She was there, again. Azula knew immediately upon seeing that long Fire Nation flag, flames lightning the room, as well as the figure of her father, Fire Lord Ozai, that she was in the Agni Kai chamber; her brother was standing there shocked, and she thought for a moment that she might ahve been given a second chance, to right the wrong that had occurred that day. She knew however, that second chances weren't a thing, not truly, so what she was experiencing was a dream, a hallucination, and if things went the way she guessed they would, a nightmare; she tried to close her eyes and make the image before her disappear, but it didn't relent, her blinking not stopping the images, sounds and smells from replaying before her.
"Please, father. I only had the Fire Nation's best interest at heart. I'm sorry I spoke out of turn!" Zuko pleaded, once more, just as he had the first time; her memories were kind to remind her of the tears falling down his face- her brothers weakness and loyalty, all tied up into one moment of indecision, of cowardice.
"You will fight for your honour." her father demanded of him, Azula standing up, momentarily glancing back to the memory of her uncle, who was grimacing just as he had that day.
"Not today. Not again." she declared, her father's eyes momentarily glancing up toward her, widening as he witnessed her jumping across over onto the fighting area, landing in between her brother and the Fire Lord, who looked her down with shock.
"Princess Azula, what is the meaning of this?!" he shouted at her, his voice not making her shudder, not making her relent in her decision; it wasn't real, after all, and she was free to choose whatever she pleased.
"Z-Zula..." she heard her brother mumble behind her, making her twitch, thinking how much he had suffered that day, while she had for intents and purposes won herself the title of Crown Princess by virtue of inaction.
The last time she had really heard his voice was so long ago that she was unsure if the memory was doing justice to him. In that single thought she was reminded of what their father had done that day; he had broken them apart, and forced his son a fruitless chase around the world.
"He is unwilling to face you, because he is a loyal son. He doesn't deserve to have his face burnt off." she declared the truth bare to him, Ozai's eyes widening, before he snarled with fury.
"You will get out of my way, child! Or you will face my fury!" he declared, the Princess taking a firebending stance.
"Not today. You don't get to do that again." she declared, the distorted memory of her father becoming more infuriated with every word she spoke.
"You are just as much a weakling to defend him! You will burn!" he declared, before sending a fireball her way; she split it in half with her hand, before sending a kick of flames at him.
Although the attack hit her father, he simply shrugged it off, "Weak. You're both so weak." he mocked her, the Princess clenching her fists; she had wanted her father's love, but she had never wanted her brother to suffer how he did- he didn't deserve that fate, not because he wasn't their father's ideal son.
Throwing a volley of fireballs at him, she flared her teeth, screaming out in frustration; she realised that no matter how much she wanted her father's love, there was an underlying truth that made her feel sick. She hated and feared him, all the same, probably just like her uncle and mother; she considered that perhaps even Zuko did, despite his words of loyalty. He wanted a father who loved them like their mother did to him, despite how unfair that had been, not Ozai, the man who had burned his face.
The visage of her father before did not relent to throw another fire blast at her, intent on dealing down the punishment he had already done; her actions were fruitless, but even then, she pressed on, bending a stream of flames at her father, hoping to ward him off, if only for long enough to let Zuko see his mistake, to understand what he ought to have done. She knew it wasn't her real, living brother, but the grimace on his face was just the same that he had once made. The Fire Lord deflected her attack, before sending another fire blast her way; she dispersed it, although she felt the heat pressing on her skin; a sensation like the real feeling of flames burning her skin, although she didn't feel any real pain. The pain Azula was feeling was rather more emotional, the infernal desire to protect her brother, despite how much she wanted her father to love her all the same, to see her as a good heir, a Princess worthy of ruling her nation. A kick of flames was sent her way, throwing the Princess to the ground, the feeling of her back scraping up along the stone ground making her cringe; it wasn't real pain again, knowing that such feelings were lies, her mind playing tricks on her.
The Fire Lord towered over her, his hand full of flames as he looked down upon her with disdainful eyes, "Such a waste. You have signed your fate, daughter." he chided her, making her grimace with dread; she threw a fireball up at his face, to postpone the inevitable, that being the fate her brother had suffered, dealt down upon her, the child who refused to back down, who refused to follow her father's will, and thus would be destroyed.
He dispersed her flames, literally whacking them away before he moved his left hand down to grasp her, to make sure she wouldn't move as he went to burn her face; she felt the adrenaline rushing through her body, throwing her fist up, covered it flames to deflect his hand. It didn't work, of course, as he simply grappled her hand, squeezing it painfully, making her finger joints buckle before he threw her limb away. She wanted to scream out in fear, not knowing what else to do as his hand lowered down, covered in flames.
"No!" she heard a scream come from behind her; Zuko rushing forward to throw her father's arm out of the way didn't make her feel any better, it only made the dread grow stronger; she tried to pull herself up, knowing that she had to stop what was going to follow next.
