Chapter 44: Total Justice

As the battle raged on above them, Aang, Katara, and Toph continued to head deeper into the bunker, and now the passages were getting smaller and hotter. On a lower level all available passages converged together, ending at a rather small steel door, so innocuous that it didn't even have the Fire Nation insignia. Once again Toph made their own entrance by tearing apart the door with metalbending, and on the other side was a large chamber with tapestries on the walls. But there was no throne here, only a raised floor at the back, and there was someone else sitting there.

"Azula!" Aang yelled.

Sitting with her back to a tapestry, Azula simply smirked. "Expecting someone else?"

"Where's the Fire Lord?" Aang demanded.

"Not inside an easily collapsed bunker," Azula answered. She gestured at the wall, and then towards the sound of battle. "Seriously, did you really think that he would leave himself vulnerable to Taiyo's brute strength?"

A tremor shook dust off the ceiling, which gave Toph a decent picture of what was going on. "Huh? They're really going at it up there."

"Doesn't matter," Katara said. She felt another tremor shake the bunker, a sign of the battle taking place above them. "Even if you somehow hold us off, Taiyo will be down here any minute."

"Zhao can handle him now," Azula said. She paused and reconsidered. "Well for a little while anyway. But for now, I get to deal with you."

"Yeah, I don't think so," Aang denied. "The eclipse is about to start. In a moment you'll be powerless."

Azula smiled, and lifted two fingers. "There's just enough time for one more shock."

She swung her arm to the side, enough motion to create the smallest spark of lightning, aimed at the wall on her right. There was a tiny metal spike there, which caught the electricity and sent it to something behind the wall. It set off a chain reaction, with a lot more power released from storage, and the wall trembled. Aang leapt away before the wall exploded, sending rubble everywhere as a giant man burst out. Skin so pale it was white, with rotten flesh reinforced by modern steel, white hair frazzled by electricity, which had energized a man that was quite clearly dead.

This dead man was in a lot of pain, and he turned toward Aang. "Grundy crush little arrow-head man!"

Aang looked up as the monster charged at him. "Uh Oh…"

He jumped out of the way as a fist came down, which cracked the stone floor. Aang got a better look at Grundy, and what the Fire Nation had done to the dead man. Metal had been grafted into his flesh, mostly to reinforce his skeleton, and to add brass knuckles to his fists. Wires stretched up and down his arms and legs, which channeled the electricity that had awakened him, and various spikes sparked with power. The rotten flesh had been burned in many places, no doubt from many fires used to keep the dead man in line.

Toph earthbent large chunks of stone at the dead man, but they shattered against his body. "Um… what is this thing?"

"Just something a patrol stumbled upon in the Earth Kingdom," Azula answered. She paused as Grundy let out a mighty roar, and continued when he was finished. "Funny thing about him, no matter what anyone does to hurt him, he simply will not die."

That much, Toph learned quickly, when she unleashed a barrage of rocks that did no damage. It did get Grundy's attention, and he charged forward to strike at Toph. She raised a thick stone wall in his path, but the wall was shattered in a single strike. Aang took to the air, got over and behind Grundy, throwing bursts of wind at the dead man, to try and knock him off balance. Katata was slashing at Grundy with waterwhips, occasionally wrapping an arm or leg in the water to restrain him, but it barely slowed him down.

"You know, I meant to save him for Taiyo," Azula said. "But you'll do."

Since rocks weren't doing anything, Toph switched to bending the metal that was grafted into Grundy. The result was Grundy's arms falling straight to the floor, much to his surprise, and he howled in pain. Then he flexed muscles, applying more strength than before, and raised his arms back up to strike at Katara. The force applied with metalbending wasn't enough to overpower Grundy's brute strength, but it had the effect of slowing him down. It allowed Katara to swing her waterwhips with abandon, hitting him over and over, faster than Grundy could retaliate.

"We've got this under control," Toph said, struggling to keep up the metalbending. "Go."

Aang nodded, and then turned toward Azula, making a dash toward her. "The eclipse has started. You're powerless now."

"You would think so," Azula said. She hadn't moved from the raised floor, and she reached into her pocket to take out a small red rock. "But I'm curious Avatar, have you ever seen one of these before?"

"A red rock," Aang said, feigning ignorance about what it really was. And honestly he couldn't figure out any use Azula could have for it. "So what?"

"It's very similar to the green rocks in Ba Sing Se," Azula answered, tossing it between her hands. "Almost identical in fact, well, besides the color. But there is one key difference that makes it far more useful. Unlike the green variety, it's completely nontoxic."

"So it doesn't do anything at all," Aang said.

