AN: Start of a two, maybe threeshot. I will only post the next parts after I received at least 5 reviews for this chapter! Yes, I am mean.

Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender.

"Aang?! Aang?!!"

Nothing.

She tried yet another door of the enormous palace. With every grip on a doorknob she reminded herself of her blood-stained hands. She, Sokka and Toph had faced Azula. The latter one had fought very fierce and seemed to have made her goal to damage her enemies as much as she could before she would get captured, because she knew she was fighting a losing battle. Azula had done a pretty good job though, Toph had to be taken to the infirmary by Sokka. Katara herself suffered from some fairly serious wounds too, but after delivering the captured Azula to the temporarily headquarters of the invasion force, she immediately went back to the palace to look for Aang.

"Aang?! Are you in here?"

Nothing again

Oh please dear spirits, let him be okay. I would give anything for him to be all right.

In her confusion Katara doubled and even tripled a number of rooms, her hope fading and despair growing.

I just don't know what I would do if something happened to him...

She tried to swallow the heavy lump in her throat, without succeeding. She had searched through the throne room, the hallways, the bedrooms.. How big could one palace be? She opened yet another door and hastingly went inside screaming for Aang again. Somehow, this room seemed different from all the others, even the throne room. It had some sort of a mystique air around it, not to mention it was torn apart and ruined entirely.

This must be where the fight had taken place.

After absorbing the shock of the chamber, she noticed a huge hole in the back wall, viewing on to the palace gardens.

I beg you, spirits, let him not be the one who fell. Please.

She almost didn't dare to look down, but her curiosity had taken the lead and she peaked past the hole and saw the Firelord laying in the grass. Dead.

It's not him! Was the first thought that raced to her mind. Only secondly did she see that it was the Firelord of the almighty Fire Nation laying dead beneath her eyes. Aang had succeeded, but was nowhere to be found. With newfound hope, she cried our once again, but harder and more passionately than before.

"Aang?! Are you here?"

She could hear the faintest groan coming from what seemed to be a pile of rubble. She hastily began digging into it and after a few thrusts she had uncovered the Avatar's chest and started to dig him out entirely, followed by more groans coming from Aang. She gasped at the state he was in. He didn't look good and if she didn't hurry it could maybe be too late for him.

I'm not going to let that happen

She instantly took a handful of water from her flask and attended to the more serious wounds before giving attention to the countless second degree burnings over his entire body. How was this possible? He had fought during the eclipse, hadn't he? She looked around again and she saw countless bodies of firebenders, either just knocked down or killed in combat. They had obviously been firebending, because there was no melee weapon of any kind to be found. So they had somehow anticipated to the eclipse? She knew it had worked on the other firebenders across the city. She was very puzzled on the clear contradiction before her eyes.

She took Aang's shivering and aching body into her arms and started running back as fast and light-footed as she could.

Just try not to hurt him more, Katara. Focus now and get him through. You need him to get through this.You need him.

Along the way, she heard Aang trying to say something to her, faint mumblings starting with "Fire, fire everywhere". How was that possible? The eclipse was going on through the whole fight, she thought. It was a good thing it had lasted two hours. She would hear about it later, she told herself. First, she had to take care of Aang.

"Ssh Aang, it's ok. Be silent for now. I'm bringing you to our command post. There you will get all the healing you need"

Katara's legs ached in every muscle she had, caused by the fast pace she was running at, but she didn't notice. Still, it seemed that seconds went by at the speed of ages. It didn't matter though, she was determined to get him to safety. Finally arriving at the command post and seeing to it that there were healers doing there very best for Aang, she felt her legs become numb. She fell back into a chair. The command post was all the way by the shoreline, because there was water nearby, used for both healing and treating burned wounds by non-healers.

He's safe. By all spirits, he's safe...

Katara instantly closed her eyes and almost just as instantly fell asleep. She was fatigued. Every single bit of energy drain from her body. Time to heal. Time to mend.

AN: The firebending during the eclipse will be explained in the next chapter!