"See Suki, it worked! No more crew."
Suki's eyes widened with surprise, realising that Sokka's plan had worked without a hitch; she honestly thought it was a pretty stupid idea to call on the crew for a birthday party of all things when the crew was meant to be making sure their airship was burning down the Earth Kingdom. After Toph broke them into the bridge and beat the daylights out of the men in there, she thought that they might have to fight off the entire crew to make sure they could sabotage Fire Lord Ozai's attack; however, it didn't turn out to be the case, to both her relief and shock.
"I can't believe that worked." she mumbled, Amari raising a fist with a grin, which coming from her wasn't reassuring.
"I'd say that's good proof that the Fire Nation is full of idiots." she exclaimed, making Toph snicker.
"Dumber than Sokka, of course." she raised a finger, making the Water Tribe boy snarl at her.
"Hey! I'm not that stupid. My instincts can just be a little off... sometimes."
"Now, now, everyone doesn't need to argue over my son's intelligence." Hakoda tried to soothe the situation, making the little earthbending girl scowl slightly.
"No, no, I'm more worried about the instincts." she stressed, her head tilting toward the Water Tribe boy, "Did your instincts tell you to leave me behind in that sinking airship?" she queried, making the bridge fall silent; she did remember that Zuko mentioned he pulled her out from an air pocket, while the Water Tribe boy had somehow ended up on the surface.
"I... I didn't do that. I just didn't know where you were." he tried to defend himself, his voice growing uneasy; Suki stepped between them, making sure she could direct their attention to the more important matter at hand.
"Aren't we here to use this airship to destroy the fleet, not bicker about who was the most responsible when we all nearly drowned?" she questioned the pair, who looked toward the massive streams of fire that were being sent out of the other airships toward the ground, as well as what she could only guess to be Aang fighting the Fire Lord, looking at the massive streams of fire.
"Oh, that is true." the Water Tribe boy admitted, before gesturing to Sawa, "We need to get higher."
The Kyoshi Warrior nodded, before she turned her head back to face him, "Uh, you said we were going to ram the airships earlier. Did you change your mind?"
Sokka shook his head before grinning, "No, no, I got a little inspiration from Aang when I saw him use all those moves against the Fire Lord. We're going to slice through them." he explained himself, before gesturing to the head warrior, "You can take the wheel, if you'd like."
"Thanks." she accepted his offer, walking over to the wheel, and eyeing the airships, trying to figure out the angle they'd have to come in at to strike the rest of the airships, "Uh, we're going to need to speed up a bit, and then turn sharp; that's the best way to hit the airships all at once."
"That's a pretty sound idea, but don't we need to- uh- get off the airship alive?" Hakoda questioned, the Water Tribe boy shaking his head.
"Don't worry, Dad. We have Appa to pick us up." he stressed, "As soon as Katara sees us up top, she'll fly over and scoop us up." he explained their escape-plan, before turning to face the head warrior with a grin, "Let's go with your idea. A sharp turn and fly straight into them."
Suki then grabbed a hold of the wheel, turning it first to the right, so she could get them a sufficient distance away from the airship fleet; it would make no sense to 'slice' them right away, as all of them were in the bridge, the part of the airship that would likely be destroyed first once it made contact with the fleet.
"Okay, how high above did you want us, Sokka?" Sawa questioned him once more, the Water Tribe boy raising his hand to try and eye-ball how far above the other airships they were already.
"This is high enough, now, we've got to turn and then... speed this up, as fast as it can go."
Nakata stepped forward, her eyes narrowing on him with a concerned expression, "But won't that just make the engine..." she began, before she gasped with realisation, "Oh, I see where this is going."
"This thing isn't going to be in any way recoverable when we're done with it." he declared confidently.
The head warrior stared forward, focusing on what angle she would be at if she turned the airship at that very moment; she did some basic calculations in her head, but it turned out she didn't need to when Sokka called out to her.
"Turn!" he almost demanded, making her roll her eyes before she swiftly turned the airship to the left, making the craft tilt slightly.
As they came to face the other airships, which were thankfully in a long and neat line for them, the Water Tribe boy grinning brightly as he turned to face Toph, who had a rather uneasy look on her face, standing by the window.
"Toph, what's wrong?" he asked her, to which she simply turned back to face him.
"That's a lot of fire down there, isn't it?"
The group consciously took a moment to notice the massive streams of fire the airships were pouring down on ground below, which to their luck, didn't seem to be occupied by any people; it momentarily distracted them before the Water Tribe teen, who seemingly had propensity for giving them orders, gestured to Esumi, who was handling the speed of flying the airship, "Now would be a good time to accelerate."
