Chapter Ten: Paths
*Team Earth – Chad*
All of us were running through the hallways toward the throne room. We had a plan, and we were ready. We ran together in a steady, quiet beat through the darkened hallways. It was eerily quiet... until we saw the first guards.
"Earth Team, go!" Nick ordered. That was Toph, Lily, and I. We sped on ahead and lunged at a guard.
"Go!" I shouted at Nick. She looked at me one last time and mouthed, "Good luck," and then they were gone.
Lily lunged at her target and managed to slice at the guard's neck. She cut it open with her steel fan with a clean shot and continued to fight him.
Toph had started shooting rocks at her guard while the guard deflected them with her blade. Eventually, Toph got a solid shot and went in for the kill.
I took out my hook swords and used a spin-swipe to take out the guard's legs. He fell over with ease and I was about to stab him with the butt-end of the sword when I heard a scream. I knew the sound had come from Lily, so I quickly finished off the guard and ran toward her.
Toph was being held off a bit by her guard, but Lily was on the floor, bleeding. She rolled out of the way as the blade swung down at her, narrowly missing her face. I jumped up and aimed a round-house kick at the guard's head, which made him fall over. I jumped on top of him and punched him, knocking him out.
When I finished, Toph was already at Lily's side, calling for help. Lily wasn't helping the situation either by writhing around on the floor, screaming.
"Lily shh! The guards will-" but before I could finish my sentence, there were at least five of them surrounding us.
*Team Air – Ty Lee*
We continued running through the palace halls after Team Earth had to fight. I stayed close to Ray and Matt, in the event we needed to go as well. When I ran up to Ray I winked at him and he smiled at me.
"Team Air, go!" ordered Zuko.
I flipped forward and took out the first guard with some quick jabs to the neck and shoulders. He collapsed as the rest of the team disappeared.
"Nice shot!" Ray said. He held up a hand. I hit it and twisted my fingers between his.
"You know, if we don't die or anything, maybe you and I could go some place."
"Well, you won't." We turned around and saw a huge guard with different armor from the others. We got into fighting stances. "I am the general of Firelord Azula's army, and I-" But before I could process what was happening, the guard fell backward, spewing blood with a spear through his stomach. He died on the floor in seconds. We stood there, dumbfounded.
I turned to Ray.
"Damn! I hate annoying boss speeches!" Ray shouted. I jumped up at him and kissed him on the lips.
"My hero," I said with a wink.
Ray looked at me confused for a second, then shrugged and kissed me back.
"Uh... guys?" Matt said, worriedly. "You may want to help me out." he said as he picked up the huge sword the general was holding. We pulled apart and saw ten guards coming for us.
"Let's finish this," Ray said.
"And then we can have some alone time."
"Seriously?" Matt interrupted.
"You don't want to end up like him, do you?" Ray said, sticking a thumb in the direction of the guy on the floor.
"I'm good, thanks."
*Team Fire – Mike*
I was having a lot of doubts as we ran through this place.
Lily wasn't the girl I thought she was. She was horrible to Nick, one of my best friends. I didn't know how well I could fight after seeing parts of the two battles that went on as we went past them. But then I didn't have time to think about it because ten more guards just popped up.
"Water Team, go!" Nick shouted. She nodded in my direction, and I nodded back.
A possible final farewell.
Katara flew at two of the guards on a wave of water, knocking them over. She then got into octopus form and started whipping at them. Aang went into the Avatar State. Brie used her machete over her head, making it spin. She ducked down and swatted at a guard's foot, taking it clean off with her blade.
I ran in with the sais at the ready, spinning them easily in my hands. I jumped up, ready to stab one guard with a loud yell, but before I could come down on him, he turned toward me and shot fire at me. I yelled and threw my blades in front of my face, bracing for the burn as I fell down. I hit the ground with a loud thud.
But I didn't feel a burn.
I sat up, wearily and shook my head. Not even my hands felt a burn. I looked down and saw that my dragon necklace was glowing bright red.
"Mike! You okay?!" Brie shouted toward me as she sliced off a guy's arm.
"Yeah, I'm alright!" I jumped up and lunged at the next guard with my necklace glowing. The guard came toward me, but I side-stepped quickly and stabbed him in the back, and as I came up, another guard was in my face, but I jabbed him with my elbow and stabbed at his forehead.
I swallowed and pulled as hard as I could. I would never forget the feeling of ripping my sai out of someone's skull.
Change was evident in the air...so thick you could feel it.
I thought that Brie would shy away from a fight like this, but she fought on, strong. She wanted to live, and she wanted to help Zuko just as much as the next person. She was ready to kill for her friends.
On the other hand, I wasn't. I always thought that a fight was for strength or power. But then, I fought to protect the people I cared about, and I fought to stop this God damn bitch. That's what Brie must have felt before I did.
