AN: Five chapters to go till the end of the first part :)

Chapter 26: Battle of Ba Sing Se – Part 1

Ozai stood with his hands clasped behind his back as he looked out towards Ba Sing Se and tried to drone out the practical shouting of his generals and admirals behind him. All of them had a different opinion in how they wanted to proceed, in what they thought of the situation and what they thought of what had just transpired. All pretense of their respect and reverence towards his presence seemed to have gone completely out the window following the events of the last several, impossibly long minutes and while Ozai supposed he couldn't blame them, for the moment, he had no desire to speak to their concerns.

For he was very much in awe himself, of a much more reserved kind. He remembered leaving orders with his men in his personal chambers just before hearing an almighty boom that shook the very walls of the palace and having to restrain himself from running out to find just what had caused such a noise. He remembered walking the grounds behind his palace in the morning after his daughter had left his life, seeing the destruction that had been left in wake of Sasuke as he had escaped; the Fire Lord had seen the bodies of his men, seen the blackened remains of the structure itself and wondered just how far this power truly ran.

But he had been given what his curiosity had pondered and so much more. His utter shock at Sasuke's display before his ground forces had been only outmatched by his fury that his army was being laid waste to, something he had made very clear to Obito. The way the boy had utterly halted the advance of Ako's entire command, then the massive snake and the thunderstrike of godlike proportions. And then, as if in exchange for the thousands he had surely lost, the wall had come down. No real fanfare, no real warning, the wall had just caved in as though blown down by some invisible force, which Ozai supposed was exactly what had happened.

And now, assumingly, there was only one move left to make.

"Your highness, we must fall back and regroup!"

It was this affirmation practically shouted at his back that caused Ozai to finally turn and regard his commanders. It had been General Ixa who had spoken, her face intense and eyes glowing aggressively. She had been such a rising star in his forces, achieving the rank of general as fast as anyone ever had, and with exceptional firebending to match her exceptional command. To see her now so flustered was hardly a good look for her, and Ozai made no attempt to disguise the mild disgust he viewed her with, a look he passed around to the dozen or so surrounding individuals.

When he spoke, while it was in response to her assertion, it was directed towards all of them.

"You all truly wish to back down now, when the final blow has been all but struck?" he inquired softly, and he watched his high ranking men and women look amongst one another for direction, like children in a classroom lost on the solution to the equation before them.

"We've lost an estimated sixty to seventy percent of our ground forces, General Ako among them," his chief strategist finally stated hesitantly. "To push forward now, with such reduced numbers on the ground would put the majority of the effort on our air forces, and we're not sure that substantial threat to our number can be avoided."

Ozai regarded them all before pointing behind him towards the crumbled mass that stretched for such a ways along the border of Ba Sing Se.

"My asset just struck down the most insurmountable obstacle known to us in our efforts against the Earth Nation. His power is enough to at least match that of Sasuke, and even if he is to be defeated, our best chance to secure victory is full ahead, now, before the Earth Nation gets a chance to regroup."

General Ixa shifted her weight back and forth, looking anything but convinced that unyielding offense was their best course of action forward.

"Your highness, with all due respect, we ought to consider—"

This was enough for Ozai and he took a powerful step forward, snapping as he did so, and relishing the fear that passed among the faces of his subordinates.

"Nothing! We ought to consider nothing! We have the first and clearest shot to victory that has ever been granted to us! We've lost a great many, but we still have the advantage of Sozin's Comet on our side and should we retreat now, time is allowed the enemy to regroup themselves, refortify and come up with new countermeasures, and we potentially lose the advantage that has so enhanced our firebending!"

He saw Ixa and several others getting ready to make cases against what he had just suggested, but right about then, he was sick of the lot of them. Turning away, he waved a hand dismissively.

"You have your orders. Fleet admiral, pass along the order that we are to move ahead with our assault and send down what forces we can spare to aid those on the ground; I want Shichen or Anta or whatever general we still have aboard my ship to resume command of the ground forces in Ako's stead. And General Ixa, ensure that all our sides are covered, I want nothing taking us by surprise if they decide that coming at us from behind will be the most suitable plan to counter us."

Ozai felt a ripple of anger pass down his neck as he heard not the telltale signs of movement and he added coldly, "You're all dismissed."

It was then that he heard the noises he had been waiting to hear and he listened to the observation deck clear of his officers and commanders.

It wasn't as though the points they had raised had been anything greatly exaggerated or cowardly in nature; he knew his generals hadn't a yellow streak amongst them, and they were merely thinking in regards to what was best for their forces as a whole. But Ozai didn't care. His chance was finally here, delivered by Obito, and he was going to make good on his attempt to utilize the advantage this day provided him to the best of his abilities.

"Your highness."

At the voice, he felt his anger break again and he turned with an aggressive spin to see who had yet to leave him in his own musings, snarling as he did.

"Who dares—!"

His thoughts of shouting at the trespasser to his thoughts along with the potentiality of scorching them from existence disappeared as he gazed upon his two chief scribes.

The scribes looked both as old as the scrolls they spent hours poring over, their deep red robes hanging loosely from their feeble frames. In truth, Ozai was surprised to see them; in wartime, no matter the circumstances, they would remain tucked away in their chambers, looking over battle plans and analyzing old charts and records, always looking to find some advantage Ozai could use to secure victory on any given day, and they had provided him with just that on more than one occasion. When they weren't conducing wartime studies, they had their ancient eyes turned skyward, studying the stars and predicting what they could of the future. Ozai found this to be a much less useful art than their studies of battles and tactics, but it was a sacred duty they performed even looking at the night sky and he would never dare suggest otherwise.

