Aang was trapped. Chains bound his arms and legs to to stone pillars, and he was suspended in mid-air.
"Hello?" he called. "Is anyone out there?"
"Only me avatar, only me." a familiar voice responded.
Azula suddenly appeared out of a puff of smoke and approached him. Aang struggled with his chains, than had an idea. He inhaled deeply and blew as hard as he could at her, but nothing happened.
"You can't bend here in the Spirit World avatar, so don't even try."
"The Spirit World? That's where I am?"
"It is indeed, and you're my prisoner here."
The princess gently stroked Aang's cheek, and moved his head to get away from her. Azula grabbed the back of Aang's head and held him still while she dug her nail into his other cheek and dragged her finger down his face. Aang let out a cry of pain until she released him. Blood ran down the side of his face, dripping off his chin.
"That hurt!" Aang exclaimed. "Wait...that hurt? This is the Spirit World! I'm not supposed to be able to feel pain!"
"This pain is all too real avatar."
They suddenly heard a voice in the distance, calling Aang's name.
"Is that Katara?" Aang said under his breath.
He caught himself, but the damage had already been done.
"Your little waterbender girlfriend? I'll have to go give her a personal welcome."
"You leave her alone!" Aang called as Azula ran off into the fog.
Suddenly, the pillars started sinking into the ground. Aang struggled and pulled on his binds as hard as he could, but they were too strong. Soon, the avatar sunk with the pillars into the ground.
"Aang!" Katara called. "Aang can you give me some sort of sign? Anything!"
"I'll give you a sign." a voice said from behind her.
Katara turned just in time to avoid a dagger thrown by Azula. The dagger embedded into the trunk of a tree, vanished, than reappeared in the princess' hand.
"Neat little trick isn't it." she said smugly.
Katara noticed that she was in a swamp, and made a motion to pull the water out of the marsh around her, but nothing happened.
"Did I forget to mention that you can't bend here?" Azula said, playing with the dagger.
Katara clenched her fists.
"Where's Aang?"
"I'll make a deal with you. You best me in a fight and I'll bring you right to him."
"You really think I'm going to trust you?"
"I don't think you really have a choice peasant." Azula smirked on the last word, and it sent Katara into a rage.
She charged at the other girl, tackling her and knocking her into the swamp. The dagger fell from her hand and landed in the murky water. The girls rolled around, each trying to gain domination over the other. Eventually, Azula was on top of Katara, and holding her by the neck, pushed her head beneath the water. Katara tried to pry Azula's hands off her as she slowly lost consciousness. Flailing her arms, she eventually found her mark, and grabbed the princess' hair, yanking it towards her. Azula screamed and released her grip on the waterbender's neck, allowing her to emerge from the water and throw the other girl off her. She stood up, catching her breath, until Azula grabbed her legs and brought her into the marsh again.
~ "How did you find me Felix?" Toph asked as she held her stance against the bounty hunter.
"I've been tracking you since you left Ba Sing Se, it wasn't that difficult."
Toph widened her stance and kicked up rocks at Felix. He drew his sword and shattered three of them, the last one hitting him in the chest and knocking him back. Toph took this opportunity to throw two earth cuffs that locked him into a nearby cliff wall by his wrists. She shot two more to lock his ankles, but he moved his feet at the last second. He clenched his fists and blasted the cuffs holding him back into dust.
"How did you do that?" Toph asked, stunned.
"You see Toph, while I might live and hunt in the Earth Kingdom, I am in fact, a firebender."
He shot a ball of white hot flames that Toph stopped with a wall of earth. She shot the wall at Felix, only to have him keep his stance and blast it into pieces that scattered around him.
"You'll have to do better than that Toph."
Toph growled and lifted two large boulders of earth from the ground. She shattered them and shot the shards at Felix, who made a ball of flame around himself that blasted out like a shockwave, scorching the shards into ashes. Toph turned to see all of their tents in flames. She could feel the heat coming from around her and moved to put out the fires, but she was knocked to the ground by a rope that wrapped around her waist, pinning her arms to her side. Felix was about to claim his prize when Momo suddenly landed on his face, clawing with vigor.
"Gah! Get off me you stupid monkey!"
He grabbed Momo and held him at arms length, looking him right in the face.
"I see you got your sight back. That must have been Toph's doing. I thought I dealt with you last time when I blinded you, but now I see I'll have to do it again."
Felix reached into his pocket and drew out a vial of liquid and uncorked it. The lemur screeched and struggled in the bounty hunter's hand. Before he could act however, he was knocked into the air on a pillar of earth. Freed from his grasp, Momo took off over to Toph and chewed through her ropes, releasing her. Felix landed on his back hard, and the vial he was going to use on Momo flew through the air and the contents emptied all over Felix's face. He screamed in agony and covered his eyes. After a few moments of writhing around, he stood up.
"I-I'm blind...I'm blind! This can't be happening!"
"Oh but it is." Toph said with a smirk, and created a rock slide beneath his feet that caused him to tumble down the hill into the forest below. "Sweet justice. Now to deal with the fires."
