AN: Sorry for this one dropping a tad later, work's starting to pick up as fall kicks off. I still intend to put one out either on each week's Friday or before, just know that it might take a full week in the future, though I will still do my best to make these happen before then. Hope you're all doing well, and hope you enjoy!
Chapter 18: Reunited and Separated
Sasuke's heart wasn't in the fight.
Well, in a sense, he supposed it was, but not to the extent that it felt like beating Obito was his best course of action. As their Sharingan flashed and they slew punches, chops, jabs, and all manner of kicks at one another at a speed that was very much inhuman, he just realized that he didn't quite know why he hadn't taken Obito up on this offer.
It didn't strike him as a particularly rational decision; Obito, by this point, had more than proven himself as a worthy adversary, and was surely someone just as exceptionally powerful for this world as Sasuke was. On top of that, Ozai's promise was something that the both of them would more than be able to take advantage of; if he was a lying sort which Sasuke would expect of the father of two unhinged emotional children, Sasuke and Obito's combined power would more than force him into keeping his word. Regardless, having another Uchiha on his side would be more than a little beneficial. Someone from his world as well, someone he could talk to and try and rationalize their situation.
But Sasuke had been willing to take this to blows in an instant, ever since Ozai had gone and threatened…
Who am I doing this for?
Sidestepping a slashing kick that followed up into a roundabout spin that needed to be dipped beneath, Sasuke tried to settle in his head just what his own reasoning was.
His mind moved to Azula first and he spared the briefest instant to look over to her as she engaged her father in a massive battle of fire that seemed to move in slow motion to his eyes. Her face was a determined snarl, but the pleasure that she gained from battles still glowed in her eyes. It could have been her, he supposed, despite his exceptionally mixed feelings in her direction.
There was Toph, then as well. The protectiveness that he felt swung over him in a wave and it spurred him to sent a vicious jab at Obito that was just barely blocked. He knew she was powerful, she had asserted this to him on multiple occasions, but in a similar vein to Aang, he felt a need to shield her from the chaos that this war would deal to her and scar her with. But there was more to it than that; he couldn't determine exactly how he felt about her either just as he remained confused on his feel towards Azula, but he knew for certain that there was something more than just protectiveness urging him onwards.
Perhaps it was both of them. Perhaps it was all of them. Could it have been that he was developing feelings for his entire lineup of companions? Their overall reactions to him had been the most wild variance of mixed, but as he thought of his conversations with Mai and Toph, that burning that he felt when he thought to Azula, and the complete confusion he felt regarding Katara, he remembered too the aid Suki, Sokka, and Ty Lee had been willing to aid him with. He thought to Zuko who had only recently smashed him with a punch who now was fighting above deck due to a decision he had made who was doubting the loyalty of his girlfriend because of something Sasuke had done. He thought to Aang, who had shown him more understanding and compassion than he would have expected of anyone.
He supposed he did care about these people, even if his own self was in a fair amount of denial over the fact. Why else would he have been so willing to go to war with one of his own family?
Azula felt a jet of fire rush by her face and was reminded not for the first time that her father was trying to kill her, and her him. Aang, Mai and Sokka were all providing more than a fair amount of support, but to her, it really felt that she and her father were the primary combatants existing as the culmination of this war. If only the inhabitants of Ba Sing Se, or one of the many Earth Nation towns she had assaulted and scorched could see her now, fighting with the aim of defeating the Fire Lord. It sickened her to think of such weak and helpless individuals and the profits they might reap for her victory, but these annoying supposes were hardly in her best interests to be considering. Her father was out for blood and she needed to be too if she wanted to walk away alive and victorious.
In an attempt to catch him off guard, she ducked underneath a wave of fire that he sent hurling her way and spun, drawing her chi up in a tightly knit focus composed of her fury, hate and desperation. As she came out of her spin to face him again, Azula sent a burst of lightning spitting from her fingertips in his direction. She saw her father's face briefly illuminated by the blue of the lightning, eyes angry and narrowed, before he caught her attack and redirected it carelessly and it exploded against the ceiling. In the time it took him to accomplish this however, Sokka was able to roll up on his side and slash with his sword; Ozai jumped away just barely, but a knife then planted itself in his thigh and he shouted in anger and pain. Hurling a fireball at Mai who had struck the hit, he didn't see Aang coming up behind him with a gust of wind that knocked him to the ground. The four of them moved in, but as the Fire Lord pushed himself to his hands and knees, a firestorm burst out from his palms, sending waves of heat roaring in sporadic loops of fire that Azula and Aang were just able to deflect and Mai and Sokka had to roll to avoid.
They could hurt him, but his power was just too overwhelming. It would take a long period of eventual wearing him down, time they didn't have. Grudgingly, Azula realized that the best course of action would most likely be… working together. She winced at the thought; Ty Lee and Mai had been one thing, as she had known them for so many years before working in her father's employ as an enforcer of sorts, but getting along with none other than the Avatar? Their history wasn't exactly smooth.
Nonetheless, she drew up a wall of flame that she dissipated into a smokescreen just as quickly. It would buy her just enough time to hopefully relay her thoughts.
"Avatar," she growled by way of greeting as she slid up next to him, knowing that it would only be moments before the smoke was washed away by her father's rampant assault. Aang looked just as surprised to see her and looked inquisitively back.
"My father's power is unmatched as a firebender even without Sozin's Comet. Assuming we want to defeat him before it arrives tomorrow, we'll have to try something risky, since Sasuke is… preoccupied."
She couldn't help a glance over at Sasuke as she said this and felt her heart throb as she saw him locked in combat with this newcomer, who looked just as capable as he was. Still, he had his fight just as they had theirs and she was able to look away and remind herself of what she needed to do.
"What do you have in mind?" Aang asked, just as a shout from Ozai sounded and the smoke was blown away with a fresh collage of orange and yellow. Azula spoke quickly of her plan and within seconds, Aang gave her a nod and they both rushed towards Ozai on his right and left respectively.
