Katara flinched as she fell out of Zuko's lifeless arms, hitting the ground. As Katara showed this hind of life, so did Aang. He burst into the air, eyes glowing with brilliant white light. Sokka and Suki watched in awe for a moment, but a blast of Azula's fire snapped them back to attention. They had no means of defense, so they were limited to dodging Azula's bursts of flame, hoping she would get tired.
Luckily, they didn't have to fight for long. A rush of water slapped them from behind, almost knocking them off their feet. They looked back at Aang. It was a terrifying sight. In the Avatar State, he was so powerful that he could bend all the water out of the vast bay, which was adjacent to the Fire Nation. And he had. He was preparing to splash it all onto the small courtyard where they were fighting with Azula. Somehow he had managed to get Katara out of the way, but Sokka and Suki were still in the line of fire. They wave was going to be enormous, the impact crushing.
"Suki!" Sokka yelled, grabbing her and forcing them both to the ground, and taking cover. But as he yelled, water rushed up his nose and mouth, and he couldn't breathe any longer. He hovered in and out of consciousness for a few moments, just enough to register Suki gripping him with sure arms, working up to the distant surface of the water.
She was kicking as hard and fast as she could. Already she could hear his heart growing fainter and fainter, with every passing second. She swam as fast as she could towards the surface, but she was barely clinging on to consciousness herself. Her lungs were crying out for air, and she felt like they were being wrung out in her body's attempt to find more oxygen.
Finally, she broke the surface, sucking in the cold air. It stung her lungs, because she had been deprived of it for so long. Up above them, Appa was hovering. Aang was still in the Avatar state, glowing like a beacon in the still-early morning haze. He was holding Katara gingerly, his body still limp, though now its chest was rising and falling ever so slightly. Suddenly, the wind picked up around them. Katara started to glow with the same pure white light as Aang. It coursed across her body, ebbing and flowing, flashing and pulsing. It was beautiful. Suki wanted to watch it forever, but she needed to tend to Sokka. She pulled them into the top of a jail watchtower, which had remained slightly above the tsunami.
She pressed on his chest, trying to clear out the water from his lungs. A small spring bubbled out of his mouth coating the concrete floor. She couldn't feel a pulse. She ripped open his shirt felt his chest, his neck, his wrist. She flung herself on his unmoving body, trying to find some hint of whether or not her love would ever wake…