Sorry this chapter took longer than usual. I've had a lot of work to do lately, papers to write and whatnot. But I forgot to say that this fic is now two months old, as of Tuesday, and I've past 50,000 hits. Wow, thank you to all.
I'd also like to thank all of my anonymous reviewers here, since I can't respond to the reviews and helpful pointers you guys give. Anyway, let it be known that I don't own Avatar. Seriously, I don't.
Chapter 38
There was a muted sound of flesh smacking hard against flesh, and the last of the men swiveled to the ground, limp as a wet rag. Ty Lee shook out her fist with a frown: hard head.
Mai turned to her, setting the last of her knives back into place as they briskly hurried out into the main palace hall, indecisive as to what to do next.
Both stopped to catch a breath.
"Now what?" Ty Lee asked, clutching at where she had been cut. The blood had stopped flowing, at least, but now the whole hallway was tipping around a little bit. No worries, no worries.
"I don't know. Where do you suppose Azula is?"
"I don't want to know," Ty Lee grumbled cryptically, looking around before leaning against a wall and allowing herself to slide down. "I think we should rest for a second."
"Best idea I've heard," Mai agreed flatly, joining her friend.
There was suddenly a huge, rumbling crash from somewhere outside, and the smooth floor beneath them jolted and cracked. The two girls were jerked forward, sprawled out on the ground. Now, what was that? Like there was some kind of earthquake….
"That doesn't sound too good."
But the crash of thunder that echoed down the hall, much closer, sounded even worse.
Well, that at least answered Ty Lee's second question.
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War stepped back a pace or two to study his opponents from a different angle, brow etched in confusion as he breathed a heavy sigh. A plume of flame and smoke came out from between his teeth as he did so, and the golden eyes studied the man in the robes with a tilt of the head.
"I should remind you, Roku, that we're all immortal. I can't imagine what you hope to accomplish."
Kyoshi responded for her companion, keeping eye contact as she turned, following the spirit's progress while he circled. Her dark eyes and pale face reflected the anger that was boiling behind them.
"We don't mean to kill you. We just need to keep you out of this final fight: remember the promise? No interference."
War laughed, casually scraping the dull iron of his claws along his breastplate. "I wouldn't go accusing anyone of interference quite yet, Kyoshi: you've been doing a fair bit of it yourself lately. Besides, my kin and I never interfere. We persuade. These little meat bags have free will, after all: they just like listening to us more."
To that, the former Avatar had no response, but could only glare over the edge of a tessen at the spirit. She felt the tension rise in her present incarnate, felt that he was about to begin his own critical battle. So she would have to do her part now.
War was correct, though; they could start a battle now that may very well continue until the end of time.
But Kyoshi was not planning on waiting that long, and neither was Roku. Roku, standing beside her, also frowned slightly.
"I notice your companions aren't with you. You three always seem to arrive as one…."
War shrugged, the long, whip-like tail twirling about and splitting the air.
"You mean Hate and Famine? Elsewhere. Some other world, fighting with its guardians, I'm sure. But enough talk."
"Yes, I agree," the tall woman nodded. War hunkered down, head now bowed beneath massive shoulders, and all three launched themselves.
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Aang knocked aside a blaze and sent it spiraling away, a few sparks hitting his hands. It had finally dawned upon him, probably as he had been redirecting a raging river of flame aimed at his head: that Ozai actually was trying to kill him. Sure, he had known it would be the case, but it's not something that sinks in immediately. Everyone else that he had fought, faced down….they had just wanted to capture him. Imprison him. Harm him. Azula had come close to killing him, he knew that much, but it was over before he even saw it coming. This, he was facing head on.
This time he was playing for keeps.
He winced as the flame dusted his unprotected skin, and told himself to keep going, although the inner voice of encouragement was distant and surreal. Was this really it? Was this his destiny, standing here?
No time to think about it right now, he told himself curtly.
A shot of fire just missed roasting him to his immediate left, and Aang dodged once again. He would be doing a lot of dodging in this fight: it's not as though he would be able to take a slew of hits from the fire….
