Unexpected, an A:tlA fanfic by Tsunami Storm

Chapter 13: Into the Inferno

Sozin's Comet had finally come, and the final battle for the fate of the world was about to begin.

The Comet skimmed the atmosphere of the Earth as Zuko and Katara flew on Appa through the orange-colored sky, heading toward the capital city of the Fire Nation and the young man's ultimate confrontation with his unhinged sister. Katara turned to Zuko upon seeing his worried and somewhat anxious expression. "Zuko, don't worry. We can take Azula." She encouraged calmly and confidently.

"I'm not worried about her." Zuko answered resolutely, but then his confidence faltered again as he continued. "I'm worried about Aang. What if he doesn't have the guts to take out my father?" He asked, not really expecting an answer. Then the unthinkable: "What if he loses?"

Katara frowned and looked ahead with narrowed eyes, answering without a shred of doubt in her voice, "Aang won't lose. He's gonna come back." Zuko followed her lead and looked forward as she finished her statement. "He has to."

At the same time, Sokka, Toph and Suki were riding aboard a swimming eel hound as it made its way to the small island off the coast of the Earth Kingdom where the airship fleet was docked, poised to take off. Suki looked back off the beast's tail to the sky, where the Comet loomed over them like a ticking time-bomb heralding the approaching apocalypse. "It's weird to say, but the comet actually looks beautiful." Suki commented thoughtfully as she gazed at its burning tail.

"Too bad the Fire Lord's about to use it to destroy the world." Toph countered bitterly as she continued to hold Sokka around the waist and look ahead with unseeing eyes. A few minutes later, the group arrived at the shore of the airship base, and the trio climbed their way up a cliff side only to discover the fleet already rising into the air.

"We're too late!" Sokka cried in despair. "The fleet's already taking off!"

But Toph would not be dissuaded. This wasn't a setback, this was an opportunity. "Then we're taking off too! Where's the closest airship?" She asked, and Sokka pointed just ahead, forgetting for the umpteenth time that Toph couldn't see anything that wasn't connected to the earth. "It's right-" He began as Toph suddenly used Earthbending to launch the three toward the direction in which she sensed Sokka pointing, luckily toward the closest enemy vessel. After a swift ascension, they fell onto a nearby ship and made their way across the giant blimp. At the prow of the lead airship, Phoenix King Ozai stood on the very edge and overlooked the land. Mercifully, it appeared that he hadn't noticed the infiltration.

The trio stealthily made their way to the main control cabin, skillfully neutralizing crew members and dumping them all unceremoniously into the bay waters after Suki had brought the airship down closer to the waves. They didn't want to hurt anybody if it wasn't absolutely necessary. Sokka looked through a broken window at Ozai's flagship dirigible of destruction. "Fire Lord Ozai, here we come!"

Concurrently, Princess Azula, soon to be Fire Lord Azula, stood in front of a full length mirror. She took a crimson ribbon from a table next to her and began leisurely winding it around her dark hair. Unfortunately, due to her inexperience of fixing her hair herself, her hand got caught in the string as she tied her hair into the traditional Fire Nation topknot. Frustrated, she tugged at the tangled mess a few times before grabbing a pair of scissors from the table next to her.

"All right, hair, it's time to face your doom!" She breathed threateningly as she seized the bangs hanging in front of her face. She lifted the bangs and scissors in the air and cut them at an odd angle, dropping the strands near her feet. Her reflection in the mirror beamed in triumph as she surveyed her messy, irreparable hair, but her grin faded as she noticed the reflection of someone appear behind her that she never expected to see again.

"What a shame. You always had such beautiful hair." The previous Fire Nation princess mourned in disappointment.

"What are you doing here?" Azula snarled, equal parts shocked and filled with loathing.

"I didn't want to miss my own daughter's coronation." Ursa smiled proudly, nothing but kindness and love radiating from her gentle, ocher eyes.

Azula didn't buy it. "Don't pretend to act proud. I know what you really think of me. You think I'm a monster." She spat venomously, glaring at the reflection in the mirror with all the hate she could muster. The last thing she could remember hearing from her mother was a lecture, not words of praise or encouragement like little Zuzu always got. The failure. The firstborn Firebending flop.

Ursa frowned in concern. "I think you're confused. All your life, you've used fear to control people. Like your friends Mai and Ty Lee."

