Chapter Thirty-Five

Aang swooped down to liberate Katara from the crimson cast water while his comrades did the same for the other waterbenders floating there as well. As he assisted her up onto Appa's head, Aang and Katara regarded one another grimly. "It's starting," he said, "I was hoping to reach the palace before now."

Katara bent the excess water from her tunic. "We did what we could."

He turned a somber look out towards their rear where two of their vessels had already begun sinking beneath the surface of the sea. "Unfortunately, that wasn't good enough. Now there's a simultaneous attack going on all over the world."

"You're worried about your people, aren't you?" Katara surprised softly.

He jerked a nod. "And your people too." Aang let her process the unspoken implication in his statement. "Your parents are in danger now. I'm sorry, Katara."

"Seems like everything we wanted to change is happening anyway, isn't it?" she mumbled sadly.

"Yes. It seems that way."

"Maybe that means that we were never meant to change it, Aang."

Katara stared ahead blindly, her lips compressed into a tight, thin line. She looked as helpless and lost as he felt right then. Her fear for her parents was palpable. Her breath shuddered out of her lungs in a painful wheeze. She pressed her fists into her thighs in a bid for self-control. "I knew I was going to leave them, but I never once contemplated the idea of losing them before I did," she whispered in a voice thickened with tears.

Aang lifted shaking fingers to whisk away the tears that fell on her smooth cheeks. "I wanted something better for you, Katara. I still do."

Her lips turned up in a bittersweet smile. "I know that." It took her a few seconds to pull herself back together but she did. Katara obstinately shook off her anxiety and forced herself to focus on the task at hand. "I can't worry about what's happening anywhere else besides here now," she said, "We have to figure out what we're going to do once we reach the beach because I know they'll be waiting for us."

"Come on," Aang urged, "Let's join the others."

They headed back to the deck of the main ship where Sokka was observing the activity on the beach through a small spy scope he had constructed for himself. What he saw did not please him. For as far as he could see, lines and lines of heavy, black tanks lined the edge of the beach…obviously waiting for them.

"There's a barricade," he informed Aang after he and Katara had dismounted, "We won't even make it onto the beach if we don't get past that first."

"So we'll get past it," Aang decided.

Katara favored him with an anxious glance. "What are you going to do?"

"I'll make sure you can get past the barricade," he said, "and then I'm going to take my glider and fly over to the other side to confront Ozai. Appa will stay behind for his own safety." The sky bison bellowed his dissent over that idea and he wasn't the only one to do so.

"I'm going with you!" Azula volunteered swiftly.

Before Aang could start to protest her intentions, Katara added without missing a beat, "Well, if she's going then I'm definitely going! I trust her about as far as I can throw her."

Azula slid Katara a cool, narrowed look. "Have I somehow given you the impression that I was yearning for your trust, peasant?"

"Why, you little—,"

"—If Katara's going with you, then I'm definitely coming along too," Sokka said, drowning out the remainder of his sister's caustic insult, "I'm not letting her out of my sight, Aang."

"Oh no, you don't!" Toph objected grouchily, "You guys are leaving me alone of this metal monstrosity! The only reason I'm here is because you dragged me along!"

"Alright, that's enough!" Aang intoned firmly before they could begin bickering amongst themselves, "No one is going with me. In fact, I would prefer that you four stay out of harm's way and let our allied forces handle this conflict." He surveyed the circle of angry faces before him and sighed, "But that's not going to happen, is it?"

"Ozai killed my mother!" Azula spat, "I have the right to face him!"

Katara sucked in a sharp breath, her anger and mistrust softening abruptly into pity. "Your mother is dead? I didn't know that."

However, Azula ignored her offer of compassion altogether and kept solely focused on Aang. "I'm going with you."

"No, you're not, Azula."

"I have never once obeyed you in my entire life," she scoffed, "Why do you think that I'm suddenly going to start now, hmm?"

"Because we're trying to trust each other, remember?" he reminded her softly. While little else had cracked Azula's frosty façade, that gentle reminder made a sizeable dent. She backed down with a stubborn clenching of her jaw. "Very good," Aang sighed, "You all stay safe and take care of Appa." His eyes lingered on Katara as he threw open his glider. "I'll come back when I can."

Katara watched him fly off with forlorn eyes, suddenly struck by the inescapable sense that they had just spoken their final goodbyes. She was working herself up into an inward panic over the possibility when Toph said, "You guys aren't seriously going to stay behind, are you?"

