Chapter Nine: Fleshy Prison

"Toph? Toph!" Sokka questioned, then shouted for conformation, which he got. Toph was in the process of gathering dirt to herself to soak up the acidic bile that she had been covered in upon her escape from the malevolent Trigon when she heard Sokka shouting her name and immediately replied with, "Hey Snoozles! Didja see that? Pretty cool, right?" "Toph, no time to explain, just catapult yourself up here!" Was the brief reply she got. Even though her feet were burned by the acid, once firmly planted on the ground she could "see" everything and also feel the nervousness emanating from her friend, even though he was on the rooftop, the building was still made of solid stone. "Sokka…" She started absently as her mind began to comprehend what all the vibrations sent through the earth were conveying. Fighting, death, fear, struggle- it was resounding through the earth, and it didn't seem as though the people were winning… "Toph! Hurry!" She snapped back to reality at Sokka's urging, and finally did what he requested, even though she rather hated flying through the air… Sokka caught her, and was about to set her down, except her noted the acid burns on her feet so he carried her piggy back style as he continued down the rooftops, him explaining why and where they were headed and her telling him what areas to avoid and also about the Trigon.

Much to his chagrin, Zuko had discovered yet another adaptation these creatures, the Genestealers and Carnifex, had developed… an apparent immunity to fire, which, of course, was the weapon he was wielding against the bugs. Sure, he'd eliminated the Gaunts and Horma-Gaunts, which was great, and he had his bolter, loaded with a full clip, but in a half an hour when the eclipse happened, he would need that gun with all its ammo, as it would be his only line of defense. Dodging another charge by one of the Genestealers and barrel rolling to avoid the spray of fire from the Carnifex's putrid weapon, he then decided it might be better to worry about the eclipse after he lived to see it, rather than die now in the hope of surviving during it. He pulled his bolter up just in time to blast away a Genestealer, but not before it shredded through his other arm which he'd held up in defense. Trying his best to conserve his ammunition, he figured out that one or two well placed shots would take down the Genestealers, but he couldn't even find a weak point on the Carnifex that the bullets would actually damage instead of bouncing off uselessly. With the last of the Genestealers gone, and after a fair amount of blood loss due to his injured arm and also several other minor injuries the Genestealers and the dodging of the Carnifex had brought on, he was forced to face off against the monstrous carapaced beast. Using his firebending as a distraction, he managed to sidestep behind the beast, only to be caught by its club like tail and thrown against the wall of what had used to be some noble's house, cracking a few ribs in the process. He staggered to his feet and barely dodged a shot from its strange firearm, then suddenly it hit him! As the thing glared at him through its horrid little eyes and reared its gargantuan talons behind it, ready to strike, he had the sudden idea to shoot its eyes. Firing a spray of ammo into the monstrosity's face, hitting its slits of eyes, the thing reared backward in pain and anger, releasing a hideous bellow as it did. He slid left, trying again to round the thing or just get out of its range, but he was thwarted this time by the gargant's angered jabbing using its chitinous claws. He dodged the first two strikes, was barely caught by the third and the fourth caught him in the side, but deeper into his side than the third. He heard his ribs crack in a sickly sound as the creature lifted him back along with its claw, and it looked like Katara had been right…

She had been wrong. Wrong to disagree with Zuko that this was a suicide mission, wrong to assume that if they all co-operated together that they would actually live through this ordeal, and wrong to assume the other bugs had simply been too stupid to return inside the tower after their initial flooding outside… The reason it would seem that the lesser bugs hadn't come back was that the brood queen wanted to kill their little group of five on her own. Stepping through the last barricade and into the hatchery, they saw her. She was gigantic, easily the height of the tower itself, except the bugs had built it up with their pustulous additions while still leaving a hole at the top letting the sunlight faintly shine in, and although she was massive, she moved about quite deftly, not that that mattered, she had incapacitated them upon their entry. A piercing, shrieking, sanity destroying sound infected their brains, and no amount of ear covering could put the sound from their minds. Two of their number were weaker minded and blew the sound away using their bolters, an action which it seemed the queen had allowed, the others she exerted her control over and they fell limply to the ground, their ears and minds still burning with the sound. Katara felt a tear roll down her cheek as she absently watched the queen devour the third member of their party, leaving only her and Amicus left alive. She could see the queen's body shifting and contorting, changing slightly in appearance after she finished consuming the Cadian, and she gained a slightly human countenance, and evil smile playing over a grotesque face and the same gleam reflected in her black eyes. Katara knew either she or Amicus would be next, and as she prepared herself for the inevitable, saying a final prayer to Tui and La, the room suddenly became dark and she heard...

