Black Flame, Blue Fire

by Blutus Mindpretzel

Azula always knew her purpose would be to serve her father, but as Sozin's Comet draws near, her aspirations find themselves against something she has never before felt: doubt. And as Team Avatar struggles to engineer a final game plan, Ozai may have more up his sleeve than they think. However, one lone stranger may be enough to tip the scales as he searches for purpose of his own.

29. Chapter 29

AN: Hey, sorry about this one being a little late, but with us winding down to the end here, this chapter and the final two that follow it are going to be a little longer than usual and I underestimated that, so my apologies. Hope you enjoy regardless!

---

Chapter 29: The Battle of Ba Sing Se – Part 4

Fire Lord Ozai managed to blink sight back into his eyes just in time to see the ground rushing up beneath him at a deadly rate. Snarling, he through energy into his hands and feet and with only a few dozen feet to spare, he caught himself midfall and righted his course to ascend gently back into the sky, shaking off the close encounter he had just about had with the dirt.

His world had been so abruptly shaken that he hadn't had time to so much as close his eyes before the chaos had arrived. One moment he had been preparing to strike at his family before they could make a move on him; his thinking had been that it would be best to strike down Azula first before any parental or emotional weakness convinced him that he would be better off sparing or capturing her. The next moment, the sky had lit up as though a thousand suns had suddenly been thrust into orbit above them, spilling light through the clouds as though they had never been there at all. As Ozai had raised a hand to shield himself from the visual assault, it had only taken a few more seconds before a resounding thudding sound, enough to shake him to his core and send his ears into a ringing fit had sounded, while smashing him with enough invisible force to send him toppling from the sky.

Now, here he was, having recovered if not so gracefully from his near fatal plummet, as he shook sense back into his mind, his ears still ringing, his body still shaking, but his resolve untouched.

A trick. That must have been it.

Some underhanded move orchestrated by his brother, or perhaps that treacherous Sasuke to take away his focus from the moment at hand and gain an advantage. He looked around quickly, waiting for the attack he was sure was coming, not entirely sure why it hadn't already happened.

They had their chance. I was vulnerable, and yet I wasn't attacked?

Then he caught sight of his daughter, forty or so yards ahead of him, also falling from the sky in a hardly appealing fashion. Fire spurted from her hands and feet and after a few moments of struggling, she too recovered before she hit the ground; even from that distance, Ozai could see her looking around furiously, as though she too had been surprised by this assault on the senses. It wasn't until Ozai too saw his brother standing on the ground a distance from where Azula hovered, clapping a stunned Zuko on the cheeks to restore him to clarity that the Fire Lord realized that things weren't perhaps what he thought.

An attack from someone unknown to any of us? Something more?

He shook off the questions swirling in his mind. No doubt whoever had come up with this distraction, they had done so in order to do exactly what was happening in Ozai's head now, stirring up doubt and confusion and taking his focus off the matter at hand.

Pinching his pointer and middle fingers together tightly, he raised a hand and directed it towards his daughter. She still hadn't returned her attention to him and he saw her looking towards the sky, eyes wide and expression worried. Ozai spent only a moment wondering what it was that could make even his near unshakable daughter adopt such a fearful expression before willing a jet of fire to life to scorch its way directly to Azula and burn its way through her chest. At that distance, it would have been quite the feat, but with Sozin's Comet above, such an act was mere child's play compared to what he knew he would really be able to pull out by way of firebending. But for this, precise attention to detail would benefit him greatly, taking his daughter out of the picture and narrowing the number of his opponents form three to two.

Goodbye, my fierce, fierce child.

Fire burst from his fingers as intended, but within even just a moment, Ozai knew something was terribly wrong. His flames moved with much less energy and power than they should have, burning away the space between him and Azula at a pace that was much more on par with his usual firebending skill, not the glorious display that the comet should have provided him.

As such, Azula saw the attack coming and moved to face it, her arms whipping about and dispelling the flames as they reached her, dissipating them into wisps of heat that swirled harmlessly around her. She stared at him across the way, but made no attempt to strike back at him. Father and daughter stared at one another, as if worlds apart, before Ozai turned to look at his hands, a feeling of insurmountable dread starting to swell up within him. Pointing ahead of him, he drew as much energy up as he could before throwing out a hand, attempting to draw up a firestorm the likes of which he had never drawn before. Bursting forth to spiral across the battlefield, it rushed towards Azula, but at not nearly the strength and power that it should have been.

Ozai watched as his fires fizzled out as Azula again deflected away his attack, and again made no attempt to strike him back. Finally willing to face what he feared to be the truth, as impossible as it seemed, he turned his gaze upwards towards the sky and the clouds above.

No longer was there a massive glowing smear where Sozin's Comet had been. Ozai could see small smudges of light flickering there now, but the sky was slowly fading from its smoggy orange color, the dark clouds losing their sickly glow and he closed his eyes in denial. Fire burned around his wrists, no longer powered by the comet above that he had bet everything on, every piece of his empire and his own being.

Somehow, someway, Sozin's Comet was gone.

---

Mai picked herself up from where she had fallen, deeply shaken from whatever had just transpired. One moment she and Suki had been carrying and injured an unconscious shoulder away from the dangers of the frontline and then as they had been laying him on a medical stretcher, the world had lit up in impossibly bright light and a shockwave unlike anything she had before felt knocked her to the ground.

"Hey, hey! You alright?"

Suki was at her side, clearly having recovered first but as Mai let the Kyoshi warrior help steady her, she saw the strain in Suki's eyes as she blinked the blinding light from her eyes.

"I'm fine," Mai muttered, rubbing her temples blearily. She looked over to make sure the soldier they had been helping was still alright on his stretcher before wincing and rotating the shoulder she had landed on. Sokka came practically stumbling over a hill, smeared with blood and dirt as he slid down it to run past various Earth and Water nation soldiers and medics and throw his arms around Suki. She squeezed him tightly back before pulling apart and giving Mai a nod which she returned curtly; Sokka spun his head around frantically then, his voice rising in worry.

"Where's my sister? She was over here wasn't she, working on—"

"I'm here, Sokka," came Katara's level, if slightly airy voice. She came walking from around a group of healers that she had been working with, her expression controlled, but Mai could see the shock in her eyes. Sokka breathed a loud sigh of relief and went to hug her too as Ty Lee came bounding over another pile of debris, not at all reserved about looking frightened and shocked. She and Sokka both asked the same question at the same time.

"What just happened?"

Mai had not a clue what it was that had just transpired. It had felt like the end of the world, and she assumed that perhaps Ozai had performed some technique meant to stun his entire opposition, a way to use combustion to create a sudden flash and explosive sound. But the scale of it had been so large; Mai could still feel the shaking in her bones.

Before anyone could offer much of a solution, Aang dropped out of the sky next to them. He spared a relieved glance to Katara who reciprocated it with a smile that faded the instant he looked away. Jin walked around some debris herself then, quietly reinserting herself into the group and Mai noticed that she was clutching her torso with her left hand, around the spot that Azula had torched her. It didn't take a genius to tell that it was bothering her more than she would admit, but as Jin caught sight of Mai staring, she straightened her back and put her hand at her side, her face clenched to keep herself from grimacing. Mai watched her a moment longer before turning her attention back to Aang, whose expression was almost blank in how in shock he seemed to be.

"Sasuke did it," was all he said.

It took Mai a long moment to realize what he was talking about before it hit her.

Oh my God… how could I have forgotten?

Her eyes widened alongside everyone else there as their collective group turned their gaze upwards. There was no longer a hauntingly enormous glow behind the cloud cover, only bits and pieces of color and light, and Mai could see already that the sky was no longer those harsh shades of grey and orange; already, in places, she could see the faintest hints of blue as the proper color of day began to return.

I don't believe it. He destroyed a comet.

The reality of it wasn't something she felt she could very much wrap her head around, and she dropped to sit in the rubble, her hands numb as she took in shallow breaths. Ty Lee staggered over to her and put a hand on her shoulder, squeezing it tightly and Mai could tell it was just as much to comfort her friend as it was to comfort her friend as it was to comfort her. Sokka put his hands behind his head before giving a shaky, almost manic sounding laugh.