Sokka snorted. "Of course not! Who do you think we are?"

Above them, Aang flew within a few kilometers of the beach and then snapped his glider closed, suspending himself in the lotus position on a cushion of air. He levitated effortlessly among the scarlet saturated clouds, his pose utterly serene as he placed his staff across his lap. Once he was sure that he had the attention of the soldiers lined along the beach, Aang addressed them in a booming voice. "Citizens of the Fire Nation, there is no need for further violence and destruction between us! There has been enough this day! Please, surrender peacefully and we can end this conflict!"

Aang paused, his breath suspended in anticipation as he awaited their response. It shuddered from his lungs in disappointment as they prepared to open fire. Aang expelled a mournful sigh. "So be it."

His eyes and tattoos flashed briefly with the blinding glow of the avatar spirit just as the explosion of fire came barreling towards him. He slammed his fist into his open palm and sent out an arcing jet of air so powerful that it obliterated the stormy holocaust barreling towards him as easily as one blows out a candle. The tanks along the beaches edge toppled backwards with the ease of tumbleweeds in a gentle breeze. With a few flicks of Aang's fingers, battlements were shattered into pieces, soldiers were knocked chaotically across the sand and weapons were demolished.

When it was over, only a small fraction had been left standing and the four ships moved in to take what remained of the enemy. Aang glided over the ravaged site with a remorseful glance. He hadn't wanted it to come to that. He had always prided himself on his willingness to extend mercy to all regardless of their crimes. But being the Avatar sometimes required him to make decisions that were difficult and that had been one of them.

However, as Aang sailed towards the palace, he made every effort to put that moment out of his mind so that he could mentally prepare himself for his confrontation with Ozai. He flew directly to the courtyard just outside the Fire Sage temple. That was one of the first places Ozai had purged once he took control of Palace City and usurped the throne. Somehow, Aang knew that Ozai would be there waiting for him…and he was right.

The self-proclaimed Firelord stood with a haughty smirk as Aang landed before him. "Have you come here to kill me?" Ozai challenged.

"That's not how I want this to end, Ozai."

"You're too late, Aang! The order has already been given. I can't do anything to stop it. Even if you kill me, the rest of the world will still burn."

"And that delights you…doesn't it?" Aang concluded in disgust. Ozai sneered his confirmation. Aang surveyed him with a sad look of profound disappointment. "What has happened to you, Ozai?"

"I became the great man I was born to become," he snarled, "And it wasn't given to me at all! I earned every bit of it!" He threw back his fist in impending attack, but before he could deliver the blow his hand was encased in sphere of earth. A second attempt yielded the same results. His feet sank into the ground and were instantly locked at the ankles. He regarded Aang with a feral growl. "I won't surrender to you!" he shouted.

"Ozai, look at yourself!" Aang reasoned fiercely, "This will only end badly for you! Comet or not, you cannot match me and I don't want to…"

"…to take away my bending?" Ozai finished for him, "Are you planning to leave me a sniveling shell of a man as you did my grandfather?"

Aang squared his shoulders. "If I must."

He took a step forward, prepared to propel Ozai to his knees when he suddenly blasted free of his shackles and came jetting towards Aang with his fists blazing. A stiff barrier of wind halted Ozai's furious advancement and an earth spike knocked him to his knees. Before he had a moment to recover, he was already up to his neck in earth. Aang approached him with a sad shake of his head.

"Did it really have to come to this?" he asked Ozai softly, "What didn't you have? What didn't I give you?"

"It wasn't your right to give me anything! You're not Fire Nation! You're nothing to me!"

"And who is?" Aang charged him, "You've attempted to assassinate your own brother and inadvertently taken his only son away from him. Your wife is dead. Your children despise you. Your nation is divided. Those who are loyal to Iroh fear you. And those who follow you do so at their own peril.

"You're right," he sighed, "I cannot stop what you've already put into motion, but it won't stand. You won't win and hundreds will have lost their lives for nothing."

"Not for nothing," Ozai scoffed, "For me. They were willing to die for me."

Aang's features contorted in a repulsed grimace. "You truly brought this upon yourself." He started to step forward and place his fingers against Ozai's forehead and chest when Ozai whispered his daughter's name in incredulous shock. Aang lurched around to find Azula, Katara, Sokka and Toph all standing together less than twenty feet behind him. He bit out a frustrated curse under his breath.

