AN: I gotta sound a broken record, but seriously guys, thank you SO MUCH for the responses to these last few chapters. The enthusiasm and kindness you guys express is just so mindblowing to me and I can't express how lucky I feel to get to write for you all.

As always, really hope you enjoy! We getting into some real meat now ;)

Chapter 14: The Two Sasukes

It was catharsis of the most sublime kind. And yet it drew him into such a realm of self-loathing that he wanted to be sick. Even with as incredible as Ursa had made him feel, that physical intimacy didn't compare to this as frustration and anger that was borne of years of failure and solitude splintered through the mental barriers that had been thrown up to combat them. For as brief a period of time as could be, he was free to let his hate guide his actions. Any reservations he could have had were nothing more than whispered suggestions that were ignored as easily as a breeze, as a single certainty made this utter devastation completely and utterly justified beyond any doubt.

They were going to kill her.

Following what he had heard from the girl in the streets, he had made a swift dash to the palace and all but frightened a single servant to death as he threateningly demanded to know where the palace's occupants were. The quaking and terrified man had confirmed what he had heard and after a second snarled demand told him that the execution was taking place at the city hall, he had made his way to the building with wrath boiling in his heart. Up until the moment he moved through the antechamber and pressed into the actual hall itself, there had been a rather significant part of him that simply couldn't believe that was what he was coming back to. But when he saw her at the head of the room, bound to that wooden beam with awful red and black burns over her back, with an audience watching and a serrated edge nearing her throat, the explosion that had taken place within him couldn't have been prevented.

There was no chakra, no genetic empowerments he was tapping into that caused him to fly past everyone else in the hall, utterly blanking out that they were even there.

Only hate and rage.

And perhaps some fear too.

As Sasuke slashed the men rushing him to pieces, these feelings were satiated just enough to keep the red that was clouding his vision from utterly obscuring his view. Ire had dominated so much of his thoughts through the past decade of his life, but here in this moment, he was able to act on it. It made Kusanagi feel like just another finger that he was able to flick about as easily as a spare appendage, no weight to be found in its wood and steel formation. It turned the men before him into faceless weeds for him to cut down without a thought. And most importantly, it honed his focus to the most perfect point that it had been in years.

All he had to do was imagine Toph's tortured body behind him and fresh venom surged through his veins, and he became nothing short of a storm of gore. His body responded to this viciously as even without chakra, he was still supremely strong, fast and skilled. He couldn't be touched and he couldn't be stopped.

Not that anyone would have been able to do anything about it if they had tried.

The room was starting to dissolve under a spell of panic and fright at the sudden horror breaking out before them and as Aang tried to pull Katara to her feet, he found he couldn't so much as look away from the abject spectacle before him.

Sasuke was almost indiscernible through the flash of his sword and the spray of blood as he brought Gilbert's men down one by one. About a dozen of them remained standing around the young lord to protect him, but the dozens more that had moved to take Sasuke down were steadily reduced to limbless and lifeless husks as they crashed down to the marble, blood spilling to paint the while smooth floor with a slick carpet of scarlet.

Aang wanted to intervene. He wanted to shout out to Sasuke, to beg him to come to his senses so that everything could be straightened out, but he knew deep in his heart that the moment he had all but appeared at the front of the room and cut down Gaeseric, there was no longer any hope for such a peaceful resolution.

Sasuke being there at all had been enough to throw him into a stunned state for the beginning of the slaughter anyway and it had taken Katara dropped to her knees in front of him for Aang to remember that he was actually present, not just an astral being witnessing a wildly insane dream. At that moment, the sound of screams from the men dying before him and the nobles, bureaucrats and others behind him. Many seemed glued to the spectacle, but by the sound of things, a great deal of them were starting to funnel in a frenzied panic towards the door, trying to escape the specter of the death that they had desired so badly to capture and kill themselves. Aang had no eyes for any of these people though as he turned to look towards his friends.

Not a one them had moved beyond slight changes in posture, clenched fists and otherwise. Their eyes too were glued to what was happening before them, their expressions matching the shock, fear and sadness that Aang could feel overwhelming him.

Ty Lee looked like she may have actually made a dash towards the pillory herself but had been wrapped up around the waist by Jin and had sunk to her knees, her body still leaning forward. She looked as angry as Aang had ever seen, her teeth bared even as her body looked to be shaking as she cried. Jin had her face buried in Ty Lee's back, eyes jammed shut as tears spilled down her cheeks while she held her friend from moving into the fray. Mai had backed into a column for support, and looked to be badly unsteady on her feet like she was about to tip clean over at any time, her posture making it look like she was about to topple over at any point, her expression sickened and petrified. Ahead of her Zuko had a hand on his uncle's shoulder that he was using to steady himself, and Aang could tell by the look on his face that he was trying to muster up some sort of willpower to try and take charge, but he was clearly far too overwhelmed; Iroh was just in front of him, the only person along the line of Aang's friends who looked like he was keeping himself together alright, but he also remained still as a statue.

Sokka, like Zuko, looked like he wanted to lunge forwards, or start relaying orders, or literally anything to stop being just another onlooker, but General Ungo, who considering the state of things, would have become the commanding officer for any Water Nation soldiers, had a hand raised, keeping each and every military person of Water Nation affiliation from making a move. Flicking his gaze to the right, Aang could see that General Gokan had done the same thing; no Earth or Water Nation soldier made any move to interfere with the massacre that was happening, at the behest of their generals. As Aang's eyes found Suki, he saw that while she hadn't made a similar gesture, the Kyoshi Warriors behind her were standing readied, but at attention, waiting for their leader to offer any sort of command, even as Suki remained still and silent. Though her expression was still the steeled look of a person still well in charge, Aang could see a deep sadness in her eyes as she gazed unblinkingly forwards.

Following her outburst and the sudden appearance of Sasuke, Soza seemed to have forgotten the panic and whatever else had led to her sudden capturing of the room's attention and had moved to stand not quite entirely behind her mother, but near enough so that it was quite clear that she was unsure of what to make of what was happening and was likely feeling a fair bit of fear as a result of the violent interlude that was taking place. She flicked glances at her mother, but it appeared that Azula had all but forgotten her daughter was even present.

As Aang looked, it rather seemed like the princess had all but forgotten anyone else was present period.