"You're kidding me. You're kidding me. That lunatic actually went and did it."

It was the hardest thing Mai had ever tried to comprehend. She had been there when Sasuke had left and headed skyward, had considered the possibility even then, but a part of her had kept such a thing from seeming possible. Ahead of her, Aang drew up a hand and slung a whip of fire towards the sky that burned bright before fizzling out.

"That's the best I can do," Aang said. "A couple minutes ago, I could have made it ten times more powerful, but… with the comet gone, firebending is back to the way it was."

Suki spoke for all of them as she put together what this meant for the war itself.

"No enhanced firebending… that means Ozai is coming at us with just what's left of his army and his fleet of ships."

There was a strange buoyancy to her voice as though what she was comprehending was quickly catching up to her.

"We can win this. Spirits help us, we can win this."

Sokka took a step towards Aang as he looked around somewhat frantically.

"Where's Toph?"

Aang looked back over his shoulder, nervousness also written on his face. "At the front. I couldn't stop her, after we got here, she just went down into all that and I've just been down there with her, doing what I can to help. Now that the firebending is not as much a problem… I don't want to think what she's doing right about now."

Katara's face was set, her usual commanding nature present again, and Mai felt disdain well up inside her out of nowhere as she realized just how funny it was that Katara took charge only when Sasuke wasn't there now.

"Get back to the front, Aang. Make sure Toph is safe, but also make sure the generals know what's happened; if the Fire Nation is overextending, that needs to be taken advantage of. I imagine Gokan has a pretty good idea, considering he was there when Sasuke went up."

Mai heard her trip over Sasuke's name and thought she saw a twinge on Aang's face as he heard it too, but he snapped his glider back open; the Avatar's face was calm, but as she saw the shock still swirling in his eyes and heard the almost floaty tone of his voice, she knew that he was just as much trying to wrap his head around what had happened as any of them. He shot into the air without another word and headed towards the gaping wall. It was a couple moments before Katara followed up her words to Aang with words to the group.

"We need to just keep doing what we can to help. There's not much we can do yet, and we need to get all these injured men and women away from the front."

She clearly saw Ty Lee and Sokka about to protest, and spoke over them before they could.

"We can get up to front ourselves then, and back up Aang and Toph and Zuko and the rest, but for now, let's finish playing our part here."

The waterbender turned then and strode back towards her group of healers then, her movements stilted and almost unnatural, like she was trying to remind herself how to walk. Mai knew why; Katara might very well have wanted to be on the front more than any of them, but she remembered what it was that Sasuke had said to the pair of them atop the wall before charging forward to face an army.

"Don't wait up for me."

It wasn't lost on Katara that no one had asked what Sasuke might have done to accomplish this miracle, nor what might have happened to him after he had. Everyone was thinking about it, but no one wanted to suggest what the common guess surely was. She saw the fear in Katara's eyes, saw how that same fear seemed to have locked up Jin's whole body and could feel that same fear making her very heart tremble.

Mai hated how much she found herself praying he was alright.

---

Toph hoped that somewhere, wherever that vindictive bitch was, Azula could see her.

She had reached the frontline in something of a daze, her ears not quite seeming to work right as she had felt herself move ahead of the line of defenders that had formed to protect the wall. She had heard them shout at her to get back, no doubt stunned to see a little girl marching towards the Fire Nation's advance all alone.

So then, they must have been even more surprised when Toph had slammed a foot on the ground and brought up a piece of earth as large as anything that had crumbled down when the hall had fallen, and then thrust forward with her palms, sending it to crush half a battalion of Fire Nation soldiers as they marched forward. Surely the progressing army thought the sight of a little girl was just as much something to be stunned by as the Earth and Water nation troops did, but seeing such earthbending prowess seemed to have appropriately redirected their attention and Toph felt the fire begin to come her way.

While Aang had taken up most of Zuko's free time, Toph had gotten in some training with him on the side, and it had done nothing but enhance one of the greatest abilities she had when fighting against firebending; she could feel the heat of their attacks against the earth itself, ensuring that only an attack coming from directly above would ever be what was able to catch her off guard. Everything else, she saw coming in her mind, every jet of fire as wide as Appa, every tornado of flame that rushed towards her, every storm of pure heat that was woven in her direction, she was able to be ready for. The attacks were smothered by earth, or splashed harmlessly off her earthen armor that she would draw up to defend herself. Once she even dove beneath the ground as a cluster of attacks struck where she had been standing, only to pop up a distance away to heave more solid mounds of earth at the thousands of soldiers moving forward.

She could feel them all, and that should have terrified her. Thousands of marching soldiers bearing down on her and yet she felt no fear resonating in her gut as a result of such odds. Gone too was that absolute hatred of pure violence that came with war like this, that violence that had disturbed her the night Sasuke had fought the natives on the island, that same violence she had chastised him for. Every soldier she crushed, swallowed or otherwise pulverized with earth should have sent a stab of pain and regret through her gut, but none came.

Because all she could turn her mind to think of other than the constant need to defend herself and press on with her attack was that Sasuke had been ripped away from her yet again and she hadn't been able to tell him how she truly felt. Obito might have said those words in a dismissive and careless way, but he was more right than he knew; Toph knew if she never got to speak with Sasuke again, these unsaid feelings would haunt her for the rest of her days.

And so she surged forward, unstoppable and unrelenting, the thought of him perpetually enough to keep her fueled and focused.

Then, the shockwave had come and she had been knocked clean off her feet as the force of it had brought the world bursting to an explosive halt around her. From where she had fallen to the ground, she had felt the earth, reaching into her connection with the earth itself, waiting to feel something that told her more was coming, but she felt nothing beyond the soldiers ahead of her and the soldiers behind her, all of them shaking and struggling back to their feet. Toph hadn't been able to see what if anything had accompanied the rush of noise and power that had swept over the ground, but with nothing she felt beneath her in the earth, and knowing what she did, there was only one conclusion she was really able to draw based on that.

Alone at the front, she let the tears flow freely and relished her ability to feel them run down her cheeks, no longer having to worry about anyone seeing her. The people she would have hidden them from were behind her and the ones that might get close enough to see them would be wiped from the face of the earth shortly.

Once again, she began to march forward, hands drawing up the deepest manifests of her bending and she let a cry pass from her lips as she slammed her palms to the ground, a wave of earth rolling out from her strike, growing in size until it reached the nearest line of Fire Nation soldiers fifty yards ahead of her, flinging them like particles of dust in an exhale of breath.

Toph continued forward, ready to wade through all the violence and bodies she needed to in order to either finish things on her own terms or until she was struck down, the monster she was. She wondered if this was how Sasuke had felt on the beach, the adrenaline surging through her veins, filling her with a rampant duty that she had to continue fighting until there wasn't a threat left to her or anyone she cared about.

She supposed too that was how she knew that he had succeeded; that sound that had deafened her ears, she knew what it meant. She knew because a part of her had hoped the moment he left that he wouldn't succeed, that he would change his mind before charging headfirst into a comet, that he would just leave and survive, so that someday, no matter what the outcome of this day was, that she could find him again, alive and not dead because he stupidly gave everything he had to save some stupid kids.

That's why you did everything you did, isn't it? To protect us… to protect me?

There was no fear, there was no part of her in her mind that was powerful enough to tell her this wasn't something she should be doing, putting her everything into fighting back the invading Fire Nation, but when she thought of Sasuke pressing his lips to her head and considered the fact that it was possible that his warmth was something she never would see again, control became possible only with the greatest of efforts and even then, her attacks were punctuated with despairing howls.

Toph wondered what the enemy thought, being torn through by a girl who was hurting inside as much as she ever had. She wondered too, what the soldiers behind her thought, someone of her size and age, crushing their opposition before they could so much as push forward in response to the comet's destruction. She wondered if they were scared.

She hoped Azula was.

---

Azula watched the chaos play out a couple hundred yards to her left in the distance and smirked. As she saw great waves of earth and boulders flung with nearly reckless abandon to pummel the Fire Nation army, she knew immediately who was responsible and she grinned wickedly. Toph, the stupid little girl that she was had taken what Azula had said perhaps a little personally and was now desperately vying for the attention of a Sasuke who surely wasn't even present, risking her life in a desperate attempt to force denial on Azula's words.