Ozai moved to strike again.
Aang slid his right foot out in a swift, sweeping motion, sending a large pulse through the floor. The action continued long after his foot had halted, an explosion of rock speeding towards the Fire Lord through the stone tiles as though before a sledgehammer.
Ozai's dark eyes widened and he himself stepped forward, hands circled in burning rage as his hands met with the onslaught.
There was a short burst of flames, a storm of smoke, and Aang was forced to duck down and sweep a wing of air over his head to avoid the blast. He tried to see through the shimmering air as it sweated in the intense blaze, and saw his opponent, still standing, with the stones puddled around him. What?
The rocks were repelled, the soft stone glowing and running together in the unbelievable heat. Had Ozai just melted the rocks? Aang let his jaw hang open for a moment more than he should have allowed, and found himself on the defensive as careful shots of flame fired out rapidly, knocking them away with bursts of wind as he was forced backwards.
Okay, now what?
A ribbon of blaze flew from the firebender's hand, into the air, growing and brightening until it filled Aang's vision completely. It came plunging down onto the boy, who turned quickly out of the way….and the flame followed him, the Fire Lord yanking his arms in a series of motions and manipulating the fire like a puppet on a string.
Aang watched the agile blaze cycle back up again, and he desperately tried to knock it aside, to pull it from his opponent's grasp. No luck.
As he reached out to seize it, he found that Ozai's grip on the element was iron, perfectly mastered, fixed and unmoving. It certainly wasn't going to just slip out of his hands…
The Avatar dipped into his own inner fire, trying to fan and grow it as it came racing outward. He no longer needed to think about the process, really: it had become a second nature, as the long flame rocketed from his arm and swatted back the next barrage of fire.
Ozai pulled back the flame to his side, watched as the boy took two leaps and then rode the air to land a strike on him.
This wasn't terribly difficult, the Fire Lord thought casually.
With a rushing draw of wind as if the fire itself had a breath, the flames spread like a burning flower opening, to become a shield over the Fire Lord's head. The air current that swung down beat against it harmlessly.
Aang halted, suspended in midair as the wind circled against the barrier of flame, grey eyes set and locked on the dark pair of the Fire Lord's. Through the flickering screen, he saw Ozai grin coldly a moment before the flame shield snapped in, shrunk and shot outwards, a knife of dancing light that Aang felt burn his shoulder as he dodged it.
The dodge devolved into a stumble, the stumble into a somersault, as Aang went head over heels. His eyes caught on a torch before him, one that had revived after he had swept them all out.
There!
He jerked at the burning blaze and it came to him when he called, lashing overhead just in time to stop another ball of fire as it rushed in, then another, and another.
Why hadn't he thought to bring water along? The thought bounced around among his many others.
He pulled the fire back to stretch it into a whip, when…..
There was a sound like dry leaves in the wind, a snapping, the smell of the air being singed, that Aang had the unfortunate luck of being familiar with. And his fear threatened to take hold of him again.
He looked over at Ozai, saw the white power crackling to life over the Fire Lord's frame, twisting and writhing in a path as he moved to bring both strong hands inward.
The menacing eyes narrowed.
There was a massive thunderclap as the lighting came together and charged forward, and with a blast it dug into the wall behind Aang, knocking free a massive chunk of it where the Avatar's head had been only moments before.
Low to the ground as he shot forward yet again, Aang's mind was a beehive of thoughts.
This wasn't working.
It was odd, now….. Aang had never really given much thought to the details of this battle, never pictured the blow by blow of it. He had just been so focused on the outcome, that it had been overshadowed. After all, when describing an explosion, one can't start talking about the sparks.
But now, with the sights and the sounds of it around him, he dearly wished he had.
Only thing left to do is just fight until you got nothing left, Aang thought, in a voice that sounded suspiciously like Toph's.
Right, got it.
The lightning was hurled out in quick clouds of energy, but Aang was determined now. He yanked a wall of stone upwards that the lighting turned to rubble. He took another step, jerked another stone into the lightning's path to sacrifice it to the white, cold-blooded fire.