The general chaos that had erupted in Ba Sing Se made the requisitioning of a Valkyrie easier, but also having the world's only metal bender helped too, especially with the large metal doors that shielded the outside world from the hangar. They had slipped past the Guardsmen, who were either too busy fighting off Raveners and Trigons to care or were too busy calling for reinforcements to care, either way they were occupied, so when Sokka finally managed to get the Valkyrie into the sky, it wasn't a shock that there wasn't anyone trying to stop them… well, except for the bugs, that is. They had managed to get to the wall before the bugs managed to catch them, the Gargoyles apparently having joined the fight along with some other varieties whose names came flooding in over the communicator as panicked screams of "Lictor", "Carnifex", "Tyrant", "Zoanthrope", and "Rippers" came pouring in. Limited in her bending from not being on the ground, Toph had to rely also on Sokka to tell her where to aim the small metal projectiles she found. The gargoyles had swarmed them and were on the verge of overpowering them when a sudden gust of air and …green flames… saved them. Appa was flying outside alongside them as Aang and a new face joined them inside the combat helicopter, Sokka let Toph fill them in as he pushed full power towards the Fire Nation, Appa barely keeping pace.

The sun sank behind the moon as the solar eclipse took over the sky, a sort of signal to Zuko that it was over for him, but then just as suddenly, the Carnifex, upon whose chitinous talon he was stuck, let out a baleful moan as it staggered about until it crashed hard into the ground, dead. He wasn't sure what had happened, but he was sure he had to hurry. Slowly, painfully pulling himself off the wretched claw, he began again towards the palace, only a short distance from where he had fought the horde, limping and leaving a bloody trail behind him. He succeeded in reaching the palace, finding the doors spread ajar, he entered in quickly and searching the rooms as he hastened by them, found none yet alive, but all the bugs inside dead as well. He approached the throne room, the only place he could think of that his father would be if he still lived, which he himself had begun doubting. The doors were still barred and he found two familiar faces outside the throne room. Mai and Ty Lee were outside, both collapsed to the ground and covered in blood, but only Ty Lee remained slightly conscious. Zuko painfully leaned over to her and asked where his father was, noting in that moment that it was also only Ty Lee who still lived, Mai was dead. "He's... in... there…" ty Lee painfully said, trying to point to the throne room. Rage overtook Zuko as he stood and slowly pried open the throne room doors, only a minute more of the eclipse remained.

"Katara! Use your bending!" She heard Yue whisper softly into her ear, and gathering all her focus she moved her hands up to bend her element. Focusing on finding water, she used all her might to summon it forth, without regard to where it was coming from. She heard an unholy shriek come from the queen and paused in collecting the water. It would seem as though the queen had adapted too much, and had assumed some of the water based bio-fluid as her victims, which Katara utilized to tear her to pieces, and the water she had gathered she used to pierce the vile creature as a double measure. She collapsed to the ground, and she remained there in silence until the sun returned to view, shining some light down into the watch tower where the body of the queen resided and… Amicus! She jumped up and ran to his side immediately, and bent over his body. She tried to heal using the water from her waterskin, then realized that she still had her water in her water skin… so where had she bended all that water from before…? Looking down at the mangled body of her friend and how there were few actual traces of his blood, she knew… and wretched.

Author's Note: Yep, this was the "one billion things happening at once" chapter… and … sniffles, yes I did just kill off my OC Amicus… his name was a Roman name which meant "friend" just so you know… Oh, and Invader jrek, I hope you like the meager intro I gave your OC(and thanks for responding so fast! Also, glad you heart the updates!), but I promise to make him slightly more prominent next chapter… um, so yeah, I was like, "yeah, Katara's gonna kick butt with her mad waterbendin' skillz!" then I realized… Tyranids are not made with the same hydrogen based blood that we are… then I was like, "Well… crap. Now there is no way they can beat this thing… um, everyone dies?" But as you can see, I stitched and got a semi-satisfactory solution to the conundrum… Tyranids adapt! Yay! I figured if they eat enough people, they'd adapt some sort of hydrogen based blood… yes, that was a really cheap quick fix, but I figured it beat the "everybody dies" solution. I added in Yue, because I wanted too! Ha! And I figured she could talk to Katara while the moon was blocking the sun, and with the Norn queen melting their brains, I figured we needed some spirit help… also, I made all the other Tyranids die when the queen was killed, so yeah, sorry but they won't be fightin' anymore 'Nids…(Also the reason the Carnifex Zuko was fightin' expired…) Yep, one more chapter left to tie this up! Wish me luck! (And yes, there is still a ton of stuff that still has to happen, so no fears on the final chapter being boring!) Thanks! Until next time!