Azula closed her eyes before turning around sharply to face her mother, her back to the mirror. "Well, what choice do I have?! Trust is for fools. Fear is the only reliable way. Even you fear me." She fumed, glaring murderously at the woman who'd borne her and her failure of a brother.

Ursa smiled sadly and sincerely. "No. I love you, Azula. I do." She affirmed.

Azula began to cry, contorting her face into a bitter expression as she bent over slightly, tears in her eyes and her hair hanging down in messy locks. Her hand slowly closed around a hairbrush on the table. The enraged princess let out a shout and hurled the brush at the mirror behind her with deadly precision, nearly as accurately as her erstwhile friend Mai had taught her to throw her famous shuriken. The resulting impact shattered a large portion of the mirror, almost half, including where Ursa's reflection was seen. Azula knelt over and bowed her head to the ground, her mane of unkempt hair shielding her face as she wept bitterly. The room was devoid of any other people due to Azula's banishing of every one of the palace staff for 'disloyalty' or some other fictitious offense in her paranoid delusions. Ursa's appearance had been a mere hallucination of her increasingly deteriorating, fragile mind.

Back at the Fire Nation fleet of airships, Ozai stood at the front of his airship as he inhaled deeply, then exhaled, opened his eyes and smiled sinisterly. Just below his airship, the hijacked dirigible that Sokka, Suki and Toph had captured floated just a few yards away. Sokka peered through a small looking glass at the lead airship, his countenance and heart sinking as he mourned, "We're not gonna catch up to him in time."

Suki also looked down. "No…" She breathed in despair.

Back on the flagship prow, Ozai tilted his head back and smiled sadistically as he raised his arms in the air, then pulled his palm down toward the ground beneath. A small but incredibly intense flame began to form just above the skin of his palm, growing larger until he finally released the superheated tongue into an enormous fire blast that ignited the earth below. His sadistic grin grew wider as he scorched the ground along the Earth Kingdom shore.

Several miles inward, Aang and Momo stood perched on the peak of a giant stone pillar, facing Ozai's assault. On the young monk's shoulder, Momo chirped. Reaching a hand up to pet the giant-eared flying lemur, Aang stroked the animal's head a few times before commanding, "Momo, time for you to go." The lemur leaped off Aang's shoulder as the Avatar closed his eyes and breathed deeply. The master bender performed several spinning kicks, using Earthbending to send giant sections of the stone pillar beneath him toward Ozai's ship and jumped to another pillar. The chunks of rock whistled past the side of Ozai's airship, catching his notice. The last few pieces of rock struck the blimp's engine, which caused Ozai to lose his balance and stop his attack. Smoke began to drift from the engine as it lost power and began to descend. Ozai looked down from his sinking ship to see Aang. Aang spun his body around, gathering his energy to release a huge fire blast at Ozai's ship, striking the final blow to its engine and thereby destroying the craft.

Aang turned to the side toward the airship as it floated past him, facing Ozai for the first time. Ozai stared at the young monk in shock. Aang lowered his bending stance into a position of attack as Ozai removed his Phoenix King armor and cloak, burning it and leaving his chest bare. Ozai leapt from the platform on which he'd been standing, using Firebending to fly like a rocket toward Aang and landing on another stone pillar just a few feet away from the last Airbender, the wreckage of his airship smoldering behind him.

Several yards away, another set of eyes surveyed the burning flagship through a glass. Sokka, Suki and Toph stood ready inside the captured airship's cabin.

"What just happened?" Toph demanded, having heard the explosions but having no idea what was going on visually due to her disability.

Sokka couldn't stop grinning. "It's Aang!" He cried excitedly. "He's back!"

Atop the rocky pillars that dotted the Earth Kingdom shore like enormous ruins of some long forgotten temple, Aang and Ozai faced each other, finally catching their first glimpses of their ultimate opponent- for a first and final time. Ozai sneered, "After generations of Fire Lords failed to find you, now the Universe delivers you to me as an act of providence."

"Please listen to me." Aang begged. "We don't have to fight. You have the power to end it here and stop what you're doing."