Azula's expression was nearly blank at first glance, but past her slightly ajar mouth and the fact that her breathing was coming in deep and full, it only took looking at her eyes to tell that she was an invisible typhoon of emotion. Aang would only have been guessing if he tried to surmise exactly what feelings were raging behind Azula's practically glowing orbs, but there was a part of him that quite realized perhaps he didn't want to.

He was having enough trouble trying to decide how he felt.

The thoughts that had been ripping through his head for days now had finally come to a head, but as reality had finally struck and Sasuke was now before him, Aang couldn't wrap his head around how he felt. Angry? Frightened? Relieved? It was such a strange idea to him to imagine feeling relief as he watched Sasuke butcher his way through Gilbert's hired mercenaries, but it would have been a lie to say that wasn't an emotion itching at his insides.

I just want to talk to him.

That truly was his only wish just then; to be free of this chaos, to know that all his friends were safe, so that he could sit down by himself with Sasuke and just talk. There was so much he wanted to ask, and so much he needed to know, and he knew that Sasuke had the answers. He mentally assured himself that this would be a point he reached, but for now, there unfortunately were much more pressing concerns.

He pulled at Katara and she staggered to her feet; she had also lost her footing it seemed alongside Ty Lee, but looked much less angry than she did… saddened? Aang found her expression most strange. He had been able to pick up hints of grief on the faces of just about everyone there, grief no doubt fueled by regret and confusion and fear, but Katara's face almost completely lost in a melancholy that he wasn't sure he had ever seen before.

"Katara…" he whispered and she turned her head to face his, eyes wide with pain and sorrow.

"Why did he have to come back?" she moaned and fell against him, burying her face in his shoulder and pulling him into a hug that felt like she was frightened that he would disappear if she let go. In truth, it was rather a chilling moment for Aang. He had been with Katara for what felt like so long, and there was always the sense that she was in control and dominant towards any situation she confronted, no matter how stressful or arduous. It had worn on Aang many times before how much she seemed to practically relish the chance to hold dominion over an issue, rarely seeming like she wanted to so much as offer an ear to any other opinion or method or thought, but seeing her like this now, so awash in despair, Aang found himself wishing he had never once resented her commanding nature. She was like a child in his arms, and he knew he didn't have a single word to ease her mind. He could only look back forward and hold Katara tightly, as he watched Sasuke rip through each man that came his way as though he had waited his whole life to do so.

Azula couldn't remember the last time she had felt so weightless, so bereft of control or coordination. Her body may as well have been paralyzed. For all she knew, it was.

Not once in her life had she ever come close to forgetting the moment where she had been on what had been thought to be a deserted beach where the man before her now had snatched an arrow out of the air to keep it from taking her life. Then, as if saving her life hadn't been enough of a stunning moment, he had drawn his sword and cut down every single person who had come to attack them. Azula had been transfixed and wildly thrilled at the sight.

And now, over ten years later, it was happening again, and she felt nothing short of pure excitement flooding her veins as she watched the gore spread out in front of her. She watched one of Gilbert's earthbenders slam the ground and send a powerful wave of marble rushing up towards Sasuke and he slipped cleanly around it, closing the distance between the two of them and slashing the bender from shoulder to hip diagonally.

Azula felt her pulse hammering against her throat as she started to feel more and more lightheaded.

Behind him, another mercenary, clearly not a bender for he wielded a spear as opposed to an element, thrust his weapon in a vicious jab. With ease, Sasuke sidestepped it as a firebender hurled an intense burst of fire at his back. Clearly having sensed it, he grabbed the man with the spear by the shaft of his weapon and whipped him around, causing the his ally's attack to blast clean through his torso as he acted as an unwilling shield for the attack. Sasuke ripped the spear away from him then and whipped it around in a wide arc, bringing the end of it to crack across the firebender's head, tearing a chunk of his head away as it struck.

Azula felt her breathing coming short and and in excited bursts.

The man who had just taken the firebending attack looked in stunned shock down at the hole in his torso; it was possible to see cleanly through him as if he was a window, save for his spine which jutted up through the hole within him. Dropping the spear, Sasuke reached for him, an irate and almost crazed looking snarl painting his face. He grabbed the exposed spine in both his hands and wrenched it savagely, and with a splintering crack, it snapped. Still holding both ends of the now broken spine, Sasuke lifted the man above his head and released a bellow that caused Azula to quiver uncontrollably. Pulling apart and holding the spine ends like handles, Sasuke tore the man clean in half, the only thing holding him together by that point having been the skin and muscle on his sides.

As the two pieces of the man thudded to the ground, Azula had to stop herself from gasping from the thrill she was feeling.

She was distantly aware of Soza standing beside and slightly behind her, less a person in that moment and more a presence. Everyone in that room, the pathetic dirt scrambling for the door to the people she had traveled beside through the final days of the war, all of them were nothing but little flickers in her mind, tiny blots of color that told her they were there. It didn't matter that they were present, not even her daughter. The men being slaughtered became their own dull blurs, colorless and impossibly weak.

For the moment, for the eternity that it was, she only saw herself and him.

And, despite the years she had spent telling herself she no longer wanted this, Azula realized how desperate she was that it could stay that way forever.

It was an abrupt moment, but eventually they stopped coming.

Sasuke whipped around with Kusanagi raised, expecting to see more men coming his way, but the only thing he could see as he looked around were the corpses he had brought into existence. No more jets of fire, enormous pieces of earth, or sharp edges of any kind were slung towards him as he wildly tried to gain control of his roaring pulse and his labored breathing. Were the conditions at all different, had these just been men he had needed to kill, he surely would have been calm and composed following what he had just done.

But he hadn't just killed them. He had mangled and slashed and torn them apart like a wild dog. Practically, there had been no reason he should have so savagely ripped through them all, but Sasuke knew that his situation was anything but practical. At least in how he had reacted to it.

They had been about to kill Toph. And that thought only made him wish there were more of them to kill.

As it happened, he turned with a blood soaked face to regard the remainder of the room, ensuring that Toph was directly to his back. He wanted to free her from the wooden beam, but first on his agenda was ensuring there were no more threats to her life.

The room was falling back to silence now that at least sixty percent of the occupants had fled from the building, the sounds of their panic fading away. As the red started to fade from his vision, he passed his gaze over those remaining while he tried to allow his memory to identify who he was looking at. But before the mass of faces before him could be properly registered, his attention was turned to perhaps the last sound he might have expected to hear just then.