Their sudden aggression caught her father off guard as she had expected; he drew up his arms to summon what Azula knew would be columns of fire to disorient and block them, but she had already been able to relay this knowledge to Aang. The Avatar sent a powerful draft of wind rushing across the metal floor, kicking the Fire Lord's summoned fire back towards the ceiling, a useless cluster of flame that splashed above them with spectacular color. As she drew her hand back, Azula saw Mai and Sokka, though not privy to the plan, still moving in as well in an attempt to aid their lesser talents to the fray. With any luck, Azula thought they might just be the distraction she needed.
With her father's attack disrupted, she slammed a hand on the ground, sending a wave of electricity sprouting outwards in an area of about a dozen meters all around. Aang's updraft swung around to lift himself, Azula, Mai and Sokka into the air, leaving Ozai the only one in its path. Unable to properly deflect and absorb an attack of such proportions that had come beneath him, the lightning hit him and he roared, body contorting in pain. Azula saw that being suddenly lifted hadn't dulled Mai's grasp on the situation and she slung a knife into Ozai's shoulder for good measure just before they all touched back down. Once again, they all moved in for the final strike.
"My daughter," Ozai growled over the crackling din of the blue sparks that engulfed him. "Did you really think such a trick would work on me?"
At once, Azula realized she had just failed terribly; her father hadn't just taken the hit, he had been absorbing it all the while and amplifying it at the same time. She hadn't a moment to even cry out a warning before the Fire Lord's hands spread towards them like monstrous spiders and an eruption of lightning smashed into them. Azula could hear herself screaming just barely over the din of the screeching lightning as her body felt like it was tearing itself apart. After what felt like ages, she crashed to the ground, her whole form twitching and searing horribly. She saw her companions also lain out around her like ragdolls, just as much damaged from the attack as she had been. She also saw her father slowly marching their way, pulling free the knives that Mai had stuck him with as he did. Azula tried to crawl to her feet, and just managed to stagger upright before she watched Ozai draw back and plunge the two blades into Mai's right thigh; she screamed into clenched teeth before Ozai snapped a kick into her head, stunning her into silence. He reached down then and picked up an almost completely unresponsive Aang by the throat and hoisting him into the air. It struck Azula then how small and young the Avatar was.
"This truly was your best?" her father asked, lifting Aang higher still. "With such a team of powerful benders, I would have expected better of you all."
Azula grimaced and stumbled, feeling a wave of pain and hatred as she watched Ozai's smile grow. She saw Sokka facedown a ways away, shaking, but looking like he was trying to recover.
"I can't tell you how much this hurts me, Azula. After everything I gave you, after all the times I stood by your side during your periods of insubordination and rebelliousness, I always believed that your fervor and love for this nation would shine through. And it did for so long."
There was something like regret and sadness in his voice, and Azula's mouth contorted in fury; her father didn't get to be sad for this.
"You never cared about me, father. You never cared about anyone. Just your power."
Ozai spread his arms, Aang dangling from his grasp like a dead fish. "Am I to be judged for the decisions I made for my people? There is no longer a spark in you, Azula, there is only hate and denial. You have become corrupted by your own emotions, emotions I long since warned you against falling prey to."
His smiled widened further and he pointed with his free hand towards where Sasuke was still fighting.
"But all for a boy? I would have thought you would have more guts than that. Your mother would be ashamed."
Snarling, Azula made to rush her father again, but made it only a couple steps before falling to her knees. Gasping in pain, she hugged her quivering body and looked up hatefully for a last time at Ozai.
"He is more powerful, and more important to me than you ever could be."
Finally, she watched in satisfaction as his face shufted into a scowl. "So be it. When you both are captured and kneeling at my feet, I'll make sure he is executed first. Perhaps watching him die will be enough to bring you to your senses."
A pang of sheer panic swirled in Azula's gut and she could feel the fear that stretched suddenly across her face then.
"But first," her father intoned, looking down at Aang. "I need to finish what our family line started generations ago."
Fire swirled around his wrist and Azula felt herself only able to watch as he brought a hand towards Aang, ready to snuff the life from the Avatar that she had dedicated so much time to pursuing and was now fighting alongside.
Metal burst open at Ozai's feet and threw him off balance. As he stumbled backwards, the water pipes above them that traced their way along the ceiling burst and water came cascading down in an intent flood, crashing into the Fire Lord's back, throwing him to the ground and sending Aang flying. Before his limp form hit the ground, Suki sprinted into the thick of it and caught him, before reversing her direction hard and running back to where Toph and Katara had come sprinting into the room. Just behind them, Zuko skidded into the room and looked around frantically. When he caught sight of Azula, he ran up to her.
"Are you alright?" His voice, so thick with desperation, resounded off her aching eardrums and she waved aside his concern. Ahead of them, Ozai was rising to his feet, his robes torn from fighting and his face now thoroughly showing his utter frustration and fury with the situation.
Azula found she was longer scared of him.
"Ready, Zuzu?" was all she asked, and for once, he didn't seem to show any response for the nickname he so hated.
"Ready."
As though they had been practicing it for years, brother and sister surged forward, Azula feeling strangely reinvigorated being side by side with Zuko. His control was unlike anything she remembered him displaying in previous battles, as though he had been able to take the rage that so harnessed his movements and temper it into raw focus. Side by side, they threw flames of blue and orange to cascade towards their father, unrelenting and unforgiving. With the two of them weaving their firestorms so harshly, Ozai could only play on the defensive, slowly backing away, deflecting and absorbing their blows, but able to unleash none of his own.
Falling into a rhythm, Azula and Zuko increased their offensive, hammering down with spears and waves of flame even faster. Exceptionally impressed by her brother's performance, Azula risked a glance over and saw that tears were streaming down Zuko's face even as he attacked with more and more fervor.
Why, she thought numbly, before turning back and heightening her own output.
