AN: One more chapter before the end of the month. Hope you guys enjoy the holiday as much as I plan to, but please stay safe out there if you do!

As always, hope you enjoy!

Chapter 24: Gods

General Ako couldn't have felt any more proud and joyous as he ran towards the looming wall that had presented itself as a deterrent to his nation for so long. At long last, the Fire Nation would finally and effectively destroy any resistance left in the city and crush its population beneath their heel. Though he never would have admitted it, he had always been deeply displeased by the lack of effort to try and retain the city after Azula's successful takeover and even might have been reservedly satisfied when it was retaken by the combined efforts of the Earth and Water Nations in the days prior, though he never would have admitted to such pleasure.

And now, as the ground shook beneath the pounding of thousands of Fire Nation soldiers all just at his heel, he was going to be the one remembered by history as he led the bellowing men and women behind him towards Ba Sing Se.

Defenses had been raised around the drill, massive raised slabs of earth that angled like waves inward to no doubt try and stifle their efforts to reach the metal beast that had only managed to inject itself a couple hundreds yards through the wall before being immobilized and rendered useless. But for all intents and purposes now, it had done exactly what it needed to; Ako would lead Ozai's mass of foot soldiers to the back of the drill, burning and crushing any opposition between them and the metal hide of the great device. They would burn aside its hull and then blast apart its insides, effectively creating a giant tube that allowed them immediate access to the city and from within, they could soften the defenses for the incoming airships, destroy any immediate resistance, and begin subjugating the city appropriately.

And under that orange and black sky, Ako was as thrilled as he could be as he hefted his hammer in both his massive hands, his feet pounding the ground with a raucous excitement that matched his mood. The signal had been passed, the ships had done their job, even if Ako had seen something that had almost looked like a purple flying giant had been hovering off above the wall a ways off in the distance. The general wasn't sure exactly what this had been, but if that Obito character was to be given any credence, it surely wasn't something that he needed to be all that surprised about. This day would be full of surprises, the Fire Lord had ambiguously informed him as he had descended from the airship to lead the charge of the ground troops, and this strange violent vision he was having was surely part of that.

They had an ample amount of minutes to reach the drill and perform their duty; whatever defenders of the city were on the ground would be laughably inconsequential by way of being any actual threat to the absolute wave of force that Ako had trailing behind him. He was no bender himself, but to those he would encounter, he would seem as terrifying a force as any bender could be. Distantly, the general wondered if he might spot the Avatar himself or perhaps one of Fire Lord Ozai's treacherous children. After the absolute humiliation he had suffered at the temple, he wouldn't mind some payback in the midst of all this victory, and he was sure the Fire Lord wouldn't mind. It had been rather odd he supposed when he had asked his ruler if there were any specific instructions to be passed among the troops regarding his kin, but the Fire Lord had only responded with a rather dubious reply.

"It won't matter."

Ako was more than glad to take this to be as much an order as anything he had ever received to turn any and everyone he encountered into pulp, and he rather wondered too if that… other bender would be among them.

He owed that bastard as much punishment as anyone and would never for as long as he lived forgive that Sasuke for his actions against him. The boy had defeated him easily, rendered him helpless and all but turned his own troops against him. Obito had lain out the danger that both Sasuke and his brother posed, but Ako wasn't worried. He rather hoped that he would be able to find him before the toxin wore off and he would be able to take full advantage of the lack of any sort of relevant force that he would be met with. Already he thought he could see those red eyes, full of fear and regret, staring up at him before Ako's hammer crushed the life from his body and sent his limp body flying in a broken wreck. It would truly be the icing on the cake for this momentous day.

But then, as he ran listening to the deafening roars of the proud and battle-ready soldiers behind him and feeling the ground quake under his feet, Ako saw someone. Just a single person, a barely perceivable outline on the dusty horizon as the dirt across the plains before Ba Sing Se glistened a dark orange in the light of Sozin's Comet. That person was running, and it took a moment for Ako to realize that he was running not away form the impending onslaught of insurmountable force and power, but rather was making his way towards them. In fact, the general realized that he was likely quite close to being on a direct collision course with this person himself.

Who in the world would be coming to meet us?

Even the idea that someone from the combined forces of the Earth and Fire Nations would, by themselves, attempt to attempt some sort of pathetic suicide charge in an effort to do… anything really was rather humorous in and of itself and through the roar that was coursing through his own throat, Ako gave a bellowing laughter as he the person dashed closer and he realized who it was. That image of a dark-haired youth clad in a grey shirt and thick belt of purple rope around his waist had been something that plagued his mind daily ensured that he made no mistake in identifying this young man, and though he hadn't thought it possible, his heart soared all the more.

Here he was, that same boy that had spoken to him so condescendingly and so rashly, who had been nothing short of his most humiliating defeat throughout his decades of service under Fire Lord Ozai, and he was heading right towards him.

The general found that he just couldn't quite restrain himself.

"Come to me, Sasuke!" he bellowed, his thunderous voice echoing even over the perpetual roaring of his soldiers, adding a new level of din to the mix. "Come to me, and face your—"

Whatever it had been that General Ako had wanted Sasuke to face became a mystery just then as the enormous man cut himself off as he realized just how quickly Sasuke was closing the distance between them.

The boy's legs were taking long and swift steps as he ran, but each stride carried him a distance that should have been quite impossible for any human. Somehow, he was moving fast enough that it almost seemed like he was never quite moving at all, simply growing larger on the horizon which Ako knew wasn't possible.

But as Sasuke drew nearer, the general realized something else, something that he would not have been able to prove if he had been asked in that very second. For as he looked at the young man, now bearing down on him with a speed that indicated he would come in contact with Ako's army within seconds, something within the general's heart lurched. It was almost as though there were some great invisible force riding alongside Sasuke as he dashed ever closer, swirling and amassing behind him, like some titanic monster ready to do his bidding. Ako could have likened the feeling to that of when you were being watched, but didn't know from where or how and the feeling was enough to nearly make him want to stop dead in his tracks.