"Chief scribes," he said, in a much more civil tone. The older of the two, the woman, raised her arms at her sides, palms facing towards the ceiling of the ship, though Ozai was sure they were directed towards much higher than that.

"We have spent time looking over the ritual that you attempted to perform in the previous weeks, your highness," she said and Ozai had to keep his lips from pulling back over his tongue in an angry snarl.

"It was a shot in the dark, one that I didn't even know would work," he snapped. "I put too much faith in those priests of the Fire Temples to deliver me something as supposedly critical as that would have been, had it worked."

The fact that he was even talking about this now was frustrating on a level of its own. Here he was, about to achieve the greatest victory in his time as Fire Lord, and he was being reminded of his failures? Despite his own feelings towards his two scribes, his patience was all but worn out and he prepared to order them from his sight.

"We have spent our time today carefully analyzing Sozin's Comet," the other scribe said, his soft and lofty voice drifting out in such a way that made whatever he was talking about seem quite inconsequential. "Once in a hundred years and we wanted to know as much as we could about it before it left our sky. That being said, we've noticed something… well, quite deviant, your highness, and believe that you ought to know about it. Since this itself might be your crowning achievement as Fire Lord."

Ozai stared at them, not understanding. "Explain."

The woman ran fingers over the scrolls she held tucked underneath her arm as she obeyed his directive. "The Ritual of Sozin's Rites was brought to you as a suggestion that if you cut someone from your life that you truly loved, the true power of the Comet could be revealed."

More reminders of my failure, Ozai thought furiously. As if the daily thought of his daughter's betrayal and the betrayal he had wrought on her to start weren't aggravating enough.

"But your priests indicated that the princess would need to be… killed, in order for the ritual to take hold and work," the other said. "But it is our belief that what you did, severing ties with her and expelling her from your life have been enough."

"What are you talking about?" Ozai snapped, trying to ignore the feeling of underlying excitement in his gut at their words, hardly daring to believe what he was hearing.

The two scribes looked at one another before the male spoke up, his voice trembling with something that might not just have been old age.

"Sozin's Comet ought to have traveled in a wide curve past our atmosphere before vanishing into the depths of space for another hundred years," he said, clasping his hands before him. "But as we have watched, it has taken on a new path entirely, one that indicates it would not be a hundred years we would have to wait in order to see it again."

Ozai felt a lump rising in his throat; what exactly were they suggesting, what exactly was it that he might have unknowingly achieved.

"What does its path indicate?" he asked.

The next words he heard left him speechless for a good while after.

"It has taken an orbit around our planet. As of now, Sozin's Comet will encircle our celestial body until the day it burns out."

It wound up only being about a minute he had to wait, but knowing what was surely happening and how he could be preventing it made it seem like much longer to Sasuke.

He softly ground his heel on the dirt and rubble beneath him, ignoring the expectant looks of those around him. Katara was surely still hoping for a reply of some kind, but he didn't want to say anything to give away what was about to happen, or it very well might cause something to deviate in his carefully laid plan and he was not interested in getting any external factors involved that he didn't need to. Sasuke guessed that he probably could have aired out his plan, but if for whatever reason Obito wasn't quite acting in accordance with Sasuke's predictions, it was still a chance he didn't want to take.

"What are we waiting for, Sasuke?" Aang finally asked with an undertone of impatient anxiety.

"Yeah, those ships aren't getting any further away, and I can't imagine your plan is to sit here and do nothing," Sokka added.

Sasuke still said nothing and felt a little slice of guilt traveling through him. It was rather embarrassing to rather cold shoulder everyone like this, but as it turned out, he only needed a few more long seconds before his prediction was accurately settled.

"Sasuke!"

The voice that called out to him then came from somewhere off behind him and he felt the entire group collectively spin to face whatever sudden third party had suddenly intruded. Sasuke made no such movement and let himself gather his thoughts as he prepared to deal with the situation before him. He heard Ty Lee and Aang both gasp as Suki gave an angry growl before he slowly turned to face what he knew to be.

Obito stood as he had only minutes ago, a dozen yards away and with a grim smile on his face. One hand hung loosely at his side and the other had its elbow wrapped around Jin's throat who was brushing her feet against the ground in an effort to keep pressure off her neck, her face tense and frightened as she struggled for purchase.

Seeing her like that was the hardest part yet, particularly when Sasuke knew he could have prevented it. But in regards to his plan, this was going exactly as he had thought out.

"Nice trick," he called in return and Obito gave his head a soft shake.

"No tricks, Sasuke. Just doing what I have to do to get you out of the way."

He looked around nonchalantly but Sasuke could hear something like nerves in his voice as he asked, "Haven't seen your brother; he change his mind about showing up?"

Sasuke ignored this and instead demanded in reply, "You want to make this happen so bad? Let her go and let's finish what we started on that ship."

Obito lifted Jin a little higher and pulled her closer to him; she let out a soft cry of pain as he did, clenching her eyes shut briefly at his roughness.

"I don't think I will. You see, I don't exactly have a lot of time before the Fire Lord makes his way through what's left of the wall with his army and I want to make sure that he gets a clean entrance. And unfortunately, you're in the way of that."

"My father will betray you the same way he betrays everyone!" Zuko shouted, stepping forward. "You have no cause to help him, whatever you want from this city can be obtained without all this bloodshed!"

For a moment, Obito's eyes flicked to the prince, but Sasuke imagined they were imagining blowing him away for interrupting rather than considering what Zuko was saying. He could see the furious and intense expressions of the rest of his companions, every single one of them looking ready to fly forward with bending, weapons or their fists to try and put Obito down, but he couldn't allow that; he would take them apart.