"Zuko don't!" she screamed out pleadingly, not stopping her father from sending a fireball into her brother's bared chest; he stumbled back momentarily before sending a kick of flames right into the Fire Lord's face.
Ozai flinched back before cackling, "You are both so feeble! Your mothers blood runs strong through you both, and for it, you will die!" he declared, before spinning his arms around, charging a lightning blast.
Azula pulled herself up, wanting to try and get her brother out of the way, who was standing defiantly in front of her, as if his body would hold against what their father was about to deal down. The flash and sound of the lightning zapping her brother made Azula scream out in terror, as his body was flung back across the Agni Kai chamber, slumping down behind her, a massive burn marking his chest.
"No!" she screamed, "Why?!" hammering her fists down onto the ground, before she turned to her father, feeling the disturbing middle ground between wanting to throw up and wanting to kill him; she sent a stream of flames up at him, which he blocked, the flames breaking up and spitting back at her, making her pull back, knowing that her efforts were in vain.
"You have betrayed me. You have betrayed your nation. For that, you will suffer. Suffering will be your teacher!" he stressed to her, before he lit his hand with flames; Azula squirmed back with fear, sending a fire blast at her father, not stopping him from pushing her right arm out of the way, like her efforts were nothing.
She screamed at the top of her lungs as his hand made contact with her face, the flames melting the skin; the smell, the look on her father's face, it made her feel like she was experiencing the worst thing possible. The moment her head pulled up from the pillow, she began to scream, not knowing when she would stop, and not knowing if she ever could; the bile rising in her throat indicated that she would have to, the desire to expel the contents of her stomach far greater than her feeling of utter dread.
"Well, that settles it, Aang's gone, for sure."
Zuko sighed upon hearing those words from Sokka, knowing that their efforts had been in vain, with the Avatar having vanished from Ember Island. He knew that there was only one thing they could do, seeing that they couldn't find his father; they had to try and defeat him by themselves, something he had been more than willing to do, but upon realising that it was his only option, it made him feeling a sense of dread. Not just for himself, but for Suki, Azula, Katara, Sokka and Toph, all of whom wanted the same thing he did, to defeat the Fire Lord and end the war; unlike Aang, they were more than willing to achieve that through lethal force, his sister knowing better than anyone what their father would do to them if they gave one inch of reprieve.
"There's only one thing left to do." he acknowledged the situation before them, gesturing to Appa, "We need to go defeat my father, right now."
"Right now?" Toph raised a brow with surprise, "You mean, we should get on Appa and just go beat him to a pulp."
"I mean that's our best choice of action, is it not?" he asked them, Suki clearing her throat.
"Actually, I have a better idea in mind." she declared, the group's eyes all turning to her with surprise.
"A better idea?" Azula looked at her with a disbelieving face, "Enlighten us."
"The airship. The others have it, and they're not that far away, just across the sea in the Earth Kingdom." she explained, before hammering a hand down into her palm, "If we can use our own airship to intercept the airship fleet, we can make sure the Fire Lord doesn't even get a chance to destroy the Earth Kingdom."
"I see the merit in your plan, but isn't the whole idea to kill my father before he can use his airships?" Azula questioned her, the Kyoshi Warrior raising a hand.
"What's the chance that the commanding officers on those airships will still go to burn down the Earth Kingdom?" she questioned in return, the Princess sighing before begrudgingly nodding.
"Okay... I see your point."
Sokka cleared his throat, "So is that it, we just need to get our airship and use it to destroy the others?"
"Yep." the Kyoshi Warrior smiled, before looking at the rest of them, "Are we all ready to go? I think we need to leave quickly."
"Yes, yes we do." Katara agreed, standing up and gesturing to her brother, "Come on, Sokka, Toph, let's get our things on Appa.
Zuko, his girlfriend and his sister were then momentarily left alone, standing by the sky-bison; the first to speak was his sister, who rather a rather puzzled face, "Huh... has anyone noticed the fact Momo isn't here either?"
"He's probably with Aang." he stated the obvious, before he climbed up onto the sky-bison's saddle, offering Suki a hand up, which she accepted with a grateful smile; his sister jumped up with the assistance of her firebending, before she landed on the saddle, sitting herself down at once.
"Huh... I'm looking forward to see what power the comet gives us." she admitted, the Prince grimacing, realising the kind of battle they'd face if they didn't get to their father before the comet arrived.
"Hopefully we won't have to use that power." he told her with an uneasy tone, that which caught her attention immediately.
"We'll defeat him, Zuko." she assured him, with a tone of certainty; how she could be so confident was beyond him, although he knew that she had been preparing to face him mentally ever since she awoke on the airship, as she had told him herself in the moment.
"I just feel like... like this could all go the wrong way."
"What happened to the confident Zuko who shot Aang with lightning?" she questioned him, the Prince sighing, knowing that that was a different time, when he had been driven to achieve one thing, and that was to redeem her.
A wholly different kind of motivation was behind him, and for once in his life, Zuko's fear outweighed his feelings of hate tenfold; their father could kill them all, and he couldn't bare to lose his sister, or his girlfriend, not even considering the weight on his conscience that would come from anyone else perishing.