A third, until it became a rhythmic motion, pounding his way across the hall of the temple. Fwoosh, Thump, Crash. Fwoosh, Thump. Crash.
Ten steps forward for the Avatar, the dust from the rubble thickening the air, and Ozai took his first backwards step, shocked as he did so. He refused to retreat before this little boy!
The flame licked off the Fire Lord's fingertips, pooling before him in a cyclone. Feeling the rhythmic pulses as the boy threw up the shields of earth, Ozai waited the spilt second between the Avatar dropping one tablet of stone to picking up another.
Fwoosh, Thump, Crash…
There it was. Ozai turned the inferno loose.
It soared forward like a burning dragon, seizing the small gap in the Avatar's defenses, and the airbender twisted his staff about in a tight circle, on the defensive once again. Right where the Fire Lord wanted him.
As the flames swept around on either side of him, Aang's thoughts probed outwards, searching for any sort of weapon, any more earth to grab at that hadn't been smashed to bits, any water to whip around.
And then his attention fell upon a jug that sat by one of the extinguished torches, miraculously not tipped over in the tumult.
It would have to do.
Aang pulled at it in one smooth motion as it burst free of its container to sing forwards to him. With a frown, Aang realized that there was no cycle to it, no push and pull, no link to his heart or to the moon…
And yet it obeyed his call anyway, the same smooth motion, the same grace as he spun it once in the air and pushed it out at Ozai.
This isn't water….
The whip struck the firebender, maneuvering through the blasts of flame. Cutting into his face on the left cheekbone as it grazed him and then dancing overhead, it struck his armored shoulder and gashed that as well, slicing through the metal.
It reeled back and lunged a third time, this time barreling into his front and pushing him backwards. The breath was pushed out of him for a moment, and the liquid soaked into him.
He shook away the prick of pain, the blood from the gash on his face running warmly down his neck, and Ozai pulled one hand out to swirl another inferno around him….
When something halted him, a smell he caught that now clung to him. The feel of it on his hands was unmistakable, and the blaze in his hands died quickly.
No, it couldn't be…
Aang stepped forward with a swinging blow of air that knocked Ozai backwards and off his feet. Ozai, who was now covered in the ceremonial oil used for the torches. And unable to firebend, unless he wanted to risk a very terrible and painful death. Stopped for a few seconds, at least.
Aang considered.
Okay, so it's not the best plan, but it'll work for a little bit….provided he's the kind who doesn't like setting himself on fire…
Aang cast a blow out once more, turning sideways to let a slug of flame howl past him when he launched it. It came clawing through the air towards Ozai, and Aang hoped the Fire Lord saw it coming…
Ozai did indeed, and pushed it backwards with all his power, trying to avoid the heat as he felt the oil continue to soak into him. This was ridiculous… The earth slid out from under him, flattening the firebender onto his back, and he looked up to see a staff descending.
There was vibration of steel and a 'thunk' as a sword was drawn to meet the wood, Ozai holding the blade over him and throwing off the boy, springing to his feet.
"So, boy…" Ozai said casually as he dodged another strike of wind. He was so much lighter on his feet than he looked, Aang had to reflect. Ozai kept speaking.
"….I should ask you what your purpose is here."
"I'm just doing what I've been asked to: My duty as Avatar."
Ozai laughed harshly and swung the sword about, cleaving a rock that came soaring at his head in two and keeping dead set on reaching the airbender.
"And if your duty is to die, will you do it?" Ozai sounded serious when he asked this, and Aang responded in kind, as he turned away from a bolt of lighting. It shot past him, splitting the air, pounding against the ceiling and spreading cracks across the surface with a deafening BANG. But Aang dodged the tumbling rubble to finish his thought.
"Yes."
"Why?" Now Ozai was just toying with him, Aang knew. But it was a good question anyway, especially at this critical moment. How odd it was, to be having a conversation in a life or death battle.
"Because people are counting on me. People I care about."
