Dawn of a New Prince (Star Wars/Avatar Crossover)

Sokka grimaced, not wanting to admit that Zarael was right. Still, even he had to admit that people from the Fire Nation weren't heartless. Losing someone you love to Vader's corruption wouldn't wouldn't make the man inclined to help that monster.

"Fine... But I'm watching you," he muttered, "But just so you know, I'm drawing the line at having tea with the Fire Lord."

Azula

Azula covered her mouth in amusement as the foolish water tribe boy questioned her Uncle, while allowing Azula herself to remain unnoticed and therefore, trusted. It most likely wouldn't last long, Azula knew. But still, his idiocy was quite amusing.

Well, not that amusing, actually. Azula's arms lowered slowly, and the Princess clasped her hands behind her back as the Water Tribe boy went on.

"No need to worry about that, boy. Father has standards set for who he dines with." Azula stated calmly after Ozai was insulted. A Peasant like this boy had no place in insulting Father.

Sokka paused for a second, allowing the implication in Azula's sentence to take root. His jaw dropped and he stood up, glaring at Zarael, "You brought the Princess of the Fire Nation here! She'd set us on fire in our sleep!"

Zareal

Zareal sighed, wishing that Azula would have displayed more tact when speaking for the first time. "I've already explained my reasoning. We all share a common enemy, and until Vader is no longer a threat, we would do better to work together," he said.

"Yeah, just what we need, a knife in the back right after we kill Vader. I'll try to contain my excitement," Sokka commented sarcastically.

Aang

"Well...it's nice to meet you both." Aang said after a moment, giving a quick bow to Azula and Iroh. He wasn't worried about the older man like Sokka was. He seemed to be a nice guy, and reminded him a little of Monk Gyatso. Azula on the other hand...Aang couldn't quite explain it, but there was something about her that gave him a bad feeling. Still, if she and her uncle were willing to help them defeat Vader, Aang was more than willing to accept that help.

"Zareal? May I have a word with you?" Mara asked as she approached the Jedi.

Zareal

"You may," Zareal replied to the Emperor's hand. More explanations would ensue about now, so it appeared, though from whom remained to be seen, but Zareal guessed she would have questions for him.

Iroh

"It is an honor to join with you," Iroh told Aang. After those months following the Avatar, it was a relief to be able to join him in his attempt to restore balance to the world.

Aang

"Thanks."

Mara

"Good." Mara motioned for the Jedi to follow her as she left the Avatar and the two new arrivals. Once she and Zareal were a good distance away from them, the Emperor's Hand chose to speak.

"I have good news, and bad news, Zareal. Which would you prefer to hear first?"

Zareal

Zareal frowned as Mara began their conversation, and it wasn't sounding great at the moment. "Go ahead and give me the bad news," he said, preferring to hear the worst of it before anything else.

Mara

"Unlike Vader, I still have an active ship out there in the desert of the Earth Kingdom. I have a device on me that allows me to control my ship remotely. This device also sends me alerts if someone is attempting to break into my ship, or if another starship is in the system. And, well...."

Mara paused for a moment, but quickly continued. "My ship just recently sent me an alarm. Apparently, a star destroyer has entered this planet's system. Most likely to investigate the disappearance of Vader, since these were his last known coordinates. If we do not take preventative measures soon, the Empire will be at our doorstep. Whether or not we suceed against Vader, if we do not do something swiftly, then all you hope to accomplish will be lost."

Zareal

The Jedi swore, hopelessness threatening to overtake him. "What measures can we take? I've no knowledge of the Empire's ships and technology, unless you know something there's little than can be done to prevent this," he said.

Mara Jade

"As far as I know, the Emperor believes Vader to be dead. When he crash landed on this world, for some reason, Vader was cut off from the Emperor. After hearing no contact from his apprentice, the Emperor assumed him dead, and sent me to confirm it. Once I entered this planet's atmosphere, I too was cut off from my master. And, for some reason, something on this world was interfering with my ability to send sub-space messages. It is more than likely now that the Emperor believes us both to be dead.