"This is about more than that now. This is the fate of the world." he told her with a serious a tone he could muster, unsure how to feel about what they would be facing, especially Azula, who seemed so intent on facing their father that it made him sick to think what might happen.
"And we're going to do it together." Suki piped up, placing a hand on his shoulder, "We'll win together." she assured him, kissing him on the cheek; his heart fluttered for a moment, making him smile and they hugged each other, much to the fawning of Katara, who had just arrived on the saddle.
"Aw... look how cute they are." she tilted her head, making a warm smile at them, all the while Zuko's own sister turned her head with disinterest.
"Each to their own." she snidely remarked, being backed up by Sokka who was climbing on after his sister.
"Oogies, man. Could you two cut it out?" he asked, the Prince giving him a glare of annoyance, before he made a smug grin, eyeing both him and his sister suggestively; they both got the hint quickly enough, looking away from each other with uneasy faces, Azula's turning to an annoyed side-eye as the couple continued to hug.
"Alright!" Toph shouted, using her earthbending to propel herself up into the air and onto the saddle, "Let's get moving. Somewhere somewhere Earth Kingdom here we come!" she raised a fist, before her tone quietened, turning to Sokka with a slightly confused glance, "Uh, you do know where we're going, right?"
"Of course. I chose the spot with my dad so we could meet up if it was necessary, and it- uh- became necessary." he admitted, with a growing tone of unease.
All of them knew what they had to do, but it didn't make them feel any less afraid; the Fire Lord was still the Fire Lord, even if you had a bunch of friends to fight alongside. The fact Aang had disappeared made everything all the more worse, Zuko knowing that it was all the more comforting to have the most powerful person alive watching your back than his friends who were still great fighters, but nothing in comparison.
"Yip, yip!" Sokka called on the sky-bison, who groaned before he rose up into the air, rising above the vacation home before racing off across the water, moving away from the island at an incredible speed; he hadn't got used to how fast Appa was, and he knew that he would be a great advantage in getting ahead of his father, so they could take down the airship fleet before it even had a chance to attack the Earth Kingdom.
He pulled himself back from Suki slightly, lying himself back as he looked over the water; she placed a hand on his chest, sighing as she obviously mulled over what they would have to do. Her eyes moved up to lock with his own, looking at him as if it were the last time they'd see each other.
"I hope we get to see that dirty old dojo again." she reminisced, making him chuckle.
"Oh, did you want me to beat you up with sticks again?" he joked, the Kyoshi Warrior tilting her head.
"Well, I mean it'd be nice to spar for fun again." she admitted, Azula snickering beside them.
"I'd like the same thing." she admitted, before narrowing her eyes, "For different reasons of course."
"Zuko just likes to bond with people by beating them up. Isn't that right, Sokka?" Suki questioned the Water tribe boy, who looked back at her with a flustered face.
"Uh... that didn't happen." he denied her suggestion, which would imply that Zuko had beaten him before in the past; she eyed him with a tilt of the chin, her grin undeniably smug.
"Don't even act like that didn't." she chided him, "You learnt from the best."
"And you got it wrong. Azula's the one who bonds over beating people up." the Prince added.
"Well I do... I just thought it was more of a mutual bonding experience." she suggested, making him sigh, begrudgingly nodding.
"You kicking me into the turtle-duck pond does not count as bonding." he warned her, as if to preempt any idea to joke about it.
"Correct, Zuzu. That was just a friendly, sister-to-brother lesson." she quipped back in response, making him grumble, knowing that she was right.
Suki raised a finger to her chin before her eyes darted to her boyfriend, "Isn't she like two years younger than you?"
"Yes. And she acts like she's older." he narrowed his eyes at his sister, whose haughty grin made him want to punch her in the face.
"Wiser." Azula clarified, making him clench his fists.
"Do you have to turn every conversation into an argument?" he leaned over toward her, gesturing with his hands as to stress his annoyance; it seemed that if anyone could ever be smug about being honest for a change, it was his sister of all people.
"Not really... I just enjoy doing so."
Amari liked to think that she was prepared for anything; when she thought of anything, it mostly came to be associated with the Fire Nation raining hell down upon them, something that Zuko had told her was a real possibility with what his father had planned. She was rather surprised to see what she wasn't exactly prepared for what she saw before her; Appa had landed right by their campsite, and from a quick look on the saddle, she realised that Aang wasn't amongst the group. The Avatar, who was meant to defeat the Fire Nation in about a day's time, wasn't with his friends; she began to think what could force the Avatar's friends to return to them, and as much as she wanted to believe it was Suki wanting to be with her fellow warriors, she immediately knew that wouldn't be the case.
"This can't be good." Nakata mumbled beside her, to which she nodded with agreement.
"Sokka! Katara! What are you doing here?" Hakoda stood up, an expectedly shocked look on his face.