The end came with a jolting suddenness. Seeming to realize that perpetually falling back would only result in his defeat, Ozai waited until just the exact moment when attacks from both his children were about to consume him before propelling himself into the air on spouts of fire and slinging a flaming bolt at Zuko. His son crossed his arms and blocked it, though the blow staggered him nonetheless. Still, this moment allowed Azula to strike true; her lightning flowed out of her hands like a wave and blasted her father from the air. His eyes seemed to flicker with pride for a moment before he dropped to the ground. Grunting, he seemed to try and struggle up before a blur passed on Azula's left and she blinked to see Ty Lee on top of her father instantly, jabbing with precise and sharp movements. Ozai roared to his feet and struck her across the side of the face, sending her skidding to the ground but when he tried to blast her prone form, no fire came from his hands. He had a moment to realize what had happened before iron bands sprouted from the floor and forced him to the ground and bound him there.
Azula looked down and saw Ozai lying defeated at her feet. It was over.
The threat having been neutralized, the group reformed slowly around Aang while keeping a close watch on the downed Ozai who had a look of humiliation and fury on his face, though no sounds escaped his throat.
"Is everyone okay?" Katara asked and a slowly waking Aang pointed a wobbly hand at the sizable burn that Mai had sustained.
"It's nothing really," Mai muttered as she tested her weight on her injured leg, but Katara slowly pulled back the burned clothes, eliciting a wince before getting to work on easing the scorch mark on her side and to the wounds on her leg. Ty Lee looked at Ozai with disbelief written on her face.
"I don't believe it… did we really do it?"
Everyone seemed content to fall into silence at that point and reflect on the magnitude of what had just been achieved. Azula looked at the expressions of her allies which ranged from stunned, to elated, to pained and found herself unable to look at any of them. As if any single one of them could fathom the step she had just taken for them.
"I hope you guys left some of that Ozai for me, because I've got a sword and it has more than a few things to say to him!"
Azula looked back to see Sokka come tearing into the sprawling massive chamber, out of breath and sword drawn. She sniffed disdainfully at the fool and snapped, "You're a little late, we just so happened to—"
She stopped talking as a very curious and relevant detail made itself clear to her. It was clear by the looks on the surrounding faces that she wasn't the only one who had been struck by this very confusing variable and she snapped her head to look at where Sokka had fallen after Ozai's strike, only to find that space empty.
It took a moment of looking around wildly before she finally spotted that particular Sokka with his back to them. She looked back quickly to the Sokka that had just come running into the room and then back to the one that she had been fighting alongside just moments ago.
Her stunned demeanor was only exacerbated as she saw that the Sokka who had not just come charging down the hall shouting stupid threats was now walking slowly towards Sasuke and the stranger.
Despite his overall annoyance with Sasuke's resistance, Obito couldn't help but feel sorry for the kid as they remained evenly matched in hand to hand combat. He didn't even know if Sasuke knew it or not, but there was very clearly something at play beyond simple camaraderie. If one of the young women he was traveling with had smitten him somehow, it made it an entire waste of time to keep trying to convince him. In essence, Obito was just hoping to subdue Sasuke rather than kill him; in time, he would come to know the reality of his situation. Neither of them belonged in this world, and their only goals should have been returning their memories and returning home.
Rin.
The mere thought of the name sent a face flashing through his mind, a pure and beautiful smile beaming up at him, and Obito nearly took a direct hit from Sasuke at the distraction. He attempted to stave off this thought, but even as he resumed a focused balance of blocks and blows against his fellow Uchiha, the thought of Rin in the back of his head never truly faded.
For all his verbal banter towards Sasuke, Obito knew that he was just as much a prisoner of attachment. He wanted to save Iroh, and he wanted very badly to see Rin again. And no one, not Sasuke, not Ozai, not this Avatar person would be getting in the way of that.
He wondered where Rin was now. Did she think about him a lot? Did she even know who he was? Was time passing at the same margin here as it did there? It was all pointless to even attempt to draw conjecture over, but Obito couldn't help himself. Having someone to fight for had toughened him immensely in only the period it had taken for him to rest, for now, he was no longer wandering and searching for purpose that might lie within a city deep in the Earth Nation. Now, he had people to fight for, both of which required him to reach Ba Sing Se.
And for whatever Sasuke's own thought process was, he had spoken a statement that may as well have been said by Obito himself.
They were in each other's way.
He distantly noted Ozai being taken down by a fresh influx of people that had come swarming into the wide chamber, but he paid it little mind. As long as he wasn't killed, he could continue to be useful; once Obito dealt with Sasuke, he could wade his way through these children and resume pushing towards Ba Sing Se, where answers and revelations surely awaited.
Hang in there, Iroh. You get killed, and then I'll just have to tear down that whole city and burn everyone inside it.
The emptiness that had led him through the earlier days of his journeys had been overtaken with violent thoughts and aggravated determination. Every minute that passed seemed to be a minute wasted where Rin could be slipping further away or Iroh was nearing execution. He needed to step things up.
Sasuke drew a kunai and slashed it towards the scarred side of Obito's face. He caught the wrist and twisted it, and the blade fell to the floor. Smiling, Obito moved his grip up to Sasuke's hand and he snapped off a quick couple hand signs before slamming a kick into Sasuke's chin and sending him flying backwards. Before Sasuke had even hit the ground, Obito leapt into the air and sent a massive fireball roaring from his mouth that splashed into a wall of metal that rose up from where Sasuke had slammed his palms. Not deterred, Obito sprang forward and crashed through the metal wall that bent effortlessly at the behest of another quick jutsu. But Sasuke wasn't where he had thought as he came down on where he had last seen his opponent.
