing to comply since she had her own questions about what had just happened. The preceding events were rushed and embarrassingly handled, both females too distracted and panicked to give appropriate answers.

Unknown to them Tadashi had his own problems to deal with.

The young boy had run into the deep wooded area surrounding the small town, his rage finally subsiding after scaring some locals and riling up nearby animals. With a final sigh of grief the prince collapsed, hardly able to stand the pain that flowed through his blood.

"Why is this happening?"

Tadashi hadn't meant to say this aloud but this was one of those moments where everything was out of his control. His breath ragged, his stance poor and his mind on the verge of breaking.

"You're a fool."

Tadashi forgot about his pain as soon as he heard that voice, slipping into the stance he knew best. The darkness was certainly foreboding but even amongst the darkness Tadashi was sure that there was nobody nearby.

"Ha, if you think that stance will scare me than you have another thing coming."

Tadashi turned again as the voice seemingly came from behind, stumbling on a stone that he could have sworn was not there.

"Who are you? Where are you?" Tadashi half shouted, throwing a warning shot several feet in front in him.

For several moments there was silence, however before the young prince could even react he was swept off his feet and pinned to the ground.

You cannot have a positive life and a negative mind.

"There are none so blind as the fools that cannot see what is in front of them."

"Let go of me!"

"Shut it whelp!"

"I'll have you know that I'm a not some ordinary child…" Tadashi growled as he prepared to attack in a way he'd read from that book of his.

Drawing in his breath, Tadashi prepared to unleash his flames on the man that was pinning him to the ground but in a feat that dumbfounded him a cloud of dense dirt entered his mouth and stifled any flame that threatened to escape. For several moments the young prince struggled to breath as his face was smothered but eventually the man let go, allowing the boy to splutter in defeat.

"Ho-" Tadashi was about to ask before his was interrupted.

"I know who you are, Fire Nation prince."

Tadashi quickly silenced, realising that he was in more danger than he initially realised. This person, who we could barely see or sense was undoubtedly strong, enough to terrify the boy who rarely backed down from anything.

"Don't ask me how I know, I just do." The man said, surprising Tadashi.

The prince continued to watch in anticipation, gauging the stranger's presence merely by the sound of his breathing. All he knew was that he was an Earthbender, but even that was not enough to come up with a reliable strategy.

"What do you want with me?" Tadashi finally asked after a while.

As quickly as that question had come out the man drew and pointed a long sword at Tadashi's throat, it's blade almost silver in the moonlight and reflecting the gaze of the troubled prince. Through the blade the boy saw what could have been the end of his life, a blade that would slice through anything with ease.

"What do you want?" the man asked.

"Huh?"

The blade, still pointed at Tadashi's throat remained in place for several more moments before it was sheathed. It's luminance suddenly disappearing and hiding the brief glimpse of the man that Tadashi recognised from the Earthbending tournament.

"I said what do you want? Why do you fight? Who are you fighting for?"

Although Tadashi was surprised to hear such questions this wasn't the first time he had thought of this before. That day, in front of his father in the Fire Nation, the boy that would become a director had already decided what he wanted to do.

"I…I want to become stronger. I want to create a prosperous Fire Nation…I want to protect my sister."

"Are you sure you can achieve such a goal…child?"

Without realising it Tadashi growled. It wasn't the first time someone had looked down on him but at the same time he knew this was different. The man was testing him, testing his conviction to see if he really believed he could achieve his goals. Without hesitating he answered.

"Yes."

Leaving only a few seconds to pass the man laughed. Not a happy or forced one but rather the laugh of someone that has seen many come and go with the ages, a person that had lived centuries and seen atrocities far worse than he could imagine. The idea that such a man could exist gave Tadashi shivers.

"I like those eyes."

Normally such a comment would unnerve Tadashi but the voice that spoke was far beyond his comprehension, for him just figuring out the identity of this man was a challenge.

"It's settled, I'll teach you."

"What!?" Tadashi exclaimed.

"Hmm, though you'll need to do something about those followers of yours."

"What do you mean teach me? Wait…is Aki and Naoko here?"

"Shut it! You ask too much for a runt. If you ever want to understand what it means to wield true power, to spill the blood of man or beast without their souls weighing you down than you'll follow me."

At that moment something clicked in Tadashi. He knew that everything he'd experienced until than was leading up to this moment. The man in front of him, the one that he could hardly see, this person that could have killed him twice already. This warrior that knew what it meant to kill or be killed. There was much to learn from him, he would certainly help incredibly power, it was too uncanny to be false.

Once more than sense of conviction built up within Tadashi and his stood straight, turning to face away from the very spirit like person that could kill in one swoop.

"You have one hour."

Tadashi nodded, jogging back towards the town where he knew his companions would be looking for him.