It took several seconds before he realized that it was applause.

"Didn't I tell you? It was only a matter of time before the imposter showed himself, and now I've been proven right."

A voice that sounded both extremely familiar and entirely alien sounded out and Sasuke blinked as he tried to identify the voice in his head. While he did so, the younger, arrogant looking man who had ordered that Toph be killed just as Sasuke had entered the room, surrounded by men in the same uniform as those he had just murdered, spoke up.

"You were correct. I'll admit, I had my reservations."

As the bizarrely recognizable and yet unidentifiable voice spoke again, the gathered crowd seemed to part to turn and see who had just spoken. As the speaker came to a halt between the two sides of the small sea of people, Sasuke realized why it was that the voice sounded to his ears that way.

He was looking at himself.

Not exactly the same person, but it was unmistakably an attempt at replicating his appearance. The person wore the same clothes that he had years ago, that same light grey shirt, that same purple rope belt, and that same dark cloth that was wrapped at his waist. His face and form might have been a perfect match in the mirror and Sasuke felt every defensive and reactionary piece of his mind come flashing to the ready. His adrenaline started to rush again as he considered the reality of who might be standing before him; the only people he knew to be able to so flawlessly replicate the appearance of another were…

Someone like me.

That made him far more wary of this person than any dozens of armed and bending individuals.

The doppelganger looked up towards him from the forty feet or so away as they ceased clapping their hands in what was clearly mocking applause. Eyes still locked on Sasuke, they turned their head just the barest degree to call out to several of the individuals that Sasuke assumed were some political officials of some kind.

"Hopefully the council can see just as well the truth of this person. An imposter trying to soil my name; clearly massacring those soldiers on the coast wasn't enough for this one."

A stouter and mustached man replied, and Sasuke's memory triggered to tell him that this was the governor of the city, and a member of that damned council. He assumed that the group of people the governor was with were the other members of that council, and his mind started to race on its own accord.

Were they the ones who authorized this execution? That pompous, thin man over there called out for her to be killed, but I doubt he wields the authority entirely on his own. Was it these people?

"There are two of you. Are we to assume by your word that you are the real Sasuke? That this man killed those people? That you are the one to be believed?"

Sasuke looked at the governor whose name popped into his head as Bradley, and could see that despite his calm words, his eyes were flicking between both Sasuke and the person posing as him, a wildly worried look on his face. As Sasuke looked, he could see that expression reflected on all those faces of the council members standing around Gilbert, their bodies stiffened in intensity. That expression too was passed amongst the gathered Water and Earth Nation soldiers who looked ready to pounce at any given order as they struggled to decide whether to look at the blood soaked individual with the wild fury in his eyes or the composed and arrogant looking individual smirking to their side, both of whom looked near identical by their faces.

And as Sasuke felt his eyes tracking over them, his eyes fell onto a young man with a blue arrow tattooed on his forehead. Sasuke took a moment to realize that he was looking at the Avatar.

There was a dangerously hurtful pang to his gut as he looked at Aang again for the first time in what was over a decade.

Damn, you've grown up, kid.

Aang had grown in height like a weed, still somewhat slim, but a taut firmness had settled on his body, defined muscles standing out. He had developed a clear composure that Sasuke could see reflected in his stance, even as his face shone with sadness and anxiety. There was some part of Sasuke that strangely enough felt some pride to see Aang no longer as the worried child he had once traveled with, all grown up and looking much more matured, likely more so than he needed to be.

Beside him stood Katara, who looked like she was barely capable of standing on her own feet as she leaned against Aang and Sasuke had to blink for a moment as he had to take in what a beautiful young woman she had become. He could still see the commanding fire in her eyes, and he wondered if she was still holding as much of a vice on Aang's life as she had been when they were younger.

His eyes tracked further over and he saw another sight that practically was a punch in the gut on its own. Two young women that he knew must have been Jin and Ty Lee were looking at him with bloodshot and wide eyes, and he saw anger mingling with their confusion and shock. They too had grown so much since he last remembered seeing them, their beauty showing through the masks of pained emotion that they glared up at him with. He wondered if Ty Lee resented him for what he had done, and if Jin truly had been able to forgive him for what he had done to her.

There was Sokka who had truly grown into an impressive young man, a fair bit more muscle built on him than Aang, and despite his powerful and what could be considered an imposing form that he now possessed, Sasuke could still see the childlike worry that dominated his features. Not a fear for himself, but for those he cared about, and Sasuke felt a very strange kinship with the expression he saw. Zuko and his uncle were both looking up towards him with a sadness that was far stronger than that of anyone else present; Zuko too looked like he had grown into quite his own, but the intense hurt and attentiveness on his face almost seemed to double the young man's age as Sasuke looked on the person he had traveled across hundreds of miles to speak with.

His gut took a serious hit as his eyes fell onto Mai. She stood tall and stiff, her hands clenched at her side as she looked towards him and the other him; unlike the others, she looked much less frantic, but perhaps as consternated as anyone there could have appeared. He could see the pain stretched across her face, and even seeing her hurting as badly as she seemed to be, Sasuke's gaze held on her a moment longer than anyone else by that point. She had grown into an intensely ravishing woman just as Katara had, but there was something even more alluring about her that he couldn't quite put his finger on.

Then his eyes tracked slightly further over and his gaze locked the longest on the last person he had known from before.

Azula's elegance and gorgeousity was downright captivating, even in that moment. Sasuke didn't need a single moment past making eye contact with her to know that it was the same princess he had left behind over a decade prior. She was magnificent in her beauty, composed, tall, her black hair flowing over her shoulders and down her back, her eyes two orbs of burning ice that felt like they were puncturing him.

He had to force himself to look away from her and his eyes fell on the child beside her.

So… she had a kid, huh?

Sasuke allowed himself the briefest moment to wonder what kind of man would have been taken with someone like Azula, and whom she had deemed worthy to impregnate her. No doubt that would have had to be quite the person, unless Azula's intensity and deadly personality had mellowed out since she had gotten older.

His attention flicked back to the person disguising themselves as him as they laughed in response to the governor's query.

"Well, considering how easily he dispatched such a skilled group with nothing but a sword, I don't think it would be a stretch to assume he would have been able to do the same."

The tall, vain woman whose name Sasuke couldn't remember spoke up sharply.

