Chapter 26: Hama's Defeat

"TOPH NO!" Katara gasped in horror as she watched her friend's lifeless body fall into the ocean. Quick as a flash, Sokka jumped in after her and disappeared beneath the waves. Aang and Zuko tried following him but was stopped by Hama, who waved the scepter around her while cackling loudly.

"HAHAHA! THE POOR FOOL. EVEN TO THE MOST POWERFUL BENDER, SILLY THINGS LIKE LOVE AND COMPASSION CAN CAUSE THEIR DOWNFALL!"

Katara clenched her fist in anger and glared up at Hama. That was the last straw. Conjuring up water, she made an ice board and jumped onto it, heading straight toward Hama while launching ice spikes at her. Hama blocked with a wall of water and lashed back with own barrage of ice spikes. Katara weaved around them and with one slash, knocked the scepter out of Hama's hand and froze it to the nearest pillar.

Seizing their chance, Aang and Zuko joined in the attack and began sending gusts of wind and fire her way. However, Hama blocked them both by summoning a tidal wave and launching it at them. As Aang flew Zuko away from the oncoming wave, Hama pried the scepter off the pillar and began shooting lightning at everything that moved. Luckily Katara was able to get out of the line of fire and hide behind a small pillar where Aang and Zuko were hiding.

"This is hopeless!" Aang moaned "Even without the scepter she's still too powerful!"

"There's gotta be a way to stop her." Zuko said. "Obviously the scepter isn't her source of power so it must be something else."

Katara peeked out the side and glanced at Hama who was searching around for them. A glint then caught her eye that was radiating from Hama's neck.

"That's it..." she said.

"What's it?" Zuko asked.

"The moonstone. Thats what gives her her power! If we destroy it, she's be defeated for sure!"

Aangs eyes widened in realization but quickly became worried when he glanced around at Hama. "But how are we gonna get close enough?" Before Katara could answer, a bolt of lightning blazed overhead taking off the top of the pillar.

"COME OUT, COME OUT WHEREVER YOU ARE!" Hama called out.

Katara cautiously looked out to the side as Hama approached even closer. "We need to distract her long enough to get the necklace off her. But how-" Just then Hama let out a scream and doubled over, nearly crushing the pillars around her

"WHY YOU LITTLE-!"

"Zuko!" Katara gasped as she spotted the fire prince who ran out from the hiding place and was attacking Hama with full force. He climbed up a nearby pillar and began jumping onto the others, turning Hama's attention away from Katara and Aang. Once far away enough, he propelled himself into the air and did a spinning kick toward Hama's head, burning her with a brillant wave of flames.

Taking advantage of the distraction, Katara jumped onto her ice board and zoomed toward Hama, riding the large waves and trying to get a good shot at the stone. Hama spotted her at the corner of her eye and aimed a bolt back at her but missed. Katara propelled herself high into the air and tried striking at the stone but Hama managed to block and whack her with the back of her hand. Katara flew backwards through the air but was quickly caught by Aang who flew overhead.

"Thought you could use a lift" Aang said changing positions so she was riding on his back. Katara smiled then sat up to face Hama. The sea witch tried desperately to swat at the teens as they zoomed around her but kept getting burned by Zuko every time she lifted her hands. As Katara jumped off onto a pillar, Aang zoomed behind Hama and with one airbending slice, cut neatly through the necklace string sending the stone falling towards the water. As it changed back to normal size, Katara jumped up and grabbed it. Then with one clean sweep, she slashed right through the moonstone, breaking it in half and shattering it into a million pieces.

Hama let out a dry gasp and grabbed her chest as she felt her evil powers weaken significantly. Suddenly her whole body began to shake and slowly started to shrivel. Hama wheezed and gasped for air as she seemed to age a hundred years. "I...WILL...NOT...LOSE!!" Her body now violently shaking, Hama summoned up her remaining strength and aimed the scepter at Katara. Zuko gasped when he saw who she was pointing at and quick raced forward.

"DIE!" She wheezed out and shot a bolt of lightning at her.

Katara held up her arms as the deadly bolt shot toward her but looked up when they noticed something in front of her blocking the lightning.

"ZUKO!" Katara called out in horror as the fire prince leaped in front of her and was taking the full blow of the lightning. Zuko yelled in pain as the lightning coursed his body but managed to stay standing. Concentrating all his energy on Hama, Zuko summoned up all his strength and harnessed the lightning, blasting it back out of his fingertips and shooting Hama right through the chest.

The sea witch let out a terrible scream as she was struck by her own power and dropped the scepter into the ocean. The lightning engulfing her, she writhed in agony and began shrinking down into the water.

Katara rushed forward to catch Zuko, who had collapsed from exhaustion, and managed to pull him away as the remaining pillars began to crumble and fall around them. Aang quickly zoomed in and grabbed Zuko and Katara, flying as fast as he could toward the nearest stretch of land before everything came crashing down. Then, in a giant cloud of smoke, Hama disintegrated and disappeared below the waves.

--

Amongst the remains from the battle, the scepter resumed its normal size and began to glow as it sank further down. Down in Hama's cave, all the trapped krillshrimp creatures reverted back to their normal water/earth bending selves and swam out of the cave back towards Ba Sea Sei. All the Kyoshi warriors were freed from the ground and watched as Hakoda also reverted back to normal.

"You're majesty! You're okay!" Suki shouted as the rest of the warriors rushed toward their restored ruler. "What just happened?"

Gazing up towards the surface, Hakoda saw his scepter floated down towards him and grabbed it. "They did it."

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Hey everyone I'm back. :) Its been nearly a month since I updated but I'm glad to say that I'm not dead...yet.
As I've probably mentioned in earlier chapters, Ive been suffering from side pains and have even gone to the hospital for it. Well thanks to an ultrasound, they discovered that I have 4-6 gallstones in my now very enlarged and very irritated gallbladder.

As you can imagine, the stones have caused me unbearable pain at times and thus has detered me from writing my fic, resulting in this unusally short chapter. But i wanted to update this month and on my birthday (I'm 22 :P ) as promised so I cut down the length I originally intended for this chapter.

Friday is when I'm having surgery to remove my pain in the ass gallbladder and I'm hoping it goes well. If it does, I'll be bed-ridden for a week and pain free afterwards and thus able to update and finish my story. However, in the unlikely event that I die on the table or am gassed to death by the anesethsia, I've written the general outcome of my story which my hubby Jay will rewrite into legible print and post through my account. But lets hope it doesnt come to that.

Anyways, wish me luck and I'll try to update once I feel better. Also, my hubby Jay has gotten his own account under the name ShwiggityShwah and has made his own story full of adventure, mystery, suspense, romance and the occasional cactus juice. So check out Avatar the last Airbender: Chapter 4- Wood and support my hubby :)