Sasuke spoke up before the conversation could get off track from where he wanted it.

"A life for a life then? Me for her?"

Grimacing and pulling herself high enough over his arm to shout out, Jin yelled defiantly, "Don't listen to him Sasuke, don't give this guy a thing, no matter what he does to-!"

Obito's free hand clenched into a fist and struck a blow into Jin's side and she gasped in pain, not able to finish her plea. He looked back to Sasuke with cold eyes.

"I'm not here to bargain with you, Sasuke and I'm not going to waste time listening to you try to reason with me as I'm sure you're going to try and do. So I'll make this good and simple."

The fist he had clenched twisted and morphed, becoming not a hand, but rather what looked like a grey colored blade that glinted in the orange light above.

"I'm going to ask you to walk slowly over away from your friends and kneel with your back to me. Every other second you don't comply, I'm going to start cutting pieces from this girl here and eventually I'm sure her screams will get to you."

Sasuke saw the fear flash in Jin's eyes but as she met his gaze, she furrowed her brow and shook her head resolutely in his direction. He felt terrible that she had to be forced into this, but so far, this was exactly what he needed.

As Obito raised his eyebrows and drew his bladed arm towards her hand, Sasuke stepped forward.

"Wait. Fine. I'll trade, her life for mine."

All at once, his group rounded on him, furious looks now directing towards him. Katara was the first to hiss at him, her eyes wild with anger.

"Are you crazy?! You can't be serious!"

Suki's voice was much more controlled, but the look in Katara's eyes was reflected in hers as well.

"Sasuke, you do this, and we're left with nothing to fight him or Ozai's army. You can't let… I know, it's an awful choice to make but…"

She seemed unable to finish and looked towards the ground with gritted teeth; Toph stepped up then, her angry look directed up at him.

"I'm not losing you like this," she snapped and Mai moved beside her and Sasuke found it curious the amount of panic she had in her eyes, despite her controlled expression.

"Jin doesn't want this, Sasuke. No one does, Suki's right. We lose you, we might as all be dead anyway."

As Sasuke looked around at all of them, he saw more arguments about to burst from the mouths of Katara, Sokka and Toph, the rest looking just as angrily resolute in their opposition to this. Realizing that it could very well be a struggle in and of itself just trying to get past them to hand himself over to Obito, and also knowing that it wouldn't be long before he started taking pieces off of Jin to spur him onward, Sasuke decided to take a bit of a chance.

"Thanks guys, but I know what I'm doing."

He said this quietly enough for Obito not to hear it and as he looked around at all of them, Sasuke realized something else.

They all really do care.

That fear and suspicion they had looked at him with just then wasn't something that might ever go away, but in the end, as he looked at their faces and saw them all looking back with a different kind of fear, he allowed himself a small smile. Making sure that Obito was hidden behind them for just a moment, Sasuke cocked his head slightly and gave them all a wink; this seemed to catch them off guard, but when he stepped forward, none of them made to stop him as he had feared they might.

"Make no mistake," Obito said to him as he took another step forward. "I don't want to kill you. But since you won't see reason, I simply have to make sure you're somewhere where you can't hinder me for the time being."

Moving a hand gently to his side, Sasuke took Toph's shoulder and gave it a soft squeeze before letting her go and moving forward alone. Obito's grim smile widened as his paces slowly drew him nearer, the scuff of dirt underneath his feet the only sound for several long steps before Jin began to struggle again, eyes agonized as she saw Sasuke approaching.

"Stop it!" she yelled desperately. "I'm not worth it!"

Obito struck her again and she cried out; at this, Sasuke almost couldn't keep himself from rushing the bastard and leveling him then and there, but he quickly reminded himself that Obito was surely more than he made him out to be, and his own plan was very gradually coming to fruition. Instead of focusing on his anger at seeing Jin hurt and scared, he focused on how impressed he was with her. Just that morning, she had been pleading quietly for her life in his arms, and now was openly decrying her captor and boldly wishing herself in harms way in order to keep Sasuke from giving himself up. Fear was still so very present in her eyes, but she was fighting it as best she could and damn it all if she wasn't succeeding against it.

It's okay, Jin. Just hang in there a little longer.

He wanted to say this, but kept his mouth shut.

When he was about a ten paces from them, Obito raised an open palm as the blade of his arm reverted back into a hand; Sasuke wondered what it was that was allowing him to contort his form like that.

"Stop. Hands on your head and slowly turn away, back to me."

Sasuke silently complied, sliding his fingers through his black hair to clasp his head as he rotated around to look back the way he had come, and he got a good look of his allies.

Toph had her arms wrapped around Aang's left arm, both of them looking like brother and sister who were about to watch cattle be slaughtered for the first time. Ty Lee had one fist near her mouth, her teeth biting her knuckles and the other hand on Mai's shoulder; Mai had her arms crossed and though she kept her calm expression, her eyes were a storm of their own.

Zuko had an interesting expression, almost as though he were looking forward to what was about to happen while Katara next to him seemed to be lost in the moment, her mouth very slightly ajar as she took in long, slow breaths, her full mane of hair dancing in the breeze of the hot afternoon. Suki and Sokka were hand in hand, looking the most subdued of the lot, eyes sad and anxious. Sasuke wished he could tell them all to relax and not worry, but in truth, he wasn't sure how well this plan was going to work anyway.

"On your knees."

Sasuke slowly lowered himself to one knee, then both as he looked forward calmly. Behind him, he could hear Jin continue to struggle and he ground his teeth behind his lips, silently willing her to stop making things worse on herself.

