A/N: Thanks so much for your reviews! As I promised, here's the next (albeit short) chapter today, no waiting a week for you! (Am I forgiven for the cliffhanger now?:)
CONTENT WARNING: This chapter as the last contains graphic description of physical injury and is rated T for such. Please do not read if this bothers you, or read at your own risk. (My apologies for neglecting to add this warning earlier.)
Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender.
Iroh sat in a state of uncomprehending shock, admiration and alarm. He had known that fire benders could do some incredible things, but never in his lifetime had he seen, or heard of, anything like this. It was as if Zuko had become fire itself.
He watched in dread and amazement as Azula took the brunt of the sphere in the face and hurtled to the ground.
He tore his eyes away from the burning inferno and watched as clumsy, frightened soldiers softened her landing, and shuddered in horror as she staggered to her feet and kicked one of the now dead soldiers. It was almost too much to look upon and even as he felt his stomach turn, as battle-hardened as he was, he wanted to look away from the grotesque visage, even as her head turned towards the sky and she screamed from a mouth that had no lips and a jaw that no longer moved.
The old general and the three soldiers looked up as the sphere that was Zuko slowly advanced on the girl below him. Two of the soldiers had indeed retched at the sight of Azula and soon they were speaking in frightened voices "He's going to kill her!" one cried, "we're doomed!" sobbed another, "I just know we're next!" The quaking man was unable to move despite his words, his feet stayed rooted to the spot he stood on.
"Silence!" commanded the lieutenant, being one of the three still living. "She was..is..our Princess, we do not abandon our leaders no matter what they may do!" He turned to the soldier on his right, "you; go get a komodo rhino or two if you can find them still nearby and bring them into sight but not too close". The soldier stood, still frozen in shock and the lieutenant slapped him across the face. "GO!" He growled, and the man finally came to his senses and took off in the direction they'd left their mounts.
The remaining soldier, the scout who'd found the location of the traitors camp was ordered to watch the old man and the lieutenant stalked quickly forward towards Azula, strictly fortifying his mind to see the damage close-up.
"Princess, we need to go..This attack will kill us all!" He urged, standing somewhat behind her, attempting not to look at her face.
Her scream spent, she didn't seem to hear him and he noticed the state of her ears and shuddered. He stepped forward and walked very near and spoke directly next to her head, repeating his plea. "Go?" her voice questioned "no go" she spoke in almost childlike words. "Kill Zuzu, hahhoo kill Zuzu" she repeated thickly, unable to form certain consonants but her message was clear. "go oo die!"
Even as horribly marred and mind partially shattered she was a force to be reckoned with, and he backed hastily away as he saw her hands begin to move in a very familiar motion, the crackling blue voltage already snapping hungrily. Moving back to where the scout was guarding the old man, he shifted uneasily as he eyed the looming inferno of death.
Iroh knew as well, what Azula planned, and was shocked. She should not be able to perform any sort of attacks that require mental acuity; yet as he gazed on, helpless to stop her, it was clear that was exactly what she would do. He looked up to Zuko's inferno and began to fear for him. In his current position, Zuko would be completely unable to redirect the lightning that was about to seek his demise. No… "Zuko look out!" he screamed at the top of his lungs, hoping by some miracle the young man could hear him.
He watched helplessly as the crackling bolt of blue lightning arced off Azula's pointed two fingertips with unerring accuracy straight towards the center of the advancing sphere. He looked on with shock as the energy of the bolt dissipated on the whirling surface of the flames and he let out a sigh of relief.
Zuko was safe.
He felt the bolt as it came, and did not fear it, but Zuko was beginning to tire. The sphere had begun to contract around him, its heat somewhat tamer than originally it had been. Azula kept sending bolt after bolt, from energy reserves he had no idea she could possess. He could feel the bolts of lightning as they blasted against his fire sphere, and every one that came seemed stronger than the last.
Soon his outer sphere was hardly larger than the inner one protecting him, and his arms and shoulders burned with the effort of keeping himself in the air. Between her attacks he had been advancing on Azula, but when he finally got close, somehow she had changed position after a particularly strong hit.
He couldn't know her physical state, but to the men watching below, they gazed in amazement as she slowly, at first, then faster, began to move away from him. Frustrated, he tried one last time to rush her before his body gave out from the damage he'd taken and the massive amount of energy he'd been using.
It worked. Somehow, without realizing it, he'd backed Azula into a something of a shallow canyon, cliff face on one side, rocky hill on the other. She was no longer moving away. Although unbelievably still aware of her surroundings to a certain extent; she had mistakenly allowed herself to be cornered. All Zuko knew was that, at last, she could dodge him no longer.
This was it.
Using the remainder of his strength and the mighty force of his iron will, Zuko once again pushed his sphere, and it quickly grew as he flew towards her. He no longer considered her family, she was nothing more than a monster, one that he would destroy, at all costs.
Moments before impact, she used her blue fire to slice open a hole in the advancing sphere, moving almost faster than the eye could follow, she released a lightning bolt from four fingers, both hands together, creating the largest bolt those fated to watch the horror that played out in front of them had ever seen.