As he listened to his army howl and stampede forward, however, Ako shook the ominous feeling from his mind as one might beat a dusty towel to cleanse it. As Sasuke closed the distance, he drew back his warhammer and prepared to sling it around in a single blow that would turn the young man into a bloody stain.

I have nothing to fear. Whether or not he can be affected by the toxin makes no difference. One man against the thousands that I have at my back, how truly stupid could a person actually—

Ako's thoughts were not to be finished as the gap came to a close. As it happened, the general had been very correct to feel perturbed by some invisible force that was plaguing the space beyond his eyes. For when Sasuke reached him, he had just a moment to look down into the eyes of the young man and see them both alive and red with a furious light as he reached out and placed a hand on the general's chest.

From an area centralized near Ako's chest, a shockwave erupted outwards, shooting across the width of the charging army, blowing away those who had been at the front of the charge, scattering their bodies like dry leaves in a windstorm. The general himself had only a moment to feel an immense pressure before his body collapsed in on itself, imploding with a single explosive burst. His twisted remains dropped to the ground as his armor crashed uselessly around him, his hammer now a completely ineffective piece of craft as it too hit the dirt with a thud.

The army of the Fire Nation was brought to a sudden halt as their frontline was blown apart by whatever impossibly strong force had just met them, those further back skidding to a halt where they had been running as they tried to peer over the shoulders of their armored comrades to see why their general had called them to a halt. For that must have been the cause, as what else could possibly have brought them to a halt with Ba Sing Se's benders having been rendered temporarily harmless and with their own firebending now being as powerful as it ever could be.

He came into their midst with blinding speed, tearing through the middle of the army like a zipper being pulled down. His sword flashed and whipped around like a flash of wind, ripping its way through skin, muscle and bone as fire might burn through wax. Slowly, the army began to conglomerate around this single point of violence, this one figure that had been injected in their previously thought invincible fighting force. But as words were shouted and positions were taken, it became clear that this was not just some lone swordsman with a more impressive than average level of speed and skill. Men and women fell to this force as it drug its way through their number, infinitely ruthless and extremely efficient. Every soldier made to siphon to life a great mass of firebending to quickly end this rampage, but he seemed to be everywhere at once, blade cutting down lives faster than they could blink.

They might have been thousands, but he might just have been unstoppable.

Hardly able to believe what she was seeing, Mai stared unblinking over the wall at the army that had been only a kilometer or so out from the initial defensive plates of earth that had been raised now entirely stopped dead in its tracks. There had been what had looked like a concussive blast appear at the front of the army and seconds later, a shockwave had rocked its way over the top of the wall, knocking all of them off balance and some of them off their feet. Now, as she stared at the carpet of red clad soldiers beneath them, watching their mass move about in an attempt to perhaps properly react to the new force that they had just come face to face with, she realized that somehow, completely on his own. Sasuke was pushing them back.

The whole army was very so gradually shifting and pulling away from the wall as they no doubt tried to react to the one man army that was Sasuke; Mai couldn't see him in their midst, no matter how desperately she looked, as her heart caught in her chest every time she saw a burst or cyclone of flame erupt from somewhere down below. But as the occasional attacks kept coming, she realized that Sasuke must still be down there, moving his way through their number with speed and precision, just as he had on the beach when they had been attacked by the tribesmen.

It was only when she was knocked aside by Azula that she remembered exactly where she was, the mesmerized trance she had been under breaking at the physical contact.

"I can't believe he went down there by himself!" Azula was half-shouting, half-moaning. Mai looked at the princess to see her shaking as she dropped to her hands and knees at the edge of the wall, peering over its side with wide eyes. Her voice almost didn't seem to match the desperation that was clinging to it and Mai looked around to see that everyone else, as far down as the eye could see, was staring over the side of the wall, equally stunned and open-mouthed.

"There's nothing any of us could do to help him," Mai managed to say in as measured a tone as she could manage, even as she tried to control her own shaking hands. She jumped then as Azula leapt to her feet and spun around, grabbing Mai by the collar and hissing furiously at her.

"You shut up, you impertinent slut!" Azula seethed; her hair was in disarray, her mouth formed in a furious snarl and her eyes wide and furious. She looked quite as insane as Mai had always feared she might be deep down and she felt her own heart rate quicken at the state of her childhood friend.

The princess's voice was shaking as she clung to Mai's front and it was then that Mai realized just how much Azula wasn't in control on top of being both panicked and in a rage. "You see why he's doing this?! He's trying to protect me! But I don't need his protection, I need to protect him, don't you see?! He's all I have!"

It was rather as though this confession that Azula was blustering through was the only thing keeping her from flinging herself off the wall that very moment, something to ground her and keep herself from giving completely into panic. Very slowly, Mai took Azula's wrists as not to exacerbate her frenzied state even further as Azula continued to babble desperately.

"When my bending returns, the very moment that it returns, I'll be by his side and he'll know that I'll follow him anywhere, into anything, he'll know then, he will…"

She trailed off and fell into what was essentially just gibberish in the form of muttering. Mai kept her eyes on Azula for a long couple moments before gently letting her go; as if sprung from a leash, Azula fell back to the ground and crawled to the edge of the wall, staring over it as she quaked anxiously. Keeping her eyes on the princess for a good few seconds, Mai slowly began to sidestep to where she saw Suki looking grimly down at the battle, her mouth a tight line and her expression fierce and afraid. In all honesty, Mai didn't know if she had exchanged more than a few passing remarks with the Kyoshi warrior and she had to imagine that Suki didn't exactly probably bear a great deal of pleasantry towards her; it had, after all, been her, Ty Lee and Azula who had taken down her and her squad of Kyoshi warriors and had used their uniforms to ultimately take over the very city who's walls they now stood on. But Suki hadn't gone out of her way to be vindictive at any point and had more than anything proven herself to be a very valuable ally and capable fighter, enough so that she had been handpicked by Sasuke to go on his reconnaissance mission. If there was anyone that Mai could trust to be levelheaded right about then, it was her.