"Not quite," Azula said. She reached for the tapestry behind her to grab something hidden there. "It lets me do this!"

She grabbed a metal pole and swung it in front of her, even though Aang wasn't close enough for her to hit him. However, Aang felt something hit him anyway, and he was knocked onto his back, to his surprise. No one had seen what hit him, but everyone certainly heard it, even if they didn't understand what had happened. Azula was smiling, pleased to have gotten results, and deeply satisfied with her work. For a moment, Aang could have sworn he'd felt something similar before, but not for quite some time.

It was almost like being back at the Southern Air Temple.

Aang leapt to his feet, spun around, and swung his staff to throw a gust of wind at Azula. He saw her swing that pole at the same time, and a small twister formed between them. "That's not possible!"

"When I left Ba Sing Se…" Azula said, smirking all the while. "…I brought home some souvenirs, such as the Dai Li's formula for bending a second element."

Aang's hands were clenched tight around his staff, to the point where his knuckles cracked.

Azula continued her demonstration with a twirl of the pole to whip up a small whirlwind. "They used green meteor rock to give their earthbenders the ability to firebend, but it was quite lethal. I perfected it with the red variety, and now the lost art of airbending serves the Fire Nation."

If Aang could still enter the Avatar State, he would have done so now and used all of its power against Azula. Sheer rage took over at the sight of this perversion of airbending, his native element in the hands of someone that would not hesitate to kill with it. With an airbending-assisted leap, Aang reached the ceiling and punched it to bend, using earth to counter air. Cracks spread across the ceiling and the weight of all that rock made it collapse, showering the chamber in falling rock that threatened friend and foe alike.

Toph had to stop her metalbending in order to make a dome of stone around herself and Katara, which protected them from the falling rocks. Grundy was promptly buried in an enormous pile of rubble, though he would only be pinned for less than a minute. Azula was agile enough to dodge the rocks as they fell, occasionally swatting away the smaller ones while getting around the bigger ones. When the first collapse finished, Toph moved her stone dome and the rubble aside, so that she and Katara could gasp for air.

"Aang!" Katara called out. "What are you doing?!"

Toph had a pretty good idea. "I'm fairly certain Twinkletoes isn't thinking straight anymore."

Aang didn't respond to either of them, his only thoughts being the need to make Azula pay for desecrating the memory of his people. He was charging straight for where Azula stood, hurling his wind and more falling rocks at her, yet she did not bother to move out of the way. Thick walls of rock rose up in Aang's path, which blocked everything that Aang had thrown at Azula. He didn't let that stop him, as he simply tore down the walls with his earthbending, but the fact remained that someone else had raised those walls for Azula.

"I also brought Dai Li agents," Azula said. Six of them appeared from hiding places, three on each side of Azula. "Deal with his friends. The Avatar is mine."

On the surface it was peacefully quiet, until the very ground started to rumble.

Near the palace, the ground shattered and a plume of red energy erupted from below, and a few seconds later Taiyo fell out of the sky and crashed hard enough to make a man-sized crater. From the hole left behind Zhao rose out of the underground, and his ring glowed bright in preparation to attack again. But then Sokka flew straight up and through the hole at a fast speed, ramming Zhao and taking both of them up towards the eclipsed sun. It left Taiyo standing in the crater, watching as the two bright lights soaring into the sky.

"A Green Lantern? Here?"

The woman's voice caught Taiyo's attention, apparently belonging to the only person that stayed in the evacuated city. Taiyo turned to see a strange redhead sitting in a comfortable chair, who had apparently been waiting for the eclipse while wearing dark tinted glasses. She was wearing black clothing that left her arms and midriff exposed, with not a trace or hint of any kind of armor. Aside from being outdoors when any sane person would be taking shelter, she seemed like someone that simply did not fit here.

"And a Red Lantern too," the woman said, watching the two fight with the eclipse as a backdrop. "Who knew their war would come here?"

"Um, excuse me?" Taiyo asked, climbing out of the crater and walking towards the strange woman. "What are you referring to?"

The woman removed her glasses and looked at Taiyo, her eyes widening when she saw the symbol on his shirt. "A kryptonian too?! I thought your people were extinct!"

"Wait, what?" Taiyo blurted out. "How do you know about that?"

"Oh where are my manners?" the woman wondered aloud. She got up from her chair and took a few steps towards Taiyo, studying him like one would a piece of meat. "I'm Maxima, and it seems this planet is full of surprises."

Taiyo did not like the implications. "That doesn't sound good."

Maxima grinned like some childhood schoolgirl. "And you must be who Azula was talking about. You're the person that I could get to fight today."

