A huge block of earth erupted from the ground and came tunnelling straight for me however before I could even spring out of the way Toph stamped a foot and punched forwards, breaking the rock apart before sending it back. "Great catch there Toph, thank you." I said to her gratefully before I spiralled over her head and dashed forwards, yelling as I sent a blast of air at Azula however she dodged, too light on her feet and too fast to catch with these agents constantly slowing us down with their own attacks. "Sokka look out!" Yelling in warning I twisted as fast as I could and planted my feet against a huge pillar, bending my knees before all at once I flew down to Sokka and grabbed him by the middle to pull us both out of the way of one of the Dai Li agents and the huge rockslide he'd created to try and crush Sokka.
"Okay, now I feel totally out of my depth." He complained as we slid to a halt on the floor.
"Chin up Sokka, just stay light on your feet." I suggested as I put him down and quickly returned to the fight, keeping the agents away from Aang so that he could go after Azula although she was making it increasingly difficult for him. Suddenly the earth rose up around my feet and anchored me down, making me cry out as I momentarily lost my balance but then I had to quickly send a blast of air at the agent in front of me to fight against the rock that was sliding my way. We fought against one another, the air slowing it gradually but neither of us relented, gritting our teeth.
"Thyra no!" I blinked when I heard Toph cry out my name and it was only then I noticed the other Dai Li agent as he sliced through the pillar before pushing it down directly in my path, making my eyes widen. With quick movements Toph created a tomb around me to shield me, releasing my feet so I curled up into a ball and the air began to spiral, circling around and around into a ball before all at once it exploded outwards with a rush of energy. The air blasted away the rocks and one of the agents, giving Toph and I the window we needed to take them down together. I blasted them both again and trapped them against the wall to give us time to pass back through the wall, one of them knocked completely unconscious however the other came chasing after us once he was able. "Ready?" Nodding my head to Toph, I crouched down behind the wall.
The moment the agent passed through I yelled, circling the air around him before slamming him into the ground and knocked him through the door, hitting him like a ball and listened to his alarmed cry as he flew. "Haha! That was hilarious!" Toph grinned and I winked to her before we hurried forwards again, chasing after Aang and Sokka who had made after Azula however, just as Toph and I caught up Sokka flung out his arms to stop us.
"Wait! Aang, Toph, Thyra, stop attacking. Don't you see what she's doing? She's just playing with us. She's not even trying to win this fight!" I shot Azula a deathly glare.
"Not true, I'm giving it my all." She protested unenthusiastically, earning a frustrated growl from Sokka as Toph pointed to her accusingly and my hand instinctively went to her shoulder ready to shield her.
"You're trying to keep us here and waste all our time!"
"Um, right. I think your friend just said that genius, and since you can't see, I should tell you I'm rolling my eyes."
"I'll roll your whole head!" Before Toph could carry through with her threat I tightened my grip on her shoulder and pulled her back, knowing that Azula was just trying to bait us and she was too dangerous to approach, even without firebending at her disposal. I heard Toph growl under her breath so I smiled down at her and although she couldn't see it, she seemed to sense it as I felt her relax under my hand.
"Okay, so what do we do? Just ignore her?"
"We don't have a choice. We just have to get out of here and find the Fire Lord on our own somehow." To prove his point Sokka turned and began to walk away, the other two joining him however I stepped backwards and retreated whilst still facing her, not daring to take my eyes off her for a single moment.
"It's a trap. Don't say I didn't warn you."
"Ignore!" We kept on walking, however when Azula spoke next, it touched a very personal nerve with Sokka that even I hadn't expected.
"So, Sokka's your name right? My favourite prisoner used to mention you all the time." I sensed him freeze in place and the air around him turned cold at Azula's baiting. "She was convinced that you were going to come rescue her. Of course, you never came and she gave up on you." That was a low blow and before I could stop him, Sokka had leaped past me with tears in his eyes, crying out in rage and anger as he rushed the princess. As her hand flickered I saw the glint of a blade, making my heart leap to my throat in fear as instantly I punched forwards, blasting her with air to slam her body against the wall at the same moment Toph lifted a rock from the ground and powered it forwards, knocking the blade from Azula's hand and trapping her wrist to the wall just as Sokka reached her.