Suddenly, Sasuke was just behind him slamming him with a Chidori infused fist. Obito's side exploded in a burning pain as he cursed himself for being so careless. Ignoring the searing agony, he grabbed Sasuke's arm and smashed him across the face with an elbow; Sasuke recovered quickly and threw a jab towards Obito's head which was blocked and thrust away, as they again fell into a façade of combat as their Sharingan neutralized one another's strikes. Obito felt confident that he could wear down Sasuke if given enough time, but that was not a luxury he had afforded to him right about then. As he flicked his eyes over and saw Ozai finally overpowered and pinned to the ground with metal restraints, he knew it was only a matter of time before these benders turned their abilities on him. Alone, they were no match for him, but he knew that they were all still capable of great power and were not people to be underestimated. Their defeating of Ozai affirmed what the Fire Lord had told him only hours ago; they were not ordinary children. If they interfered, it could prove costly.
Allowing himself to take a violent punch in the gut, Obito curled around Sasuke's outstretched limb and slammed him in the head with a kick. The both of them went flying backwards a few dozen yards apart to catch themselves and size one another up. Obito kept a careful watch on Sasuke while flicking the occasional glance back towards the Avatar and his companions.
"You remember what you're doing, I'll give you that," he called out. As Sasuke staggered upright, Ozai's daughter seemed to approach him, her voice ripe with excitement and concern.
"Sasuke!" she cried out, but the boy in question threw up a hand and she stopped in her tracks.
"Nobody gets any closer," he snarled and Obito saw the intensity in his eyes. "He's mine to deal with."
Obito saw a chance to prod his opponent into some reckless behavior. "No, go on, Sasuke, listen to your girlfriend." He was distantly aware of the flurry of angry and confused reactions that passed between several of the girls at his initial comment.
"You need help, don't you? You'd never admit it, you don't want help, just like you don't want to do what it takes to get to the truth. You're denying what you need out of pride."
He waited a moment, but Sasuke didn't seem to take the bait. Rather, he gathered himself up and straightened, glaring at Obito through his flashing red Sharingan.
"You're trying to do what can't work. I'm not that simple, Obito. And even if I was, I still think it's about time we…"
Sasuke trailed off and Obito finished for him, "End this?"
Nodding, Sasuke bent his knees and blood streamed down his cheeks as black fire burst to life around his arms, cloaking in them in burning gauntlets of his Amaterasu. Mirroring Sasuke's readied stance, Obito snapped off a few quick hand signals and a wooden dragon burst to life, wrapping its way around his figure, prepared to strike. He ignored his impromptu audience's gasps and surprise at his Wood Release technique and prepared a Great Fireball jutsu; with any luck, his dragon could take the brunt of the Amaterasu and allow Obito to slam Sasuke with his follow up attack and gain the advantage. Regardless, there was going to be a fair amount of carnage in just a moment and he hoped Sasuke realized the amount of danger he was allowing his supposed "friends" to be in with them watching from such a distance. Maybe if one of them were killed, it would wake him to the reality that this wasn't their world and further conflict was nothing short of destructive.
Oh well. Hope you're ready for this one, Sasuke.
For a moment, pure echoing silence settled on the looming chamber before both Obito and Sasuke propelled themselves towards one another with a furious, impossible speed. Obito kept his eyes on Sasuke the whole way; though the speed at which they moved made the distance closed in a fraction of a second, Obito's eyes gave him time to analyze every weakness in Sasuke's attack and how best to exploit them.
That being said, he was only really watching for Sasuke.
A hand suddenly appeared out of seemingly thin air and seemed to strike Obito in the chest before he looked down to see that the hand was stopping him. He saw too that another hand, a match to the first, had caught Sasuke as well; the two of them, such powerful and destructive forces of pure will and energy, had been brought to a halt by a person holding up their hands. As a furious snarl crossed Obito's face at the sheer improbability of it, he was shoved backwards by the aforementioned palm and he slid to a halt nearly to where he had first launched himself at his opponent, as Sasuke too was flung away.
Obito banished the wood dragon and got to his feet, staring down at the newcomer who had so sought to interfere with this affair.
He was a younger man, perhaps somewhere between Obito and Sasuke's age. Hair as black as theirs and garbed in a black cloak marked with red clouds. The mere sight of it stirred words and memories in Obito's head, words like "Akatsuki" and "Tailed Beasts." The man turned his gaze from Sasuke to Obito and Obito could see the flickering red of Sharingan there amidst a strangely greyed face marred with what looked to be cracks. And as he saw the tell tale lines that tracked from the man's eyes down his cheeks in diagonals slashes, Obito knew who this man was.
"I have terms… I will help you exact revenge on the Uchiha clan… but you are not to harm the village itself…"
"…nor Sasuke Uchiha."
A humorless smile worked its way onto Obito's face as he watched Sasuke's face blossom into a pained mask of recognition and hurt as they both regarded the figure that now stood between them.
"Well… why don't you say hello to your brother?"
Obito cocked his head.
"Or is that too much of an emotional gesture for you…"
He narrowed his eyes.
"Itachi."
Sasuke felt as though there were no ground beneath his feet, nor a ceiling above his head.
He was hanging in space, unable to move nor even to blink or breath. The world had ground to a screeching and halting standstill and all within it had faded to background noise, mere gentle distractions before this dawning epiphany before him. Before its nearly alien and cosmic glow, things that had so occupied his mind seemed to fade into obscurity; Aang, Katara, Azula, Mai, Toph, and all the others seemed to be erased from his thoughts as his gaze locked on the one person he had thought he would never see again, but whose visage permanently burned a horrible, yet beautiful hole in his mind.
His brother was here, and Sasuke was helpless.
Helpless to act, to speak, to even think. It was a numbness, but unlike the numbness that had been forced upon him when he realized how little help Ozai could actually be to him, this paralysis was something he could practically greet with open arms.
His brother was here. His brother was alive.
With no thought to who might see, he allowed the burning tracks of tears to open on his cheeks, streaming away his stress, his loss, his hurt and confusion. There were still no real answers, none that he could turn to with understanding, but with Itachi standing before him, he felt that clarity was no longer an impossible task to achieve.
Sasuke realized he had fallen to his knees, his hands shaking at his sides.
Itachi was alive.
He couldn't identify the feeling that surged within him then. All he knew was that he never wanted it to go.