Without any further warning, Maxima charged at Taiyo, moving faster than a human could but not quite fast enough to blur her features. She surprised Taiyo and slammed into him like a wild moose-lion, and her impact cracked like some vast boom of thunder. Both of them went across a street and into one of the capital's fancy homes, demolishing a wall and crashing into someone's kitchen. Water spayed from broken pipes as Taiyo got up, seeing Maxima smiling as she rose to her feet, eager to see where this would go.

Maxima charged again, but this time Taiyo braced himself and crossed his arms to block. His solid footing dug through the floor under the strain of impact, and he slid far enough to break through another wall and into a dining room. There Taiyo struck back with an upward punch to Maxima's chest, which launched her through the roof and out of the house. He got outside in time to see her fall into another house several blocks away, and was starting to appreciate the fact that the capital's civilians were all in underground shelters.

"Good thing they're already out of harm's way," Taiyo muttered.

He saw Maxima rush at him, and he punched at the right moment, hitting her side and launching her to his left to crash into another house. Now he ran towards her instead and struck just as Maxima was getting up, sending her through the other side of the house and through a few more beyond. Both of them charged at each other and threw punches at the same time, each hitting the other in the jaw hard enough to knock each other back the way they came. Maxima ended up almost all the way to the caldera rim, and Taiyo hit the palace wall hard enough to leave a person sized dent in the metal.

Taiyo wiped spit off of his mouth and grinned, noticing a feeling that he knew he shouldn't be having right now. "I'm enjoying this."

He was fighting an opponent that could actually take a beating, and dish it out just as fiercely. Taiyo charged at Maxima and they collided at the east end of the city, his impact making a shockwave that shattered nearby windows. There they traded blows faster than the human eye could see, and Taiyo was grinning the whole time. After slamming her into the caldera wall, Taiyo couldn't help but wonder if Maxima was planning to stick around, just so that he could have the opportunity to spar with her at a later time.

But he was getting ahead of himself, and Taiyo brought himself back into focus on the here and now. "Alright, let's see what you can do."

The battle between the Green and Red Lanterns waged on in the eclipsed sky, red and green lights shining brighter than the ring of fire that was the sun behind the moon. Zhao kept making bigger and sharper weapons out of his red energy, and Sokka kept weaving around those weapons while throwing various blunt weapons made of green energy. One particularly large red mace struck Sokka and sent him tumbling through the air, and he ended up over the invasion forces by the time he reoriented himself.

"This could take a while," Sokka complained.

As he spotted Zhao coming after him, Sokka aimed his ring and fired a barrage of green arrows at him, most of which simply shattered against Zhao's red arm that shielded his face. Zhao then aimed his ring at Sokka, following the moving target wherever it went. This time Sokka wasn't sure if he could get around Zhao's next attack, but then a blue beam shot up from below and struck Zhao. Sokka spared a moment to look down and saw the Blue Beetle flying towards him, his armored right hand seemingly morphed into a cannon.

"What are you doing up here?" Sokka asked.

"You weren't exactly hard to find," Blue Beetle answered. He spotted Zhao recovering from the surprise attack and coming back towards them. "Talk later!"

Zhao swung a large red sword at Blue Beetle, who was almost too slow to dodge and got his mechanical insect wings clipped by the blade. He fell for a short time while his armor automatically rebuilt the wings, but had nearly hit the ground before he could fly again. As if sensing the vulnerability the armor morphed from mechanical wings to a single back mounted engine, which ignited with blue fire for thrust to get him back in the sky quickly. And as he ascended again, the armor morphed around his hands into sharp sickles, which Blue Beetle used to slash at Zhao.

The blue sickles were blocked by Zhao's red arm, while he used his ring to make a red shield to stop a green club from Sokka. Zhao quickly found himself on the defensive in this fight, holding off two opponents fighting at once. After Zhao blocked several more attacks his body glowed bright red, and then released a burst of power that pushed his opponents away. Both of them ended up below Zhao and he saw the invasion force below them, which had advanced almost all the way to the base of the volcano.

Sokka noticed the invasion below, and he had a bad feeling when he saw Zhao smirk. "Aw crap…"

Red energy quickly coalesced around Zhao's artificial fist while he held it behind his back, and when Zhao thrust his fist at Sokka it fired a large red beam at him as well as towards the invasion below. In order to protect the invasion force from Zhao's airborne attack Sokka fired his own green beam to collide with Zhao's, and the two energies clashed and pushed against each other. Gradually Zhao's beam pushed back Sokka's beam bit by bit, pushing Sokka closer and closer to the invasion force below him.

