Author Note: This is my very first fan fic so please read and review. Constructive criticism is appreciated.

I Can't Go Back…

Chapter 1: The End

Damn, these guys are everywhere! thought Sokka, leading his squad towards yet another group of Fire Nation foot soldiers.

It had been two hours since the start of the battle that they hoped would finally defeat the Fire Nation, and he was feeling the strain.

Well, he thought, At least the earth benders are keeping all the fire benders occupied so us regular warriors don't have to deal with them. Especially since the comet is passing by today…

With a yell one of the Fire Nation warriors ran at him with a spear, "Here we go again…" Sokka commented to his squad, as the soldier neared him he swung his meteorite sword, taking out the spear and then the soldier. Sokka hated killing but knew it had to be done so the world could return to its natural balance.

Team Avatar, minus Aang who had gone to fight the Fire Lord, had started the battle fighting together but eventually became separated. When Sokka had realized he was alone he had joined a squad of Water Tribe warriors and used his tactical expertise to do a whole lot of damage to the enemy ranks. He had only seen signs that the Katara and Toph had been fighting nearby: like a few ice spikes imbedded in a soldier, or a soldier who was holding a sword that was tied in a knot courtesy of Toph's metal bending; other than that he hadn't seen any sign of them for a while and he was getting worried.

Just as he was starting to panic, he spied Katara surrounded by a ring of Fire Nation soldiers. He saw that she was doing alright on her own but ordered his squad towards the ring; even before they got near her, she had killed four of the soldiers and was working on the others. Sokka had his squad form a "V" shape with him at the head and they smashed through one side of the ring and joined Katara in the center.

As they fought off yet another wave of reinforcements Sokka asked "Have you seen Toph?"

"I think she went to join the other earth benders in holding off the fire benders" Katara replied. "You seen Zuko around?"

"No, but I wouldn't worry too much about him, he can take care of himself; besides he kind of blends in with the enemy so he should be safe." Said Sokka.

"Yeah you're right", she said taking out three more soldiers with a single ice spike

"Man", commented one of Sokka's squad, "there's no end to these guys! Remind me why we're doing this again."

"We're doing this so when Aang takes out the Fire Lord, we we'll be in the perfect position to occupy the capital; and so that Aang doesn't have to fight a whole bunch of soldiers before getting to the Fire Lord!" Sokka said. The soldier gave a noncommittal grunt as he blocked an opponent's sword and didn't say anymore.

"Speaking of," said Katara worriedly, "I hope Aang is doing ok…"

"Don't worry about your boyfriend Katara; he's trained months for this day" joked Sokka reassuringly.

"He's not my boyfr-, oh never mind!" said Katara as she impaled a soldier on an ice spike and then threw him at a group of soldiers rushing them.

After quite a while their little group had quite a pile bodies surrounding them; but there was no rest for them as the next wave of troops rushed them. The fatigue was starting to show and two members of their group were felled by the enemy but they were able to take out that entire wave too. "They've stopped coming…" commented Sokka suspiciously.

"No they're just surrounding us again" said one of the older combat veterans in the group. Sure enough, the man was right, as the smoke cleared a little and they saw an even bigger ring of Fire Nation troops surrounding them. Sokka also note that there were Fire Benders in the mix of regular troops.

"Crap!" shouted Katara, cursing their bad luck, "they've got fire benders! Must have held some in reserve!"

"I expected that they wouldn't use all their fire benders at once," Sokka said scratching his chin, "but why aren't they attacking?" All of the sudden a white hot bolt of lightning struck one of the Water Tribesmen, killing him instantly; he fell to the ground, dead, as a figure dropped right in front of Sokka and Katara. "Azula…" Said Katara with venom in her voice.

"What's this" asked Azula disbelievingly, "a bunch of peasants took out this many soldiers? Form the recon reports I was getting I was expecting a squad of elite Earth kingdom commandos…"

"Well these 'Peasants' are about to kick your ass!" yelled Sokka as he charged at her. But Azula just knocked him down with a blast of blue fire; as she was about to finish him off wit a bolt of lightning, Katara threw a water shield in front of him and shouted "Take the rest of the group and get back! The sadistic bitch is mine…"

Sokka and his group backed off to a respectful distance and turned to watch. as the fight started it wasn't clear who would have the upper hand; but it soon became apparent that Katara was tiring quickly and Azula was still fresh from sitting the battle out in the command tent. Unfortunately Sokka wasn't able to see a lot of the rest of the fight because at that moment the Fire Nation soldiers snapped out of it and decided to attack. He was able to catch occasional glimpses of the two benders between skirmishes: Katara throwing a rain of icicles at Azula, Azula throwing entire storms of lightning at Katara. After a while though, they were lost to his view because of the sea of soldiers surrounding them.

