Hello, people of fanfiction!
Chapter 48 is here, this was a really heavy chapter, emotionally.
It really made me emotional to imagine the events that I wrote with my own hands, it was heartbreaking.
I hope you like it and please review afterwards :(
The Southern Airtemple
It's been a half a day's journey, but they've finally made it to the southern airtemple, alongside Avatar Aang, Abby and Katara.
All three people got off the bison's head, Aang noticed the other bisons staring at Abby with happy eyes, The Avatar smiled and looked at his female companion,
"You can go say hi." The Avatar said to her, to which the bison roars happily, she then licks him and flies off, Aang chuckles in response and goes to Senge and Katara, Senge was more than happy that the avatar is finally getting used to his new bison when Aang approached him and Katara,
"Are you ready?" Katara asked upon Aang's arrival.
"I am." Aang responded, not looking the tiniest bit hesitated.
Katara smiled proudly at him, "Go get 'em, Tiger." She said.
Aang was confused by the response, "Aren't you coming along?" He asked.
"Yes, Of course.. I'll follow up in a bit, it's just.. I've missed this place so I'll stay out here for a moment before going in." Katara said, and Aang didn't look convinced.
"Katara, what are you planning to do?" He asked, looking really worried.
Katara knew what he was worried about, she approached him and held both his hands,
"I'd never do that to you, I promised that I'll be by your side every step of the way, I'm not leaving this place until you do, got it?" Katara reassured him, looking him in the eyes.
Aang thought for a second before he sighed and gave her a faint smile, "Okay.. I'm waiting for you inside." He said.
"You better not say hi to Master Tenzin without me." Katara said.
Aang smiled at her response, "I won't." He said, before leaving her on the spot and going inside, Senge was about to follow suit, but Katara put a hand on his shoulder to stop him in his tracks.
Senge turned around to face her, "What's it, Katara?" The boy asked.
"I have a job for you." Katara said.
Senge looked very confused, "I think I'm a little bit young to be getting a job." He responded to her sarcastically.
"You sure as hell didn't look that young at the battle of Yu Dao or at the battle of Kyoshi Island.. I'm not stupid, Senge, I know how much you value a good fight." Katara tempted the boy, and he was convinced.
"Alright, you got me. What do you want me to do?" He asked excitedly.
"Gather all the bisons riders you can find, and then we'll talk." Katara told the boy, he somehow surmised the job, but he just didn't want to get too excited until Katara's confirmation.
"On it, Boss." Senge said.
Senge was about to leave before Katara stopped, "Aang doesn't need to know about this.. am I clear?" Katara asked, looking at him with meaningful eyes that made Senge shiver.
"Crystal." Senge responded, and Katara left her hand off him. The boy departed and the watertribe princess entered the palace to join Aang with a look of guilt consuming her face.
The Northern Watertribe
It's already begun, chaos everywhere, the fight was happening everywhere, men dying, women dying, all around Zuko.
he realized he was on the ground, dazed.. he couldn't remember what happened, it all happened so fast, bits and pieces were starting to form a bigger picture in his mind, Voccak gave the order for the dark spirits to attack, they countered it along the way with the waterbenders throwing ice spikes, Toph throwing ice boulders and Zuko throwing fireballs, he hasn't used much firebending in a while unless it's for training, and so he felt as if he was slipping.
The people kept fighting until something knocked them off their feet.. literally.. but what was it?
Explosion!
Zuko remembered what happened, and his eyes widely opened, the wall exploded. They were standing atop the wall and they realized, the spirits didn't do anything to get on top of the world.
what happened? Why aren't they climbing? Suddenly Voccak came rushing to the field, Zuko was amazed that he would expose himself wide open, but he was actually protected with a layer of dark energy, Everyone just kept staring at him, what's he doing? Voccak then closed his eyes for a while, before he opened them as they turned purple, he did some motions with his hands and legs and then he directed those motions.. right at the wall. It was Petu who realized what it was as he jumped off the wall and shouted,
"LOOK OUT!" Everyone started to jump but many of them didn't have the chance to as they were blasted by what came next.