She might have laughed if the thought of Sasuke hadn't raised a lump in her throat.

Her gaze moved to the clouds above, where she found desperation in her own heart stinging viciously; since she and her family had been knocked out of the sky, she had known immediately that Sasuke had succeeded. Whatever had happened above them that had very literally shaken their atmosphere, she knew that it had come about as a result of Sasuke coming through and doing what it was that Azula shamefully admitted to herself she hadn't been sure he could. It had been a lie when she told Toph that she had believed in him absolutely, but in a sense, she imagined that she had been more referring to the fact that he would survive the encounter with Sozin's Comet. Regardless of whether it was destroyed, he would come back, she knew that. But the comet was gone now, and so was Sasuke, he had made no triumphant return and finished off the last of her father's army. Every second that ticked by and she saw no giant purple silhouette diving through the clouds was another toll against her heart and she forced herself to look forward, telling herself that Sasuke would come for her. She couldn't feel anything on the mark that she so proudly wore, but it didn't matter. He would come for her.

Her father stalked slowly back and forth far ahead of them, and she could see the fury and disbelief in his eyes even from that distance. She had been able to deflect his attacks that had come after the shockwave, and had felt what really seemed more akin to him testing the waters as much as anything and his two attempts told Azula everything she needed to know about their inevitable clash.

The comet is gone… our firebending is back to how it was before. But that aside, it's still the three of us against father. No matter how amplified or otherwise, it's still is against him.

Azula truly didn't know how to gauge herself or any of them against her father, but she knew that there was nothing to underestimate as far as his bending was concerned. From his training her in lightning bending, to the research she had done on his military efforts in his earlier years at the behest of his father, she knew that miscalculating his prowess at all was akin to conceding to him then and there.

Not that I'd ever admit it… but I'll need them both, even if just as distractions.

To her right, Iroh and Zuko were starting to straighten; the shockwave had done a number on her brother and she could see him shaking slightly as he tried to readopt a readied stance in the direction of their father. Azula felt her lips pulling in a sneer at the sight of him. Truly, he was so pitiful and no matter what, she knew that her father was right in feeling such disappointment in Zuko. He was so weak, so feeble in his practical frailty, she wondered how he had lasted this long.

Zuzu, you don't belong in this world as you are, you truly don't.

She wondered for a moment what would happen at the war's end and her father was defeated; that he would fall was of no doubt to her, even if the three of them wound up being overpowered by him, Sasuke would be there and would save her, she forced herself to believe that. But after that point, would her brother really be expected to take the throne of Fire Lord? It was such a miserable thought in her mind, and she shook her head as she eyed the flawed young man she had to call brother, unable to imagine him in charge of a nation.

It just so happened that at the angle she was standing, she was able to look at both her uncle and brother and also see the glinting, orange glare out of the corner of her eye in time to snap her head back towards her father. The Fire Lord had snapped into an aggressive stance without her noticing and she watched as another jet of fire, one much more focused and pointed then the one he had flung almost lazily at her, but this one wasn't headed her way this time.

Time became strangely malleable then, as though it was taking its time just for her, but Azula knew that in the blink of an eye, her father's attack would strike home; Iroh had his back to Ozai and she saw Zuko's eyes widen as he saw it coming, his mouth opening to let out what would be a panicked shout no doubt that would come too late to help anyone. Iroh began to turn, but he wasn't at all ready for it, so focused on Zuko's wellbeing as he was and her brother's arms hung uselessly at his side, ever the incompetent fighter, never aware or expectant of something like a surprise attack.

But the next thing Azula knew, she was between them and the bolt of fire, drawing up a shield of crackling blue flame in front of her as she moved in front of the attack just in time for it to slam joltingly into her quickly mustered defenses and send her flying backwards to skid to the ground.

The rough ground dug into her back and her chest and shoulders ached from the pounding blow that she had just taken. Wincing, she angrily rolled upright in time to see Iroh and Zuko converging on her, their faces worried, though this time Iroh was clearly paying better mind to his brother, letting Zuko focus on her as he turned to face Ozai.

"Azula!"

Just hearing Zuko's worried voice made her want to throw up and as he knelt beside her, reaching for her shoulder, she slapped his hand away. This didn't seem to deter him in the slightest, as his voice continued to fall on her ears with that same frightened and panicked aura that she had come to expect of him.

"Are you okay?!"

Azula made a noise of derision and moved to right herself on one knee as she replied in an angry snap, "Of course, how dare you assume that something like that would be enough to deliver me an actual injury? You're so completely out of touch, Zuzu, don't stand there and act like—"

She looked at him as she spoke, but cut off as she saw his eyes; they were shining with tears.

"You saved me," he said, his voice quivering and she could hear something very much like disbelief in it now and she found very much that she didn't want him to get past that disbelief and jump to some irrational conclusion just because of something he was assuming.

Trying to keep worry from slipping into her own voice at the prospect of Zuko assuming that she actually cared about him, she pushed him away as she got to her feet, her brow furrowed as she looked at her brother's emotional expression.

"Don't you even begin to imagine that I did that out of some sort of… of… affection, Zuko. My chances of taking down father are much better when I have you both with me; you and uncle are a means to an end is all."

He said nothing, but the smallest of smiles pulled at the corners of his mouth and Azula growled loudly in frustration before storming away from him to stand by Iroh. At that moment, he repulsed her just a little less than Zuko and she desperately needed to not be looking at her brother right then. He flicked his eyes sideways at her, and as he opened his mouth, she snapped swiftly at him.

"Don't you even think about thanking me, or some sappy crap like that."

Iroh watched her a moment longer before closing his mouth and turning back towards the Fire Lord and Azula followed suit.

Her father seemed to be wearing a small smile right about then, and she wondered if this was because of the weakness he had just seen out of her and was perhaps glad then that he had decided to—

Weakness? There is no weakness! It's just as I said it, I did what I did so that I would have them to fight against Ozai, having one of them killed before we even start fighting doesn't help me at all, and if the two of them were too stupid to see that coming, of course I had to act, there's no… there's not any…

Azula turned her head towards the sky and bared her teeth at it furiously as she closed her eyes; she had to move on from this, it would drive her insane, this now fleeting doubt that wouldn't leave her be.

"I'm taking him," she spat, not looking to Iroh as she stared ahead furiously at her father. She tried too to disassociate that idea in her head, that he was her father; today, he was just the enemy, the man who had forced Sasuke apart from her, and for that, she had no mercy to show. "Whatever you and Zuko want to do, whatever. I'm taking him with or without you."

A bluff, of course, were her words; she knew that neither of these men would let her charge into battle by herself, especially not against an opponent like this and as she spoke, she saw Zuko hurry up on Iroh's right. Neither said anything and she took that as a good sign, that they were behind her for whatever she attempted. She clenched her fists and opened them, stretching her fingers, willing her chi to prepare to burst free from her in the shape of lightning the moment she was ready for it. If the Fire Lord wasn't going to initiate and begin this last confrontation, then she would be more than happy to—

In a moment of perfect, despicable irony, Azula had only a moment to react again as Ozai burst towards her like a shot from a cannon, heading straight for her. Iroh and Zuko were both ready this time and both moved to intercept, but though he kept his gaze locked on her, fire sprouted from both his hands, walls of flame that bodied both her uncle and her brother and it was all they could do to throw up defenses to keep themselves from being disintegrated and Azula was left to meet him head on. She contorted her face into a snarl and gave a shout as she leapt forward to meet him, letting her lightning burst to life around her, but she cast it upon herself rather than towards him; she saw his face twist as he came up upon her, his vicious smile fading slightly and she felt a surge of satisfaction as he was forced to change his course and vault over her. She had sparred with her father only rarely, but that alongside her research was enough her to know that her father had been trying to get on top of her and incinerate her by driving a flaming fist or kick through her chest. With her lightning flashing around her, he could do nothing to touch her without giving himself a good burn of his own.