"Ah, as simple as that?" Ozai asked lightly, plunging the blade forward with a flashing of steel. The Avatar leapt overhead, touching down on the other side, and breathed another sigh.
"Yup."
Ozai followed the boy's motion with a twist of his torso, to face the boy head on once again as his face twisted into a cold grin. He carried no such obligations to anybody. His motives were his own, and he was not burdened by anyone else's cares and ambitions. When you loved, your decisions were no longer for yourself. The freedom and power was gone.
What a hindrance.
Foolish boy.
Now end this battle and be done with him.
Then, there came a clanging and a shredding of cloth as the Fire Lord hastily cast aside the upper body armor, the oil-soaked shirt. Now he was unguarded, skin exposed to the sparks and heat raging around him, but free of his fear of burning.
A fair enough trade.
Spreading both arms apart, Ozai pushed two pulses of flame that flew outwards, circling to converge opposite him and enclosing the two combatants in an arena of twisting, dancing fire. Ozai strode forward, broad chest taking in a few gasps of air and pushing them out again with breaths of blaze.
It brought to mind Aang's vision with the Guru, and his own fears for his survival as he looked through the flame at the Fire Lord's shadowed face.
The hollows of his eyes, the etching of his jaw, and the muscles in his neck were all thrown into deep contrast. It made him look darker, crueler than before: no longer even human. The fire he bore in his hands shaped itself into two long blades that he swung around, to crash together in front of him with a shower of sparks.
"You disappoint me, boy. No wonder Zuko found a kindred spirit in you."
Aang only grunted something and rose up to full height, holding his staff before him, mind still racing as one single thought sped through.
The Guru.
The Avatar State.
He was going to have to try it. Was it the only way?
A flare of lightning charred the air beside him.
Maybe so.
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War took a gasp of breath, clawing his side where the sword had just laid him open. On any mortal being, it probably would have been a killing blow. But then again, so would the burn that now covered Kyoshi's arm, put there by a torrent of War's flame, and the three vertical slashes that decorated Roku's front.
This was getting dull.
The dark spirit lunged at the woman, claws snapping out and a trail of shadow following him. Kyoshi took a wide, deep step forwards, dipping down as her opponent rushed her. Of course, the elements were no longer hers to command, in this world. They belonged to Aang; they belonged to the world she was now guarding. Stall for time, stall for time!
A pair of fans swept outwards and up, the iron on the edge of one raking along the spirit's plated stomach. The fans drew no blood, of course, but the spirit roared with a mixture of fury and pain as the woman threw the long body over her head, using the momentum to her advantage.
War sprang to his feet without delay, and turned to see the more recent Avatar's blade whistling down.
Crash!
A thick and powerful tail rushed up to meet it, locked for a moment before the sword was thrown off. The spirit writhed out of the way when the steel, relentlessly, came down yet again.
War backed away momentarily, thoughts swirling behind the cold eyes. He felt the conflict still raging on between the Avatar and the Fire Lord, angered by the lack of competency on Ozai's part. How hard could it be to defeat a little boy? He wanted his prize, and he was going to get it, or else…
Thunk!
All thought was swept away like a curl of smoke as the sword dove through the sprit's hand, crippling the claws that gleamed there, and the spirit's face contorted. A second later, the long tail whipped about the gash Roku, and both stepped back another pace or so from the each other.
The sprit suddenly stiffened, the pain pushed aside as quickly as it had intruded into his mind.
Now, he did not like the scent of that.
Not at all.
"What," he hissed, as he noticed Kyoshi and Roku pause as well, "is he doing there?!"
This isn't how it was supposed to go….the boy was supposed to fight his sister! His sister! Where was that other firebending brat now, anyway? How could they have not finished their battle, with so much animosity between them? She was supposed to occupy him while….!
War was not given much more of an opportunity to think about it, as the guardians mustered up the strength for an attack once again.
War readied himself. He had faced down far more difficult opponents than these two, surely, in the past. He was a plague to every world that the crossroads of the Spirit World led to, this little Spirit World crushed between life and death. Not to be troubled.
