Amy Whitespot- thanks for your review! :3 (and yes, over 1,000 hits for this story just in the past month and only your review! *cries*)
The Avatar leaned over and whispered something into Toph's ear, who smirked, then nodded.
"Great idea, Twinkletoes." She cracked her knuckles, stretched her fingers, then stamped the floor once. A ball of metal the size of her fist sprang up into the air and hovered in front of her face. She pulled her clasped hands apart, causing the metal to separate into two pieces. With intricate, but forceful, moves from her hands, she sculpted two gloves that would reach someone's elbow. She created them so they would bend at each joint, but were otherwise seamless. With another stamp, she produced a hunk of metal twice the size of her previous ball. The arm part of the glove was thickened and now the gloves were attached by a one foot long quarter inch chain.
Azula glared venomously at the metalbender and the avatar. She knew that resistance would be futile, but she would not go down without a fight. She waited patiently for the proper time to attack. Timing was everything, and with a bit of luck, her plan might just get her out of the window and outside. As Aang and Toph neared her with those horrible gloves that she was certain they weren't going to put on Peasant, her muscles tensed, preparing to spring into action.
"Dragon of the West, eat your heart out!" Azula opened her mouth as wide as she could and blue flame billowed out of it at breakneck speed. Aang defended himself and Toph by splitting the flame so it passed by harmlessly on either side, but while he was occupied, Azula took off into the air and flew towards the window, then hovered in front of it. "YOU'LL NEVER CATCH ME!" She cackled.
"Maybe I don't have to!" Toph broke off part of the grate that was on the window and sent it hurtling towards Azula, who easily evaded it. Toph broke off more and more in attempt to hit Azula with the pieces, but it was in vain. Meanwhile, the Avatar worked with Peasant to bend water from the waterfall, but not grab any of the koi fish. She slowed their work by shooting more fire from her mouth, evaporating most of the water they had pulled out. Soon, after fifteen pieces of the metal grate was broken off, there was a space big enough for the Fire Nation princess to fit through comfortably. She snatched one of the hurtling pieces out of the air, then threw it at the window, shattering the glass. The three benders behind her paled when they realized what they had done. I don't see what's so surprising; I always manage to outwit those fools whenever we encounter each other.
"Well I'd really love to stay and chat, but it's getting late and I really must be going!" Azula smirked, then spun around once again and shot out of the building and was soon high in the sky and her silhouette quickly getting smaller.
Aang facepalmed himself. "Ugh! We're such idiots!"
"You said it. I can't believe I fell for that trick." Toph blew her bangs out of her face.
Katara smacked him with her water whip, receiving a look that was half puzzled and half irritated. "Well, are you just gonna stand there and gape at what just happened or go and fly after the Fire Nation princess who could probably destroy the whole city in thirty minutes if she wanted to?"
Aang sighed and grabbed his glider, which was sitting outside the doorway. He ran towards the window, and with help from his airbending, he jumped through the hole high up in the window and sped through the sky in pursuit of Azula, who was now a black speck in the sky.
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Azula breathed in the good fresh air as she sped towards the market place. Her two inches of hair fluttered in the wind. What a pathetic excuse for what I once so proudly had.
"You didn't have to do that, you know." The familiar, perky voice of Zaiyana sounded next to her, causing the princess to nearly lose "balance" with her flying and fall from the sky. Her head snapped over to where the voice was coming from. Zaiyana was cheerfully flying alongside her without any assistance.
"Do what?"
"Attack them and act all grumpy and mean. They're just trying to help you."
"I'm sure."
"Stop denying what is true! You need help from other people right now, Azula, and all you're doing is digging the hole deeper and will sooner or later have to face punishment for that, so instead of healing and becoming a new, better person, you'll just hide deeper within yourself and allow them to come out!"
"Thank you, but I don't need any advice from Dr. Zhil."
"Don't you get it? They want to possess you so they can get revenge!"
"Aren't you possessing my body right now?"
"No, because I don't want to harm you, because I forgive you, Azula, but they do not. They want to see you miserable and locked up in one of those creepy white cells for the rest of your life."
"And when you say 'they', do you mean both Zuzani and…" Her voice trailed off as Zaiyana nodded. When Azula had informed Zuko of the three girls, she had lied about Za Yai. She wasn't a coward, she was, in fact, quite the opposite. She was the only firebending competition that Azula had ever had, and she had to murder her in cold blood when a mission went bad and she still needed to get to the original target that her father had ordered her to assassinate three years ago.
"She wants to use you to bring down the brand new infrastructure in the Fire Nation, and take down your family. If she gains enough power, she will take over your body and do whatever she can to destroy a world that is just starting to recover from the scars of war. I know you won't listen to my advice on going back to the asylum, but at least be wise in your actions." With that, Zaiyana dissolved into the air.