"Didn't I tell you four to stay with the ships?" he bit out, "Where's Appa?" A penitent bellow sounded out from behind the children. Aang tipped a glance around them to discover his sky bison concealed behind a cluster of trees. He turned back to face the four with a disagreeable frown. "Is it really such a challenge to do what I ask you for once?" he groaned.

"Don't be angry with us," Katara entreated him, "We thought you might need some backup."

"Not knocking your Avatar skills or anything," Toph inserted smoothly, "but we weren't really expecting Ozai to play fair, especially with everything on his end falling apart."

"The Fire Nation has surrendered," Sokka told him, "Palace City is ours now."

"This is only one battle!" Ozai shouted at them maniacally, "You haven't won the war!"

Sokka ignored his infuriated ranting. "What do you want us to do?" he asked in a low tone, "He's right. This is only one battle. We have an entire world to save."

"I'll handle it," Aang reassured him, "Just go back to the ship and wait for me there."

"You're not going to remove his bending, are you?" Azula demanded in an anxious tone.

"Yes," Aang replied, "It's the only way."

"No! You can't do that!" Azula cried, "I challenge him! Agni Kai! For the death of my mother!"

"Your mother was a traitor!" Ozai spat, "She turned her back on her own nation and she chose Zuko over you! I am the one who has always supported you, Azula!"

"You could have let her live!" she screamed, "You could have put her away or…or banished her! You didn't have to take her away from me!"

"She was never yours. She never loved you! She thought you were a monster!"

"Don't listen to him," Aang urged her. He flicked a desperate glance at Sokka and Katara. "Take her out of here now."

"Don't you see what is happening?" Ozai continued in a silky tone, chinking away at Azula's already compromised emotional armor, "You have deceived yourself. Your mother cared no more for you than my own father cared for me! I know what it feels like to be rejected, Azula, especially when you know there is greatness within you." His malevolent gaze settled on Aang. "But there will always be ones who will attempt to snuff out your potential, to oppress you and confine you. You mustn't let that happen."

Toph snorted. "Don't tell me that you're buying his drivel!"

Ozai smirked at his wavering daughter. "Is this really what it has come to, my dear? Are you really going to stand with a ragtag band of peasants and traitors against your own father?"

Katara carefully studied the indecision on Azula's features, remembering acutely the moment in the crystal catacombs when Zuko had turned against them. Because he had chosen to stand with his sister rather than fight alongside them and his uncle, Aang had died that day. Katara furtively uncorked her waterskins, fully prepared to end Azula then and there with a well placed shard of ice before it came to that again.

Gradually, Ozai worked to crack the fortress of earth surrounding him as he continued to taunt Azula. "I never thought I would see the day when you would willingly subject yourself to the Avatar and serve alongside everyone else as his willing servant!"

"I am no one's servant!" Azula spat, "Not his and certainly not yours!"

"I don't wish to subjugate you, my child," he told her softly, "I want us to rule this nation…the world together." A wordless look passed between Azula and Aang as Sokka, Katara and Toph tensed themselves for battle against a super-powered fire princess and her tyrannical father. Aang, in contrast, remained strangely calm.

"The decision is yours, Azula," he told her, "I won't influence you. But consider one thing before you act, for all my faults and missteps, have I ever given you a reason to mistrust me? Can you say the same about your father?"

Aang knew his reasoning had penetrated her heart when he saw Azula's fists unclench at her sides. Unfortunately, her capitulation came about a second too late. Aang's approving smile abruptly became a shocked grimace of pain as a crackling jet of lightning arced through his body and blew him off of his feet. Katara choked out a horrified gasp as he crumpled to the ground motionless. She scrambled to her knees with a whimpering cry to begin immediate life-saving measures. Meanwhile, Toph and Sokka dove for cover when Ozai leveled his second attack at them.

Azula had a split second to assimilate what was happening before she sprang into action. Suddenly, she was catapulted back to the day her mother had been killed. She was horrified to find herself reliving the scenario all over again, only with Aang in her mother's place. She was further disconcerted by the realization that she cared for the aged Avatar much more than she had once believed. Spurred on by self-disgust, rage and hatred, Azula launched herself at Ozai with a menacing snarl. He knocked her back with a jetting burst of fire that was more a call for her attention than anything else.

"The Avatar is dead!" he spat, "The world is mine! Do you really want to stand against me now, Azula?"

"Perhaps that is a question that you should be asking yourself!"