"You are right." Ozai admitted, surprising Aang. "I do have the power. I have all the power in the world!" He cried triumphantly, shooting fire from his hands and mouth just as Zuko had trained the young Avatar to do just a few days ago on the Ember Island beach. Aang crouched into his battle stance, ready for the confrontation that would determine the fate of the world. As the flames of Ozai's roar slowly died down, he spared a brief glance for his opponent, then leapt and spun into the air, slamming his fist downward and creating a circular wave of flames that spread directly toward Aang. The master Airbender jumped over the attack and slammed his own hands and feet into the stone pillar below him, Earthbending a piece of it into the air. Aang rotated the rock around himself and kicked it toward Ozai, who leaped out of the way using his Firebending. In midair, Ozai propelled himself at Aang using a jet of fire from his feet. At the same time, Aang jumped toward the Fire Lord, sending a wave of fire at him. Swiftly changing tack, Ozai kicked forward and shot a fire blast from his foot, causing the two attacks to collide in a fiery explosion.

Some distance away, Sokka and Suki watched the entire spectacle from the broken windows of the captured dirigible. Sokka thrust a fist into the air as he cheered. "Go, Aang! Airbending slice!" He cried as he swung his own hand down, slicing through the air.

"Shouldn't we be helping him?" Suki suggested aloud, feeling the need to remind her excitable boyfriend of the current, rather dicey situation at the moment.

"The Fire Lord is Aang's fight." Sokka answered, suddenly completely serious. "We need to stay focused on stopping that fleet from burning down the Earth Kingdom."

"And how do we do that, Captain Boomerang?" Toph snarked sarcastically. "I can't see outside of this floating hunk of metal."

Sokka grinned impishly as he came up with yet another brilliant and crazy idea, then turned excitedly to face Suki and Toph. "Airship slice!" He announced, earning himself a raised eyebrow of disbelief from his girlfriend. Sokka began to dash around the control room, pulling levers and turning wheels with reckless abandon, somehow managing to steer the giant craft higher into the sky and bank to the left end of the airship fleet behind it. Elite Firebenders stood on platforms jutting out toward the prow of each of their vessels. As one, they each bent their destructive element toward the defenseless Earth Kingdom soil below, the flames augmented one hundred times stronger thanks to the Comet looming over all of their heads. The fire burned and created an immense amount of smoke. A small forest near the coast was engulfed in seconds by the wildfire. Even from her height in the airship's cabin, Toph could feel the heat from the immeasurably intense flames below them, and she breathed, "Whoa. That's a lot of fire, isn't it."

But Sokka was too busy with his machinations to pay much attention to his blind 'crewmate'. Instead he kept rushing around the cabin, pulling levers, twisting dials and- a significant blast suddenly erupted from outside the ship- apparently overloading the engine. Sokka gritted his teeth in determination. "It's gonna be a rough ride!" He cried, grabbing Toph's hand and running to the exit. "We need to get to the top of this thing, fast!" Suki followed not too far behind. Sokka and Suki stopped at the doorway as Toph continued running on.

"Then what?" Suki asked, responding to Sokka's last comment.

Sokka made a worried face. "Watch each other's backs, and if we make it that far, I'll let you know." He ordered, stealing a quick kiss before moving on, catching up with Toph. It turned out that their timing couldn't have been more perfect as the airship slammed into the next in line just as the trio made it to the top of the craft. As the three continued their ascent, the rogue vessel kept crashing into ships of the fleet like dominoes, causing most of them to descend to the ground, most beyond hope of repair.

However, something in Sokka's last-second plan went horribly wrong, because Suki fell behind the others and was forcibly separated from the group when the ship's hull smashed into its final victim, leaving the Kyoshi Warrior stranded on the struggling aircraft while just the prow of the first was left to drift into the next ship. "Suki!" Sokka cried in despair as his girlfriend leapt to safety on the remains of the wounded ship. "I'm okay! Just finish the mission!" She called as she slowly faded from sight.

"No…" Sokka breathed, heartbroken, but there was no time for tears as Toph grabbed his arm and pulled. "Sokka, I think we've gotta-" She called, and both warriors finished the statement in unison. "Jump!" The remaining wreckage of the prow of the airship slammed into its final victim, and Toph and Sokka landed on the rooftop of the crippled blimp, Sokka covering his younger companion to shield her from falling debris.