A HUGE ENERGY BALL that was launched by Voccak, it connected with the ice wall and it all tumbled down.. the wall collapsed as if it was a small chunk of ice getting splashed with a hose, as the energy beam that Voccak launched kept going for a while, it was immense, and it was hot, and Zuko were one of the people that felt its heat, as he was one of the people that were knocked off the wall after the stunning blow.
The dark spirits came rushing to the city, thankfully Petu and some soldiers were still standing, they held them off for a while until Zuko and the rest of the fallen warriors that are still alive could get up, including Toph who was lying right next to Zuko and came up holding her head.
"What happened?" Toph asked.
Zuko was about to answer but he noticed a dark spirit coming at her from behind.
"Watch out!" Zuko moved Toph aside and he launched a fireball at the dark spirit, the fireball connected with the spirit's chest and it completely vaporized.
Zuko then got up, and extended a hand to Toph, who gladly took it and said, "Thanks.", Toph and Zuko stood side by side with their backs to each other and assuming fighting chances, preparing for the attack,
"Any idea on how to get ourselves out of this dilemma, Sparky?" Toph asked.
"Beats me." Zuko responded.
"I bet you are thinking maybe you shouldn't have rebelled against your father after all, right? you wouldn't have had to go through all this if only you chose to be a good boy and obey your daddy." Toph said sarcastically.
Zuko smirked, "So, you're back to telling jokes now.. you seemed a little bit upset earlier about the watertribe soldiers doing the exact same thing." Zuko told her.
"I didn't get mad because I got enough of jokes, it's just.. their jokes were stomach-turning." Toph said, which made Zuko chuckle.
"It's good to have you back, Toph. now let's give those sons of bitches a fight for the ages, shall we?" Zuko said, reminding Toph of her days in the squared circle, in the ring of the earth kingdom, with Xin Fu, The Boulder and the rest, it made her eyes water a bit at the memories, before she had a look of determination.
"Let's do this." She said, with a smile that showed determination.
They both rushed at the field, fighting like the two most skilled warriors in their respective bending, at least that's what they felt when they kept knocking dark spirits in rhyme, left and right, dark spirits fell to Zuko and Toph, someone had to make way for the scared soldiers behind them, and so they volunteered and they were doing a pretty good job at it, Zuko slashing spirits left and right with his firebending, and Toph smashing them with her earthbending, they looked like a tag team from the earth rumble, although Toph didn't have any tag team matches in the Earth Rumble tournaments as she always preferred to fight alone, but even she admitted that the thing going on between her and Zuko made her reconsider that choice of her of never having a tag team match.
Zuko and Toph kept fighting until they reached their desired destination, which is right beside Petu, who at the moment was having a fight with ten dark spirits at once, and he vaporized all of them in two blows, his skills were really unmatched.
"Zuko! Toph!" Petu called upon them as soon as he saw them.
as Zuko and Toph were making their way to Petu, Zuko had an incredible Idea and he decided to fill Petu and Toph in.
"I've got an idea." Zuko said, Toph and Petu naturally assumed their position behind Zuko with each one of them protecting a side.
"Well, Spit it out." Toph said, as she launched a boulder at one of the beasts.
"We can't fight the dark spirits all by our own, we're not going to make it, We'll have to cut the head of the snake." Zuko said, referring to Voccak.
"You think I haven't been trying to do that for the past hour or so? Too many dark spirits along the way." Petu responded, slashing three dark spirits with one water whip.
"I know that's the idea, you need a distraction.. something to grab the attention of the dark spirits and so you can make it to Voccak with ease." Zuko said.
"Yeah.. I guess. What are you implying?" Petu asked.
"I'll provide the distraction." Zuko said.
"WHAT?!" Toph's voice echoed.
"I know, I know.. it's suicide, but it's the only way to do this."
"No, this is bullshit!" Toph said angrily.
"Toph, We have no time! Petu knows it's the only way out of here.. right, Petu?" Zuko said.
Petu was silent for a while, "I mean.. I guess-"
He was abruptly silenced by Toph, "You shut your mouth!" Toph told Petu, and he immediately did so, she threw a boulder angrily at one of the dark spirits,
"Why do you keep being so stupid, Zuko?!"