"So, you've just come back at the same time? Can you explain how such a coincidence?"

The doppelganger gave her a dry look.

"I've been keeping a low profile for a while now, probably something to do with the fact that I was condemned after saving all your sorry asses all those years ago, perhaps you remember that? But now…"

Taking a step forward, Sasuke watched the imposter jab a finger towards him.

"Now, this mimic works his way into the world, using my name and image to cause chaos. I've merely come to ensure that this mania ceases."

"And you're so sure we're to believe that your positions aren't reversed?" the governor asked, and Sasuke watched the imposter closely. They looked to Bradley and then slowly back to him, a small smile slipping onto his face.

"You know the name Sasuke and associate it with unknown and immense power, power you cannot comprehend. Capable of such feats that would seem like those of a god. But has this individual shown signs of anything special other than swordplay?"

Sasuke, whose voice hadn't been put to use since he had been roaring with fury during his recent engagement, felt strained and sore as he spoke, his voice hoarse and cracking in an angry hiss.

"What, and you do?"

Behind him, Toph gave a whimper and he could barely keep himself from wincing, wanting so badly to cut her from where she was strung and take her to safety. But he knew that the person in front of him was far and above that what needed his attention. He couldn't protect her without first dealing with this threat.

The imposter stared him down, smiling all the while.

"Don't sound so defensive. It's not like I'm asking that you—"

As Sasuke listened to his own voice ripple out over the room towards him, he decided to end things sooner rather than later; he found that he very much didn't care who it was that was posing as him. He would be more than happy to figure out who it was after he had impaled and driven them to the ground. The muscles in his legs burned as he kicked himself forward from the raised marble area where Toph had been about to die, letting that remembrance further fuel him alongside his adrenaline and fury. Even without the aid of chakra, he was on top of his lookalike in the blink of an eye, Kusanagi drawn back and held loosely in his hand, about to whip about like the flap of a hummingbird's wing to remedy himself of this poser.

He had to blink when he realized someone was standing between him and his would be target.

Mai had thrust herself in front of the pretend Sasuke and had drawn a pair of finely serrated knives, her eyes still wide with fear and confusion, but her mouth set in a determined line. Sasuke froze, his sword still drawn back, but he made no effort to swing as he looked into Mai's eyes while blood continued to drip down his face. His breath came in deep heaving rushes and he saw that Mai looked out of breath too; they were close enough that he could have taken a step forward and pressed his forehead to hers. Being that close caused a flicker in the back of his mind as he involuntarily reflected again on how beautiful she had become, but this quickly vanished as a question overcame the front of his mind.

What is she doing?

"Well, I certainly can't have you attacking innocent bystanders," the imposter said, and Sasuke had a moment to feel a strange weightlessness before he found himself flung through the air, crashing into one of the marble pillars stretching to the ceiling. The breath burst from his lungs and he let out a gasp of pain as he crashed to the ground. Scrambling, he pulled himself to his feet, trying to keep his vision from spinning as he saw the doppelganger standing just behind Mai; as he looked, it almost looked like the double of himself lean in to place a soft kiss on her neck. She barely seemed to react to it, and as Sasuke felt his mind spin with confusion, he looked to Aang, Katara, Zuko, Sokka, Jin, Ty Lee, Suki and Azula and saw them all staring between Mai, Sasuke and the poser with stunned perplexity, mixed with anger, disbelief and hurt. Sasuke saw Zuko seem to sag where he stood, Katara furrowing her brow, her mouth falling slightly agape, Azula's eyes widening and her nostrils flaring, and Sasuke suddenly realized what was happening.

They don't know which one is real… except Mai, who thinks that the other one is me. Why? What has her that sure?

There was little time to ponder it as the imposter stepped past Mai, stretching out their fingers.

"Perhaps this is the best way to prove the disparity between us. If you're the real Sasuke, use those powers. Tap into those impossible abilities that have this world so frightened and mystified."

The fake Sasuke thrust their hand and Sasuke felt himself whipped into the air like a dry leaf in a windstorm before he was tossed errantly to go crashing to the floor. His body ached horribly as he tried to pick himself up again, but he only got to one knee before another invisible blast slammed him into the wall.

Feeling the world spin as he spat the coppery taste of blood from his mouth, Sasuke heard his own voice call out with something like a mocking and challenging tone.

"Unless you can't fight back, because you're really just a frenzied man of the sword who's trying to take my appearance and name, slander it and use it for your own twisted purposes."

Sasuke staggered to his feet and was immediately flung to slam against the steps in front of where Toph was tied to the pole, the edges of them digging into his neck, back and legs, and he let out a snarl of pain as he weakly tried to roll over. Blearily, he heard Toph's voice call out, ripe with panic and fear, cracking weakly from the strain and torment she had just been put through.

"Sasuke, what are you doing?! Fight back!"

It gave Sasuke a deep feeling of elation that was much stronger than he would have expected as he realized that Toph believed that he was who he was.

How? She hasn't seen me, how would she be able to be sure of that?

But despite her plea, he couldn't. He couldn't, not when he was this close. His journey was just a moment from being over, he had nearly made it, and he couldn't risk using his chakra and achieving that what Roku had warned against. If he used the abilities the imposter was trying to taunt him into showing, he might ruin the entirety of the quest he had set out on, and possibly allow the spirit invasion to erupt.

I just have to hold out.. find an opening, find—

No further did he get in his mental stragetizing as he pushed to his feet then his gaze lit up with a blue blindness and his world lit up in a great deal of pain as azure lightning crackled and flashed over and through his body. Roaring, he saw fuzzily that the imposter had a hand directed at him as the lightning burned from his fingertips and crackled to reach him, flaring his body up with an immense pain. He crashed to his hands and knees trying to stay in possession of his clarity and as he did, one thought resounded within his head crystal clear.

This isn't Chidori. Whatever this person is using… it isn't chakra based.

But despite this realization, he also knew that this hardly made much of a difference at all. He couldn't fight back with any sort of reasonable expectation of getting an in, since doing so would require him to get close enough to this mysterious antagonist to strike a blow. Without his chakra, he was just what the imposter claimed him to be: a highly skilled swordsman, fast and strong as any man could be, but other than that, completely unremarkable. He had no range to his advantage, he hadn't held or used a kunai in years. Perhaps he could try throwing Kusanagi but that would be a one time try, and he had a feeling that whoever this person was, they would be able to see something like that coming.

