Author's Note: The end of the world.
What, you need more than that?
Sheesh!
What If Zuko Won?
Based on events in W.I.T.C.H. in the World of Avatar
Chapter 13: Finale Part 3 - The End of the World,
Or,
Everybody Wang Chung Tonight
It's the end of the world as we know it
And I feel fine.
- R.E.M.
In a village beyond the outskirts of the Fire Nation's Capital, the coach of the local Fire Academy, in an effort to establish an area of normalcy in the midst of all the pre-Invasion chaos, put his fire bending trainees through their paces.
Tweeeettt!
Went his whistle.
"Listen up, newbs!" Coach Kahano barked. "This exercise will help you get over any fear of fire you may still have. All you have to do is catch the fireballs. Don't worry about injuries. At this stage, about 50% wash out, so 50% of you probably won't even get severely burned!"
Coach Kahano bent several fireballs and urged his students to "Get them! Catch the 'balls!"
The anxious pupils, eager to perform well without ending up in the hospital, ran after the balls of fire, some wearing rubber gloves (The wussies!).
Some stumbled, some caught the fireballs without setting their hair on fire, and some screamed like little poodle monkeys!
Then one of the students looked up and asked "Uh, Coach? What about that one?"
Coach Kahano followed the boy's gaze upwards.
But it wasn't one of his fireballs.
It was Sozin's Comet. On a direct course for the Capitol of the Fire Nation.
And it was coming in hard and fast!
ooooooooooooooo
"He's going to crash the comet into the Earth?!? Is Zuko completely nuts??!" Toph exclaimed. "And I thought someone said Sozin's Comet wasn't due to return for another day??"
On the grounds of the Fire Institute, held now by the victorious Guardians and Allied Freedom Fighters of the three nations of Air, Water & Earth, the reunited heroes of Candracar and the Avatar's world discussed the latest crisis.
"Zuko must have been trying to re-direct the comet to come closer to the planet, in an attempt to increase his power." Will Vandom answered. "But to do that would have required a focusing mirror for his abilities. Or something like it, anyway."
"You mean that big telescope in his Observatory?" Taranee wondered.
"Yeah, that Observatory! Zuko was building it on the mountain the last time we were here, during the eclipse!" Hay Lin added.
"That dirty sneak! He had this planned all along!" Irma bitched.
"Hold it! Zindao said he was planning to use some secret weapon in the place Zuko built on the mountain! He must have meant the Observatory! So we have to take care of that, too, or even if we stop the comet from hitting the planet, the whole world will still be in danger!" Cornelia pointed out.
"You're right! You girls will have to stop the comet, and I'll fly to the Observatory!" the leader of the Guardians directed the quartet.
"But how, Will?!?" Hay Lin whined. It seemed an impossible task to the struggling Guardian of Air.
"As the comet gets closer to the Earth, pieces of it will fall on the country and set it on fire. Taranee and Irma, you'll have to put the fires out! Hay Lin, you're the fastest, so you'll have to get the people to safety." Will ordered. "I'll take care of that 'secret weapon' in the Observatory before Zindao's men can use it."
"What about me, Will?" Cornelia inquired.
Will hesitated.
The sacrifice she was about to ask of her teammate was the most difficult thing the Guardian leader had ever done!
ooooooooooooooo
The comet was coming far closer to Earth than Fire Lord Zuko ever imagined!
"That can't be right. Some mistake, or...It was only supposed to get here early, not..." Zuko rambled.
"You did this?!?" the shocked Katara interrogated the Fire Lord.
"No! I used the Heart to draw on the power of the comet, to make the Avatar transition easier! Not, not to do this!!" Zuko cried.
The comet was aimed right at the heart of the Fire Nation!
And what the Gods have decreed, who could forestall?
"I, I'm the Avatar now! Plus, I still have the Heart!" Zuko not so confidently declared. "I'll stop it! You'll see! Everyone will see why I'm the Avatar!"
The fire-winged Zuko took flight over the desolate Plains of Agni beyond the Capital. He flew up, up, up as high as he could, past the atmosphere enveloping the world and into outer space itself, until he became nothing but a red speck in the sky.
"It's my destinyyyyyy!"
A speck that was as inconsequential as a mote of dust before the awesome, terrifying power of a celestial object of the cosmos come at last to visit our humble planet.
There was a moment of intense, blinding light, as if a sun was going nova. Briefly, night became day, and then...
...Nothing.
From out of the heavenly eruption, a dark object fell to Earth.
But no one witnessed its lonely impact with the surface of the planet.
ooooooooooooooo
Hay Lin pointed to a fiery contrail in the sky. "Look! They're shooting a missile or rocket at the comet!" she howled.
"Maybe that's their 'secret weapon'??" Tara Cook speculated.
