Chapter 21: The Final Show Down

Zuko's POV

Jet shoved Aang and I into his beat up, old van a few minutes after our daring escape attempt.

Getting into the driver's side, Jet locked the doors and said, "No escape this time." Then, he started up the car and we were on our way.

I stayed silent, hoping the police or the Swat team would magically show up to save the day.

Katara's POV

I was almost able to follow Jet outside. By almost, I mean almost because he broke the door to get out the back. That bastard!

I had no choice but to head back the way I had come and find a new way out.

Running back through the mall, I saw a red pick up truck on display. 'This might work.'

I checked the driver's side door and, luckily, found it opened with ease. It got even better when I found the keys in the ignition.

A few minutes later, I found myself driving this truck through the mall's entrance. I would have enjoyed doing so if I hadn't had more pressing matters on my mind. Well, that and if the people waiting outside hadn't started shooting at me the moment I crashed through the place.

Details.

A man with long sideburns, that made me want to compare him to a monkey, ordered the men to cease fire as he came running over me.

I stopped the car, of course, and rolled down my windows to talk to the guy.

"Who the hell are you? And where are the hostages?" the man demanded.

I decided not to comment on his attitude. "I'm Katara, a friend of Zuko's. Jet took Zuko and Aang hostage, and then left. I'm going after them."

The man, seeing we didn't have time to argue, simply nodded. "Fine, but I'm coming with you."

"And who might you be?" Let's face it, I wasn't going to let someone I didn't even know the name of help me with this issue.

"I'm Commander Zhao of Florida Swat."

Okay, that settles it. "Get in," I said, referring to the truck.

Zhao barked at someone to give him a siren light to put on the car, which they, whoever they were, did. Then, he ran around to the passenger side of the truck and hopped in. That's when we promptly took off after my friends. 'Could Zuko really be called my friend, though? We shared a kiss, which implies more, so...?'

'Agh! Stop thinking about it!'

I swear, it's so hard to deal with my inner self half the time.

"Do you know where they're headed?" the commander asked, breaking the silence.

"I need your cell phone," I told him as I held out my hand, ignoring his question.

He gave me a confused look.

"Like, now!"

At my sudden outburst he was more than willing to comply, and handed me his phone. "What do you need it for, anyways?"

"To call a friend." I dialed the number of that "friend" and waited for the person to pick up.

"What's up, KitKat!" came Meng's over excited voice.

I rolled my eyes. "Listen, I need you to track the coordinates of my cell phone."

"On it!" After a moment or so of what I could only assume was her typing on her computer, she said, "Got it. You're cell looks like it's headed to an a small airport just north of the mall."

Yes! "Thanks, Meng. I know where that is." At the my passenger's questioning glance, I told him, "They're headed for the airport. I think I know just how to cut them off."

Minutes later...

Jet's POV

"What the hell!?"

This truck came out of no where! One second the road was clear, and then this truck, that was apparently sitting on the road in the dark, turned on it's headlights, blinding me. Instead of coming to a stop like they probably wanted me to, I swerved around them, going off the road a little. This all happened while the bald kid in the back screamed and the handsome hunk beside me was holding onto his seat for dear life.

I laughed.

'Man, I love my job.'

Katara's POV

"Damn him!" I growled, turning the car around to follow them. As I neared their vehicle I unstrapped my seat belt.

"Uh, what are you doing?" Zhao asked.

I didn't even bother to look at him. "Here, take the wheel. Pull up next to the car."

"Katara, you're not seriously going to do something so stupid as what I think you're going to do, are you?"

"Yes, I am. So go ahead and call me stupid." I let go of the wheel, which he then quickly grabbed. "Wish me luck." I climbed out of my rolled down window as we came up next to the van. I took a deep breathe, mentally preparing for this giant leap of faith, and then I jumped.

And then I was falling into the bushes on the other side of the road.

I rolled to my feet only to see the van's tail lights disappearing in the distance as Zhao pulled up in the truck.

