Azula surveyed the three friends with a look of triumph. Beside her, she could hear Tikaani quietly panting, eager to fight.
Soon, she thought, but not quite yet.
She turned her gaze toward her brother. While she was not afraid of him, she was rather unnerved at the sight of his now scarless face. She pushed the feeling of unease aside, however.
"So, brother, fancy seeing you here. Are you and your two new friends out here on a camping trip?"
She smirked. "Or were you going somewhere? The Eastern Air Temple, perhaps?"
Their silence spoke volumes, and Azula's smile widened.
"I see. It seems that my suspicions about the Avatar's whereabouts were correct. I have you to thank for leading me directly to him."
Katara tensed, and clutched at her water pouch. "You'll have to get past us if you want to get him."
"True. But I doubt that will be very difficult."
Azula turned to face Tikaani. "I'll handle my brother. You deal with the other two."
Tikaani smiled, his expression hungry. "With pleasure."
Without warning, Azula rushed at her brother, hurling two fireballs at him in quick succession. He deflected them, and they hit two separate trees behind him, setting them ablaze. He swung his arm down, sending a wave of flame at his sister, but she dispersed the fire easily, and renewed her attack.
Katara and Toph were not able to assist Zuko, as Tikaani stood between them and the two firebenders.
"You want a piece of me?" Toph demanded.
Without waiting for an answer, she stomped her foot into the ground, and a jagged pillar of stone sprang from the earth, and struck Tikaani in the chest.
Or it would have, except that he seemed to have anticipated the blow, and had leaped out of the way just in time. His leap brought him closer to the two girls, and his feral expression made Katara nervous.
Katara didn't let her apprehension show, however, and instead whipped a trail of water at Tikaani. Her aim was true, but Tikaani was once again able to dodge out of the way in time.
He cocked his head, and gazed at Katara with renewed interest. "You, you're from the Water Tribe, aren't you?"
"Yeah, so what if I am?" Katara said defensively, and sent two more water whips toward Tikaani. He managed to dodge the first, but the second smacked him across the shoulder. He grunted with pain, but maintained his grin.
"Well, then you might be curious to know that we have something in common."'
Tikaani raised his arms, and a dark liquid began to swirl around his torso.
Katara's eyes widened. "You're a waterbender?"
"Not exactly." Tikaani said. "But you're close."
He swiped his arm forward, and two tendrils of the dark liquid slashed toward Katara. She moved her arms together, creating a shield of water to block the attack. The tendrils went toward the shield, but just before they hit the shield they splintered into several smaller tendrils and swerved around the shield. Before they could touch her, Katara sent the water outwards, severing the tendrils and causing the severed ends to fall to the ground, leaving several dark spatters on the ground.
What is that stuff? Katara thought as she eyed the liquid warily. Returning her gaze to the assassin, she drew the water back around her. Whatever that stuff is, I'd better avoid touching it.
Toph raised up a small boulder, and then punched it towards Tikaani. The rock sailed through the air, but before it hit him he pulled his arms in close to his chest. The dark liquid converged into a single point mid air, positioned directly between Tikaani and the boulder. The boulder hit the dark liquid head on, and shattered as if it were glass hitting a sword. The debris scattered to either side of Tikaani, not even fazing him.
Katara sent a surge of water toward the assassin, trying to grab him, but with almost inhuman reflexes he moved away from her attack, rushing directly toward Toph, the dark liquid swirling around his arms.
Thinking fast, Toph sank into the ground as though it were made of sand, disappearing from view. Tikaani paused, appearing unsure of where the earthbender had gone.
A moment later, five human shaped rocks appeared in a circle around Tikaani. Katara recognized the move, and knew that Toph was inside of one of them. Each of the five humanoid rocks would make identical movements, and the enemy wouldn't be able to figure out which one was the real one before being defeated.
Or at least that was the idea. But Tikaani didn't seem to be fooled, and when he dashed forward and smashed through one of the rocks, Toph was sent flying backward, crying out in pain.
Katara crouched on top of one of the other rocks, and tried to catch the assassin by surprise as she leaped down toward him, water swirling around her chest and arms.
The assassin seemed to realize she was there, however, and grabbed her foot before it could hit him. Before she could retaliate, he swung her around and threw her into one of the humanoid rocks. Her backside slammed into the hard slab of stone and she gasped with pain, temporarily losing control of the water around her. It splashed onto the ground, useless.