"A rocket? What do they expect that to do??" Cornelia Hale scoffed. A missile had far too little mass to affect a raging comet! Even if the projectiles possessed nuclear warheads, they would barely nudge the icy, cosmic fireballs off-course!
"They're shooting fireworks at the comet??" a bewildered Irma Lair commented as she shielded her eyes from the fierce glare of the explosion in the sky.
"I don't think that was a rocket…or fireworks." Will Vandom depressingly noted.
"Then what?...Oh."
None wanted to voice what they were all thinking.
That it was the Avatar who had tried to stop the comet.
And failed.
"Will? What's my comet assignment?" Cornelia anxiously asked her friend for the second time.
The mood of the Guardian leader turned somber as she addressed her friend's question. "You have the toughest job of all, Cornelia. You have to protect the Earth from the comet. You're the only one who can." Will admitted with a heavy heart.
"Me? What can I do??" a confused Cornelia quizzed the reluctant chief of the heroes from Heatherfield.
"You..." Will dreaded what she was about to say. When she was trapped as an energy being/'Spirit', Will received whispered snippets of Cornelia's ordeal from the other Spirits. To make her friend relive that horror was almost unthinkable! But, there was no other way. Cornelia would never willingly try such a stunt...Unless one of her best friends asked her to and the fate of humanity was in her hands. Will hated herself for using her friendship against Cornelia in this way! "...You have to become one with the planet and move it out of the comet's path!"
"That's crazy!" Irma hollered.
"No. It could work. But...If I do that…If I spread myself that thin…" Cornelia choked out the words. "...I could lose myself."
"What?!! No! Then don't do it! There has to be something else we can do to stop that thing!" Irma cried.
"Irma..." Will placed a comforting hand on her girlfriend's shoulder.
"Will's right, Irma! There isn't any other solution!" Cornelia reluctantly agreed. "But maybe if I had some help. Earth bending help! How about it, Toph?"
"You got it, Leaf Queen!" Toph eagerly shouted. "You name it, I'll do it!"
"The Lady of the Swamp can help you, too, Plant Spirit! When I meditated under her Great Banyan Tree, she told me about your plight. If you call on her, she can guide you through what you have to do!" Huu the enlightened Swamp Tribe water bender advised.
"A swamp lady will help you?? We're supposed to believe a guy who doesn't wear pants can talk to trees?" the skeptical Irma Lair ridiculed the notion. "What's next? Space aliens??"
"I think he has something, Irma. I did feel a presence when I was lost in the world before, but I was too confused to understand what it meant." Cornelia disclosed.
"This plan is still no better than a longshot!" Irma complained, arms folded in annoyed defiance. "So a comet hits? How bad can it be? Asteroids hit earth all the time!" she discounted the threat.
"Besides destroying everything in a thousand miles of the impact site, the comet's flaming debris could set off a worldwide firestorm. Plus earthquakes. Sonic bang shockwave. Tsunamis. Super hurricane. Nuclear winter/mini ice age. Acid rain. Melted polar icecaps flood the land." The Fire Guardian ticked off the list of calamities in horrifying detail. "If we're lucky, it'll just kill everyone in the Fire Nation, and those on the western coast of the Earth Kingdom!"
"Uh, okay, and if we're not lucky??" Irma hesitated to ask.
Taranee hung her head.
"Oh. Oh my God."
"You are not alone." The voice seemed to echo in the air all around them. "We were trapped for so long, unable to act. But now we are free once more, due to your assistance. Free to help you, thanks to the insight of your friend, who loves you all so very much."
A vision of a young woman with long, flowing white hair appeared in the ether above the Fire Nation courtyard where the Guardians and their associates were encamped.
"Is that..." Hay Lin shook a little as she said "...a Spirit??"
Oddly enough, the spirit was accompanied by someone. A young man stood beside her.
"It's, it's Sokka, isn't it?" Toph Bei Fong asked, her voice all aflutter.
"Toph, how do you know that?" Cornelia quizzed her blind friend.
"I can see him! I can see…Oh, Spirits, thank you! And he looks even more handsome than I dreamed!" Toph joyously cried, the tears flowing freely from her normally sightless eyes.
"Sokka! It is you! But how???" Hay Lin inquired of the dead Water Tribe boy.
"You buried me with my boomerang, remember? And boomie always comes back!" The smiling Sokka held up his boomerang. Except it was broken in two. "Errr..."
The Moon Spirit gave him a disapproving look.
"Oh, and I also had some Spirit help!" Sokka added in apology, grinning like an idiot.
"Wait. Who's that standing next to Sokka??" Toph demanded.
"Sokka mentioned her to me. That's Yue, the Spirit of the Moon. Sokka met her when she was mortal and lived at the North Pole." Cornelia explained.
"Soooo...After all that drama with me and him and Suki...some Moon girl gets him?" Toph commented.
"I suppose you could say that." Cornelia replied.
