"You two can end this," Aang said, quietly.
Opportunity comes in many forms, the monk realized. Zuko's ambush thwarted his escape plan. But perhaps this confrontation was not meant to close as Aang intended.
Air deprivation was a more violent method than Aang would usually implement. Gyatso had warned of the consequences of prolonged suffocation. Not the obvious result of death, but a loss of the brain's full functionality. An airbender using the advanced technique walked a tightrope edge of killing or crippling a target.
Worry for friends brewed inside him, compelling him to get away, feeding the distress that usually prefaced his passing out and waking up to untold destruction. Aang held back enough to prevent the princess from suffering permanent damage. Disoriented and stranded, but alive and able to recover after he was long gone.
Now he stood between two firebenders, a prize for brother and sister to fight over. Not playful bickering the way Katara and Sokka did. Their stances, determined faces... ready to use lethal violence against each other.
Aang never had siblings. Not that he knew of. Air Nomad traditions were carefully crafted to prevent those attachments from forming.
Even before traveling with the Water Tribe siblings, Aang experienced enough of the world to find siblings willing to fight and kill one another a deeply upsetting, unnatural thing. Protecting Sokka and Katara remained his priority, but he didn't want to see Zuko and Azula fighting each other. It was sick. A symptom of the world's illness.
It dawned on Aang that he stood in a duel between two royal heirs to the throne. It couldn't have been coincidence.
And Aang knew his destiny was to end this war. Defeating Fire Lord Ozai wouldn't be the end. One of these two would have to become the new head of the Fire Nation.
Or was sleep deprivation making him loopy?
"You two can end this," he repeated loud enough for them both to hear.
"I intend to," Azula assured, smoke rising from her fingertips.
Struggling not to gulp at her vengeful tone, Aang planted his staff, neither threatening nor defensive.
He shook his head tiredly. "Not this fight. This war."
Both firebenders looked at him like he'd grown a second head. That happened sometimes, when he voiced his thoughts.
"Your country has fought for a hundred years." His hand fanned out over the empty expanse, indicating land beyond their sight. "Every nation has suffered. You're both the future of the Fire Nation. And you can help put this world on a different path. A path to peace."
Silence stretched. Aang unsure of what else should leave his dry mouth.
Zuko's face, though, hosted a sliver of uncertainty. He needed a push. Aang felt it. He could reach him. And reaching one would help reach the other.
"I can show you what the world should be. You haven't seen it without suffering. I have. It's beautiful. That's where I want to live." He held his hand out to them, striving to exude humility and non-aggression. "It's where we all deserve to live. Together, we can show the world."
By a near imperceptible margin, Zuko lowered his hands.
Azula threw her head back to laugh. Cackled like a witch. Hand over her mouth.
Zuko's guard snapped up.
Azula calmed, a gleam in her eyes. "Avatar," she purred, sending a familiar chill up his spine, "if the world wanted peace... it would surrender."
She threw both arms out, aiming a blast at Aang's feet and Zuko's chest. Aang jumped onto a building as Zuko stumbled through a boarded up window.
Azula discarded interest in her brother to come after him. She'd wanted Zuko out of the way and guided him upward.
Aang watched her. Nimbly climbing the building with enviable acrobatics. Her movement wasn't as free as Aang's, yet the closest he'd seen from a non-airbender since Jet… or the Blue Spirit.
She ran across the ridge of the roof with impeccable balance.
Aang swept his staff at her. She jumped over the wind crescent, kicked out one leg, used the momentum of her blast to spin, then kicked the other. Aang ducked and wove between them with a flip, then struck downward, sending a vertical crescent.
Azula balanced on her back leg and kicked a stream of fire. The resulting explosion blew wind over her head, her black hair its own whipping flame.
She smirked at him, hands out, one over the other, fingers straight. Her confident expression evaporated as red fire erupted between them. A flurry of such blasts caused the two enemies to dance around the roof as they punched and kicked blasts of fire and air at each other.
An entire section of the roof fell into the house. The fire concentrated on the remaining tiles. Frantically jumping off a collapsing beam, his back collided with hers. He looked over his shoulder into golden eyes. The moment stretched further than possible.
She jumped away, aimed a spinning kick at him. Midair, she flipped and unleashed a stream of sapphire into the building and propelled herself to the next roof.
Aang propelled himself up, swirling his staff as if stirring a pot, gathering air around it. Azula fired up at him. He shed natural wind resistance, plummeted through a hole in the roof and slammed his staff with all the force he could muster.
Howling winds wiped away every flame. Zuko flew out another window. The house exploded into pieces. Aang would have felt guilty if the homes were inhabited.
Instead, he had room for nothing but exhaustion. Most of what he had left went into that blast. Aang's body shook with weakness. Chi enhancing tea would be a great boost right then.
In the streets he heard the rare sound of firebenders dueling each other. Most of the house lay in dest, but a wall shielded him from their sight. Bursts of fire withered at the edge of the brick.
Through cracks in the stone Aang caught peeks of something he'd never seen. Azula swatted away an oncoming fire blast into smoke.
