(A/N: As I promised, here's the second of three chapters (and my LONGEST chapter yet!) of Katara's Memoirs, entitled, Black Terror.
Forgive me if I seem a little bland in these A/N's. School is really coming down on me. After a week of virtually no homework, the sudden flow of assignments is really bumming me out and killing my creativity. : (
But enough about my life! Let's jump back into Katara's!
WAIT! One more thing! After looking over the first chapter of KM, I have found that doing action scenes in first-person, especially long ones, like the one in this chapter, is next to impossible… In addition, I was told by TA and Wordbender that 3rd person is more preferable. So, as Wordbender typoed in her review, I'm 'stinking' to what I do best. -Snicker- With that in mind, the last two parts of Katara's Memoirs will be in third-person, for the sake of exposition.
NOW, let's jump back into Katara's life!)
It was months later when the action started, andKatara was not alone this time when she heard the first strike land.
Tenzin and Aang departed for New Zuko, while the Fire Lord searched far and wide for his maniacal sibling.
Katara, however, didn't have to look far.
Floating over the city of Ba Sing Se on jets of fire shooting from her feet, Azula looked at the ant-like inhabitants below. Some had already noticed her flying form and was staring up in confusion, while others were completely oblivious to what was about to happen.
With an evil smile, Azula raised one finger, charging a minuscule orb of black electricity onto it.
"Bang." Azula whispered, pointing at one part of the city. The small orb flew down to where Azula pointed, a populated area, with a school and several small neighborhoods. As soon as the orb touched the ground, it exploded and expanded into a giant orb, which completely engulfed the entire residential area.
Azula laughed with glee as screams of terror began to rise from the rest of the city.
On the other side of the city, Katara ran outside, feeling the intense rumblings of the explosion.
"I'm glad I called you guys when I did. I had a hunch she'd find her way here."
As she said this, Sokka and Toph exited the house as well.
Sokka looked much more mature, with two swords at either waist, a pack of weapons on his back, and a full-grown beard, as well as muscles that are more pronounced.
Toph had gotten significantly taller. Her eyes were the same pale blue, but they looked sharper and with more feeling. She wore a royal robe, but immediately stripped that off in place of her fighting garbs, the same clothes she wore the entire time she knew the Gaang, but altered so that it would fit her, as well as being outfitted with special weights to improve her strength wherever she went.
"Finally, some action!" Toph sighed, cracking her knuckles.
"With all the nonstop training we've been putting in, as well as Aang teaching us how to release our chakras and increase our powers, there's no way we can lose!" Sokka added.
"Don't get cocky, guys. This isn't the same Azula we knew and loved fifteen years ago."
"Even so, we're so juiced up right now that we could take the whole world on and leave without a scratch! Now, let's demonstrate that to HER!" Toph said, sprinting ahead. She slid the earth up underneath her in huge piles in order to push her legs further and run faster.
Sokka ran off after Toph, but Katara stayed behind for a moment, closing her eyes and using her natural chi connections with Aang and Zuko to try to contact them telepathically. She established that the closest ally was Zuko, so that who she tried first.
'Zuko… If you can hear this… Azula is attacking… Ba Sing Se… Come as soon… as you can…'
Once her message went through, Katara tried the same technique with Aang, but she couldn't get through somehow.
'What's going on? Why can't I reach Aang's spirit?' she thought frustratedly.
000
The palace of New Zuko was grave and silent since hearing of Azula's escape, but perhaps the most silent place in the palace, perhaps the world, was the sound-tight meditation chamber, where Aang sat with his eyes wide open and his tattoos glowing brightly. He was in the spirit world, and his mind and body were closed to all outward disturbances, including telepathy.
His mind was so focused on one thing, so concentrated on one singular goal, that time was slowed to a crawl, so slow that one minute in the real world was equivalent to a century in Aang's little pocket of the spirit world.
In said pocket, Aang was training vigorously, preparing himself for the mortal combat he was about to ultimately endure against Azula. He planned to train for a couple of hours in real world time, which was over one millennia in his sluggish time patch.