While Ty Lee would have been the first choice purely based on preference, Mai could tell just by looking at her acrobatic friend that she was in a place where what she was about to ask could totally send Ty Lee into a nervous breakdown. And as she looked further behind her, she saw that Katara already no doubt had her hands full.

The sight of Toph was enough to almost melt Mai's heart then and there. For all her loud, rambunctious and hyper energy had annoyed Mai over the months of chasing and even the days of traveling, it was clear to her then just how out of her element Toph was, and that Iroh had been entirely correct for at least wishing some of them were spared being here for this day.

The girl had a fist near her mouth and looked like she was chewing on her knuckles. To a passerby, it might have just looked like she was just rather nervous, but at every distant thud or boom that followed an explosive fireball on the battlefield below, Toph gave a deep, rattling shudder as though she had been just doused in a tank of freezing water. Each time it happened, her jerking spasm was brief, but so terribly violent as though with every sound, she was imagining Sasuke dying.

It was all Mai could do to try and keep herself from imagining the same thing.

As per Sasuke's request, Katara was standing just behind Toph, ready to act if the moment called for it. As Mai passed by, Katara met her gaze with a steely look before looking back down towards the carnage below; in a less intense situation, Mai might have considered giving the waterbender a humorless smirk, after what they had heard from Sasuke, but now was hardly the time to even touch on being antagonistic with one another. Katara had a hand on Toph's shoulder as she looked ahead resolutely, not an excessively tight grip, but enough to make her the first to know if anything in the event that it became too much for her. Should Toph attempt anything wild or sudden, she would be able to restrain her and keep her in place.

For Mai, it was a much different story and before bending abilities were restored to everyone atop the wall, she would have to act quickly.

She sidled up to Suki and spoke quickly and quietly in her ear. Next to the Kyoshi warrior, Sokka turned his head towards them with curiosity, but Mai only could watch Suki and hope that the girl would be amenable to her words. She paused a long moment before turning her gaze towards Mai and giving her a firm nod; feeling some notion of relief, Mai returned the gesture and began to slowly back towards where she had been standing.

The relative silence and awe that had taken over the top of the wall was encroached on again as Mai heard General Gokan speak up, his voice no longer bound by that dismissive hate that he had aired towards those of Ozai's family not minutes ago.

"Iroh… I don't suppose you'd care to tell me exactly who that boy is?" he asked, in a voice rich with disbelief.

"I wouldn't know where to even begin telling you," Iroh said quietly, and Mai noted the sadness in his voice as she moved into position. "He's not of our kind, certainly not of this world. His abilities transcend what we believe to be anything even close to natural and I can't claim to how and what that might be."

The general's voice took on a layer of frustration. "But you brought him here. Acted like you knew him."

"I know what he wanted," Iroh corrected. "Perhaps he never outright told me, but based on his reactions to certain people and when being told certain things, I could tell he would be on our side for this. That being said, I hope you understand that I never at any point—"

Though Mai was actually quite curious as to what Iroh had been about to say, she needed only to exchange a sideways look at Suki as they both stood equidistant from their target before she moved forward quickly, the rope she had acquired from one of the caches of supplies ready to be used.

Suki moved first, coming up from behind Azula and wrapping her arms around the princess's biceps and pulling them behind her back.

"What are you… how dare you lay your hands on me!" Azula started to shriek, going from a state of disbelief to fury in just a moment. As Suki went down to her knees to keep Azula from standing up and gaining any physical leverage, Mai slipped in as well, running the length of rope around Azula's forearms and began to tie it tightly. As she no doubt realized what was happening, the princess began to writhe and shout, but without her bending, Suki was a match for her strength and while she grunted and grimaced at the resistance, she held Azula still enough for Mai to bind her arms behind her back.

"Lay her on her stomach," she said loudly over Azula's increasingly frantic protests and Suki complied; as Mai moved into position near Azula's legs, she saw that unsurprisingly, attention had been brought their way as the spectacle unfolded. Zuko and Iroh were the first to move towards her, the former shouting, "Mai, what are you doing?!"

Iroh was just behind him, but his expression was much more controlled, looking almost as though he knew this was something that needed to happen. Mai watched him as a pained look came over his face and he turned and walked into the mass of soldiers, slowly disappearing from sight, surely caught up in the fact that he didn't want to see his niece like this. As Aang came up behind Zuko, and took his arm, Zuko shook it free angrily, repeating again as he stood over Mai.

"What are you doing?!"

"What needs to be done!" Mai snapped furiously at him and this cowed him for at least a moment and she took the time to bind Azula's legs together as Suki knelt over her the princess's back, holding her in place. When the act was finished, Mai stood up and Suki followed suit; both breathing somewhat heavily after having to deal with the struggle of keeping Azula still enough to be bound, they looked down at her and Mai couldn't help but feel something like a sick twist of pleasure in her gut to see the mighty Azula reduced to this.

Azula thrashed about, cursing and yelling furiously as she tried to work her way through her bonds. It was no secret that bending was a very physical art, and movements had to be achieved in order to access it; with Azula unable to move her arms or legs in any meaningful sort of way in that sense, she would be unable to do much of anything, even after her chi flow was reopened as the toxin wore off. Mai watched Azula for several long seconds to ensure that the job she had done with her bindings had been sufficient before turning to Zuko and the others.

"The last thing we need is for her to get her bending back and then rocket off down there and get killed trying to help Sasuke," she said plainly, looking around and daring anyone to challenge that line of thinking. Iroh maintained his sad expression while Zuko worked a muscle in his jaw before finally gritting his teeth and looking away. Ty Lee had her eyes closed and it looked like she was trying to do all that she could to not hear Azula's furious protests, but she fortunately raised no grievances of her own. Mai finally met Katara's eyes and the waterbender gave her a look of vague approval.

