Chapter 7: Azula

It had been about 20 minutes since they first landed, and Katsuki was becoming slightly more anxious. "Ugggg!" He growled as he paced back and forth, "When are they gunna get here? Of course they would show up whenever we try to sleep, but when we actually want them here, they're nowhere to be seen!" As Katsuki continued to mutter to himself while pacing around the same spot, Aang had been carefully meditating, preparing for when the attackers would finally show up.

A few more minutes passed and Katsuki was just as angry as he was before. Aang then opened his eyes to see an approaching figure in the distance, "There!" He quickly said, alerting Katsuki to the presence of the figure, "Someone's coming!" Katsuki squinted out over the distance to indeed see a figure that was headed there way. A wide grin suddenly plastered the blonde's face, "Finally!" He said, keeping his eyes situated on the figure.

Once the figure got close enough, the two teens could see that it was someone riding what looked to be a giant lizard. As the lizard entered the town, the two boys could see that it was one of the three girls from before. Katsuki carefully examined her as she swiftly dismounted the lizard, 'hmmmm.' He thought to himself while looking at her, 'Last time we saw her, she was in between the other two girls; usually, that's a sign of superiority. The fact that she is the only one of them who's wearing armor, might mean that she has some military background. Also, the way she carries herself shows that she's confident in her abilities to fight…..This should be fun.'

"Ok," Katsuki yelled, pointing to the girl, "You've caught up to us, so what the hell do you want?" The black haired girl slightly frowned at Katsuki's outburst, "Who are you?" She asked, lifting an eyebrow. "I'm the guy who's gunna kick your ass!" Growled Katsuki as he balled his hands into fists. The girl slightly chuckled before she turned to face the avatar. "Who are you?" Aang simply asked before standing back up. "You mean you haven't guessed? You don't see the family resemblance? Maybe this will help…" the girl said as she raised her hand to cover her eye.

"I must find the avatar to restore my honor," she said in a deep voice that sounded like she was mocking someone. Aang and Katsuki both stared at her in silence, neither one having any idea who or what she was talking about. "It's okay," the girl said suddenly, breaking the deafening silence, "You can laugh. It's funny." Aang regained his composure and began to speak again, "So, what now?" He asked, giving the dark haired girl a small shrug.

"Now?" She repeated before she took a step forward, "Now it's over. You're both tired and have no place to go. You can run, but i'll catch you."

Katsuki glared at the girl and said, "Like hell we're running."

Meanwhile, with Izuku…

As the trio flew on Appa, they were searching for signs of where Aang had gone to. "How the heck are we supposed to find out where Aang went? And I thought we were suppose to set up a meetup point," groaned Sokka, who had now almost fully recovered from his limp state.

"Look for a trail of fur," Izuku replied, "If we find that trail, we can use it to find Aang. Also we couldn't set a meetup point up because those girls had followed us. We didn't plan for them to find us so soon, so we need to change our previous plan to finding Aang."

Katara had been quiet almost the entire time since they had left Ty Lee and Mai in the river. "Ummmm, Izuku," Katara finally asked, causing Izuku's head to jerk up slightly, "I don't think I got the chance to thank you back there; y'know...when you saved me from earlier."

Izuku stared at her for a couple seconds before nervously scratching the back of his head and replying with, "No problem." Katara smiled in response and turned back to steer Appa.

"Dude, that was amazing!" Sokka practically bellowed, inching over to Izuku with a large smile on his face, "You took out those two fire nation girls like it was nothing! You were like - BOOM and they were like - POW and then you just went - KABOOM!"

Izuku laughed a little bit at Sokka's ranting until Katara gathered both of their attention. "Guys, I found Aang's trail!" She said as she pointed down to a collection of fur that looked like it went on for miles.

"Nice!" Izuku exclaimed, "We'll catch up to Aang in no time!"

"Yeah," Katara said as she looked out over the horizon, "Don't worry, Aang, we're coming!"

With Toph and Shouto…

The two teens had finally returned to the campsite, only to see that it was empty. "What the hell?" Toph said, looking around, "Where did everyone go? Did they really hate me that much?" Shouto turned to her, almost immediately, and said, "No, of course they don't hate you. They never did." Toph let out a small giggle, due to Shouto completely missing the sarcasm in her comment. "I know," She said as they walked further, "I was just kidding. I'm sure they had a really good reason to leave."

