General Flynn imploded the doors and burst through the training grounds. One hand tightly gripping her pistol and the other support the arm, her expression foretold death. Cathy stood on the opposite side of the hall, a cigarette in her mouth, the smoke rising. She could feel her throat lumping and her heartbeat racing. "Give her back to me. Give her back to me or so help me I will torch you until there's nothing left but ashes!" She flicked the safety off and pressed her finger on the trigger. Everything had come down to this moment. Flynn stared her target, adrenaline flooding her senses. Fuelling her rage.

"I won't let you pass. You've burned our last safe haven, you've toppled our culture, and now it's time for you to pay! You will never see her again. You won't visit her grave. You won't be at the funeral. " Cathy screamed. She placed her feet slightly apart and her hands before her; her left behind her right.

Flynn just laughed. "You're hilarious. But whatever." She sighed, "Lets settle this. The showdown that was always meant to be. Agni Kai!" Her tone became serious, her eyes deadlocked and her smile gone. Cathy took a deep breath. 'This is it'. Flynn flicked the safety catch and stowed her pistol.

"You're on!" She shouts back. Flynn laughed again.

Flynn took a step forward on her right foot and pushed her hand out forward, then followed this with a spinning kick, and again, and then a punch. Each assault sent an unimaginably hot burst of blue fire racing towards her target. Fire fuelled by her hatred. Cathy knelt forward and swung her wrists together, shooting her own flames. The two heat sources exploded in the centre of the arena as they collided, blasting out a shockwave. The flames dissipated, and through the smoke Cathy could make out a pillar of blue fire. Flynn launched herself into the air and flipped, kicking her leg out. As she hit the ground, the column collapsed over her head and towards Cathy. The defending Firebender sheathed herself in orange flame; again, the fires clashed and diffused into smoke.

The Firebender and the Avatar both punched the air before them. Two jets of flame shot forward and crashed together, a pillar erupting to the grand ceiling from where they met. Cathy focused her flame to her right, and it burst through the blue flame. Flynn dived to the left and pushed herself into the air once more. This time she stayed there, elevating herself with two jets of blue fire bent from the soles of her feet. With one hand she span the wind around her body, creating a tornado shield, and with the other she pulled chunks of earth from the ceiling and threw them at her opponent. Cathy rolled forward to dodge the first chunk, punching the second above her head with a focused, fiery punch: cracking it in twain. After this, she jumped to a standing position and inhaled deeply. As she exhaled, a huge, spherical blast of fire emerged from her mouth; aiming straight for the bubble.

As the blast grew closer, Flynn pulled two chunks of rock from the ceiling with each hand and shielded herself above them. The blast exploded against the rock, shattering it into shards of shrapnel speeding rapidly towards the Avatar. She defended herself with a flat blade of extremely dense air; but the rock blast broke through; she managed to angle herself to dodge them but lost her momentum. The avatar hurtled towards the ground, saving herself from a messy end with a pillow of thick air.

Cathy cloaked her arms with fire and extended them forward: tendrils of fire burst forth, angled for the Avatar; who responded with a huge, dragon shaped flame jet bursting from her palm. The blue dragon flame enveloped the tendrils and charged straight for the level-headed Firebender. Cathy surrounded herself in a circle of flame, raised the edges as the dragon came for her and pushed them outwards; both flames were cancelled out.

Will burst through the door behind Flynn's back, panting and ready for a fight. Cathy saw this from the peripheral of her vision, and smirked. Flynn could barely handle her, she wouldn't be able to take them both. Not as they were.

"No lightning today?" Cathy taunted. "What's the matter? Afraid you'll lose control and get burned?" Victory was in sight.

Or so she thought. Flynn had noticed too, that the door behind her had been breached. "Oh," she laughed, "I'll show you lightning!" She pointed her finger before her and swiped, as if pulling the lightning from the air itself. Her body was cloaked in an aura of white-blue light, and she smiled. She swivelled to face her new victim, and pulled her gun from it's holster with an electrified hand. She aimed it at Will, who's eyes widened as he stared into the darkness of the barrel: the darkness of the end.

"NO!" Cathy yelled, running forward and punching the air violently and repeatedly. The flames mostly flew straight past her, but a final, desperate stream passed right next to Flynn's head; a lone flicker jumping out and burning her ear. Instantly she reacted, spinning her body round once more and grabbing her ear with her free hand. The gun's focus had now changed.

For Will, that moment had frozen in time. Cathy stands submissively, her jet black hair is blowing as if powered by a strong wind. A smile is painted on her face. Tears rolling from her eyes. "I love you, Will." She lets out. Flynn pulls the trigger. An electrified bullet bursts through the air, leaving a trail of sparks behind it. It enters Cathy's stomach and she raises her arms, forks of lightnin redirecting at the roof from her fingertips. The bullet exits her back. She falls to the ground, still smiling.