"Got it." she accepted his command with a rather snide tone, which she expected of any of her warriors, who were all rather used to one person giving them orders, that being Suki herself.
As the airship began to speed up, the airship began to rattle, enough so that even Amari tensed up, "Okay, I think the airship's telling us to leave."
"Yep!" Sokka raised a fist, before pointing to the door behind them, "Let's go! It's gonna be a rough ride! We need to get to the top of this thing, fast."
The group quickly turned their heels to racing out of the room, Hakoda leading them down the halls, "Let's just hope everyone went to the birthday party." his eyes darting into the rooms they walked by as they made their way toward the ladder that would lead them up to the top of the balloon.
"I sure hope they did." his son acknowledged with a grimace; although it was unspoken, they all knew whoever found themselves stuck in the gondola when it began to plough through the others wouldn't survive.
As they reached the ladder, they all began to file up it quickly, the two Water tribe men going first, then Toph, and finally the Kyoshi Warriors, with Suki standing by the base of the ladder, chanting on the group to quickly begin climbing.
"Go, go, go!" she called on them, before the last of the group, Amari began to quickly ascend the rungs of the ladder.
She followed on after her warriors, quickly pulling herself up each rung, becoming more fearful as began to feel the airship shaking below her, followed by a deafeningly violent scraping noise. She continued to climb up the airship, the ladder began to rattle, making her tense up as she continued to eye upward, focusing on the hole that led outside, and watching it slowly increase in apparent size; suddenly she found the floor down below her collapsing, making her grasp hard on the ladder as it was unhinged from the ground, and the lower portion of it snapped off.
"Faster!" she shouted upward, not getting much of a response but the grunting from her fellow warriors as they clambered up toward the top of the quickly collapsing airship; she thought she had calculated the right amount of time to get off safely, but she was unsure that was actually the case as she refused to look down at the open air below her.
As she reached the top of the airship, she glanced about, seeing Sokka, Toph and Hakoda racing up toward the front of the airship; she found her arm grasped by Nakata, who helped her up off of the ladder.
The head warrior pointed to the others before breaking into a sprint, "Let's go!"
Her eyes momentarily glanced to her side, taking note of the airships as they flew into them, making each ram into the next in a cascade of explosions; she was struggling to maintain her balance as she ran along the centre of the airship, which continued to shake violently, and eyed the central chimneys, where Sokka was leading the other two.
"Come on, guys!" the Water Tribe boy called on the Kyoshi Warriors, "We need to get Katara's-" he began to before suddenly the ground between them ripped apart, the head warrior coming to a halt as she made sure her friends didn't fall into the quickly expanding crevasse between them.
Looking back at the others, Suki shouted out, "Keep going!" she told them, before she turned to her fellow warriors, "We need to jump, now!" she told them, looking around to see the airship crumbling around them.
She raced forward, eyeing an airship below them, jumping down the rather large distance to land on it; she was followed by her warriors, who were luckily skilled at acrobatics, just like herself, and were able to land without much more than a scratch. The leader of the Kyoshi Warriors looked up to what remained of the front end of the airship that the other three were riding, grimacing with fear as she watched them drop down onto another airship.
"Are they going to be alright?" Esumi asked her, Suki glancing around, trying to spot Appa, but was unable to.
"As long as Katara gets to them, yes." she admitted, before cracking her knuckles, "Now, let's take over another airship." she smirked, pulling out her fans; her fellow warriors drew out their own weapons, Amari smirking confidently as she opened the hatch that would lead them down to the gondola.
"Two airships in one day. We must be getting good at this."
Sokka knew that he was good at making plans up on the spot, and seeing that his friend was a highly skilled earthbender who could also happen to bend the material the airship they were standing on was made of, he figured out pretty quickly how that ability could be used to their advantage.
"Toph, metalbend the rudder so it's jammed in a turning position. The ship will spiral and slam into the others."
"Got it!" she exclaimed, pushing both the Water Tribe boy and his father, who was surprised to see that she could do such a thing.
"She can bend metal?" he gasped with awe, his son chuckling.
"Yeah, it's pretty cool, right?" he grinned, Toph's face turning into a confident smirk as she began to move the rudder out of place, making the airship quickly begin to spiral to the right, slamming into the others.
"You could stand to mention it more." she added once she finished bending it, glancing across the breadth of the airship, watching as it began to drive through the remaining airships.
