A/N: Hello all. Welcome to me actually getting a chapter (kinda) on time. This came after much procrastination so please enjoy.

Chapter 28: Impending Armageddon Part 1

Last Time:

Suddenly, Aqua began to play.

I'm a Barbie Girl

In a Barbie wo-o-orld

Life in plastic

It's fantastic

"The fuck, Zuko?" Katara laughed.

Zuko groaned, gritting his teeth.

"Azula's prank, I assume. One sec."

He swiped the black screen, accepting the call.

"The hell do you want? Oh. Damn, is it 5 already? Alright. Yeah. Mhm. Fine. See you at home."

Zuko turned his phone off, pulling his hoodie back on.

"That was Azula. Dad wants me back. Says he has a 'talk' for me. That'll be fun."

Aang took a quick glance at his watch and then at the sky.

"Looks like we should all be heading back actually."

He stood up, stretching, and then helped Katara up too.

"We uh... we should do this again," Zuko whispered shyly.

"Yeah," Katara smiled, latching onto Aang's arm.

"I may not entirely trust you, Zuko, but this was fun. I think we could definitely be good friends someday."

Zuko and Aang grinned, the latter pressing a kiss to his girlfriend's temple.

"Glad to hear it, Katara. See you guys later."

And the three parted ways, for once quite hopeful of the future.

Zuko sighed, staring up into the sunset-streaked sky before looking down at the picture in his hand.

Him, Azula, and his mom and dad playing on the beach. Back when they were all happy.

"Where did everything go so wrong? What changed? Or was it always like this and we were just too naive to see it?"

He turned the corner at the gas station, officially crossing over into the Fire District. He knew the route by heart.

Zuko sighed, pulling his coat on a little tighter through the chilly breeze and allowed his mind to wander.

~Flashback~

The first time it happened, or at least that he knew of, was when Zuko was 7.

He had a nightmare about his grandfather, Sozin, as children do with relatives that have thrones of fire and rule their country with an iron fist, and naturally went to the one safe person in his house: his mother.

He remembered the shadowy look of the sconces adorning the hallways, eerily illuminated by their fires- how they flickered right before his father came out of his mother's room and how they all went out promptly after, leaving him and the hallway shrouded in darkness.

The smug look that was on his father's face was never a good sign, even less so was the stain and smell of blood lingering in the halls.

The door creaked softly as Zuko tentatively opened the door to his mother's room, eyes immediately widening in horror as he saw her crumpled form illuminated by the moonlight.

What he saw that night would be something that would haunt him for the rest of his life, plaguing his nightmares and flashing before his eyes each time the lights came back on, not that anyone else could know.

After all, fear is a sign of weakness, and weakness is something just about everyone around him would love to feast on.

He knew it happened a couple of times after that. He always looked for the tell-tale signs when they had a fight: his father's voice getting louder and louder while his mother's got softer until it eventually was replaced by yelps.

He knew he wasn't safe- no one was, even if they wouldn't believe him.

But somehow, despite all that, all he wanted was his father's love.

~Flashback Over~

Zuko chuckled darkly to himself, kicking a pebble off the sidewalk.

"I really am broken, aren't I?"

Zuko kept walking, mindlessly staring at the sidewalk until he bumped into a door, cursing as he rubbed his head.

"Look at that," he said to himself aloud.

"We're here."

Katara giggled, pecking Aang on the cheek as they approached the Air-District-Water-District boundary line.

"Guess this is where we part ways, milady," Aang said with a slightly sad smile.

Katara sighed, embracing him tightly.

"Yeah, I guess so. Doesn't mean I have to like it."

Aang chuckled, pressing a kiss to the top of her head.

"That makes two of us. I already miss you."

The waterbender rolled her eyes.

"It's Tuesday. You're going to see me tomorrow at school."

"Yeah, but I'll still miss you."

She rolled her eyes once again, shivering as a particularly chilly breeze swept past them.

"I'll miss you too, Aang," she murmured.