"We wouldn't be here if we didn't need to be." Sokka admitted, approaching the group with an uneasy face, "Aang disappeared, so we've got to face the Fire Lord ourselves." he simply explained himself, the Kyoshi Warriors looking amongst themselves with shocked expressions; the sense of dread she was feeling was one that she didn't miss, and the last time she had felt it, it was when they were indirectly responsible for the destruction of an Earth Kingdom village, which she was almost completely certain Azula was behind, the girl who was standing before her, on the side of the Avatar.
"We need the airship." Azula gestured to the large aircraft that sat off in the distance, "And we need some pilots." she turned to face the warriors, Nakata immediately standing up.
"We'll do it. We have to." she declared, before the other warriors followed in suite, standing up.
"We're all going the fucking die, aren't we?" Amari mumbled under her breath, earning herself a glare from the Princess, which turned into a determined expression.
"We're not. We're going to win, we just need to do this together." she assured them; a few moments later, Suki approached them, looking rather relieved to see them.
"Thanks for volunteering, girls." she smiled at them warmly, Amari punching her in the shoulder with a sarcastic grin.
"We're always getting ourselves in trouble for these damn royals anyway. That isn't going to change today."
"Thank you, seriously." Zuko addressed them, his expression surprisingly warm; he was usually gruff and grumpy, but at that moment, he seemed to be genuinely relieved that the Kyoshi Warriors would be joining him.
"We are the Kyoshi Warriors. You included, Sokka!" Suki pointed at the boy, much to his embarrassment.
"You're a Kyoshi Warrior?" Hakoda raised a brow at him, making Katara smirk confidently.
"Oh, this is a story you're going to like." she suggested.
"Don't mean to break up the reunion, but we really ought to get going." Toph stood in the middle of the group.
"All of us?" Haru raised a brow, standing up from the campfire.
"No." Zuko shook his head, "We're not going to put any more lives in danger than what is necessary. You, Teo and the Duke don't need to come."
"We'll hold down the fort for you." Teo assured him, before glancing around their rather meagre hideout, "Or... uh, the campsite."
"We'll come back here to celebrate our victory." Sokka declared, "I assure you!" he grinned, his father tapping his shoulder.
"Sokka, I have to come with you and Katara. You two are my only children, I can't just let you go into this fight alone."
"You're pretty good with machines, aren't you?" he asked him with a thoughtful scratch of the chin, Azula stepping between them.
"All the reason for him to come along, you can figure out how we can take down an entire fleet of airships." she suggested to him before walking on toward the airship.
"Uh... I guess I could." the Water Tribe chief made an uneasy smile.
Amari turned to face her fellow warriors, "So, are we going to get our stuff together?"
"You only need your weapons." Suki directed them, "There's a chance we'll actually have to fight the Fire Lord."
"Oh... that'll be fun." Esumi sarcastically remarked, before Sawa stepped forward, pulling out her fans.
"We're the Kyoshi Warriors. We can beat anyone."
"Probably not an insanely strong firebender powered up by Sozin's Comet." Suki warned them, "But all of his lackeys? Yeah, we can beat them pretty good." she cracked her knuckles.
"Oh yeah! The Kyoshi Warriors are back together, again!" Nakata raised her fist into the air, "Let's go beat the Fire Lord!"
Her shout was enough of a prodding for all of the Kyoshi Warriors to begin walking on over to the airship, where the rest of the group was already going, including Appa, who was climbing into the storage bay.
"Come on, let's go." Toph prodded them, standing by the doorway as they all filed into the airship's hull.
"This will be the hardest fight we've ever faced." Suki told the group as they all stood by the entrance of the airship, "I'm just glad to be facing it with my best friends."
"No need to get all mushy now." Azula warned them offhandedly as she began to walk on toward the brdige of the airship, "We need to get moving."
"On it." Nakata nodded, before she turned to the earthbending girl who was standing by the entrance, "Hey, Toph, could you do us a favour and fill the engines with coal... seeing that you're an earthbender." she asked of the girl, who sighed, probably not wanting to be relegated to such a mundane job.
"Getting the earthbender to throw the rocks into the fire. Classic." she rolled her eyes, something that confused Amari, seeing that she was blind; she walked on down toward the the engine room while the Kyoshi Warriors went the other way, heading toward the bridge.
Following their leader up along the hallway, they quickly made their way up to the front of the airship, where Zuko, Sokka, Katara and Azula were all standing, intently waiting for them to start up the airship; she didn't know exactly why none of them could do it, but they were the ones who had been relegated to controlling it when they first stole it, and thus were stuck doing that job as long as they were on-board.
"Okay... now, let's fly." Sokka gestured to the controls, making Suki raise a brow at him.
"Hey, Mr. Engineering Genius, why don't you have a try?" she mocked him, the Water Tribe boy raising his hands up defensively.
"I don't know how it works." he deflected her suggestion, making the Kyoshi Warriors snicker.
"Oh, and I thought that was his one redeeming trait, his mind." Nakata mocked him, making Amari pat her on the shoulder, appreciating her sense of humour.