Suddenly he heard a hatch opening behind them, the Water Tribe teen realising that a firebending soldier had appeared, ready to attack them; he found himself pushed out of the way by Hakoda, "Get out of the way!" he shouted, allowing his son to narrowly dodge the fire stream that was sent his way, before he kicked at the firebender, momentarily stopping him from burning them all alive.
Sokka's jaw dropped with terror, grabbing Toph by the hand, "Run!" he told them both, sprinting as fast as he could, narrowly dodging the attack as he quickly made a bolt for the other side of the ship; he was fast enough to get out of the way, but found himself jumping off the airship itself, thrusting his sword into the side of it to slow their descent, his eyes looking up to see that his father hadn't jumped with them, his eyes filled with dread as he watched them both quickly slide down.
"Sokka!" he screamed his name, utterly mortified as the pair of them slid down the side of the airship; space sword slowed them down enough that they were able to avoid falling flat off the side of the airship.
His eyes took note of a platform standing below them, aiming to land on it with his two feet; he was lucky enough to land right where expected, but felt a sharp pain in his left leg, struggling to retain a hold on Toph's hand with his left. He realised that she was hanging off the edge, and tightened his grip around her wrist, gritting his teeth as he tried to bare with the bare of what he guessed was his leg breaking.
"My leg!" he cried, before he tried to give his friend a reassuring tone, "Hang on Toph!"
"Aye, aye, captain." she nodded, looking up to him with an obviously fearful expression; he tried to pull her up, but was unable to, his body facing the wrong way.
As he began to try and turn his body around to pull her up, he heard footsteps, his eyes darting about to take note of two soldiers racing onto the platforms beside them; his eyes filled with fear, before he decided to shout out the one thing he knew might help them.
"Yip, yip!" he called out, before he realised he didn't see or hear Appa nearby, "Aw man... it was worth a shot."
He eyed the two soldiers, before he grasped at his back with his right hand, ready to throw his boomerang at one of them; as one began to firebend, the Water Tribe boy took the chance, throwing the boomerang at right at him, hitting him in the head and knocking him unconscious. The other firebender readied himself to attack, Sokka kicking his space sword up with his right foot, knocking it into the air, before he caught it with his right hand. Without a second thought, he threw it toward the platform the soldier was standing on, slicing it off and making his opponent fall down, although he was held up from certain death by the chain he was attached to.
He grimaced, watching his last weapon fly away, "Bye space sword." he dejectedly farewelled it, still trying hold onto Toph; he knew his grip was slipping, and tried to hold onto her hand as best as he could.
He knew that his father might come to them in time, but he would have to fight through the soldiers on-board to do so; his eyes darted around, hoping to spot Appa, but at that very moment, he couldn't see the sky-bison. As a group of firebending soldiers arrived on outside platforms, he gulped with fear, realising that they were doomed.
"I don't think boomerang's coming back, Toph." he admitted, "It looks like this is the end."
He couldn't hear his friend, but he could guess she was feeling pretty similar emotions to him; he watched on fearfully as the soldiers took their stances, but was confused as they suddenly broke formation, running away in fear. He realised what scared them when he turned his head to see another airship fast approaching their one; when it collided with their own, the whole platform shook violently, and he let Toph drop down, reaching safety below. Instead of following her, he tried to pull himself up, knowing that his friend was safe, while his father was in danger, still somewhere on-board.
"Sokka!" she called out to him, the Water Tribe teen shouting back as she began to move away on top of the other airship.
"I need to find my dad!" he told her the simple truth of the matter, his friend looking up at him with an understandably fearful expression, unable to do anything as she began to move away.
Rising to his feet with some struggle, due to his broken leg, he noticed that the firebenders had run back toward the gondola; he began to limp toward a ladder that he could see nearby, hoping that they were trying to take cover still. He was quickly proven wrong, however, seeing a soldier step out to send a fire stream his way, ducking down as he grunted again in pain. He turned back to face them, grimacing with fear, which was alleviated as he saw another fire stream be fired, this time being blue. Azula had landed on the other end of the platform, and began firing her own flames at the soldiers, quickly overwhelming them all as Sokka continued to lay down in fear; she offered him a hand as he looked down at him with a smirk, her face looking as confident as ever.
"Need a hand?" she asked him, the Water Tribe warrior accepting it with a a relieved smile, which quickly turned to a serious expression.
"My dad's somewhere inside. We've got to find him, and then get out of here." he explained, the Princess nodding with agreement; he was surprised that she was acting so altruistically, but he didn't question it.
"No weapons?" she asked him with
"Threw them at the enemy to save myself." he explained his actions, making the Princess cringe slightly, before she put an arm around his shoulder, helping him walk toward the gondola proper; she made a grimace, realising her situation, "I'm saving someone's father while I hope someone kills my own."