So far, his training had carried on for ten minutes, almost a thousand years, and Spirit World Aang was past exhaustion. He had sparred with a mental image of himself for so long, that his muscles had gone numb and didn't feel a thing.
What made it worse was that this clone's power grew as his did, so he had to constantly push himself harder, almost every moment, he had to push himself far past his limit, then push again, and again, and again…
000
Zuko, on the other hand, had picked up Katara's message and was now speeding across the globe on fire jet boots toward the Earth Kingdom capital, and to the showdown of his life.
000
Azula had thrown two more expanding dark bombs at two more parts of the city, laughing loudly as the terrified people ran away in terror.
Her laughing stopped when she heard whistling in her ear. She turned toward the sound and saw a large boulder storm heading right for her.
With a flick of her hand, Azula turned the first boulder into dust, and then fired a blast of fire that was so concentrated, it appeared as a laser.
The other flying boulders disintegrated when they met the blast of black fire.
Azula flew down to the ground to meet her three opponents.
"Well, isn't this a pleasant surprise. Three of my friends have come to play. And by the feel of your energies, I'd say that you've come prepared."
"Prepared to finally take you out. This time, Zuko's not here to spare your life." Toph yelled.
"Yes, I'm SO scared that Zuko's not here. You're confident that you can defeat me on your own?"
"More than confident. Our power is stronger than ever before! There's no way you can stop all three of us!" Sokka declared.
"Is that so? Then it seems that you three have also forgotten how terrifying I am. Has it really been that long?"
"It's been long enough." Katara said. "I sense that you already have all seven of your chakra gates unlocked, and by myself, I am still above your level of energy."
Before Katara even finished, Azula was cackling wildly.
"Now I've heard everything! You're completely ignorant to my true strength. Well, allow my to teach you something before you die. The seven chakra 'gates' as you call them, are not only meant to get chi energy flowing, but to keep negative energy back."
"We knew that. Negative energy is weakness. What's your point?" Toph asked, spitting on the ground.
"Well, being trapped in a freezer, kept barely alive by leftover scraps of food for fifteen years, it's very hard to be positive, and I didn't think it was worth trying, so I just let my negative energy run rampant, and what's the result?
Azula pointed behind her, at a crowd of people that gathered to observe.
"Bang."
Azula fired a thin bolt of black electricity into the crowd, and before anyone knew what was going on, the entire area was engulfed in a huge explosion. When the smoke cleared, not a single person was left.
'Wh-What? That was instant! I didn't even see her fire! All those people…' Sokka thought, losing his nerve for an instant. He recovered himself, hoping that Azula didn't notice, but her chuckling told him that she did.
"You're beginning to realize how much trouble you're in now, yes? And I'm not even done. As opening chakra gates forces negative energy away, closing them causes the negative energy to come back. So I don't open my gates to increase my own power. I open them to keep it all back."
Now it was Katara's turn to breathe in sharply.
'She's holding her power back? I thought she was at her limit! I already have two gates open, and I'm just scratching the surface. She has virtually zero gates open, and she could prove to be a match for me.'
"Whatever!" Toph bellowed, the only one who didn't seem fazed by Azula's terrifying explanation of her power. "I have only one gate open right now, and I'm LEAGUES above your current power level! How strong could you possibly be?"
'Toph, no!' Katara yelled inwardly.
"I'm glad you asked. Allow me to give you a genuine demonstration by closing one of my chakra gates."
Azula closed her eyes, clenched her teeth, and tightened her fists.
"Muladhara!"
With that shout, a burst of black energy escaped Azula's pores, blanketing a surreal shadow on anything in the vicinity.
Katara and Sokka slid backwards from the force of Azula's new power, but Toph simply stood, her blank eyes widened in horror and amazement.
Eventually, the force was too much for Toph and she flew backwards as well, but Katara and Sokka stopped her from going too far.
"What has she become?" Katara whispered.
As the black energy blasted from Azula, she ran forward at a blinding speed, her fist cocked back.