"Wow. Did not see that one coming!" Toph retorted.
"Then again, you don't see a lot of things coming!" Irma cracked wise.
Prompting Toph to do some cracking of her own.
"Ow!" Irma yelled after Toph bent a pebble at Irma's head, knocking her in the noggin.
"When Cornelia moves the Earth, the moon and the ocean tides will move with her." Yue the Lunar Spirit pledged.
"See that, Irma? We have the Earth and Moon on our side, now!" Cornelia said, trying to persuade herself as much as her Water Guardian friend that their save-the-world plan was viable.
"Still not convinced!" Irma adamantly responded. "But, ya know, if worse comes to worse, you can always make a portal to Heatherfield, right, Will?"
"Irma!! We're not abandoning the people of the Avatar's world!" the compassionate leader of the Guardians chastised her teammate.
"Just saying, is all." The dejected Irma turned away from the others, unwilling to face the harsh reality.
"Besides, I don't have the Heart! So I couldn't make a portal even if I wanted to!" Will corrected the morose Miss Lair.
Suddenly, an odd noise came from above.
Will and the other Guardians looked up, hearts full of dread.
What is it now? they thought.
ooooooooooooooo
On the deserted Plains of Agni outside the city, Katara of the Southern Water Tribe tenderly wiped Aang's brow.
The Air Nomad had been running a fever, but now it had broke. His breathing had been ragged, but now it was steady. Katara relaxed. Aang would survive.
For all the good that would do.
The water bender glanced up. The comet was getting larger and closer by the moment.
Katara sighed. She had lost her mother, her brother. Her father was miles and miles away.
Katara wistfully gazed at Aang.
At least, she thought to herself, I get to spend my last moments with someone I care about.
This provided much solace to the Water Tribe girl.
Which surprised Katara. She hadn't realized Aang had meant so much to her.
Although he is one of my closest friends. Katara reasoned.
Silently, she sat down beside the Air Monk, gently took his youthful hand into hers, and patiently waited for the end.
ooooooooooooooo
Will Vandom reached out with her hand and caught the long-missing Heart of Candracar!
"Ah! Finally!" she said, her face significantly brighter, limned as it was with a hope she hadn't felt in ages!
"But that means…" Taranee hinted out loud what she was thinking.
Namely, that something must have happened to Fire Lord Zuko.
Tara worried that this news might upset her blonde companion from Heatherfield, and damage their only hope for planetary survival.
"It doesn't matter!" Cornelia sternly retorted, demonstrating to one and all she was not bothered in the slightest that Zuko may have met an untimely end. "What matters is that Will got the Heart back!"
"Wow. Maybe we do have a chance!" Hay Lin smiled as Will transformed them into their stronger, more powerful winged forms.
"A chance is all we ever needed! Let's do this!" Irma exulted, happy that all of her Candracar-given might was at her disposal again after a way too long absence.
ooooooooooooooo
On the ships at sea engaged in the fiercest naval battle in the history of the Avatar's world, the Allied warriors of the Water Tribes and Earth Kingdom, as well as their opponent, the forces of the Fire Nation, paused their combat when the sky cleared.
All saw the comet.
And all knew what it meant.
As one, they laid down their arms, the thirst for blood and warfare having abandoned them.
"No!!" The Fire Nation ship's captain Hakoda had been fighting blurted out "I, I have a wife and son in the Capital!"
"I know how you feel." Chief Hakoda of the Southern Water Tribe sympathetically responded. "My daughter accompanied the Avatar on a mission to the Capitol."
Both men said a silent prayer to the Spirits for their families.
ooooooooooooooo
Anxiously, Irma approached Will, who was watching Cornelia and Toph practice what they were going to do. "So, uh, do you have a Plan B, boss, if Corny decides not to be Mother Earth?" she asked the lead Guardian.
"There is no Plan B". Will coldly stated. "This is it."
Irma thought Will might flinch at the thought of sending her good friend to what could be certain doom, but the redhead didn't so much as twitch an eyebrow.
Perfect leader material. Irma caustically remarked to herself.
In a calm, collected manner, Cornelia Hale laid out her save-the-world plan to the Bei Fong's only daughter.
Who responded in typical Toph fashion.
"Are you serious???"
"Um-hmm." Cornelia said in all sincerity. "When I was lost in the planet, I remember I could feel other earth benders, but I didn't invade their thoughts because it kind of freaked me out!"
"So you really think this plan, to link all the earth benders together to help you move the planet, could work??" Toph questioned with a fair amount of disbelief.
"Yes, I do. Toph, you said you're the greatest earth bender ever. If you pull this off, you really will be!" Cornelia beamed.
"Wow, an actual compliment from Cornelia! Sort of, anyway!" Toph sarcastically remarked. "And all it took was the end of the world!" Then the Earth Kingdom girl's mood brightened and, with a big smile on her face, added "But I'll take it! And hey, I don't know about the 'greatest', but you have the biggest you-know-whats!...What the heck, let's do it!"