"AHHHH!" I felt the impact before I saw the fall. Brie was falling fast. She was definitely unconscious, but she was still in the air.
I jumped up and landed on a guard's head. Before he toppled under my weight, I stepped from one head to the next, and as I did so, Katara took them out with the octopus. I jumped up and caught Brie just seconds before she'd hit the ground, and I rolled with her in my arms. She woke up, startled. I stood, jabbing a guard that was behind her. "Can you fight?" I said as I stabbed the guy behind me.
"Yeah, I'm okay." Then her face went pale. "Mike! Watch out!" I spun around and saw fire being shot in our direction, and I stood in front of her, blocking her way and held out my necklace in front of me. It absorbed the fire with ease and glowed even brighter now. "What the hell was that?" she yelled.
"No time to explain!" I said, dodging a spear. "Team up?"
"Let's kick some ass."
We stood back against back as the oncoming guards attacked us. There seemed to be more and more with each passing minute.
I stabbed one guard in the chest and Brie sliced at the one to my left. A firebender shot flames at us and I held up my necklace to my right, blocking both Brie and I. One guy came up from my blind spot and tried to take me out, but Brie whipped her blade at him full-force and blood splattered all over us. I wiped the blood from my eyes and low-jabbed the guy in front of me. Brie sliced down the guy to her left, my right as I took out another firebender.
Brie and I were starting to get tired, but we knew we had to keep going to protect ourselves and our partners.
*Team Water – Mei*
We were running down the hallway together as the four of us left Mike, Brie, Aang, and Katara behind. That could have been the last time we saw them.
But that was the last thing on my mind. We still had to face Azula.
I couldn't believe we had come all this way. We had started with finding out a frickin' cartoon character is real... and we were fighting for his world...
And I'm in love with him.
Then I slammed head-first into Zuko's back. We all abruptly stopped moving.
"We're here."
I looked up and saw huge, red curtains leading into what I kneww will be the main throne room. I swallow hard.
"Is everyone ready?" Nick asked all of us. She looked to Zuko and he closes his eyes and nods, squeezing my hand in his. She looked to me and I nod, squeezing her hand. Finally, she turns to Cody. He's staring at the curtains, wide-eyed.
"Cody?"
He turned to face her and looks at her long and hard. The moment seemed so heartfelt that I felt the need to look away.
"Ready..." Zuko said. He let go of my hand and got into a fighting stance. All of us started pulling out our weapons. This was it. Nick pulled out her daggers, one in between each of her fingers. Cody pulled out the nun chucks, spun them once and stood, ready.
Finally, I wearily took my bow off my back and held it up. Nick gave me a reassuring glance, and I looked to Zuko for support. He kissed me lightly on the cheek and whispered, "You can do this." I pulled out an arrow from behind me and locked it into position on the bow.
"Set..." Cody continued.
"Go," Nick finished.
All of us pushed the curtains past us. We walked in, slowly, and looked around for Azula.
She wasn't on her throne.
"Where the hell is she?" Cody muttered.
"Right here."
Before we could even glance, a bolt of lightning aimed directly at Nick's head. Zuko pushed me to the side, yelling, "Look out!" I looked behind me and watched as Cody clumsily grabbed Nick around the waist and threw them both to the side, landing hard on the marble floor.
"Nick!" I screamed.
Just then, Azula jumped down from a nearby pillar in full Fire Lord Garb. Her hair was down and wildly untamed. She wore no makeup, and she looked insane. But then I saw the look in her eyes.
"Zuzu! How nice it is to see you again!" she shrilled. "I thought you killed yourself after Mai died! And thank goodness you didn't! When I found out from my friends the Black Lotus Organization that you and the girl were still alive, I asked them for a little favor. And since they couldn't do it, I see you've accomplished it on your own."
"You!" Nick shrieked. I had never heard a sound like that come out of her before. It was horrifying, hearing the agony behind the simple word. She jumped up and trying running toward her, but Cody grabbed her around the waist holding her arms down to her sides.
"Nick, you have to stop!" he yelled. I'd never heard him this panicked before.
She stared wide-eyed at Azula. "It was you! You had them set that place on fire that day! You killed him!"
"Well... not quite. You see, your father was a bit of a menace in the Black Lotus' plans." Azula told the story, pacing back and forth. "He was, after all, the leader of the American branch of the White Lotus organization. We simply wanted to rule the world of course. We have the idea of world peace in mind, and possibly connecting our two worlds. But the White Lotus Organiztion doesn't seem to understand that. When the Black Lotus took over the Chinese government all those years ago, the White Lotus Rebellion broke out. That's when they formed... as an opposing organization. As it turns out, my great-grandfather Sozin was the one behind the uniting of your world and mine during the White Lotus Rebellion. In turn, that is what caused the comet to come; the ripping of the universal walls of time and space. So he used this power to first wipe out the Air Nomads. He was ready to take all of the other nations down and force them into the Fire Nation's rule. As for your world, they did the same, trying to take over everything and everyone, forcing them into their power, their ways. And there you have it. The three of us were born to be leaders. Your history... my history... and now here we are, in a battle to win one over the other... and only one of us will come out alive."
