Book: Air
Ch.50 Complication's Complications
Aang gritted his teeth in sere panic. They were doomed, being attacked from the near and in front. Ozai had planned this from the start, he must have known they were coming to attack him during the ceremony. He would have done anything to prevent them from attacking him. Now they were caught in his deadly trap with no way out. There was no time to run off to the sides. It was like they caught in a deadly trap with no way out. There was no time to run to the other ends of this attack, it would be impossible to get everyone out safely. Even if they did try to run, they would still be bombarded with fire power as they were now.
The fire balls exploded on the ground from the impact, sending fiery chunks of earth and flammable tar everywhere. Soldiers ran fro their lives to escape the fire ball's paths. But the flames were everywhere.
"Hey Twinkletoes!" Toph shouted over the screaming and thundering roars of the oncoming fire balls. "If you can't go forward, go under!" Toph lectured him. Usually Toph would say things when Aang would forget about something important from his earthbending lesson. And right now, she was making sense.
"Sokka, here take Katara and tell everyone to clump together! Toph you go to the far end of the group, I'll follow your lead!" Aang handed Katara's shaking body to Sokka, and ran off to the other end of the army.
"Aang what are you doing?" Sokka shouted.
He couldn't hear him, Aang was already at work to focus on his plan of defense. He took a stance, sensed the vibrations of the earth to find Toph in the same position. Once her body moved, he did the same. Together they flowed in the same pattern of movement. The earth under the army began to shake, then quickly the ground flipped over completely. Toph and Aang let out an exhausted sigh and rejoined the group.
"That should buy us some time." Aang walked up to Sokka and immediately took Katara back in his arms. He eased her down to the earthly ground. Katara moaned as her body moved, sweat was dripping from her forehead.
"Katara, its gonna be ok. We're safe now." Aang wiped away her sweat. "I need a doctor!"
Katara grabbed hold of Aang's collar, "No Aang its alright, its just a contraction." Katara huffed out.
"Mommy!" came the screaming voice of Mayra, she was shoving her way to get to Katara. Katara outstretched her arms and hugged Mayra as soons as she sat down right next to her.
Sokka sighed, and turned to his army. By the looks of it, their numbers had dwindled. Zuko came up right beside him with a sad disappointed face. "Report: how bad is the damage?" Sokka barked.
Hakoda spoke, "Many of our ships were still in the water, we manage to grab a few pieces and small boats. But not enough for all of us. About 4 dozen men are missing."
"2 small air ships are within our hold sir." Spoke the head aerial pilot.
"And not including swords or shields, we have only 8 cannons, and a little supply of ammo left." Spoke another solider.
Zuko sighed, "Not many of our ships survived neither, I'm missing 45 men."
Sokka slammed his fist into the earth wall, "#*%$!" He continued slamming his fist into the wall.
Toph ran up to him yelling, "Hey hey! Stop that, the ground isn't very stable here. You could cause a cave-in in here!" She grabbed his fists, "Cursing and banging isn't gonna get us out of this mess. Listen, we have enough earthbenders to continue digging tunnels to get us out of this area. We need to focus on getting out of here."
"She's right Sokka." Aang stood up from beside Katara.
"Fine we run away from the fight and then come back another day. Sure we'll do that, we have all the time in the world!" Sokka threw his arms around to annunciate his sarcasm. "Aang, we have to end this now! We have no other time! As soon as the sun rises tomorrow we're all dead! There's no hope for us now! That was our last chance!"
"Shut up!" a thundering voice silenced Sokka immediately. Katara stared at him, her nostrils flared. She grabbed for Aang's hand to help her up. As sson as she was on her feet, she marched right up to Sokka, "I don't want to hear that from you! So things are bad right now, but that doesn't mean we have to give up! This is not like you Sokka. The Sokka I knew would continue to fight until he was the last man standing. The Sokka I knew would fight for his friends and his family until he had no breath left to give. The Sokka I knew would never give up! Don't you dare quit on me brother, or I swear I will have to knock your sense right back in you!"
Sokka stared speechlessly at his sister. He took a quick look around at his army and the other nation soliders, then he looked back at his friends and sister. "Alright." He whispered and a small smile began to crack his face. Katara smiled back at him.
"All earthbenders, head to the west side of the tunnel and begin to dig!" The army hollered and went straight to work.
"Toph," Aang grabbed her arm, "I need you to..."
"Yeah yeah I know, suddenly I'm everyone's babysitter. I'll take Mayra and Ursa with me to Ba Sing Sai. I'll be fast. I don't wanna miss any of the action." The Duke came up beside Toph.
Katara looked down at Mayra, "Do what Toph tells you to do. We'll come back for you." Mayra hugged Katara and rubbed her swollen stomach.
"I want you, dad and my two sisters to come back." A tear feel down her cheek.
