Aang had entered the dreaded Avatar state. Even Azula feared its power. It had been in this state that Aang had killed her father in an explosive storm of blazing white fire.

Aang stood, facing Azula. Every muscle in his body was tensed. Azula attempted to strike the Avatar with a bolt of lightning, but the sizzling fork of energy swerved to the left, blowing a hole in the tower wall. He didn't even flinch.

The princess turned to face the wall behind her, trying desperately to find a means of escape. She knew that even an army of ten thousand strong would be foolish to fight Aang in the Avatar state.

Winds started to swirl around the inside of the tower, whipping up the dust they grew stronger. The dust stung Azula's eyes, temporarily blinding her. The winds were growing stronger.

She could faintly see the hole in the wall that her redirected lightning had created. She ran as fast as she could, struggling against the gale as it threatened to sweep her off her feet. She grasped the edge of the hole and slowly heaved herself out of the terrible hurricane inside the tower.

She ran for the forests below, not daring to look back.

Aang was aware of Azula's escape. The tower cracked and exploded into boulder-sized chunks as the storm raged through its walls. The deadly tornado reached up and dragged down clouds from the sky. The pieces of the tower span around the furious Avatar in the almighty storm.

Azula had jumped onto the huge black lizard that was tied to a tree just outside the forest. With a snap of the reins, the creature scuttled off away from the tornado.

The twister expanded, growing wider and tearing up the earth as it went, dragging more rocks and earth into the whirling tempest. Aang couldn't think rationally in the Avatar state. The storm would just expand, spreading out across the forests and mountains, tearing up all in its path, until Azula was killed.

And the princess was already well beyond its reach and still fleeing.

Trees were uprooted, adding to the destructive force that was slowly consuming the land around it.


A sharp pain in her shoulder. Wind blowing her long hair across her face. A dull roar.

These were the first things Toph noticed as she slowly regained consciousness. She could feel something shaking the earth beneath her. It felt like an earthquake, but then she realized that she was lying on a perfectly round, flat island of stone and the earth around it wasn't just cracking…but disappearing. Chunks of earth were being torn up into the air.

It wasn't an earthquake, she realized. But sheer destructive force.

She could feel Aang nearby, his very body pulsing with power. With a horrible sinking feeling, Toph realized what was happening.

She tried to stand, but screamed out as her left shoulder seared with an excruciating, burning pain. The wound smarted and her arm was trembling.

She slowly stood, clenching her teeth as the agony shot through her arm. A terrible wind was blowing into her with unbelievable force. She took a deep breath and stamped her foot, letting the stone beneath her crawl up her feet, rooting her to the spot.

Suddenly, something small and very hard struck the side of her head. Even such a brief moment of contact told her senses that it was a stone. She realized that the huge chunks of earth that had been disappearing were spinning in the gale around her, and Aang was twenty feet away. She had to reach him without being struck down by the very element she commanded.

Ignoring the pain, she threw her arms out, weaving a sphere of invisible earthbending force around her. Any earthen material that got too close to her would be thrown away from her. But with her arm burning with such unbearable pain, would she be able to keep it up?

She released one foot and quickly placed it in front of the other before allowing the earth to grip it once again.

"AANG!" she screamed out. "PLEASE LISTEN! YOU HAVE TO STOP THIS!"

Aang was still standing perfectly still, letting the tempest rage around him, deaf to Toph's desperate pleas.

Toph took another cautious step forward. "AANG, I'M OK! YOU DON'T HAVE TO DO THIS!" Another step. "YOU'RE DESTROYING EVERYTHING! I'M BEGGING YOU, STOP!"

Aang remained unchanged.

Toph continued to make her way slowly towards him, her eyes streaming with tears of pain and fear. She had made it past halfway when a colossal boulder slammed into her protective field. It hurtled back through the air, but Toph screamed in agony and collapsed, almost passing out from the pain.

She could no longer keep up her earth-repelling barrier. The winds started to drag her back but she sunk her fingers into the stone, holding on for dear life.

No! She cried out in her mind. I'm not giving up yet!

She reached forwards with her injured arm and gripped the stone as her right arm was doing. Her shoulder stung as she did so. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes and released her right hand.