Turning to General Gokan who was looking on with polite interest, the soldiers to his right also peering over to get a glance at whatever was causing such a ruckus, Mai asked, "You mentioned something about holding cells, general? If I can ask, might we have access to one?"

Gokan eyed her with what she realized was a distantly impressed look before nodding and giving her directions without a moment's hesitation. Looking back to Suki, Mai and her both moved in and they both put an arm underneath each of Azula's armpits and hauled her up as she shrieked and squirmed in their arms.

Getting her down below took a bit of effort, but Mai's own toned form were of sufficient aid in easing the struggle and Suki had her matched in that regard, perhaps even more so. They pulled her down below into the wall and marched down a long dark hallway lit by lamplight. Mai realized that she had not known the great wall of Ba Sing Se was actually full of hollowed innards, passages and rooms littered within and she wondered if this was something the Fire Nation was even aware of.

They finally reached the door that Gokan had indicated they would find and Mai reached her free hand out to pick up the large, thick key that hung from an iron on the wall. With a grunt, she was able to throw the heavy door open and she and Suki pulled Azula into the room. The princess was growing more and more frantic now, her curses and threats becoming higher and higher pitched as she wriggled about violently. Suki looked at her with visible discomfort.

"You sure this is a good idea?"

Mai thought back to the look on Sasuke's face when he had taken her and Katara aside and closed her eyes; it had been the first time she had ever seen fear reflected on his face, though he had clearly been doing all he could to hide it. He cared about all of them and his fear wasn't of facing down an army by himself, but rather what might happen to any single one of them if he wasn't there to protect them.

You really do care, you angsty son of a bitch.

She brought herself back to the present and gave a firm nod, turning towards Suki.

"You can head back up, I'll make sure she gets locked in tight."

The two of them watched one another carefully for a long moment before Suki nodded and marched out of the cell; just as she was passing through the doorframe, Mai called out.

"Hey, Suki?"

She didn't look back but heard the footsteps stop and she said quietly, "Thanks."

Mai could practically hear Suki smiling softly. "No problem."

Continuing to stare down at the once high and mighty Princess Azula now thrashing and cursing at her feet, Mai waited until a good while had passed after she heard Suki's footsteps fade away.

There was so much she felt towards Azula just then, but her mouth wasn't capable of forming words that would accurately relay those emotions. There was fear, anger, pity, affection and loathing all wrapped up into one as she looked down towards Azula, watching her hair fly around her face as she twisted every which way to try and free herself. But finally, Mai realized, there wasn't anything she really would have wanted to say anyway. Her friend needed help, so much beyond what she could offer, and there was nothing Mai could do for her other than keep her safe. Turning, she made to leave as well and close the cell door behind her.

"Mai!"

At Azula's desperate cry, Mai grit her teeth and stood poker-straight for a long moment before reluctantly turning to look towards the ground.

The orange light from the lamps in the hall cast over Azula's body as she looked back at Mai. She was no longer struggling, no longer pulling against the rope that bound her. Her eyes stared up at Mai, wide and emotional and as Mai saw the desperation on her face, she tried her best to remain resolute even as her heart ached terribly.

"Mai, please," she begged from the ground. "Please don't leave me here. I'm just frightened for him is all, I'm not going to go do something rash or foolish, you know me, Mai! How many times have we fought together, and I always make the smart moves, I'm not my brother!"

Looking down at her, Mai ran her tongue over her teeth.

"That was before Sasuke, 'Zula."

Squirming slightly in order to prop herself up as best she could, Azula continued to stare at Mai with those widened eyes, face pulled in a mask of sheer desperation.

"Maybe I feel something for him, Mai, but that isn't going to make me go get myself killed!"

Crossing her arms, Mai stared back at her. "You just told me that as soon as you got your bending back you were going to rush down there to be at his side."

Shaking her head with a manic laugh, Azula replied, "That was just nothing, just some emotion I needed to vent! Mai, please, we're friends, aren't we? You're really going to do this to me?"

Even as Azula spoke, Mai felt bile rise in her throat as she recognized what she was seeing, furious at herself for having not seen it before. It was a tactic she had seen Azula use since they were kids, against her, Ty Lee and her brother many times. She knew that they cared about her and she was able to take that and manipulate it; all the times she had used it on Zuko to keep him from running to their mother, and all the times she had used it to force Mai or Ty Lee to do something she wanted, or to keep them quiet. It had worked for her again and again, and now here she was, using it during perhaps what might be the most important day of their lives.

Mai wasn't quite sure how she could feel this disgusted without being ill.

"You're sick, Azula. Maybe you can be helped when this is all over, but I'm not going to have you causing chaos up there because you've decided the only thing of any importance in this world is Sasuke. He deserves someone healthier than you, to boot."

She turned away to leave, and then jumped as Azula flew into a fresh frenzy, curses flying from her lips, her eyes wild and burning once again.

"Don't you fucking leave me in here, you rotten bitch! I'm the only one who deserves him, who needs him, I'm not going to let you or anyone else take him away from me! You let me out right fucking now, or so help me, you dirty slut, I will—"

Mai wasn't interested in hearing what Azula would do with her and she slammed the door shut behind her with a loud boom. As she twisted the key in the lock, she could still hear Azula shrieking and howling, but she did her best to block the sound out. She stood before the door a long moment before reaching up and gently putting her hands against the metal of it, wondering if there really was any way to get her friend back.

Then, she turned and quickly marched back down the hall, before that march became a job as she felt her eyes start to burn with tears.

Since, quite honestly, she didn't know if Azula had ever been more than this.

Rather akin to his slaughter of the tribesmen on the beach those nights ago, Sasuke lost count relatively quickly. Keeping track of the lives he had cut down was just another piece of his consciousness that wasn't constantly alert and keeping him moving, even as his muscles began to burn and his breathing started to come in as ragged gasps.