At the same altitude Blue Beetle saw the beam war and flew to Sokka's side, reforming the blue cannon around his right hand. He put that cannon next to Sokka's ring hand and fired a blue beam, which collided with Zhao's red beam and worked together with Sokka's green beam to push it back. Together they pushed the collision point nearly all the way back to Zhao, who was in turn being pushed higher into the sky. Zhao refused to let these little punks blast him away, no matter what it would take to prevail.

So Zhao put his ring in the red power battery hooked to his waist.

"With Blood and Rage of Crimson Red,

"We Fill Men's Souls with Darkest Dread,

"And Twist Your Minds to Pain and Hate.

"We'll Burn You All. That Is Your Fate!"

Power surged from the battery into the ring, through Zhao's body and down his artificial arm, and then into the beam to intensify its strength tenfold. The stronger beam pushed much harder against the two smaller ones opposing it, pushing them back to their makers within a few short moments. Zhao's beam hit Sokka and Blue Beetle and pushed them all the way down to the ground, right in the middle of the invasion force and leaving a wide crater within their midst. When Zhao couldn't see his foes anymore he stopped firing, and then looked down to see if they had survived.

After the beam had stopped, Sokka groaned and managed get up onto one knee, though his uniform was damaged in places and his skin was bruised and bleeding. He looked around saw that chunks of Blue Beetle's armor had been stripped off in various spots, exposing the flesh underneath, in similar condition that Sokka was in. Both outfits were quickly repaired by their respective abilities, though the wounds remained and were quite painful. Their only saving grace was that Zhao appeared to be worn out, since he wasn't attacking again just yet.

"This isn't working!" Sokka complained, punching the ground.

Blue Beetle pushed his chest off the dirt, and he coughed up a little bit of blood. "I hear you're the idea guy! You think of something!"

Sokka looked up to see Zhao charging up to use the same attack again. "I don't suppose there's a way to more efficiently combine our powers."

Suddenly Blue Beetle seemed distracted, as if listening to an unheard voice. "We can? Oh hey we can!"

"Great! How do we do it?" Sokka asked.

The large scarab clamped onto Kordan's back split down the middle. "Um… Put your battery in there and use your oath."

"How exactly do you know about that?" Sokka asked.

"The armor has a lot of information inside," Kordan answered. "Now just do it."

Sokka took his power battery off his belt and shoved it into the open scarab, having a vague idea as to what Kordan had in mind. The scarab partially closed around the battery, though the top half was still exposed. Dozens of wires came out and slithered into the battery's swirling green energy, connecting to something hidden within. A sinking feeling formed in Sokka's gut, like this was something they really shouldn't be doing. The big red light above them was a compelling argument to keep going, especially when Zhao fired his enormous red beam again.

In response Blue Beetle fired his blue beam before they were ready, and it clashed with the red beam to barely keep it at bay. Sokka shoved his ring into the battery, and after a deep breath he spoke as fast as he possibly could.

"In-Brightest-Day-In-Blackest-Night-No-Evil-Shall-Escape-My-Sight-Let-Those-Who-Worship-Evil's-Might-Beware-My-Power-Green-Lantern's-Light!"

Power erupted from the battery and flowed into Sokka's ring, and overflowed into the wires leading to Blue Beetle's armor. Green lines appeared along a path from the scarab down the right arm, ending at the large cannon firing the blue beam. The cannon started to glow bright green before a surge of power amplified the beam it was firing, turning it green with a blue core. The amplified beam struck Zhao's red beam and overpowered it in moments, hitting Zhao hard enough to launch him far beyond the western horizon.

When it was over smoke billowed out from Blue Beetle's cannon, and he found the joints in his arm very stiff and difficult to move. Sokka's hand was clenched in agony, especially when he pulled it out of the battery. The wires in the scarab were black and fried, and they crumbled into dust when Sokka removed his battery. Much to his horror, Sokka found that the battery had gone completely dark, the green light just about completely gone. Sokka wondered if the battery could ever be used again, or if it had lost its power permanently.

"This is not good," Sokka said.

"No kidding," Blue Beetle agreed. His cannon sparked and warped in odd ways as it reverted to a normal hand. "I think my armor is damaged."

Sokka sighed. "I hope the others are doing better than we did."

It was madness inside the second secret bunker.

Grundy had emerged from the rubble, and he attacked anyone he saw no matter who it was. The Dai Li agents were keeping their distance, hurling rock gloves and other assorted pieces of stone, targeting the two girls that opposed them. As such Toph had to focus on guarding against the enemy earthbending, shattering the stone gloves and other projectiles they used. Katara was left to face Grundy alone, and she had drawn all the water she carried, having it coat her arms like tentacles, which whipped at the dead man while she avoided his fists.