Azula rolled her eyes and muttered something, but continued to fly towards the palace prison. Uncle had mentioned something about the resistance, and her father most likely knew how to find them.
Once she landed behind the prison, she tore off a piece of cloth from her loose fitted red clothing and put her hair up into a Fire Nation style bun, which took her about ten minutes to get it looking decent, and even then some of the hair next to her neck wasn't tied with the rest. Now for the easy part: getting past the guards.
Instead of trying a stealth tactic, she blasted herself over the prison and landed in the yard in the front and was immediately greeted by five surprised guards. They quickly got over their initial shock and attacked her by surrounding her and simultaneously released a long fire blast. Azula blocked them by raising a wall of fire all around her, then attacked by pushing the wall outwards until it finally overtook the guards and knocked them off of their feet.
A loud alarm started clanging in the prison and the only door was slowly dropping to the ground. Without hesitation, she sprinted towards the door and slid under it right before it was low enough to crush her. On the other side, there were ten guards waiting for her. Each of their attacks she either dodged or blocked. I don't have time to waste on dueling each of them with fire. She fanned out her fingers instead of keeping the middle and index together, and allowed the lightning to build up strength on her fingertips for a moment, then flipped her hands so the palms were facing upwards and shot lightning out at the guards, hitting all but one.
She released a look of rage as a reaction to her imperfect shot. After a year of being stuck in prison and having no practice, I have become extremely sloppy. This is unacceptable. She glared at the last guard with pure hate as he nervously stood his ground. He release another blast of fire from his fist, but the princess was a step ahead of him. Her foot kicked his arm upwards, causing the flame to harmlessly pass overhead, then kicked him again, this time with fire coming from her foot, and hit him square in the chest, sending him flying backwards. Once he hit the floor, he lay there motionless.
Azula sprinted down the hallway, now unsure where to find her father. I'm sure that the next guard I find will gladly be of assistance. Three shadows appeared on the other side of the curved hallway. Azula stealthily leaped to the inside wall and pressed her body against it, hoping that the guards had not noticed her own shadow, which they did not. As soon as they were within range, Azula formed a fire sword in one hand and a dagger in the other, jumped from her hiding spot, and attacked the unsuspecting guards.
It was hardly a two sided battle. The Fire Nation princess took out the first two guards with a few quick slashes at them, then held the third up against the wall and held her fire sword up to his neck threateningly. "Tell me where they are keeping Ozai, or else I will grant you the knowledge of what it feels like to be burned alive!"
The guard gulped, but remained silent. Azula removed her sword and blasted one of the unconscious guards, giving him second and third degree burns. She ignited the palm of her hand and held it up to the guard's face. "I will ask you once again: which cell is the former Fire Lord being held in?"
"He's on the fifth cell on the left and on the second to top floor of the building!"
"Thank you." Azula said with mock gratitude. She pulled the helmet off of the guard's head, dropped it, and slammed his head against the metal wall, knocking him out cold.
It took awhile to get to the floor her father was on, and by the sound of the guards approaching the prison yard far below, she didn't have much time. She ran down the hall until she arrived at the fifth cell on the left, then peered in to make sure that her father was inside before trying to break in. He was, but there were also two guards inside, and they appeared to be better fighters than the guards she had previously came across. Just because they look to be more challenging than the other guards doesn't mean that they will actually be a challenge. Azula reassured herself. She created a fire dagger in her hand, then worked for the next minutes on concentrating the power of the dagger until it was strong enough to do what she needed it to do. She jabbed at the lock on the door, shoving her entire dagger though the two inch thick metal, shredded the entire lock area, pulled her dagger out, and kicked the door open.
The guards were standing ready for her. They evaded each of her fire attacks and managed to occasionally blast their own fire at her. They will manage to dodge or block anything normal or expected from a firebender. Zuzu probably taught them how to redirect lightning in case this would ever happen, so I doubt that will work. She glanced at her father's cell, and the bars on the top suddenly gave her an idea. Once she had managed to get past the guards defenses and have them be occupied with trying to get the flames off of their uniforms, she flew overhead and landed on the bars on top of her father's cell. While balancing on a pair of bars, she created a highly concentrated fire sword and slashed about four feet of the bar, then made a duplicate with the one right next to it. Ozai grabbed the two bars before they clattered to the ground, then tossed them up to his daughter, who caught them and did a flip off of the top of the cell and landed next to the two guards, who had just finished removing any of the fire that was on them.
They drew their weapons, ready for the sword fight that they thought was coming, but instead, Azula sent fire from the tips of her bars, distracting the guards, then ignited the bars and threw them at each of the guards' heads and knocked them to the ground, now unconscious.
"Azula-"
"There's hardly any time. They'll almost be up here, and the avatar will probably with them. We have to jump out of the window and fly into the woods if we want to escape." Azula slashed open the cell and Ozai promptly got out of it.
"I can't… The avatar… He took away my firebending."
:O what will happen next? Please review!