He was so intent on using as little chakra as possible to aid him in this endeavor, and as such, the wear of moving as fast as was, as efficiently as he was, was starting to take a toll. As his sword dulled itself with each passing swipe that truncated and each thrust that punctured, he could tell the army around him was starting to grow more and more desperate. Initially, they had been completely hesitant to try and utilize their bending on him due to the what was surely the possibility setting in that they might strike one of their comrades. Now, as they no doubt realized the gravity of what Sasuke being in their midst meant, they were starting to grow more bold and frantic in their attempts to stop his rampage. What had initially been a few fireballs and fire whips thrown his way had practically evolved into a full blown firestorm directed everywhere Sasuke's feet touched down. With half the soldiers trying to scorch him from the earth and the other half needed to control the assaults as they missed Sasuke and neared towards them instead, it had become very much was starting to feel to Sasuke like he was trying to fight inside an active volcano.

As he somersaulted over a roaring jet of orange heat and dashed past a cyclone of fire before it could gain purchase on him, he cut down several more soldiers and raced away back into the midst of the living before enough firepower to disintegrate a building struck down where he had been standing not a millisecond before. The soldiers themselves were his best cover as he was well aware that even one explosive attack from one of these men could be properly devastating. He remembered how even a few men had been able to strike him in his blindside hard enough to send his Susanoo reeling and he could only imagine what could happen should he take even a single hit like that now. He had several defensive jutsus on standby if they were necessary, but they were mostly last resorts, and Sasuke did not at all want to be forced into that position.

Still, he thought, as he narrowly avoided another series of searing fire based eruptions, he probably couldn't keep this game up for much longer, just restricted to a sword. He had cut down hundreds by this point and while his arms burned and he regularly had to blink blood out of his eyes, he didn't want to have to start breaking out his bigger weapons.

I don't have a choice, he thought grimly as a whirlwind of an inferno blew past his face with enough heat to water his eyes and make him wince.

Try this on for firebending.

Spinning and quickly trying to identify the best placement for his next move, he picked the first large cluster of soldiers he saw; his sword was sheathed before he snapped off his hand seals as quickly as he could before drawing in breath and releasing it as a great exhale that coalesced into a fireball quite as large as anything they had yet thrown at him. It struck the Fire Nation soldiers in a plume that exploded dozens of meters across and arced upwards, licking the sky with its many orange tongues; many of the men and women he attacked were surely burned away instantly, and others further back had been flung away like a child hurling a ragdoll. To his mild surprise, several pockets of unharmed soldiers opened up as the fire dissipated and he saw that they had acted quickly enough to block his attack. Stupid, he thought, to use fire on a people exclusively able to manipulate said element.

He didn't have time to berate himself and instead dashed in the same direction his attack had been cast from, redrawing his sword and slicing down the soldiers nearest to him. Even as he pushed through them and deeper into the army, he skidded to a halt as he saw what had been lying even further back.

Several long lines of what appeared to be giant lizards with horns protruding from their snouts were barreling forwards at what was quite an impressive speed, Fire Nation soldiers mounted on their backs, shouting and urging them forward as the beasts all gave an orchestra of booming roars. Sasuke had only a moment to give the new monsters decorated in red before him a glance before exploding towards them just as quickly as they were stampeding towards him. He had no idea exactly what these creatures were that the Fire Nation was using as mounts, but he had a pretty good idea they weren't immune to electricity. Chidori burst to life around his wrists as he raced towards the slew of monstrous lizards and just before he came in contact with the line, he kicked off from the ground and twisted his crackling blue electricity into Chidori Current that spit from all over his body; slicing in between a pair of the mounts, he extended his hands and allowed the current to ripple out of his body and snap through the entire line of horned lizards and their riders. There was an awful screeching sound as their bodies perfectly conducted his Chidori's energy and there was a great flash of light blue as they were all fried by his output. Sasuke didn't even need to turn and watch them all collapse in a smoking heap before he was met by another encircling series of new potential threats.

Two massive swarms of soldiers were barreling towards him on the left and right, and dead in the center was a stream of metal masses, treads on their sides that sent them tearing forwards. Sasuke assumed these must have been much smaller versions of the giant metal drill he had seen buried in the wall of Ba Sing Se; 'tanks' he believed he had heard Sokka mention? No matter their verbiage, Sasuke doubted that he wanted to be on the receiving end of any of these metal monsters were they to collide with him, but quite fortunately, they were moving slow enough that he was able to run to meet them as well, bringing his Sharingan to life and directing it towards the walls of soldiers that were collapsing on either side of him. He was also aware of the fact that the rest of the army was closing up behind him, shifting and surging to wrap around him in a mass of thousands, but this was truly more encouraging than anything. They were still focused on him and him alone.

Funneling chakra into a precise line that traveled the length of his body and wrapped him in furious energy, Sasuke bent his knees just before reaching the opposition and then sent a single punch into the steel hide of the lead tank. Its frame bent and crunched around his blow and the tank itself blew backwards, tossed like a child, as it collided with the other tanks in its division, most all of them being flipped and spun away as the retort of Sasuke's hit resounded with a boom over the landscape.

There wasn't remotely time to congratulate himself however as they two pronged attack of the soldiers came to a head on either side of him; Sasuke was forced to leap towards one of the tanks he hadn't sent flying as a myriad of flaming attacks struck the area where he had been standing just a moment before, turning the area into a exploding mass of heat and light that he could feel against his back. Coming out of the leap into a roll, he extended an arm and seized the tank by one of its treads and with a powerful tank, he whipped it over his head to smash into one of the waves of attackers, crushing a chunk of them outright and scattering the rest.

Sasuke had to leap to the side to avoid another series of blasts as they were fired at him from another tank, but he could just so much as touch down before the other company of soldiers caught him in their sights and began sending fire raining down upon him in a storm of searing energy that he was just able to slip through by use of his Sharingan. He drew his Chidori to life, but before he even had a chance to release it, a tornado of flame came blowing towards him in the direction the tanks had been coming from. He just avoided it and saw soldiers pouring past the ruined tanks, seemingly endless in number as the ones at his back continued to thunder his way.