Tikaani approached her, a hungry expression on his face.
"How...how do you do that?" Katara coughed.
Tikaani shrugged. "How do I seem to anticipate your moves? It's because no matter what you do, no matter how sneaky or fast you think you are, I can still see it coming."
He grinned, an unpleasant gleam in his red tinged eyes. "Sadly, there's little point in telling you anything more, as you won't be around for much longer."
He held his hand out, and the dark liquid converged in his palm. It rippled, and after a few seconds resembled the shape of a sword.
Katara stared in fear and horror as Tikaani prepared to strike, but before he could move, a sudden spike of earth thrust out of the ground, hitting him in the shoulder and sending him flying. He collided with one of the other humanoid shaped rocks, and the force of the impact collapsed the earthen structure.
Growling in pain, Tikaani, placed his hand on the ground.
Toph, sensing another attack, raised a wall of earth between her and Tikaani. For a few seconds, nothing happened. Toph tensed up, unable to sense any movement from the assassin, and slowly began to move forward.
Suddenly, she felt a spike of pain as something skewered her foot. Shrieking at the unexpected pain, she leaped backwards, alarmed that she couldn't sense whatever had skewered her.
Katara, not being blind, was able to see that a small tendril of the dark liquid was protruding from the ground, now hovering around the spot that Toph's foot had occupied a moment ago.
Sensing an opening, Tikaani smashed through the wall of earth and leaped toward Toph. While the pain in her foot was distracting her, she was still aware of her surroundings, and manipulated the earth to propel her sideways, away from the assassin. With an injured foot, her movements were less graceful than normal, however, and she stumbled to the ground.
His first attack missing, Tikaani turned around to face the injured earthbender.
"You know, for someone so young, you are rather talented. Tell me, are you really blind?"
"You're damn right I'm blind!" Toph roared, before sending a wave of earth toward the assassin.
The assassin dodged the attack with ease, his expression becoming sadistic.
"Interesting. In that case, you won't be needing this, will you?"
Something in his voice made Toph's blood run cold. Determined to keep the assassin away from her, she sent the remaining humanoid rocks flying toward Tikaani, desperately trying to take him out.
Tikaani leaped out of the way, and before he touched the ground again, he swiped his arm forward. A single tendril of the dark liquid sped toward Toph, and as it neared her, its end became a sharp hook.
The tendril struck, and the next moment Toph was on the ground screaming in pain and clutching at her face. Tikaani began to laugh, relishing in her misery.
Katara felt herself swell with a white hot anger, and rushed at the assassin, determined to stop him at any cost.
Not realizing that she had gotten her wind back, Tikaani was caught by surprise as Katara blasted him with a surge of water. He fell onto his back, the water pinning him in place.
Katara held her hands over the water, waiting for the assassin to try and escape.
But what she saw surprised her. Instead of furiously fighting against his watery bonds, he looked drained, defeated, as if the water was sapping the life out of him.
Katara cocked her head to the side, nonplussed by this reaction. Expecting another trick, she froze the water surrounding the assassin.
After a few moments, the assassin smiled. "Big mistake."
The ice darkened before shattering as the dark liquid Tikaani controlled forced the frozen substance away from the assassin. Before she could react, Tikaani leaped forward, grabbing Katara by the throat, and slammed her into the ground.
Their positions now reversed, Katara stared up in fear at the assassin. He leered down at her.
"End of the line, girl of the water tribe."
The dark liquid reverted to the form of a sword, and Tikaani readied the finishing blow.
But before he could kill her, a sudden blast of wind sent him flying backwards, and he slammed hard into a tree.
Katara coughed, trying to get the air flowing back to her lungs, when she spotted Aang.
He was floating about twenty feet above the ground, a sphere of air surrounding him. His eyes and tattoos were glowing, and his expression was angry.
"Aang!" Katara gasped, shocked and relieved to see that he was okay.
Seeing that she and Toph were out of immediate danger, he summoned another blast of air, and sent Azula flying away from Zuko. She fell to the ground a few feet away from Tikaani.
Dazed and taken aback by their sudden reversal of fortunes, Tikaani and Azula looked up at the Avatar with undisguised fear. If this appearance of the Avatar State had been like the ones Katara had seen before, the two of them would almost certainly be dead.