Back at the plaza, the traditional site of the Fire Lord's coronation, only Azula and the Fire Sages stood at the head of the courtyard, everyone else having been banished by the paranoid princess. She knelt on the plaza steps, robed in the attire of the Fire Lord and clad in her armor underneath. Standing behind her were the Fire Sages, and their leader held the royal headpiece over her head. "By decree of Phoenix King Ozai, I now crown you Fire Lord-" The Sage suddenly paused and looked ahead, angering his soon-to-be liege and prompting her to turn her head to glare at him. "What are you waiting for?" The annoyed princess demanded. "Do it!"

But before the Sages could continue with the ceremony, a low rumble sounded from the distance, and Azula whirled back around to see Appa land in the plaza courtyard. Katara sat on Appa's saddle, and Zuko stood on the bison's back. "Sorry, but you're not gonna become Fire Lord today." Zuko countered confidently as he jumped off Appa. "I am."

Azula laughed mockingly. "You're hilarious." She sneered, not truly amused in the slightest.

Katara also leapt off the bison's back to stand beside her friend. "And you're going down." She growled determinedly.

The Fire Sage disregarded Katara and Zuko, moving to crown Azula the new Fire Lord anyway, but Azula signaled with her hand for him to stop. "Wait." She commanded, then to her erstwhile elder sibling: "You want to be Fire Lord? Fine. Let's settle this. Just you and me, brother. The showdown that was always meant to be: Agni Kai!"

Zuko frowned seriously, answering the challenge with his own "You're on." He growled.

Katara turned to face Zuko, surprised that he would accept a Fire Duel under these conditions. Azula was deadly enough on the best of days, but with Sozin's Comet overhead, she was pretty much unstoppable. Azula turned up the corners of her mouth in a sly smile as her brother took the bait.

"What are you doing?" Katara hissed incredulously, keeping her voice low so as not to alert their adversary. "She's playing you. She knows she can't take us both so she's trying to separate us."

"I know. But I can take her this time." Zuko answered confidently, not a trace of fear in his voice.

"But even you admitted to your uncle that you would need help facing Azula." Katara argued, concerned for the young man.

"There's something off about her;" Zuko observed quietly. "I can't explain it but she's slipping. And this way, no one else has to get hurt."

Katara nodded seriously and quietly stepped off the makeshift arena that was formerly the courtyard of the royal palace, leading Appa off to a safe distance so he wouldn't get caught in the crossfire. After the two 'spectators' had moved out of sight, Katara looked back at the plaza to notice Zuko and Azula kneeling at opposite ends of the courtyard, facing away from each other in the traditional pose to begin the Agni Kai. Silently and fluidly, Zuko stood to his feet and turned around, Azula mirroring his actions across the plaza. The Fire princess removed her royal robe and dropped the garment on the palace steps, sneering sarcastically, "I'm sorry it has to end this way, brother."

"No you're not." Zuko answered, shifting into his stance.

Azula smirked and assumed an awkward fighting stance, then spun and sent a sudden blast of blue fire toward Zuko. Zuko brought his hands up and jumped forward, bringing his arms down in front of him. He bent a flame in each hand as he did so and the flames merged, then he sent the fire toward Azula. A wall of fire erupted in the middle of the plaza, each side colored in hues of fiery orange and cerulean blue. As the wall began to die off, Azula leaped up on a jet of fire and kicked her legs forward, sending a wave of fire from her feet during each of three spinning kicks.

As the Comet-enhanced Agni Kai raged on, spurts of fire could be seen erupting out of the plaza from all corners of the capital city. Zuko and Azula both utilizing their most powerful attacks with alarming regularity, each trying to overpower the other. However, while Azula's aim was geared more toward dealing mortal injuries, Zuko merely matched his sister's blows so that their flames canceled each other out. By doing this, he not only conserved more of his energy and thus would be able to sustain the battle longer, but he also didn't want to hurt his little sister. Sure, she was a monster and unhinged and dangerous at the moment, but she was still family. And Zuko hated to see any of his loved ones- blood-ties or no- hurt in any way.

As the unstable princess skated circles around her significantly calmer brother, he gave up trying to follow his sister's attacks and instead crouched into a spinning kick, creating a ring of fire all around himself that rippled out from the center like a splash in a pool of water. The ring grew exponentially in size and successfully knocked Azula off her feet, sending her rolling backward for several revolutions before coming to a stop. In pain, she picked herself up, hunched over and her mane of uneven hair untying itself from her sloppy topknot, blowing in the wind and framing her furious visage as she took several breaths to lessen her exhaustion. To her increased ire, Zuko seemed to not be breathing hard at all, looking just as calm and collected as when the Agni Kai had begun.