Before him, as though a scene from a play. Itachi faced down Obito, his face a flat and unmistakable calm that Sasuke knew was an expression he himself wore quite often.
"You've deluded yourself, Obito. The answers that we are tasked to find about our existence in this world are not to be gained by allying with genocidal tyrants."
Obito's red shining eye and the other of deep purple widened in what could have been disbelief. "Itachi. I don't know how you're standing before me now, not when I have a very vivid memory of you being dead. But I know your past. And I know your way. And I know that you calling anyone genocidal is a fine dose of irony if ever I've heard it."
Itachi was unfazed by this personal jab and ignored it. "Whatever the reason we are here, it is a reason we have to remember is one that we do not understand. We are family, we are Uchiha and we cannot spend our time fighting amongst one another."
"And what would you know about any of it!" Obito shouted, finally seeming to lose some of what had clearly been some faked composure. "Do you have more memory than either of us?! Where have you been 'brother'?! Why show yourself now, when you seemed to be having such a grand time pretending to be that Water Tribe boy?!"
There was a pregnant pause as Itachi waited to answer.
"I've done by best to absorb from this world and from the both of you just what the stakes truly are. I've bided by time and listened closely from the sides of this war-ravaged world and learned all about the horrors imposed on all its peoples. But from all this listening, I have heard a vital difference between myself and the both of you. You want the truth, Obito? The truth is, I remember everything."
Sasuke felt a jolt of surprise at this through the complete stupefaction that had locked him to the ground and he saw the same reaction reflected on Obito's face.
"What…?"
"And it's not just myself I know about. I know you, Obito. I know who you are and what brought you to the state you were in, just before you were thrown into this world alongside us. But you don't remember the story itself, do you? Just names and faces. Perhaps places and smells and who knows what else, but you don't know the story, do you? Your story?"
Completely cowed into silence by this, Obito stared wildly at Itachi who proceeded with a measured and halting tone, drowning his assertions with powerful emphasis.
"You remember a name, don't you? A very important name, the name of a person who meant a great deal to you. She meant so much that you were willing to throw away your humanity in pursuit of seeing her again?"
"How is any of this throwing away my humanity?! Trying to get back to see her, that's some horrible sin?!" Obito barked and Itachi stared at him for a long moment before shaking his head.
"You don't remember the most important part. I'm not talking about now, I'm talking about what you did then and what you were trying to do before we all came to be in this place."
Obito narrowed his eyes, red and purple becoming slits. "Get to the point."
Itachi wasted no time. "Rin is dead."
The three words very clearly seemed enough to shock Obito and he took what could have been an involuntary step back as Itachi aired out the rest of what came to be deeply vital details. "When you were separated from her and Kakashi, a great deal of time passed. When you finally found her again, she was being killed by the very man who you asked to protect her. Rin is dead and you getting back to our world now won't change that."
Every word seemed to drop like a bag of sand on Obito's shoulders and the fight seemed to dwindle more and more out of him. Sasuke could see that these ideas, true or not, were doing a number on his mind and perhaps were triggering memories that he wasn't particularly pleased to see. Seconds ticked by before he finally seemed to remember where he was and he shook his head furiously, eyes coming alive with that same anger.
"You're lying! I'm supposed to listen to the man who killed his entire family?! The hell with you, Itachi! I'm getting to Ba Sing Se and I'm getting back to see her, and you will not be convincing me that there's nothing there for me to return to!"
He swung around and made to move for Ozai, but as he did, a very odd thing happened. His first step froze him where he stood and he remained there unmoving; his entire body was as still as could be, face still frozen in a mask of rage. Sasuke watched him for a long moment before concluding that something had caught him in his tracks. His first thought was to Katara's ability to bloodbend and he looked over to his companions only to see that they too were all just as motionless and suspended. He saw intense concern on Mai's face, determination and fear on Katara's, excitement and hunger on Azula's, and a myriad of emotions on the others, but none of them moved. Sasuke's eyes moved to Toph who had her hands in a readied position surely to bring metal to life and interject her way into the fight. He was very grateful she hadn't; Obito was severely dangerous and any attempt to intervene that she might have made would surely have ended in nothing short of disaster.
His eyes drifted to Ozai who, despite being trapped by metal bands, also seemed just as stuck in place, with an expression that didn't move. The only person other than Sasuke who seemed free of this paralysis was his brother.
Itachi finally slowly turned to face Sasuke, and his face softened then, a mirror image of a memory from Sasuke's past. He saw the same sad smile that Itachi had given him many a time when apologizing for not being able to spend time with him, that same regret, but also love that dwindled behind those eyes.
"You've grown, little brother."
Sasuke found that no words could escape his mouth, but Itachi didn't seem to mind. "I see you're just as good at getting yourself in unfriendly situations here as you were back home. Maybe you ought to—"
This was as far as Itachi got before he was silenced as Sasuke was suddenly in front of him, throwing his arms around his older brother. Sasuke was hardly a person given to emotional outbursts of any kind, but he had to know this was real, and if it was, he wasn't sure he wanted to let it go. Itachi was no ghost as his arms made contact with the warmth of a body and slowly, as Itachi's hands came up to hug him back, Sasuke felt the heat of tears swelling in his eyes.
"I… I don't know what to say," he finally managed to say in a voice just above a whisper. He pulled apart from Itachi and saw that though this was indeed his brother, there were other pieces to this that told him things weren't quite right. The cracks that seemed to spider across his brother's face and the dark coloration where the whites of his eyes should have been indicated something beyond merely an existence in a different world.
"I killed you. You let me kill you. How are you here now?" he asked as the first of what he knew were many questions. Itachi brought a hand up to graze gently across his own face before replying.
"I believe my revival is due to the use of Edo Tensei."
Impure World Reincarnation, Sasuke thought. He remembered discussions of this technique from his past and found himself nodding along.
"I was dead indeed, but am here now for reasons I can't be sure of. Edo Tensei requires that I serve as a puppet to the whims of whomever revived me, but my only certainty is that I must find a way back to where we come from," he said before locking eyes with Sasuke.