Shouto didn't reply and, instead, decided to look around. He walked to a pile of what he thought was Appa's hair, only to realize that the pile was continuous and formed a small trail of fur. He narrowed his eyes at the trail before looking over at a nearby river. As he approached the river, he noticed that there were clumps of fur (also Appa's) that seemed to be stuck on some rocks in the water.

Shouto stood there for a few moments, putting two and two together. "I know where they went," he finally said as he deduced what happened, "They must've taken your advice and washed the bison. One of them might have put down a false trail so as to lead their pursuers in the wrong direction. So, if we want to find them, we must follow this trail."

"But we don't know when they left," stated Toph, "so they could be miles away by now." Shouto nodded and said, "That is possible, which is why we need to move as fast as we can."

There was silence before Toph suddenly yelled, "Race ya!" And conjured forth the movement of the rocks beneath her to propel her forward. As Shouto watched Toph leave, a smirk appeared on his face as he prepared his own means of transportation.

Similar to Toph, Shouto created a massive ice structure that carried him forward in pursuit of Toph. The two teens hurried down the trail of fur and disappeared into the forest.

Back with Aang and Katsuki…

The duo stood together against the female fire bender as the dust was flown into the air by an oncoming breeze. "Do you two really want to fight me?" She asked, a sly grin appearing on her face. Suddenly, almost out of nowhere, a fourth voice said, "Yes, I really do." As a young man appeared from behind a nearby building. The man seemed to be riding a large ostrich-type bird that slowed down as he jumped off of it. The man then took off a large straw hat, revealing a severely scarred part of his face.

"Zuko!" Aang exclaimed, obviously surprised at the man's sudden arrival. "Huh? You know this guy?" Asked a confused Katsuki, to which Aang replied, "Yeah, he's been chasing us nonstop, practically around the entire world." Katsuki looked back up at the man, "He kinda looks like Shouto…..what the hell?"

"I was wondering when you were going to show up, Zuzu," the dark haired girl said to the man, causing Aang to hide a small chuckle, "'Zuzu'?" He asked putting a hand on his mouth. The man, now known as Zuko, got into a defensive pose as he stared at the dark haired girl, "Back off, Azula! He's mine!" Zuko said as he gestured to Aang. There was a short silence as the girl, introduced as Azula, also struck a pose, "I'm not going anywhere," she replied.

There was a long pause as each of the opponents took their time preparing what they would do. Aang and Katsuki followed the others' lead, taking their own defensive poses. No one dared attack first as each of them were waiting for the other's move. There was silence that spread throughout the town beside the shifting of sand and the blowing of wind. Tension rose as the four warriors refused to move from their spots.

However, the silence was quickly ended when Azula attacked first, sending a wonderful display of blue fire at Zuko, who attempted to block it but was flung into a nearby building. "We need to put some distance between us and them!" Yelled Aang as he took his glider into the sky. His efforts, however, were promptly discovered by the female bender as she generated a projection of fire from her fingertips.

Aang quickly turned his body around and began spinning his staff in between his hands, creating a small wind shield that dispersed the blue flames. Katsuki charged at Azula as he held his hands by his sides. The fire bender then went for a direct attack by outstretching her arm, causing a vortex of fire to be unleashed. Katsuki put his arms in front of him and swiftly split the fire apart, using small centralized explosions.

As Katsuki neared Azula, he noticed that took on a different stance. Her legs were now wide apart from each other; her chest had been shifted to one side; and she held her arms together by connecting both of her wrists. 'She's gunna do a wide attack!' Katsuki estimated. Once Azula released her attack, Katsuki used his explosions to narrowly avoid the sea of flames, quickly landing behind the fire bender. "Gotcha!" He yelled as he lunged forward, reaching for her arm.

Azula let out a grunt, trying to dodge the young blond's attack. Her arm quickly zipped to her side as she jumped away from Katsuki. She landed a couple yards away, and she slowly began to stand up straight. "You're good, i'll give you that," Azula said as Katsuki simply glared back in response, "How would you like to work for me? I am the princess of the fire nation, after all. I can provide you with whatever you want."

"Nope, nice try!" Katsuki said, smiling, "I may be hanging with a bunch of losers, but that doesn't mean that i'll leave them to join some assholes!" Azula simply frowned at him and remained silent. "Wait a minute," Katsuki began again, "You're the princess of the fire nation?" Azula grinned slightly, hoping that he would understand the position he's in and change his mind; instead he gave her a demonic smile. Chills ran down her spine as Katsuki took a few steps toward her, wearing a horrifying smile.

