Hey everybody! Sorry for the little wait there. I've been a bit busy lately, and that's actually the truth.

Thank you to PurplexPenguin for getting me motivated to continue with this story. Thanks a lot, Beth! I love you! XD

Thanks to all you reviewers that I don't know personally as well!


Chapter Nine

I was forced to stand off to the side, right in between Ku Nung and Tal Jay. They both stood stick-straight with their hands behind their backs. Their chests stuck out as if something inside them was pushing hard on them, trying to break out.

Zuko and Azula were on opposite ends of a large rectangular field. Tall trees bordered the field, caging us all in.

The two siblings were kneeled down on one knee and were facing away from one another. My eyes were focused on Zuko's kneeling body, and I suddenly got the flashback image of when he and Azula had faced off in the Fire Nation palace courtyard. They were both posed exactly the same way, but the sky had been a deep shade of red, not a light blue.

What tore me out of the horrible scene was the movement of Zuko standing up. I looked down the field and saw Azula already standing and facing her brother. An evil smile formed across her lips as Zuko turned to face her.

"There's still time to back out!" she yelled down the field at him.

"Well feel free," he replied. He didn't yell, but he still spoke loud enough for her to hear him.

I sneakily waved my hand through the air down by my side in one swift movement. I heard the swish of as the water in my pouch moved around. I smiled as I stilled my hand and the water. If it even looked as if Zuko would lose or get hurt, I would intervene and prevent it from happening. My two bodyguards didn't stand too close to me; it wouldn't be that hard to get past them and out onto the field.

"At your ready," Azula stated, holding her arms up, ready to fight.

"The rule usually is ladies first," Zuko responded, not moving his arms up from his sides. He looked very calm and relaxed, as if nothing at all was going on.

"Oh, aren't you so polite?" Azula sneered mockingly.

"I'm…I'm working on it," he told her. "But you don't seem to be at all."

"I never was the polite type."

"Ain't that the truth…" I muttered under my breath.

"Let's just go at it," Zuko stated, finally bringing his arms up in a fighting position.

"Gladly," Azula replied darkly. Her smile widened and became more menacing. A shadow suddenly drifted overhead, and I looked up to see what was causing it. It was a large gray cloud. I jerked my head towards the horizon, and saw a whole army of gray clouds heading right in our direction.

Well, of course, every great fight had to have a dramatic rain storm.

What made me look away from the clouds was the sudden, bright blue light that shone out of the corner of my eye. I turned my head back to the field and saw a wall of blue fire shooting from Azula's fingertips. Zuko had his own orange wall of flame blocking her blue one, and I sighed in relief.

And then, as the two siblings killed their walls of fire and shot new blasts at each other which collided with each other, I realized that I wouldn't even need the water in my pouch. The rain from the oncoming storm would supply me with plenty. I sighed again and looked up at the clouds. They were much closer than they had been a minute ago, and I was actually hoping they would get here in the next second. They were actually already pretty close…

I turned my head to see if either Ku Nung or Tal Jay were looking, caught a glimpse of Zuko running toward Azula with fire trailing behind his open hands, and then took one tiny step backwards. To my intense relief, neither Ku Nung nor Tal Jay took even a small notice. I took a few more small steps back, and then turned to face the oncoming clouds.

"Hold still, Zuzu!" Azula screamed in a hysterical voice. "This won't hurt at all!"

So, she was still crazy in the head. Fantastic.

I raised my arms towards the clouds, opening them as wide as they would, and focused all my energy on the clouds. I squeezed my eyes shut tightly and concentrated as hard as I could. And then, in one abrupt movement, I pulled my hands back toward me, closing them into fists in the process. I opened my eyes again to see the clouds suddenly take a jerk in our direction. I smiled, and repeated my action until the clouds weren't very far away at all. They could travel the rest of the way without my help.

I quietly stepped back to my place between Ku Nung and Tal Jay and watched as Azula took a small blast of Zuko's fire. I felt like cheering for him, but held back.

I almost jumped in happiness when I felt the first raindrop drizzle down my forehead.

I looked up and saw that the clouds had blotched out every bit of blue sky there had been. I smiled in an evil sort of way as I looked back out at the playing field. I would have plenty of water to help Zuko if he needed it, and knowing him, he probably would.

At the first streak of lightening, my smile vanished.

How could I be so dumb? I had forgotten all about the lightening! I had forgotten all about Azula's ability to manipulate lightening! Damn it!

She could make lightening on her own, I knew that, but the lightening from this storm would just make hers more powerful. Oh, thanks goodness there would rain for me to use. And then I also had that water in my pouch from when the raining stopped…

Azula let out an evil laugh, but what truly broke me out of my thoughts was the scream of pain that ripped from Zuko's throat.

