A: TLA © Bryke
A/N: Edited. 13/01/13
There is nothing so annoying as having two people talking when you're busy interrupting.
- Mark Twain
The Opposing Elements
Chapter 9 – Endings of the Manipulation
I felt as if my body was on auto-pilot, because I couldn't control my arms or legs or my bending, but I knew I would succeed, I had to.
Her arms shot up to the sky, fists alight in an eerie beige colour, her golden eyes were glaring straight into the man's; the one who had hurt Zuko and manipulated the Southern Watertribe. She could feel an unknown hatred burn in the pits of her stomach, it felt ravenous and hungry, for what, she didn't know. All she new was that she felt like she could conquer anything in her path, including the deceptive man in front of her. She could feel it pulsing through her veins, running through her body like her own blood, she didn't even know what 'it' was; it felt powerful. The dragon she had absorbed seemed to have more power than she was anticipating, more blood-lust than she had foreseen.
Her golden gaze flickered to the beige fire eating at her wrists, watching as it began to meander up to her elbows, stopping. The embers burned her powerful white, turning straight to beige once again. This is what it felt like to have power in her palms; this is how she would save the world, in her hands lay the key to a new era.
With that hopeful thought in mind, her legs spread out in front of her, her palms pushing together and her arms extending, a familiar stance known to all firebenders. Katara closed her eyes, seeing the vision she was thriving for, earthbenders marrying Firenation women out of love, mixed race babies, an avatar reborn; at that, her eyes shot open, her mouth suddenly going dry.
The Avatar. The last one – Roku – had been exterminated by Hakoda's father, they had been best friends, it was a great treaty, because Roku was born a waterbender, Tenzin was a firebender, it was peace personified. Then the ultimate betrayal had come. Her eyebrows furrowed in anger as she thought of all the hatred she felt for her father, for Yon Rha, for Ozai...
Her palms instantaneously faced the man, and she immediately pushed the fire towards Ozai in a powerful arc, her feet shooting off from the spot from where she was rooted, the older firebender just kicked it away with a graceful movement of his leg. She snarled at him, angry words inaudible and threats recognizable despite it. It was bubbling. The adrenaline was kicking.
Fireball after fireball was thrown, destruction and devastation was a definite. Ice. It was melting underneath their hot feet and they had no choice but to keep moving. Eventually, the battleground would turn into a snow-leopard's fur. Zuko began bending the ground solid underneath Katara's feet, the area around her also being manipulated into fresh and thick ice.
Leap after kick, punch after throw, none of her techniques were working. She felt useless and reckless, as if she was missing something. She didn't understand, the power that she had accompanied in her veins, it should have heightened the chance of her winning... "How does he win?" The words sang through her head, ricocheting from each invisible wall to the next... "How does he win?" She rolled out of Ozai's direct line of fire, the ice on her skin feeling like a thousand needles against her boiling skin, it made her hiss.
She stole a look at Zuko; he was concentrating, his bare arms showing his muscles pulsating underneath his pale skin. "How does he win?" All she could think about was that one line, she wanted to know the thread of Fate. Ozai was sweating, but she was drenched, he had contained such power for several years and hadn't bended since, probably, yet he had the grace of a gazelle and the power of a lion, such irony.
"How does he win?"
It wouldn't leave her head. It was taunting her, making her think for an answer, making her think period. A vibrant hiss escaped her throat as a fire whip grazed her side, slicing through her sleeveless shirt, cutting into her skin, her blood poured through such a small wound, as if she had too much of it. "How does he win?" it caused her side to throb, and with trembling fingers, she raised them to her side and clotted the bleeding, croaking as the fire burned her skin, adding another scar to her once flawless body.
"How does he win?" She thought back to all her lessons with her father, they hadn't been useless or unnecessary, they were her life skills, her survival guide. Her body turned on auto-pilot, completely, finally relaxing in her own skin. It felt foreign...
"Focus, Katara! Do you want to be fried?!" An eight-year-old Katara glared playfully at her father, turning to her mother with teary eyes. The woman just smiled a breath-taking toothy winner.
"Mommy! Daddy's being mean!" Kya just rolled her eyes, urging the little girl to carry on training.
"If you're in a position when you know you are over-powered, do not back down. Feel the fire run through your veins and think. Think about painful memories; that fuels our bending-"
"Hakoda, sweetie-"
"Kya, she needs to learn this! Turn your body into a host of your chi; because you are not your body, but the chi inside your veins, it's merely a shell. And with time, you will become indestructible." Little to Katara's knowledge, she would experience such painful memories within the next few months. It was the sight of her mother's body being rejected of breath. All the while, she would stare into her 8-year-old's eyes, mouthing the words: do not let him win.
"How does he win?" This time, it was speaking from her throat; her beige fire hurdled towards Ozai with a magnificent speed and a deadly accuracy, her back arching as she gambolled back. The adrenaline that had been kicking through her veins amplified, making her eyes mist up with the fuelled power.
"He doesn't."
It was an answer she had been looking for, searching for during the whole battle, when in reality, she knew the answer all along.
With a hollow breath, she screamed at Ozai, the elbow-high fire sprouting up to her arms, encasing her collarbone, then down to her feet. It became a second skin, and it made her feel much more comfortable than her first one. Anger. Rage. Hatred. Pain. And memories, they all fuelled her attacks. Her fingers meandered through several mysterious techniques, confusing Ozai. She blew into her fire-palms, watching as the embers began to tremble and flicker, extinguishing then relighting. It was as if the fire was controlling her hands, not the other way around.