"I guess that's what it is. Where's Zuko and Katara?" he asked her, the Princess gesturing to their right, where he could see Appa flying about, the Prince on top of his saddle, sending out streams of fire at the remaining airships, "Ah... that's where." he acknowledged before momentarily looking down to the other airship where Toph had landed, which was speeding away, taking that note that he could no longer see his friend topside.
"I think Suki and the Kyoshi Warriors are in control of that one." the Princess clarified, as she sent a kick of flames into the gondola, striking down two soldiers who stood in their way; she walked up to the ladder that stood in the centre of the room, leading up to the next floor of the gondola, and hopefully, closer to his father, "Up this way, he'll be coming down to get you, won't he?"
"Yes, he will." he smiled, trusting his father would do everything he could to try and help him; as he climbed up the ladder with some struggle, only having one leg that worked properly, he heard the sound of fighting above them, "That'd be him." he admitted, climbing up to the next floor, where he was able to spot bursts of flames down the hallway immediately.
"Hey!" Azula shouted out, catching the soldiers' attention as she pummelled them with a quick succession of fireballs, which she able effortlessly send out due to the power of Sozin's Comet.
He followed after her, watching with awe as she gave the soldiers a beat-down like down other, her flames rushing through the hallway like a wave, all-consuming and frighteningly powerful; when the flames cleared, he could see his father standing, his clothing singed and his arms and legs clearly burnt, although he soon fell to his knees, groaning in pain.
"Dad!" he called out, racing up to his father with a fearful face, realising how much he had been through just trying to reach him; Hakoda's face changed from a grimace of pain to a smile as he saw his son's face, looking up at him with relief.
"Sokka, you're alright... where's Toph?" he asked him, the Water Tribe warrior gesturing out the window.
"She was able to get down onto another airship. I stayed to come find you, and Azula came to help out." he then gestured to the Princess, who turned away, probably not wanting the attention.
"Thank you, Azula." the Water Tribe chief made a genuine smile of appreciation toward the girl he hadn't exactly been friends with; she had been at odds with him, mostly due to the bad impression she had made with Katara's 'life-changing field trip', although it seemed now that was incomparable in light of her saving his life, "For saving both me and my son."
"Don't mention it." the Princess dismissed his words, "Now let's get down back to the platforms. Hopefully Katara sees us. I can fly with the power of the comet, but I can't exactly hold you two up with me." she explained their situation, which made the two Water Tribe men grimace, both of them realising it might have been better if she hadn't mentioned the problem they were facing.
Sokka, despite his leg injury, walked on ahead while his father was helped along by the Princess; his leg was the only part of his body that hurt, while he guessed Hakoda was feeling pain all over his own. They made their way back to the ladder, which he climbed down first; the Water Tribe warrior sliding down it slowly, touching down at the base of the ladder with his right foot to avoid worsening his injury. He helped his father as he came down himself, before he turned to face the two exits, seeing the firebending soldiers cowering down by the base of the stairs, most of them barely conscious after the beating Azula gave them. The Princess eyed them herself before gesturing for them to follow her along the platform, leading outside of the airship; he came to realise how close to the ground they were getting, after the integrity of the balloon itself had been destroyed by the other airship clipping it.
"We're getting pretty low. How are we going to call out to Katara?" he asked the Princess, who shook her head, pointing up to the sky-bison that was fast approaching them.
"We don't need to." she observed the obvious as Appa made a roar, approaching the platform from below; the look of relief on Katara and Zuko's faces was expected enough, the former called on them to climb onboard.
"Come on! The airship's going to crash." she prodded them, the Water Tribe teen not needing any further prodding to jump down into the saddle, landing awkwardly and hurting his leg again.
"Ow, ow, ow!" he yelped, before turning his attention to his father, who grunted as well as he landed on the saddle, his expression showing the absolutely horrible pain he was feeling.
"Dad, what did they do to you?" his sister gasped with horror, pulling out some water while Zuko led the sky-bison away to safety, flying up toward the pillars where they could clearly see Aang still fighting the Fire Lord, and from the looks of it, using the Avatar State.
"Ergh... burns... you know?" he mumbled, falling out of consciousness; the Water Tribe siblings looked at each other with fear as she began to heal him, her water covering his chest, tending to the burns closest to his vital organs first.
Zuko turned back to face them, specifically looking to his sister, "I think we might need to intervene."
Azula nodded, her eyes turning just the same as Sokka's had toward the fight that was occurring, "As soon as he relinquishes himself out of the Avatar State, he'll be killed by father. We need to stop that from occurring." he declared, standing up on the saddle.