His own voice sounded out from far off, distant and blurry as it came from a mouth that wasn't his.

"But you're not going to do that, are you? Because you can't. You're just a mask with a sword, you have no powers. You're going to be removed from this equation and the world can be rid of the stain you're trying to give to my name."

The pain ramped up and Sasuke let out a last shout before the lightning slammed into him again with a much heavier force and tossed him into the wall. Despite his best efforts, he couldn't keep his vision from blackening as his painfully human body dropped to the floor and he lay there, trying to fathom with his aching, unresponsive limbs how he might possibly turn this around.

Aang watched as the bloody, motionless body of one of the two Sasuke's dropped to the floor and rested there motionless before hesitantly looking back to the other one. The miserable confusion that burned within him giving way to confusion was just as overpowering as it had been since the first of the two had arrived, but he couldn't find much reason to believe one way or the other.

On one hand, the first one's brutality had been even above what Aang had remembered from years past, but he had fought with that same savage and efficient edge, even as he had entirely ripped a man in half. He had spoken with the familiar hateful edge that Aang knew Sasuke had been so common to use, but he also wasn't utilizing any of the powers that Aang had recalled him having, simply allowing himself to be blasted around the room like he was just a man, which Aang supposed it was entirely possible he might be. There was too much off about him to think that he was the real Sasuke.

But this second Sasuke seemed just as unlikely to be the real one: he spoke with an air of superior arrogance and haughtiness that Aang would never have associated with the Sasuke he knew. And even if he had somehow experienced some supreme change of character and become this new personality, it still seemed impossible that he would have just walked behind Mai and planted a kiss gently on her neck. The movement had seemed almost predatory, or like an animal marking its territory, and stranger still, Mai hadn't reacted to this other than blushing as she maintained a frightened but determined expression, ignoring the absolutely venomous stare from Azula, and the expression of devastated aching from Zuko. Why would she have reacted so subtly to such an overt display of affection, or territoriality, or whatever this Sasuke had just shown her? Why would Sasuke have been so openly intimate as well; that was yet another thing that Aang would never have associated with him.

Despite all that however, he had abilities that were deeply familiar to the ones Aang remembered. He had listened to the United Nations Council and soldiers of the Earth and Fire Nation gasp as with mere flicks and waves of his hand, he had tossed around the other Sasuke with significant ease, finishing it off with a violent burst of electricity that seemed to have fully knocked him into submission, his body steaming and lying motionless against the wall. Aang remembered how the man known as Madara had been able to take the forms of other people, and knew that one of these Sasukes must have been an imposter, but frankly, neither of them fit the bill.

What do we do?

That was all he could pathetically think in desperation as he tried to imagine how he could make a difference in what was happening if he couldn't so much as determine who he was going to be able to trust.

But… even if it was Sasuke… even if knew which was him, could I even trust him anyway?

It was a painful thought to imagine that he couldn't trust Sasuke, but he knew that he would be lying to himself if he was going to tell himself that he could trust the boy who had left them all those years ago, who had left with so many mysteries still to his name. He had only been able to stand there, his feet one with the floor as Katara held a numbing vice grip on his bicep. It was all he could do to observe the spectacle and try and wrap his head around what was happening; the Sasuke who had just thrown the other around like a ragdoll, he had seemed to know Gilbert? How could that have been?

Said Sasuke turned to Bradley and Dreyer and the others of the council, speaking as he did.

"Perhaps we might take the imposter into custody? Then, I will gladly undergo whatever is necessary to prove my identity and that the man I've just dealt with is nothing more than an imposter."

It was then that Aang realized just how tense the situation was; Gokan and Ungo's men had wrapped around the standing Sasuke almost imperceptibly, looking ready to move in at a moment's notice. Suki and her Warriors had spread out just slightly to move away from Gilbert and his remaining two dozen hired mercenaries as if they expected something to happen between the young lord and potentially anyone else. Aang imagined that Suki had quietly given the order when it had become clear that Sasuke and Gilbert had apparently had something of at least a minor correspondence. This was something that he actually found struck a nerve in him: if this Sasuke was the real one, why would he have gone to a pretentious and awful person like Gilbert before any of them?

Or at least any of us other than Mai.

Governor Bradley looked deeply flustered though he was clearly trying to appear otherwise as he cast looks around at other members of the council. It took a slow nod from Dreyer before he turned forwards and gave a curt nod.

"Very well. General Gokan, you will have your men escort—"

"Wait."

It was Gilbert's indignant, yet reserved tone that rang out, calling over Bradley's orders. Aang noted how his voice was slightly raised in pitch, almost as though the current proceedings were even more than he knew how to handle. Attention turned to him and Aang saw him standing amidst his men, his two swordswomen still flanking him, loyal as ever.

"I don't think justice has yet been served," Gilbert stated slowly, his voice lowering with a menacing note to it.

"We cannot go about exacting execution on a man whose origins are unknown to us, Gilbert, and when we don't know whether or not he—" Dreyer started, but Gilbert cut her off with an angry snap. Judging by the look on her face, she wasn't used to being so openly disrespected as she bristled at his interruption.

"I'm not talking about the imposter," he growled.

Aang knew almost immediately what he was talking about and his eyes flicked frantically to Toph. She had struggled to push herself to her feet and was panting still at the exertion forced upon her by the torture, but she looked like she was in a more stable state of mind than when she had been on the receiving on a brand. Gilbert looked to the Sasuke standing beside Mai and jabbed a finger at Toph aggressively.

"If you are willing to cooperate, finish the job started. These are our laws; prove you're willing to abide by them."

Based on the expression on the standing Sasuke's face, he hadn't expected to be challenged quite like this and at once, Aang felt a wild rush of relief pass through his veins. Sasuke, no matter what changes he had experienced, or how different of a person he might have become, he would never think to do anything to harm Toph. A flood of memories passed through Aang's head as he remembered all the times that Sasuke's harsh demeanor had crumbled in the face of Toph's enthusiasm, high energy and good nature. Not once had he ever remembered hearing Sasuke voice such feelings with any sort of clarity, but Aang was certain that under no circumstances would he ever have dreamed of following Gilbert's orders to take her life.

He watched as the Sasuke standing among them stared at Gilbert with an almost puzzled expression on his face, for the first time, seeming to have been rendered somewhat without an answer.

