It loomed in the distance, a great monster sprawled on the land, sinister and threatening. Suki's pulse was so fast she was worried her heart would burst out of her chest.
The dragons surrounding them swooped down to eliminate Fire Navy ships. Appa's tail flapped nervously. Even he was feeling the apprehension. As they got closer to land, the dragons divebombed again, to breathe fire on the troops that had gathered on the borders.
Although everyone else in the makeshift army was now starting to commence fighting in the streets of the city, the small group on Appa kept going. They flew, until they reached the massive temple rising in the very core of the Fire Nation capital. They had to find the Fire Lord. They had to defeat him.
Appa landed softly in the courtyard, and the group leapt off him and to the door. It seemed that the guards usually outside the palace entrances were called to battle on the edges of the city. It was eerily calm, and suspiciously too easy to infiltrate the building. They crept down the halls, trying to make sense of the tangled corridors. Aang led the group, using his instinct and connection to the spirits to navigate them.
And then the time came when they reached the chamber of the Fire Lord himself. If Suki thought that she had been nervous before—she was on the verge of going insane now. Here the corridors were not so empty. There were about ten soldiers standing in the hallway. Aang gave the sign for a surprise attack. On the count of three, the group struck. Suki used her new fans with nimble skill. Although the fire nation guards had bending on their side, their large suits of armour were clunky and heavy. She jumped and swung her sharpened fans, kicked and rocketed off the walls.
She found, that although the said suits of armour were resistant to fire, there were many cracks that could be infiltrated by so fine and precise an weapon as her fans or Sokka's sword. The five kids made quick work of the guards. Five? Thought Suki. She looked over the faces around her. Aang, Katara, Zuko, Sokka. "Where's Toph?" she asked.
The others looked puzzled. They had no clue.
Knowing that there was no turning back, the group turned to face the heavy doors separating the Fire Lord's grand chamber from the rest of the palace. Aang turned to them. "You guys had better stay here. This is something I have to do. And I can't let you risk yourselves for my destiny."
Katara jumped in immediately, taking his hand. "We know you have to do this, Aang. But so do we. As a team."
He must have known he could not win this argument, because he simply adopted a solemn face, and turned to put his hands on the thick wooden doors. With a communal shove, they pushed it out of the way and shoved into the chamber.
Zuko turned to face his father. He showed no regret in his face for the fact that he was going to aid in the bringing down of his father. Suki felt a sharp pity for him, what his childhood must have been.
"Hello, father," he said, adopting a battle stance. The Fire Lord showed not surprise. He simply rose slowly from his throne and descended the steps before him. Suddenly, he made a chopping motion with his hand. A great rope of fire swung out, and the entire team had to duck to avoid getting decapitated.
From then, the fight was on. Water splashed, fire blazed, wind blew, and rocks flew threw the air as the group struggled to defeat the powerful man. Finally he started to weaken. Aang sent a strong gust of wind at him, and he stumbled backwards. Zuko put up a wall of flames behind him. He fell through it. And was motionless. There was a thick silence that followed. Suki found herself wondering if she could move, because the silence pressed in on her violently.
"Thank goodness, it's all over," breathed Aang.
"It's not over yet," corrected a high and hateful voiced from the doorway.
Azula entered the room, flanked by her posse; Mai, Ty Lee, and…Suki gasped. She couldn't believe it. Toph and Haru were standing behind her, looking smug when the saw the flabbergasted looks on the groups faces. Well, Haru looked smug when he saw the look on the group's faces. Toph just looked smug in general.
"I know you're going to ask me why we're with Azula," sneered Toph. "So I'll save you some breath. Azula knows how powerful I am. She respects me. She knows what I can do and she lets me do it. I'm free. And now I'm going to get revenge on you impertinent little snotnoses. Ready?"
She bended a wall of rock at the group, and there was a flurry of action. Suki was grappling with Toph, doing her best to stay off of the ground so she could not be seen. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Sokka was fighting both Mai and Ty Lee, with occasional help from Katara and Zuko, who were also clashing with Haru. Azula and Aang were separated from the main part of the fray, battling heatedly.
She turned her back on Toph long enough to see Sokka undercut Ty Lee's feet, conntecting with her ankle, and disabling her. Realizing that she could hardly stand, she hobbled to shelter. Sokka then turned his full attention to Mai.
Toph took advantage of this momentary lapse in focus on Suki's part to trip her with a low wall of earth. Suki fell flat on her back, and her breath left her. Toph cackled, and sent her, along with a slab of stone, flying up into the air. The ceiling got closer and closer. Suki found herself struggling to regain her breath. She struggled to move. Right in the nick of time, she managed to fling herself into the air. It was a long, long fall to the ground. Suki maneuvered herself through the air, aiming her body to her ideal landing place. She landed right on Toph's unsuspecting back. She heard an alarming crack, of bones as her full weight collided with the small girl. Toph struggled from the room, having been injured beyond being able to fight.
As Suki turned around to the others once more, she saw something peculiar. Mai and Zuko were now fighting side by side against Haru. She wondered what had brought on Mai's sudden change in allegiances, but decided it could wait until after the battle. She joined their fight, and Haru, being the coward that he was, soon slunk from the room, tail between his legs.
They all turned to the only enemy left in the room, Azula. Until now, she had been engaged in a dramatic duel with Aang, but suddenly, she stood still, surveying the fierce faces of the kids in the room. "I guess this would be the time that I should surrender," she said coolly. The cluster of kids nodded. "Well," she started, everyone held their breath, thinking this would be the moment they had been waiting for. The fall of Azula herself. The undefeatable, emotionless monster was finally going to surrender. Then she flicked her finger and a bolt of lightning flew out, hitting Katara squarely in the stomach.
Katara gasped and crumbled. Azula laughed. "I really don't think surrender is in my nature," she stated. Then came a sound like a person being punched, hard in the stomach. A shiny black sword had been thrown through her, the source of it Sokka, whose face was slicked with tears over his lost sister. Once Azula fell to the ground, all faces turned solemnly towards Katara.
Aang was by her side. Head in one hand, the other hand holding tightly onto her cold, motionless limb. Through tears, Suki made out the words, "I never got to tell her I loved her."