"Don't hurt him! Please don't hurt him, please don't—"

Another dull hit from behind him and as Jin moaned in pain, Sasuke couldn't keep himself from snapping angrily.

"I did what you asked, now let her go."

Obito made a noise of gentle amusement behind him and Sasuke could hear him approaching, Jin in tow, her feet digging into the dirt as they came.

"How amusing, that your connections to the people of this world to which you don't belong would be your weakness."

Jin went sailing past him, clearly having been shoved forward by Obito. She sprawled into the dirt, wincing as she pushed herself up, her eyes wide and terrified as she looked back to Sasuke. To his pain, she staggered to her feet, massaging her throat a moment and then rushed his direction, perhaps to Sasuke or to attack Obito perhaps; she only made it a few steps before Suki came up behind her and wrapped her arms around the girl's waist dragging her backwards. Jin protested and yelled the whole way as she was dragged backwards towards the group and as Sasuke felt Obito just behind him, he knew it was now or never.

"I'll just be tucking you away for a little while," Obito said quietly. "There's nothing to be worried about; it will all make sense in time."

Sasuke knew if he was pulled into Kamui, it was game over; if it was as Itachi had implied, there was no way to free himself from Obito's dimension and all would be lost. Ozai would take the day, and everyone standing before him would no doubt be killed or worse.

This has to work.

He waited just a fraction of a moment longer as he practically could feel Obito preparing to pull him in before Sasuke shouted suddenly.

"Jin, look at me!"

At his voice, Jin stopped trying to resist and snapped her gaze to his, her desperate and anguished expression enough to sting his gut, but not enough to keep him from triggering his jutsu.

And from there, he could only wait and see if he was to be pulled into Kamui as he continued staring at Jin.

But he remained right where he was, hands on his head, his knees still on the ground. Sasuke could feel the connection though and allowed himself to smile.

It must have worked.

Without a word, he got to his feet and turned around.

Obito was standing there, eyes glazed over and barely moving other than to breathe. His hand was slightly outstretched, his expression blank as he looked ahead, entirely unseeing. Knowing likely how close it had just been to him being pulled into Kamui, he let a quiet sigh of relief exit through his nostrils. Through the genjutsu he was now working, he nudged Obito's mind gently and suggested that he sit down which Obito did unceremoniously, dropping onto his rear with his legs crossed, his expression remaining foggily passive.

It worked.

He turned back towards his group and saw them all staring hesitantly with wide eyes, clearly unsure what to think and he gave them all a smile. Tears swam in Jin's eyes and she broke free of Suki's now slackened grip to run up and throw her arms around his shoulders.

"Thank you," she cried in his ear and he put an arm around her in turn, giving her a tight squeeze. She truly had been scared for her life, badly and probably was surprised to even be alive.

"You did all the work," Sasuke replied with some dry humor. "Made it real easy for me."

She gave a wet laugh and as they moved apart, Katara stepped forward; Sasuke saw her eying Jin with what looked like irritation as she asked of him, "What exactly did you just do to him?"

As Sasuke approached the group, letting Toph wrap around his waist in a relieved hug and giving a bemused and still frightened looking Aang a soft punch in the shoulder, he replied.

"I knew that when it came down to Obito, he would probably make his move on one of you guys instead of me."

"Us?" Sokka said in bewilderment. "Why us?"

Sasuke looked back at the now inactive Obito situated on the ground as he elaborated.

"I got the feeling early on, even aboard the ship that he wasn't sure exactly how strong I was. He then probably saw me fighting Ozai's army and saw what I was able to manage and became even more unsure of how he'd be able to handle me in a fight."

It struck him that he was still slightly embarrassed to admit the next, but he did anyway in a softer, more grumbling tone.

"And I… kind of care about you guys, so he tried to take advantage of that."

Suki reached over and squeezed his wrist a moment and he saw her smiling warmly at him.

"Why did he pick Jin, though?" Ty Lee asked. "We were all here with you, he could have grabbed any one of us instead."

It was then that Sasuke knew he didn't want to tell the full truth; honesty right about then would have been much more detrimental than anything.

"He probed my head, I think," Sasuke said; this at least was true. "He saw probably a bunch of faces and images, and he picked her out."

Why he had was a much more personal question and would surely lead to a fair bit of tension if he got into it, so Sasuke was quite glad when Sokka pushed on.

"So, what just happened? How did you do that, why is he like… that?"

He gestured to Obito's paralyzed looking form. Sasuke followed his gaze and smirked.

"The technique I use to mess with people's mental processes is called genjutsu. It's how I stopped Ako back at the temple, it's what I used on both Mai and Azula at the prison, as a couple examples."

Turning his gaze to Mai, he saw her face tense up and knew that the brief mental trauma he had flung at her still stung; he made a mental note to properly apologize for it when he got a chance.

"But Obito is like me, in more ways that one. His eyes have some of the same abilities that mine do, and he would have been able to see me using the technique on him the moment I made proper eye contact with him; that's how the genjutsu is activated, through eye contact. I knew it would be my best chance against him, but he would see it coming and be able to defend against it."

Katara crossed her arms. "But clearly it worked."

Sasuke nodded. "Compounding this with the fact that I imagined he might use one of you as leverage, and knowing that this would be the best way to deal with him rather than fight him head on, I used the genjutsu hours ago."

They blinked at him in confusion.

"I don't understand," Aang said, surely speaking for all present.

"I planted the genjutsu trigger in each of your eyes this morning," Sasuke explained. "Essentially, if I triggered it, your eyes would launch the genjtusu, despite not being able to generate one yourself. It was the best way to catch him off guard. All I needed him to do was look into your eyes and I could trigger it, which he did just now when I had Jin look at me. He looked at her too, surely curious as to why I was shouting for her, and I caught him."