A backhanded swing from Grundy almost hit Katara, coming within a hair's breadth. "Pretty Lady not stop Grundy!"

In a moment of desperation, Katara threw all of her water at Grundy's legs, and froze it to try and slow him down. "Toph, are there any pipes buried in here?"

With a stomp of her foot for a better view, Toph smiled. "Yes there are."

With both fists clenched, Toph pulled upward, and an earthquake went off. The floor split apart in several places, and the pipes buried there were torn apart, releasing their water as several geysers. Everything nearby was quickly sprayed, and Katara seized that water to put to use. She mixed the water with all the airborne dust floating around, the result of so many rocks being smashed, and created a flood of mud to throw around. Katara sent all of it at Grundy, submerging him in mud well over five feet thick, and then froze it all into a giant mound of dirty ice.

"That should hold for a couple minutes," Katara said. There was more water spraying from broken pipes, which she took and turned against the Dai Li. "Long enough to deal with them."

Meanwhile, at the far end of the bunker, Aang flat out ignored the Dai Li and they ignored him. Aang's anger demanded that he focus exclusively on Azula, and she was glad to have him all to herself. She had dashed away from the tapestry, to get some distance from the larger battle, and to draw Aang away from his friends. Azula smirked as she held the middle of her pole in one hand and spun it fast, quickly whipping up a whirlwind directly in front of Aang's path. But with a single swing of his staff Aang calmed the air and he closed in on Azula, and when he swung his staff again it clashed against Azula's pole.

"You have no idea what you're doing!" Aang yelled. "Air doesn't fight like fire! You pervert everything the element represents! You could never even begin to master it!"

"Oh, I think I'll manage just fine," Azula said. "After all, I've only had this power for a week and I've already figured out this little maneuver."

Azula leaped away from Aang, flicked a switch on her pole, and spun it around like Aang often did. The weapon unfolded into a perfect replica of Aang's original glider, but with metal instead of wood and red fabric instead of orange. Azula jumped while calling to the air to bring a gale, getting the wind under her counterfeit glider to take flight in the ruined chamber. Aang unfolded his new glider and took flight after Azula, seeing red again at the cheap knockoff, giving chase in the air and going above the battle with the Dai Li.

It was no contest flying on gliders, Aang's experience easily beating whatever natural talent Azula might have had. Even with the Dai Li agents chucking rocks everywhere, Aang avoided the hazards and still caught up to her very quickly. Near the bunker's entrance, Aang knocked Azula out of the air, using the wind to rip the knockoff glider out of her hands, watching her crash into the floor and slide into a wall. She was getting up when Aang landed, saw a nearby Dai Li agent about to attack him, only for Aang to use a backhanded motion to earthbend and strike down the agent.

Aang proceeded to slam his body into Azula, and he pinned her against the wall. He had his glider folded back into a staff, and he held it against Azula's throat. Then Aang clenched his free hand to earthbend stone restraints out of the wall, snaring Azula by her arms and legs to keep her from moving. It would have been all too easy to crush her in the stone, to snuff out her life and its perversion of airbending once and for all. But by now the rage within Aang was beginning to subside, and Azula could see it in his eyes.

"As if you'd actually do it," Azula mocked. "Everyone knows Air Nomads don't kill."

"Don't! Tempt! Me!" Aang yelled. He kept his eyes on Azula, even as he heard the others finishing the fight with the Dai Li and coming after him. "Now Where Is The Fire Lord?!"

Azula smirked. "You won't reach him in time. He's out on the western side of the island, near the coastline cliffs. A shame you came all the way down here, the eclipse will be over long before you even get to the surface."

Aang punched the wall to make it soft with earthbending, and with his other hand he pushed Azula into the rock until only her head was left uncovered, then let the rock harden up. "Then you can stay down here until he comes back."

Having seen Aang and Azula pass by, Katara was running out of the bunker. "Aang, I hope you're done with her. Because we need to go!"

Toph was right behind her, and she was hurling more large rocks at the Dai Li agents, which knocked out the ones that were pursuing her. "Okay that should-"

Ice shattered, and a mighty roar bellowed out.

Toph sighed. "-do it."

Katara turned around, and saw the dead man freed from the dirty ice. "Just bury him already and let's get out of here!"

Grundy charged after Katara and Toph, ignoring all of the Dai Li agents nearby. Toph dashed into his path, riding a chunk of rock to get there quickly, and then resumed metalbending the grafted steel inside Grundy. The dead man promptly face-planted into the floor, and Toph kept him there long enough for Aang to earthbend the ceiling and rend it asunder. After so much damage already, the ceiling completely caved in, burying Grundy under many tons of rock. Only a small portion near the entrance remained clear, and it was all they needed.