"That's not gonna happen!" I retorted.
"We'll see..." she says with a wave of her hand.
"Charge!" Nick screamed. All of us ran forward, at the ready. Zuko whipped out fire straight out of his palms and started rushing toward her. He shot his fists forward and a wall of fire formed, rushing toward her. Azula jumped up and dodged the fire, shooting blue fire at Zuko and I. Zuko blocked it with a round-house kick and used the momentum to spin on the ground, creating a circle of fire around him and launching it at Azula.
"Come on!" Nick called to me. "We can't let this turn into an Agni Kai!"
"Right!" I rushed forward and drew back the arrow. I kept my eye on Azula and released. The arrow went through the whip of blue fire she just threw at us and hit her square in the chest. For a second, nothing happened. Then she reached forward and ripped the arrow right out of her. Blood came dripping out, but she came at us again, this time, riding a wave of blue fire.
Then, as Zuko shot fire at her, she punched it out of the way, leaving an opening for the rest of us. I fired another two arrows. The first one missed and the second bounced off her shoulder. She was coming fast, so I started running to the throne as she raced toward us. Zuko kept firing and Nick and Cody ran beside me.
Nick then jumped up and threw a shuriken at her, full-speed. Luckily, her aim was good and it got her in the thigh. It cut it right open, and blood oozed out slowly. We kept running, and now Cody turned around and whipped the first nun chuck at her, sending the chain flying toward her. It hit her in the head but she didn't even flinch, as her biggest problem was Zuko. The second one came at her, only this time, she grabbed it at the end, and swung it over her head. She cackled as she did so, and Cody was flung off his feet, holding onto the nun chuck for dear life.
"Cody!" Nick shouted. Azula then let go of the chain, and Cody went flying to the side of the throne room, crashing into the wall with a loud clang of metal.
Nick chased after Cody, but as she did so, Azula came up behind them fast. My only chance was to shoot.
I pulled back another arrow, locked it in, and fired. The arrow shot through the air, sparkling in the light of the blue and red fire. Finally, it hit Azula in the lower back, at last, knocking her off the wave of blue fire.
Nick was now at Cody's side and she pulled the tab on the skin of water Katara had made for her. She quickly used healing on his head. He shook off the pain and jumped to his feet with Nick. They came back, both firing at the same time.
And as they came, Azula stood up and back flipped to avoid them. Then, she did her usual lightning routine, and held it for a moment, deciding on whom to choose. At last, she set her eyes on Zuko, and I realized only a second too late, as he was just standing up from another attack when she fired.
"NO!"
*Cody*
He fell.
He fell fast.
Zuko laid on the ground with blue lightning blazing around his form. He twitched all over from the agony. She had shot him in the exact place he was hit the last time with lightning... square in the chest. I prayed that the healing Nick did earlier today would help him somewhat, but it looked bad... real bad.
But then my attention fell on Nick who was now rushing straight at Azula. I sped forward, trying to get behind her.
Azula fired at Nick, but she easily did a shoulder roll to the right and threw a dagger at her. Somehow, Azula caught it and drew back her hand. Before Nick had time to think, she threw the dagger, sending an electric jolt within the metal. Nick froze, thinking she was about to die. Instead, I finally caught up to her and dove at her legs, knocking her over, just as the dagger went flying past her head and into the nearest pillar.
"Cody?" she asked, weakly.
"Come on, get up!" I said, tugging at her arm. Finally, she stood up, but she swayed slightly. I caught her and stood her up. "You okay?"
"I'm fine. Let's do this." We ran toward Azula together this time. As Azula shot fire at us, Nick rolled out to the left and came up behind her. I rolled to the right and came up next to her.
Simultaneously, we hit her hard. I got her right in the face with the nun chuck, hearing the snapping of her bones in her face. Nick got her in the back of the neck, cutting off the hideous cackling sound at last and knocking her over. She fell face first onto the floor in front of me, blood pooling out of her. Nick quickly bent down and waved her hand over her.
"She's down for the count, but she'll survive."
"Hurry, we have to help Zuko!" I grabbed her hand and ran with her to Zuko's side. He was completely unconscious on the floor.
"You have to save him!" Mei screamed at Nick. Tears poured down her face.
"I'm trying!" She flipped Zuko onto his back. His shirt was almost entirely burnt off, and his chest was crusted with ashes of a third degree burn. Tears started coming to her eyes.