He saw many of them now looking somewhat uncomfortable.

"I had something in my eye…?" Sokka asked, rubbing his eyes somewhat nervously.

"It's not going to hurt you," Sasuke said. "And when the genjutsu is dispelled from being cast on Obito, the visual triggers will naturally disappear."

There was a pause then and Sasuke knew why. What he had done had been devious, silent and not the least bit questionable, to use them all as what was essentially bait without telling them. No one met his eyes just then, but he saw flickers of hurt on Suki, Aang and Mai's faces and angry touches on Katara, Zuko, Ty Lee and Toph's. Sokka still looked more discomforted than anything, his face contorting humorously as though he expected something to come crawling out of his eye, but when Sasuke looked to Jin, her expression pained him the most of any.

It was the same hurt on the faces of some of the others, but her eyes held something more than just that. They seemed to glow with something like realization, as though she had just come to a conclusion, some assessment of Sasuke that she hadn't yet considered. He knew that in that silence, a judgement was being passed and it wasn't one that he was going to be able to undue, nor did he have any right to.

"You knew… you knew he might come for me? Use me against you?" she finally asked quietly.

There was nothing else that Sasuke could say beyond affirmation.

"Yes."

Jin wrapped her arms around herself and didn't meet his gaze, saying nothing more. For a moment, Sasuke almost stepped forward and apologized in that very moment, but he caught himself; eventually, they would thank him for this, what he had just done had been all he needed to render Obito helpless and he could continue now with his plan and ensure that the day could be won. This was no time to be sentimental or emotional.

I did the right thing, he angrily told himself. If they knew what I had done, this might not have worked.

"I had no guarantee this was what it would come to, but it was the best way to protect you," he finally said, the closest thing to an apology that he could manage. He caught the glares of Suki, Katara and Mai then and Toph opened her mouth clearly with something angry to say, but Aang spoke up first; the Avatar's face seemed resigned to the choice Sasuke had made and looked past Sasuke towards Obito.

"How long would he stay like that?"

"Either until I released him from the jutsu or until his body forced him out of it. Mentally, he's trapped, but if he is dealt any physical trauma or pain, his body will instinctively free him, even as he can't do so of his free will."

Sokka chewed the inside of his mouth before shrugging and asking,

"So, what's the plan now?"

Glad to be past the topic of his shady behavior at least for the time being, Sasuke turned back to Obito and crossed his arms.

"Obito is trying to clear the way for Ozai and his forces. He's half-accomplished that by taking down the wall, but he knows that I'd be able to stop his forces still. Against benders and with the wall down, Ozai has an easy path as long as I'm out of the way so his goal was to stick me in his alternate dimension until the day was won."

"He can do something like that?" Sokka asked incredulously and Sasuke nodded grimly.

"It's how he got himself and Ozai out of the ship like he did. Right now, time is of the essence for him. Now, I'm going to waste a little time and let Ozai get himself and his army closer to the city."

He could practically feel the disbelief behind him then as he heard a bluster of angry reactions, Katara's being the foremost he heard.

"Why the hell would you want that?!"

Sasuke turned back to them, letting his cold and low voice cut through their objections to his decision as he explained himself.

"My easiest way to take down Obito is to make him do something rash. When I cancel the jutsu and he wakes up to see that Ozai is just about here, he'll panic and do everything he can, as quickly as he can to remove me from the fight. I need him going after he as hard and quick as he feels is necessary for me to get a hit on him; if he's unfocused and reckless, I can catch him with Amaterasu."

He could hear the exasperation in Katara's voice as she inquired, "With what?"

"My black fire," Sasuke said. "If I can catch him with it, he'll have to retreat to his dimension to avoid it. I'm going to make a shadow clone of myself with as much jutsu as I can spare to grab ahold and slip in with him. With a shadow clone there, and me here, he'll have to fight us both at the same time and won't be able to hide from me."

Clenching his fist, Sasuke's lips pulled angrily back from his teeth as he glared at Obito's slumped form.

"I'm stronger than him, I know I am. And if I can catch him like this before he can use that Rinnegan to hit me with any tricks I won't see coming, I can put him down quickly and efficiently, and then be able to finish off Ozai and his army."

He let this settle over them all and when he heard no response to his plan, he looked back to see them all looking at him with varying levels of anger and hurt still, but with a tired edge now amongst them, which Suki vocalized by muttering, "You'll have to forgive us if most of what you just said doesn't make a lick of sense to us."

Realizing his explanation probably required several explanations of its own, Sasuke waved a hand dismissively as he turned back to his foe.

"Don't worry about it," he said. "I'm going to spend a few minutes to recharge some chakra; thankfully, him being stuck in my genjutsu means he isn't able to regain any to his reserves himself, so that'll be another advantage I'll have."

That, and I'm pretty sure I need to, he thought as he slowly sat down, cross legged and closed his eyes, letting energy start to regenerate through his tired body. He started considering the possibilities of how Obito might choose to attack him when he made his move, trying to imagine just what he would bring to bear in an attempt to quickly remove Sasuke from the equation. At his back, his allies fell silent which he found more than relieving; truly, and mental strain he spent on answering more of their questions would only make the process of recharging himself less beneficial in the long run. Every second was a moment to let his chakra flow send energy flooding back through him even as his mind went to work in trying to prepare for what was about to be the next most crucial moment.

A couple minutes had passed before he heard Toph speak up, her voice sounding distant in how much Sasuke had been distancing himself from the physicality of the moment.