"Surely by now you've realized this is not our world."
Sasuke nodded.
"And you've realized too that it could not have been Ozai who was the cause for my fate."
There was a long pause then as Sasuke didn't acknowledge this. Itachi watched him closely before speaking again in a lower, almost reprimanding tone.
"Sasuke, this is not a world where you can fling blame to the wind and strike at whatever it lands on. You know that Ozai is not the cause for your suffering nor mine, yet you trekked all the way here and risked the lives of these people…"
He gestured to Aang and company. "…to pursue an end that you knew to be false."
Sasuke fired up then, "I had reason to believe—"
"Nothing," Itachi growled. "You have reason to believe nothing. My death and the choices and actions that brought it about had nothing to do with this world and you knew it all along. I've spent days watching you, waiting for you to realize that this decision was a poor one made in equally poor judgement, but you're ignoring common sense and blazing forward anyway."
He pointed at Obito. "Rather like him."
"Why didn't you show yourself to me?!" Sasuke found himself suddenly shouting. Itachi paused at that, seeming rather like he wasn't sure just how to answer.
"It wasn't necessary. I wanted to see how you would react to this world and to these people, what you would do with the little you had been given."
He smiled distantly. "And it would appear to me you're having more than a little luck on the romantic side of things."
It was with great effort that Sasuke didn't immediately start sputtering incoherently. "What do you mean by that?"
Itachi shook his head. "Come now, little brother, as if anyone couldn't see the way that Azula looks at you. Or Toph. Or even a couple of the others if I'm not mistaken."
He looked thoughtful for a moment, stroking his chin and looking off towards the group, "Though I'd be careful of that princess, she seems a little… unhinged."
Shaking off Itachi's prodding into his personal life, Sasuke put them back on the topic at hand. "I thought Ozai had information that might be useful to me. And with nowhere else to go, I thought that as good a place to start as any."
"And so you come up with this half-baked plan to assail the Fire Lord's fleet at its strongest point with the entire army combat ready, putting everyone you've been traveling with at risk in the process?" his brother replied critically.
"I didn't ask them to come," Sasuke shot back and his brother shook his head.
"Grow up, Sasuke, this isn't all about you."
Itachi's expression became regretful then. "We are gods to these people, in a very real sense of the word. We can do things beyond their understanding, beyond their reasoning and have little to nothing to fear from them. You cannot go surging through this world in an effort to vent and distract yourself from your fears just because you can."
Sasuke's pure shock and relief at seeing his brother began to give way to resentment. Not at his Itachi, but his circumstance. "And what exactly am I supposed to do? All I have are my jutsu and techniques; the only other memories I have are of names, and faces, and you. Isn't tearing my way through this world to find that closure exactly what I need to do?"
"You're talking like a child," Itachi replied coolly. "There are of course ways to find clarity and seek out your past or a way home, but this isn't our world. We aren't privy to treat it as carelessly as you have."
Sasuke pointed at Sokka who was stuck standing still a dozen meters away, suspended in time. "If I'm not mistaken, you were posing as him for a good while, were you not? You've injected yourself into these people's lives just as much as I have, slinking around in someone else's skin. Is that not just as offensive to this world than what I've done?"
Itachi seemed to ignore this. "Perhaps it is due to my present condition, but my memory is just as much a part of me as anything else. From what I've gained, you and Obito are both lacking in your recollections, however."
Sasuke gave a bitter nod.
"You don't remember Naruto? Or Kakashi? Or Sakura? Or Gaara?"
Each one of these names crashed into Sasuke's mind with a painful haze that he couldn't see through. Each of the names were people that he knew had been a part of his life, but he couldn't for the life of him remember more than faces to go with them, faces he wasn't even sure belonged to each individual name.
"Not to any relevant extent, no," he said and Itachi nodded.
"I see. Well, we can't worry too much about that just now, as getting us back to our world should be our top priority."
Sasuke looked up at his brother with annoyed eyes. "Yeah, let's just do that then. I don't suppose you have a place to start?"
Raising a hand and pointing at Obito, his brother replied, "From what I've been able to gather, there are answers for us in the city he was trying to make his way to. Or at the very least, something to show us the way forward."
Gesturing, Sasuke asked, "How are you holding everyone still like this?"
At this, Itachi winced and put a hand to his eye. "I have them all under Izanami. This technique costs me the sight of an eye, but under Edo Tensei, I should be able to recover my sight. Still, holding ten people seems to be taking its toll on me, this is not particularly easy."
"Izanami?" Sasuke asked.
"A genjutsu of sorts that holds a person in a state of limbo. I triggered it on the physical sensation of me pushing off from Obito's chest and I've managed to spread it to the rest of the room through that. They're all witnessing the same movement, Obito shouting and preparing to run over to Ozai, I believe is his destination. Knowing what I know of him, he will be activating Kamui to whisk himself and the Fire Lord from his place and he can continue his march on Ba Sing Se."
He turned aback to Sasuke and smiled softly. "Kamui will allow Obito to pull himself and whatever or whoever he pleases into a different dimension specific to the technique. He will then be able to extract himself and Ozai from that dimension a distance from here where they will be able to regroup. It's also my understanding however, that he will be at his most vulnerable state while slipping between dimensions. I'm going to try and hitch a ride along without directly allowing myself to be pulled into his Kamui dimension. If I do this properly, I will be able to get inside his head for the briefest moment and pull free any useful memories or information that he's hiding. There's more to his aggression and choice to side with Ozai than just convenience."
Sasuke looked from Obito's face to his brother. "What will happen to you?"
Itachi rotated his shoulder slowly. "I'm not sure. I should be teleported, just not to the Kamui dimension; most likely to some random spot that Obito has some connection to in this world. With any luck, that will put me closer to the city than him and I can start making progress ahead of time."
He looked back to Sasuke with a deeply serious expression on his face. "My goal is to get us all back to our world before irreparable damage is dealt to this world by our mere presence alone. From there, I can worry about who has used the Edo Tensei on me and other answers can be sought out."