Father and daughter circled one another like two predatory animals, each scanning for the other's weakness and waiting for the perfect moment to strike. Ozai appraised Azula with a hostile once over. "You do realize that you are going to pay for this show of defiance with your life, do you not?"

"I am a master just as you are," she replied coldly, "Do your worst, Father!"

The courtyard exploded in waves of blue and orange fire. Radiating waves of intense heat permeated the atmosphere, thickening the air to the point where breathing seemed an impossible function. Ozai and Azula, on the other hand, hardly seemed winded. Their focus was solely on each other.

For the most part, they were evenly matched. They converged and retreated, each rose and fell, ebbed and flowed with neither of them ever truly gaining the mastery over the other. It soon degenerated into a game of wit, stamina and agility and Azula's youth proved to be in her favor. Recognizing that he would give out long before she did, Ozai decided to expedite matters by executing his finishing blow.

"Remember," he said as he separated the internal energies within himself to produce the lightning current, "I didn't want it this way."

His eyes widened in incredulous astonishment, however, when Azula fully absorbed the crackling jet he sent forth into the tips of her fingers. She smirked at him. "I'm a clever girl, Father," she said seconds before sending his own pulse of electricity back at him, "Uncle didn't know it, but Zuko and LuTen weren't his only pupils!" She watched with remorseless satisfaction as the white hot currents coursed through his stiffened body, until they finally dissipated and he toppled over into the earth. "That was for my mother," she whispered brutally, "…and my brother."

Azula wasted no time in grieving her father's death. Instead, she ran over to join Sokka, Toph and Katara. They were in the process of loading Aang's limp body into Appa's saddle. Azula winced when she noted how pale and still he seemed. He didn't even flinch or moan as they moved him, despite the angry, scalded skin on his back. "Is he…he's not…?"

"Do you care?" Katara bit out, "This is your fault!"

"Don't worry," Sokka uttered softly, "He's alive."

"But just barely," Toph added in a grave tone, "I can hardly detect his heartbeat at all. For a minute there, it wasn't even beating."

"But it is now," Katara snapped fiercely, "and I'm going to keep it beating!" She snapped an accusing glower around at Azula. "Why did you hesitate? You knew that your father was an insane maniac! You distracted Aang so that he wasn't prepared for Ozai's attack!"

"Katara, stop it!" Sokka admonished, "It's not her fault. Azula just saved our lives!"

"…by killing her own father," Toph concluded grimly, "Are you okay?"

"Forget about me," Azula said, "What about Aang? Can't you fix him?" She flicked Katara with an impatient look. "Don't be useless! You're a healer! Do something to help him!"

"I've done all I can do," Katara grated from between clenched teeth, tears threatening to spill over, "He needs the spirit water from the North Pole!"

Sokka balked at her implication. "Katara! Are you crazy? They're under attack right now! The entire world is in the middle of an intense battle! You can't go! It's too dangerous!"

"I don't care! I can't let him die, Sokka." She dissolved into broken sobs. "Please…don't try to stop me! I can't let him die."

"Okay, okay…fine," he relented quickly, undone by her hysterical tears, "We'll go. We'll fly him north if that's what you need."

"No. I'll go," Katara sniffled, "You should take the rest of the fleet and head south. Mom and Dad need you. I can take care of Aang on my own. It has to be this way."

Her brother's eyes welled with tears as he began to understand what she was trying to tell him. "You're not coming back, are you?"

Katara confirmed with a small shake of her head. "As soon as Aang is better, we're going home."

Sokka jerked her into his arms then and hugged her so tightly that it constricted the air in her lungs. "I don't want to say goodbye to you, Katara," he wept, "I'm not ready yet."

"It's not goodbye," she told him, "We're going to see each other again soon, Sokka." She favored Toph with a mournful look. "We all will."

"Are you sure you know what you're doing?" the blind girl asked.

Katara choked a mirthless laugh. "No. But then again, I can't remember the last time I was."

After exchanging a tearful goodbye with Toph, Katara offered Azula her grudging thanks and then surveyed her brother would one last look. "Thank you for understanding why I need to do this," she whispered before snapping Appa's reins firmly, "Yip, yip, Appa! Fly as fast as you can."

