>>96346158

Meanwhile, Zuko and Iroh have been labelled as traitors by the Fire Nation for their "failure" at the north pole. They've been travelling through the Earth Kingdom under false identities, and Zuko is not adjusting well to not having a goal in life. The new Fire Nation antagonists hunting the Avatar are Azula, Ty Lee, and Mai. Azula is Zuko's younger sister, a sociopath that threw rocks at animals as a child and smiled when Zuko had his face burned. She's a perfectionist and manipulator, and can lightningbend, a more powerful form of firebending. Ty Lee is a acrobatic nonbender that jabs people's pressure points to temporarily cause paralysis and block the ability to bend. Mai is another nonbender that's really good at throwing blades around.

Team Avatar happen upon a massive library in the middle of the desert, where they learn that a solar eclipse will occur before Sozin's Comet comes back. Firebenders lose the ability to bend when the sun is blocked, so it will be the perfect time to attack the Fire Lord. Unfortunately, Appa is captured by sandbenders (an earthbender variant) and sold to traders while they're doing this, leaving Team Avatar without their easy flying transportation. Wanting to use the eclipse information to recruit help from the Earth King, and figuring that Appa will probably end up at a place of huge commerce, the team decided to go to the Earth Kingdom capital: the walled city of Ba Sing Se.