Flynn threw her gun on the ground, the barrel burned and warped. She turned to Will, still covering her burned ear, blood running down the side of her cheek. She pulled liquid out of a waterskin on her belt and ground her teeth as she splashed it over her ear; holding it over the wound in a dome. She closed her eyes as the pain began to seep away. Will completely froze, his emotions ravaged him body like a storm: pain, anguish, sorrow, rage. Revenge. As if controlled by a force outside his own control, he began to advance upon the woman who had caused him so much pain.

"It's too late." She said softly. She sounded exhausted. "It's over."

"No, its not. It won't ever be over. Not while you're still breathing. I told myself I would never again take a life. But you... The world needs to be rid of you. The world needs to heal."

Will raised his fist and punched the arena floor. The earth churned violently in a line accelerating towards Flynn. She rolled to her right and pushed jets of flame out from her feet; hastily she burst towards Will. She punched twice, gushing out torrents of flame towards the defender. Will crouched and pushed himself into the air, propelled by a pillar of earth. The blue flames shattered the pillar into shards or earth, which Will redirected towards his enemy. Flynn extinguished the flames on her feet and dove into a ring of air. The air acted as a tailwind, shooting her forward, after which she rolled onto her feet.

As the Earthbender landed on the ground, he discharged a shock wave across the surface of the ground. Flynn once again ejected flame from her feet, skating towards her target. Will kicked high; an obelisk of earth erupted from the ground ahead of the Avatar. She skirted to the left just as he had planned, and he seized his opportunity. He crashed the obelisk in front of her and she tripped, slamming face first into the ground. Flynn pulled herself up, grunting aggressively. She rose to her feet and pivoted on the spot, she was erected into the air on the tip of a cyclone. A gale detonated from the base of the tornado and thrust Will towards the statue of Lin. He crashed into it and it collapsed over him.

Flynn banished the cyclone and progressed on foot towards the pile of rubble, noticing Will's unconscious body twitching through an exposed arm.

"Well, it was a nice try. Let's finish this the way it started."

There was a thwipping of wire, Flynn felt a cold wrap of metal compress her ribs. She was lifted into the air and thrown into the wall. The Avatar pulled herself to her feet once more. She didn't know how much more she could take. Her vision flickering and hazy, she could make out the figure she had first assaulted. Lea slouched as the wire rewound into the casing on his back.

"You won't be hurting anyone any more." He released the wire straight at Flynn's head. Just before it cleft open her head, she caught it with her hand. She pulled herself up using the wire and deadlocked her sights onto Lea. Flynn was through with words. With one hand she clamped onto the wire, and moved the other in an arc shape. Sparks leapt around her fingers. The Avatar now grabbed the wire with her electrified hand, channelling the lightning down the wire.

Will stirred, the white-blue light piercing through his eyes into his mind. He pushed the rubble off his body and tried to stand to his feet, but he couldn't. He struggled forwards, pulling himself through the dirt in his fingernails. He felt someone lift him to his feet, his vision to misty to see who. They wrapped a blanket around his shoulders.

The bending masters had arrived in the scarred hall. Master Ray had torn the walls of the hall asunder and unleashed their wrath upon Flynn. Master Manda grabbed the wire as the sparks menacingly charged towards Lea; she caught the lightning and re-channelled it back at Flynn. She was struck in the shoulder. As she tried to push herself towards the roof on a tornado, Master Keng disaggregated and banished the winds. When she tried to ascend out on a pillar of earth, Master Ray crumbled it beneath her feet. Out of options, she turned for the walls and ran.

Master Kaatje put an end to this. She stepped forward, removing her soft touch from Will's shoulders. She raised her arms and stopped Flynn in her tracks; the Avatar lost all control of her movements; every muscle clenched.

Blood bending.

The Waterbender turned her victim around and levitated her towards the centre of the room. She began to twist Flynn's limbs at horrible angles. Her muscles tore, her fingers snapped, her toes broken. She dropped her on the floor on her knees, hands together. "I'm not going to kill you. That's not our way. But you shall not use bending to harm another person ever again." Kaatje placed her right hand on Flynn's shoulder and her left thumb on her forehead. Flynn let out a breath of air and closed her eyes.

"Thank you... For making me human again." she whispered, relieved. She fell forward, fading into the recesses of her mind.

"You'll never be human." Kaatje responded, weighed down heavily by what she had been driven to do.

Will ran forward hysterically, screaming Cathy's name. He picked her up from the pool of her own blood. He could barely walk himself, but he carried her in his arms. He was sobbing as he hobbled towards the door. All he could say was that he was sorry.

Neither Lea, nor the Masters, had the heart to tell him that she had already slipped away.