That was the type of firebending he wouldn't mind learning. For now...
Should he escape? He'd stood his ground and confronted the problem, but if the Fire Nation siblings wanted to work things out this way, maybe he'd let them. It's what he sometimes did with Katara and Sokka. And he still had to get back to them.
Aang heard a body tumbling, concurring with Zuko's pained grunts. A familiar sound.
The princess slid to a stop at the now crooked doorway. Her blast came like a comet.
Aang jumped onto what was left of the wall, then out into the street. He ducked under a fiery kick from Zuko. The prince pivoted to stomp on the staff. He kicked at the arrow on his forehead.
Abandoning the instrument, Aang retreated backward, fireballs never letting him touch the ground for too long. He jump over a flight of stairs. Azula chased after him. He ducked into a two-story building with one floor, hovering on an air scooter. Azula rushed in, barely stopping short of the edge.
She looked pretty cute flailing her arms like that. Aang now had time and inclination to offer her a jaunty wave.
She recovered gracefully, just in time to watch Zuko charge in and divebomb to the ground floor.
Distracted by this hilarious sight, Aang gasped when Azula pressed the attack. He hopped off his withering scooter to the remains of the second floor. He zoomed toward her, thrusting his palm against her side. She braced herself before hitting the wall, her arm and leg baring the brunt of it. Even then she managed to land on the ground floor like a crouched cat.
He escaped the building as fire bolts chased his back.
Aang landed in time to see Zuko blasted through the wall. The older boy was really taking a beating today. He always did but this time it didn't look like he'd be up anytime soon.
A shot of fire gave him no time to feel relieved. She for his feet again but had already fired another shot. Aang jumped right into it. He barely managed to spin a shield of air around him before the force struck his stomach. His tattooed arms and legs trailed after him until his back hit a wall.
His mouth opened to scream but nothing came out. Aang had nothing left.
Fire hungrily crawled over the insides of the house to surround him. In his blurred vision approached a golden eyed, ivory skinned spirit with wild hair. Her victorious smirk, he made out clearly.
He struggled to move. She raised her hand. Aang tensed for the burning.
Then came the beautiful sound of a water whip!
His team assembled rapidly, Katara, Sokka, and even Toph made her way back, robbing Azula of all the initiative she'd built. They cornered her, literally trapped her in the corner of an otherwise corroded building, strangely enough, alongside Zuko and Iroh.
Only it didn't feel strange. Despite all that Zuko had put him and his friends through, molding their focus on a common enemy felt right to Aang. He didn't spare the prince a cautionary glance or balance his weight to dodge a fire blast.
Stirrings of comradery from when the Blue Spirit had been his savior and ally. Even as Azula labeled them 'enemies and traitors'. A distinction he wore proudly if she assigned it.
"I can see when I am outmatched. A princess surrenders with honor." She raised her arms in capitulation.
The tiniest bit of relief cooled his mood, but a raindrop is a flood to a man in the desert.
Aang froze. He looked at her face and thought something uncharitable even for his most sour, childish moments.
Liar.
He could not wash away the image of her striking at him from the shadow when he had been at his most relaxed. She wanted their guards lowered so that she could make her move when they didn't see it coming.
But Aang did.
"Toph," he said, almost as if it were someone else talking. But his mind was not muddled with the screaming thoughts and warring emotions of ten-thousand before him.
It was Aang who formed the words, "Sink her."
Azula prided herself on being excellent in everything she did. Above all, her greatest advantage was emotional control. She didn't react to emotion. She used it as an excavating tool to unveil weaknesses. A careful analysis of the situation decided which feelings, real or feigned, to display. When to display them. With what intensity.
Now before a coalition of enemies, the unprecedented happened without her consideration. Surprise jolted from her mind to etch itself on her face.
She'd been looking for the most vulnerable target to strike among this profane alliance united against her. Old Uncle Iroh had most of her attention. Even though his paunch took up most of her vision by default, his presence was the biggest threat by far. He seemed distracted by the young earthbender for reasons she couldn't fathom.
A perfect strike on the perfect target. Azula wanted to get back at him anyhow, for redirecting her lightning and throwing her overboard her own ship.
Then the Avatar blindsided her yet again, this strange creature that she couldn't understand, who spoke of compassion when he could dominate. He ordered his earthbender to take her down. The princess knew she could not wait to make her move.
He anticipated her, moving before she did, throwing up a current to prevent her arms from snaking down to strike. The ground cracked and swallowed her feet. She sank waist deep. Azula struck out at the savage little earthbender before she could be buried.
Her brother's weaker flame intercepted the blue bolt. It detonated halfway to its target.
Azula reared her hand to throw a burning tide over the group and distract them as she escaped. A whip of water snapped against her wrist before she completed the motion, her fire fizzling out. She sank to her shoulders, the world around her becoming so much larger.
The ground was still loose, pliable from being bent. She could escape with a burst from her entire being. Azula opened her mouth to spew and scream fire at them all, send them scurrying.
A whizzing drowned out her inhale and something struck her head. Her gaze caught the setting sun before turning black.
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