But Aang had learned to exert greater control while the power of the previous Avatars flowed through him, and he maintained his desire to avoid killing anyone, even two would be assassins.
Thrusting his hands forward, Aang created a sphere of air that encased Azula and Tikaani. Lifting the sphere up, he spun it around him before sending it hurtling eastward, back the way that he had come. Azula and Tikaani's screams were audible for a brief moment before they traveled out of sight.
Aang swept his arm to the side, putting out the fires that had ignited during Zuko and Azula's fight. He slowly descended to the ground, his eyes and tattoos fading back to normal.
"Aang!" Katara cried, rushing toward the young airbender.
"Katara!" Aang exclaimed, running toward her. "Are you all right?"
"Yeah, I'm fine." Katara replied, even as her body sent her signals contradicting her claim.
Aang didn't seem fooled. "You're hurt."
Katara winced. "Okay, maybe a little, but Toph needs help more than I do."
Aang looked alarmed. "What did they do to her? Is Zuko okay?"
"I'm fine." Zuko said, walking up to them. "She gave me a few minor burns, but I've had worse."
Katara nodded, and the three of them moved quickly to Toph's side.
Toph wasn't moving, and the right side of her face was covered in blood.
"What happened?" Aang asked urgently.
"I'm not sure." Katara murmured. She pulled a rag out of her pack and carefully began to clear away the blood.
"He attacked her, but I couldn't quite tell what..."
Katara gasped in horror, covering her mouth with the hand that wasn't holding the rag.
"What's wrong?" Zuko asked.
"He...he...he tore one of her eyes out."
"What?!"
Aang and Zuko didn't want to believe it, but after looking closer they could clearly see the hole where Toph's eye should have been.
A short while later, Toph regained consciousness.
"Are you alright Toph?" Katara asked gently.
Toph coughed. "I...I think so."
She rested her hand on the bandage Katara had placed over her right eye socket.
"Bastard." Toph muttered under her breath.
"I patched up all of your other injuries, but i don't know if there's anything I can do to repair your eye. I could try using the remaining spirit water..."
"No." Toph said firmly. "That's only for life or death situations. As he said...it's not like I need it. It..it doesn't matter. Not really."
"That doesn't excuse what he did." Katara said angrily.
"No, it doesn't. And…"
Toph shuddered, and seemed to want to change the subject.
"Are you guys okay?"
"Yeah, we're fine." Katara said. "And guess who came to help us?"
"Thought that was you, twinkletoes." Toph smiled. "Glad to see you again."
Aang nodded. "It's good to see all of you again as well. But, why are you here? Shouldn't you guys be back in Ba Sing Se?"
Toph sighed, while Katara and Zuko shifted uncomfortably.
"Um, yeah, about that…" Zuko muttered.
They quickly relayed what had happened during his absence, and Aang sank to his knees.
"No...I should have been there...I should have stopped it."
"You don't know if you would have been able to, Aang." Katara said gently. "And it's not like you were sitting around doing nothing. Based on what we saw tonight, I'd say that you've mastered the Avatar State."
Aang nodded. "Yeah, I did. And, I'm sure that'll come in handy during the invasion. But, if the Earth Kingdom army is scattered…"
"We're regrouping in Omashu." Zuko said abruptly. "With Ba Sing Se fallen, the Fire Nation will assume it's won. That will give us time to prepare and recover our strength."
"I see." Aang said slowly. "Well, in that case, we'd better get to Omashu as soon as possible."
A few moments later, the four friends were gathered on top of Appa, moving rapidly away from the Eastern Air Temple and toward their last hope of winning the war.
Author's Note: Sorry this chapter's a bit short, but I wanted to get it out to let you guys know that I'm not dead, and neither is the story.
Didn't mean to take this long, but September was a stressful month for me for a number of different reasons, and every time I tried writing I ended up looking like this:
dilbert dot com strip Tuesday August 11, 2015
I am working on the next part of the story now, though, and hopefully I'll have it out before the end of October.
Edit: Huh, first I do it to Toph, then in another story I do it to Roy Mustang. I swear I'm not trying to make a habit of tearing out people's eyes in my stories. Anyways, any ideas as to what Tikaani's powers are? Leave a review and let me know.