She screamed at the top of her lungs as the weight was suddenly placed on her shoulder and she swiftly reached forwards with her good arm, clinging to the earth just ahead of her left hand.

She was getting closer to Aang. She had to keep going.

Every time she reached forwards she screamed, the pain increasing with every second. Finally, she was at Aang's feet. The agony in her arm was so intense that she thought she would faint.

She slowly stood, using Aang's body for support. She moved herself around so she was facing him.

"PLEASE AANG!" she cried. The vibrations in the earth were so strong, she could "see" his face, his enraged expression. "THIS ISN'T YOU! YOU CAN FIGHT THIS! I KNOW YOU CAN!"

She embraced him, her tears falling onto his fluttering robes. She had to get through to him. She had to somehow bring Aang out of the Avatar state.

She pulled her head back and faced him. She could feel his face before her, so full of anger and hate.

Suddenly, in a final, desperate attempt to awaken Aang from the frightening state that gripped him…she pressed her lips against his.

There, in the centre of a raging tempest, she kissed him. Everything she had ever felt for Aang was flowing into him.

The winds started to die down. The spinning boulders crashed back to the earth and the storm spread no further.

All of Aang's rage and fury ebbed away as he came out of the Avatar state.

Toph pulled away and Aang collapsed, exhausted, into Toph's arms.

There they were, on a small island of stone, with a mile of torn earth and uprooted trees around them.

"Toph," Aang said weakly.

"What is it?" Toph asked, wiping the tears from her eyes and smiling in relief.

"I'm sorry…"

His eyes closed and he passed out.

Toph smiled and whispered in the silence of the night.

"Don't be…"


Water swirled around Aang's fingers as he started to heal the lightning wound on Toph's shoulder. Expert Waterbenders were capable of imbuing bodies of water with powerful healing properties.

Slowly, fresh new skin crept over the blackened hole. When the healing was complete, Toph flexed her newly repaired shoulder and smiled.

"Thanks Aang," she said. "I owe you one."

"Whoa, hold on a moment," said Aang with a smile on his face. "Did you just thank me for helping you? And you didn't call me Twinkle Toes? Who are you and what have you done with Toph Bei-Fong?"

Toph laughed. "Very funny," she said. "I suppose I've just come to realize that there's nothing wrong with letting your friends help you out when you really need it."

She smiled and Aang smiled back. They sat in silence on their island of stone. They hadn't gone back to camp because Aang had been unconscious and Toph had been too injured to carry him. They had just sat there, in the center of the immense devastation that surrounded them.

Aang looked over at Toph, who was brushing her black hair out of her face. Aang couldn't recall anything that had happened whilst he was in the Avatar state a few hours before. But one moment stood out vividly in his mind.

"Toph," he said.

"Yeah?" She turned to face him.

"I…I can't remember anything that happened earlier," he said. "But I remember that you…kissed me."

Toph turned away and her cheeks turned red. "Oh," she said with a nervous smile. "That."

"I just wanted to know…why?"

Toph looked around nervously. "Well…it's just that…because…" She faced him, and although Aang knew she was blind, it looked like she was staring at him through her pale eyes. "I…I love you Aang."

Aang was taken aback by what Toph had said. "You…seriously?"

Toph nodded, her whole face turning red. "I have done for a long time," she said, looking away. "You were the first person to see me for who I really was. You didn't see me as daughter of the Bei-Fong family or the Blind Bandit; you saw…me. The person I really am."

Aang looked at her. "Why didn't you say anything?"

Toph snorted. "Please. What's the point in admitting your feelings to someone when they don't feel the same way about you," she said. "For the last three years, all I've done is tease and insult you, call you by that stupid nickname. And let's face it, I'm not much to look at. Why would you love me back?"

Slowly, Aang reached out and took hold of Toph's hand. She faced him.

"Because, as you say," Aang said, looking into her eyes. "I see who you really are."

Their faces drew closer, looking into each other's eyes, and the two kissed.

The sun slowly rose on the horizon. The first light of dawn fell upon two teenagers, sitting in each other's arms on an island of stone, lips pressed together.

The new dawn paid witness to an unlikely union. A union of rock and air, stone and wind…

A union of Earth and Sky.