"Is he sleeping…?"

It took a moment for Sasuke to realize that he was indeed sitting there with his eyes closed, breathing deeply and consistently, rather as though he were asleep sitting up.

"Hey, Sasuke!"

He didn't react to Sokka's shout, hoping they would just leave him be.

"Don't bother him, he's probably in some kind of trance or whatever unnatural crap he has to get up to in order to be the way he is."

Zuko's bitter voice cut quietly over and he heard Suki reply in a tone that was almost reprimanding.

"What's unnatural to us is hardly unnatural to him, and in case you haven't noticed, it's been doing a damn good job of keeping us safe."

There was a harsh laugh from Zuko then as he replied immediately. "If it wasn't for his kind being in our world, we wouldn't need to be kept safe. One of his kind just blew the wall down and is currently sitting there, and I don't know why we're not just going and sticking a blade in his throat now."

Sasuke tensed somewhat at this; if Zuko or anyone else tried to make a move on Obito, there was no telling what could happen. He very much doubted a knife to the throat would be enough to put him down; when he had fought Obito on board the Azulon, he had noticed that any cuts or blood he was drawing had been almost immediately healed within moments. Something about Obito's physique provided him with something like a regenerative ability that healed wounds such as those from a kunai or a sword. Sasuke had very little doubt that if Zuko went to stab him, Obito would shake it off and probably kill him just as quickly. He extended a chakra feeler into his surroundings, feeling for any sudden movement; if anyone tried to make a rash move, he would see it coming.

"Don't do anything stupid, Lee, please," came Jin's voice. She still sounded pained and subdued, but there was that energy that she had always seemed to possess so much of present in her voice once again. "We don't know something like that would even work, and Sasuke's plan has worked so far."

There was a pause before Katara inquired what had been inside Sasuke's head as well, regarding how Jin had just addressed him.

"Jin… why do you keep calling him 'Lee'?"

Mai made an absolutely derisive noise just about then, and Sasuke could only imagine the expressions being passed around behind him. Surprisingly enough to him, Zuko was the first speak next, clearly having something he wanted to say before what was clearly some form of charade lasted any longer.

"Jin, there's something you need to know about me."

As he said this, Jin made a soft sound of amusement; Sasuke listened to what might have been the sound of her pacing a few steps away before she spoke quietly.

"What, that your name is actually Zuko and that you're on the run from your father for betrayal of your nation and the Earth Nation for war crimes and as a high ranking target?"

Sasuke allowed himself a moment to be impressed that she hadn't been quite as airheaded to have let something like that slip past her.

Not bad.

"I know who you really are," she continued. Her voice was strained, like she didn't want to consider the idea that they were even having this conversation. "But that night we had… it was special enough that even after you disappeared from the city a little while after that and I started to piece things together, I don't… I'm sorry, but can I please just spend one more day pretending that's who you really were? Before… before this ends and someone drags you away to be tried, or interrogated, or—"

Her line of thought finally seemed to be too much for Mai who spoke up with a venom that Sasuke had seldom heard in her voice.

"There isn't going to be anyone to drag him away, and it's about time you grew up. Sitting here listening to you blubber on about how you're living in some fantasy you know isn't real is making me sick."

Sasuke was rather glad that Ty Lee spoke up then, the frown evident in her tone.

"Leave her alone, Mai, she's just a—"

"A what?" Mai snapped back, firing up immediately. "A kid? So are we, by that logic. A civilian? Innocent? Naïve? Get real, Ty, as if any of us haven't already…"

Mai would keep talking past this, but Sasuke quite quickly found himself focusing on something much more immediately relevant than whatever had Mai so ticked off.

What happened next occurred too quickly for him to react to it before it was too late.

His chakra field that he had let wisp and settle around him was suddenly shifted and shaken by a burst of movement. Sasuke had been feeling carefully for any of his companions to rush forward and try and make a move on Obito after he had heard what Zuko said, but the disturbance he felt then didn't come from any of them, nor did it even come from someone on the ground.

It came from someone from above.

Sasuke opened his eyes, already practically knowing what was happening and trying to get to his feet even as he saw Azula bearing down above Obito with fire bursting from her feet propelling her towards him and lightning crackling in her clawlike hands. There was a ferociously excited grin on her face, her eyes alive with malice and intensity as she drew her arms back even as Sasuke reached out in a futile attempt to stop her. As he managed a step forward, he watched her shout something towards him that he couldn't make sense of as lightning spat from her hands and struck Obito's form.

Forced to redirect his movement as Obito came roaring back to life, shouting as the electricity blasted his body, Sasuke jumped to the side as a powerful force burst in a sphere around Obito propelling everything away from him in a short radius, Azula included. She would have likely dashed her head against the rubble and perhaps not gotten back up had Sasuke not managed to intercept her in her, wrapping his arms around her chest and gathering chakra in his feet to skid them to a halt, negating the force that had thrust them backwards.

Setting Azula down beside him, Sasuke didn't take his eyes away from Obito. A chunk of him wanted to turn on her right then and berate her for doing something so rash and risky, but the more focused part of him knew that doing so would be terribly imprudent in a time like this as Obito got to his feet with a wince, eyes blazing back to life, looking around as he regained control of his body.

To Sasuke's back, the petty arguing had thankfully come to a halt as everyone surely had seen what had just occurred in a matter of seconds that might very well have tipped the scales of the struggle that day. He wanted to tell them to run, but drawing focus to them would no doubt potentially plant the seed in Obito's head to take advantage of them being just there before him and try and attack them to get at Sasuke and force him on the defensive.