"Sokka, take the reins. Go to Suki and the others." the Prince ordered him, making the Water Tribe teen groan, but he nodded nonetheless.
"Yep, got it." he agreed, pulling himself over before giving the two siblings a wave, "Good luck, don't let Aang stuff it up."
Azula chuckled at him, standing by the edge of the saddle before raising her arms out, dramatically looking as if she was about to fall off and fly, which to his understanding, she was currently capable of doing with ease, despite her injuries at the hand of her father.
"That's the idea, idiot."
Watching Azula jump off of Appa's saddle at any other time would have scared Zuko, but he knew what was at stake; as he himself stood up on the edge of the saddle, he looked back toward Katara and Sokka, both of them silently nodding at him. They didn't need to say anything, because he could see it in their eyes; Aang had to win, and the Fire Lord had to do stop. He knew that his friend, the Avatar, was under the control of the Avatar State, rather than acting out of his own free will, and if the past Avatars pushed him to kill his father, he would break out of the Avatar State, and leave himself vulnerable to his father's attacks.
Using his firebending to propel himself into the air, Zuko sent jets out of his feet, flying right toward where he could see Aang chasing his father; the glowing eyes and stern expression disturbed him to no end. The Prince understood that the boy he was looking at was not his friend, but rather the culmination of thousands of years of Avatars combined into a single being, all intent on restoring the balance of the world. The Avatar grasped out with his hand, a water whip grasping the Fire Lord's entire body before throwing him down onto a nearby pillar; despite the attack not sending his father unconscious, he had no time to react as he was ensnared by earthbending, Aang flying above him, surrounded by streams of all the elements. Looking to his sister, who had landed on a pillar nearby, he saw her expression; she was amazed, and terrified at the same time by what she was witnessing.
He began to listen in to Aang's commanding voice as he landed nearby, watching as his father was left helplessly trapped on top of a pillar, "Fire Lord Ozai, you and your forefathers have devastated the balance of this world, and now you shall pay the ultimate price!" he declared, sending a chill down Zuko's spine, turning to face his sister, who was utterly shocked, realising that the Avatar was about to do what he claimed he could not.
Aang began to funnel the streams of water, fire, earth and air into a single stream, like a massive whip made of all the elements, throwing it above himself, before it was sent down at his father, who was trapped and unable to do anything but watch his demise; Zuko could only think of one thing as he watched, and that was the mistake that he had made in burning Zhao's face. No matter how arrogant and evil that man was, he had not burnt his face and thrown him out to wander the world; the man who had was about to die. The justice from all the misdeeds made by the Fire Lord and his nation were finally coming his way, and the Prince had no issue with it. Suddenly however, Aang's tattoos stopped glowing, and his attack dispersed into nothingness, a splash of water covering his father rather than the horrific death that was intended for him; he began to float down to the ground, turning away from Ozai.
"No. I'm not gonna end it like this." he refused to kill his father, landing on his feet; the Fire Lord was leaning over, looking pained, but clearly freed from his bounds; in a moment, the Prince realised that his father had the opportunity he feared he might abuse, the moment of mercy Aang was willing to grant.
Zuko clenched his fists, setting into action as he flew toward him, "Hey, arsehole!" he screamed out, the Fire Lord's attention immediately turning from the Avatar to him.
"You-" he began to call out the Prince, before he found himself struck in the chest by a powerful bolt of flames, and subsequently thrown off of the pillar, much to the shock of Aang, who turned around to see the Prince landing beside him.
"Zuko! I was about to do something!" the Avatar shouted at him with an aggrieved tone, before he himself pointed at his father, who had landed on a smaller pillar, and was still dazed from his attack.
"He was about to kill you!" he growled before he turned to face the Fire Lord, letting all the emotions he had held back for three whole years spill out, "Ready to meet grandfather in hell, old man?" he shouted at him, the Fire Lord returning to his feet with a snarl of fury.
"You shouldn't have ever had the chance to live. You are my greatest disgrace!" he shouted at the Prince with more anger than he had ever heard on his tongue.
He spun his hands around, sparks flying through the air for a moment before he sent a lightning bolt square into Zuko's chest; he was expecting it, of course, and felt the massive amount of energy surge through his body. It was the most euphoric experience, the ultimate high, and the Prince felt more power than he could ever hope to bend himself; the power of the comet, combined with his father's own lightning, it must have been comparable to Aang's practically divine power. He momentarily considered killing his father with the lightning bolt then and there, but he knew that wasn't what his uncle would have wanted him to do; he wasn't going to betray the Prince he had become, all the work he had done to become the best version of himself, all for petty revenge. He smirked, realising the fact of the matter as he redirected the lightning into the air above him.