In the split second he had, Sasuke made several clear determinations.

Firstly, the number of soldiers was much less a problem then was the gravity of the power willed to them by this damned comet.

Secondly, what he really needed was a little bit of time to make his plan work and he knew of a very easy way this time could be managed.

But that was only if he could pull this off.

Drawing back his sword, he slashed it across his open palm, and slammed the hand against the ground promptly, all five fingers spread like the legs of a spider.

Summoning Technique!

As he had expected, managing the summon was enough for him to truly feel the chakra reserves inside him dwindle, but there was also a terrible stabbing pain in his gut that he hadn't been anticipating. Nonetheless, in a cloud of dust the size a sizeable town, a great shadow spread to life around him, coiled and massive.

Even as he acknowledged that his summon had worked, the pain caused his head to swoon dangerously for a moment and he reached out, pressing a hand against the massive form to steady himself.

"Lord Sasuke… what is this?"

The voice was impossibly massive and rumbling, speaking to the raw scale of the being itself. Aoda, a snake who coiled may have been the size of a small mountain, was wrapped in an area around Sasuke now, his dark shape a stark contrast to the sickly orange sky above. Sasuke could hear screams and shouts from the soldiers on the other side of Aoda's massive coils, but he knew they didn't have much time before eventually they would wise up and begin attacking again, and with the firepower at their disposal, even the snake's extremely thick hide wouldn't be able to withstand it for long.

"Something is very wrong…" Aoda continued. "I feel out of place and quite ill, Lord Sasuke. Where is it you have brought me?"

Even as he said this, Sasuke looked to see that the snake's enormous form seemed to almost be rippling before his very eyes, as though there was a piece of him that wasn't quite present.

"Not in our world, Aoda," Sasuke replied with a gasp, trying his best to use oxygen to ease away the pain that he had been stricken with. "However the summoning technique works in its own intricacies, it allowed me to pull you to the world I was cast into myself. How I am here remains a mystery to me, but now is not the time to discuss the oddness of our predicament. I require your assistance."

"I am yours to command, my lord," the snake replied in a rumbling hiss that practically shook the ground at his feet. "But I warn you… there is a pull on my very self. A feeling that I don't belong and I fear that it may not be your will that bids me to return to my home."

Something to do with bringing him to this world means I don't have a hold on him like I would were I from my own world. If I only have him for a brief period beyond my will, I need to act quickly; if that pain I felt when summoning him, or the discomfort he's feeling now are any indication, trying to summon him again if he is returned to my world could be disastrous for both of us.

"I understand," Sasuke said. "But what I need isn't much from you."

He waved a hand in a weary gesture. "I'm rather surrounded by soldiers from an army I'm at war with. I need them distracted and kept from me while I work my Amaterasu."

"Hmm, in a new land and already finding yourself directly in the center of a war; not much has changed with you, has it, Sasuke?"

With his fragmented memory such as it was, Sasuke's immediate response wanted to demand what it was Aoda meant by that, but he caught himself before his curiosity and desperation to fill in the missing gaps of his recollections was struck away as he remembered the situation at hand.

"Can you do it?" he asked the massive snake and Aoda made a deep, thrumming sound that Sasuke imagined must have been laughter, but he still was able to feel pain in the reply and he knew that Aoda was hurting more than he let on.

"With ease, my lord."

Moving slowly at first, shifting his enormous mass and weight, Aoda began to swirl around Sasuke, kicking up a massive storm of dust as he did. Within moments, he was thrashing and swirling in the area around where Sasuke stood, the noise of his movement deafening and the screams of the Fire Nation army just enough to be heard over him. Sasuke caught glimpses of them behind the coils of the great snake, the ones closest to the chaos being crushed and flung about, those further back scampering around, desperately trying to regroup. But already, some were whipping up their firebending again, no doubt to unleash on Aoda's hide.

Sasuke thought regretfully on the fact that if Aoda had been at one hundred percent, he probably could have cleaved his way through the army on his own, but in the state that he was in, he was doing all he could just serving as a shocking and massive distraction. Smirking as he thought of Ozai's face as he gazed upon Aoda's massiveness and wondered if it at all had struck a pang of fear in the Fire Lord's heart before he gathered himself and brought Amaterasu to life, black fire swirling to life around him in the space cleared for him by Aoda's circular coils. But as he concentrated it, bringing it to life as blood ran down his cheeks, he directed it not at the army around his massive living barricade, but rather towards the sky itself.

It worked once… I can't imagine it wouldn't work again.

Ozai raced up the steps to the observation deck just in time to see what appeared to be the snake larger enough to swallow one of his airships whole begin to roil and smash about on the battlefield below. He could do nothing short of stop and stare, his eyes wide and his mouth agape; truly, what had become of their world with these… unnatural men within it?

His army stretched out across the entire ground beneath as the airships drew closer, but they were ants in proportion to the gargantuan snake; he saw them starting to regroup, fire bursting from their amassed thousands below, some attacks missing, some splashing against the snake's hide. Ozai wondered if these attacks were even so much as annoying the beast.

"Sasuke was able to summon… I truly wasn't sure if that were even possible."

At the voice, Ozai finally was able to yank his vision away from the truly awful and bewildering spectacle below and turn towards Obito who had already been on the deck, no doubt watching as well. The Fire Lord stormed up to him; calling him irate in that moment would have been something close to an understatement.

"This is part of your plan, is it?! My army being trampled and crushed, the toxin being wasted as we are no closer to breaching the walls of Ba Sing Se?! We were observing the battle even before that… that… that monster appeared and Sasuke was tearing through my soldiers like wet paper! Do you seek to sabotage my chances by having my army destroyed?!"

Obito regarded him with a flat look that sent a further stake of anger into the Fire Lord's gut; he was not used to being regarded with something so close to contempt and seeing that expression on Obito's face now was enough to nearly drive him into a raging frenzy.