"That's the Toph I know!! I...Oh." Cornelia clutched her head. Her legs buckled, and she almost fell over.
As soon as he saw his lady love in distress, Caleb ran to her side.
"Cornelia? Are you okay?" he inquired.
"I don't feel so good." the Guardian of Earthly Things muttered.
"We have a little time. Why don't you lie down for a bit? I saw a cot in the storeroom." Will helpfully offered.
Then she and Caleb walked the stricken Cornelia down into the cellar of the storehouse, leaving behind a very queasy Irma Lair. "Must be nerves." she mumbled to herself. "Yeah. That's all it is!" Irma said as she absentmindedly kicked a rock with her boot.
ooooooooooooooo
All over the Capital of the Fire Nation, people looked up and saw their doom approaching.
Those who were fighting or rioting, stopped.
Those who were alone, thought of loved ones.
Those who were already with family or loved ones, huddling in the dark to escape the chaos in the streets, drew closer together than they ever had before.
All were silent.
ooooooooooooooo
"Caleb, I...I'm scared. I don't know if I can do this. What if I lose myself again? For good, this time?!"
Cornelia had recovered from her malady and returned to the field to begin the most important mission of her life, but suffered second thoughts.
The sparkling-eyed Meridian boy gently grasped his love's palms, looked her in the eye and said "You won't! Cornelia, you're the strongest person I've ever known! Time and time again, you've shown me there's nothing you can't do!"
"You don't understand!" the simple Heatherfield schoolgirl whined. "I had problems before, when I would wander in small parts of the planet! And now I'm supposed to combine with the whole world?? It's such a big place! I could, I could go into it and never get back out!"
"But this time I'm here for you, Cornelia!" Caleb promised.
"Yeah! We all are!" Will added, flanked by the other girls in a show of support.
"Plus, you kind of have to, or we're all dead!" Irma darkly quipped.
"Irma!!" Will, Taranee and Hay Lin yelled.
"But you won't be alone. Remember, call on the Lady of the Swamp, and she'll help you!" Huu wisely noted.
"Okay. But satisfy my curiosity. Who is this Lady of the Swamp?" Cornelia asked.
"I think she was once like you - a plant spirit. But all that's left of her now is the Swamp." Huu answered.
"Geez, I hope we don't have to start calling Cornelia the Lady of the Forest after this whole thing is done!" Toph cracked.
"Toph! You're not helping!" Will scolded.
"Sorry!"
Cornelia looked down, slowly exhaled, gathered herself, picked her head up and declared "Okay. I'll do it!"
Caleb peered at the girl he loved, paused for a heart-skipping moment, then simply said "I love you."
They embraced, and kissed for what could be the last time in their young lives.
A kiss that brought tears to the eyes, and lumps in the throats, of all witnessing it.
Finally, Cornelia was ready to begin.
Grasping Caleb with her right hand, and Toph with her left, Cornelia the Plant Spirit concentrated, then...
...Her clothes dropped to the ground. Cornelia was gone, into the Earth.
Prompting Irma to remark "What's with this losing clothes thing?"
"She doesn't need them anymore. All of the Earth is her wardrobe now." Caleb honestly replied, not realizing how silly he sounded.
"O-kayyy. But I wonder why this happened to her?" Taranee ruminated.
"Yeah! Why Corny, and not any of the rest of us?" Irma Lair questioned.
"Who knows?" Caleb shrugged. "Maybe, if you'd let it, this world could change you, too!"
"Yeah, I don't think so! But if it did, I think I'd keep my clothes on!" Irma joked, in a weak attempt to forget what was at stake: The life of her friend, or the end of the world!
"Cornelia's amazing! She's so much more than she was before. The Oracle said something like this could happen." Caleb commented.
"What, that we'd develop the ability to lose our clothes?" Irma kidded.
"No. The Oracle said he sent you here because this world has the ability to bring out your potential." Caleb explained.
"So, I could have gained some weird new power, kind of like Corny's new power to turn into plants and rocks?" the Water Guardian wondered, totally oblivious to the strange new healing abilities she had manifested during the invasion and earlier, in the Earth Kingdom.
"Yes. Although it wouldn't have to be the same type of change. Just whatever your potential is." Caleb elaborated.
"Geez, I hope that potential includes keeping my pants on!" Mr. Lair's daughter laughed.
"Wait...You said the Oracle sent us here??" Taranee of the razor-sharp mind pointedly asked.
Then a tremor shook the ground, and Taranee's question was forgotten.
"Wow. The earth moves, and it's not a lame setup for pillowtalk!" Toph joked.
Cornelia had begun her desperate mission to move the Earth, causing the others to talk about her in what could be their last moments of life.