"Now he has sent this Star Destroyer to confirm it. I did a covert fly-by with my ship before I entered Ba Sing Se. I spotted the wreckage of the Destroyer Vader was on. Most likely the ship will be sending probes to find any sort of wreckage, least they suffer the same supposed fate as Vader and I did. Once they discover the ruins of the Destroyer and scan it, they will assume Vader is dead, and leave the system. This planet, as it is right now, doesn't hold much value to the Empire. Of course, they'd be more than interested in studying how these people can 'bend' their elements, but a simple probe would not discover this.

"As you can see, this problem seems to fix itself. With Vader gone from the Destroyer, he has no way of knowing about the Star Destroyer, and the Empire will not find him. However, I suspect there are still survivors aboard Vader's ship. If life forms are discovered in the probe's scans, the Destroyer's captain will likely send teams down to the surface to investigate. That could possibly lead to Vader discovering them, and I cannot allow that traitor to leave this world alive."

Mara finished speaking to let Zareal absorb all this information. Most likely, he'd draw the same conclusions about what they would need to do.

Zareal

"I see. But if we remove the survivors from the Destroyer, the Empire will leave with no clue," Zareal said. "How much time would you say we have before the Destroyer sends its probes?"

Azula

Azula simply rolled her eyes and walked away after hearing the Water Tribe Peasant's comment. From how everything was going, Azula had no reason to be around the Avatar and his foolish friends at this point. And to be honest, seeing them just seemed like another depressing reminded of her embarrassing situation at the moment. No, the Princess' time would be better spent trying to figure out a plan for how to beat Vader, and then take the Avatar immediately after amidst the chaos that would inevitable happen.

Sokka sighed, watching Mara and Zarael talk and Azula walk away. He turned to Toph, a frown on his face. He knew Toph could take care of herself, but he was going to stick by her more than ever. It wasn't everyday they had an enemy working with them.

"I don't trust that girl," he told her.

Mara

"My navigational computer read that there were about seven other planets, all uninhabitable, in this system before I arrived, so it should take them two to three days before they completely finishing searching the others. We'll have that long to eliminate the survivors still at Vader's ship." Mara replied.

Zareal

"Very well, we should head out as soon as we can," Zareal said. "Appa will need rest though, after his journey." Too bad they had no ship or a speeder to travel across the planet.

"Me neither," said Toph. "I'll keep a foot on her, just in case. If she tries anything, I'm smash her."

And she meant it too. After the situation with Vader, she was not about to take any chances. She would not let anyone hurt the people she cared for.

Sokka nodded in approval, "Good. And I'll keep my new weapon close. If she tries to hurt any of us, she won't know what hit her."

In the desperation in the prison break, he never questioned his use of the weapon and, now that he knew he could use it to protect Toph and his friend well, he still didn't.

Mara

"As I said before, I have a device on my person that lets me control my ship remotely. I can easily uncloak my ship and have it close in on my location so it can fly here. It'd only take a few minutes for it to arrive at this temple." Mara said.

"Hm. There's something I'd like to see," said Toph. She chuckled. "Figuratively speaking, I mean."

Zareal

"Oh yes, excellent," Zareal said. "My mind's a little occupied at the moment, I momentarily forgot. If you're ready, call your ship and we can see to the survivors on Vader's ship."

"Yeah, I know," Sokka laughed sheepishly, flushing a little as he remembered the few times he forgot Toph was blind. She never behaved that delicate except in times where anyone would be delicate.

"If she's anything like Zuko, she wouldn't expect two 'filthy peasants' to get the drop on her," he mused, forgetting about Toph's family's wealth for a moment.

"I think I fit the filthy part at least," she said. "It kind of annoys your sister, but I don't think it's that bad."

She didn't mention she was wealthy. Toph had never cared about that; money was more trouble than it was worth, most of the time, and the only time it mattered was when she played con-artist in one way or another.

"Yeah. Real warriors are filthy. Can you believe that she makes Aang and I bathe every chance she gets? I mean, Aang's the Avatar! I don't think the Fire Nation or Zuko would care if he was clean!" Sokka complained, exasperated at his sister's strange, girlish habits.

True, he would miss them if Katara changed. She reminded him of their mom with her bossiness. He'd never admit to that, however.