"It's in the genes. Now, Please let's move, like I said we've got little to no time." Zuko said, looking every bit determined. Toph thought for a second, she saw Zuko slash two dark spirits with one firebending slice, she knew Zuko was right, there was no time, they had to act fast, her head kept spinning, she didn't know what to do.
finally she accepted Zuko's proposal, but on one condition,
"Alright.. But I'm coming with you." Toph said.
"What?! No, of course not." Zuko responded.
"You said we have no time, two hands are better than one."
"I'm not going there alone, some watertribe warriors will follow me." Zuko said.
"Yeah, and I'll be there to help too." Toph responded. It was Zuko's turn to think for a while, before he heeded his own words that they have no time to argue, they're all going to die anyways, maybe they'll meet in the afterlife and discuss how stupid their improvised plan really was.
"Be ready, Petu." Zuko said, before he motioned for Toph to follow him, Petu nodded as he was fighting the dark spirits, and Toph did as asked.
"Watertribe warriors, Follow me!" Zuko said as he arrived with Toph and vaporized a bunch of dark spirits that were attacking the warriors.
"Follow you where?" A warrior asked.
"I told you before, it's time to decide for yourselves whether it's your lives or the lives of your families that you choose, We chose to be here to fight for humanity and for the people we care about, so I'm offering you a quick solution that will help us all, as we all know, killing all those worthless monsters won't solve a thing, to get out of this place, we need to take out the head of the snake that moves them, as you might have noticed, Petu is one of the greatest warriors this world has ever seen, he can take out Voccak no problem, but he can't do it with so many soldiers along the way, we need to clear a path for him so he can get to the head of the snake and cut it clean off, am I clear?" Zuko finished with a question.
"So, you are saying that we need to be the baits?" the same soldier asked, with fearful eyes, Petu and the other warriors were keeping the monsters from them now, so they had a chance to talk.
Zuko stopped for a second, "Yes.. Exactly." Zuko responded, this might be his last moment in life and he doesn't want to spend it lying to the poor soldier.
The soldiers were terrified, their eyes turned as large as plates, one of them actually fell to the ground and puked at the thought, Zuko understood their pain but they were taking a long time to respond, The fire prince knew there was no time,
"I hope you know who you are doing this for, it's for the ones you care about, I know in situations like this you would ask yourselves, is it really worth it? but I can tell you.. it is. this is the only chance we have at keeping evil at bay, killing this monster Voccak could be Humanity's first major win over evil, it could even be the downfall of evil, we need to take this chance, for humanity, for your wives, for your children, for your parents, for your brothers and sisters, for the ones you love, and if you don't have any of those, then for the glory of it.." Zuko said,
starting to speak to those of the warriors that have nothing to worry about, "I'd love for you to share this moment of glory with me, but even if you don't.. then.. more glory for me, I guess.. because I will never let this chance slip past my hands, I'll help Petu take out Voccak this very night, I give my life and everything I've got to humanity." Zuko finished his speech and without waiting for the watertribe warriors,
he turned around with Toph beside him, and he launched himself at the evil spirits, starting to create the distraction needed for Petu to make it to Voccak.
Zuko and Toph kept slicing through the evil spirits, left and right, they took down dozens of them, but they weren't the only people taking the spirits down.
"We're with you, Prince Zuko." a watertribe soldier said from beside him.
"Yeah, We won't let you have the glory of saving OUR tribe." Another said.
The watertribe warriors chose to fight for humanity and they joined Zuko, The Fire prince smiled widely at them, and then he kept fighting.
the amount of chaos they caused grabbed Voccak's attention, he realized who it was and smiled menacingly.
"Prince Zuko of the firenation, Nice to see you here fighting for the waterbenders. You couldn't live with the sins of your forefathers, so you decided to come here to repent?" He said with a loud voice so that Zuko could hear him, his words dug a hole through Zuko's chest, but he never responded to them as he kept fighting.
Zuko and the warriors cut thought the dark spirits like they were nothing, and Voccak noticed, he wanted to bring the big weapons right at that very moment, but he decided to keep them at bay for now, but he ordered almost all his army to launch at Zuko and company.