Toph stomped on the ground, sending a huge pillar of stone shooting them into the air. Azula followed them into the air on jet of fire.
"We can't keep this battle in the city! There've been too many casualties already!" Sokka said.
"Agreed, let's jet!"
Toph pumped her arms forward, detaching a floating platform of stone from the pillar and flying toward the Great Wall as fast as possible.
Azula flew after them and quickly caught up, smashing the stone platform that they stood on.
"She's too fast! Hold on!" Toph said, reaching her hands far into the air. All over Ba Sing Se, flat stone platforms rose from the ground, appearing in front of them as a floating bridge to the Outer Wall.
"Run, she's catching up!" Sokka yelled.
Azula flew down to the bridge, then made a U-turn, flying back into the air.
"What's she doing?" Katara asked herself.
All of a sudden, several whistling missiles of fire beamed down from Azula's hand to the bridge.
Toph and the others were just barely past the Middle Wall before their bridge crumbled to pieces, so Toph had to convert to the Earth Jet again.
"Here comes the next wave; and it's bigger!" Sokka warned, staring hard at the swarm of black fire missiles that were roaring toward them.
"Swerve, swerve, SWERVE!"
"Hold on as best as you can!" Toph said, making her earth Jet swerve back and forth to avoid the exploding balls of fire.
"We're almost there!" Katara yelled "Toph, pick up speed!"
"One left!" Sokka pointed out, staring at one last ball of flying fire that threatened to destroy them where they were.
At the last moment, Toph turned and reared her Earth Jet platform forward, turning it into a shield that took the full brunt of the flaming black missile.
Now supportless, Katara, Sokka and Toph flew past the outer wall and landed on the cracked, beige earth.
Azula flew out to where they stood and landed lightly in front of them.
"So, what do you think?" she asked.
Toph snorted, hiding the fact that she was just as terrified as Katara and Sokka.
"You're still outnumbered, Azula! It's three against one!" Katara called, vainly hoping that it would slightly unnerve Azula, who just laughed.
"I know. I don't like your odds, either, but let's see just how far you can push me. Go ahead. I'll even give you one free shot."
Toph shoved her hand into the earth and pulled out a large blunt clod of dirt, spinning once on her heel and firing it straight at Azula at a breakneck speed.
The large projectile struck her head-on, but when the dust and dirt cleared, the only sign of damage was a smudge of debris on her cheek.
"Was that it? That almost tickled." Azula said, wiping the grime from her face.
Toph clenched her teeth in frustration and took a defensive stance for the imminent retaliation.
Azula pointed at them with one finger. Collectively, they all knew what was coming, so they each strafed out of the way to avoid the light speed death beam that emerged just a millisecond later.
"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!" Azula repeated with glee, pointing at various spots and making the three fighters dance like spider monkeys in order to avoid the explosions that followed.
"All she has to do is point at something and it explodes! How are we going to compete with that?" Sokka questioned when Azula stopped momentarily.
"The only way we can: fight back! We can't just strafe, parry, and dodge all day, or we'll never beat her. No punch-pulling, guys! Let's beat her down!" Toph declared, shooting her hands forward and firing a barrage of sharp rocks at Azula.
The maniacal princess used her black fire to melt the rocks as they approached, and as she did, Sokka sprinted forward, swords drawn.
Azula broke off her stream of fire to deal with Sokka, being scratched and cut with stray rocks in the process.
She used her cuff gauntlets to deflect Sokka's sword swings, and parried his kicks with her own, but as she focused on him, Katara pulled a surprising amount of water from the ground, the giant pouch on her back, and the humid air, in order to form a blob of water, which lunged at Azula, engulfing her instantly.
Katara clasped her hands together, and the water blob flash-froze.
Azula didn't move for several seconds, leading Katara to believe that she was eternally suspended.
"Do you really think I'm that easy?" Azula said from within the ice bubble, dashing Katara's hopes as well as subliming the sphere of solid ice directly into invisible water vapor, landing on the ground with a shake of her head.
As soon as her feet touched the ground, Toph crushed and churned it into a liquid state under Azula's feet.