"I win this fight."
With that whispered promise, Katara bolted forward, arms outstretched and fingers curved into claws, fire licking at her palms, arms and whole body. Screaming, she streamlined his body with her one, immediately shooting at his back and gambolling into a crouch. Hit. Ozai's grunt was satisfying. Her eyes pulsed red once, the gold blazed with a frightening beauty.
She twirled in a 360 degree turn, flames following her feet; Ozai narrowly dodged the impending attack, a ravenous growl escaping his throat along with the manoeuvre. His eyes were ferocious and hungry.
Zuko had never seen his father look so bloodthirsty, he looked like an untamed beast, and Katara looked so frail and small compared to him, his chest was hurting with the anxiety pulsing throughout his body. His eyes were cast in a worried glance, and after Katara's comatose state only just being relinquished, he wasn't sure she was up to the fight. But after seeing the flare of power in her and the slim scale of Ozai's body, he felt more confident.
Katara howled as Ozai landed a punch to her ribs; a light crunch rang through her ears as she clutched at the side of her shirt that had been fried, holding the already bruising skin. "You're a pathetic firebender, to know that such a thing is royalty of the Firenation," Ozai's taunts echoed around in her brain, tickling her reactions and punching at her anger.
Their fighting was like a song, at first it was a deadly grace, to a crescendo; a gradual build up of power. She hated this song. It was destructive. She lengthened her fire-daggers to whips, striking for his sides and face, feet and ankles, attempting to slow him down so she could get a decent hit. Her ribs were aching, but it wasn't pain because of her adrenaline, all she could feel was her chi pouring through her veins.
Katara threw sporadic fireballs in Ozai's general direction, successful in distracting him. Now, she ran. She hopped from ice-block to ice-block, quickly closing the distance between them, all the while, shooting fireballs at his feet and melting the ice. Eventually, as Zuko continued to bend under her feet, Ozai was being tamed onto one solid block. With one last leap and an extra boost from her fire, Katara landed on the ice with Ozai, the thing wobbling mercilessly.
She turned down her fire, bringing it to just her fists, her eyes wide and her chest expanding in exhaustion. The close-combat was hard. Thick, pale arms hurdled towards her, just missing her head. She swung her leg underneath him, hitting his ankle with a fiery foot, bringing him to his knees. She held his hair in one balled hand, her other pointing at his face with an angry, embered fist. "Surrender," he smirked at her.
Without a second passing, Ozai tugged on the back of her knee, bringing her down unsuspectingly, into the ice. His bigger form flared with fire, his hands wrapping around her throat, no fire; it was just brute strength. It was turning into a hand-to-hand match, Ozai clamping down on Katara's throat, only to release her because of her nails biting into his skin, ripping down his sides like she had done to Hakoda.
Zuko's emotions were all over the place, he was trembling with anxiousness now, and he needed to do something! He needed to get closer! With that thought in mind, he sprinted across the snow, seeing blood spatters and melted ice made him queasy and nauseous. He carried on, keening his eyes on Katara's and Ozai's forms, both struggling to tame the other. It was horrific and amazing at the same time; the way Katara held herself against such a huge and strong man in hand-to-hand combat, truly breath-taking.
He bended the melting ice underneath them to solid snow, staying focused on stopping them from sinking.
Unexpectedly, Zuko watched as Katara pushed Ozai onto the icy ground, his wrists encased in white fire, his ankles buried in the ice – courtesy of Zuko. "Surrender," it was a biting tone as she repeated the word, keeping her eyes on his four limps and his face.
"Go to Hell," with that, he broke out of his restraints and without pin-pointing his exact location, aimed to fire at Zuko. But Katara beat him.
"Then you're coming with me!" She pushed his kneeling form into the water around the ice-block, propelling them both down into the icy depths of the sea, all the while, hearing the frantic shouts of Zuko that seemed to move with the waves.
Why hadn't he interfered? Why hadn't he put an end to this fight when he had his chance? He knew why. Katara's honour and her pride wouldn't have allowed it. She barely allowed me to keep her atop the ice. The oncoming fireball had been unanticipated, but he easily moved out of the way. What surprised him was watching as Katara's feet sunk beneath the surface of the blue ocean, and the steam arising from it reminded him that the battle wasn't over just yet. He wanted it to stop; he wanted to tell Katara that she'd done enough, that she didn't need to fight any more.
She felt so cold; her nervous system was freezing inside her body. With a puff of air, her fingertips grew a blazing red, warming her body up and creating steam. The contrast between the water and her body was breath-taking – in a bad way. Her eyes looked around, searching for the shadowed form of Ozai, only to come up with fish and rock. She closed her eyes momentarily, letting her body begin to float to the surface.
She thought of the friends she had made, how she had made them wasn't exactly the best circumstances and she may have not known them that long, but she felt generally happy to have them at her side.
Aang. An earthbender who had been forced out during a raid by the Firenation... He had somehow found Toph. Toph; an airbender; the last airbender to ever live. She obviously has a huge burden on her shoulders because of it; and loads of enemies.
Her breath escaped her when she felt a tight fist wrap around her ankle, pulling her into the darker waters of the ocean, her lungs screaming, begging, wanting for oxygen. She was surprised to be wrapped in an embrace, it felt ironically safe. She was afraid, she couldn't see the face and she had assumed it to be Ozai, but as the arms kept a tight grasp on her, all she could feel was herself being propelled towards the surface.
Who was he?
Edited. New readers, please review! :3
BlackTorment