He landed behind her and Azula channeled her lightning from crackling around her body to flash violently towards him as a blue streak of bright light and he whipped a hand towards the attack and caught it, deflecting it towards Iroh who was coming up behind him and his brother also deflected it, casting it away to dissipate into the sky. Zuko rushed up at Ozai's back, slamming several hard punches towards him that caused several flaming orbs to crash towards him; the Fire Lord half turned to almost leisurely absorb the attacks before turning them into a whip of flame that forced Zuko to leap away to avoid being struck. Iroh feigned with an impressively deceitful jab of fire before pulling back at the last moment to send several geysers of heated earth bursting up beneath his brother. Ozai growled and wove through the lava flows and slung his arms around to catch it and send it pluming towards Iroh. As he did so, Azula ran up behind Ozai and saw Zuko a distance away doing the same.

You better make this count, Zuzu. He knows I'm more dangerous than you so when he turns to deal with me, you hit him and you hit him hard.

She drew back fire into her palms and came in low, waiting for Ozai to meet her rush, but instead, he turned and slammed Zuko in the chest with a fireball and sent him flying. And without even turning fully to meet her, he whipped a leg around and slammed his heel into the side of her head.

Azula went skidding away into the dirt, and she rolled as she fell, coming to her feet, ready to see him coming at her again. But the Fire Lord was already heading towards Iroh, not even seeming to be paying attention to her, nor Zuko, who was struggling to pick himself up a dozen yards away. Azula let out a foul curse, as she ran towards him again, but for the first time, she found herself wondering just how manageable a fight such as this actually was.

Sasuke… you will come for me, won't you?

---

Aang was on the verge of total panic, when he finally caught sight of Toph as he soared over the clouded and fire soaked battlefield on his glider. Really, it was almost embarrassing that it had taken him that long to locate her; Toph was a one man army as far as he could tell, the part of the Fire Nation before her being pushed back by her intense assault. Walls the size of buildings, boulders the size of houses, pillars large enough to be erected in any palace all surged from her tiny form beneath him, and the land cracked open to swallow up those who weren't crushed or flattened by what she drew up from the earth. But Aang knew that he hadn't seen this spectacle due to a single, selfish thought that was plaguing him, something that he cursed himself for having to think about at such a time.

Katara… does it have to be him?

He shook free of his own imagination running wild, and let himself gaze in awe at Toph's absolutely destructive assault, though he felt pain run through him when he realized how many people she was killing, how many people's taken lives she would have on her conscience. He knew that while Toph might have liked fighting as much as even Azula perhaps, the actual act of murder was something that shook her and kept her from ever going all out against any opponent. Here, however, she was cutting loose.

But as impressive as her vigorous counterattack was, there were three things that sent waves of anxiety through Aang's heart. Firstly, he knew that no bender, not Toph, or Katara, or Azula, or even himself could keep up such an unrelenting attack for so long; their energy would run dry quickly from such a reckless overuse of bending, and Toph would no doubt reach that point soon. Secondly, the Fire Nation army storming towards the fallen wall of Ba Sing Se was very wide if not particularly deep. The forces that Toph was forcing back was only a fraction of their length, and Aang could tell from his height that if the army pushing past on Toph's right circled around, she could be overwhelmed in an instant. Thirdly, and most distressingly, the airships above were just about on top of them at long last, and an aerial bombardment wouldn't be something Toph would be able to sense in time, or even if she did, their collective firepower would swallow whatever defense she could pull up in flames.

Aang was not willing to let something like that happen and so he dived towards the battlefield and where she was marching forwards.

Making a quick pass over her head, he pulled his airbending to life and shot in a horizontal line across the battlefield, just ahead of the Fire Nation army. Most were too shocked by his sudden passing to react and the few that hurled firebending at him were far too slow to even so much as singe his sandals. He pulled away as he raced by in a pass of about a hundred yards and shot towards Toph, landing just behind her and looked back to where he had come from to see that his attack had worked; along the stretch of where the slowly advancing soldiers had been, there was now a wall of dense dirt and silt that he had raised up, beyond which the army was surely hesitant to proceed and Aang knew that this would slow them at least a little bit, hopefully long enough for him to get through to Toph. She of course couldn't see the enormous visual blockade that he had just set up and was heading directly towards it as though nothing had changed.

It wasn't lost on Aang that it seemed Toph had all but ignored his arrival as he approached her.

"Toph! What are you doing?!"

In all honesty, it was a pretty stupid question, but it achieved his desired effect and Toph stopped walking forwards to turn and look at him with as much disdain as he had ever seen on her face.

"Exactly what I said: I'm killing every Fire Nation soldier I can get to."

Aang flicked his eyes upwards to check on the progress of the airships and swallowed as he saw that he had to turn his head almost directly up in order to see them where Toph had advanced.

"You're overextended! You keep going this way then you're going to wind up dead in the water, with the airships above you and the army not directly ahead of you able to flank! That, and you're probably already getting tired from how hard you've been going at this, you're going to hit a wall!"

Turning away from him, Toph faced the wall of obscuring dust, but fortunately didn't immediately start walking again. Her words however, were hardly reassuring.

"I don't care. The comet's gone, right? So these are just a bunch of firebenders walking on, what was it? Oh yeah, the earth. So, I kind of have the homefield advantage here. And as for those airships, I'll be able to sense any attack from above in time to shield from it."

Starting to feel just as frustrated as he was worried, Aang continued in his raised voice, as he began to pace somewhat frantically behind her.

"And what happens when all you can do is shield yourself?! Eventually, there will be enough of them converging on where you are now to just burn away that earthbending!"

She didn't reply to this at first, and when she spoke again, it was a question of her own, rather than a reply to his own demand.

"Why are you here, Aang? Shouldn't you be with the front with the rest of the Earth and Water nation combined forces? Being a symbol of hope or whatever?"

At the dismissiveness of her words, Aang straightened his back and glared at her. "I'm here because you're my friend, Toph; as you say, the Fire Nation is now without their enhanced abilities now that the comet is gone, so the united front should be able to hold them. The only advantage Ozai has now, is that the wall is down. So while he has everyone on the ropes anyway, he's going to push that."

He waved a hand around towards the smashed and scattered bodies that Toph had already blown clean through, trying not to look at their dismembered and bloody remains as he did.

"This isn't helping that. Come back to the front with me. We'll do what we can from there, where it' safer for everyone, we can hold them off, but this here is just a suicide run, Toph."

Something very alarming occurred to him then, and he tilted his head in her direction, surprised at the calmness of his own voice.

"And I think you know that, Toph."

She continued to stand there, her back facing him and he watched her small frame very gently heave up and down. Aang tried to think of what he could say to convince her, as he truly didn't want to have to grab her against her will and take her to the sky, the only place where she was powerless, but if it was to save her life…

He considered briefly what he had just surmised from her, and wondered how wise of a decision It was to take a chance like this, but he realized they were about out of time, and it was all or nothing at this point.

Taking a deep breath, he used the one thing that he knew was hurting her, the reason she was quietly agonizing, in a last attempt to get through to her.

"You think Sasuke would want to see you doing this?"

He winced even as he said it and as he could have predicted, she whirled to face him, and he saw the tears then, clear streaks down her dirt stained face, her mouth an angry snarl and found himself confronted by a snarling expression that he would have expected to see on the face of Azula, not that of Toph.

"Sasuke doesn't care what I do," she seethed at him. "If he cared, if he really cared, he wouldn't have just gone up and taken out that comet. Who could come back from that? Huh? Even someone like him, he just went and threw himself at a fucking comet, Aang! I don't care what Sasuke would think, because he's…"

She trailed off and her lips pressed tightly against each other as fresh tears leaked down her face, and Aang knew what she was scared to even say. It was something he knew that the deeper recesses of his mind were contemplating right about then, and he also didn't really want to consider the option. Except for the obvious hiccup that he may have been totally misinterpreting from Katara, he found he had grown rather fond of Sasuke; for his faults, his emotionless stunts, his excess for violence and his brash and rude attitude, Sasuke had still been the one person had found himself strangely comfortable in discussing his insecurities and fear that came as a result of who he was. He had helped them, saved their lives on more than one occasion and if Aang's fear was to be given any credence, then the last thing Sasuke had done was throw himself into the fray in the hopes of protecting them.