The two separated and starting walking off in their respective directions.

"See you later, alligator!" Aang shouted with a grin, prompting a giggle from Katara.

"After a while, crocodile."

Katara smiled wide as she walked down the sidewalk.

She had never felt so... happy. Just pure, unobstructed happiness from this one person who had changed her life.

She did a little dance in the middle of the sidewalk, feeling on top of the world.

Little did she know that she wasn't the only one there...

BUZZ BUZZ

Suki and Sokka groaned as they heard the notification from their respective phones, begrudgingly sitting up on Sokka's bed to see what was happening.

"MEET ME AT THE HIDEOUT ASAP," the message from Toph read.

The two gave each other a quick look before getting dressed, knowing that they were in for it if they didn't submit to the tiny earthbender.

"Be there in 5," Sokka texted back, grabbing his keys before running out the door.

Toph perked up as she felt the footsteps get closer to the hideout, slamming the door shut as they came in, using her seismic sense to feel if anyone was nearby.

Once she was sure no one was near, the yelling began.

"What's your problem, Meathead? What took you so long?"

Sokka, already breathing hard from sprinting to the hideout, looked at her incredulously.

"What do mean? It's been-" he checked his watch, "3 minutes!"

"About five too late!"

"Too late for what, Toph?" Suki asked.

"This!" Toph showed them her phone's messages.

"What are we supposed to be looking for oh wise one? The grocery list you texted your dad?" Sokka deadpanned.

"It's not what you're supposed to be looking for, but rather what isn't there! Remember how Azula made that chat for targeting people under some bullshit name like 'Sunshines and Rainbows'?"

The two non-benders nodded, not seeing where she was going where with this.

"It's gone! And I'm willing to bet neither of you are in it either."

Suki and Sokka hurriedly whipped out their phones, checking and confirming that the chat was gone.

"Alright, so what? What's the big deal?" Suki asked.

"My spirits, do I need to explain everything to you two today? The last time we had any fun with that crap was about, say, three weeks ago? Azula seems a bit overdue, eh?"

"Yeah..." the couple said in unison.

"Now, let's think- who could Azula possibly be targeting that she would want us uninvolved with? Who is the one person we all have in common?"

Suki's eyes widened as the realization crept onto her.

"Katara."

"Shit."

The crimson walls adorned with portraits of Firelords past, the dark wooden desk and seats, ever so slightly tinged red.

Nothing had changed since the last time he had been there. The last time he had dared to venture where he didn't belong.

"You wanted to see me, father?" Zuko asked, facing the back of his father's mahogany chair.

"Yes, I did. Please, sit down son."

Zuko's jaw tensed, his guard up and the alarm bells in his head blaring.

Zuko? Sure.

Child? Yeah, sounded like a typical Ozai-condescending sound.

Son? The last time he had heard that was the day his mother left.

Whatever this was, it couldn't be good.

Katara sensed the shadows before she saw them.

Someone was following her, and she was going to figure out who it was.

She glanced quickly around her, taking in her surroundings and looking for any sources of water.

She grinned, spotting it: the biggest source of water around.

The ocean.

"Now all I have to do is quicken my pace, get close enough, and then-"

She never finished her thought as a cloth was put around her head, shrouding her in darkness, and her limbs quickly went limp with a series of rapid yet precise jabs.

"Zuko, have you ever heard of Sozin's Comet?"

The boy rolled his eyes.

"Of course. Sozin's Comet is an extremely powerful comet that comes around about once every 15 or 16 years. Most of the time, it passes fairly far away from Earth, heightening firebending abilities slightly, but the last time it came, Grandfather Sozin used it to take control of the Air Nomads and lock them in concentration camps to find the next Avatar," Zuko deadpanned as he recited his textbook from memory.

"Very clever, son. Now, do you know when the next comet arrives?"

Zuko rolled his eyes yet again.

"It's supposedly due this summer again."

"Right again. Do you know of any other significant natural events due this summer?"