The Duke carried Ursa in a baby sling. Toph took Mayra in her arms and swung her on her back. "Come on kiddo, we got to head out before things get bad."
Aang kissed Mayra's forehead.
Mayra took one look at Katara once more and touched her necklace around her neck. She was wearing Katara's old necklace. Katara smiled and did the same to her new betrothal necklace. With one sweep of her hand, Toph opened up a new passage and swiftly moved the ground underneath them through the tunnel. The four of them were gone.
Aang hugged Katara to support her. But mainly he needed the hug to support himself. He wondered if they would ever see Mayra again. Katara stared up at Aang and gave him a loving smile, her smile almost put his mind at ease.
But Aang'd easy feeling dropped when he sensed something disturbing. His eyes widened. He could sense the vibrations coming from above ground.
"Aang what is it?" Katara noticed his sudden facial change.
"Everyone stop!" Aang shouted, everyone froze.
Sokka rushed up to him, "What's go..."
Aang shushed him. He dug his heels firmly into the ground to get a better feel as to what was occurring above them. "Something strange is going on in the battle above. I feel more people, but they are all running. Its hard to tell what's going on."
"We need a better look." Sokka pointed out.
Sokka commanded the tunnels to be dug quicker. Once the tunnel was dug all the way to the edge of the forest, Aang and Sokka investigated. Aang created a small peep hole tunnel to the surface. Sokka poked his head out from the ground cautiously. Luckily, he was surrounded by a bush. He crawled out and pushed apart the branches. The battle field where they once were laid in front of his sight.
"What's going on?" Aang poked his head out.
"They're retreating, the loyalists are returning to their ships and heading off the land!" Sokka half whispered, half shouted.
"What?"
"There's another army down there. They got some serious firepower. Like bending power."
"What do they look like?"
"Their uniforms are blue and white, just like the White Lotus old guys. But there's more in the mix. There are many different uniforms from each nation. They got tanks, and boats. They are starting to head after the Loyalists."
Aang popped out of the hole and ran down to the battlefield. His orange outfit always stuck out like a sore thumb, so when the new army saw him coming, they didn't attack him as Aang suspected. Sokka was right, the Order of the White Lotus was here. Iroh was among the group.
"General Iroh, thank goodness you're here." Aang greeted him.
Iroh smiled at him as he approached him, "How fortunate are we to come across you. We saw that Ozai's army was forming at this spot. We wanted to drive him off of our land, we didn't realize you were near."
"We were Ozai's target, we were stationed here. We had plans to attack him tomorrow, but he was a few steps ahead of us and attacked us before we were even ready." Aang frowned.
"Oh then it is a good thing we came. So you wanted to defeat Ozai before Summer's end tomorrow. I see, then you were informed about your destiny as the Dragon Prophet. And is Katara with you?"
"Yes, you knew about that?"
"Yes, you and she are the only people to stop Ozai and there for you must battle Ozai before the ceremony starts."
"Yeah yeah I already know about that."
"But do you know how you are going to stop him?" Iroh cocked an eyebrow.
Aang opened his mouth to speak, but he couldn't find any words.
The earth shook near the edge of the forest, a hole opened up in the ground and Sokka's army emerged from underground.
"Hiding underground. A trick taught by your earthbending master no doubt." Iroh winked at Aang.
A messenger rushed up to Iroh, "General Iroh, all ships are ready sir."
"That's good, prepare to make a few more. We'll need more for our friends." Iroh gestured to the new army emerging from underground. The messenger appeared dumbfounded.
The armies merged together, combining their forces, transportation, artillery and bending power. All soldiers boarded the dozens of sailing ships, and air ships and casted off. Sokka was very pleased. He immediately wanted to start another battle meeting, much to everyone's dislike. All the army leaders had gathered on one boat. Katara wanted to sit this meeting out. She had enough of this battle talk, and she knew that her battle position wouldn't change much since she had to be there at the fire ceremony before dusk. She figured that she should get an earlier head start on some sleep. She felt like she needed it. Her latest contraction left her more exhausted then her other ones. It was only a matter of time before she would go into labor. Katara bit her lip as she walked away from the sunset on deck. She didn't want the babies to be born now, but nor did she want them going into battle with her. She hated this complication.
Katara groaned to herself and sighed. She might as well get enough energy to prepare for the worst battle she would ever face. She slowly made her way to her room below deck. The boat rocked back and forth, she had to brace herself against the tiny hallway. She was feeling queasy and weak.
"Are you alright Miss Katara?" a young Freedom Fighter came up in front of her.
"Yes, I'm just tired. I was heading off to my cabin." Katara tried to smile.
"Do you need a doctor?"
"No I'll be fine. You should go get some sleep yourself, we have a big day tomorrow starting at an earily hour." Katara moved around the young Fighter and opened her cabin's door. She let out another groaning sigh.
