It was beautiful. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.

Azula had entered the village just as silently as last time, only she had not waited for them to fall into slumber. She was close to the Avatar and his friends, she wanted this masterpiece to be fresh, new blood as paint does run down from a finished easel before drying. Each body was unique, absolutely breathtaking in its own way, from the mother of the three children she had disemboweled, to the father of them all she had cut off the feet from, and forced him to watch as his Life was shredded just before she tore out his eyes.

He had watched his future collapse, just as she had, her own.

It was enough. The Beast was silent, once more, and the Snake had warned her of her proximity to that of The Avatar, and she had listened, fading away into the woods like the fog that was twisting around her ankles like small, weightless fingers.

It thrilled her. The burning of the nearby village, just out of reach of The Avatar, but close enough for her to watch their agony as they stumbled upon another mass of charred bodies.

They would never find the children. She hadn't killed the children, they were too young, too innocent to understand, as she had left them somewhere they would not be found, and let Nature run its course.

Small children cannot sustain themselves, they would die from lack thereof. That way she wouldn't have to worry about what Beast or Snake would say.

Beast would want her to. He always wanted her to...

Snake would hold her back, saying she should savor her hatred and blood lust for none other than the Avatar himself. She knew he was right, of course, and she knew that Beast could get carried away if he was not held in check for too long.

She sighed. Beast was correct, yes, but Snake was so much more fun...

It would take every ounce of his cunning and Beasts rage to be able to attempt her next move in her War.

The taking of Katara's life...

Zuko knew, Zuko knew, of course, that she was responsible for these murders, and she was awarethat he would warn the Avatar and his friends to be weary of her approach. This put a slight flaw in her plans, as it would be more difficult to separate them from one-another, as she could not take them all at once.

It would be difficult, of course, but not impossible.

She couldn't stop now, anyway, with her ultimate prize literally mere inches away from her fingers.

She could feel him breathing, she could feel his steady pulse beneath his clothing, the decadence of Life, so easily severed... Lightning's power coursing through her veins, into her fingertips...

No.

She snapped free of her dillusion, righting herself on the branch of the tree and peered through the night towards the small campsite where the Avatar lay. Once they awoke, she would venture in and make her presence known, she would do it, just as Beast said she should.

Snake was just going to have to wait...

1st person—Katara.

It's been three days since Toph died. Everyone says that they had no idea what'd happened, Suki, Zuko, Sokka, Aang, everyone feigned ignorance, and I don't know if they're lying.

I wish Toph were here. But as I say this, in a way she is here, with all of us, spiritually, anyway, and she wouldn't want us to sit around moping about what'd happened, she'd want us to move on and do what needed to be done.

And no doubt argue nonstop if we disagreed. So we must go on, we're heading to Ba-Sing-Se, again to speak with the Earth King, and try and set this entire disaster right, again. It seems to simple, just get there and everything will turn out okay, but I think we all know that it will be nothing close to simple.

Maybe that's why they left, maybe that's why they needed some time away...

I'm an idiot not to've said anything, but I know that everyone was feeling so regretful about what'd happened—about not seeing what'd happened-- that I let them go off, alone.

But not before promising to come back within the hour.

So I was here, left alone with the woods and my swirling hurricane of thoughts, regrets, and things that I wanted to've said but didn't, because I was an idiot.

It was incredible what the Death of your closest friend brought you to realize, wasn't it?

I was shaken, everyone was shaken, and it seemed that nobody knew what was happening, even Sokka seemed at a loss for words, for once.

That was never a good thing.

But it didn't matter, Toph wouldn't want us to mourn like a ("bunch of sissies" or something equally as sarcastic) She would want us to make it to Ba-Sing-Se, with or without her, and stop this from happening twice.

She was stubborn, but not stupid. She was...Harsh, sometimes, but not heartless.

Azula was the truly heartless one.

END 1ST PERSON

Speaking of Azula...

I sat in the tree, savoring the minutes before I chose to act. Everything had to be flawless, everything must be perfect, or else it will all come crashing down around me, yet again.

I could not allow that to happen, not with everything being so close to falling together.

I sneered, letting my own hatred guide me down from the tree, ever closer to none other than the Avatar's little girlfriend..

It was time to begin...

She saw me almost immediately. I didn't expect her to realize I was there so fast.

She turned, shock and rage distorting her features, and unleashed a volley of water from that small flask at her side. It came at me like something alive, striking me across the face, leaving a gash there which I knew would not soon heal.

She was obviously serious. It didn't matter, though, because I couldn't allow myself to lose. This was more than a fight, this was a duel, an Agni-Kai, one into the bitter reaches of Death, one into the vast nothingness of eternity.

She had a one-way ticket. I just had to make sure she didn't miss the voyage.

She reached for the water again, drawing it up into a wall of Ice in front of her to ward off my bullets of flame, and it held. I fired more, moving around her in a circle, forcing her to reduce the wall to water once again, and rely only on the liquid itself to hold back the barrage of blue flame.

She turned around, attempting to whip at me with the water, undoubtedly, but I moved quickly to the left, and she missed.