"It's all you, Kat!" Toph called after she had finished.
Katara nodded and raised the liquid earth over Azula's head, bringing the entire form back under the ground.
Toph clasped her hands together, turning the liquid earth back into a solid, then jumped into the air and punched down where Katara had submerged Azula, shattering the earth for meters.
Katara and Sokka were fired back from the force of the explosion.
"No sort of warning? At all? You could've killed us!" Sokka protested.
"Quit your bellyaching and get ready! She's not down yet!" Toph said, leaping back to where her two allies stood.
As Toph promised, Azula rose from the shattered earth, breathing outward and stretching.
"I was almost impressed. You actually managed to wound me a little bit. This may be more fun than I had thought."
Katara and Sokka prepared to rush in for another attack, but a surprising comment from Toph turned everyone's attention.
"What are you waiting for? Close your next gate."
Azula actually raised an eyebrow.
"Toph! What are you doing?" Katara asked with much shock.
"She's just toying with us now, and I'm sick of it! I'm tired of these games! Get serious and quit holding back!"
Azula lowered the eyebrow and chuckled. "You were never the one for playing around, were you? Fine, then. Seeing as you're so eager to die, I'd only be happy to oblige to the idea."
Azula clenched her fists and teeth again, black electricity crackling around her.
"Guys, power up to your fourth chakra! We've got to be two steps ahead!" Toph instructed, having already followed her own instruction.
Sokka and Katara nodded and breathed in and out, unlocking their chakras up to the fourth.
"Swadhistana!" Azula yelled as she closed her next chakra, the Water gate.
The outburst of raw energy was enough to upheave the earth, but Katara, Sokka, and Toph's newfound strength was enough to keep them in place.
Nevertheless, Azula's strength had almost tripled what it was before, a truly terrifying sight and feeling.
"What do you think now? Impressive, yes? Savor that sense of awe, because you won't be here for very much longer.
'Aang… Zuko… Where are you?' Katara thought frantically.
000
'What power…' Zuko thought as he raced on his jet boots to Ba Sing Se. 'And I'm nowhere near Ba Sing Se yet. If I can feel that much power coming from where I am, there must be more trouble than I had originally thought. I'd better hightail it!'
With that thought fresh in his mind, Zuko intensified the energy of the purple flames that shot from his heels, causing him to fly much faster than before.
After another minute, Zuko saw that he was beginning to speed over the Northern Water Tribe and stopped.
'If that much trouble is building at Ba Sing Se, I'm going to need to bring her with me, in case there are any injuries. This will only take a minute, guys. Hold on until I get there.'
Zuko made his detour down into the city of ice.
000
And in New Zuko, Aang continued to meditate, training both his mind and his body in the spirit world, getting stronger… faster… better…with each passing second…
000
"The time is now! Attack! Hit her with everything you've got, men!" yelled the leader of the Ba Sing Se Terra Team.
"Sir, yes sir!" the group of ten of the most powerful Earthbenders in the world chanted, leaping from their place on the wall down to near where Azula and her opponents were staring each other down.
Azula turned her head to glance lazily at the newcomers, who charged forward, launching a rain of heavy stones down on one point.
"Oh, what fools…" Azula said before the rain of earth fell on top of her.
Each of the ten men stood around the small mountain of rock, under which sat their greatest enemy, now helpless to their whim.
Simultaneously, the Terra Team pushed inward, causing the stone mountain to collapse in on itself heavily, which would crush whatever was inside into a one-dimensional figure.
"It's done." one of the men said.
"You mean, YOU'RE done, right?" asked Azula's voice, almost from out of nowhere.
Everyone looked around to try to find the source of the voice.
"Bang."
A large explosion of dust rising from the point where one of the Terra Team was standing immediately followed the chilling word. The cloud of dust surrounded the remaining nine members, as well as Katara, Sokka, and Toph.
Without an Airbender to clear the area, everyone stood blindly in the cloud of dust, unprepared for the series of events transpiring at that moment.