"Where…is…Suki?!" I have never heard such a tone from Sokka before and it hit me how much he must feel for Suki. If Azula had her then it meant that she must have all the Kyoshi warriors locked up somewhere, but how? Last I heard, they were in Ba Sing Se helping the refugees, Sokka had told me all about them crossing the Serpent's Pass together. "Where's Suki?! Answer me!" The rest of us rushed forwards and Aang grasped his sleeve.
"Sokka, she won't talk."
"Where are you keeping her?!" Azula just smirked, only serving to make Sokka angrier however before he could ask again, a loud explosion and the trembling ground disturbed us and with horror, I realised we were out of time.
"Oh, sounds like the firebending is back on." With reflexes faster than humanly possible I grabbed Sokka and ripped him away from Azula as she kicked up her foot with blue flames producing an arc, missing Sokka narrowly as I drew him back to safety with a blast of wind from my lungs which pushed us both away from Azula who got a face full of it, making me smirk in satisfaction. Snarling at me darkly she shot another fireball at us however Toph stepped in front and created a large rock wall to shield us. When the wall dropped Azula had already released herself, flipping overhead before then turning to face us. "Dad's all the way at the end of the hall and down the secret stairway on the left. I'm sure he'll be more than happy to see you now." I was steadily growing to detest her dark sarcasm to new extremes. As she ran away, Sokka crushed his head into his hand.
"I fell for it! I used up all our time."
"It's not your fault, Sokka. Azula was ready for us. She had every move planned out." Toph comforted him as I rubbed his back, trying to console him about Suki and assured him that she was tougher than pretty much everyone and she would be perfectly fine wherever she was.
"Maybe it's not too late to solve this. The eclipse may be over but I can face the Fire Lord anyway and try to end this." Aang suggested however both Sokka and I spoke simultaneously, though I was more forceful.
"No. That's a bad idea."
"But I'm ready! I came here with a job to do and everyone's counting on me."
"The Fire Lord knew we were coming this time. We thought we had surprise on our side but we didn't. It just wasn't our day. What we need to do now is go help our friends." Toph reasoned as I nodded my head.
"Right now we're outnumbered by an entire army of firebenders who will now be heading down to our forces to try and wipe them out. We need to get back out there and get everyone to safety." I said as I walked forwards and began to lead the way back to the outside. "I know it's frustrating Aang, but we have to be patient. The time will come when you'll be ready to face Fire Lord Ozai and when you do…" Turning back my head I gave Aang a calm smile, fixing my gaze on him. "He'll be the one who'll be afraid to face you. Come on." So with everyone underwing we raced back to Appa and flew to our forces however as we landed, airships rose up into the skies and began to fly directly towards us.
"It was all a trap. Azula knew we were coming and she plotted out every move." Sokka called out to his sister and father as he jumped down from Appa with Toph. "We just got to get to the beach as fast as we can. If we can make it to the submarines, maybe we can get away safely." My head turned towards the airships, gut filling with a fiery determination.
"They've got air power, but so do I!" Aang announced as he and I both opened up our gliders. "I'm going to do what I can to slow them down."
"I'm with you Aang." Both of us leaped into the air and spiralled over one another, using the air currents to glide towards the airships which were huge in size and rather intimidating to look at. First there were the smaller war balloons. Banking upwards I rolled over onto my back to gain altitude before then closing the glider and slashed across with all my strength, sending a slice directly down at the fist balloon however I overestimated the power and it sliced through the next three balloons also, tearing the fabric and sending them down to the ground in a fast descent. Nonplussed that I too was falling from the sky I opened my glider once more and flew forwards, helping Aang and Katara to slow down the airships however the massive ones were unstoppable. There was nothing Aang or I could do except keep the fireballs from hitting out forces.
"Aang!" Katara cried out in fear and both of us turned our heads, seeing Appa having to quickly bank and roll to avoid being struck however the sudden movement had cost Katara her seat and she plummeted. My brother shouted her name in horror however I was already diving, glider closed to gain speed as Katara's body rotated. "Thyra!"
"Hold out your hand!" I ordered and she reached for me, allowing me to close the last distance and catch hold of her arm and pull her into me where she held onto me as tightly as she could as I opened my glider and pushed down with my feet, creating a cyclone of air to slow our fall then push us back upwards like shooting stars. Appa growled apologetically as I deposited Katara back onto his neck, her face relieved before she quickly smiled at me. "Thank me later, focus on the fireballs!" Quickly I smashed back a fireball and it returned to the airship it had been shot from, smashing the hull and the flames burned brilliantly. We held off the attacks as much as we could however there was too much to handle by ourselves and Appa was struggling to remain unscathed, being such a big target the firebenders aimed directly for him.