But for Toph's sake right then, Aang knew he had to lie.

"Oh come on, Toph, do you really think a crummy comet would be enough to stop him?" Aang said dismissively and as she turned her head towards him, her anger faltering, he pressed what he hoped was something of an advantage.

"He's probably just giving himself a second to catch his breath, and then he'll be right back in it. And I don't think you'd like to be some burnt stain on the ground when he gets here."

She closed her eyes and turned her head towards the ground weakly, her merciless demeanor crumbling as he struck her where he knew she was weakest. He had ignored the signs just as everyone else had, but he knew that Toph's affection for Sasuke was something that she'd been trying to keep from everyone ever since she had started tagging along after him, whether that was trying to strike up a conversation with him or just sitting near him, Aang knew that she was truly infatuated. He should know, he'd been crushing after Katara since they day he first met her, he saw the same signs of those feelings in Toph's actions since Sasuke had tagged up with them.

And the fact that she had been prepared just then to die as a result of the despair Sasuke had brought her was enough to make Aang wish they had never met him.

"Don't tell me that, Aang, I can't… don't do that to me," she managed to get out, and he put a hand on her shoulder.

"Come back with me," he pleaded. "Don't let him down."

Toph grit her teeth and wiped her face on her sleeve angrily and he could tell her mind was racing at what he was suggesting. But as Aang looked over her head, he saw the shadows moving through the dust he had kicked up that was now settling and knew that the essential smokescreen he had put up only was going to give them a few more seconds, and the airships above just about on top of them. He took her wrist and squeezed it tightly.

"Toph, now!" he said through clenched teeth, but as there was a wrenching moan above, he yanked her behind him and looked up, ready to see an airship bearing down on them, or to see a massive bombardment of flames dropping down, and he prepared to bring up a wall of earth to defend them both.

But above them, it didn't seem like they had been noticed. Rather, something much stranger was happening.

When Aang had recovered from the shockwave that had brought the entire war to a grinding standstill, he had seen several of the airships struggling to regain their positioning, with many of them having been struck from their positioning, spinning out of control or losing altitude. But as he had raced up to Toph just then, they had all regained their formation, as a solid line of about twenty looming vessels, hence why when he looked up just then, he expected something like an attack coming at the loud sound echoing above.

But what he saw then, was one of the airships towards the middle, engaging its thruster in full and banking hard to its left, and was slowly crashing into the airship next to it. As Aang stared in shock, the ships bending and crunching against one another caused something to rupture and there was an explosion and a spray of fire from the middle ship. With the first ship still pushing strongly against it, both the ships collided with a third and all three began to drop out of the sky, plunging towards the ground and army below. Aang could do nothing more than blink in stunned silence as Toph tugged on his sleeve.

"What's happening?"

He managed to mutter out a few incoherent syllables, but while he looked on, he saw something against the canvas of the airships, something against the fire of that scorched them and burned them towards the ground. A streak of black, something that he barely even noticed, as it flashed quickly out of sight.

"Aang, they're coming!" Toph cried and Aang looked ahead to see the army ahead of them no longer slowly advancing through the dust; now they were full on sprinting ahead, a rush of panicked and furious soldiers, both charging ahead to win the day for their nation and no doubt also to escape the now quickly descending airships that were soon to impact the battlefield at the rate they were falling.

"I know you hate flying, but I don't know if we have much of a choice," Aang said through gritted teeth. Above them, more airships were breaking their formation and taking wild turns, either towards their allied vessels, or straight towards the ground.

"Fine," Toph said through gritted teeth, gripping him tightly. "Just make it fast, I don't want to—"

Aang could tell that she had sensed something, with how quickly she cut herself off and he looked around quickly to see what she was reacting to, but he saw nothing but the advancing army and the fleet of airships that had just fallen swiftly into chaos. But somehow, he knew what was going to happen even before it did and from the corner of his eye, a black flash sliced its way across his vision leaving the thinnest streak of black on the ground that almost looked like a trick of the eye. Then, the streak split open like a crack in the ground and a wave of black fire burst up and rolled to break over the advancing soldiers ahead of Aang and Toph, swallowing them and coursing over them. In a moment, the enemy was in full retreat, at least in the hundred or so yards ahead of them that they were facing.

It was a very familiar move, one that Aang had seen more than a couple times, a move that had kept him from stopping Katara from making a very dangerous mistake and a move that he had seen pass over this very battlefield only something like an hour ago.

Next to him, Toph tensed quite suddenly and he felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.

"That your brother up there?" he asked lightly as he saw the flitting shadow once again, almost like a mirage. He knew who was standing just behind them then, but even still, hearing the voice… somehow it didn't matter to him his suspicions of Katara, or his overall fear of the capabilities that he presented; hearing the voice gave him a relief he wouldn't have expected to feel.

"Not exactly," said Sasuke.

---

Ten Minutes Prior

Sasuke flashed back to awareness in a split second. He opened his mouth and took in a massive gulp of air, rolling over onto his hands and knees, feeling his mind rapidly rush back to reality. He remembered what had happened what felt like only moments ago; he remembered the vastness of the comet rushing up to meet him impossibly large and scorching with a final, burning heat; he remembered the rush of the Chidori through his body at it lanced out, taking every last but of his strength as it punched clean through the heart of the comet and creating a flash of light as bright as anything could ever have been. He remembered throwing the last of his chakra into bringing the ribs of his Susanoo to life in an attempt to protect himself from the ensuing cataclysmic fulmination, and realizing there was nothing else he could do to protect himself or anyone else in that state, and closing his eyes, ready to accept whatever the result to his actions would be.

And yet, despite that damn near inescapable part of him that had been whispering in his ear that this would be his last living moment, he had awoken. He was alive, and having now accepted the fact of oxygen being flushed into his throbbing lungs as his eyes blurrily focused around him, he decided to move forward with that, and determine what was to come next.

Slowly pushing himself to his knees and straightening his back, Sasuke groaned as intense shakes and shivers wracked his form. He looked up, trying to get a sense of where he might be.

The sky above was nothing more than a black void that seemed to stretch on to the very horizon, an imposing view as he weakly twisted his head. The ground he was on in the shape of a rectangle, as though he were on a platform suspended in this void, but as he looked around he saw other rectangular pillars of varying shapes and sizes jutting up from the darkness below, and he figured he must have been on one of these himself. The very acknowledgement of the plane he was in was enough to furrow his brow and he wondered if perhaps he really was dead after all.

"I'm glad you had the wherewithal to try and shield yourself after you hit the comet; I might not have gotten to you in time otherwise."

Sasuke didn't need to turn to recognize the voice that spoke out behind him, echoing almost emptily. It was the same voice that had threatened Jin in a time that both felt like seconds ago and years ago. He waited a moment before launching himself to his feet, reaching a hand out to summon Chidori and resume the battle that he apparently should have found the strength to finish before.

Or at least he tried to do that; his knees buckled the moment he made it to a standing position as his head spun with the sudden effort. Hating that he had come to this, Sasuke crashed back down to the flat and cold floor beneath him, gasping in agony as his entire body resisted his movement. He was at least able to look forwards from where he lay in a pathetic heap on the floor and saw that his inference had been correct.

Obito sat a dozen feet away, looking a better sight than Sasuke felt, if not by much. He too looked worn out and exhausted, and he winced as he brought an arm across his body to gently pat his chest.

"You hit me pretty hard back there. I just woke up in time to save your sorry ass."

Furrowing his brow again, Sasuke grit his teeth and made to stand again, but only got halfway before he dropped painfully back down to his knees.

"I wouldn't if I were you," Obito said. "You're in about as bad a shape as I can figure without being outright dying. Bet it hurts."

It did, though Sasuke said nothing to confirm that. His chest ached with every breath he pulled in, his arms and legs were as sore as if he had just run a marathon around the globe while carrying Appa over his head, his head pounded and felt dizzy and his back seemed to groan at him with every movement he made.