"I informed you losses would be inevitable, did I not?" the scarred man asked and Ozai grit his teeth.

"Casualties of war, you said, not the majority of my ground forces!"

Turning to look back out over the battlefield, Obito gestured, "All is going perfectly according to plan. Do you see those black lines?"

It took Ozai a moment to clear his vision of both anger and to look past the enormous form of the snake to see that there did indeed appear to be black tendrils wisping from the space encircled by the serpent's immense coils.

"Yes I do," Ozai snapped grudgingly and Obito nodded.

"Sasuke is being worn down. That purple figure in the distance you and your cabinet of military commanders witnessed destroying your advance ships? That was him using his Susanoo. He's already been slowly burning through his chakra by fighting your army, and he's only further sapped his reserves by summoning Aoda and even more so now by using his Amaterasu in such a way."

As Obito spoke, Ozai felt his already wire thin patience being stretched even further.

"Speak plainly, outsider!" he barked. "All I've seen are my vessels and soldiers being destroyed and I have nothing to show for it! The toxin will wear off soon and the benders at the wall will reacquire their abilities and the effort I put into tunneling into the city will be for naught!"

Again, Obito turned to face him, his expression almost tired, as though he were explaining something to a child.

"Fire Lord, you say that this wall is your greatest obstacle, yes? Beyond any bender, including the Avatar himself?"

"Yes!" Ozai practically bellowed. "Even with the power aided to us by Sozin's Comet, our airships cannot ascend much higher than the wall's height itself, and their position is nearly indefinitely defensible! If there weren't a wall, sieging the city would become a fraction of the difficulty it currently presents and there would be absolutely nothing to keep our ships from soaring over its boundaries and burning it to the ground. If we cannot breach the wall at the drill's entrance point by the time that—"

"Forget about the wall. I'll have it dealt with," Obito said and Ozai's anger hit a breaking point. As he reached a hand for the younger man's shoulder, intent on shaking some sense into his clearly confused head, Obito did something rather unexpected then and turned to put his hands on the railing on the edge of the deck that stretched from beneath the airship. Within a split second, he had vaulted over the side of it and into open air; Ozai rushed to the edge to see Obito's body seem to almost defy gravity itself and begin to fly towards the battlefield. The Fire Lord watched as Obito soared further and further away until he had disappeared as a speck against the carnage of the battle below, leaving Ozai to lean against the railing, feeling suddenly very tired, and he had to wonder, not for the first time, just what it was that he had agreed to.

"Lord Sasuke," came the thunderous, trembling voice of Aoda. "I fear I cannot hold out much longer. My pull on from this realm is worsening and their fire is beginning to sear through my hide. I can go on the offensive and strike at them, if it would please you."

Sasuke didn't reply immediately as he stared up towards the sky that he had been intently focused on for the past couple minutes; the black clouds above still retained there color and massive shape, but he could see them flickering now, as heat lightning coursed through their composition. He ceased casting his Amaterasu and took a careful, measured breath.

"That will not be necessary," he informed Aoda. "You've given me all the time and protection I'll need."

As he prepared to banish his summon back to whence the great snake had come from, there came a single, selfish thought that passed through Sasuke's mind with all the allure of a seductress's kiss.

Take me back with you.

Just as he had tried with Manda, could he not return to his world with Aoda as a result of the summoning jutsu? Was it not at least worth a try?

With a frown, Sasuke shook his head; he wasn't even sure Aoda was going to survive the trip home, and who knew just what could happen if he tried to join the massive snake. That pain he had felt in his gut for tampering with the bridge between worlds in such a way surely wasn't something that he could assume was a one time deal if he continued to risk such action.

That, and he imagined if he up and left now, he would spend the rest of his life cursing himself for a self-centered coward.

I'll find my way back in my own time.

"Keep yourself safe, my lord," Aoda said in finality before his enormous form was obscured by a cloud of smoke as he was banished back to his place of dwelling. Sasuke spared a thought of gratitude for the snake, and a silent hope that he survived the journey back before returning his attention to the situation at hand.

As the smoke began to clear, he could see that he was indeed standing in a clearing now by himself, his only company being the charred and crushed bodies of those Fire Nation soldiers who had met their end at his hand or at the behest of Aoda's substantial coils. He could sense their fear, their confusion, but he knew that, based on what he had already experienced, he didn't have long before they regained control of their senses, saw that the snake they had been battling was gone, and see Sasuke all by himself. It would be at that point that all his efforts might have been for nothing if he didn't act appropriately now.

But Sasuke still allowed himself a moment to offer a grim smile.

He wasn't sure exactly how many lives he was about to end with this move, but he imagined it would be plenty enough to force the army to scatter and reform, giving the benders at the wall time to regain their abilities, given the time he was sapping away. From there, he could return to the wall and give himself at least a brief moment to hang back and recharge himself; he could reform Susanoo to deal with the ever-approaching airships and still have the wherewithal to face down Obito if and when he arrived with the benders atop the wall able to assist him then.

Even as he thought that however, he paused a moment, feeling something akin to worry pierce his mind.

Why hadn't he seen Obito yet?

No matter, he supposed as he raised a hand into the air as he watched Fire Nation soldiers on all sides of him point in his direction and shout distant orders that he could hardly make out with as far away from him as they were, before they all came bearing down on him again. Sasuke granted them the diligence of being briefly impressed by their pure commitment and ability to never seem to want to back down, regardless of the pure anomaly-based chaos they were presented with. No matter his superhuman abilities and speed, his extreme power, nor even his massive snake that he had just summoned to his side, they still tore the ground in his direction, roaring with never-ending confidence and passion.

And Sasuke was about to extinguish a great many of them with just a flick of his fingers.