"And the boomerang... however that thing works."
"It's a highly prized weapon of the Water Tribes." he declared, "Isn't that right, Katara?" he asked his sister, who shrugged nonchalantly.
"Eh, it's not that cool." she dismissed his claim.
"How could you take their side?!" he looked at her with a dramatic face of shock.
"Stop making fun of the idiot and fly the damn thing." Azula growled at them, the Kyoshi Warriors all returning to a more serious composure as they took their stations.
Amari quickly approached the lifting mechanism, pulling the lever down, the airship slowly beginning to rise up above the ground; she sighed with relief as it turned out that the airship could still fly. She was unsure if it was going to, as they hadn't refuelled it at all since stealing it at the Fire Nation Capital, although she guessed that Toph's work in the engine room had helped them out in that regard.
"Okay, now, we need to head in a north-westerly direction." Sokka directed, Sawa turning the wheel as they rose above the height of the surrounding woodland; their hideout was hidden by the large deciduous forest that surrounded it, ensuring that it would be hard for any Fire Nation military forces to find them.
"I can't believe we're actually going to go to do it." Katara broke the silence on the bridge.
"We're ready." Zuko assured them, "We're as ready as we could possibly be."
"Ready to bomb the Fire Lord's airship fleet out of existence?" Amari questioned them, making Azula smirk confidently, looking forward to that specific outcome.
"Precisely."
Lying down in bed, Azula refused to go to sleep, knowing what awaited her if she did so; sleeping would distract her from the reality that she faced, that they were about to fight her father, who was intent on burning the Earth Kingdom down. He had the means, and they hoped to destroy it before he had the chance to use it; the comet hadn't arrived yet, but they had already wasted a whole day and a half travelling to retrieve and then fly their airship in the direction of the staging location that she had only learnt of from a quick glance at the military reports she found when she, Zuko and Katara were hunting down Yon Rha.
The details she had received were vague, not detailing actually how many airships her father had at his disposal, although she knew that she and Zuko had severely damaged if not outright destroyed two of them at the Western Air Temple. She knew one anything above all else, and that was that her father, and his fleet would not stop until they were sorely beaten, and that beating would be a challenge for such a small group to hand down; she was hoping that Aang returned, if only to turn the battle in their favour, as even if he wasn't willing to kill her father, he would be more than capable of holding him off and distracting him from his real goal, that being the mass destruction of the Earth Kingdom and its populace.
"You having trouble sleeping?" she heard an unexpected voice nearby; raising her head from the bed, she saw Sokka, who was standing with his weapons all ready, as if he were about to go into a fight.
"Uh... yes." she simply acknowledged the fact, "It's a bit hard to find the motivation to sleep when you know what you're about to face."
"Tell me about it." he sighed, his frustrated voice indicating that he felt the same way; the Princess could see her brother soundly asleep across from her, lying beside his girlfriend, "You want to go sit up front?"
"Why do you want to hang around me?" she questioned him in response, the Water Tribesman shrugging his shoulders.
"I don't want to sit all alone." he simply told her, the Princess sighing; as much as she'd prefer to lie by her lonesome, she considered that talking with someone else might help her better focus her thoughts.
"Fine." she pulled herself up from her bed, before she walked up to the door, Sokka already beginning to walk up along toward the bridge; as she made her way out, she could already see that the sky's colour had changed from the ordinary black she'd expect of a night-sky to a dark and foreboding red, from the colour of the comet, which despite not being the sight, was quickly approaching their world.
She followed him down along the hallway, all the way up to the front of the bridge, where she could see ahead of them; she couldn't see the island, not yet, but she guessed they would be arriving at it quite soon; Sokka sighed as he leaned up against the front window, looking out at the water below them.
"I guess this is it." he mumbled, "All of our running around the world, fighting the Fire Nation, winning and losing, it all led to here." his tone grew more uneasy, before his eyes turned back to face her, "I'm just surprised that you ended up joining us. You did seem pretty intent on beating us back in Ba Sing Se."
"I was." she clarified, "But not for the reasons you'd think. I never bore any personal grudge against Aang... or any of you for that. I wanted to get my brother back to the Fire Nation."
"Huh, and look how that turned out." he narrowed his eyes at her, the Princess glaring at him.
"Are you trying to piss me off?" she questioned, the Water Tribe teen shaking his head.
"Nope. I'm just naturally curious. The first time we met, you wanted to help us."
"I wanted to stop Zhao." she clarified, "There's a difference."
"Why didn't you get rid of him earlier, anyway? Wouldn't have that been easier?"
"As unusual as it might sound now, I really didn't want to aggrieve my father. I was Crown Princess, remember."
"Ah, yes. That was part of your 'big speech', wasn't it?" he recalled her declaration against Zhao, before she beat the crap out of him; the uneasy look on his face told her that as far away as they were from that day, what had happened to Yue still hurt.
"For what it's worth..." she approached the window, "I'm sorry."