"That won't hold for long," Toph admitted.

"It will hold long enough," Aang replied. "Let's go."

Taiyo realized he should have seen this coming.

The fight with Maxima had been going well, at first. He had greater strength and speed, more than Maxima had anyway. But as the fight went on, he was gradually getting slower, gradually getting weaker, and gradually losing his advantage. After a few minutes Maxima had evened the odds, and she was now gaining the upper hand. Now Maxima was throwing him around like a rag doll, and for one of the few times in his life Taiyo was starting to feel sore. Looking up he realized what the problem was, the solar eclipse.

Behind the moon, the sun appeared to be little more than a thin ring of light, barely providing any illumination or heat to the island. It would have been something to marvel at, if he had the time to appreciate it. The source of Taiyo's power was momentarily cut off, and the fight with Maxima was consuming the reserves his body stored for when there wasn't enough sunlight. As his reserves were drained so too were the levels of his abilities, and unless something changed the power would eventually run out.

One blow to the face launched Taiyo up and into the fifth floor of the palace, breaking through the wall and ending up in Azula's bedroom. He rubbed his sore jaw before he spat out a few drops of blood, not caring that it got on Azula's favorite pillow. "Not so much fun anymore."

Her power remaining constant, Maxima easily leaped the distance to get through the same hole that Taiyo's crash had just made. "I haven't had a fight like this in years."

"Happy to oblige," Taiyo said.

He grabbed Azula's large bed and swung it into Maxima, smashing her against a wall and destroying the bed. A large chunk of a bedpost survived, which Maxima grabbed and swung at Taiyo and hit him in the chest. The strike destroyed the bedpost while knocking Taiyo into a cabinet, shattering the wood and burying him in a pile of expensive clothing. Taiyo leapt out of the pile and slammed into Maxima, and then threw her into the door and broke it down. Right next to the broken door Maxima smashed through the wall, tacked Taiyo, and brought him down to the floor next to the first hole.

Maxima grabbed Taiyo's throat and lifted him up, and she held up out the hole to dangle high above the ground. Then she looked up at the sky. "Now look at that. I missed the best part of the transit!"

Taiyo looked up, and saw the first rays of sunlight slip past the moving moon. "Yes, you did."

Already his solar energy reserves were regenerating in the returning sunlight, and he put it to use with his eyes glowing red. Fire shot from his eyes and towards Maxima's face, which she just barely guarded with her free arm. Instinct took over and Maxima dropped Taiyo, letting him fall to get the source of the fire away from her. The burns on her arm were light and would eventually heal over, though not as fast as some species could regenerate. Maxima took a moment to glance at the sun while she still could, wanting to at least see the end of the transit.

After landing on the ground, Taiyo jumped back up, and he threw an uppercut that hit Maxima's jaw and launched her into the ceiling. Taiyo set foot back in the bedroom and grabbed Maxima as she fell back down, and put all his strength into throwing her back outside. It was like being launched from a catapult, the way Maxima practically flew over the horizon. Taiyo didn't know how strong of an impact Maxima could live through, but he figured that she was going to land somewhere in the ocean instead of the next island over.

Looking out the hole toward the east, Taiyo spotted the invasion force finally entering the caldera. "Aang had better done his job, or this will be for nothing."

Having run out of time to use the solar eclipse, Aang and the others left in the quickest way possible.

Toph's vibration sight had led them to a ventilation shaft, which went most of the way up to the surface. Aang and Toph made a rising column of rock, which ferried them and Katara up as far as the shaft allowed. From there they earthbent a path for the rest of the way, which put them in the ground floor of the palace. It was a short run to the front doors, and then through the courtyard to reach the city streets. They immediately noticed that several buildings had been damaged, along with all the debris scattered everywhere.

"What happened here?" Aang wondered.

Katara pointed up and to the left. "Pretty sure he happened."

From that direction, Taiyo dropped down to the ground, cratering stone around his feet with his landing. "So what went wrong with your part?"

"He wasn't there," Aang answered. "We went down to the bottom and the Fire Lord wasn't there."

Just a moment later Sokka flew in, landing next to the others and he delivered his own news. "Well we got rid of Zhao, for a little while anyway. But what are we going to do now that the eclipse is over?"

"We'll probably see some firebenders soon," Katara pointed out.

Taiyo pointed at the invasion force approaching along the main road. "We should get back to them and then make our next move."

They were halfway down the road when Sokka noticed a shadow that he could not explain. So he looked up to see what it was. "Not good."