She kicked up a cloud of dust that spun around her, than spread, extinguishing the flames, but leaving the tents in ruins. She walked over to Katara's tent where Aang had been laying unconscious and knelt down by him. She put down the earthen box she had placed around him and brushed her hand over his cheek. She stopped when she felt a cut. She gently ran her hand down the cut and thought to herself that she didn't think it had been there earlier. She shrugged as Momo entered the tent and landed on Aang's chest. His ears drooped and he curled up on top of him.
"It's okay Momo, Katara and Zuko are gonna help him. Wow, now there's something I never thought I'd say."
She exited the remains of the tent and stopped when she felt a foreign shape near the cliff wall. She walked over and knelt down on the ground. She picked up the vial that Felix had blinded himself with, than found a bison whistle, much like the one Aang had, lying nearby. She picked it up and felt it, stopping when she reached the horns.
"I'd better hold on to this." she said to herself as she put the whistle in her pocket.
~ Zuko had almost fallen asleep waiting in the chair when he heard voices from outside. He rose and went to the front door, opening it just enough to see a group of village guards talking to one another.
"It's been a few hours, should we go now?" one of them said.
"Yes," the largest one replied. "Felix said that if he wasn't back with the earthbender girl in a few hours to come to the location he had put on the map."
Zuko's eyes widened in surprise.
"Toph." he whispered.
As the guards left, Zuko moved to follow them when Kailyn grabbed his shoulder.
"You should see this." she said quitely, pulling him into the other room.
Katara lay quietly on the cot, and the room's only light source was from the lantern the doctor was holding. Zuko leaned in to look at her and realized that her eyelids were squeezed tightly shut, and she was writhing a bit in her unconscious state. He also saw small cuts that had formed all over her body.
"This is happening to her from the Spirit World?" Zuko asked in amazement. "I didn't think your real body could be harmed there."
"It can, if the Spirit has roamed deep enough. I fear that the Avatar may be in more danger than you originally thought."
Zuko stood up and thought to himself. Toph could handle a couple of Fire Nation soldiers, but Katara was all alone in a realm she had no idea about. She needed help.
"Put me in the Spirit World. I'm going to help her."
"Prince Zuko, your friend may be fighting with an evil you can't help her with."
"I'll take that chance."
Zuko laid down on the floor next to Katara and closed his eyes, crossing his arms over his stomach. He felt the doctor's hands on his forehead.
"Close your eyes Zuko. Let yourself drift off as if into a deep sleep. Let everything go. When you awaken, you will be in the Spirit World."
Zuko obeyed, and drifted away from the real world.
~ Katara had pinned Azula once again in the swamps, but the princess, after some struggling, managed to get her feet under Katara and kicked the other girl off her and back onto the shore. Azula than crawled through the muck, searching for the dagger she had lost.
"Where is it? WHERE IS IT?"
Her voice escalated to a screech and Katara called her name.
"Hey princess, looking for this?"
Azula turned just in time to be hit in the chest with her own dagger. She stumbled back and chuckled weakly.
"I never pegged you for the violent type peasant."
Katara smirked.
"It's the Spirit World. I can do whatever I want."
Azula's chuckle turned into a laugh that escalated louder and louder until it was echoing throughout the forest. She grabbed the handle of the blade and drew it from her chest, leaving nothing behind, no scar, no blood.
"But how is that possible?"
"It's the Spirit World. I can do whatever I want. You on the other hand,"
Azula tossed the blade at Katara, who moved to dodge it, just barely getting sliced on the left arm.
"...can not. You see, when I died, I woke up here. I don't know how, I don't know why, I just know that Zuko killing me was the best thing that ever could have happened."
Katara readied herself for Azula's next move, but suddenly, a voice called out from the woods.
"Azula! Why don't we make this fight a bit more even."
Zuko leaped from a tree branch and kicked Azula in the stomach, knocking her off her feet and back into the murky water.
"Zuko, you came!" Katara cried as she embraced the prince.
She pulled away after a second, both of them blushing.
"Well aren't you two just the cutest couple." Azula said as she rose from the swamp. "I'm sorry if I'm interrupting something."
She tossed her dagger towards Zuko who rolled out of its path. The blade than stopped in mid-air and multiplied into a dozen identical knives that all darted after the prince. They fired at him, slicing his arms and legs, but not doing too much damage. Katara went after him, but Azula reached out her arm. It extended into a vine-like appendage that wrapped around the waterbender's legs. She screamed as Azula pulled her back.
"Katara!" Zuko shouted.
He rolled away from the last few daggers and turned back. Before he could reach Katara however, the ground collapsed from under him and he fell into darkness.
Author's Note: Well I guess you could say that Azula's got a different kind of bending now right? Right? Never mind. The next chapter or two will cross with the last chapter of my story, The Lone Warrior. I know it's annoying that I keep referencing my stories in my other stories, but this will probably be the last time. I hope.