"You're sorry?" he turned to face her with a surprised glance, "Sorry for what?"
"For letting Zhao kill the Moon Spirit. If anything, I should have just let that Water Tribe assassin kill him."
"Water Tribe as-" he mumbled before his eyes widened with realisation, "Oh, you don't mean Hahn?" he asked her, the Princess chuckling; she had spent a few minutes interrogating that young snide Water Tribe warrior who was rather cocky in his attempt to kill Zhao, no matter how much of failure it was.
"Oh, that was his name. I can't even remember what we did with him. Might still be sitting in a Fire Nation prison somewhere." she mused, before her eyes turned to face him once more, "How are you at peace with what I made you do?"
"At peace?" he questioned her, looking at her with a sceptical face, "The man deserved it."
"Just like my father does." she narrowed her eyes ahead of her, the tone of her voice perhaps indicating more than she'd like to; the Fire Lord, no matter how much she wanted to see him burn, was her father, and that still meant something to her, no matter how meagre those feelings were in comparison to her hatred.
"He probably does. No matter how much Aang argues otherwise, the Fire Lord has to go."
"Let's just hope this all goes off without a hitch. I couldn't stand failure, not now." she grumbled, the Water Tribe boy chuckling.
"I'm sure with the pure will and determination you and your brother can muster, we'll beat the Fire Lord all the way back to that palace of his." he declared with a confident grin.
"You're right." she agreed, "We'll destroy him." she made a devious grin, expressing her lethal intent.
She could hear a yawn behind her, Azula turning her eyes to see Toph standing before them, wiping the sleep from her eyes, "What are you two talking about?"
"Nothing." Sokka shrugged, "Defeating the Fire Lord. What else would we talk about?"
"I don't know... your feelings or something like that?"
"Feelings?" the Princess scoffed, "If you mean the strong sense of hatred I hold toward my father, I'd love to go on a rant about that."
"Make yourself at home." the earthbender grinned at her, "I'd like to hear all the juicy details."
"He's worse than you'd think." she declared, the other two scoffing at her words.
"Yeah, really?" the Water Tribesman asked her with a sceptical tone, inciting her to continue.
"He didn't just burn my brother's face and treat him like he was worthless, but he tried to make us hate each other, something that I refused to do. Zuko, as much of an idiot as he can be at times, is still my brother, and I refused to let go of him. My father separated us with that banishment, and then tried to turn me against him by sending me on a mission to capture him."
"Oh, is that why you were in Ba Sing Se? To find Zuko?" Toph questioned her with a surprised voice.
"No." she clarified, "I was there to conquer Ba Sing Se, just to spite my Uncle Iroh."
"Oh... your really do like to do that." she mumbled, before her eyes narrowed at the Princess, "But, despite that, you seem to be really loyal to Zuko. I don't have any siblings, but I'm pretty surprised how much to seem to care about him."
"We don't have anyone else. Our mother left us, and our father... well you already know who he is." she narrowed her eyes at the little earthbender, who approached Sokka.
"You fight a lot with Katara, don't you?"
"Yep." he confirmed with a rather disinterested voice, before he raised his brow in thought, "Actually, fighting with Katara was how we found Aang." he told her, making Toph snicker.
"Ah, that was a funny story." she snickered, the Princess raising a brow with interest.
"I'd like to hear this story." she asked of the Water Tribe boy, who sighed, leaning back against the windowsill.
"Well, our Gran-Gran wanted us to go out fishing, so we could get some more food for our village. Since all the men were out fighting the Fire Nation, we hadn't had as many people going out to get food, so Katara and I had to go do it ourselves." he began, before furrowing a brow in thought, "I was actually trying to fish, while Katara was trying to do it with her waterbending."
"Oh... and I'm guessing that didn't work out for you two." Azula suggested with a smirk, considering how absurd a fishing trip would have to be to end with them finding the Avatar.
"We didn't catch any fish, they we got pulled into a current. She tried to tell me which way to paddle, but there was... uh- miscommunication." he explained, Toph clearing her throat.
"You crashed the boat, Sokka." she told him, making the Water Tribe boy frowning at her; Azula snickered, but his attention wasn't drawn her to her, but rather to reprimand his friend.
"You weren't there." he crossed his arms, the young earthbender punching him in the shoulder.
"Sugar Queen was very vocal in telling me that part of the story."
"So, you crashed the boat... then what?" the Princess questioned, making the Water Tribe boy sigh, looking down with embarrassment.
"Then we had an argument about who crashed the boat, and I made some rather... uh- insensitive comments, in hindsight." he explained before chuckling, "Then she had a rant about me being sexist and not doing enough work, but she didn't realise that she was waterbending an iceberg behind us; I tried to tell her to stop, but she kept on screaming."
"Of course, because everyone loves to scream at Sokka." Toph piped up, the Water Tribe boy refusing to respond to her commentary.