High in the sky were five hot air balloons, all of them painted red and bearing the Fire Nation insignia. Sokka had wanted to believe they had nipped this threat in the bud months ago, when he and the others had prevented the Mechanist from delivering the design to the Fire Nation. But it seemed the soldiers that day had recovered the wreckage of the prototype, which they had used to build more war balloons. Apparently these ones had been kept farther to the west during the eclipse, and were coming out of hiding now that it was over.

Among the invasion force, which had pushed all the way to the caldera by now, the Mechanist saw the war balloons too. "My old invention! Oh this is terrible!"

It got worse.

Just behind the air balloons were five much larger vessels, each bigger than a navy battle cruiser. They resembled completely sealed metal tubes, but with the image of a dragon's head depicted at the front end. At the middle and on both sides, each vessel had a section with the Fire Nation insignia painted on it, and attached to that part were several propellers that moved the vessels forward. Like the balloons these vessels were lighter than air and flew through it with ease, and people were quick to start calling them airships.

"We'd better get back to the subs," Sokka suggested.

Though he couldn't hear his son from across the city, Hakoda had the same idea. "We're leaving."

As such the two groups made their way back toward the harbor, with Aang and his friends moving at a faster pace and thus catching up quickly. They met up at the base of the volcano, along the road that led back to the harbor, and got to see how everyone else was faring. There had been casualties, but for the most part they were light, and those that survived had only minor injuries. By then everyone could see the airships appear from beyond the caldera rim, steadily catching up and threatening to overtake their progress toward the subs.

Taiyo went in front of everyone and address them all, pointing to the airships bearing down on them. "Okay, who wants to help take those things down?"

Nine hands were raised without hesitation, nearly half belonging to Aang and his immediate friends.

"Middle one first," Taiyo suggested, pointing his thumb at that particular airship. "Let's get moving."

Jee appeared next to Toph. "I could use a ramp."

"Coming up," Toph said, and she quickly earthbent one for him.

"Thank you," Jee said, adding a polite curtsy.

He ran in a wide circle to pick up speed before running up the ramp, and Jee used that speed to launch himself into the air toward the airship. Aang unfolded his glider and took flight after him, and he was followed by Katara and Toph getting on Appa and taking the sky bison into the air. Taiyo picked up Kurri in both arms and leapt into the sky, easily getting higher than the airships before coming down. Sokka made his ring project a green aura around Swamp Thing to carry him, while Blue Beetle simply picked up Jodai Hex before following them.

Jee almost missed the landing and he skidded along the edge of the middle airship, coming to a stop near the back end of it. His arrival startled firebenders stationed on the roof, which in turn distracted them while Taiyo landed in the middle and dented the metal. On Katara's signal, she and Toph jumped from Appa to land on the airship, and Toph slammed her fists to tear apart the hull with metalbending. The firebenders found their footing yanked out from under them, and they fell before they knew what was going on.

Taiyo laned on the hull of the ship, set Kurri on his feet, and Taiyo tore open a gash in the hull for Kurri to enter. Then Sokka arrived and dropped Swamp Thing right into the metalbent hole, where he began to strike down the soldiers inside with his stretchable vine-arm. He was followed by Blue Beetle, who dropped Jodai Hex onto an intact portion of the hull, where he started slashing at soldiers trying to defend the airship. Once all ten of them were on the airship they got to work taking it apart, each doing so in their own way.

"Let's tear it up!" Toph declared.

Together, Katara and Jodai Hex dealt with soldiers and firebenders that attempted to get on top of the hull, swinging waterwhips and throwing axes where needed. Kurri and Swamp Thing were taking out those approaching from within, easily stopping them from reaching the hole. While those four kept their foothold secure, Taiyo and Jee went inside the airship and raced through it at high speed. They knocked out members of the crew, and then securing their bodies to safety harnesses on the walls, to minimize injuries later.

In moments the entire crew of the airship had been disabled, and there was just the airship itself to destroy. On the roof, Toph used her metalbending to spread a vast web of deep cracks throughout the upper half of the airship, which Aang and Katara bent water into and froze to split the metal even further. Meanwhile Sokka and Blue Beetle were below the airship fired their respective colored beams into the underbelly, blasting apart the bottom while the others tore apart the top. All of the hot air and lighter-than-air gas within the airship was lost to the wind, stripping the airship of its ability to fly.

"And down it goes," Sokka said.

In less than a minute, the airship began to fall out of the sky, plummeting into the caldera below. The airship actually fell a lot faster than they all expected it to, so everyone figured that now was a good time to bail out. Taiyo grabbed both Jee and Toph by the back of their shirts before he jumped off the airship, followed by Sokka and Blue Beetle picking up everyone else and flying into the caldera. All ten of them ended up back on that main road in the capital, just as the airship was about to crash into the ground behind them.