Then, he said, "Alright, have it your way. Shouldn't take much to finish her off."

Aang's heart stopped as the Sasuke raised a hand, blue lightning crackling around it and before he could so much as scream his denial, the bolt fire towards Toph from where she remained bound to the wooden beam. He fell to his knees as the lightning impacted with a flash that momentarily blinded him, and he had a split second to decide whether or not he even dared look at the aftermath. He didn't know it he would be able to handle it, but somehow, his eyes remained transfixed on the front of the room.

When the light died away and he saw what had happened in that terribly brief moment, Aang was given the most clarity he had been privy to all night.

The Sasuke who had been battered and flung about the room had somehow gotten to his feet, dashed across the room and lunged between Toph and the blast of bright blue energy a moment before it had impacted. He was standing slightly bowed over, his left arm raised above him as it rested against the wooden beam for support as his legs looked to be near to buckling. His right arm dangled weakly at his side, but when it came up to perform an extremely specific motion, this along with the fact that Toph had been completely shielded by his body told Aang all he needed to know about which of these two lookalikes was exactly who he appeared to be.

Sasuke's body felt like it was in the most agony it had been in perhaps in his entire life. Having sealed off his chakra flows throughout his body had not but rendered him nothing more than a man, and he certainly felt this weakness as he had lain in a steaming heap on the floor. Through the near all-encompassing pain, he had somehow wrapped his mind around the idea that surprise would be the only way he would be able to take this imposter, and so he had allowed himself to simply remain on the ground, resting and waiting for a moment where he might be able to reclaim the advantage.

Or this had been his plan anyway, until he had heard the voice of the young vain looking man call out and his own voice reciprocating the request. At that point, he had known that there was no option in regards to what he had to do next.

He had been mildly surprised at how easily his aching and excruciating body had been able to bound to his feet and launch himself to the center of the room up onto the raised section of floor where Toph had been bound, and he had managed to rest his arm on the beam and steel himself just a moment before his world had lit up once more in sheer agony. It had been a single concentrated blast, but the shock seemed to last for minutes before it died away and he remained where he stood, weakly propped against the wood as he listened to the weak crackle of the lightning dying away as it finished coursing through his body. In that moment, he had been able to do nothing more than keep his eyes tightly shut, trying to will away the pain but finding he could do nothing more than hold himself there and try and keep from collapsing. He couldn't even quite fathom how he was standing.

"Sasuke…?"

It wasn't the first time he had heard her speak, but it truly felt like the first time he had truly, genuinely heard her voice.

And as he listened to Toph's voice weakly reach out to him, there was an actual physical relief that pressed itself gently against his insides, and he opened his eyes.

She had her face turned towards him, her hair matted down with sweat from the trauma she had been put through, black and flowing down her shoulders as her unseeing eyes blinked with a worried sort of speed. As his eyes passed over her body he felt a mild, distant amusement that she might actually have been close to as tall as he was, followed by a familiar burning rage as he caught sight of her back. Then, he really stopped to look at her face, and years of anger and hate might never have been.

No longer the child that he had traveled with those years ago, she had become much more grown and yet still looked so familiar to him. And it was as he looked at the matured beauty that she now possessed mixed with that same childlike energy that he could tell she still retained that Sasuke realized he had missed her.

I'm sorry… I'm sorry it had to happen like this. I'm sorry I wasn't able to be there for you, I'm sorry I couldn't have stopped all this from happening.

He somehow couldn't bring himself to say any of these things, a mix of pride and pain holding down his voice, but the throbbing deep within overpowered even the pain that wracked his body. Slowly, with a shaking arm, he brought his hand up that he saw was still stained with blood and weakly pressed his pointer and middle fingers against her forehead.

She stiffened as though one of the currents from the blast he had just taken had been passed to her. The muscles in her cheeks tightened and her eyes started to shine. Something like a smile of sheer relief seemed to be pulling at the corners of her mouth, and Sasuke couldn't help but give an exhausted one of his own, one she couldn't see. For that moment, that one instance as their broken bodies touched, he forgot why it was that he had even come back.

It was a very unfamiliar feeling.

Sasuke's arm quivered from the exertion of just raising it and his fingers slid down her forehead, leaving a scarlet streak as it passed down. The barely perceivable smile that had crossed her face vanished as his hand fell away from her and he dropped to his knees, no longer able to keep himself upright. His head pressed against the wood of the beam as Toph struggled against the rope weakly.

"Sasuke, get up," she pleaded and he could no nothing more than weakly shake his head. He did however hear his voice call out from behind him, raised and imposing and Sasuke weakly turned to drop into a sitting position, his back to Toph's legs.

"It's clear that I went a little too easy on you," he heard his voice call out and he saw another glow of blue light start to grow in front of him. "I won't make that mistake again."

Sasuke felt his mind blank. He couldn't stop this attack, any more than he could fight back against this mystery clone. Still, despite that, he pushed himself to one knee shakily, trying to cover Toph as best he could. The flash expanded as he heard her cry out behind him as he tried to force himself to his feet, and he succeeded; a smirk crossed his face as he did, knowing that as long as life still coursed through his veins, nothing was getting through to her.

I'll stand as many times as I have to.

There was a flicker of movement to his right and the flash reached a blinding intensity and he was knocked back onto his rear. As he did, he realized that despite their being a burst of energy enough to knock him over, he felt no pain more than what already agonized his body. Confusion poured through his veins, but then, he light cleared away and he saw what had happened.

Standing just in front of him, knees bent, her right hand on the handle of her glowing greatsword and the flat of the blade pressed against her left forearm for support, Yue's silvery hair danced as the energy from the explosive burst she had just deflected died away. Sasuke saw past her that his imitator had been knocked flat on his back to go skidding away; it seemed that Yue's blade had rebounded his otherworldly attack and sent it right back to him. As the room went into somewhat of a reserved uproar over the new stranger and her sword shining with its blueish green glow, Yue paid not a single person there any mind, turning to look at Sasuke with a sad and betrayed look in her eyes.

"Why did you leave?" was all she said quietly, a melancholy touch to her tone. Sasuke could only look back at her, his burnt, bruised and pained body a stark contrast to the clean and beautiful image that she was, her blue eyes regarding him somberly.