"Uh... but yeah, then she split the iceberg in two, made a big splash, and then we were thrown back on an ice floe." he furthered the story, before raising his hands up, "Then out of nowhere, an iceberg rose out of the water, and it was glowing, and inside, there was Aang!" he exclaimed, before his eyes narrowed, "Although all we saw was a silhouette with glowing eyes and tattoos... it was him!"
"Wait... that's how you found him?" Azula's jaw dropped, realising that a fight amongst siblings had been the cause of the Avatar's return.
"Uh, yeah. Katara, being in a more curious mood than me, whacked it with my club, and then it burst open, and out came Aang and Appa."
"So they were in an iceberg for spirits know how long... how did he even survive that long?"
Sokka looked at her, realising she raised a pretty important question, but he simply shrugged his shoulders, "Avatar powers, I guess."
"It's a great excuse not to explain the crazy things he does, like disappearing out of the blue, isn't it?" she mused, Toph nodding with agreement.
"That's a good point, your majesty. I don't even know how the whole Avatar State business works."
"He hasn't, actually... something something chakras is what I got after he came back from Guru Pathik." Sokka admitted, Azula raising a brow at the mention of a name she hadn't heard of before.
"Who's Guru-" she began to ask before Sokka's voice grew to a shout.
"There it is!" he pointed forward, the Princess's eyes darting to the window, out of which she could see the island, where the airships were about to be launched from, "We still have time!" he exclaimed, Azula's eyes darting about, looking around the horizon before she saw the one thing she dreaded; Sozin's Comet was peering above it, only ever so slightly, but it was there, and she was certain that her father would already have access to it's power, as would she and Zuko.
"Wait..." she mumbled, before sparking a flame on her finger; she was expecting a small blue torch, but it grew immediately, the burst of flames surprising Toph and Sokka, who both stepped back.
"Your fire... that means... oh no." the Water Tribesman gasped, realising the comet was already having an influence over her firebending, thus giving the Fire Lord even more power to fight them with.
"You two keep an eye on the island, I'm going to wake Zuko." she told them, the pair nodding before she turned her heels, racing down the hallway.
She quickly made her way back to the bedroom which she had been resting in, where she saw Suki rising from the bed, wiping sleep from her eyes, surprised by Azula's sudden appearance, "Azula, what's wrong?"
"The comet is already here, and... we're on the final approach." she explained the situation, the Kyoshi Warrior's eyes widening.
"Oh spirits..." she mumbled, before she shook her boyfriend awake, "Zuko! Get up! We're nearly there."
He shot up from the bed, his head hitting the bunk above them, making him groan with pain, "Ow... urgh, yep, I'm getting up." he mumbled, rubbing his head as he looked at his sister, "W-wait... the comet." he mumbled, Azula's eyes narrowing.
"You can feel it too?" she asked of him, the Prince looking at his hands which sparked with small flames with seemingly no effort whatsoever.
"My inner-fire is less like a torch and more like an inferno." he confirmed her suspicions, knowing for certain that she wasn't just misinterpreting her strong sense of motivation for the power of the comet.
Suki helped him out of the bed, before she turned to face her, "I should wake up all the warriors, shouldn't I?"
"That'd be a good idea. We might need to start dropping those bombs very quickly." she agreed, the Kyoshi Warrior grasping her boyfriend's hand momentarily before racing out the doorway, leaving the two royals in the room alone.
"So this is it." Zuko simply addressed the fact of the matter, his sister grasping him by the shoulder.
"It is. Now, let's get up front and make sure we do this right." she declared, her brother simply following after her without another word, his silence indicating his agreement; they had to win, and winning was going to require they do two things correctly: destroy the airship fleet, and ultimately, defeat their father through any means necessary.
As they made their way up toward the front of the airship, her brother's eyes turned to their left, looking out the windows that gave him a view of the comet; his expression showed the mixture of awe and dread he felt with the sight of it, although he was brought out of his distraction by a tug on the shoulder. By the time they arrived in the bridge, Sokka was at the wheel, looking ahead toward the island that was quickly approaching them; she could already make out a number of the airships, as well as the other facilities on the island, such a large and imposing military base, as well as her father's own Royal Barge.
"When do we start dropping bombs?" he asked them, the Princess looking at him with confusion.
"When we're over the island, obviously." she stressed, before she walked over to the altitude lever, pulling it down to make the airship rise higher into the air, "We'll need to be higher up, so we can av-" she began, before a flash of light caught her eye in the distance; she tensed up with shock, realising that it might be a potential attack, "Get down!" she told the others, tackling Sokka to the ground as their airship was struck by something; the booming sound indicated to her that it was a lightning bolt, from none other than her father.
"Argh!" the Water Tribe boy squealed, "He's already trying to kill us!"
"Don't cry like a baby!" Toph demanded of him, before she bent the wall at the back of the room, "Get out of the way, I need to make a shield."
"Not a bad idea, but I don't think that's going to stop comet-powered lightning." Zuko suggested, the girl shrugging his comment off as she peeled a metal sheet off of the wall, before carrying it over to the front windows, showing off her impressive physical strength.