Somehow, they'd all ended up in a line facing the rest of the invasion force, as if they had intended for this to happen. Taiyo and Aang were in the middle, and to Taiyo's right were Katara, Sokka, Blue Beetle, Jee, and Swamp Thing. To Aang's left were Toph, Kurri, and Jodai Hex, in that order. Right behind them the airship crashed into the road, and an inferno sprung up where metal grinded against the ground. To the people in front of them it appeared that they were casually walking away from the blaze, as if they didn't even notice the blaze was there.

Taiyo saw amazed looks among the invasion force, took a look to his left and right, and then looked at Aang. "Do you wish you'd planned this too?"

Aang looked around, and nodded.

The blaze behind them quickly subsided, and everyone expected swift retaliation from the rest of the airship fleet. However, the airships changed course, half flying to the left and the other half flying to the right. Apparently, the captains of these airships were panicking, and didn't want their vessels to suffer the same fate as the one that crashed. But they were also accelerating, and they could still turn back to their proper course, and bring them within range of the submarines. That appeared to have been their goal all along, to attack the submarines and prevent the invasion force from retreating to the sea.

"Everyone back to the subs!" Sokka ordered.

Immediately, everyone rushed back towards the harbor, in case the airships were faster than they thought. Everyone was going at their own maximum pace trying to get there in time, resulting in the faster people quickly getting ahead of the others. Jee arrived first and warned the people that were guarding the submarines, and they immediately began preparing them for departure. Taiyo arrived a second later and started carrying people inside of the submarines, starting with the wounded and others that couldn't fight any longer.

By the time everyone else arrived, the submarines were ready to go, and Taiyo signaled them. "Alright, move it people, we have got to go!"

Earthbenders dislodged the ground beneath the beached submarines, sliding an enormous slab of earth into the water, which took the submarines with it. Waterbenders then summoned a wave to carry the submarines away, which also turned the submarines around, facing away from the capital. Sokka created several large green hands to push the submarines faster, out of harm's way as the airships approached. With the waves beneath them and the green hands behind them, the submarines went up and over the barricades in the harbor, getting them out and into open water.

When the airships arrived, there was nothing for them to bomb.

The submarines continued to move as fast as the waterbenders and Sokka's ring could propel them, all the way to the Great Gates of Azulon. Taiyo was running on the water, outside the range of the waterbent wave, and he leapt into one of the statues on the side. The impact shattered the statue, and it's end of the net fell into the water, sinking to the bottom and opening the path for the submarines to escape. They kept on going until the capital island vanished behind the horizon, and even then, they kept watch for the airship that could be in pursuit.

The waterbenders were exhausted, and the submarines came to a stop on the open sea. The hatch on one submarine opened, Hakoda emerged, and he signaled to the sky bison that had followed all the way out here. Appa landed on the hull of the submarined, followed by Sokka landing and Taiyo climbing aboard. Aang, Katara, and Toph climbed down from Appa's saddle, exhausted but relieved to have gotten everyone out of the botched invasion. The mood was grim, since they were no closer to stopping the Fire Lord.

"What do we do now?" Aang wondered aloud.

Hakoda approached the group. "We regroup. We recover. And we try again later."

"There won't be a later," Aang said. "This was the last eclipse before the comet comes. The next one won't matter if the Fire Lord has already won."

"Then we come up with another plan," Sokka said. "In the meantime, we're not done escaping. Those airships are sure to come after us."

"All of you need to be somewhere else," Hakoda advised. "Take Appa and go as far as you can. The rest of us can handle the retreat from here."

Toph immediately metalbent all the armor on Appa, stripping it off and leaving the scraps on the submarine. "We'll move a lot faster without the dead weight."

Katara turned toward her dad. "We can't just leave you behind."

"We'll survive," Hakoda reassured. "Now go. Don't waste any more time."

"Yeah sure," Taiyo said. "I'll check in with everyone else once we've gotten Appa somewhere safe."

With his glider in hand, Aang took off first, and he looked back to his friends getting on the sky bison. "I know just the place for us to go where we'll be safe for a while, the Western Air Temple."

Meanwhile, somewhat to the north, a single hot air balloon slowly drifted across the sky. The sole occupant was none other Prince Zuko, having finally decided to abandon his father's cause. He couldn't be a part of what the Fire Lord wanted to do to the world, and that abandoning his ideals was too high a price to pay for his father's approval. Zuko couldn't stand by and let the Fire Lord's plans come to fruition, he had to take action to stop them. To that end he stole one of the new war balloons, and took it into the sky to fulfil a destiny of his own making.

And yet fate had a whimsical sense of humor, for he was chasing the Avatar once more.