Sasuke could only stare at his brother. He didn't want this; he didn't want to keep pushing on towards getting home, wherever home might have been. Neither this world, nor the one he came from seemed that important anymore, as all he wanted was to go with Itachi and talk, talk for a long while about all the things he never said and didn't know about. He had just been reunited with his brother and now he was supposedly having to leave it up to chance, again?
"I'm coming with you," he finally said. There was so much more that he needed to say, and needed to hear.
"No," Itachi intoned flatly. "You have a responsibility to the people you've traveled here with. This is as much their journey as ours, and our fates are mixed with theirs. You leave with me now to slip into the Kamui technique and you all but sentence them to death. They will not be able to hold off the approaching hordes of Fire Nation soldiers and attempting to assassinate the Fire Lord will surely be grounds for execution."
I don't care, Sasuke wanted to say, but even as the words echoed in his head, he knew they weren't true. Looking back over the faces of his companions, he knew that he was already deep into the throes of connections with each and every one of them. He wanted them to survive and he wanted them to be safe.
Finally, he muttered, "There's supposed to be a comet of some kind arriving tomorrow at some point, in the evening I think. It's going to make firebenders much stronger than they are now and it's why Ozai's pushing to attack."
Itachi nodded, "Then we'll have to be swift in our actions."
He looked towards Obito with a finality. "Wherever I wind up, it will be my intention to get to Ba Sing Se as fast as I can. Meet me there and we can hopefully protect this world and learn the secret to returning to our own in the process."
"I have so much I still want to ask you, to tell you," Sasuke blurted out and Itachi gave him a smile.
"We will have time, but not now. We have a responsibility to ourselves and this world."
Sasuke found he didn't even want to acknowledge that this moment was even happening. He was about to lose his brother again, all because—
"Sasuke."
He looked up at Itachi's voice and saw his brother smiling at him. "Don't be late."
And in that moment, Sasuke heard the promise and the challenge being presented and found that once again, he had a goal. He had something to strive for. If he could make it to Ba Sing Se, he would reunite with his brother and together, they would be able to unravel his shrouded memory and unlock passage back to where they belonged. This striving settled in his heart and he cracked a smile back at his brother.
"Wouldn't miss it."
Itachi nodded and looked towards Obito. "This is going to happen quickly. Obito will run to Ozai and pull them both into his dimension, and I will make to slip in alongside them. I don't know how long you have before the ship is overwhelmed and retaken, but you need to get off as fast as possible."
Sasuke looked at the back of his brother's head as Itachi offered a few last words. "It's good to see you, Sasuke."
Saying nothing in reply, but knowing that he didn't need to, Sasuke simply watched and waited.
Rather like a wire being cut, things snapped back into motion with an extreme suddenness. As Obito exploded into motion, Sasuke watched as he raced to Ozai's side and shattered the metal bonds that held him with a single blow. Obito turned back to give Sasuke and Itachi a single, hateful look before he pulled Ozai up; the Fire Lord shouted something that Sasuke didn't catch but he took several steps to the wall near the shattered remains of the chart table and pulled a lever that Sasuke hadn't noticed was there. Through the massive glass panes that surrounded the room, Sasuke watched a flaming bolt race up past and then fly outside the range of vision allowed by the windows.
The space around Obito and Ozai began to distort then, swirling in a strange pattern as though Sasuke were watching them be pulled into some strange funnel. Itachi moved then just as the swirling deformity of the space completely elapsed over the pair of them, moving with a speed that was just as fast as the blink of an eye. For a moment, Sasuke saw his brother just reaching Obito, before all three of them flickered and disappeared into thin air.
It took the sudden boom and rocking of the ship before Sasuke realized that more than one person was screaming his name.
He looked over to identify the first person he noticed; the real Sokka had raced up to him and was pulling him towards the others as the ship quaked again. "Sasuke, come on! We have to go!"
There was a tremendous weight still constricting Sasuke's mental processes as the very presence of his brother continued to push him into a stunned state, but he still allowed himself to be pulled back to the rest of the group. Azula was the only one not nearby, running around the area where Ozai had been restrained, screaming incoherently and demanding to be told where he was.
Fortunately, no one seemed badly hurt, though Sasuke caught sight of Mai's exposed skin and the burn that had been inflicted on it. Katara seemed to have done her best to treat the wound for the time being, but Sasuke still looked to Mai, asking, "Are you okay?"
For whatever reason, she looked away from him, her cheeks reddening as she nodded. Before Sasuke even had time to ponder yet another odd reaction from one of these women, Azula came up beside him seeming to have regained control of her faculties and pointing furiously at the window where Sasuke had seen the flare be fired up not moments ago.
"That was the Azulon's failsafe! In the case that anything or anyone sensitive onboard was to be compromised, the ship was to be immediately assumed as hostile!"
The now consistent thuds and shakes that were pounding at the ship suddenly made a good deal of sense.
"So, we're being sunk then." Sasuke muttered and Azula nodded briskly. It was a long moment before he realized that everyone was looking to him as if for direction.
"Well, let's go then!" he snapped then and gestured back the way they had come.
Sasuke forced himself to focus on the task at hand. Were he by himself, it would have been all too easy to tap into his chakra to get him out of the ship within seconds, but Itachi had been right. He would see everyone safely from this place, this situation that he himself had forced them into.
He found himself running alongside Aang as they jogged their way upwards from the ship's depths and Sasuke couldn't help but remark, "For all that worrying, it didn't look like the Fire Lord was that big of an issue for you to deal with."
Aang, who's expression had been tight with fear and shock since they had burst into Ozai's chambers, gave Sasuke a sideways glance and seemed to give a hopeful smile.
"I wouldn't have been able to do it without everyone else."
This reply caught Sasuke off guard and he fell silent as the implications made their way through his mind. Aang had won his fight, with the help of his allies. Sasuke couldn't help but realize that at the same time, he hadn't won his.