"You're pretty strong for a twelve-year-old." the Princess commented, making her shrug, a smug grin forming on her face.
"Being the best earthbender in the world isn't just about earthbending." she declared, before suddenly the airship was struck again by another lightning bolt, this time ripping through the bridge itself, throwing Toph and Azula backward, the young earthbender using her metalbending to shield them from the shrapnel.
As they got back to their feet, Zuko stepped forward, sending a stream of fire through the gaping hole, firing back down toward the island, actually striking the edge of it, although it was too far away to discern what damage it made.
"Everyone, get back!" he demanded of them, Azula standing tall, stepping forward as she began to spin her hands around, sparks flying in between her fingers.
"Just a moment." she grinned at her brother, putting one foot forward as she sent out a lightning bolt toward the island, striking around where she had seen the attack come from.
She moved back, eyeing the potential location of their father intently, but found herself unable to spot him; the Fire Lord was about to fire at them again, she knew it, but she had no idea where to fire.
"Come on, you bastard, show yourself." she grit her teeth; instead of a lightning strike, as she expected, instead a number of streams of fire appeared along the edge of the island, coming from what she'd assume to be her father's personal force of elite firebenders.
"Zuko!" she called on her brother, who raced up to stand beside her taking a firebending stance; she did the same, tensing up as the flames approached their airship.
They moved their hands to their sides in synchronisation, redirecting the flames, splitting them as they approached, saving the gondola of the airship from being hit; the flames still ripped through the balloon of the airship, which she noticed by the fact they immediately began to drop through the air. To her luck, she had been increasing their altitude with the lever unintentionally as they were being attacked, meaning that they were still a fair distance above the water, giving the group ample time to escape.
"The airship's falling!" Zuko exclaimed, before he turned to his sister, "We need to get to Appa, right now!"
"Go!" she told him with grit teeth, "I'll try and stop their attacks!" she explained her on the spot idea, the Prince nodding begrudgingly, racing off with Toph and Sokka down the hallway, away from the bridge.
Azula wasn't one for the whimsical ideal of self-sacrifice, but she knew that fighting on while the other's had a momentary chance to escape was her only choice at that point; she had run out of options, and with the flames encroaching, she found herself the only one capable to defending them. Her brother had to survive, that was her only desire, knowing that without him, there would be no great future for the Fire Nation. Pushing her arms away from her torso, she further thrust the streams of fire away as they only grew stronger; she could feel the heat around her increasing as her own bending came under the stress of those who she was deflecting. Even though she was far more powerful than any single elite firebender, in concert, their strength was greater than her own; as the flames grew nearer to her, she realised she was about to be hit, and in extension, the rest of the airship; instead of deflecting the streams, she instead sent her own against her enemies, screaming out as she felt the power of Sozin's Comet increase her own strength tenfold, if not greater. She momentarily powering through their fire streams, until she found the mix of blue and orange flames rushing back at her, the light blinding and heat scorching. Azula, realising that she was about to find herself roasted alive, thrust her arms out to try and momentarily disperse the flames as she jumped backward, the rush of flames shattering the metal frame of the bridge, destroying the controls and throwing her out of the way; by chance, she had stepped too far to the left, and found herself thrown out of the window, or what remained of it.
Finding herself in free-fall, she tried to reorient herself, using her bending to thrust herself higher in the air instead of closer to the sea that lay below her; once she regained her sense of direction, her stomach dropped, watching the front of the airship turn into a bonfire of metal and canvas as it continued to fall toward the water. Struggling to keep herself in the air, she watched on helplessly as what remained of the aircraft careened down toward the water, all while the Fire Lord's men continued send their massive streams of fire at it. Looking at the burning wreckage of the airship as it collided with the water, Azula's heart sunk in her chest; for a single moment, all she could feel was pure horror, thinking about what had just happened. She made an assumption, and that was that everyone she was just with had died, and with that assumption, she felt her inner-fire grow to new high; it was the antithesis of euphoria, her blue flames bursting out of her hands and mouth uncontrollably as she screamed.
"No!" she bellowed at the top of her lungs, closing her eyes as she fell down toward the water, the flames covering her hands stopping her from grasping them over her face to try and mask her pain.
At one point she thought that she would regret killing her father, but now, now she craved it more than anything, knowing that it was the only thing that could satiate her anguish; her firebending, once barely able to keep her flying through the air, burst into a strength that was incomparable to any time before.
The comet had barely arrived, and she was already more powerful than she could ever imagine; her will, her desire, it was driving her toward her now inescapable fate. There was no Avatar to save the world, so it would fall to her, the insane and deranged daughter of the horrible tyrant who sought to burn the world to the ground. As she pushed herself up into the air, she began to cackle, realising the turn of events that had come upon her family. She was going to be the divine retribution upon the Fire Nation, and more than anything she would relish in seeing her father be burned alive and fried by his own precious lightning-bending. Zuko would be avenged, they would all be avenged, and her hand would strike the blow that would end the hundred years of mistakes that had been made by her family.