"So, you're saying," Katsuki began, his eyes fixed on Azula, "that if I kill you here and now…..then this war is as good as over?!" Azula swallowed and backed away, pretending not to be afraid of the monster in front of her; but she was. She had never had this feeling before. She had never felt her body tremble so much. She had never felt FEAR.

Azula slowly regained her composure as she nervously gulped, "If your goal was to intimidate me, then you are doing a horrible job of it." She said, doing her best to remain calm. "Is that a fact?" Katsuki asked menacingly, "Then why are you still backing up?" Azula's eyes widened as she looked down to see that she had been subconsciously keeping her distance from him this entire time.

"ENOUGH!" She yelled as blue fire erupted around her hands, "I shall end this!" She took a step forward, as did Katsuki, until the two opponents were standing directly in front of each other. "If you want an early death," Katsuki growled under his breath, "then who am I to stop you?"

Azula let out a roar as the two fighters collided, creating a miniature explosion that designated the nearby land.

Meanwhile, Aang was doing his best to avoid Zuko's fire blasts as he ducked, rolled, jumped over some. "Grrrrr! Stand still!" Zuko said through gritted teeth. The airbender, however, continued to effortlessly dodge his attacks until Zuko finally stopped. "Wait, Zuko!" Aang said as he held out his hand pleadingly, "I know how badly you want to capture me, but the fact is that Azula is more of a threat to you right now."

Zuko looked at the avatar before giving his response, "So? What are you saying?" Aang jumped down from the building he had landed on and walked up to Zuko, "I'm saying that we can't do anything as long as Azula is here; she posses too much of a threat. Y'know that old saying - 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend'?"

Zuko stood in silence before he gave his very clear and simple answer, "Fine."

With that being said, Zuko and Aang headed to the location from where all of the explosions were occurring to face Azula.

As they neared the battleground, they saw Katsuki and Azula locked in physical battle. They two were exchanging blows as quickly as they were dishing them out, but it looked like they were beginning to reach their limit.

Katsuki got one final hit in and sent Azula crashing into the side of a wall. She quickly got up to return to the fight, but for some reason she couldn't move. She looked down and saw that ice had firmly planted her feet to the ground. She turned her head to look behind her and saw two silhouettes. "Katsuki," one of the silhouettes said as it stepped forth, "What's been taking you so long?"

"Shouto…" Katsuki quietly grunted as he approached the ice-user.

"Your battle has been going on for quite some time," Shouto said as he stepped out from the shadows, "don't you think you should've ended it sooner?" The Red and white haired teen was soon followed by Toph as she followed his lead and stepped out from the shadows. "Yeah," she agreed as she joined Shouto, "she doesn't look so tough. What took so long?"

Shouto quietly scanned the group and saw something that caught his attention. It was another boy about his age who also seemed to have a scar on his face. The boy with the scar looked at Shouto and for a moment, both of them wondered whether the other had a tragic story to tell, but that could wait.

Azula let out a girlish laugh before addressing those behind her, "Hello, i'm still here. Honestly, don't you have any manners?" Suddenly her feet were engulfed in blue flames as the ice quickly melted. The fire princes then jumped away from the group and landed near a building corner.

Out of the corner of her eye she could see more people who were approaching. "Aang!" Yelled one of them as Izuku, Katara, and Sokka ran out to greet the group from behind a building. "You need to corner her," came another voice from behind them. They turned around and looked to see an old man approaching the group.

"Uncle!" Zuko yelled once he saw the man.

"Iroh!" Toph and Shouto both shouted.

Once the man joined the group, without any other questions, everyone turned to face Azula. As they inched toward the trapped fire princess, she took a look around her and smiled, "Well, look at this," she began, "Enemies and traitors, all working together." She then proceeded to raise her arms in defeat, "You've got me. I know when i'm beaten. A princess surrenders with honor."

Nobody trusted her and instead continued their advance. There was a short silence that filled the air. Suddenly Azula sent a stream of electricity at Iroh, hitting him directly in the chest. The man groaned and fell to the ground. Without wasting any time, everyone in the group attacked he simultaneously, hoping that it would be enough.

In combination with everyone's attack, there was a massive explosion that erupted, destroying the nearby land.

End of chapter 7

Author's Note: This story is honestly going better than I had hopped. I still want for Shouto and Zuko to interact more, but I guess that won't happen anytime soon. Please comment. Thanks and Peace! :)