"I'm not going to kill my father, Aang." he assured his friend as he took a firebending stance, before he tilted his head toward his sister, who was already taking a stance, ready to fly right at her father, "Let him have it, Zula!"
"Die!" she screamed out, forming a massive fire whip with her right hand, sending it right down into the pillar on which there father had been standing; he got out of the way, but the attack literally split the stone column in half, collapsing in a cloud of rubble as their father flew up into the air, aiming to strike Aang.
The Prince and the Avatar both sent out fire streams at him simultaneously, throwing him back, flying through the air for a few seconds before he was able to reorient himself and land on a pillar; by the time he was able to do that, Azula had already flown up into the air above their father, sending a fire blast right at his head. The Fire Lord thrust his arm out to deflect the strike, but was unable to stop himself getting struck in the chest by the rockets coming out of her feet. Forcing him down onto the pillar, Azula raised a hand up as she stood on his chest, her hand filled with flames, in a situation that eerily reminded him of the burn he had received in his Agni Kai. That outcome didn't eventuate, with the Fire Lord sending a punch at her chest, the Princess jumping up to avoid the fire stream that flew up into the sky above them.
"You insolent brats!" he screamed, throwing his hand up to try and send a fireball at his daughter, but found himself stopped by Aang, who used earthbending to pull legs into the ground. The Avatar and hte Prince jumped across the chasm between them and his father, while the Princess landed right in front of her father; she relentlessly hammered him in the head, not even bothering to bend before she punched him in the jaw.
"I really thought you would have put up more of a fight, honestly." she mocked him, the Fire Lord gritting his teeth; he didn't even look up, as he was dazed, but when he did, he saw her hands moving into form to create a lightning bolt; Aang and Zuko looked at each other momentarily with shock as they stood behind her.
"Azu-" he began to try and warn her, but he wasn't fast enough; she pointed her right hand down toward their father's chest, only to have it thrust up by a pillar of earth, sending a lightning bolt up into the air.
"I know how to get rid of his bending!" Aang shouted at her, "That's what I was going to do!"
The Princess looked at him with surprise for a few moment, before an cunning smirk formed on her lips, "So... do it." she crossed her arms, turning to face her father, "This is a far more fitting fate, actually." she grinned evilly at the man she had grown to hate, whose eyes widened with utter dread; she stood out of the way while Ozai was earthbent into place, who still attempted to try and return to a fighting form.
The Fire Lord growled with anger, making one last attempt to break free with a roar of flames, which the young Avatar was able to disperse with ease, placing one hand on his forehead and another on his chest. Zuko's eyes widened with shock as he saw Aang's head tilt up, a blinding blue light coming out of his mouth and eyes, beaming up into the sky.
"What the..." the Princess mumbled with near horror, before their father's eyes and mouth lit up the same, but orange instead of blue.
What freaked them out even more than just that was their entire bodies becoming consumed by the light, the Fire Lord coloured orange and the Avatar blue; it was pure goodness versus pure evil, physically manifested. The orange energy began to spread from their father's body into Aang's, which it slowly, but surely began to consume; Zuko's eyes widened with fear, wondering what might happen to either if one consumed the other. He tensed up watching the orange grow further and further across his friend's body, wondering whether he should drag them apart; he didn't know what would happen to Aang if he failed, but the Prince knew that if he had to, he'd kill his father then and there to save him. Although it looked as if the orange light was going to completely consume him, the Avatar suddenly shone out, brighter than before, his blue light then quickly consuming the Fire Lord's body, an intense beam of blue light firing up into the sky above. Once the blue light faded, Ozai fell down to the ground as he was realised from his grappling of earth; he rose up momentarily, attempting to try and attack the the all-powerful Avatar, but fell down to ground instead, gravely weakened, seemingly permanently, by the removal of his bending.
"Now... now you get to live with the consequences of your actions, father." Azula confidently declared, kneeling down beside his face as he remained slooped on the ground, "Your only mistake was burning Zuko's face." before she looked up to her brother, "If you hadn't done it, he would have put Uncle to shame; we would have conquered Ba Sing Se. We would have ruled the world together. But you chose wrong. You chose your path, and look where it has led you."
"You're both weak." he grumbled, the Prince shaking his head.
"No, we're not. We became more than what you made us." he declared, before turning to face his sister with a smile, tears falling down his cheeks, "We became brother and sister."