Ahead of them, Sasuke saw that of everyone, it looked like Sokka had almost fallen over where he stood, so taken aback by this new figure as he was. Before he could consider why that might be, the man that Sasuke had heard been named Gilbert looked wildly at the imposter who had just been unceremoniously sent flying back onto the marble floor before looking back forward, an enraged look in his eyes.

"Kill them!" he shrieked. "Kill them all!"

Without a moment's hesitation, the men that Sasuke hadn't put down just minutes ago left the side of their master and broke into a wide semicircle towards the front of the room. Yue bent her knees and moved her sword to position it in a readied stance, her gaze turning fiercely towards these new aggressors; Sasuke knew that she was hardly a woman to be remotely trifled with, but he still felt a rush of worry at her odds of taking on all of these armed men at once, plenty of whom were surely benders as well. Grimacing and feeling a searing burn throughout his body, he tried to roll over and force himself to his feet, determined to aid her, when a hand fell on his shoulder, gently pushing him back to the ground.

"We'll take it from here," a composed, warm and familiar voice said.

Before they made it a dozen steps away from Gilbert, each of his men froze abruptly in place as figures dressed in black, well worn garb leapt from the shadows, from behind the marble columns, and practically seeming to drop from the ceiling itself, rushed up behind them, pressing blades against their throats and backs. Gilbert himself looked around wildly and opened his mouth wide again.

"Gokan, what the hell are you doing, get your—ACK!"

He didn't get very far in screaming at the general for help as a hook hand pressed against his throat and cut him off in a loud squawk. General Gokan crossed his arms after raising a large hand to keep his troops in check.

"I think we'll let this one play out, Gilbert," his rumbling voice said softly over the shouts from Gilbert's surprised men and the cries of surprise from the council members. Sasuke saw that the Water Nation soldiers were also holding position and Suki and her Warriors had fanned out to set something of a perimeter around Gilbert's men and their would-be assailants, but not one soldier or Warrior made a move to interfere.

After a few moments, silence fell after which the only real sound was that of Sasuke's doppelganger growling as they shoved themselves to their feet. The other Sasuke let out a hiss as they walked forward and then spoke, a rasping and challenging pitch.

"So… the imposter comes with cohorts, do they?"

For a moment, there was no response until slow and measured steps sounded behind Sasuke as the person who had taken him gently by the shoulder walked around his left side.

"As it happens, the last time I encountered a person who wanted to seize as much power as he could by deception and force, I didn't find myself particularly agreeable with him."

As Ursa walked into Sasuke's view, he saw Zuko go a step further than Sokka had when he had seen Yue, and flat out dropped to his knees; at his side, the composure that Sasuke remembered out of Iroh had been vanished away into a pale and stunned expression, and beside them, Azula's eyes looked as wide as they could have been.

Ursa made no reaction to anyone else in the room however, keeping her commanding eyes locked on the other Sasuke standing a couple dozen yards from her. The warmth in her voice that she had spoken to Sasuke with was gone as she stood staring down the immensely powerful figure with absolutely no fear whatsoever in her gaze or her stance. It looked as though she might have had complete control of the room, as though she were above everyone else present.

"You're taking the side of the fake? For what reason?" the imposter Sasuke asked of her and Ursa gave her head a shake.

"Don't try and play that game. If you knew a thing about the young man you're pretending to be, you would know that it couldn't be more clear which of you is the fake."

The mimic drew themselves up and furrowed its brow at Ursa and the room became rich with a strong tenseness.

"You would be prepared to bet on that, would you?" the other Sasuke asked challengingly and Sasuke looked to the woman he had traveled across hundreds of miles of ocean with, whom he had shared his words and body with, and whom had been there for him even when he hadn't asked for it.

Ursa looked for a long second, meeting the eyes of the imposter with a composed firmness before offering him a smile.

"With my life," she said.

With that, she drew her flintlock pistol, cocked it in the same fluid motion and shot the imposter between the eyes.

Mai's mouth fell open as the deafening snap-bang sound seemed to rattle the very room. She had never seen such a weapon herself, some small cannon that could be held in the palm of one's hand, and the stunned gasps and shouts that resounded about the room in response to the flash and explosive sound that emanated from it, but her mind barely processed the alien weaponry she was looking at.

Because to her eyes, Sasuke had just been killed and there was nothing she could do about it.

She stared at his prone body lying just a couple meters away from her, her mouth still open as she wanted to scream, but no sound made it out of her throat. She wanted to rush to his side, to hold him and feel if he was truly dead, but she couldn't. She wanted to hurl a knife at the familiar looking woman that she couldn't quite place in her memory, so scrambled was her mind, but she couldn't act in that capacity either.

Mai couldn't even dare look at the other young man who had shared nearly the exact same appearance as the one lying motionless before her.

She had put her entire stake in her belief that he had been the real Sasuke. He was dressed in the same clothes he had approached her with, had exercised the same relaxed confidence that this one had, and he had not completely and utterly slaughtered the group of men with the savagery the other one had. Sasuke must have matured past those rage-induced instincts that he had displayed those years ago, that could not have been the one.

It took Mai recognizing the terror that stretched from her toes to her head which was currently feeling terribly light-headed, that she didn't want to imagine a world where she was wrong. Because of what that would mean for her specifically. Her mind was a mess of emotion and anxiety, her hand gripped one of her hidden knives behind her back, the handle soaked in sweat expunged from her numb fingers.

The rest of the room slowly turned to look at the downed individual, despite the unextinguished tension that remained, what with the many armed men holding up Gilbert's posse, but the curiosity over whether one of the two Sasukes had just been killed seemed to be getting the better of them.

"Is he dead?" Bradley's voice called out, sounding distant and far off in Mai's ears, as though spoken from behind a thick door. Nearest to the body, Aang took a slow step forward and then another; his face was set, even as muscles in his jaw seemed to be working at a vicious pace. Mai wanted to scream at the Avatar to stay away from him, but she could do nothing but stare as Aang walked slowly over and knelt beside the body.

As he reached for the throat of the motionless form, the head of the shot Sasuke's body exploded.

Aang tumbled backwards in surprise, scrambling to his feet as everyone who had gotten remotely near to the form also reeled away from it. Mai brought her knife to a readied position in instinct, but her eyes stared in shock at what was happening before her.