She missed.

And I took full advantage. Using her uncertainty, I lunged towards her, knocking the beam of water from her hands, and tackling her to the ground. I raked my nails across the face,--startlingly pretty, even with deep, bleeding gashes coursing through it-- and began to burn away the skin from her face.

She wouldn't allow it.

She kicked me off, screaming of murder, and turned the water upon the ground into fragments of ice, which she threw at me like so many knives. I dodged the majority, but wasn't fat enough to get away from the last few, which embedded themselves into my shoulder with a squelching of wet flesh and a screaming of dry bone.

She looked at me, grinning through the Death-mask I had so lovingly created for her, and I looked down, surprised from the pain that the daggers were giving me. I threw them down, and we continued.

She was beautiful.

The way she moved, the way that she bent the water alongside her as if it were a second, more solid shadow. It and her body moved as fluid as the other, resulting in something completely and totally immersible.

I could never achieve this sort of beauty.

It only made me want to kill Katara more.

I dodged everything she could throw at me, breathless, using up all available energy to focus on my one objective, to take her life, and live to take the others. I couldn't keep it up for long, though, and I began to get weary, it was becoming harder to pay attention, harder to move, more difficult to breathe.

I think I was as close to dying as I'd ever been.

She would be one to remember, most definitely. She was not just another Life taken.

And it happened like this.

I fell backwards, completely exhausted, into a lake somewhere near the campsite. I stood back up, but slipped on the muddy bottom and fell, again, and saw Katara appear between the trees.

Her face was a caked mess of blood and dirt, and scorched patches of skin. Her hair was filthy, her clothes were ragged and bloodstained, and she was breathing heavily, thick, forced gasps.

She looked absolutely perfect. Her final moment was here.

She stared at me, and I shuddered, it was as if the gates to Hell were alight beneath those blue eyes, which burned with the fire of a thousands damned souls, and were somehow still dead-looking, as if she'd died a long time ago, and couldn't let herself move on.

I decided to help her with that.

She raised her arms above her head, bringing her hands together in a motion I knew nothing of, until I heard a massive roar—like that of a Demon itself-- behind me.

It hit me, then, how much of a fool I'd been. I was in a lake!

I was also in so much trouble.

She grinned horribly at me, death-mask white with rage, and bound me there, in midair.

She was going to crucify me, I honestly didn't believe that she possessed that kind of cruelty.

I hung there, suspended by the tendrils of water, which were rapidly spawning more, until I was nearly immobilized by them. She raised the remainder of water out of the lake, and turned it into a stock of darts, sharp, razored accuracy of Ice.

That was where she made her final mistake. I used the shifting motion of her left hand as she released the darts to send a bolt of lightning along the tendrils of water that bound us together, it raced backwards towards its target, hitting her with a wicked CLAP! That was mingled with her screams.

I was also being electrocuted, every twitch and buck that Katara did as the lightning infiltrated her body was mirrored exactly by myself as the Water-Bender screamed in mortal agony.

Despite the pain, I loved every moment of it. Until it was over.

Katara fell to the ground, motionless. And so did I.

I crawled as quickly over to the body as I could manage, and surveyed what I had done. She was charred, burnt beyond all recognition, just as her friend was before, only this time her blood had came over her face in a mask that made even me shudder in disgust.

It was over. The next segment of the stairway to victory had been cleared, and I was overjoyed.

As I did before, I asked Snake and Beast if it was enough, seeing if they were not fully satisfied with what I'd done. Only I got no reply.

My mind was buzzing, my eyesight was going dim, and I was having a hard time thinking, as if my thoughts belonged to someone else, rather than what I knew to be myself.

What was happening?

I crawled away from the body of the Dead Water-Bender, and disappeared as quickly as I could into the foliage, hoping it would cover me from her friends, as they undoubtedly would be returning soon.

My wounds were multiple, and it was becoming difficult to think. Snake and Beast had fallen silent.

I had just one thing left to do, now, and it would all be over. My War, would be over.

And I would become the true Phoenix. I bit down on my hands, again, feeling the skin tear.

I crawled further into the foliage, and wept tears of joy.

1st Person-- Sokka

I cannot explain to you what I see lying before me. It's a sight of too great a magnitude for mere words, and can only be expressed in simple, boiling emotion.

Azula had to be stopped, before this could continue, any further.

"Aang!" I turned towards the Airbender, who was weeping madly into Zuko's shoulder, who was clutching a sobbing Suki, as well.

With the assistance of Zuko, he managed to stand up. "W-what?"

I sighed, seeing my friends for what could most likely be the final time. "You've got to go."

He clearly didn't understand what I meant, and it made me even sadder. "What do you mean, go?"

"Y-You've got to go." I said this last part softly, too intent on keeping away the onslaught of tears that threatened me with their arrival.

His face all but collapsed as he grasped the meaning of my words. "No."

"Yes."

"NO!" He looked both angry and hurt, and he had perfect reasoning to be both. "I-"

I held up my shaking hand to stop him. "Look, you all know who's behind this, obviously, only you didn't actually want to say it because it sounded unbelievable. Azula is the one who's been doing all of this, guys. It's Azula! And I think you know that, by now."