As they soared towards the blood red skies, Katara clamored from Appa's head and climbed into the saddle in order to keep vigil over a delirious Aang. She laid her hand lovingly against his clammy cheek before stretching out beside him and curling into his side. "It's going to be okay, Aang," she promised him, "Just hold on. Stay with me. Stay with me…"

He shivered and muttered incomprehensible things beneath his breath, his gray eyes open and sightless. Katara held him as closely as she could, but nothing seemed to warm him. His breathing began to deepen and slow, each exhalation coming at longer and longer intervals. Katara counted each measured breath, her heart lurching with fear in between each one because she feared it might be his last. She was sobbing softly into the folds of his robes when he began to speak. His words were faint and breathless and obviously a struggle for him to speak, but he mumbled them with conviction.

"The true mind can weather all the lies and illusions without being lost," he recited feebly, "The true heart can touch the poison of hatred without being harmed…"

Katara reared up to regard him with an anxious grimace. "Aang, I don't know what you're saying. What is it? What does that mean?"

"Since beginningless time, darkness thrives in the void, but always yields to purifying light…"

She resisted the frantic urge to shake him. "I don't understand what you're trying to tell me," she sobbed, "You have to help me, Aang! I can't do this without you."

In that moment, his eyes cleared. For the first time since he had been injured, when he looked at her, Katara knew that he recognized her. Aang favored her with a weak smile. He lifted his hand to briefly sweep his fingers across her chin before letting it drop to his side once more. "It will be okay, Katara," he whispered, "Just a little further… I understand now. Next time…we'll do it together."

"Next time?" she echoed, her confusion deepening, "What next time? What are you talking about?" She palmed his forehead for any signs of fever. "Sweetie, I think you're a little delusional right now."

The words had barely left her mouth when the scarlet sky began to creep away, fading slowly as the comet retreated and leaving in its wake heavy, gray storm clouds. Katara flinched with the booming claps of thunder that sounded from the surrounding clouds. They flickered ominously with the lightning that pulsed within them. When she looked down at Aang again, she saw his eyes were closed. In a flurry of panic, Katara pressed her ear to his chest for the sound of his heartbeat, relieved to the point of sobbing when she detected a sluggish thumping.

His heartbeat wasn't strong by any means, but it was there and for that Katara was grateful. She smoothed her fingers over the ridge of his cheek and leaned in close to press an impulsive kiss to his mouth. She knew that if he had been awake he would never stand for it, but she wasn't able to restrain herself any longer. Katara lingered against his lips for a long time, noting the subtle differences in how they felt beneath her, reacquainting herself with the contours of his mouth before she finally pulled away and sat upright.

"There's going to be a storm," she told him, "I need to guide Appa safely through and then I'll come back to you. Don't give up, Aang! Do you hear me? We're almost there."

She stared down at him for a few seconds more before reluctantly climbing from the saddle. As Katara took them out over the open sea, the storm worsened, growing progressively more violent with every mile that they covered. Despite her impressive waterbending skills, Katara couldn't do much to calm the rolling ferocity of the sea or abate the stinging rain that pelted them relentlessly like prickling needles. The funneling wind that stirred it all also proved to be a fierce opponent and it took all of Katara's strength just to maneuver Appa out from the path of the rising waves and keep them in the air.

"Aang, I could really use a little avatar state action right now," she muttered to herself.

But it was fully up to her to get them out of the storm alive and she knew it. Quickly realizing that they would never survive if they tried to fly through the storm, Katara decided to take them up and over it instead. She gritted her teeth in determination and angled Appa higher at the very instant a punch of stiff wind slammed into his flank. The impact shook his entire body and knocked him completely off balance. Before Katara could fully prepare herself, the bison went tumbling helplessly through the air, throwing his riders as he did so. All three went plunging towards the chaotic ocean below.

Katara's last frantic thought was of Aang before she lost her grip on Appa's reins and was swallowed by the churning sea. Seconds later, her world went black.

A/N: So I'm pretty sure I'm not you guys' favorite person right now. That's okay. I understand. There's only the epilogue left after this and I'll post that late on Friday night. I do have a short segue fic planned after this that springboards from the epilogue of this story and I'll probably post that in another week or so. I just resumed classes and my schedule is already looking pretty insane, so I need a little time to get situated. I will wrap up this fic arc as soon as possible. I promise.

Kataang Caps, thank you so much for this idea. I know I didn't follow your synopsis to the letter, but hopefully you weren't too disappointed with the arc I chose. I'd also like to thank my beta for persevering with me through all of this and you guys for sticking with this story when it was all kinds of depressing. I promise the story that comes after this will be much, much better. I owe you guys that much, lol.