Zuko wracked his brain, coming up with nothing.

"No, I do not."

Ozai turned around in his seat, a smirk on his face but a fierce fire in his eyes.

"I expected as much. Well then sit down and let me educate you."

"I swear once I get out of here I'm going to kick all of your asses!"

Azula chuckled.

"Spunky. I quite like it. Relax, peasant. Nothing bad is going to happen to you yet."

The Fire Princess motioned for Chan to lift the cloth off of the irate waterbender's head.

"Azula!" she hissed, struggling against her ropes. "What the hell do you want?"

Azula sat up from the earthen throne, walking up to the waterbender and staring her in the eye.

"I'd pipe down, little waterbender."

She lit a blue flame on her fingertip, bringing it dangerously close to Katara's skin.

"We wouldn't want things to get too..."

The flame surged.

"Intense. Now would we?"

Ozai stood up and drew Zuko's attention to the geographical maps on his desk.

"What do you see here, Zuko?" he gestured to some arcs on the map at the edge of the city.

"Mountains... but they're underwater?"

"Close. Not mountains, but volcanoes. You see, the Fire Nation geologists have picked up on some... unusual activity in the area. They suspect that there may be some eruptions near the site if it is further disturbed."

Katara's eyes widened in fear, pressing her lips together as she stared at the flame out of the corner of her eye.

"What do you want, Azula?" she asked calmly, not making eye contact.

"Nothing with you, peasant. You're worthless. You haven't done anything worthwhile so I'm not even going to waste my energy trying to torture you."

Katara gulped, her mind racing to try and figure out who her target was.

"It's quite simple, really. Simple enough that maybe even your simpleton peasant mind may be able to comprehend it. I want revenge."

"Revenge? On wh-"

Katara gasped.

"Aang."

Zuko's eyes widened.

"If those volcanoes go off, the entire Water District will sink! It's on a fault line!"

Ozai chuckled.

"That's not all my boy. Let's see if you've learned something from your pathetic uncle. What is Earth the element of?"

Zuko furrowed his eyebrows.

"Substance and stability."

"Correct. Now, what happens if the very thing those brutish Earthbenders relied on to bend was taken away in, say, something that made the ground unstable? An earthquake perhaps?"

The boy gritted his teeth, seeing where this was leading.

"They wouldn't be able to bend."

Ozai chuckled, bringing out more blueprints.

Azula laughed.

"I guess the peasant isn't as dumb as she looks. Aang and I had everything. He was going to make me, Princess Azula of the Fire Nation, the most powerful person on the planet. We were to be unstoppable!"

Azula's relatively calm gaze went irate as she flung fire daggers at the waterbender, intentionally missing.

"Then you had to ruin everything! You had to come in and make him leave for wuv."

Azula chuckled darkly.

"Well, he'll regret the day he ever thought to try and love you more than he feared me. In fact, I was planning on letting you go, but now I'm thinking I'll enjoy watching you two witness each other get tortured. Good talk, peasant."

"That's a drill..." Zuko trailed off.

"Indeed it is. I once drew up these plans as a young man, hoping it would one day get me past the walls of Ba Sing Se. I'm afraid I was thinking too small then. This drill can do much bigger things. Much bigger things indeed. With a few modifications, it can be waterproof."

"Now, all I have to do is call your beloved boyfriend, blackmail him into handing himself over, and then-"

The door to the underground compound slammed open with a metallic screech.

"Not today, Azula!"

Katara's head whipped to see the voice behind her.

"Sokka? Suki? Toph?"

"I am going to use this drill and set off that eruption at just the right moment. Sozin's Comet is coming and is going to be the most powerful it has ever been in the last hundred years. With it, the Water District will sink, the Earth Kingdom will submit, and all victory and glory shall belong to the Fire Nation!"

Ozai smirked at Zuko.

"And you, son? I want you to help me do it."

A/N: Waow that was action-packed but hope everyone enjoyed! Please review!