From where the head had exploded with a violent force, something was erupting from the neck of the body, twisting and spilling out like a cascade of black water. But as Mai watched and her mind forced her to realize what she was looking at, she saw that the substance erupting from the corpse was not liquid, but rather twisting into a very distinct shape. She had seen this shape before; when she had been a child, she remembered this shape quite well from their visits to the beaches in the Fire Nation, when she had vacationed with Ty Lee, Zuko and Azula. The young princess had walked to the edge of the treeline and found a centipede crawling about which she had then picked up and chased Ty Lee up and down the beach with. Memories of being merely eight or nine years old seemed so distantly wistful as Mai's reality came crashing back to her and the shape's connotation became so very clear to her.

A giant centipede-like form was billowing out from Sasuke's body, each of its segments being the size of a balled up adult body, its length stretching to well over a dozen meters as it curled and arched towards the ceiling. At this sight, the soldiers of Earth and Water fell into full readied stances, with Ungo and Gokan calling out standy orders; the Kyoshi Warriors rolled their way around to face the dark shape unfolding before them, and the men holding Gilbert's mercenaries released them as all attention fell towards this frightening spectacle.

Finally, the centipede seemed to have unfurled itself completely, and the endmost segment turned to loom down at them and Mai was stunned to see a pallid white mask peering out from the front of its grotesque body. It almost seemed to be the mask of a stage performer, painted red lips and deep purple shadowing around the black slits behind which Mai could see no eyes. She, alongside the rest of the room, stared in shocked awe at the creature before Aang shouted out, his voice angry and sounding like it was trying hard not to be terrified.

"Koh!"

At this word, the centipede twisted down, bringing its strange mask on eye level with most everyone in the room. A voice emanated from near it and it was a moment before Mai realized the thing was speaking, an awful hissing slither of a voice that she felt penetrating her very mind.

"You remember me, Avatar, I feel so honored."

Aang continued to shout, his voice now directed elsewhere, and he pushed past everyone else, throwing his hands out as if to protect the entire room from this enormous monster.

"Everyone keep your faces calm and relaxed! If he—"

"I'll stop you right there, little Avatar," the creature that Aang had denoted as Koh said, sounding both amused and faintly infuriated. "The powers I hold in my home to not translate so fluidly to the land of the living."

There came a hissing rattle from its body before it continued, and Mai found herself wondering wildly if that was it laughing.

"Believe these words, if I could, I would stolen the face of every benign fool who is presently gaping at my glory, but as it happens, this is not something I stand to be capable of."

"How are you here?! How could you pretend to be Sasuke and use his powers?!" Aang practically screamed, his voice starting to sound frantic.

"Quite simply," Koh responded. "While my ability to capture the faces has been removed from my use, I have found myself able to snatch the appearance of anyone that I know reasonably well enough by visual and personality based discretion. Those powers are mere imitations of what I know young Sasuke there to be capable of."

Mai should have been focused entirely on this being and its mindboggling existence. But as it spoke, she found her eyes drifting in terror towards the Sasuke that had pushed himself weakly to one knee beside Toph, the white-haired girl with the sword, and the familiar looking woman who somehow was looking very resolutely at Koh. As Mai looked at him, seeing his blood soaked face look towards the centipede with burning hate in his eyes, she could only reach down and almost involuntarily rub her stomach.

What does… what does this mean?

The fear she felt then was the strongest emotion she had yet felt that night.

"As for my being here… some questions are better left unanswered, Avatar. And I'm afraid we don't have the time to discuss such matters now regardless; we have work to do."

There came that awful hissing sound again as each of the appendages extending from the creature wriggled about with something that Mai could tell was enthusiasm.

"It is him," the voice of Koh boomed out, suddenly excessively loud throughout the room, pounding against her ears. "This is the one."

As the words rebounded with violent echoes throughout the room and faded away, a fearful and uneasy silence began to fall over the room before Mai picked up on the sound of footsteps. They started softly and continued that way until she looked to see two silhouettes, shrouded in dark and moving around either side of the centipede.

"You're certain?" came a voice, powerful, dominant and female.

"Indeed," Koh hissed. "By his actions, and his weakness, this is without a doubt Sasuke Uchiha."

The two forms drew closer and the female voice spoke again, a commanding and almost oppressive sound that Mai found almost otherworldly to listen to.

"You've done well, Koh."

The centipede lowered its monstrous body in a bizarre curl that Mai likened to a bow. As she watched, the pair came to move to the front of Koh, opening themselves to the light.

Mai wasn't inherently well versed in history beyond that of her own nation, nor did she have a particularly good memory for the faces in those history books. Her time was often spent on military history, and she knew the events and dates of a great many battles more than she knew the time periods that certain important people had been alive. But the moment she laid eyes on the two individuals, she knew precisely who she was looking at, and even despite her ensuing panic, shock once again overpowered her. It seemed too that the rest of the room was having no trouble discerning who these two were either as there came shouts and cries of almost a reverent nature; Earth and Water Nation soldiers alike collapsed and raised their hands over their heads to fall into bows, their faces alight with devout admiration and shock. Almost all the Kyoshi Warriors also had dropped to their knees, their stances much more orderly but no less lacking in obeisance. The council members looked to be a wreck of frightened and stunned expressions, and Mai took a step back that she felt was done more so out of her own natural spurring than anything.

The first of the two looked like she could have been a female version of Aang for all the resemblance they shared, though a cascade of brown hair flowed from the back of her head. Her eyes were intense, but almost light and playful, her expression intrigued as she moved forward. She wore the same clothes it seemed that Mai had seen Aang wear so often, though they were more suited for her female body.

The second woman was power personified. The first woman certainly seemed to possess a commanding aura to the way she conducted herself, but the second was in a league of her own. Looking at her, she would have fit right in among Suki and the Kyoshi Warriors, so similar was their dress. But she stood a good head taller than any of them, likely more than that; behind her face paint was an expression of absolute will and composure and the strength her dark green eyes wielded had Mai praying she would look at anyone other than her.

As she looked at the two women, Mai felt her legs grow weak and quiver. Part of her wanted to drop down to her knees as well, though her body didn't seem capable of listening to her wishes just then. She somehow knew beyond a shadow of a doubt who these two women were, though everything within her wished that she were wrong.

"So, that's him, huh?" Avatar Yangchen asked almost casually. "But both him and the girl?"

"I won't have you doubting in our duty now," Avatar Kyoshi asked, her voice rippling out with the deep command that very few could ever hope to achieve. "You know what must be done."