"You know, at one time it bothered me that she was almost like two different people, what with her Heart of Candracar transformation and her Earth girl form. I wondered which Cornelia I truly loved. But none of that worries me anymore." Caleb vocalized his feelings for maybe the first time ever. "Even with all the changes she's gone through, all the earth-shaking things she can do, Cornelia's never been so vulnerable. So human. So beautiful."
"Wow. That's got to be, like, the most wonderful thing I've ever heard a guy say!…Ummm…" Irma stared uncomfortably at the Meridian boy, glanced away momentarily, then looked him in the eye and asked "Are you sure you don't have a brother?"
Suddenly, Toph was gripped by an outside force. Cornelia was contacting earth benders the world over to tell them how to save the planet.
Toph had felt a sense of oneness, of being connected to the Earth through her bending, many times before. But not like this. She knew she would never be alone again.
The benders all got into an earth bending stance, placed their foot upon the Earth and moved as one being.
ooooooooooooooo
Katara...
The familiar voice shocked the Southern Tribe lass. She sprung up and uttered "Sokka?? Am I dead?"
No. You have a long life ahead of you.
"But the comet…"
Yeah. That was a tricky one. But I figured it out. You trust me, don't you?
"Of course, but…" Katara responded as she surveyed the land all around her. "Why can't I see you? Where are you?"
Where I've always been. Where I always will be. Whenever you need me.
The world still needs you, Katara.
Aang still needs you.
"Need me? For what? What can I do??"
There's one last mission you have to do, sis. Then you can relax.
"Huh? What do you mean?"
And hey. Tell Dad I said hi.
"I...Oh!!"
Katara stopped. Her eyes went white and her body glowed as her entire being was suffused with spiritual strength and a bond to the liquid element the likes of which she had never known before.
All over the world, on this very special night of the full moon, water benders were visited by the spirits of those they had loved and lost.
It became known as the Night of a Hundred Spirits.
No matter where they were - North Pole, South Pole, Earth Kingdom, out to sea or the Fire Nation - Katara and the other water benders answered Yue's call and moved the oceans, seas, rivers and lakes at the same time as Cornelia and the earth benders moved the planet.
ooooooooooooooo
Cornelia Hale had done the impossible!
Through her special connection to the earth, the Plant Spirit had managed to link all of the earth benders in the world to help her move the planet out of the path of Sozin's Comet!
The easy portion of the save-the-world plan was over.
Now, the hard part began.
The incredible gravitic stresses caused by moving the Avatar's world threatened to rend the world asunder!
It started with earthquakes, as if the very planet was tearing itself apart!
And it was.
Fortunately, the world didn't suffer the coastal destruction of monster tidal waves due to the intervention of Yue the Moon Spirit and the water benders.
There would have been numerous volcanic eruptions, also, but the Fire Guardian's earlier actions sparking the Fire Nation's ample supply of volcanoes to blow their tops had luckily spent the world's pent-up fury, sparing it the uncontrollable, nigh-unimaginable damage from scores of magma fissures that would have poisoned the atmosphere for millions of years.
Cornelia, her consciousness spread all over the land, from the ice-covered tundra of the North and South Poles to the crop fields and marshy swamps of the Earth Kingdom to the rain forests and steaming jungles of the Fire Nation, struggled to stop the continental plates from grinding against each other, tamp down the earthquakes and keep the planet together.
An unusual sound emitted from the ground that no one had ever heard before. If asked to describe it, all anyone could say was "It sounded like the planet was screaming."
And it was.
ooooooooooooooo
Spurred by the ferocity of the earthquakes, Will led Irma, Taranee and Hay Lin on a flight over the Capital City to see what they could do to help.
And maybe, just maybe, take their minds off their missing teammate, Cornelia.
They saved people about to fall into gaping fissures in the street, victims trapped in collapsed buildings, and even some pets stranded in crumbling, abandoned homes.
The quakes eventually subsided. With the blazes ignited by pieces that fell from the comet on its close call with the Earth not as bad as feared, and the emergency personnel of the Fire Nation on the job, the girls wrapped up their rescue work and returned to the courtyard to await the return of their friend.
And waited.
And waited.
It was as if time stood still. Would Cornelia come back, or not?
Will tried contacting the Spirits to ask about Cornelia's fate.
But not even those fantastic beings had any words of encouragement for the Guardian leader.
The Earth was saved; But at what cost?
Unable to stare at the pile of discarded clothes lying on the ground any longer, Taranee calmly said "Looks like that fire on the Plaza just flared up. The fire-fighters may need some help." Her brave face betraying not a hint of how she truly felt, the Guardian of Fire took to the air.
"I'll go with." Hay Lin dispassionately added, flying into the dark sky.
"Well, I better see if Taranee and Hay Lin need any help fighting fires…" Irma emotionlessly joined in, flapping her wings to propel her flight.