Nonetheless, Azula pulled almost needily at his arm with a tender desperation as she whispered, "I was just trying to help you, I just wanted to—"

Her quiet voice was silenced as Sasuke opened his mouth and called out loudly to Obito; his plan foiled or not, he still could potentially make use of what little he was left with right then.

"Dozed off there for a little while, did you? We were just talking about what to do with you, thought you might have gone into a coma or something."

His jesting was obvious, but he drew attention to the primary factor that he knew had been eating at his enemy and watched as Obito quickly flicked his gaze towards the blown out wall, trying to get a glimpse of the airships no doubt.

Good. The less he knows about how much time has passed, the better, Sasuke thought as Obito turned back to him, his face set in a tight snarl.

"That was a sneaky trick, Sasuke," he growled by way of reply. "Using the girl to trap me like that. Though I have to admit, you not attempting to do anything further to me while I was under that little spell seems awfully counterproductive."

Sasuke shrugged, trying to air out a nonchalant attitude towards the whole situation. "Well, like I said, we weren't sure what to do with you. I was talked out of just killing you outright, but I'll be honest, I don't know it—"

He would have liked a little more warning, but he supposed he shouldn't have been surprised. Obito flew at him with all the force of a tidal wave and it was all he could do to leap at such an angle that the full body tackle he received didn't send him plowing into his allies. Immediately, space began to swirl around him as Obito attempted to pull him into Kamui and Sasuke snarled as the crashed into the ground, sliding along its surface as he fired off his Amaterasu around himself, causing Obito to leap away from him. Both of them slid to their feet and regarded one another a dozen feet apart.

Behind him, Sasuke was hoping beyond hope that his allies had taken the common sense upon themselves to leave the scene before what was about to happen, but as he heard Azula calling his name desperately as she ran towards him and felt the others running after her to catch up, he knew that he was going to have to deal with this himself.

Knowing he had seconds at best, he looked up at Obito and saw the Sharingan and Rinnegan flashing back at him, a reminder that he was very much fighting one of his own kin and the thought sent a pang of regret through him.

"I'm sorry it had to wind up like this," he heard himself say and Obito nodded back at him.

"As am I."

Sasuke initiated this time; he knew he had to get Obito away from everyone else, especially Azula who seemed hellbent on putting herself in harm's way for his sake. As Obito fired off a jutsu that caused roots and bark to come exploding from the ground to halt his approach, he fired off a fireball jutsu that was meant as a distraction more than anything and slipped beneath it rather than following its upward path as Obito deflected it. Nearing his opponent enough to catch him off guard, Sasuke reached out and grabbed Obito by the collar, whipped him around his body and smashed him in the back with a kick that was fueled by as much chakra as he could muster in the moment. He felt Obito create a cushion of chakra himself to keep the strike from quite literally blowing apart his spine, but the hit still sent him flying out of sight almost immediately.

Sasuke touched down and prepared to launch himself after Obito, to keep the fight away from the people he cared about; tensing up, he readied some hand seals to barrage Obito with more fire and keep the pressure on. It was going to be a true fight now, that couldn't be helped, and it was time to give it all he had.

"Sasuke!"

Just as he was about to kick off from the ground to go jetting across the heat baked earth, Toph's voice grabbed at his gut and held him there for just a moment as he saw his allies out of the corner of his eye running towards him. And as he truly didn't know just how this day would come to an end, it caused him to grit his teeth as he kept himself from looking at Toph or any of them.

"Run."

That was all he said before he obeyed his tightened muscles and hurled himself into hell, ready to meet Obito and whatever he had in store for him.

What happened that day within the sprawling expanse of Ba Sing Se was something that would be told of for generations to come by all those who would survive the day. It was never as much about the sides, about Earth and Water against fire, about what was being fought for or even about the Avatar and the Fire Lord and what they represented.

For the two men locked in a violent struggle to crush the life from one another was something that transcended the understanding of the war as the city's residents knew it. This was different and it would resonate as such for as long as there were those to tell the story.

Much of the city within had been evacuated but a great many had stayed within the walls for any number of reasons: some felt no hope in abandoning the walls that they had known for so long to be the safest place on earth, and others felt sure that all their fear had been for naught and it would only be a matter of time before the Fire Lord was rightly defeated before he came anywhere near the city. His supposed advance had been nothing more than propaganda and fear-mongering, they said.

But the sky had faded from blue to orange that morning and the heat began to settle quickly over the city, an oppressive and invisible force that caused sweat to form on all but the most climate tempered individuals. Still, many thousands remained, out of fear, denial, or hope, wishing and asserting with all their might that the day would pass and everything would be fine. They listened to the far off noises of battle, explosions and rumbles beneath their feet and they knew that for certain something very cataclysmic was occurring beyond their sight. The vast majority of the remaining populace had long moved inward, away from the west where the Fire Lord was advancing from, far enough everyone was certain that they would be fine, as though proximity to the wall they were putting so much stock in protecting them was somehow linked to their relative safety.

The shockwave had taken all by surprise, the rushing force that had knocked everyone standing off their feet and had boomed loudly in their eardrums. When they were able to pick themselves up and stop their ears from ringing, they looked out over towards where the massive force had come from and saw nothing short of a storm of dust obscuring their view of the wall. Silence had fallen over all as they watched for the sight to clear and when it did, hope became something very hard to grasp.

The wall had been breached, to a monumental degree no less, and despair had started to cling to all denizens of Ba Sing Se. Fathers lied to their families that everything was under control, wives tried to look strong before their children and those children looked at their parents trying to hide their fear and knew something to be very wrong.

Friends and family clutched one another as they waited for the end to come.