That was the signal for Petu, Who decided to act immediately.
Petu turned around the battlefield, he used the ice to slide himself, while on his two feet, to get behind Voccak faster, he kept running, he saw that the watetribe warriors were falling hard, he felt really bad for them but he had to continue with the plan, otherwise they would die in vain, and so with a heavy heart, Petu went faster and faster with the ice sliding to get to Voccak faster.
On the other side of the field, Zuko and Toph were having it hard, with Voccak sending almost all his army towards them, they tripled the duty, they saw the warriors falling left and right, as the one person that was able to overpower a dozen watertribe warriors was now going around to get to Voccak, Zuko used his firebending like he's never used before, this whole time of not fighting did him no favors, but the fact that he's been fighting for the past five hours or so got him to remember how to fight, the last time he was actually engaged in a battle was at the cursed ceremonies against his own people, now, it's against a much darker foe, not to mention more agile, scarier and has much bigger numbers.
But a person who had got Master Iroh as a master could never be afraid of anything, Master Iroh taught Zuko everything he knows about Firebending,
Master Iroh taught Zuko what he learned from the civilization of the ancient sun warriors, he learned true firebending from them, and he passed this to Zuko and Aang, who were very much eager to learn about true firebending, unlike Azula who chose to learn firebending from her father, fire that's built on rage and destruction.
Zuko didn't know why he was remembering all that now, maybe it's because he was getting nearer and nearer to his end, and his that's why memories of his life was flashing right before his eyes, that's what he thought at first, but in fact..
it wasn't him whose life was about to be taken right at this very moment.
"ZUKO! LOOK OUT!"
Zuko heard Toph yell from behind him, before she crashed into him and pushed him aside from an energy ball that was sent his way. Zuko stood up and saw that Voccak was the one acting right at this very moment, Voccak was now a big purple monster, and he kept sending energy balls their way.
"What are we gonna do?" Zuko asked.
Toph stood up as well, "I don't know. you tell me, Genius.. this is your plan." Toph said, as she took down an evil spirit with a rock.
Zuko responded assuming his fighting stance again, "We never should have come here, this place is way too cold for either of us." Zuko told her.
Toph chuckled, "Yeah, I guess so." Both of them continued to fight, but Voccak wasn't done, he kept sending energy balls at the company, not giving a care that he was hitting his own soldiers as well, of course he wouldn't care, they are mindless monsters of their own creation after all, but before they got turned by either Voccak or Vattu, they were beautiful, kind spirits. Zuko never spoke to them but he remembers Aang's words about the spirit world, they were kind spirits.
Zuko looked at Toph as she was fighting a bunch of dark spirits, he kept fighting, thinking she's taking care of it, but she actually wasn't, she was falling gradually.
a dark spirit caught her leg and pierced it with its sharp tentacles, Toph screamed in pain, Zuko heard it and turned around to look at her, he saw her still fighting while on the ground holding her leg, she held her leg with one arm and kept fighting with the other, Zuko just couldn't get to her from the crowd of spirits that were swarming the place.
"TOPH! NO!" Zuko shouted, fighting with all his might.
"STAY RIGHT THERE! I'VE GOT THIS!" Toph shouted back to him, not wanting him to get in harm's way for her.
Before Zuko could respond, he saw something that was launched from a distance, he knew what it was, a shiny purple light, it formed a ball and it was launched to where they were standing, it would have looked beautiful,
as Zuko followed it with his eye sight, it would have looked really beautiful, had it not been so hot, and had the situation been different.
Zuko followed the purple ball with his eyes, it went really fast, and it landed right on top of where Toph was crouching,
before the ball touched down, he could swear he saw Toph looking at him briefly in the eyes and giving a faint smile before she closed her eyes and let Voccak's large energy ball consume her, immediately killing her and throwing her body away.
The energy ball was known for taking the light out of the body, but it wasn't hot enough to turn it to ashes no matter how large the ball is, so Toph's body got burned slightly but it was actually the impact of the energy ball that took the light off her eyes and killed her.
as Zuko saw Toph's limp, lifeless body in front of him, he Screamed.