"And I better go check that Observatory." Will flatly stated to no one in particular, remembering the other thing she had to do, then ascending into the atmosphere.
It being nighttime, when fire bending was weakest, and with most of the fire benders on duty in the Army and not in the Capital, the people appreciated the winged Guardians' assistance. Taranee commanded the burning fires to cease, Hay Lin denied the hungry flames the sustenance they needed - oxygen, and Irma doused the fires with walls of water that seemingly came from nowhere. Though the Guardians happily worked wonders, and returned the people's gratitude with smiles and kind words, it was all a facade.
After all the fires were put out, Taranee, Irma and Hay Lin returned to the site of the wake-like Fire Institute.
Tired and weary, not from fighting the fires that raged in the Capital but at the thought that after all they went through, it ended with the loss of their friend, the girls wiped the soot from their faces and wept.
Without warning, the earth beneath their feet trembled and shook!
The ground heaved forth, disgorging tons of dirt and rock topped with a field of daffodils, lilies and cherry blossoms. At its summit, a figure slowly arose and shook off the sea of flowers.
A human figure, choking and gasping for air.
Cornelia!
Sans clothes.
Swiftly, earth-sensitive Toph bent a stony shroud 'dress' to protect Cornelia's modesty, then Taranee, Irma and Hay Lin flew to the top of the mini-mountain to help bring her down.
The wobbly Cornelia, struggling to stand on the shifting soil, immediately found herself lifted up into the air by her three winged friends.
After they set her down on solid ground, the four embraced in an emotional reunion, with group hugs galore!
"You did it, Corny! Ya-hoo!!" Irma squealed.
"I did? Everything's kind of fuzzy." the disoriented Earth Guardian/Plant Spirit responded.
"Way to go, Cornelia!" Hay Lin cheered. "You saved the whole world!"
"I knew you could do it, Leaf Queen!" Toph praised. "Okay, maybe not at first..." she qualified her statement.
"Wow! The Knowledge Spirit was wrong! The world didn't end!" Taranee applauded her friend's accomplishment.
"Hey, just goes to show, Mister Know-It-All doesn't know everything!" the Water Guardian jeered.
"You're an amazing woman, Cornelia." the boy with the mellifluous voice spoke.
His twinkling eyes met those of the girl he loved.
"Caleb...I..." Cornelia was momentarily lost in those dreamy orbs. Then she realized something rather mortifying. "What am I wearing??" She looked down and saw the drab, ragged, black and grey collection of dirt and pebbles that covered her body.
"Ah, you lost a little something on the trip, so..." Irma tried to explain.
"So I made you an earth dress! Like it?" Toph asked.
"Ummm...It's nice, but...Not really my style." Cornelia politely commented.
The blonde Guardian blinked and, in seconds, an iridescent green gown draped her form, woven entirely out of plant fibers. It was sleeveless, belted, and layered with jagged, triangular panels to create the appearance of tree leaves.
"There! I adapted it from the Milan Collection! A little last year, but still very nice!" The always fashionable Miss Hale displayed, twirling 'round to give everyone a good look. "What do you think?"
"Alright, the save the world thing was you doing your job, but this? This is just showing off!" Irma mock-complained.
"Where's Will? She's gotta see Cornelia!" the excited Air Guardian piped up.
"Remember? She went to investigate that 'secret weapon' of Zindao's at the Observatory." Taranee reminded her colleague.
"Oh. Right. Then...Huh??"
Out of the corner of her eye, Hay Lin spied something in the air coming at them.
When it got closer, the girls could see it was...
"Will!!!"
They barely got out of the way before the Energy Guardian screamed out of the skies and made an 'unscheduled landing' in the dirt, plowing a furrow fifteen feet long!
KA-ROOMPHHHhhh
Rushing to their leader's aid, the heroes of Candracar heard Will gasp two words before she passed out: "Too…powerful. Can't...Unhhh."
It was Irma who discovered the source of Will Vandom's distress.
"There's some flying fire guy up there!!" she said, pointing her finger and squinting her eyes. "Is that Zuko??? The creep! I'll show him!!" And then zipped into the air to confront him.
"Irma! Wait!!" the Fire Guardian fruitlessly yelled after the reckless Miss Lair, whose passions flowed like the liquid she controlled. "Ohhhh! Come on, Hay Lin!" Taranee directed her fellow winged teammate to join her in assisting Irma before the Water Guardian bit off more than she could chew.
Cornelia, who had been left behind because she had lost her wings when she transited through the heart of the world, raced after her embattled friends, hoping to help in any way she could, even if she was earthbound.
However...
"Where are you going?" Caleb snapped, stopping Cornelia in her tracks. "You're in no condition to..."
"I have to protect my friends! Look at Will! If Zuko or whoever that is could do that..." the Earth Guardian argued.