But they saw no fire as they looked on and waited across the miles of the city they occupied. No great plumes of flame that signaled the advance of the Fire Nation as they waited with bated breath. Perhaps, some dared to think, the attack had failed?

Those occupying the city square were the first to bear witness to what would compose the stories, they would in essence be the first tellers of these tales; two men crashed down in the center of the square, sending pavement, people and dirt flying as they skidded across its surface. Those who were quick enough leapt free or ran from the sudden destruction and those who weren't were dashed aside in their wake.

When the two men stood, it was clear there was more to them then there might have seemed; they were dressed oddly, seemed completely unharmed after their sudden, violent impact, and sported eyes that glowed of a vicious red, one of them having a purple eye to accompany the other. As they straightened and regarded each other for a moment, someone's child stepped forward towards the man with the purple eye and asked him if he was a spirit. Neither he nor the other man said a word, or even seemed to acknowledge the people around them and within the blink of an eye, they were on top of one another, their forearms striking hard enough to create a blast that flung any nearby bystanders to the ground as though by a windstorm.

From here, the tales would differ as, while the men fought, they traversed great lengths of space in their attempt to harm one another; they tackled each other through buildings, sometimes one of them throwing the other clear through a skyscraper; explosions of fire and electricity the size of airships blossomed about the streets and paths and the ground itself shook at their destructive passing. Different people would tell different stories of what they saw, and these respective tellings would collage into stories that would eventually become legend for those in Ba Sing Se.

The legend of the two men who, as gods, fought in their midst.

For that is how such a fight seemed to the city's residents as they could only watch the bits and pieces of it that they saw. Things were claimed that when brought outside the city, they were dismissed as wild exaggerations, claims of giant purple arms swinging their way to cleave apart entire city blocks, walls of fire beyond anything a firebender could achieve, the two men literally taking flight to exchange blows in midair that would create thunderous booms on each strike.

Neither Obito nor Sasuke ever considered the impact they were having on the world that wasn't theirs as they exchanged blows. For them, it was much more of a personal affair, even as buildings collapsed, streets erupted and the very sky they leapt through exploded as their battle tore its way through the city. They had their own reasons for fighting and neither of them was willing to give any quarter whatsoever. Awareness of the devastation one another wielded was entirely present between them and it fueled them to be as fast and relentless as they could be. When Obito saw Amaterasu coming to life, he sent a torrent of wood based jutsu crashing around Sasuke to throw him off and when Sasuke saw Obito trying to come in close to capture him inside his Kamui, he sent Chidori blasting all around him to keep him away. Neither were underestimating the other and it made them as dangerous as they possibly could be.

No thought was spared towards their own plights or the plights of one another; with the speed and focus they were fighting with, such thoughts could have been nothing short of suicide. But images flashed before them, faces they couldn't keep from seeing in their minds eye and faces they were fine with seeing as they gave them strength and resolve of an overwhelming kind.

With every blow he struck, Obito saw Rin's face as clear as day smiling before him. Itachi's words of disdain and hopelessness meant nothing to him: he had determined all that he needed to, that Rin was alive and he was going to return to her before anything else could happen. It was stunningly simple for him, and he relished the ease at which he felt towards every fist, every kick, every jutsu that knocked Sasuke away. Family or not, of his world or not, he was nothing more than an obstacle between him and Rin and such obstacles needed to be removed.

Had Sasuke taken the time to actually pause and consider his motivation, things would have been a fair bit more complicated. Faces flashed in his mind too, but there was more than one and each of them presented their own share of complications had he given thought to each one. He sent a thunderclap of Chidori expulsing from his hand and in the blue flash, he saw Azula, smiling with that possessive grin, but there was that fear in her eyes, that longing and hurt. He leapt into the air to tackle Obito a hundred feet above him, swiping with his kunai and in the blood he drew, he saw Mai looking over her shoulder at him, expression unreadable as she tightened her lips before looking away quickly. As Obito sent a tidal wave of fire roaring past him and he drew up the ribs of his Susanoo to protect himself, he saw Toph in the orange and purple, smiling hesitantly in his direction, scratching the back of her head absently. When blood streamed down his cheeks as he sent Amaterasu slashing through the air to try and burn the life from Obito, he saw Katara's intense and vivid expression, hiding behind locks of her rich hair as it danced in the breeze. There came slices of air as sharp as any knives could be and Sasuke was forced to shoot through the streets past scared and helpless civilians and he could have sworn he saw Aang watching him from the faces he passed, the blades of solid air slamming down around him.

He saw the faces of all the people he had met and come to grow attached to since his abrupt forcing into this world, but even as he ignored their smiles and gazes, he heard a voice in the back of his head, loud enough to have been there and quiet enough to be a memory.

"I know how you feel, Sasuke. You've lost so much that you don't think there's anything to risk losing now. But I promise you… you'll know them when you've lost them. And you'll hate yourself every day for not doing everything you could to protect them."

Sasuke somehow knew that he was hearing the voice of someone from his world, someone who had perhaps taught him. It was the barest flicker of an image, but he thought he saw someone with a shock of white hair and a mask pulled up over their nose, their eyes looking at him sadly and compassionately. He knew that person had cared about him and wondered if they missed him now, now that he was—

Sasuke would just have time enough to roll to the right and propel himself up the side of a building as wood erupted from beneath him, nearly skewering him like a rat in a trap. He cursed himself as he flitted his way up its wall and shot into the air, high above any building left in the city; he had nearly paid the price for taking the time to ponder anything other than Obito's assault and he caught sight of his opponent roaring up beneath him.

Fine. Let's finish this first.