Chapter 7: Sneak Attack!
Now they were all standing in the bushes in front of the Fire Nation palace. There were a few guards standing outside, which was very pleasing. Almost too easy. The Iron Empress thought to herself. They'll be dead before they find out we are even here. She smirked then slammed her foot down on the ground causing the earth to rumble. The army followed suit and shouted, "Stomp out hope!" Azula glanced at her fellow leader smirking then sent a large flame into the night sky. There was another cheer and the firebenders in the army sent out their own flames, lighting up the sky. "Burn their homes!" The Iron Empress smirked and pointed at the palace. "Tonight we rule!" The army shouted its last cry, "For the Iron Empress!" And charged the palace.
The few guards standing at the palace doors were quickly overtaken by the surging armies. Azula went to run in, but an iron arm stopped her. "Let the weaker pieces go first Azula." She said then watched as her soldiers began to dissappear within the palace walls.
In his private chambers, Zuko was being shaken awake by one of his royal guards. "Fire Lord Zuko, we are under attack!" Zuko, who hadn't been paying a lot of attention until then snapped awake and hurled himself out of bed.
"Wake the others!" He shouted and the guard hurried off to the guest rooms to wake the others. Zuko went over to his window and looked out. To his horror he saw an army surrounding the palace. "Oh shit..." He whispered and then ran out of the room.
He found the others all in the hallway outside his room. "Zuko what's going on?" Sokka asked, holding a trembling Suki close to him protectively. "We're being attacked! There's a large army surrounding the palace!" Zuko shouted, a hint of terror in his voice but he tried to hold it back. Now was not the time to panic. They just needed to work together to win. Everyone's eyes widened. Without another word Aang opened his glider and flew through the broken window at the end of the hallway to see what was going on outside.
Once Azula caught a glimpse of the Avatar's glider in the air she took off into the air and tackled him out of the sky. The two of them both landed infront of the Iron Empress wrestling to get the other pinned down to the ground, fire and air shooting from the pile. The Iron Empress only smirked. "Excellent job Azula." She said then picked Aang up by the collar lifting him off the ground. "So much for all power-"
Before she could finish her sentence a jet of water blew her back off her feet, landing at the foot of the palace wall unconscious. Azula scowled and went to attack Katara, who had attacked her partner, but found both of her feet bound to the ground with rock. Aang was back on his feet, bending the rock on Azula's body to prevent her from moving. She was forced into a kneeling position, but she wasn't willing to just give up, trying send to hit Aang with flames from her nose and mouth. Katara quickly stopped her by drenching Azula with freezing cold water as Aang started to bend away her bending.
As the sky turned from red to blue, the fighting between the silver army and the palace guards began to die down, and soon Azula's army started to run away, knowing they were defeated. Zuko watched them, then slowly made his way to the iron woman, pulling out the knife his uncle had given him all those years ago. "I can't believe someone could do anything like what you've done." He said, hatred burning in his voice then kicked the woman's side as hard as he could. Almost immediately a baby started crying from underneath the silver cloak on the woman.
"What the...?" He asked himself then knelt down next to the iron woman and started to remove her cloak. From under the cloak he first pulled out a crying baby girl, silver stitching on her clothes gave her name. Miki. He heard another whimper from under the cloak and reached down to find a boy, who looked almost exactly like the crying girl. His clothes bore a name as well. Rien. Zuko looked at the woman then looked at the two babies in his arms. "Why would the leader of an army carry two children into battle?"
Katara walked over beside Zuko and looked at the woman then gasped seeing the babies. Almost immediately she snatched the two from Zuko's arms and started to rock them. "It's okay... you're safe babies..." She tried comforting them. Zuko looked up at them. "Rien and Miki. Earth and air."
Ignoring Katara's confused look of how he knew that Zuko looked back at the woman, grabbing his knife from where he had dropped it. The woman was still unconscious, so he was going to wait until she woke up to kill her, he wanted to see the life leave her eyes. "Who are you?" He asked the silent air. There was only one part of skin he could see, but the exposed features that it showed seemed familiar. Slowly, Zuko reached over and opened one of the closed eyes to see a pale green eye, just like...
"Agni it's Toph!" Zuko shouted and his friends heads all snapped towards him. "Where's Toph?" Sokka asked, looking all around the dark yard. "I don't see her."
"Right here!" Zuko pointed at the iron woman. "Its Toph!"