Chapter 14
Wasser, wider als Blut
Though she couldn't see her daughter, Ursa knew that she'd be forced to dodge away from the water bender. And it was quite unlikely she'd managed to dodge the full spread of flame bolts, leaving her vulnerable. It's futile to ask, but please forgive me Azula, prayed Ursa as she finally left the small space one stance radius she'd been successfully fighting from the whole time. Suddenly taking off like a shot through the smoke screen, she brought her arms back and began to build up a mass of flames between them.
*
Scratching the back of his head in embarrassment, Aang was kinda glad he was alone now. Not really, but at least no one had seen that. Toph would have never let him live it down.
He was feeling pretty silly. And still plenty terrified, but at least embarrassment had partially displaced fear's icy grip. Okay, still not suffocating. I can do this. I'm a spirit now, I don't need air. Aang tried to laugh, but it came out forced and awkward. Right, all I have to worry about now is the Fire Lord's rage filled ghost whom I have no idea how I'm going to stop. I couldn't even beat him by myself when he was mortal, what chance do I have now?
Briefly Aang wondered if it was possible for spirits to be killed, consigning the slain to the oblivion of non-being. The thought was too horrible to contemplate, and Aang shivered as he quickly shoved it aside. The specter of killing or being killed was already awful enough. I have to be strong this time. I can't count on getting lucky again. No matter what it takes, I have to stop Ozai. Orienting himself toward the malevolent fury he could feel emanating from deep below, the Avatar began to descend into the bowels of hell, a determined look on his face.
*
Tossing most of the flames toward her back hand which would deliver the follow up finishing strike, Ursa swept her other hand in front of her, sending out a large diagonal arc of flame to cover her as she emerged from the smokescreen. She didn't get the chance for the follow up. Eyes widening as she left the cover, Ursa saw the flash of lighting aimed right at her. However, committing to such an all in attack had left the Fire Princess vulnerable as well.
Raising her head, Katara watched in horror as the two attacks sped toward each other. It felt like everything was moving in slow motion. The lightning speeding toward Ursa. The flame arc hurtling toward Azula. Katara reached for her water flask, already knowing she'd be too late to change anything. Though Ursa had fired first, both attacks struck simultaneously. The She-Bear arched her back as the bolt passed through her, then crumpled to the ground, convulsing as electric aftershocks sparked around her fallen form. Azula was struck from her shoulder to the opposite hip. The powerful blast knocked her off her feet and back into the surrounding flames. "Azula!" Moon Spirit, not both of them! prayed Katara as she sprang to her feet, wincing at the pain in her knee.
*
Normally souls made their transition to the spirit world seamlessly. It was whispered however that those who died with unfinished business or bound by strong emotional ties might become ghosts, lost souls consumed by that which kept them from crossing over. Ozai was a spirit with unfinished business. And rage. Plenty of unsatisfied rage.
As Aang exited rock and entered into a large stream of magma, he could feel those waves of anger roiling through the life blood of the volcano. How is he able to affect the physical world with his power? Is he that much stronger a bender than me? Up ahead he could make out the Fire Lord, his back turned. The spirits of mortals Aang had met usually had a peaceful blue repose to them. Ozai's spirit however was a deep angry red. That couldn't be a good sign.
"So you've come Avatar. Planning to finish our duel with honor, or will you need my treacherous woman to save your skin again?" Aang could physically feel the contempt and barely held back anger radiating from the dead Fire Lord. The airbending youth gulped as Ozai turned around to face him, his muscular physique no less imposing for its transparency. In fact, his spirit form was even more intimidating. An ominous orange energy blazed around him and deep within his eyes. Aang felt pierced as Ozai fixed him with that glowing gaze, as if the Fire Lord could see right through him. More than he already could that is.
"Well, well, it seems I give you too much credit little boy," laughed Ozai suddenly, the glow going out of his eyes. "You've been deceiving everyone. But now I can see the truth; you aren't even the Avatar."
"What do you mean?" demanded Aang, a sick feeling starting to form in the pit of his stomach.
"Don't play dumb boy. Your body may have been brought back, but through your failure at Ba Sing Se the Avatar Spirit was killed by my daughter. No wonder you're so weak. Once I slay your spirit, there will be no more even pretender Avatars to keep my Nation from its glorious destiny. The stagnant Age of the Avatar is over, the glorious new Age of Fire shall begin! And I, Ozai the Phoenix King, will personally usher it in with cleansing fire, wiping out all at once our traitorous enemies you've conveniently gathered here for me!!" The volcano resumed it's rumbling as the angry glow returned to Ozai's eyes. Thrusting forward with both hands, he extended that glowing energy into the magma before him, sending it surging toward Aang.
A little slow to whirl out of the way, the side of Aang's arm was caught by the glowing magma. Crying out in surprise, the Avatar clutched his burnt arm in pain. This wasn't fair at all! Magma was really far more earth than fire. And as a spirit he should be untouchable. Yet looking down, his blue aura had been burnt black where the magma had brushed against him. Looking back up in alarm, Aang was greeted by the sight of Ozai's vicious smile as he began to whirl his arms around, extending his glowing aura into the surrounding magma as he gathered more of the deadly molten earth to himself.
The volcano, already unstable, began to shake even more violently. Toph gritted her teeth as she barely kept the ceiling and tunnels from collapsing on her team. Behind her, she felt Aang's body wince in pain. Her sensitive nose detected the faint smell of seared flesh.