Zuko surveyed me from behind dry eyes. "You've figured it out, too?"

"Those burns weren't from an ordinary Fire-Bender."

He nodded. "You're right, she isn't an ordinary Fire-Bender, and Katara wasn't an ordinary Water-Bender, either." He frowned at me. "I can't believe you'd actually be so stupid as to suggest something like this."

"Katara didn't lose because she was any stronger or weaker than Azula, Zuko. Nor did Toph."

"No?" He surveyed me coolly, though I knew he was in immense pain.

"No. Azula only managed to do these things because both Katara and Toph possessed something that she apparently lacks."

"What might that be?"

"Mercy." I glared at him, and he knew that I was right.

I convinced them to go. I convinced Suki, Aang and Zuko to leave and flee to Ba-Sing-Se as quickly as they possibly could, and do whatever it took to wash away the memories of these past few horrible days.

I couldn't bring myself to say to wash away my own memory, but if I had, they wouldn't have left.

I sat there, in the deserted campsite, and waited for night to fall, and with in, the raising of the guillotine that was Azula.

And she didn't disappoint me, in the least.

She came like a lynx, creeping silent on two feet into the campsite, searching for any signs of life, until she found it empty.

I couldn't help but laugh at her howl of rage.

She heard me laugh, and sent a bolt of lightening me way, which I just barely dodged.

"WHERE ARE YOU FRIENDS!?" She screamed, face twisted.

"They're gone. They ran away to escape you."

"Oh, how sweet. You sent them away to protect them, I foresee?" She sighed. "It's a pit, I'll just have to kill you all, rather than spare that girlfriend of yours."

"You LIE!"

"How do you know?" She sneered at me, eyes burning.

"Because you're you."

I drew my sword from its sheath, running towards the motionless Azula, who couldn't bring her hands around in time. I swung with all the strength I had...

And missed cleanly. Azula danced away, laughing.

She wants to torture me before I die, she wants to make me suffer, because if I fail and she takes out everyone else, it'll be my fault. Just like Katara and Toph.

Azula, instead of killing me, merely beckoning me with her hands, laughing softly as I lunged forwards, to swing and miss again.

She laughed as I attempted the same maneuver, knowing I was dancing with Death itself, and swung, one more time.

This time, I didn't miss. The sword cleaved her left hand off cleanly at the wrist, spurting blood and gore which blanketed us both, and she began screaming like a wounded animal.

That's all she ever was, though, merely an animal...

I hurled myself away from Azula as she sent one last retaliatory bolt of lighting at me, as I was suspended in midair, completely helpless.

The world slowed down, I could hear her laughter, every droplet of blood was magnified to an almost surreal level of detail, and I reacted on instinct.

I threw up my sword to block.

The blot of lighting traced itself along the blade, crackling downwards along my arm and off into the sky from the tip of the blade. Azula was just as shocked as I was that I was still alive.

Azula screamed, trying to forage enough power for another bolt of lightning, but I stopped her with one, decisive swing of my sword which cleaved her arm completely away from its owners body.

She screamed, fell over, clutching the stump of what had been a working left arm, and screamed.

I fell to the ground, also, bleeding badly from my chest, my heart racing...

Azula fell backwards, screams diminishing in intensity and hatred, and watched me approach her.

1st Person—Azula

I watched the Water-Tribe swordsman approach me, with murderous intent in his eyes, but I was not afraid. All my rage had disappeared, somehow, as if someone had pulled a plug from somewhere inside me, and I had lost track of myself, and where I was to be.

Snake? I called inside myself, searching for a fragment of advice, but none came.

Beast? I called out to him, desperate for what to do, but he gave me no heed.

I could only watch as Sokka progressed closer, raising his sword in what was surely going to be the killing blow. It came with a SCHING! And the burying of sword into substance, but there was no pain.

No pain...

I looked above me to find Sokka staring down, eyes living, tears coursing down his face.

"Why didn't you kill me?" I taunted. "I know you ant to, I know you think I deserve it."

He shook his head. "You deserve it more than anyone ever will, but I can't kill you."

My eyes widened in disbelief. "Why not?"

"Because you don't deserve to die bu another human being. The taking of your life won't replace the ones that you've stolen."

"Kill me." I hissed. "I know it's what you want to do!"

He shook his head. "No. I can't. It's what you'd want me to do, and I don't want your blood on my hands." His eyes burned with fury."You aren't worth killing in battle. You're nothing more than an animal."

We both realized the truthfulness of that statement at the exact same time, and we both knew it.

He pulled his sword free from the ground, and gave me one last look.

"I'm sorry, but you don't deserve to die."

He walked away, then, to leave me there alone, and absolutely helpless. I could feel the strength draining from my body, and my vision was getting blurry, my thoughts were fading away. Sokka disappeared from my eyes, and merged with the shadows of the woods, which were becoming larger by the second.

Beast and Snake had fallen silent, as well. I was truly alone.

I lay there, and let the shadows take me.

I lay there, and began to cry.