"What do you mean… you saved me?" he managed to spit out. Every part of his will wanted to throw himself at Obito and return to pounding him into a pulp, but he knew his body would never have it in that moment. Obito might not have looked much better, but the fact that he mostly just looked tired more than anything told Sasuke that he might have better odds of putting him down should he try anything. As he waited for him to answer, he decided to gently relax his body and begin regenerating chakra which he would then begin emptying back into his injured body, healing him. It would be a slow process, incredibly slow actually, but it was about all he could do right about then.

"I mean, I saved you," Obito replied simply. Sasuke found it very strange how calm he looked; it was rather as though they hadn't just torn apart a city trying to kill each other. "From what I was able to gather, you used a Chidori technique on the comet in an attempt to destroy it. You're Susanoo was far too fast for me, so I used Kamui to hop up to you faster and reach you in time. Had to cast the strongest barrier jutsu I think I could ever make to protect myself from the lack of atmosphere and the heat. I had to wait until you had just left your Susanoo and I was able to get to you just as your attack went off and you resummoned the Susanoo ribs to protect yourself. Though where you had planned to take it from there, I don't know, hovering around in space, just barely alive inside those purple bars. But anyway, I reached you just then, and pulled you into Kamui just as the effort you were putting out knocked you out I suppose."

Sasuke considered all this and pictured everything Obito had said happened. At the end of the day, he couldn't deny that he indeed was barely alive, and had indeed been unconscious, and was indeed now presently in Obito's Kamui dimension. But that didn't mean much beyond being illuminating to his current predicament.

"Did it work?" he blurted out, realizing just then how urgent the question seemed.

"Pardon?" Obito asked and Sasuke swallowed almost frantically.

"The comet. Was it destroyed?"

Blowing out a sigh, Obito leaned back and shrugged. "Don't know. I pulled us out just after you hit it. Could be gone. Could be just even stronger than it was, I don't know."

Left with that hardly reassuring answer, Sasuke let his gaze drift away as he pondered what might have happened when his jutsu connected. A moment later, he felt another point he hadn't yet consider strike at his insides.

"How long have we been in here?" he fired aggressively and at this, Obito met his eyes.

"Maybe a couple minutes. Time can be slightly messed with when I use Kamui, if not by much. I can come in here for an hour and when I step out, only a minute has passed outside. I've only exerted a little pressure on that temporal side of it, so I'd imagine we've been in here about ten minutes, and outside, you hit the comet about two minutes ago, something like that."

Two minutes.

A lot could happen in two minutes, Sasuke knew. That was more than enough time for a group of firebenders to overpower Aang and kill the scared kid, more than enough time for Ozai to join the battle and callously burn the life from his daughter and son, more than enough time for Toph to aggressively make some foolish move and be captured by Fire Nation soldiers, brought away to be tortured for information or even—

He couldn't stand the strain of thoughts billowing through his mind right about then and turned back to Obito, his voice a harsh crack echoing in the oppressive darkness.

"You saved me. A half hour ago, you were ready to kill me. Explain yourself."

It came out as a stricter sounding command than he might have given a little more tact to had he given himself a moment longer to consider his position, but time was wasting, even if slower than it might have been out there. There was no time to waste on anything but getting exactly what information he needed before forcing Obito to take him back out so he could see things finished once and for all. Though if his attack hadn't finished the comet… it might have been as futile an attempt as anything could be.

Obito looked off into the dark as he replied, his voice distant and Sasuke could have sworn he saw the faintest smile playing at the edges of his enemy's mouth, sad and contemplative.

"I don't suppose you'd believe me if I told you I had a change of heart."

"No, I wouldn't," Sasuke replied bitingly and Obito nodded.

"Well, it's the truth, I'm afraid," he said. "Though it came about likely not for the reasons you'd expect."

"Like you realizing that you just killed thousands of people just because of your own selfishness? The fact that you've helped a maniacal tyrant all but win a war against a people fighting for their very freedom?" Sasuke snapped back bitingly.

"No, not for those reasons… at least not entirely," Obito replied, not seeming at all put off by Sasuke's verbal attack. "I…"

He seemed to think long and hard for a second before looking down at his feet.

"Never mind. You wouldn't get it."

Sasuke watched Obito for a long second, gauging for some kind of twitch or look that would give away some emotion that he wasn't willing to show, but when he saw nothing, he spoke in a final tone.

"So you've chosen to turn away from Ozai's side and save my life," he said, hardly believing the words as he said them. "Well, while that's all very nice, I have a war to finish and people to save. So you need to let me out of here and let me get back to that, right damn now."

He tried for the third time to get up and this time was able to push himself to his feet and straighten, ignoring the pain that such movement struck his body with. The chakra flow he was attempting to kickstart back into action was slowly working, but while he felt energy returning it was practically at a trickling rate. If he had the time to take a day long nap, he could probably come back in a better state, but there was no such luxury available to him.

"Do it, or I'll make you," he growled and Obito looked at him with absolutely no concern in his eyes.

"You can't help them like that," he said and Sasuke took a step forward.

"Watch me."

Looking at him for a long moment, Obito finally sighed.

"You can't help anyone if you're dead, Sasuke and that's exactly what's going to happen if you go down there and try and face down Ozai again. You're more powerful probably even now than he could ever be, but he's still got an army of thousands and a fleet ready to rain fire across the whole continent. You're too spent to take that head on."

Sasuke choked back what might have been vomit as his body continued to sickeningly burn as a result of his trauma.

"I don't care. It could be impossible, but I'm still going to try it."

Obito furrowed his brow.

"I didn't say it was impossible."

Making a noise of frustrated exasperation, Sasuke turned his head away for a moment.

"Then what exactly are you trying to…"

He trailed off then as it struck him exactly what Obito was suggesting; the older Uchiha must have sensed Sasuke's realization as well, for he broke into a proper smirk then. Sasuke watched him for a long moment as he took in the possibility of what might come of this; no part of him trusted Obito, but given very recent events, he felt himself prompted to finally ask.

"What do you suggest?"

---

Present

Despite his incredible fatigue and aching body, Sasuke let himself smile as Toph let out a noise halfway between a squeal and a sob and wrapped her arms around his waist in a tight hug. That smile vanished quickly though as she pulled a fist back and began punching his stomach with every couple words she angrily annunciated.

"I… told you… to stop… doing that!"

Though he did everything in his power to appear as unscathed as he could, Toph's last hit was hard enough against his weak body to make him feel sick and he stepped back, turning his head and quietly retching. Though he tried to keep it as silent a moment as he could, Toph's face went from angry to panicked.

"What's wrong with you?" she shouted in worry and when he didn't reply within a single second, she spun towards Aang, yelling at him instead. "What's wrong with him?"

Sasuke looked to Aang and he could tell by the Avatar's expression that there was nothing he could honestly say to alleviate Toph's fear for his condition.

"It's not…" Aang started, his face pulled in a wince. "Sasuke, are you okay?"

Knowing he wasn't anything close to looking picture perfect, Sasuke straightened his bruised and bloody body, clenching his teeth. His clothes were tattered, his body was red and dark shades of blue. Before they had exited Kamui, he had taken stock of his physical condition; the cost of using Planet Splitter on a comet in his state had apparently totally bruised and blistered what was left of his body and left him looking like he had taken a long bath in boiling water and then let General Ako punch him three hundred times. Though it honestly felt worse than that.

His body was aching and burning badly, but there was a sickening swelling on his insides as well and he knew why. His chakra was dangerously depleted; everything he had done since leaving Kamui had taken that last dribble that remained and it barely would get a chance to replenish itself before he would let out another technique. His memories were all but recovered, but he couldn't genuinely think of a time in his life he had felt this empty on energy. Foolish, he knew, but the day was almost over and judging by the fleet falling apart above them, Obito had half the battle won.

Take out the big players… the ships and the boss, the things they rally behind… make them leaderless pawns and they'll scatter.

These were the same thoughts that Obito had relayed to him, and he had grudgingly agreed. If they could remove Ozai from the picture and tear down the fleet, the battle could be won.

"I'm fine," he said in as leveled a tone as he could. In reality, he wanted to go pack to Pao's teashop, eat a meal fit for five people, take a shower and sleep until snow fell.

I can't yet… when they're all safe… when they're all okay, when I can see them all alive and well… then I'll sleep.