"Love." Aang declared, making a smile, genuinely happy with how their battle had finally turned out, "You chose love over hate." he declared, before turning to the Prince, "You both did."
"Yes." the Prince agreed, before he turned to face the last remaining airship in the distance, where he knew Suki would be, "Yes, I did."
"So... uh... who's the Fire Lord now?"
Azula raised a brow at Sokka's suggestive question as the group sat around in the bomb bay of their new airship, resting after the fight of a lifetime; the Princess looked to her brother, who stood up, signifying the thing she already knew as a fact- her brother was going to be Fire Lord, and that was the fact of the matter.
"I will succeed my father as Fire Lord, and hopefully, we can have peace." he admitted, the group looking amongst themselves.
"Is this something you didn't consider?" the Princess asked them, "I was under the presumption that you had a plan for 'fixing' the world."
"Uh... well not exactly." Aang admitted with an embarrassed face, "I thought it was going to just be as simple as the Four Nations becoming four again, and the Fire Nation going back to the Fire Nation."
"Well..." she mumbled, realising she was going have a conversation that would make her out as being against them, even if she agreed wholeheartedly with his idealised intentions- peace, that was, rather than war, "I can't agree to the complete abolition of the Fire Nation colonies."
"S-sorry, what?" Katara's jaw dropped with surprise, "What do you mean you can't agree?"
"Because doing so would destroy the Fire Nation's industrial base, and displace tens of thousands of people from their homes." she explained, raising a finger to stress, "People who were born in 'the Earth Kingdom'."
"Azula, you can't be serious." her brother chided her, "The Fire Nation took all that land, displaced the people there, making them refugees. If the colonies remained, where would those people go?"
"They could just go back." she suggested, knowing that under her brother's rule, the Fire Nation would no longer be needlessly cruel to its Earth Kingdom subjects, and thus the land could return to peace without the threat.
"I thought you were on our side. What you're saying... it goes against everything we fought for." Aang stood up, pointing at her accusingly.
"You fought to defeat the Fire Lord, not to rip the Fire Nation apart and make the Earth Kingdom even worse than it already is. What do you think is going to happen when the Fire Nation withdraws from Ba Sing Se and the rest of the Earth Kingdom? Everything's going to be nice and peaceful? The Earth King will rebuild his country and they'll prosper?" she asked him, the Avatar edging back, the grimace on his face growing, indicating that he, begrudgingly or not, saw what she was saying.
"You know, she has a pretty good point, Aang." Suki raised a finger, "I've seen what it's like out there. I'm not saying that the Earth Kingdom won't get better, but it's going to take more than the Fire Nation leaving to fix what's broken."
"I mean, the Earth King's a good guy- I'm sure he'll-" he began, before he was cut off by the Princess.
"The Dai Li are going to retake control of the city." she declared, "And before you ask me, I doubt they'll follow my orders now, as much as I'd like a personal secret police to enforce my will..." she explained her reasoning, before she realised the concerned looks on everyone's faces, "That was a joke, by the way."
"I don't think it was." Zuko admitted, the Princess rolling her eyes.
She had lied, of course, seeing that a secret police would be extremely effective in dealing with her father's loyalists who might want to revolt or plot against her brother's new regime; not that she would want anyone to know about it, which made her face-palm in hindsight.
"I shouldn't have said that."
"Wait a minute..." Sokka stood up, looking at the two royals, "If the Fire Lord's our prisoner... then who's running the Fire Nation?"
"Probably a clique of generals in the capital." Zuko admitted, before he eyed the others with an expression of dreaded realisation, "Um... there is a possibility a civil war might begin... like in the next few days."
"Oh." Aang's eyes widened, before he began to shout in surprise, "Oh! That is not what I wanted to happen!" his hands came up to his cheeks, "Uh, should we turn this airship around and head straight for the capital?"
"Well, I mean we could, but we're nearly at the old campsite, aren't we?" Zuko asked out, before he turned his head to his girlfriend, "Uh, what was the last update from Nakata?"
"She said we were about half an hour away, and that was... nearly half an hour ago." she admitted, before standing up, "We should probably get ready; we'll need to pack up that camp, and then head straight for the Fire Nation Capital."
Katara stood up as well, "I'll go check up on Dad. I can trust you all to not start fighting while I'm gone?" she asked Aang, Zuko and Azula collectively, the three of them nodding in confirmation.
As she left the room, the Princess turned to face her brother, "What are we going to do then? If father's war council decides to go against us."
"Then things are going to get very bloody, very quickly. I didn't learn lightning-bending for no reason." the Prince admitted, making Sokka and Aang both grimace with fear, thinking about what the two of them could do in a fight.