The very instant Zuko registered the hole in his outer sphere and realized what Azula was doing, he began spinning. The massive bolt of blue lightning invaded his outer sphere, but the centrifugal force he'd created in his spin was enough to keep the bolt from actually reaching him inside his inner sphere.
For a moment, time seemed to stand still. Azula stood with her back to the rock wall, her hands with palms flat, fingers touching, thick, arcing blue lightning playing off her fingertips, the bulk of the bolt simply disappearing inside the inferno.
Zuko was still spinning rapidly, deflecting the massive bolt, and slowly advancing.
Iroh, who had somehow struggled to his feet, and the three fire nation soldiers were simply bystanders to what might be the most horrific Agni Kai in all of history.
Then, everything happened at once.
Zuko's sphere hit Azula.
Iroh crumpled on the ground. Standing grimly above him was the lieutenant having just executed a brilliant strategic move.
Zuko felt his father fall…
His heart dropped and his vengeance died. He opened his mouth and screamed "FATHER!" and his fire simply burnt out. The sphere that had previously been swirling and roaring in its heat and his rage was merely snuffed out. The protection he'd created for himself dissipated and the flames he'd used to propel himself simply extinguished. Spinning uncontrollably, his consciousness lost, he felt nothing as the superheated bolt of arcing blue master lightning of Azula's hatred crept over him with reaching fingers of charged destruction.
Zuko's magnetically charged body slammed into the cliff face leaving a large crater in the solid rock and shaking the ground as the remaining energy exploded on impact, raining stones and pebbles below.
He dropped, bouncing on various outcroppings on the way down just as those pebbles, before finally landing hard on the ground and rolling a short ways before coming to a stop, muscles still twitching from the massive amount of voltage his battered body had endured.
It was completely and eerily silent. No birds chirped and no breeze blew; it was as if nature itself was holding its silence to grieve the destruction and loss witnessed in that place.
The moments did not stretch on indefinitely however, because the face of the cliff wall Zuko had slammed into began to crack. As the crack grew larger the earth began to shudder, and suddenly water started pouring out of the large fracture.
It flowed in small rivulets on this side, and that, of all the little outcroppings and such that Zuko's body had managed to hit on the way to the ground, slowly gaining speed and becoming less like rivulets, and more like a truly flowing stream of water that poured over the ground and made its way onto, and past, the place where Zuko lay broken.
The water somehow changed the very moment it touched the crumpled body of Zuko; it seemed to almost caress him as it passed, never flowing in a way that would have drowned him, instead almost cradling him in its liquid embrace.
Into such a quiet moment the soldier returned with two komodo rhinos; the eerie silence making even the great beasts walk quietly with heads down. The lieutenant silently motioned for the two soldiers to help him lift the old man on the back of one, and then turned and pointed to the body of Azula. One stayed behind to hold the beasts as the other two cautiously walked up to the young girl who was burned beyond recognition.
They thought surely she was dead, but then saw a twitch, and her hand with fingers burned permanently in a clawed position from the intense heat, reached to grasp the air as if to seek if she had completed her grisly goal. "Zuuzuuu…kiiii.." they heard from her throat, voice raspy and raw as she coughed and her hand dropped to her side almost as quickly as she'd tried to raise it. She was unconscious again, yet miraculously continued to breathe.
The soldiers stared at one another in horror, yet in unspoken agreement they gently lifted the hideously burned body of their Fire Princess and carried her to the same komodo rhino that held the former Dragon of the West. The lieutenant ordered both to be lashed to the beast like so much luggage to ensure their safe transportation, although he, himself, was in fact forced to tie Azula, as the other two soldiers were unable to stomach touching her more than they already had.
As Iroh was being secured by the remaining two soldiers, once finished with his task the lieutenant cautiously tread over to where the stream of water flowed gently around the fallen banished prince. He knew what his duty was; his duty was to bring back the banished prince along with the other two. The boy was badly burned; he most likely wouldn't live, if he was alive still.
The weary lieutenant sighed. The eldest child of the Fire Lord had been magnificent. The boy…no, the young man had performed fire bending he'd never even heard of; superbly powerful bending that would only become more powerful if the bender himself were in full health.
He gave one last look to the youth at his feet and saluted gravely; then he turned on his heel, resolutely refusing to check for signs of life, knowing that if he found the banished prince to be alive, he'd have to bring him along to die a slow and painful death on the journey back to the fire nation capital. Best to let him pass away gently, caressed by the water he lay in so peacefully.
Having returned to the other two soldiers, he hopped up on the beast carrying the captive and the princess and seated himself behind them. The other two men doubled up on the remaining mount and they made their way back the direction they came, moving only as quickly as they dared.
A/N: And you thought you hated me after the last cliffhanger…*evil grin* So, Azula's still alive! For now.. who wishes she'd just given up and DIED already? *raises hand* So stubborn..
Poor Zuko, he needs a good rest doesn't he? Will he get it though? Hmm..
We're starting to get much closer to where we've been heading all this time! I haven't decided if I want to allow the story to wind down or continue, or make a sequel. If you have a preference let me know!