"What the hell- What just happened to him!" exclaimed one of the startled Imperial Guards at the sight of the spontaneous injury to Aang's still body.
Come on Twinkle Toes, get it together!" worried Toph. Ozai's playing for keeps.
*
Drawing her water and infusing it with her healing energy, Katara rushed towards the flames Azula's body had disappeared into. As she tried to make her way around them, she noticed a movement at the corner of her vision. Instinctively rolling away, she narrowly avoided the wall of flame that flared out towards her. Drawing more of her water out as a whip, Katara swung wildly as she rolled into a forward crouch. Ursa however had not managed to even get back on her feet yet, the water bender's attack passing harmlessly above her.
"Azula might have survived too! Let me get past the flames! I don't want to fight you!" pleaded Katara as she snapped her whip back down toward the Fire Lady, who barely managed to roll out of the way.
"Foolish child, you just don't know when to quit for your own good," grimaced Ursa as she swept a hand to the right. Once again, Katara had to roll out of the way as a wall of flame rushed forward from the surrounding blaze. She may not have recovered enough to use her own inner fire, but she's not holding back anymore, realized Katara as she felt the intense heat passing close behind her.
*
"Don't do this Ozai!" implored Aang as he leapt over the glowing magma the Fire Lord had swung toward him. "Don't you realize you'll also be wiping out all the innocent Fire Nation citizen?! What about your daughter and all your loyal soldiers?! Do you really want your last act as Fire Lord to be destroying your capital and killing thousands of your own people?" Flattening himself out, Aang avoided the follow up magma that narrowly passed above him as it swung in from the opposite direction as the first.
"Better than letting it be defiled by falling into the hands of my weakling brother and son," retorted Ozai as he sent a surge of magma straight at the small space the Avatar had been forced to dodge into. Pushing with his hands, Aang propelled himself backwards out of its way. "My subjects have all sworn their lives to me; if I decide they must sacrifice them to destroy our enemies, then it is their duty to make that sacrifice for the glory of the Fire Nation. There is no greater honor one of my faithful subjects could wish for than to be allowed to give their lives for their country!" Declared Ozai as he relentlessly pressed his attack against his helpless opponent.
"That's crazy!" yelled the outraged Avatar as he tried to stay one step ahead of the Fire Lord's offense, weaving this way and that as he dodged the deadly spirit burning magma. He wouldn't be able to avoid getting hit forever though.
"A rootless wanderer like you, without country or a people could never hope to understand the honor and glory they engender," spat Ozai contemptuously as his shade suddenly loomed toward Aang, eerily moving without movement, propelled entirely by his will.
"I'm the Avatar," declared Aang defiantly, standing his ground as the Fire Lord advanced. There was no hope to win if he kept running. "All the people of all the nations are my people!" Please bend, prayed Aang as he struck toward Ozai.
"Pathetic," sneered Ozai as the Avatar's prayers went unanswered. "A fitting futile end for the "all elements and all people in one" nonsense of the Avatar." Aang's failed attempt to bend had left him wide open. Ozai wasted no time in striking forward, hitting the Avatar full force with a surge of magma. Miles above, Aang's body gave out a cry of pain, then fell back, hands twitching, before they too fell limp.
***
Azula: Ha! Take that Avatar! That'll teach you to start some stupid B plot in my story. Now all I have to do is kill Mother, [anger]who once again got more screen time than me[anger], and the spotlight will once again be all mine! Mwhahahaha!
Katara: You do realize with Aang screwed we kinda are too, don't you? -_-;
Next:
Compass of Fire
Pedantic A/N: I'm really happy with how well the chapter title worked, except it's probably to clever for anyone to get. That tends to happen with multilingual word plays. If you did get it, consider me impressed. Wasser, Wider als Blut is German (though "wider" can, and does also have a relevant meaning in English) for Water against the Blood, which sounds like it has to do with blood bending, a total red herring.
Reading it bilingually gives you the phrase, "Water, wider than blood", an allusion to Aldous Huxley's Ninth Philosopher's Song 'Blood, as all men know, than water's thicker/But water's wider, thank the Lord, than Blood.' Huxely himself is alluding to the famous German proverb "Blood is thicker than water," which means that bonds of family and race are stronger than bonds between unrelated people.
Huxley's subversion makes the point that thankfully our ability to form bonds with others can extend far wider than family, and he was likely specifically alluding to the capacity of Christian universal compassion to transcend and extend far wider than the bonds of blood.
This relates both to Aang and Katara in this chapter. In contrast with Ozai, Aang's compassion extends to all the people of the four nations, including his enemies in the Fire Nation capitol who are threatened by Ozai.
The irony is that by the token of "Blood is thicker than water," we'd expect Ozai to have a stronger connection to his fellow Fire Nation citizens and be more concerned for their lives. This is were the bilingual play on "wider" comes in. "Wider" can be translated as "against" with the connation of "contrary to the expectations of", so the chapter title can also be read as "Water, contrary to the expectations of blood."
By the expectations of blood, we'd expect Ursa to be more concerned for Azula's welfare. And yet, contrary to those expectations, Katara, who has no relation to Azula, is the one most concerned with her wellbeing. Because the compassion of water can transcended and spread out wider than blood.