Lightning arced down from above, catching his raised and extended fingers and letting him shape and harness the supreme flow of energy above and he pulled it together. It struck him as almost humorous how weakened he had been the last time he had used this ability, how just his skirmish with Ozai and his men and then finally use of this technique had brought him to his knees. Now, it barely seemed to so much as graze his chakra reserves as the storm above crackled and transformed. He looked up with a smile to see Kirin descending from the sky, a massive dragon formed by the blue prongs of energy that made up the lightning itself, even as it flickered with black and red colorations as a result of the Amaterasu that had been used to superheat the atmosphere and bring it to life.

Sasuke didn't so much as hesitate as he sent the payload crashing down into the head of the army. Even standing as distant as he was from the point the attack made ground, he still felt his very form rocked and it was only by harnessing chakra at his feet was he able to keep himself from being blown away. The world lit up with an unnatural blue light as the earth itself seemed to roar as a flood of lightning exploded over its surface. Sasuke closed his eyes, silently allowing himself to feel the passing of a great many as his Kirin laid waste to Ozai's forces.

The moment of the attack only lasted a few seconds, as deafening and blinding as it was. When the light faded and the roar of the attack became nothing more than a ringing in Sasuke's ears, he opened his eyes to see what he had wrought.

Where the forefront of the army had been running towards him, there was now a blackened crater many hundreds of meters across, indented about a dozen meters into the earth itself. There were no bodies to be seen, no specks of red armor or the glint of pale skin against the now scorched ground, merely the now yawning bowl of sizzling dirt to mark their absence. On the other side of it, Sasuke could see a great many forces that hadn't been terminated standing as tiny red dots on the horizon. He was certain that they would no doubt rally yet again, but he had dealt a truly devastating blow and could now let them come to him and he could resume slicing away their number. Surely there wasn't much time left before the ability to bend returned to those at the wall far behind him, and perhaps he would even be able to get to Obito before the bastard got to him.

Thinking that perhaps things might indeed work out for the better, Sasuke began to work his way around the crater in a slight run, a spring in his step as he drew his sword and summoned Chidori to his hand yet again.

So much so was he concentrated on pushing forward, he never once thought to look back; if he had, he just might have seen a single black dot in the sky, soaring its way through the wall of Ba Sing Se.

The mood atop the wall had not changed from its mood of utter shock and wonder, though perhaps it had drifted into a deeper state of such. From Sasuke's initial dismemberment of the Fire Nation's ground forces, to the appearance of what appeared to be a serpent of truly gargantuan size, to the only just now advent of what a dragon made of solid lightning that impacted the ground hard enough to practically shake the very walls of Ba Sing Se itself. As such, no one was gazing in a direction other than the battlefield and thus, no one noticed the single figure gliding to a halt in front of the wall, directly in the center of its line of defenders.

Through the enhanced vision his Sharingan offered, Obito focused in on the group that Sasuke had been traveling with, the people that had aided him in his assault of Ozai's fleet and from whom he had witnessed all levels of emotion towards Sasuke's mere existence.

There was the waterbending girl who had attempted to snuff out his life, eyes wide and with a hand over her mouth. There was the airheaded acrobat who seemed to be hiding half her vision behind a hand, as though that would keep her from witnessing history before her. He saw the disgraced prince so close to edge of the wall, he might have fallen off as he gazed with extreme intensity towards the spectacle, as well as the woman Obito had thought to be his girlfriend looking guilty and ill, almost remorseful in fact.

The waterbender's brother and his warrior girlfriend, tightly clinging to one another as though ensuring their own sanity by gripping onto one another for dear life. There too was that little earthbender, with so much fire and passion in her heart that Obito had seen. In a way, she had seemed almost more mature than all other members of the party, certainly more so than that intensely abrasive and perhaps psychotic princess, who he found he was unable to spot.

But finally, his gaze fell to rest on the boy, the Avatar, whom supposedly carried all the weight of the world on his shoulders. Obito had felt pity for him more than once while being undercover, and even now, there was a piece of him that very much wished there was another way.

However, they had been children, but if Ozai's words bore any credence, they had allied themselves with a tyrannical leadership under the Earth Nation. And at the end of the day, Obito had only two concerns: rescuing Iroh and returning home to Rin. And if this was the only way to do so, than so be it.

He raised his arms to angle away from his body, palms open as he gathered Chakra to his Rinnegan, breathing in deeply and surrendering himself to the power he was attempting to harness. Obito was well aware based on the one time he had witnessed this technique before that it would certainly sap him of a great deal of his energy, perhaps even render him unconscious if he wasn't truly in control, but he still knew that he had to proceed.

Perhaps the truly observant on the wall above him now would have felt what was a strange pulling sensation, but it was less that they were then being pulled themselves and rather that the very energy around them was being pulled past them. There wasn't a particular element to what Obito was tapping into, but nothing short of pure force was presently gathering around his very form, compressed in such a way that seemed to make the very air before him ripple and shudder. A feeling was gathering inside Obito, one that he knew he wasn't going to able to control for very long, rather akin to a cough that was building and building; it would have to be released, but he needed as much time to heighten the power before it was sent repulsed from him.

The wall before him was even more massive than he had anticipated from observing it from far off; it seemed to stretch in all directions as oppressively massive as the sky itself. But it was just stone, stone and foundation, and Obito could take advantage of that.

He allowed himself a last moment to look to the mass of soldiers and defenders just above him on the wall, hoping that perhaps he might spot Iroh in their midst, but he was of course disappointed. The old man was surely rotting in a cell somewhere, no doubt being mistreated in his imprisonment. At this thought, any hesitation Obito had about his present action was lost, and his mouth formed a sneer as he ushered in the final seconds of the wall of Ba Sing Se.

"Almighty… "

As he spoke the first word, he looked up to spot the Avatar a last time, a beacon of misguided hope and emotion. A child who, for all intents and purposes, had been as mistreated by this world as anyone could be.

A shame, Obito thought. Truly.

He finished the cast and felt a wave of raw power, power as immense as anything he had ever felt, surge through and out of him, and the world truly fell to chaos.

"… Push."