All of a sudden, a razor-edged disk of electricity whirled through the cloud faster than the eye could make out, cleanly severing the head of another member of the Terra Team.
Katara screamed in terror as she witnessed the unforeseen death, as well as having the knowledge of the controller of her fate floating somewhere out of reach, patiently rooting out her next victim, like Death himself.
It happened again when the disk came back, shooting straight through the chest of another member of the Terra Team, leaving only seven remaining.
"Katara, keep your cool! We've got to keep as silent as possible, so we can hear the disc coming!"
As Sokka yelled this, the electric disc passed by again, this time making a sharp turn after cleaving another Terra Team member, slicing apart yet another. Katara and Sokka had to duck to avoid meeting the same fate, because the disc flew right to them.
"Toph! Can you clear this dust? It IS technically earth!" Katara pleaded.
"There's more air that earth here! This is out of my jurisdiction! However, I can raise us out of it! Everyone come in close!"
Katara, Sokka, and the remaining members of the Terra Team gathered around Toph, who shot her fists into the sky, causing a platform of earth to rise out of the ground and float over the dust cloud.
"Hello, again." said Azula's voice.
Before anyone had time to look for the voice or even to gasp, a powerful kick sent Toph flying off the platform, and without Toph as an anchor, the platform began to fall back into the duct cloud.
As she flew, Toph clenched the air and pulled back, causing the platform to suddenly fly with her, landing outside the dust cloud.
"H-How? How did you escape that earth trap?" Sokka asked, standing.
"You seemed so confident before, yes? And all it took was one little motion at full speed to unnerve you? This battle will be easier than I thought." Azula laughed.
Her intimidating chuckle was cut short by a lightning-fast fist crashing into her face, sending her rocketing into the Great Wall.
"If speed is what you're banking on…" Toph said, cracking her knuckles. "then you're in for the fight of your life."
Azula unstuck herself from the cracking wall, touching the glowing red mark on her cheek.
"Hm… He he he… Now I'm getting interested. I'm not going to lie to you, that actually hurt, but all that means is that it's time to stop holding back and show you my true colors. It's time for me to close the third gate."
Azula set up to release another powerful surge of black energy. The air around Toph and the others was so intense that it began to sting them.
"Manipura!"
As Azula closed her Fire chakra, the earth upheaved again, and the vibrations of the energy pouring into the ground were strong enough to be felt on the other side of Ba Sing Se.
"Now then, where were we?" Azula asked, her voice deeper.
As quick as a flash, Azula fired a blast of black fire at Toph, but before she could dodge, a ball of violet fire canceled it out, sending a huge, surreal cloud of poisonous purple wafting into the air.
Sokka and Katara gasped, while Toph simply snorted: "It's about time…"
Zuko slowly dulled his jet boots causing his to descend to the earth, in front of Toph, Sokka, Katara, and the five remaining members of the Terra Team.
"Sorry I'm late." the Fire Lord said, putting down the person who was on his back. "I had to pick someone up."
Katara looked closer at the newcomer and gasped.
"Haku!"
"Who?" Toph asked, not taking her sightless eyes off of Azula.
"Haku was an apprentice healer when I met her in the Northern Water Tribe while Aang was learning Waterbending."
"But what's the difference between Haku's healing powers and yours, Katara?"
"Haku was one of the Benders whom Aang taught to Energybend, like you, Sokka. She heals with that Energybending power, and can even give you a nice power boost.
"That's right, and I've gotten much better since he taught me. Have you been keeping up with your training, Katara?"
Katara opened her mouth, but Toph made an intruding cough.
"Sorry to interrupt the reunion, but there's a fight going on."
"No, no. Continue. It seems as if you lot are getting tired. Why don't you have your new allies lick your wounds for you, and tell me when you're ready to continue?"
"I don't need to heal! I can take you on right now!" Toph screamed indignantly.
"Don't get rash, Toph. We're losing ground. Let's take what we can get." Sokka suggested.
"Fine! In that case, heal me first!" Toph yelled to Haku, who gasped in surprise at the sudden outburst.