Luckily reinforcements had arrived to aid Sokka's group and the fight was about even. Suddenly Sokka heard an earsplitting crackling sound followed by a piercing scream of agony; he finished off the swordsman he was dueling and whipped around to see what had happened. What he saw nearly stopped his heart out of utter shock: Katara was sprawled on the ground with a large, smoking hole in her chest; Azula was standing over her laughing manically.

"I should have thought of this ages ago," laughed Azula, "what better way to cripple the Avatar than to kill his girlfriend?" Sokka just stared, not quite believing what had happened "I should probably kill you too" she said aiming a bolt of lightning at Sokka "just to make it extra painful to the Avatar". But before she could release the lightning bolt a pillar of stone rose from the ground, trapping Azula within it: Toph had joined the battle.

Sokka ran over to Katara's body and checked for a pulse; there was none. He broke down sobbing, cradling Katara's lifeless body in his arms "No, you can't die Katara! What's Aang going to do without you;" then in a whisper "what am I going to do without you…"

Toph was already crying as she shouted at Azula "you killed Katara! You monster! I'm going to crush every bone in your body!"

This snapped Sokka out of it "No." he commanded, "Just crush her hands and feet so she can't fire bend her way out of it". The only reply was the resounding crunch as the stone contracted around her limbs. "Were not going to kill you right away" said Sokka standing up, "were going to take it nice and slow…". No Fire Nation soldiers attacked them because there were even more allied warriors surrounding the group and the battle was definitely turning in their favor now.

Suddenly Aang swooped out of the sky and landed; he was a little burnt and he was favoring his right leg but he otherwise looked pretty good. "I did it!" he exclaimed excitedly, "I defeated Ozai! I took away his bending and- what's wrong?" he asked noticing everyone's faces. Then he looked towards the center and a look of utter shock passed over his face, "No…" he whispered. He immediately sprinted over and picked up Katara's body. He just stood silently for a few seconds, then asked in a voice that shook with emotion "Azula did this?" everyone nodded.

Azula cackled, "You may have defeated my father Avatar, but you still lost the person most precious to you!" she yelled with glee. Sokka noticed that Aang's tattoos were beginning to glow.

He new exactly what was going to happen and yelled "Fall back! Run! If you want to live get back to the command tent!" then turned and ran at full tilt towards the rear of the allies lines. As he ran he glanced back and saw that most of the soldiers were sprinting the way he was, even some fire benders were running with them but no one seemed to care; he also noticed Aang rising into the air, still carrying Katara and a large sphere of elemental energy was spreading towards the fleeing troops. It caught a few stragglers and all the Fire Nation soldiers who thought that the other side was just retreating. Sokka reached the command tent and whirled around and saw the sphere retreating, leaving hundreds of dead fire nation and a few of the Earth and Water soldiers who couldn't get away in time.

Aang, still in the Avatar state, landed and placed Katara's body on the ground and walked over to Azula who he had left alive; with all the voices of the previous Avatars he screamed "You Killed her!! Now I'm going to do the same to you except much more slowly…" Azula began to scream for help but no one was near or willing enough to do anything. Aang released her from the rock pillar, picked her up by the throat and began to mutilate her. Sokka watched for the first minute or so, but turned away because it was to painful to watch what Aang was doing to her; but the sounds and Azuka's screams were enough to give him nightmares for the next month. With a last sickening crunch Azula's screams stopped. Sokka turned to look and saw Azula's corpse fall to the ground. Aang slowly came out of the Avatar state and knelt down next to Katara; the battlefield was completely silent, then everyone heard what many would call the most mournful sound they had ever heard coming from Aang.

Toph and Sokka immediately started to cry again. Zuko, who had finally found them, asked what that horrible noise was. "That" Sokka replied his voice shaking "is the sound of a boy who's won the war, but lost everything he was fighting for…" Sobbing the three began walking towards their wailing friend.

To be continued…