That's stupid. They wouldn't have been able to so much as touch him. I didn't need any help, it Itachi hadn't shown up, I could have beaten him, I could have beaten him easily…
A wrench was thrown in his mental wheedling as there was suddenly a much larger booming sound, much louder than any of the previous and the ship listed hard to the left. Sasuke grunted as he was thrown into the wall and he looked up to catch Mai just before she would have had her head collide with some pipes that had been loosed likely on their way down. For a moment, he looked at her and he back at him before she pushed herself off his chest and cleared her throat. Sasuke looked to see Zuko looking away as he balanced himself, though he wasn't sure if the prince had seen anything.
There was no time to dwell on it however, for just as they all got to their feet, with Suki asking, "Everyone alright?", the floor behind them came apart with a horrible wrenching of metal that screeched against Sasuke's ears. He looked back in time to grab a wobbling Toph by the arm and pull her free of the chasm in the ship that had opened up but as he tugged her to safety, he watched Katara's face light up in surprise before she toppled backwards into the metal hole that had split down the ship. Sokka and Aang both cried out, but as the latter made to run past Sasuke to the pit that had suddenly appeared, Sasuke grabbed his shoulder and shoved him back towards the rest of the group.
He urged Mai and Toph in the same direction before meeting Aang's frightened and offended gaze.
"Go on, I'll get her!"
The Avatar stared back at him in something that might have been disbelief and Sasuke realized that everyone was looking at him with a similar look. He supposed the idea might have seemed ludicrous, him saving the woman who had tried her damnedest to kill him only a night ago, but as another harrowing moan sounded within the ship's depths, he knew this was not the time to get caught up in this.
He finally looked to Sokka and worked an attempt to impose a plan, one that would hopefully get them moving as the world seemed to be collapsing around them.
"Get everyone off the ship, and get to the shore as quick as you can. Take off on Appa, and we'll find you once we're free of this mess."
"How do we find you?" Toph cried out in a voice bordering on panic and Sasuke found himself unsure of how best to respond. As he wracked his brains for a solution, Azula stepped towards him, close enough that he imagined he was the only one able to hear her voice over the ship quaking and coming apart.
"I'm not leaving you. Not unless I know I can find you again."
Her words triggered a thought into Sasuke's mind and he snapped his head up and looked at her.
"Pull your collar down over your shoulder."
She stared at him in bemusement before he barked, "Now!"
Not replying, Azula reached up and pulled at the collar of her robes to slide it down her right shoulder. She paused and made to continue pulling it down towards her breast until Sasuke snapped, "That's enough."
She looked almost disappointed as he snapped off a great many hand signs and reached out to touch the skin just above her right breast. Sasuke did his best to ignore how she quivered as he did and let out a long breath through her mouth as he drew invisible lines. When he pulled away, a symbol the size of a hand palm was left there, swimming to life with a dark coloration, looking almost like an intricate birthmark. As Azula stared down at it and the others looked on, Sasuke looked up to address them all.
"That mark will begin to burn when you are close to me. It won't take into effect for probably about fifteen minutes. But when you're aboard Appa, you can follow it, and you'll find me."
Azula slowly reached up to touch the mark. "A map… to you."
Sasuke nodded admittedly. "Yes, of sorts."
The look on her face was of pure ardor then and he looked away uncomfortably as the ship rocked yet again. Knowing they were deeply out of time, he swiped with a hand to annunciate his last command.
"Go, now!" he bellowed and one by one, they backed off and ran back towards the ship's deck, Azula looking still starstruck, Mai and Toph looking back several times with worry etched on their faces, and the others with grimaces of their own rooted in concern and fear. Aang and Sokka were the last in line; Aang gave Sasuke a last pained look before gritting his teeth and taking off. As Suki took his wrist and pulled him along, Sokka managed to shout out, "You bring my sister back, Sasuke!"
And they were all gone, disappearing up the snaking corridor's of the Azulon's interior. Sasuke looked back to the pit Katara had fallen into and spared a moment to chuckle that this was the person he was going to try and save.
Stranger things have happened, he supposed, and leapt into the ship's depths.
Toph felt her heart hammering its way nearly completely out of her chest. She was distantly aware of them running onto what must have been a flaming deck as the ship listed even further, and she heard Sokka yelling to his father and his men. She felt her hand taken by Ty Lee and jogged along as she was led to the ship's edge. She obediently tore a piece of metal from the ship's side and dropped it into the water where Aang suspended it with water bending to keep it from sinking and they all boarded it while Hakoda and his men ran to the other side of the ship, utilizing their waterbending that was spread amongst them to escape.
Toph felt them move through the water under the night air and heard the booming of cannons grow fainter and fainter. The massive weight of the Azulon fell away behind her and she tucked her legs against her chest as they moved away.
Because she was waiting. She knew what was coming and she was counting down every second to what was about to happen. Every second was another miracle granted to Sasuke and Katara, two people she couldn't believe that she had left behind, that any of them had left behind. But she had let herself be led away, she had left them behind.
Because what she could feel that none of them could feel was a pressure, a deep, immense force that was building in the ship's depths. She knew what it was building towards and she supposed everyone else had a fair idea too what was coming; that must have been why as they cruised out to open sea towards the cliffside, no one spoke a word. Everyone was waiting and listening.
It came sooner than Toph would have hoped; there seemed to be a great silence for a moment before a massive, deafening explosion thundered its way out over the waves. She cried out but couldn't hear herself as she put her hands to her ears. She leaned into Ty Lee as the girl put an arm around her as a current of severe heat struck them and sent them even further out to sea with its pure force. Then, silence came as the ship's that had been firing on the Azulon no doubt ceased their attacks and watched as the flagship's wreck began to disappear beneath the waves.
"They'll be fine," Sokka said, his voice hollow and quivering. Toph felt Suki move nearer to him and draw close as his words fell with little impact on any of them. It was all they could do to hope. It was all they could do to wait.