"Heal me so that I can finish Azula off! Sorry, Zuko, but it looks like you came for a show, not action. Once I get to full strength, I'll use my new unweighted speed to smash her to pieces before she even gets a chance to close her fourth gate!"
"Um… Okay, if you say so." Haku said, placing two fingers above Toph's chest and two on her forehead, sending waves of healing power into her body.
Once Haku was finished, Toph flexed her muscles, feeling the places that used to be scared or bleeding. Toph was fully healed.
"Not only am I healed… I feel much stronger than before…" Toph said, smiling at Azula. "Now I'm ready to fight! Are you ready to go down?"
"Alright, I'm up for it. Let's see what's you're really made of."
In a fraction of a second, Toph and Azula met each other, sending punches and kicks that were faster than anyone could see.
After a light-speed sparring round, Azula and Toph suddenly vanished.
"Where'd they go?" Katara asked.
"They must be moving so fast that we can't see them. Try to feel out their energies."
Sokka and Haku were already turning their heads rapidly in almost every direction, and soon, even Zuko began to shift his eyes rapidly.
'Ugh. I'm the only one who can't see them…' Katara thought, trying to detect Toph's energy.
'There!'
For a moment, Katara could just barely see an entangled mass of green and black energy, which quickly sped off to the north. Now Katara was able to keep up with them.
Toph and Azula locked horns evenly, until Toph caught one of Azula's incoming punches, throwing one of her own that sent her skidding back into view of the naked eye.
Toph didn't give Azula even a second to recover; she pounced at her again in a nanosecond, and the two vanished from view again.
The bout of appearing after a heavy hit then vanishing again traded hands for the next few minutes, then both Azula and Toph jumped back, panting.
"How are you moving so fast? Your Seismic Sense shouldn't be able to pick up movement from the air, and half of this battle has been off the ground." Azula asked as the two-man war raged on.
"I've gotten better at seeing without eyes. I don't just see with Seismic Sense anymore. Now I can see everything vividly with an Energybending tactic that Aang taught me, called, Spatial Sense. It seem that's you're ignorant to OUR powers as well."
Azula broke off from Toph's strikes and leaped high into the air.
"Well, what sense are you going to use to beat this?" she asked, firing a huge beam of concentrated black fire directly at Toph.
"I don't NEED my senses to deflect that!" Toph retaliated, tensing her muscles as tightly as she could and reeling back.
Once the beam came in close, Toph lunged into the air, backhanding the beam and sending it back in Azula's direction.
Not expecting that kind of result, Azula had no time to move and was engulfed in a huge, oily back explosion
The back of Toph's hand was smoldering, but the adrenaline took every bit of pain away.
"What'd I tell ya? Piece of cake! Now please fix up my hand so we can get back to the city and celebrate!"
The young teenage healer ran up to Toph and touched her hand, sending concise waves specifically to that area. Once Toph's hand was healed, the group breathed out a sigh and began their trip back to the Impenetrable City.
Toph stopped short, her breath catching in her throat. She looked back up at the wafting cloud of pitch black, her eyes alive with an expression of pure horror.
As the smoke dissipated, Azula's form began to emerge, it's arms raised in defense. The explosion had disintegrated her sleeves, and even scorched her arms slightly.
Azula lowered her hands, showing a genuine expression of surprise.
"I must admit… I was not expecting such a powerful onslaught. You people are just full of surprises."
"That's impossible… There's no way that she can be alive after that." Toph murmured.
Azula dulled her boot jets and descended down to the ground.
Not a single person besides Azula wasn't frozen solid in fear.
"What happened to that fantastic speed you were so proud of?" Azula asked Toph. "It looks like you fell below your objective. You didn't manage to kill me before the closing of the fourth gate."
Before Toph could understand the meaning behind Azula's words, she made it very clear by posing for the next chakra closing.
"Anahata!"
With a powerful scream, Azula's power skyrocketed again, to such an extent that even Toph found it hard to stay in place, even as everyone else was thrown like rag dolls toward the city wall.
"Now, what do you say we try this again?" Azula asked, her voice becoming surreally gruff.