He screamed at the top of his lungs, he screamed until..
Fire came out of his mouth, immediately burning every spirit around him, he kept launching fire off his mouth, firing, to the point that the fire reached some watertribe warriors and almost burned them if it wasn't for the distance.
He stopped screaming and crouched to the ground, he put his eyes on his face and cried, his display of raw power gave him time to regroup, and so the evil spirits stopped their march towards him for a while.
"No.. Toph.." Zuko said with a barely audible voice.
He looked at her limp body once more, thankfully the fire of his breath didn't reach her, she looked so peaceful as she was laying on the ground with her eyes closed, for the first time ever, she actually looked.. at peace.
Zuko was amazed by that, but it was still tough for him to lose a dear friend like her, she's been the only one that stuck with him through it all, ever since the cursed ceremonies, even way before that, they have been in touch even when Aang disappeared, they helped each other on so many levels, she even came here for him, she's been a very good person to him, and how's she repayed? she gets murdered in cold blood.
Oh Toph.. Why did it have to come to this.. Zuko asked internally,
still looking at her, by the time he asked himself that question, evil spirits were starting to swarm the place around him, they almost reached Toph's body.
Zuko couldn't take it anymore, he stood up to get beside Toph's body and protect it, even if it means his life, he won't leave Toph's body like this.
On the other side of the field, Voccak looked confident with his work, he killed almost half the warriors that were charging at him, but somehow Prince Zuko was still standing, and where is Raava's child, he hasn't seen him for a while now, is he actually dead? Voccak kept asking those questions in his head, but more importantly he was amazed at why Prince Zuko was here, why's he fighting for the watertribe? he's known for a long time that Prince Zuko was nothing like the rest of his family, but still, why would he fight for waterbenders? it's like.. it's against the code of the firenation.
Anyways, he paid no attention to that at the moment as he noticed something odd. There were no longer any spirits standing on his right side, he turned around and he found none, he was sure that never gave them any orders, he was near the forest so he had spirits around on the trees and on the ground to protect him, there was a huge storm so his vision couldn't reach nothing from the flanks, so he had to appoint spirits on both his flanks. He kept looking and looking, and he found nothing, what happened to his spirits? Voccak's eyes got much wider as he remembered something he had asked himself earlier..
"Where's Petu?" He asked himself again, before he got the answer lunging at him.
Petu cut his way to Voccak's side, slashing through the dark spirits that stood there, vaporizing all of them in the process, all so unnoticed, thanks to the distraction that was created by Zuko and Toph, who he thought were dead by now, so he decided to avenge them along with the rest of the dead watertribe warriors.
The child of Raava arrived at Voccak's side and used the mist in the forest to completely vanish, Voccak literally never saw him coming, he just turned around to look at an angry waterbender launching himself at him.
By now Voccak was a full purple giant, the same as he looked in the southern watertribe when Hakoda exposed him and Hedrick, so all he could do was move his gigantic hands to attack Petu, but Petu was much quicker as he used the water in the air to dodge Voccak's hand, not only that, he used more water to create ice spikes, and he cut through Voccak's arm.
He knew Voccak wasn't like the rest of his soldiers, he had the ability to regenerate that hand, but it'd take some time for him to do it again, and so Petu decided never to stop until Voccak is completely destroyed, He also knew that he couldn't kill Voccak because he needs him to stop the march of the dark spirits, and so he only worked on taking him down, instead of killing him.
After slicing off his arm, Petu came back using the water in the air, he used it to slide on the air and turn around for another go at Voccak, the child of Vattu didn't have time to react, he merely wanted to protect his chest, but he never knew Petu wasn't aiming for his chest.. but his eyes.
Petu used more water from the air to create more ice spikes and he attacked Voccak's eyes with them.
Voccak screamed in agony, the pain was immense, not to mention that he no longer sees.
Petu felt like he was more furious than anybody has ever been furious in the history of the world, that fury gave him the strength of Raava herself, and so he kept lunging at the child of evil, he cut through his entire body like cutting a cake, every time using the same technique, sliding through the air and then using ice spikes to cut a part of his body, sometimes multiple parts at a time. Until he decided to finally bring Voccak down, and he cut off both his legs, The gigantic monster fell to the ground, and Petu got on top of him.