"You good to go?"

I looked back at the road ahead of us. "Yeah. I'm good." Looking back at him, I said, "I'll meet you there. I know a short cut."

"Wait, Katara! Katara!" he called after me as I ran into the bushes and further beyond them.

'I'm coming for you Jet.'

Jet's POV

I pulled us into the airport and right up to my private jet. Nothing was going to stop me now.

"Out of the car," I ordered my captives. They did as they were told, seeing as I was the only one with the gun. Then I marched them into the jet and was just about to get in when-

"Hey, Jet." Thud.

-she tackled me to the ground, making me lose my gun.

I pushed her off of me and got to my feet. "Well, if it isn't pathetic Katara, the girl who can't even save her ever so obvious crush." I smirked.

Katara stood up, saying "Let them go."

I chuckled at that. "Or what? You'll give me one of your infamous friendship and caring speeches?" She bit her lip, looking down at her feet. "Let's face it. Zuko doesn't want some whiny, little bitch like you to take care of him. What he needs is a man."

She mumbled something.

"What was that? I didn't quite catch what you said."

"I said, you're wrong." She looked up at me and glared again with those defiant blue eyes of hers.

My eyes narrowed in turn. "I see. Well, it's for the best that we don't see eye to eye, or else it'd be harder for me to put an end to this." I threw a punch at her face.

Katara dodged my blow and returned it with one of her own. I caught it, of course, and pulled her against my chest.

"You should have walked away when you had the chance. Now I'm going to show Zuko just how much of-"

She stomped on my foot, hard.

"Gah!" I instantly let go of her and she used that chance to kick my legs out from under me. I fell to the ground, stunned.

Katara's POV

I straddled Jet, using a belt to tie his hands securely behind his back. Once I finished with that, I said, "Look whose the pathetic one now. You just got your ass handed to you by a girl."

"Yay! Katara, that was amazing!" Aang told me, getting out of the jet, followed by Zuko.

I grabbed my cell phone out of Jet's pocket and stood back up to face my grinning friend. "Thanks, Aang."

I turned towards Zuko to see him casting me his own smile. "We should be thanking you," he said in that heavenly voice of his.

Zhao chose that time to come running up to us. Seeing the bad guy was taken down, he stopped and smiled at me. "Wow, Katara. I can't believe you took down an armed criminal all by yourself." I smiled modestly at the praise. "Too bad you won't get that lucky again," he said, pulling out a gun and pointing it at us.

Our smiles vanished. "What?"

Jet laughed from his place on the ground.

Zuko glared at Zhoa, not seeming very surprised at all by this turn of events. "I should have known. Same old Zhao."

The cocky bastard just grinned evilly. "Yet, you didn't figure it out. You're just the same stupid, punk ass you were last time we met. The only difference now is that you brought your stupid, punk ass friends into it, too. Now," he turned his attention to me, gesturing at the phone in my hand, "hand it over like a good little girl."

I smirked. "No thanks," I told him as I threw the phone on the ground to watch it break into pieces. "Take that, you Asshole!"

He frowned, still pointing the gun at us. "Okay..." He pressed a button on his walkie talkie telling one of his men to not let anyone else talk to the criminals, who we'd knocked out, except for him. "You see, Bitch, they still have those codes on their arms. I'm still getting rich. All I have to do is kill you three and there will be no more witnesses. And then," he chuckled a bit, "since everybody thinks this was all a bank robbery-" BANG! "AH!" The gun dropped out of his hand.

We all looked behind Zhao to see who shot him.

There stood an older man with a pot belly. I could only assume he was Zuko's Uncle based on what I knew. He most likely shot the gun.

But wait, he looked just as shocked as us because he didn't have his gun on him. So, we let our gazes travel to just behind him and found Toph still pointing the gun at Zhao.

"Monkey just got served," she said.

Iroh smiled at her, taking his gun back. Next, he went over to Zhao to take him into custody.

Aang ran over to Toph. "Now that was utterly fantastic! How'd you even get here in time?"