"No lightning today?" Zuko challenged, baiting his sister in the hopes of slowly wearing her down so that she would surrender on her own terms instead of the unfortunately far more common victory condition. "What's the matter, afraid I'll redirect it?" He taunted, quickly assuming his stance that Iroh had painstakingly taught him in the arid wastes of a long-abandoned Earth Kingdom settlement.

"Oh, I'll show you lightning!" Azula shot back, waving and moving her fingertips in order to generate electricity, but her stance was irregular and off. On the other side of the plaza, Zuko inhaled and exhaled deeply, assuming his stance and preparing to redirect whatever lightning came his way. As he did so, Katara stood by as a backup a few steps away, ready to jump in at a moment's notice. Light flickered from the other end of the courtyard as Azula began to charge her lightning, and she suddenly glanced to the left of her brother, straight at the young Water Tribe woman. Azula smirked suddenly, loosing the supercharged electricity directly at Katara.

Time seemed to crawl by in the span of the next few seconds as the lightning shot from the crazed Firebender's fingertips. Zuko looked horrified as he turned to the left. Deciding in a split second, he dashed to his left, trying to get in between his companion and the bolt, knowing that she had no way of defending herself against the strike. Zuko jumped forward, between Katara and the lightning. "NO!" He cried as he extended his arm to absorb and redirect the blast.

The lightning- exponentially more powerful thanks to Sozin's Comet- surged up the teenager's left arm as it was supposed to, but due to the impossible angle at which Zuko had intercepted the strike, did not channel down into his Sea of Chi as it was meant to, but instead surged through his heart, the single worst place it could go. A flash of light lit the area, and Katara watched the scenario in shock, her normally lovely face a mask of horror. Zuko collapsed to the ground, most of the lightning leaving his body through his right arm and lancing into the crimson sky. Zuko lay on the ground, gasping for breath and wincing as the remaining electricity continued to surge through his body. He rolled onto his back, groaning and holding his wounded chest. Katara gasped, terrified for her friend's life as she sprinted in the young Prince's direction.

"Zuko!" She cried, terrified as her hand immediately shot to the waterskin cork at her side.

Zuko lay on the ground, tensing in pain. His shirt around his chest was burnt away, revealing a large scar. Katara ran toward him, desperately removing the cork of a waterskin on her back and coating her hand in her specialty healing water to help her friend. However, she was suddenly stopped in her tracks by a lightning blast from Azula, striking between her and her injured friend. A crazed Azula, hunched over and swaying from side to side, suddenly cackled maniacally and ran forward toward her two opponents.

In the Earth Kingdom, Ozai shot flames from the soles of his feet as he flew over the water below. A terrified Aang swung his arms frantically, using Waterbending to launch himself toward the shore. Reaching the beach, he stumbled forward with Ozai not too far behind. Ozai quickly caught up to the struggling Airbender, and the boy Earthbent a circle of rocks around himself for protection. Ozai stood over the panicking boy, laughing cruelly as Aang curled up inside his makeshift shield, bracing himself with his arms and sweat pouring down his face.

"You're weak, just like the rest of your people!" Ozai sneered triumphantly. "They did not deserve to exist in this world- in my world! Prepare to join them. Prepare to die!" He thrust both fists into Aang's rock shield, releasing a powerful fire blast while doing so. Aang squeezed his eyes tighter as he continued to shield himself as pebbles fell around him and orange light could be seen seeping in through the cracks between the rocks. Ozai threw another fire blast against Aang's shield, then jumped back, landed, then rose back up as he sent two powerful blasts from both fists at the sphere.

Sozin's Comet continued to burn its way across the horizon as Ozai continued to assault Aang's earthen shield with supercharged fire blasts, hitting the sphere from all directions. Ozai yelled out a taunt to the Avatar while using a flamethrower blast with his hair swaying in the wind. "Come on out, Avatar! You can't hide in there forever!" He grinned sadistically.

End of chapter 13

Next Chapter Teaser: Avatar Aang

God Bless!

Tsunami Storm