Voccak knew that he needed the energy, and so he decided to return to the normal state, as being in this gigantic state made him lose a lot of energy, he became normal again, but he still lacked arms and legs.
Petu brought down the beast, a glorious display of raw power, everybody was amazed, looking at him as he brought down the monster, he heard the watertribe warriors celebrating and jumping as the monsters stopped attacking, the monster that was controlling them is down and out.
"You're done for, Voccak." Petu said, as he was holding Voccak down with an ice spike pointed at his chest.
Voccak blinked his eyes open, looking really battered and war worn, but he still snorted, "Finish me then.. Do it." Voccak said.
Petu was reluctant, he really wanted to do it, he wanted to just put the ice spike to his chest and end it, but then they wouldn't have leverage over Vattu, and they wouldn't stop the evil spirits from marching, they only stopped because Voccak now lacks energy, maybe killing Voccak will stop them for some time, but once Vattu gives the order even from the other side of the world, they'll move again, they needed Voccak to vaporize them once and for all.
"You know I won't." Petu said, turning the ice spike to water, the water splashed down on Voccak, who kept coughing afterwards.
Voccak then smirked at Petu, which made a shiver run down Petu's spine,
"That's your mistake then." Voccak asked, pointing to what's behind Petu.
Zuko noticed it too, they marched like they weren't supposed to, they weren't supposed to look this hateful but they did, they were supposed to be the protectors of the earth, now they aim to destroy every last one on earth, not that it's their mistake, they were being controlled by an evil spirit.
It was the former avatars, a lot of them, they were a lot, some of them were walking, some of them had balls of the four elements encircling them, the same move Aang used to do in the avatar state, they didn't have the avatar state, but they have the spirit of Vattu driving them, they were too strong, And who would defeat that? Petu was terrified, not just for the soldiers of his tribe, but for himself as well, they looked really scary, imagine a pack of avatars marching towards you, one would be enough to defeat the whole world, but a whole pack? Spirits have mercy on humanity.
Petu was distracted by the avatars that Voccak did a trick to save himself. He was too tired to move, but he could still control some spirits, so he ordered a spirit that he knew was really fast, to come at high speed and rescue him from under Petu.
The child of Raava was so distracted that he never noticed the dark spirit that came to save Voccak from underneath him, and so the spirit took Voccak and run away, Petu thought about running after them, but the spirit took Voccak towards the former avatars that were marching towards the tribe, Petu feared for himself and the warriors.
So, he decided to get back, he slid again on the ice to get himself back to where Zuko and the warriors were, the warriors and Zuko were staring in the shock at the scene in front of him, The former avatars marching towards them looked like the most terrifying thing in the world, Zuko could even see his own great grandfather from his mother's side, Avatar Roku, coming at him with the rest of the avatars, is he going to be the one to kill Avatar Roku? his great grandfather? Not that he actually could.
Petu arrived beside Zuko, he found Toph laying on the ground, unmoving.
He crouched beside her to check her pulses, maybe if he found pulses, he could save her, as there's water in the spirit oasis that has special healing powers, he would help her recover, but he found that there was no pulse, Petu almost let a tear out, but he decided to hold it in for later.
"What're we doing now?" Petu asked, "Obviously we can't fight them."
Zuko was silent, he couldn't answer, not after what happened today.
"Prince Zuko.." Petu called again.
Zuko turned his head to look at him, looking lifeless, Petu felt bad for the young man, he's seen a lot in his life, but he still needed to ask him what to do.
"What should we do, Prince Zuko?" Petu asked again.
Zuko again was silent for a while, but then he moved his legs to stand beside Toph, he couldn't bring himself to look at her dead body for some time, he struggled to even stand beside her limp body, he couldn't believe that he's never going to see her again, he couldn't believe that he's never seeing his banter mate, his friend.. he couldn't believe that she's actually gone, but he knew he had to bring himself to the truth, he had to face the truth, so he looked at her, and tears fell freely down his cheeks.