Toph lifted the legs of her pants, releasing the large weights attached to her calves and ankles.
In a couple of swift motions, every weight was removed, and Toph breathed in, as if she had a difficult time keeping herself on the ground.
"Fine, then! Let's finish this!"
Toph and Azula flew at each other again, but this time, the result of the bout was more than instant. Toph flew backwards to the ground, giving Azula the opening she needed to smash Toph in the stomach before grabbing her shirt and disappearing again.
A second later, Azula and Toph reappeared again. Toph was running away with an expression of shock.
"How is that possible? I'm almost completely unweighted! My new speed should far outclass anyone!"
"I have finally broken you, yes? That sense of pure hopelessness has finally settled in. Now, let's see if I can add a little fear and horror to the mix. Bang!"
Azula poked the air where Toph was standing, sending a needle-like blast of fire into Toph's leg, causing her to yell in pain and drop to one knee.
Now sure that Toph couldn't move, Azula sent more needle blasts into Toph's body, causing her to fall into spasmodic fits, eventually leading to one needle shot hitting her square in the chest, which led to her falling backwards, clinging to life.
All the while, Azula was laughing maniacally at her pain and screams of mercy and terror.
The laughing was cut short, however, when Zuko fired a flame-charged punch into Azula's stomach, sending her shooting into the air.
The last five members of the Terra team lined up beside the Fire Lord.
"Zuko, let us help! We can take her down all together!" Sokka suggested.
"That won't be necessary. Even with her new speed and power, I'm certain that six fighters that are as powerful as all of us is plenty." Zuko said, referring to himself and the Terra Team. "Get Toph back to the city, where it's safe. Heal her up, then stay put. This was my fight in the beginning, and it's still my fight now. I will be the one to finally silence Azula!"
Zuko clenched his fist, opening all of his chakras up to the fourth. Katara and Sokka gasped. Zuko's level of power was now a little above par with Azula herself.
In a powerful violet flash, Zuko followed Azula into the air. The Terra Team rose stone platforms and flew up with Zuko.
Katara and Zuko ran over to Toph's twitching body, lifting her up as carefully as possible.
Haku used her healing powers to help Toph as best as she could while Sokka and Katara carted her toward the gate.
Katara looked to the sky, at the mixture of flying rocks and purple and black explosions bursting the air in different places. It was truly the picture of chaos.
'Chaos that only the Avatar can undo…' she thought ominously, turning back to the city wall and her current mission.
(A/N: And there's the LONGEST chapter yet! Now, you can guess what the last chapter's going to be about, hm? If you guessed that it's the climactic final confrontation between Aang and Azula that will have an awesome ending that you'll never see coming, then you're absolutely correct! I'll also stop being such a tease and answer the all-important question: why is Katara so OLD?
I feel like something's wrong with this chapter, though, but I can't tell what it is… Oh, well. Maybe one of you guys will spot it and tell me in a review.
Speaking of reviews, leave a review on your way out! And don't forget to start suggesting filler fodder for my imagination to shape into awesome distraction chapters until TeaMeiya makes it to the Northern Water Tribe and back.
And while I'm at it, I just remembered the Weapons of Discord Comparison Challenge! Wordbender described the Devourer as Devastator, the awesome Constructicon amalgamation from Revenge of The Fallen that Skidz and Mudflap fought in Egypt, and was ultimately finished off by an experimental offshore rail gun to the nads. Needless to say, her guess was spot on!
However, there's still the S.S Chaos and the Judgment Scales to guess the basis of, but here's a couple of hints. The S.S Chaos is based not only on nonfiction, but an actual (and arguably, the most ironic) historic event. The Judgment Scales are based off of one of my favorite video games that brings to life the question asked for ages: Could Mario beat Link in a fight?
Well, the answer is yes, but that's not the point. The point is, the Judgment Scale is adopted from a climactic air battle scene in that game's storyline.
Those are your hints! Now, get guessing! I'm dying to see your answers, and even I can't wait until the next chapter! But until then, this is SH10, signing out! ;-P)