And yet as he parried the strike from one of the massive golden fans, he was.
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The flames around him, the heat, and the smoke, all impeded his reaction time and his ability as Aang blocked another shot. He needed to land a strike, and he needed to do it now. And then, should he try and go into the Avatar state? If he couldn't control it, what would happen?
If only he could clear his mind enough to do it! He would need to open all of the chakras, one after the other. No stopping this time….no matter what.
But to do it in the midst of battle?
First, get the hit in.
Aang yanked another stone out of place, a rogue chunk of earth that swung a semi-circle around him before speeding out, clipping Ozai in the shoulder with stunning force. The muffled grunt from the man indicated that something had, at least, been bruised.
Aang winced as the blow happened and instantly regretted it. But if he was going to win this, he couldn't go feeling sorry for hurting his enemy!
The boy did anyway.
Drat.
Aang took another careful breath, in and out, in and out. It was hard not to wheeze in all the smoke and ash, eyes watering slightly, but Aang breathed even deeper and blew out an enormous gust of wind that lifted the curtain away with a rush.
And, as he was able to look at Ozai, he realized that the Fire Lord's gaze was no longer on him.
Rather, it seemed to be trained on something far behind Aang's right side, and whatever it was, it was earning a very powerful, hateful stare from the firebender's strangely dark eyes.
Aang turned his head as well and there was a loud, billowing sound as all of the fire was pushed aside, parting and vanishing. A voice rang out to him in the cavernous temple hall.
And Ozai saw a young man standing there in the clearing flames.
It was a young man in commoner's armor, with a proud, straight back and golden eyes that locked with his own without hesitation. The scar on the left side of the man's face was highlighted by the slats of sun coming down into the temple, making the air white as it caught the dust and smoke.
The fires parting for his son….it recalled Ozai's strange, dark dream once again, and perhaps, in the farthest recesses of Ozai's subconscious, a tremor of fear ran through his heart.
And something about Zuko, standing there, told Ozai that this was not the child who had grown up in the palace, who he had banished two years ago. This was not the same face that had pleaded with him, stained with tears, groveling at Ozai's feet.
No more groveling and running.
Ozai nodded to his son as he stepped forward, keeping the mask of hatred on. He had, of course, known Zuko would arrive along with the airbender into the city. But he had never anticipated facing him as he did now. Where was Azula? Azula, who had sworn to kill her brother when he came?
But Ozai knew the answer to that question, and was stunned all the more as he looked at his firstborn son.
He did not convey the emotion. If Zuko's presence surprised him, they would not know of it.
Zuko nodded to them both and silently took his place at the Avatar's side with a careful. steadying breath.
A smirk tugged at Ozai's lips, and he commented levelly, voice carrying up to the crumbling roof, "So nice to see you, Prince Zuko."
Zuko slid his feet down into a fighting stance, ignoring the racing of his heart, the blood roaring in his ears, the slight tremor that ran through him.
Was he afraid? Most definitely.
But as a courageous young waterbender had shown him, that was fine. And he, as she did, would not let the fear rule him. Simple as that.
And Zuko mirrored the smirk, eyes flickering upon the Avatar. He tossed something casually through the air towards the boy, and Aang caught it deftly and examined it. It was a pouch of water. Aang looked at it in surprise, and the golden eyes hinted at a smile before returning to his father.
"The feeling's mutual, Lord Ozai."
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A/N: Whoot! Here we go. Breaking off in the middle of a fight…like that's never happened before. Anyway, this was fairly short compared to the last one, but the fact that the battle continues for most, if not all, of the next chapter should compensate. I'll probably be including an epilogue, so this will actually be 41 chapters.
By the way, I changed the rating of this story. As one reviewer helpfully pointed out, it's kind of violent for a K+. I thought that since there is absolutely no cursing/adult themes/physical romance, it would be okay, but now that I think about it…So, yeah, okay. I hope everybody enjoyed this chapter, and I hope to hear from you soon. See you all in Chapter 39!