"Easy, Tinkletoes," she said with her usual confidence. "After Sugar Queen left, I handed Sokka over to Suki so she could play nurse. Then I hitched a ride with Iroh to come save your sorry ass's. Lets face it, you're all hopeless without me."

"So, how'd you learn to shoot a gun? How'd you-"

"Less yappin' and more lip smakin," she told him, bringing him into a kiss.

My eyebrows shot up in surprise, but I was handling it a lot better than Zuko was because his mouth just about hit the ground.

"Zuko, it's rude to stare," I reminded him.

He quickly shut his mouth and averted his gaze from the scene. "How- what? I'm so confused..."

I just grinned at him. "I think it's cute."

He snorted, finally meeting my gaze. "You would."

I ignored his comment. "I don't know why I hadn't thought of it before, but they really do make a great couple."

The ambulances showing up ended our conversation because the medical staff needed to come check us out. Aang, who had to be dragged away from Toph, and Zuko were herded over to one ambulance while me and Toph were taken over to the other.

After the medical team checked me and Toph out, I found I just had to ask, "So... You and Aang, now? Huh?"

She blushed, which is a big accomplishment for anybody to achieve. "Yeah. What can I say, Twinkletoes is cute." She frowned. "If you dare tell anyone I said that, I'll-"

I held up my hands in a sign of surrender. "It's okay, Toph. I won't tell anyone."

She nodded. "Good. Now, about you and Sparky. What's the situation?"

I didn't meet her eyes. "Well, like you with Aang, I sort of kissed him out of the blue. He seemed okay with it, but..." I sighed.

She laughed. "You took down criminal after criminal for that piece of man meat, and now your worried he'll reject you? Please, Sparky would be an even bigger idiot than he already is if he did that. Plus," she added evilly, "he'd be a dead man."

I grinned, giving her a hug. "Thanks, Toph."

"Hey, easy on the hugs."

Zuko's POV

"Hey, Zuko." Aang was poking me in the shoulder.

"What?" I asked.

He didn't say anything, only pointed. I followed where he was pointing to with my eyes to see that Katara was coming towards us, staring directly at me. I rose to meet her half way.

"Hey," came my brilliant opening line as soon as we got close enough to talk.

She smiled, the sun coming up behind her, signaling it was morning. "Hey."

"So- well, first of all, thanks for kicking Jet's ass for me."

She nodded. "Uh-huh."

I cleared my throat. "And, um... Well- I- You see, Katara," I decided to phrase everything I wanted to say differently, "the Winter Formal's coming up and I'd-"

Katara's POV

'What?!' I mentally screamed. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. This was perfect! This means he did like the kiss! Oh My Go-

I kissed him, cutting off his actual question. Yet, who could blame me?

Our kiss lasted longer than Toph and Aang's, and, that is to say, it lasted for a while.

Once we finally pulled away from each other to actually breathe, I managed to pant out, "Yes! A million times yes! I'd love to be your date for the dance."

He smiled at me with that dazzling smile of his, taking my hand. "That's all I wanted to hear."

A.N.

Ruby of Raven is back, baby!

Sorry guys for the long, long, long delay. What can I say? I've been busy with my actual life. (Yet, it's funny that I'm posting this in the middle of finals. I'm so weird like that.)

So, hopefully you guys can find it in your big hearts to forgive me. I hope I didn't disappoint you with the ending. And, I'd like to mention that all you anonymous reviewers (you know who you are) are the one's that got my butt in gear. You kept reviewing this story long after I'd posted that last chapter, telling me to please update. Thank you for that! :D I needed the reminder.

Oh! Before I forget, I'm going to have ONE MORE CHAPTER! I totally forgot about the credit clips. I'm going to have to make a little exposition chapter of all of that. Should be fun ;D And now that school's going to be out in three more days, I'll be updating all my stories more regularly. Good news for all you loyal readers who have still stuck by me after all this time. Thank you guys for everything! XD I love you guys!