He then picked up her lifeless body and carried her with both his arms, then he faced away from the battlefield, looking at Petu and the rest of the warriors.
"We retreat.." Zuko said with a heavy heart,
"the spirits marching at us right now are spirits of former avatars, they are much stronger than any of these fools combined.." He said, motioning at the ordinary dark spirits,
"The former avatars don't have Raava's spirit, yes.. but they have the four elements still, they'll beat us.. we'll try to get to the sea, and then we'll look for ships."
A soldier spoke up, "But.. Prince Zuko, there are no ships at the harbor."
That was a crushing blow to Zuko's heart, he should have remembered that they actually used all the ships to evacuate the people, but it wasn't any worse than the other blows he faced today, so he faced away from the soldiers and to the battlefield, still carrying Toph's dead body.
"Then, I guess.. We'll stand our ground and fight." The warriors were about to protest including Petu, but they knew, they couldn't do it.
The Former Avatars were almost upon them, they waited for them, with Zuko carrying Toph's body in front of the army, and Petu beside him.
"It was an honor fighting by your side, Prince Zuko.. You might not be a watertribe citizen, but your acts of bravery today proved that we can be one someday." Petu said,
Zuko looked at him, he found that the rest of the watertribe warriors behind them kept nodding in approval, Zuko then smiled faintly and gave them a nod, he wanted to say encouraging words to them, but he just couldn't bring himself to say it, he couldn't bring himself to say with the body of one of his best friends was in his arms at the same moment. So he just turned around and waited for his death.
That was until he heard a familiar voice, "Prince Zuko! Prince Zuko! Ba Sing Se is here! Ba Sing Se is here!"
the warriors including Zuko and Petu turned around, only to find Master Fung running at them with a young man that Petu recognized.
"Tolan? You're here! I can't believe you made it!" Petu said.
Fung noticed something that caught his eye, it was the thing that Zuko was carrying,
"We triumphed in Ba Sing Se, I asked the new King to lend me ships to come to the northern watertribe, just as the plan that Avatar Aang told us.. I'm sorry I'm late, there were some complications to the original plan.." Something caught his eyes so he stopped talking, the same thing that caught Fung's eyes and made him depressed, the thing Zuko was carrying,
"is that The blind bandit?" Tolan asked, looking at Prince Zuko, "Prince Zuko? What are you doing here? What's wrong with the blind bandit?" Tolan asked.
"Now isn't the time-" Petu almost spoke up,
"She's dead." He was interrupted by Zuko who told him the truth,
Fung looked to the ground and a tear trickled down his cheek, Tolan was shocked by this, but his shock didn't last long as he noticed the army that was marching from behind.
"We need to go.. Now!" Tolan called and the people of the northern watertribe with Zuko and Petu followed. They knew the spirits wouldn't run after them, but they still run for it.
"Petu, Please tell me those weren't former avatars that I saw back there." Tolan said as he was running.
"Yes.. They were." Petu responded.
"Oh dear spirits." Tolan said with a grim voice,
he was still shocked by seeing the blind bandit that he faced at Earth Rumble was dead, but he was more shocked when he learned that former avatars are now included in the war, what are they going to do?, right now he just focused on helping those poor people,
"The ships are docked at the harbor, everyone! follow me!"
Everyone followed closely, including Zuko who was running carrying Toph's body, he promised to bring it to her family to give her a proper funeral, she deserved it, thankfully they were in the northern watertribe, so her body would never lose its stability her, it's a natural freezer, but he has to keep her somewhere that her body wouldn't dissolve while on the ship, he decided to think about it when they reach the ship.
They arrived at the ship and Zuko took Toph's dead body inside.
the ships moved signaling the retreat of the northern watertribe people.
The war to the north is lost, The northern watertribe is lost, the look of failure was evident on the bruised and deformed faces of whoever survived that battle, Zuko and Petu the most. Petu promised to have revenge and keep doing his duty to protect the world as a child of Raava. but Zuko.. well, Zuko lost interest in everything, the only thing that kept him moving forward was to get Toph's limp body back to Gaoling and deliver it to her parents.
He'll do just so.. but nothing then.
Nothing at all.
:(
