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Chapter 15 (The Fire Lord)
"You have done well, Azula," Fire lord Ozai said, his words bouncing off the walls of the chamber. Azula beamed with the praise she received. Through the curtain slit, five pairs of eyes watched the scene, listening to each word of the conversation as they bounced off the red walls. Toph stood a few feet away, listening while earth bending away the rock cuffs from each of our hands.
"You have brought me the avatar and your worthless brother---" Ozai stated
"Father, Zuko captured the avatar and he assisted me with capturing Ba Sing Se… He has earned back his honor," Azula interrupted, her voice forceful.
"Zuko?" snickered Ozai.
"Yes father, his actions have done a lot for you," said Azula. This is so unlike her, why is she defending her brother? I wondered. Zuko seemed to be thinking the same thing, the shock was definitely apparent on his face. My thoughts kept me from the next few volleys of words, but I still heard the parting tones, and the fire lord calling for a scribe. When the writer entered the room, Ozai addressed him.
"Make it be known that Zuko, has regained his birthright, and is once again heir to the Fire Nation throne," Ozai declared. The scribe scribbled down the address on a long piece of parchment with his quill. Azula bowed and walked toward the entrance, towards us… We darted backwards; Azula pushed aside the screen we acted innocent, pressing our hands behind our backs as if nothing had changed.
"Father wants to see you now," she said to Zuko, "and them too." She turned, flipped her hair back behind her shoulders, and walked down the hallway, her footsteps echoing in the emptiness of the palace.
Zuko shoved us through the threshold and into the towering room. The flames sat low around the throne, dancing to their music. The air was hot and dry, my throat protested as I breathed the smoke and air. Sitting in the shadows of his own fire, the Fire Lord watched the group of six enter. Zuko bowed to him before pretending to watch the prisoners. We stood in a line facing the throne, Zuko, Aang, Me, Katara, Toph, and last Sokka. From Ozai's view, it would have appeared as if Zuko had a handcuffed procession of prisoners at his command.
"Well done Zuko. Your sister did not lie; you have regained your honor and birthright as my son. By capturing the avatar, who is now being--" The Fire Lord was interrupted by Zuko.
"He is right here, this is the avatar," responded Zuko, his voice was once again using the actor's tone.
"WHAT!!" roared the Fire Lord, "You didn't have the guards take?--"
"No, I thought you would want to see that I had completed my task," Zuko said, fear creeping into this eyes, the actor had fled the stage. Zuko stared up at his father.
"Do you not know what day it is?" asked Ozai as he shouted across the room. My mind was baffled, what is going on? This isn't the plan! What day… is…. it?... My eyes widened in shock. What is the one thing the fire benders fear? To lose fire bending. Why? They would be weak. What's the only day that would do that--- my thoughts were interrupted by Katara and Sokka "The eclipse!" The hamster in my brain started working again, the eclipse was today! The day of Black Sun, that's why I felt so lousy that morning! And the avatar is here! He can defeat the fire lord now and end the war!
I watched the light in the room slowly ebb away. My focus shifted to the single long slit of a window. Looking out, I saw the ponds which surrounded the palace in the courtyards, the buildings and houses outside the guard wall, and the sun, with the moon in the sky. The black moon had only just touched the fiery giant in the sky, shielding simply a portion of the warm sunbeams from the earth. Zuko had seemed to come to his senses, and realized his plan would work better with this added detail.
"Attack!" he commanded, pointing his fist toward his father. Ozai stood, and summoned the sleeping fire at his throne; it came willingly like a pet dog. I wonder how much time it will take until he can't bend anymore, I wondered. I blasted what would have been a tornado of flames at the Fire Lord, but only a few sparks shot from my fist like a defective sparkler. What's wrong? I shrugged, but found myself being pulled away from the action; I saw the fight in slow motion.
"What is happening?" I shouted to myself. I felt a figure move in behind me and stand to my left. Turning to see who it was I felt my feet lift from the ground, my stomach turned over, but I regained my balance enough to see what was going on.
"The Eclipse is almost at its peak," said the figure, he turned to me, studying my reaction.
"Avatar Roku?" I asked, he nodded in response, his eyes watching the movements below.
"Are you taking me home now?" I asked.
"No," The past avatar said, he watched Aang and Katara bend a large amount of water from outside the single window and into the room, while Sokka and Zuko distracted Ozai. Zuko had completely lost his power to control the fire and his father was losing it too.
"Why aren't I fighting then, they need help!" I plead to him. Avatar Roku looked up at me, sighed, and continued his thought.
"This is their fight, not yours. You were sent to aid them to get here, not to defeat the Fire Lord." He glanced back down and watched as Ozai was drenched in the wave of water by Katara, he tried to evaporate it off, but found the fire would no longer obey him. Zuko, Aang, Sokka, Katara, and Toph all circled the king of the world. He looked to them all with malice in his eyes.
"So this is how it ends," I said turning to Roku, but he wasn't there, well he was, but his eyes were glowing like Aang's. I twisted my head and saw Aang; he was hovering a few feet above the ground, in the avatar state. The eclipse must have affected him too! That's the only way he can fire bend! I figured. A blue bolt a lightning shot from Aang's fingers and through the air to where Ozai stood defiantly. The bolt struck him in the chest and flowed through the water covering him to his whole body. Aang collapsed on the ground, Katara, Sokka, and Toph coming to his aid. Roku returned to his body, beside me.
"They need you again, but you will be able to return home soon," he said, then vanished. I was back on the ground, the world was dark. I tripped and stumbled over to Aang's body. Zuko stood over the heap of friends looking on with worry.
"Is he ok?" I asked, I saw Zuko's golden eyes turn to find me, soften a little, and then looked back to Aang.
"He should recover after the Eclipse," said Katara, "He's still breathing, and he's not hurt, but the whole Avatar state thing and the fire bending took a lot out of him." I sighed with relief. Katara and I hoisted Aang between us and were about to walk away with Zuko leading us to the healers when we heard a sound. A clapping sound. Slowly, were all turned our heads to the entrance; there stood Azula, that evil grin on her face slowly clapping her hands …
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