"Well... at least we know who'd win." the Water Tribe boy acknowledged, the royal siblings nodding in agreement; they weren't being cocky, as both of them were collectively the most powerful firebenders alive, seeing that their father had lost his bending.
"Imagine if Azula hadn't joined us." Toph suggested, "That mightn't have ended very well."
"I know." the Prince stressed with a grimace that gave off as little emotion as possible, "That's why we should be glad it ended the way it did. The Fire Lord has been defeated, and hopefully, we can fix the world together."
The Princess looked away, knowing that her brother had done his best to try and be a good brother, and she had gone against his advice numerous times; she could have let him face off their father at the capital, and perhaps he would have dealt with his lightning-bending better. Or perhaps even she could have not suggested to their father that he burn down the Earth Kingdom, so their take-over of the Fire Nation would go more smoothly that it was likely to turn out. She had made too many mistakes, and it was only due to the pure luck that they had on their side that they had won with no casualties; her father had nearly killed her only a few hours earlier, and she was under no presumption that she would have been able to survive if Katara hadn't scooped her out of the water. She had heard after the battle that Sokka and Toph had nearly died, only surviving due to the Kyoshi Warrior's intervention in crashing their airship into the one the pair were struggling to hold on to.
"Well, let's go pack up that camp." Suki rose to her feet, gesturing to the group, "You can all help, can't you?"
"Yeah, we can." Aang confirmed, gesturing for the others to follow as the Kyoshi Warrior led them to the exit of the airship.
They all walked up to a wide doorway, which she opened with a button, revealing a ramp that was lowering down, just as the airship itself was arriving at the camp; looking down she could see Haru, Teo and The Duke, avidly awaiting them. Looking up to the sky, Azula took note that the sun was only just rising, their journey and fight having only taken up the span of a single night, in which Sozin's Comet passed and the Fire Lord was finally defeated. As the ramp touched down to the ground, the three boys approached them with surprised expressions.
"Wow, did you guys get a new airship?" Teo asked them, the Water Tribe boy rubbing the back of his head with an uneasy expression.
"Ah, yeah. The old one got blown up." he explained, their jaws dropping with surprise.
"Are you all alright?" Haru asked, looking around, "Where are the Kyoshi Warriors, and Hakoda?"
"My Dad got burned in the fight, but Katara's taking care of him." Sokka explained, before Suki answered in situ of her warriors.
"The Warriors are commanding the airship. I'm going to get their things, so we can all leave."
"Leave where?" The Duke questioned them, Toph walking down the plank to greet him.
"We're going to the Fire Nation Capital again." she explained, his expression brightening.
"To free our friends?" he asked, the earthbender girl nodding.
"We are." she confirmed, before Zuko cleared his throat.
"And I have to be crowned as Fire Lord." he explained, the three looking amongst themselves.
"What did you do with the Fire Lord?" Haru asked them, Aang looking back into the airship.
"I took his bending away, and now he's our prisoner."
"Take his bending away?!" the earthbender boy exclaimed with shock, looking to the others, "That's insane."
"Yeah, we were just as surprised when we heard." Toph acknowledged, before gesturing to the camp, "We can talk on the airship. Let's get this camp packed up."
As the group walked on down the ramp, Azula and Zuko remained up by the top, looking at each other for a moment; the Prince was the first to speak, "Are you okay, Zula?"
"Yeah, I'm fine." she lied, before making a genuine smile at him, "You should spend some time with your girlfriend. I bet she's gotten grumpy that you're hanging around me all the time."
"We just beat our father together. I've been worried about you ever since I got back to the Fire Nation."
"I know, Zuzu." she assured him with a hand on the shoulder, "You don't have to 'Uncle' me. I'm sure as long as the Earth King doesn't want to conquer the colonies, we'll all be fine."
"You say that like he's not going to try that if we refuse."
She cleared her throat, "If you refuse." she corrected his phrasing of the matter, seeing that he would be Fire lord, not her.
"I'm not going to ignore you, Azula. You're one of the smartest people I know."
"One of?" she raised a brow, making a smug grin, "Who are you comparing me to, exactly?"
"Well, I personally would say that my girlfriend is pretty witty, and the Kyoshi Warriors are all smart as well."
"Ah, I thought you were going to compare me to Sokka. I would have had to punch you for that." she warned him, making him snicker as he began to walk down the ramp.
"No, no, he's far smarter than us all." he mocked her, making her clench her fists before rolling her eyes, knowing that he was joking.
"You know, I really preferred it when you were serious all the time."