I do not own any of the original Avatar characters.
Chang of Plans
Sado sighed, twirling a fire tornado over his hand, continually alternating it between blue and normal. He hadn't been able to progress beyond blue, no matter how hard he worked at it. He had been trying hard, ever since he learned to get them hot enough to turn blue. But still it eluded him.
"You know what we should do today?" Toph asked.
"What?" Sado asked.
"Sight seeing," Toph said. "I wanna see something I've never seen before."
Sado remembered Ran and Shaw's flames and looked over at the dragon bird. "You breathe fire, right?"
"Yes," the dragon bird said.
"Can you make them rainbow colored like Ran and Shaw did?" Sado asked.
"I can," the dragon bird nodded. "We'll need to be outside, though."
Sado stood, letting his tornado go out. "Come on. There's something I want you to see. I can promise you've never seen it before."
Toph nodded, picking up the dragon bird, and they walked outside and away from where Zuko was training Aang in firebending. They reached a clearing a ways away that the dragon bird said would work and he jumped tot he ground as Sado shared his sight with Toph.
"Wow," Toph said. "Trees. You weren't wrong. Haven't seen them yet."
"You're hilarious," Sado said. "Give it a second."
A moment later, the dragon bird exhaled, flames spiraling up around them, filled with every color imaginable, even more beautiful than Ran and Shaw's. Toph's mouth fell open.
"It's...amazing," Toph said. "Is it really...fire?"
"Yes," Sado nodded. "It's Meizha's."
"It's beautiful," she breathed, the fire slowly fading and Sado looking down at the dragon bird. "So are your feathers."
"Thank you," the dragon bird said, jumping up to Sado's shoulder as the connection faded.
"Let's get back," Sado said. "Before Sokka comes up with one of his brilliant ideas."
Toph nodded and they reached the house again just as Sokka called for a beach party, everyone running inside and changing into a bathing suit before taking off for the beach. Sado and Toph changed as well, Sado waiting by the door for Toph to change, then went to the beach as well. Katara was surfing on an ice surf board, Aang had made a san sculpture of Appa, and Sokka was running back and forth to the water, gathering materials. Toph quickly recreated Ba Sing Se inside the inner wall using her earthbending and Sado smiled, squatting down, and looking inside.
"Oh look, the cabbage merchant," Sado smiled.
"Whoa!" Aang said. "You even made a little Earth King and Bosco!"
"Oh...my...God," Sado said, looking up at Sokka's. "You have got to see this, Toph."
She slipped her hand into his as they walked over and he shared his sight, Toph staring at the monstrosity before them. It looked like a giant pile of sand, or maybe something really fat, with a rock smile with two giant clam shells in the front, a starfish nose, two mostly-covered rocks for eyes, and seaweed hair.
"Is that a...blubbering blob monster?" Aang asked.
"No!" Sokka said, stomping his foot. "It's Suki!"
All three began to laugh instantly.
"Suki, we'll all understand if you break up with him over this," Toph teased.
"I think it's sweet," Suki said, Sokka kissing her on the cheek.
"But, it doesn't even look like-" Aang was cut off by a fireball hitting it, completely obliterating it and making Aang scream.
Above them, Zuko leapt off of a low cliff, sending several more fireballs at Aang, who took off running, the fireballs destroying Ba Sing Se before Aang leapt over his Appa sculpture, peeking out around it.
"What are you doing!?" Aang asked.
"Teaching you a lesson!" Zuko shouted, sending a blast through Appa, Aang taking off off to the side.
Zuko turned toward him, but Sado stepped into his way.
"That's enough," Sado said. "You want to fight, you fight me."
"Gladly," Zuko growled, sending several fireballs at him, charging. Sado dispersed them, moving to meet Zuko only for Zuko to suddenly blast the sand between them, sand slamming into Sado's face, making him stagger backward, blind. He heard Zuko run past, then heard more fireballs being launched in the distance before someone dropped to their knees in front of him.
"Open your eyes," Toph said.
Sado forced them open and suddenly all of the sand left him. He blinked several times before his vision stopped being blurry and his eyes stopped hurting. Then, he stood, he and Toph running after Zuko and the others. When they finally caught up, Zuko suddenly exploded out of the wall of the house with a blast of air, crashing down in the bushes and groaning.