"Come back to the wall with us," Toph pleaded and Sasuke looked over at her, feeling a sadness that she couldn't see him and diagnose for herself the true extent of his injuries. "Katara's there, she can look over you and fix you up, or, or, or, some other healer should look at you, you need to rest, to recover, I know you do, you can't go out again and…"

Her voice became a ramble of white noise in Sasuke's ears as he looked over her head. His Amaterasu was starting to dissipate, but it had done its work. To their right, the advancing Fire Nation army had noticed the slow destruction of their fleet, and were starting to turn to react to it and that was letting the Earth Nation soldiers start to move past the wall. Sasuke could see pieces of the earth start to shift and move as they swept forward in their attempt to push back the firebending invaders and Sasuke felt a sting of hope.

Good… so they can manage that. And with the airships gone, that just leaves…

As if on cue, he saw a bolt of crimson energy, redder than any fire could have been burst in the air a good distance past the airships and past the army. Had he not been looking for it, he was sure he would have missed it.

"I'm sorry, Toph," he said, cutting off her desperate talking. "But I can't rest until this is all wrapped up."

"But why?!" she practically screamed, stomping her foot and he looked down to confront her outburst. "You fight an army, that's not enough, you fight Obito, that's not enough, you blow up a comet, that's not enough?! And he's out there too, Sasuke, Obito was up and about after you left and he disappeared! You can't fight him again, think about what he could do to you the way you are! Sasuke, please!"

The pain in her last two words were enough to nearly make him want to drop to a knee and pull her into a hug, telling her he'd come with her if it would make her feel better. But he knew that was just his fatigue playing on his emotions, and he tore his eyes away from her as her sad and horrified face was something that could very well have shattered him.

"Toph, it's okay," he said, doing his best to put as much warmth in his voice as he could. "I know Obito got free, but that's been… taken care of. The hardest part is over. Now, it's just firebenders, not supered up, not enhanced, just normal firebenders and that's something I'm sure can be handled. But I still have to take down Ozai and then I'll come back."

He reached out and brushed a dirt-stained tears from her cheek.

"I'm going to be fine, I'll come back. This isn't the last time you'll see me."

She sniffed a small laugh.

"Can't see you anyway, jerk."

Sasuke sighed and closed his eyes.

"Sorry."

Toph shook her head and gave him a small smile. "Don't worry about it. Just be back soon, okay?"

Her cheeks flushed then and she gave him another punch, much more gently, in his abs before stepping besides Aang. Sasuke found himself somewhat amazed at her backing down, but he could see the defeat on her face and knew that she understood there was nothing she could say to stop him. He turned his gaze to Aang and gave the Avatar as close to a confident smile as he could manage.

"Take care of her, huh?"

For a moment, Aang just stared at him, his eyes searching and regretful before he returned the smile and nodded.

"You got it."

Sasuke put a hand on his shoulder and then patted Toph on the top of her head before turning and sprinting towards the Fire Nation army, now full in retreat. Fortunately, it took a very small amount of chakra to let him move with a swiftness that sent him through their ranks as a blur, not a one of them having a chance to react to him. He began to angle then, heading to where he had seen the red flash and as he broke into the open wasteland devoid of any other people, save for a single black dot just against the horizon. Within a matter of seconds, he had traveled a few hundred meters and came to a stop in front of Obito.

The man who he had so recently been trying to kill crossed his arms as Sasuke came to a stop in front of him.

"You're running on fumes, using Amaterasu wasn't necessary."

Sasuke glared at him, "I had to."

Narrowing his eyes slightly, Obito's face then took on a look of realization.

"Your people?"

Sasuke rotated his shoulder, grimacing at the pain the torsion caused. "Yeah."

Obito turned away, saying quietly, "I'm sorry for everything you've had to deal with because of how you feel about them."

"Don't be. We're not friends," Sasuke snapped.

Obito made a soft noise of amusement.

"Fair enough."

He directed a hand and pointed towards an open stretch of the wasteland. Sasuke focused his vision and saw small bursts of fire whipping about in the distance.

"Ozai's there, I caught sight of him heading that way, that has to be him," Obito said.

"Who's he fighting?" Sasuke asked before focusing his Sharingan to answer his own question and knowing Obito was doing the same.

"There's his daughter," he remarked before Sasuke even was able to properly get sight on the conflict and he felt his heart jump.

"Azula's there?!" he said, perhaps a little loudly and caught sight of her as well. She was honestly a breathtaking sight; her long hair whipping around her and her face alive with the thrill of combat as she wove in and around her father.

When Obito didn't say anything for a moment, Sasuke looked over to see him smirking very slightly.

"Really? Of all the gals you could have tried for, you pick the psychotic princess?"

Sasuke ignored the jibe and looked back towards where Azula and Ozai were fighting.

"There's Zuko as well," he said. "And… someone else, can't see him behind that fire, is that…?"

"Iroh!" came a sudden shout from Obito and Sasuke looked back to see him with his Sharingan and Rinnegan laced eyes wide.

"You know Iroh?" he asked and Obito only spared him a sharp nod before starting to run towards the combat. Sasuke furrowed his brow in confusion before assuming that it was better to not ask and he raced after his unlikely companion. He wasn't sure just how the fight was going, but Iroh, Zuko and Azula seemed to be holding their own from what he could tell. But as he knew how potent of benders they all were, the fact that Ozai was a match for all three of them, it sent a flutter of worry through him. As he drew up alongside Obito, he let out the only information he could think to mention.

"Careful with fire. He has a sort of heat shield that he can use to repel fire-based attacks, he was even able to cast off my Amaterasu before."

Obito snorted.

"You're seriously suggesting that this is going to take anything less than a second? Even as burnt out as we are, this'll be the easiest thing you've done all day. I would have just gone and dealt with it myself after using genjutsu on those airship pilots if you hadn't insisted you be here for this."

Sasuke supposed he had a point. And in short, he wound up being very correct.

Putting forth the last of their reserves, Obito and Sasuke reached the fight with the speed of a candle being blown out. The Fire Lord had just finished blowing back Zuko, deflecting an attack from Iroh and was battering away at his daughter's defenses. Feeling a rush of protectiveness come over him rather out of nowhere, Sasuke relished the look on Ozai's face as he turned away from his family just in time to see Sasuke's feet slam into his head as he took the full brunt of a flying kick. The man was sent skidding to the ground, but he didn't make it far before Sasuke caught up to him, grabbing him by the ankle and slinging him around over his head to smash into the ground with a jarring thud. The moment it happened, Obito's Wood Style jutsu came into play and dark brown roots burst from the craggy ground to wrap around Ozai and hold him still.

And just like that, it was over.

It took a Sasuke a moment to realize the gravity of what had just happened. He turned to look back towards where Ozai's army in the distance was now in full retreat, only a few airships still in the sky, turning away from Ba Sing Se and heading back the way they had come. The rest were now burning and smoldering heaps on the ground, flaming black hills that sent a massive expanse of smoke high into the clearing sky. Earth and Water nation soldiers were moving up, but even from there, Sasuke thought he could hear distant cheers of triumph.

"How…" came Ozai's voice and Sasuke looked down to see the Fire Lord under his prison of roots, his face almost completely blank. "How could this have happened?"

Sasuke had no response for him and looked away. Beside him, Iroh came up towards them, his nephew and niece just behind him.

"Obito?" the old man asked quietly and the younger man in question winced, but didn't reply. Sasuke watched as Iroh looked after Obito for a few long moments before letting out a quiet sigh and nodding his head slowly in acceptance. Not entirely sure what that interaction meant, Sasuke looked over Iroh's shoulder to see Zuko looking rather on edge at the sight of them both and Azula looked as overjoyed as he could have imagined, her chest heaving and a smile stretching across her face. Sasuke supposed he would have to deal with her, but for the moment, there was a last thing that had to be dealt with. A last snag he hadn't been expecting to deal with, at least not in this way.

"Iroh," he said and Ozai's brother looked at him. "Take those two back to the wall. I'll… we'll be back with Ozai in just a moment."

He knew immediately that Iroh could tell what he was hiding, but he remained silent as he regarded Sasuke, who hoped desperately that this wasn't something that was going to become a debate, but he breathed a small sigh of relief as Iroh finally nodded.