Her cabin was hers and Aang's, and it was tiny. The cabin just had a bed and that was it. The room was only 7 by 7 feet, and the bed took up most of that space.
Katara eased her way down on to the flurry blankets and pillows, clutching her swollen abdomen. She tried hard not to think of her terrible complication regarding her children. She needed sleep, and such thoughts would evoke nightmares during her sleep.
She closed her eyes and tried to focus on happy thoughts.
But those happy thoughts didn't come. As her body passed out from exhausted and her mind drifted off to sleep, her dreams were filled with things that she feared would happen. She dreamt of a large volcano, erupting with hot fiery magma. Aang was pulling her hand, and she was running with him towards the top of the volcano. She yelled at him to stop because of the lava. But he made her run and he jumped into the top of the volcano, dragging her with him.
Katara shut her eyes but felt no heat or burn. She opened them to find that she was inside the volcano now. But the top was so high up and the volcano's bottom was covered in walls of fire and ashes. In the center was a giant cauldron, inside it was a large dragon and a phoenix. Both creatures were roaring and snapping at one another.
Katara turned to look at Aang, but he wasn't with her. She yelled for him, but what answered her was something she didn't want to hear. It was Azula's snickering. Katara thrashed her head around to locate her, but she was nowhere to be found. The walls of fire were starting to cave in around her. The ashes were starting to burn, it was getting hotter and Katara could start to feel pain from the fire's heat.
Azula's snickering grew louder, and Katara was becoming more terrified. Her heart thundered in her head and pounded her chest. When the fiery walls were inches away from kissing her body, a figure emerged from the flames. It was Azula with a dagger in her hands. She had this horrid look on her face as she came at Katara with that dagger. Azula's eyes averted from Katara's face to her pregnant stomach. As Azula landed, she brought the dagger down in Katara's stomach. Katara screamed.
"Katara, Katara! Wake up! Honey wake up!" came a gentle voice. Katara woke up instantly.
Aang was standing right over her, his hands pinned her hands down. His face looked petrified. Katara found herself panting, sweat had coated her body. And there was this lingering pain of Azula's dagger.
Katara groaned and wrestled her hands free to clutch her stomach. The pain did not stop. It took over her entire body making her body twist and burn. Katara screamed.
Aang panicked, "Katara hold on, I'll get help!" Aang rushed to the hallway and yelled for a doctor. He was shouting for less than a minute before returning back to Katara.
Katara tried to say something to him, but her pain was choking her throat. The only noise she could make was screaming and moaning. Aang huddled next to her, his eyes were filled with tears. He hated to see her in pain. Katara begged for the pain to go away just so she could talk to Aang.
A doctor came in just a few seconds after Aang huddled next to Katara. He felt Katara's damp forehead. "How long as she been like this?"
"I don't know," Aang answered, "I was coming back from the meeting and I could hear her screaming as I approached the door. She was sleeping before, but now she's in more pain now that she's awake." Aang took Katara's hand and she clutched on to it with all her strength.
"Has her water been broken?" The doctor asked.
"I don't know." Aang bit his lip.
"How many contractions has she experienced already?" the doctor asked.
"I don't know! Just please help her!" Aang yelled at the doctor.
The doctor placed a hand on top of Katara's stomach and felt around it. Katara groaned. Aang answered her groan with a kiss to her forehead.
After the doctor was done examining Katara's stomach, he looked at Aang with a serious face, "She's having a contraction. There's nothing I can do. She'll come out of it soon. Its hard to say if she's going into labor or not. You have to keep a careful eye on her. I shall go fetch a midwife for you if you like."
Aang looked at the doctor and back down at Katara. She had stopped screaming and was now moaning a bit from the remainder of her pulsing pain. Her eyes were growing tired and so were her limbs. With each panting breath, she felt herself becoming heavier and heavier. Her body was becoming too weak to fight back, she was absolutely exhausted.
"No, I think we'll be fine for now. But have a midwife ready in case she does." Aang's panic did not go away so easily.
The doctor nodded, "She needs her rest. Avatar may I voice a personal matter?"
Aang nodded.
"She is in no condition to fight tomorrow. I would highly recommend that she stay out of this battle. She could give birth at any given moment. She can't handle the stresses of both child labor and fighting..."
"I know." Aang stopped him. "But she has to go. Believe me if she wasn't the Phoenix Prophet, I would not let her set a foot on that island. But I have no choice. She has a destiny and I can't stop her."
"She could be killed, along with your children! Have mercy Avatar." The doctor begged.
"I have no choice." A tear fell down from his cheek. "Please leave us." Aang whispered and nuzzled his head into Katara's hair.
The doctor left.
Katara was fighting hard against her exhaustion. She wanted to keep her eyes open and talk to Aang. She wanted to tell Aang that it would be alright. She hated seeing him so heartbroken.
But deep down even she was not certain of her situation. So she slipped into her heavy waves of sleep that were waiting for her.