"What's wrong with you?" Katara demanded. "You could have hurt Aang!"
"What's wrong with me!?" Zuko snapped. "What's wrong with all of you!? How can you sit around having beach parties when Sozin's comet is only three days away!?"
Sado shrugged, but the others, minus Toph, simply stared at him.
"Why are you all looking at me like I'm crazy?" Zuko asked.
"About Sozin's comet," Aang said. "I was actually gonna wait to fight the Fire Lord until after it came."
"We were!?" Sado gaped. "Since when?"
"You were there, you voted," Sokka said.
"No, he was training with the dragon bird, and you said you would tell him after we voted in absentee, because you were completely certain that he'd vote to wait, which is also why Toph voted to wait," Katara said.
"I definitely would not have," Sado said. "An army of flying, super-powerful firebenders could burn the entirety of the Earth Kingdom to ash by the time the comet passed."
"Which is exactly what my father plans to do!" Zuko said, everyone staring at him. "The day before the eclipse, I attended a war meeting. Earthbenders have been rebelling all across the Earth Kingdom. One of the generals suggested moving more troops after the eclipse, but I said the earthbenders could survive anything so long as they had hope. Azula said that the Fire Nation should burn the earthbenders land, and my father transformed that plan into exactly what Sado just said. I wanted to speak out against his horrifying plan, but I'm ashamed to say I didn't. All my life I wanted my father's acceptance. But once I had it, I realized I lost myself getting there. I'd forgotten who I was."
"I can't believe this," Katara said, falling to her knees.
"I always knew the Fire Lord was a bad guy, but...his plan is just pure evil," Sokka said.
"What am I gonna do?" Aang asked.
"You're going to fight him," Sado said. "You're going to fight Ozai, and you're going to win. And while you do, I'll take out their war ships."
"How?" Aang asked.
"The war ships have a single major weakness," Sado said. "I noticed it when we were flying one back from the Boiling Rock. The small warships run on hot air, but they're too slow for the plan. The bigger ones are faster, but too heavy for hot air. They run on a specific type of gas. The problem with that it, the gas is extremely flammable.
"You're right," Zuko realized. "One good shot to the gas and the entire balloon would explode."
"And I can give them that one good shot easily," Sado said.
"Not exactly," Sokka said. "Remember that Zuko and Azula fought each other on top of one and the flames didn't get through."
"That's true," Sado said. "But those flames weren't powered by the comet."
"You want me to fight Ozai during the comet?" Aang asked. "That's insane! His firebending would be supercharged!"
"So would your own!" Sado said. "You could block with fire and attack with anything you want. but we also have to deal with Azula, probably at the same time."
"I'll handle her," Zuko said.
"Dammit, why didn't you tell us about this sooner!?" Aang demanded.
"I didn't think I had to," Zuko said. "I assumed you were still going to fight him before the comet. No one told me you decided to wait!"
"Right there with you," Sado said. "Kind of important information for literally everyone to just forget to pass on."
"This is bad," Aang said. "This is really, really bad."
"Aang, you don't have to do this alone," Katara said. "We can fight the Fire Lord together. Before the comet. Then during it, we can split our focus between only Azula and the balloons, rather than all three."
"Alright!" Sokka shouted. "Team Avatar is back!" He began to point at each of them in turn. "Air! Water! Earth! Fires!" he grabbed a couple of leaves. "Fan and sword!"
"You two aren't allowed to fight Ozai," Sado said. "He'd kill you both."
"I agree," Aang said. "Fighting the Fire Lord is going to be the hardest thing we've ever done together. But I wouldn't want to do it any other way. They're both coming."
"We'd better get going if we're going to take him out before the comet," Sado said. "We don't have long."
"We need to plan," Katara said.
"We have three days," Sado said. "Plans are kind of a moot point now."
"She's right," Zuko said. "We can't do this without a plan."
"How about my plan, then?" Sado asked.
"We'll consider it," Zuko said, everyone walking away.
Sado sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, and following them back into the house to plan.
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