I looked down the field and saw Zuko doubled over on the ground, a hole ripped in his sleeve. He was clutching the exposed part of his skin with a tight grip and I could see his eyes were shut tightly and his teeth were gritted together in pain.

"Oh, come on, little Zuzu!" Azula tormented him. "You're not tired yet, are you?"

Zuko suddenly pushed himself off the ground and threw his hand away from his exposed skin. I gasped quietly when I noticed the burn on his arm, blood oozing slowly out of it and down under his sleeve, and then out again and down the rest of his arm, finally dripping from the ends of his fingers.

I wanted to run over to him and heal the wound immediately, but I forced myself to stay where I was.

The rain was pouring now, and it only made the blood flow faster down his arm. It didn't wash it away like people would expect it to. It kind of sickened me a little bit.

"You're not gonna' let a little rain slow you down, are you?" Azula asked him. I looked at his face, and saw obvious pain when he tried to lift his burnt arm.

"No, Zuko! Don't-"

I was cut off by the loudest crack of thunder I had ever heard. I threw my arms over my head as a reflex, though I knew thunder couldn't hurt me. I opened my eyes, which I closed when I had thrown my hands over my head, and looked out at Zuko. He was staring over at me, his golden eyes full of worry and pain. But as soon as his eyes met mine, he looked abruptly back to his sister.

"Come on, Azula!" he called. "You're not gonna' let a little thunder hold you back, are you?"

She smiled evilly, revealing all of her perfectly white teeth, and then held both of her hands up towards the sky. Her index and middle fingers pointed up toward the cloud-infested sky, and the rest of her fingers were bent inward.

Oh, no.

Out of nowhere, a huge streak of yellow lightening bolted out of the sky and down toward her. As soon as it hit her fingers, it turned to the color blue. I watched in horror as she lowered her right arm and pointed index and middle fingers toward Zuko. The lightening followed her arm and, as she gave the movement, the lightening shot out of her fingers straight toward Zuko.

"No!" I screamed at the top of my lungs.

Zuko however, merely stuck out both his own arms, his fingers in the same position as Azula's, and caught the bolt of lightening with in. He let another scream of pain exit his mouth as he brought his arms back toward his chest, and then thrust them out in front of him again. The lightening followed suit, and shot right back at Azula. My eyes followed the lightening, and then they hit Azula's horrorstruck face. But right before the lightening hit her, she jumped out the way. The lightening crashed into the ground and a large cloud of smoke and dust ensued. I couldn't see anything out on the field…or anyone.

"Zuko!" I called.

"Shut up, peasant," Ku Nung muttered, and gave me a quick shove in my stomach with his elbow. I grabbed my stomach and searched for the air that I had just lost. I recovered in a minute, and right as I did, the cloud that covered the field was gone. My eyes searched or him, and what they found was him standing weakly in the very spot he had been for the past seven minutes. He was breathing heavily and looked as if he was going to collapse at any moment. His hair was soaking wet and hanging down into his exhausted topaz eyes.

Unwillingly, I tore my eyes away from him and looked down the field for Azula. There she was, hunched over in anger, but looking down the field at Zuko through her long, black eyelashes. She, too, looked very exhausted and was breathing very heavily.

"Impressive," she breathed loud enough for even him to hear. "Very impressive."

"I've been practicing," he replied. His voice was hoarse.

"It seems you've been practicing at a lot of things. Trying to get better to impress your new little friends."

She shot a hateful glare at me, and then turned her stare back to Zuko.

"I'm sorry your new skills aren't impressive enough for me to give you mercy…"

She lifted her arms again, ready to fight, though I could see that she really didn't want to.

"Who said I wanted any of your damn mercy?" Zuko spat at her.

"Oh, Zuzu has some new vocabulary," Azula taunted breathlessly.

In reply Zuko merely raised his arms, ready to fight. Azula smiled, and Zuko scowled.

"Stop this foolishness right now!"

Everyone was quiet. My head turned slowly to the direction where the shrill voice had come from, and so did Ku Nung's and Tal Jay's. Azula's eyes widened, and when Zuko turned around so did his. We all stared at the lone figure at the end of the field. No one spoke, so the stranger decided to.

"Is this really how two siblings should behave?"

It was a women's voice, and it sounded kind. Motherly even. I was surprised when Zuko spoke back to the stranger. He really didn't speak, though; it was more of a croak. And he only said one word...

"Mother?"


Oooo, cliffhanger! Dun, dun, dun!

I hope you liked the chapter. I have to admit it was really hard to write a fight like this one. It may seem easy but really, it was very hard!

Please review! XD

-Taylor