"Very well," he said. "I'll relay word of the Fire Lord's defeat. Compounded with the retreating army… well, I think it's safe to say that this is a day that will live in history for many generations to come."

He looked with a thankful smile, but Sasuke could see the trepidation, almost sadness there, and he knew that Iroh had probably picked up on why they wouldn't all be returning as one group. Still, Sasuke returned the smile with a nod before Iroh turned around, ushering Zuko and Azula along with him.

"Come along, you both."

Zuko complied quickly, but his sister quickly began to protest.

"No, I want to stay with—"

"Azula, let's go," Iroh said in a sterner tone. Her face grew angry then, brow furrowing and sneer passing over her face.

"You think you have any right to tell me what to do?! I don't have to listen to your—"

"Azula," Sasuke said, and she snapped her gaze to him. He stared her down for a long moment and he thought briefly that she might actually contest him just then, but she reached up to massage the area beneath her robe where he knew the mark he had bestowed upon her was before spinning on her heel and marching a few paces away before blue flames spurt from beneath her hands and feet and she soared away. Zuko followed suit, not looking back to anyone present and Iroh followed shortly, also not looking back, but Sasuke saw the sad expression on his face one last time.

As the three of them were left alone on their distant patch of earth, Ozai shifted slightly beneath his wooden bonds to look up at the both of them.

"So, betrayed me after all? You took down the wall and I thought I had you figured, but I suppose you have your own—"

Beating Sasuke to the punch, Obito snapped a kick into the Fire Lord's head, knocking him unconscious in a single, swift move. Nodding appreciatively, Sasuke said, "Thanks."

Obito nodded. "Don't mention it."

The pair of them fell into silence for a long moment shoulder to shoulder, looking on what was essentially their own work. The body covered earth, the broken wall, the downed airships and the day won for Ba Sing Se. All had come about by their hands, their hands that had no place being in this world.

"So…" Obito finally said. "We going to do this?"

Sasuke gently popped his neck. "Yeah, guess we'd better."

They turned to face each other and Sasuke started the conversation that was for their ears and their ears alone.

"You're not coming back with me. I'm going to pick up Ozai and haul him back to the city and you're going to leave. I don't care where you go, but it's not back with us. I don't care what change of heart you had, or what's driving you now; I don't now if this is some long con or if you really do regret what you did, but you're not getting near any of them."

Obito gave a half-hearted smile. "Them being who?"

Sasuke's mouth pulled in a snarl. "You know exactly who. You almost killed them, and I'm not putting it past you to do something to harm them again. I don't trust you and I never will. So you either walk away or I put you down right now."

His threat was about as empty as one could be, but he wasn't lying that he would try and stop Obito. He didn't know how much Obito was fronting like he was, but he might be able to get off a last cast of Amaterasu if it came to that.

Obito didn't seem like he was interested in such a violent end to this conversation, but he didn't move from where he stood and gave a few questions in reply.

"Those people are going to want someone to try alongside Ozai for destroying the wall, they'll know someone like you had participated, don't you want to bring me back as a prisoner? And what about getting back to our world, you don't think we could accomplish more together in that regard?"

Letting out a derisive sound, Sasuke answered coolly, "You as a prisoner would be a joke. You'd escape anytime you damn well felt like it and like I said, I don't want you near any of them. And I don't need you to figure out how to get back, I'd rather be stuck here than work out something out with you."

With that, he fell silent, and Obito didn't seem to have much to say to that end. Another long silence passed between them and Sasuke wondered if Obito was either thinking of something else to say, considering doing what Sasuke asked, or preparing to attack him.

He wouldn't very well find out, as behind them, there came a whooshing sound and the telltale tone of footsteps heading towards them.

"And so, we finally have reached this moment."

Both of them turned and Sasuke saw both Aang approaching and, something he noticed with a start, Itachi just beside him. Sasuke's eyes widened and he felt his body tense up even as there was a strong pang of relief for being able to see his brother again.

Aang wore a broad smile as they approached and spoke to Sasuke in a buoyant tone. "He was back at the wall, and asked where you were, so I figured I'd fly him out to where I saw you headed! We ran into Azula, Zuko and Iroh and they told us where you were. And don't worry, Toph's back at the wall; she got pretty burned out, worse than I think even she thought, but she's doing well."

Sasuke nodded at the Avatar's words, but kept his eyes locked on his brother. Next to him, Obito shifted uncomfortably.

"Here to back your little brother up, are you?" he asked in a voice thick with a forced nonchalant air.

Itachi seemed to ignore him as he looked back at Sasuke.

"Truly, you performed as well as I could have hoped. With this, I can finally move forward," he said, his low voice controlled but sounding almost excited.

Beside him, Aang bounced on his heels and Sasuke could tell the adrenaline and thrill of victory was still keeping the Avatar's body running at full tilt.

"And it's okay too, I think Obito's with us now! Don't know what happened, but I think he helped take those airships down and he just showed up to take down Ozai with Sasuke as well! Obviously, I think he'll have some explaining to do, but who knows, if all three of you wind up—"

Itachi's fist lashed out and clubbed Aang across the head and the Avatar dropped to the ground without another sound, his body as lifeless as Ozai's in unconsciousness.

What?

Sasuke bent his knees and his body tensed up as beside him Obito pulled a face.

"The hell did you do that for?" he asked and Itachi smiled ahead of them, but it was hardly the warm brotherly smile Sasuke remembered receiving aboard the Azulon. Itachi's expression was chilling and eager now, like he was finally being allowed to do something he had been waiting a very long time to do.

"How easy it was to convince the boy to come with me. Twenty-four hours ago, I would not have imagined this would have been so easy, but here we are, and I couldn't have asked for this to be any more perfect."

"What are you talking about?" Sasuke growled. His heart was racing now, adrenaline of his own now rushing through him with a furious speed. What his brother was doing, he truly had no idea and Obito's similar confusion next to him was something that only was heightening his growing anxiety.

Itachi put his hands into the pockets of his robes, pulling free what appeared to be two small rocks.

"My plan, young Sasuke, my plan. You both played so well into it, I must thank you."

And as he spoke, Sasuke heard his voice change in pitch; it remained low, but adopted a more threatening tone, and ripened with age as well.

"You'll have to explain better than that," Sasuke managed to snap, but next to him, Obito spoke as well, his voice an almost resigned and understanding tone.

"Of course it was you."

Sasuke looked over and saw Obito's face, no longer confused, but regretful and serious. Ahead of them, Itachi's smile widened as he spoke in that same voice.

"I don't think Sasuke understands, Obito, perhaps you should explain it to him?"

Obito offered a humorless smile but did nothing more than cross his arms. Itachi rubbed the stones under his thumbs before adding, "Or perhaps I ought to just show you."

As he spoke, Sasuke knew that he recognized the voice, and it was not that of his brother. And then, before them, Itachi's appearance began to fade away as though it had been paint on a canvas. His hair lengthened and stretched to run down his back in a long spiky black mane, and his height increased slightly. His black robes became a deep blue with a brown belt around his waist, and though his face changed as well, it maintained the same somewhat broken appearance, cracks running over it and eyes highlighted with the same unnatural grey. Beyond that, the only thing that remained the same was the smile that stretched over his face, now unrecognizable to Sasuke.

Though his appearance wasn't familiar, his voice still was as he spoke again.

"You mustn't be too upset with yourself for being fooled, Sasuke, I think I pulled off Itachi Uchiha's demeanor rather well."

Sasuke knew not this man, though his pounding heart told him that he was surely a man to be feared and as he saw the Sharingan flash in those grey eyes, he knew too this man was also of his kin, just as Obito was.

He cocked his head ever so slightly towards Obito then, not at all willing to take his eyes off the man before them, a furious burning rage clashing with the anxiety that had come about as a result of seeing this person.

"Obito… who is he?"

Next to him, the scarred man spoke in a tone that was leveled, but Sasuke could hear the nerves behind it. And when he heard the name, he knew exactly why.

"The architect of our family's condemnation and probably the last person we should want to see."

He gave a brief pause before delivering a devastating blow to Sasuke's heart.

"Madara Uchiha."