"Someone might be able to challenge one Guardian, but I haven't seen or heard of anything on this world that could stand against three fully-powered Guardians of Candracar!" Caleb countered. "This isn't Meridian, Cornelia! There aren't any monsters here! Let Taranee, Irma and Hay Lin handle it."
"But..." Cornelia's heart sank. She may not have been in peak form after her ordeal, yet she longed to stand with the ones who meant so much to her.
Watching helplessly from below, Corny saw the three Guardians' aerial assault on the lone, fiery nemesis.
It wasn't going well.
Reunited with their old teammates and powers, the Guardians of Fire, Air and Water unconsciously went back to their old, comfortable ways of fighting.
Irma's giant waterwall disintegrated into steam on contact with the massive, otherworldly heat that surrounded her furious foe.
Taranee's control over fire dissipated the flying fire bender's shield of flame that hid his identity, but as soon as that was achieved, the airborne opponent created a new protective aura of fire.
The fire shield blocked the Air Guardian's blasts of air. Then the floating bender flared his hungry flames at the one he assumed was an air bender, prompting Hay Lin to furiously dodge out of the way!
The Fire Guardian considered other plans of attack, and was about to implement them, but...
"Hay Lin! Watch out!!" Taranee cried.
Even worse, the trio of Guardians were unused to working together as a team after such a long time apart. Taranee and Hay Lin collided in mid-air, distracting Irma, who took her eye off their violent enemy for just a moment.
Which was all he needed.
The burning fire bender let loose with a long whip of scorching heat that knocked Irma, Hay Lin and Taranee out of the sky!
Unconscious, they fell to the Earth.
"No!!" Cornelia declared, as she prepared to use her vast reserves of Plant Spirit power.
"What's going on??" Toph cried. Unable to see the threat up above, she counted on Cornelia to assist her.
"No time, Toph!" the very human Spirit of the planet barked. "I call upon the power of the Earth..."
At her command, pillars of rock and soil rose from the ground. Some caught the plummeting Guardians of Fire, Water and Air on a comfortable cushion of earth, while others, much harder and far less soothing, rocketed upwards to strike at the floating man afire!
Too late.
Quickly noting where the Guardians alighted from, the ultra-powerful master of the fire arts recognized the threat of the Allies standing below him, easily evaded Cornelia's clumsy attack, and speedily released a burning blast of hellfire!
HHHWHOOOOSHHHH
"Ahhh!!!" screamed the Guardian of Earth as she, and the other freedom fighters, fell before the might of the unusually powerful fire bender.
"Is that it?" the furious fire master, held aloft by constant bursts of flame beneath his feet, jeered. "I was expecting more of an opposition after all I heard of these 'Guardians'! The Earth Kingdom will fall easily now!"
"Sorry, dad. I'll try to be a better opponent than they were!" a young man declared after hopping over the wall of the Fire Institute's courtyard.
"You? What can you do???" the older man laughed.
"I'm the Avatar now!" Zuko announced. "And I'm here to stop you for good!"
"You? The Avatar??! Oh, I'm going to enjoy this!!" Ozai gloated, his hands sizzling with raw, hungry electricity.
Next:
Because you demanded it, Yaksheep Guy returns!
I mean, The battle you demanded!
Zuko vs. Ozai!
(Yaksheep Guy returns later on. So you'll have to be patient.)
Unfortunately, although Zuko is the Avatar, he's not trained in his awesome Avatar abilities,
and master bender Ozai has super pumped-up comet power going for him!
Basically, it's no contest. Ozai is gonna wipe the floor with 'ol Zukes! Yipe!
(But at least they'll share some quality father/son time before the inevitable butt-whooping!)
You have to see how it's all gonna end, 'cause it doesn't end like anyone expects!
If you think Ozai popping up was a wild plot twist,
wait till you see what happens next!
You'll either love it or hate it!
Notes / Comments
I didn't plan for Ozai to come back, but he wouldn't stay away. He forced himself back into the story.
Comets are made of frozen water, frozen gases and rock (water, air, earth) as well as burning fire (all four elements). So they can also affect/increase/unlock an Avatar's powers. Zuko's drive and ambition did the rest (took the power).
It took Zuko months of work with the Heart to draw the comet in. So he can't easily divert it.
Our heroes can't blast the comet apart. It's so big, even the pieces will devastate the world. (And destroy a bigger chunk of the world, too).
The list of disasters associated with comet impact comes from the Discovery Channel. Impact with the comet won't physically destroy the world. But it will throw it out of whack (unbalance the elements/affect the weather) and that will lead to an extinction event. It's happened before. 65 Million years ago a meteor six miles across killed the dinosaurs. And half the people in the world died after a comet three miles wide collided with the planet in 2800 B.C.E. And according to another documentary I saw, volcanic gases poisoned the atmosphere 250 million years ago, causing the greatest mass extinction of plant and animal life ever.