"We can't keep them all back, there's just too many of them!" Katara yelled over the wind as she, Aang and I fell into formation.
"Let's join the others." Nodding my head in agreement we all took a dive, heading to the ground where Sokka was leading everyone back to the subs. They had made it to the slopes however the moment we landed Sokka yelled for everyone to take cover, the bay doors of the airships opening wide and releasing a wave of bombs upon us, however Toph had already created a thick roof over our heads. My arms wrapped around both her and Aang, tucking them close to me to protect their heads whilst Toph kept the roof from collapsing around us. The entire ground trembled and I could feel the shooting vibrations all the way up my spine. When the thundering finally stopped, we all emerged to see the ships continuing on without turning back.
"Why aren't they turning around to attack us again?"
"They're headed for the beach." Aang said before his eyes widened. "They're going to destroy the submarines!"
"How are we all going to escape?" Gripping his hair in frustration and worry, Sokka stared as the second raid began on our submarines down on the beach.
"We're not." Hakoda said unhelpfully and I pinched the bridge of my nose. This really wasn't our day at all.
"Then our only choice is to stand and fight. We have the Avatar, we could still win!"
"Yes, with the Avatar we could still win on another day. You kids have to leave. You have to escape on Appa together." Looking across to Hakoda, I saw Katara's eyes widen in disbelief at the suggestion before she furiously shook her head.
"What? We can't leave you behind. We won't leave anyone behind."
"You're our only chance in the long run. You and Sokka have to go with Aang somewhere safe. It's the only way to keep hope alive." Hope. As I looked around, I realised that it must have been a long time since any of these people had had any real hope and now it was all they had left. All they had to survive. Hope was the only thing that was keeping them going and Aang was that hope. "The youngest of our group should go with you. The adults will stay behind and surrender. We'll be prisoners but we'll all survive this battle." Hakoda continued before then embracing his children. I must admit, I felt a stab of jealousy. I cannot even remember the embrace of my parents. If I closed my eyes and tried to imagine it, all I could think of was the warm and squishy hugs of Mushi-I mean, Iroh.
"I've got some experience with the Fire Nation prisons. It's not going to be easy but we'll get by." Tyro said confidently, placing his hands upon his belt. These men were all so strong and resolute. There's no way we can fail them, they had already sacrificed so much in order to try and bring peace and now they were sacrificing even more. As tearful and heartfelt goodbyes were shared I looked around, feeling a little out of place before I shook my head. It's time to go. As Toph bent a rock to lift herself and Teo up onto Appa's back I glided up as well, putting my staff down and reached out to take Teo from his father so that he was secure.
"Bye, son."
"Bye, Dad. I'm really proud of you." His father held onto him for a moment longer, hesitating to place him in my arms before he then looked me in the eye pleadingly, tears spilling down his face so I smiled warmly.
"It's alright, I shall take good care of Teo until you come back." I promised, reaching out a little further for Teo who was then placed into my care. I drew him into the saddle and placed him down with the bedrolls to make sure he was comfortable. Next I reached out a hand to grasp Haru's helping him up as we nodded to one another before he turned back and looked to his father, missing him already. Saddest of all to watch were Katara, Sokka and Hakoda. He embraced his children as if he feared he would never see them again, filling his embrace with love and fatherly strength that all children lean towards instinctively.
Turning my head I went over to my brother and placed my arms around him, hiding the fact that he was crying from everyone else until he had wiped his eyes and calmed himself down. "Thank you all for being so brave and so strong. I'm going to make this up to you." He vowed, bowing to everyone in the deepest respect as I climbed back into the saddle and held Teo in a comforting embrace as he was crying freely, as was The Duke. Somehow I ended up with them both crying on me, their tears seeping through my clothes so to calm them, I began to sing my mother's lullaby.
As we flew away it seemed to do the trick, sending the younger ones to sleep whilst everyone else sat with forlorn expressions. Today had been a bad day, however, I hope for a better tomorrow. A tomorrow where we could all smile again and strive forwards to achieve our goal. Although, even though it was a bad day, at least it was a beautiful sunset.