"You can do this," I told her. "Just stay calm." She nodded and started to get to work on him. She leaned over him and pressed her hands to his chest when a small shock of blue lightning shot out of him and hit her. She fell over.
"Nick! Come on! Stay with us! Come on, please!" I begged. I sat next to her now-unmoving form and hugged her into my chest. "You have to be okay. You have to save yourself and Zuko... Please!"
She starting to get up but almost fell over. I grabbed her and held her up as she tried to stand again before she finally started walking toward him.
"I have to do this," she muttered. She sat down next to him again and pressed her hands down onto his chest as quickly as she could. As she did, blue sparks shot out from his open wound, obviously causing her more pain.
"You have to stop! You'll kill yourself!" I shouted.
But she ignored me and squinted her eyes against the light. She screamed in pain, but I watched as the wound started to slowly heal. The ashes disappeared and the skin grew back in seconds. There was a deep scar in his chest, but the wound was finally closed up. Finally, Nick stopped and fell onto her back, breathing heavily.
"I... did it..." she breathed. I sat next to her and hugged her into me.
*Nick*
After I calmed down and was steady enough, I stood up. I walked over to where Zuko and Mei were sitting.
"I thought I lost you!" Mei yelled, crying. Zuko was awake and smiled, holding Mei.
"You didn't, and you never will."
"Think... again." I spun around and saw Azula getting up. She ran toward me and I left everyone alone. I ran at her as she ran at me, and somehow got up the nerve to punch her in the face. I didn't think for a second about how that should've been impossible with her power.
She grabbed me by the neck and held me up above her.
"If you kill me," I managed to choke out, "you'll be just let your father."
"I'm nothing like him. I'm better than he ever was!" she yelled in my face.
"If you were better than him, then you wouldn't have killed him!"
"I killed him because I'm stronger than him!"
"You killed him because you knew he didn't love you!"
Finally, her hand loosened from my neck and I dropped to the floor.
"You don't want me killed because I'm a leader. You don't even know me. You want me killed because of my father… the father that loved me."
She looked down at me. Our eyes locked for a moment. And in that moment, I saw the abandoned little girl.
*Zuko*
I walked up next to Nick. "You know something, Azula? Ever since we were little, I always walked in your shadow. You were always the firebending prodigy. Everyone just saw me as a mistake to the Fire Nation Royalty. But look at us now. Look what you've become."
Then, she collapsed on the floor. She was finally defeated. She knew we had been right, and she knew this was the end.
She looked up and me with tears in her eyes, and I drew back a fist of fire.
Everyone behind me gasped. I looked back and saw everyone had come to the throne room. The looks on everyone's faces were shock… horror… sadness.
Mei looked at me with pleading in her eyes. And said one word, as low as I could strain to hear.
"Don't."
I looked back at Azula and dropped my hand.
"But I'm not like you. I'm not a monster. Not like you."
Then, Aang and Katara rushed forward. Katara waterbended rings around Azula's wrists and froze them to the floor. Aang then stepped forward, breathed deeply, and placed one hand under her chin, one on her forehead and in a flash, their heads suddenly jolted up, and blue light shot out from Aang's body. He was completely blue with light. Azula was now entirely red, glowing as well.
All of us watched in amazement as the light shot upward and bursted through the ceiling of the palace. Aang's blue glow then started to press forward, covering Azula in blue as well. Her entire body was covered in blue light, until the last of the red light in her eyes was entirely blue. All of us then shielded our eyes, and the blue light exploded through the room and faded away.
When we looked again, Katara was picking up Aang and Azula lay unconscious on the floor.
"What... What was that?" I asked, dumbfounded.
"I took Azula's bending away. She'll never be able to do anything to anyone ever again," Aang told the crowd. Everyone cheered.
I looked around and saw everyone there. Even some guards. I was about to attack them when Chad held his hand up.
"No, they're okay," he said. "When we were almost taken down, they saw that Lily was going to die if they didn't do something." Everyone turned and faced her, who was being supported by Toph. She had bandages around her torso. "They told us that they were still loyal to you, so they didn't want to hurt us. They helped us."
"Thank you," I said with a small bow.
"No, thank you, Fire Lord Zuko," they all said, getting down on the floor. Everyone else soon followed. Mei even tried to get down, but I held her up.
"You don't need to do that." I leaned in and kissed her.
"Wait a second..." Toph said, hesitantly. "Does anyone else... feel that?"
"Feel what?" Katara asked.
"Wait, I feel it too," Aang added.
"It's... a vibration... deep in the Earth."
"Isn't this place in a volcano?" Nick asked.
"The entire Fire Nation is," I stated.
"How long has this volcano been dormant for?"
"Since the first time Sozin's comet came. Why?"
"We have to get out of here... now!"