When Chief Hakoda buried Sokka at sea in the epic, senses-shattering Day of Black Son chapter (Chapter 5), he broke Sokka's boomerang to set his son's spirit free.
Toph can only see the Spirits (Sokka and Yue). They didn't fix her sight.
I hear the Avatar music swelling when Corny becomes one with the Earth.
Irma demonstrated a tremendous healing ability (but didn't realize it) in Chapter 8, and in W.I.T.C.H. in the World of Avatar.
Caleb broke up with Cornelia in Issue 23 of the comic because he fell in love with Earth Guardian Cornelia, who he calls 'somebody who doesn't exist'. He felt there were too many differences between them to have a relationship. So I finally got that part of canon into the TV W.I.T.C.H. storyline.
Spirits only have enough spiritual energy to show themselves to people once a solstice, which is why Katara couldn't see Sokka.
When Cornelia emerges from the ground, she's surrounded by daffodils, lilies and cherry blossoms. Daffodils symbolize the land of the dead (where Cornelia was, in a way, for the short time she was underground), cherry blossoms (a spring perennial) represent rebirth, and lilies mean The End of the World, the title of the chapter (lilies covered the fresh water sea at the edge of the world in C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader - soon to be a major motion picture. If 2010 counts as 'soon').
Milan Collection? W.I.T.C.H. was created in Italy, so it seemed appropriate.
***Spoiler Alert*** - In the series finale of Avatar, Aang defeats Fire Lord Ozai by taking his fire bending away from him. A similar event occurs in my story when Zuko takes Aang's Avatar powers away from him. Plus, fire bending is forcibly removed from Azula and other dangerous fire benders, although these actions are criticized as being 'unnatural'. I did write this tale of Zuko becoming the Avatar to 'correct' mistakes I thought the Avatar creators made (Zuko's destiny is to help the Avatar? Boring!! It should have come down to a big fight between the two! I mean, after all that build-up, and being opposed for so long? Come on!), but it should be noted I wrote the end of my story long before I read the Avatar finale. I'm not stealing any of their ideas. That both Zuko and Aang use the same means to defeat their opponents proves that great minds think alike (although we differ on the ethics employed by our heroes). Another interesting thing about the Avatar finale is that Aang becomes an energy bender (sort of like Will, the Guardian of Quintessence). It shows the two series follow similar tracks, so combining the two is a natural progression of their respective storylines.
Comet-powered fire benders can fly. It's how the Fire Army was able to reach the Air Nomads' mountaintop temples and slaughter them all.
Zindao and The Third Way's secret weapon was the stored energy of the comet, which Ozai stole.
A more accurate title for the story would be...What if Koh allied himself with Prince Zuko instead of Prince Phobos?
Koh, aided by Zuko (who used the Heart's ability to enter dreams), appeared to Aang as 'Avatar Roku' while the real Roku was held prisoner in Zuko's spiritweb (similar to what Zuko used to catch Aang in Chapter 5). Roku escaped for a short time when Zuko betrayed Koh and briefly opened up the spiritweb to trap him.
Koh would have allied himself with a non-loser like Azula, but she scares him. Although, with the way Azula wound up, Hay Lin probably scares him more now.
Koh offered deals to both Zuko and Wan Shi Tong concerning Cornelia. Koh agreed to help Zuko learn about the Heart and his destiny if Zuko would protect Cornelia, at least until she became the Plant Spirit. That's why Zuko couldn't let anything happen to her early on. Once Corny escaped the garden and became the fully realized Spirit of Growing Things, Zuko's debt to Koh was paid, and he did not have to protect her any longer. Thus, the Fire Lord was free to take any action against the Earth Guardian, including burn her to death. Koh told Wan Shi Tong that, after the world was destroyed, they can use Cornelia the Plant Spirit to re-make the world in a fashion that would suit them, and Wan can then have his dead 'Plant Spirit' back. Wan Shi Tong did not know if Koh was going to cause the end of the world, or merely prophesied it. Regardless, it's unknown if Wan took Koh up on his offer. The Knowledge Spirit desired the return of his deceased love, Kameshe, whose essence still permeates the Swamp. He wasn't interested in a 'substitute Spirit' like Cornelia. Cornelia would probably have to die for Kameshe to be resurrected.
The Day of Black Sun, the total solar eclipse, occurred on August 9. A solar eclipse can only happen when it's New Moon. A month and a half later, on Sept. 22, is the time of Full Moon. How about that? The Avatar creators crafted a mythology that, although they didn't use it, works perfectly for my story!
Sozin's Comet is supposed to appear at the end of summer (Sept. 23) but shows up a day early due to Zuko using the Heart of Candracar to meddle with its flight.
There are 3 nights of the full moon (night before, night of and night after). That's why there could be a full moon in both "The Southern Raiders" and "The Ember Island Players". Or, as in this story, the night before and late the next day.