Zuko saw it coming, but barely had time to react. Launching himself aside, he prepared several smaller

attacks which he launched in quick succession. It was amazing just how self-conscious Zuko could be,

whilst in such a dangerous situation. He was very aware of everything he was doing, everything around

him seemed to happen in slow-motion. Even though he couldn't spare the time to look around, he could

feel many pairs of eyes digging into him like dagger, and he could feel the heavy weight of responsibility

on his shoulders. If he didn't succeed to beat Azula… He didn't want to think about it. He launched two

small fire daggers at his sister, who sidestepped them easily, and sent a colossal explosion of blazing blue

flame at him, which he deflected, then responded to with an enormous curtain of fire, setting everything

in its path alight.

The heat in the room was building up, and already sweat was dripping of Zuko's brow as he fended off

another one of Azula's large blows, yet he could still hear the stillness that echoed throughout the entire

underground chamber; no one dared to speak, or even breathe: The dragon of the west himself was

holding his breath.

Iroh watched as his brother's two children set about each other, neither gaining the upper hand, neither

falling beneath the other, each absolutely determined to win. He could only look as Zuko shot several

small attacks at his sister, causing her to jump aside, but Azula prepared a huge fireball, easily the size of

all of Zuko's attacks put together, and let it fly loose towards Zuko, who blocked it with some difficulty,

but managed never the less. Again, Zuko discharged some undersized attacks, but now Iroh could see

what his nephew was playing at. He was not attempting to win, not yet, but merely to tire his sister out.

Iroh strongly suspected that he would have managed this, had Azula not lost her head entirely, and

released her last and most deadly weapon at him: Lightning.

Zuko was prepared for this, yet was still very much unnerved when he saw Azula twirl he hand, with her index finger and middle finger locked together in a fighting stance, and the blue sparks of this lethal

move she was about to perform sprang into reality. Zuko tried hard not to falter as Azula, his blood

sister, turned and pointed it in his direction.

Aang watched as Zuko and Azula battled. Their fight was very unusual; normally Zuko was

uncontrollable, but even as Aang watched, there was a certain calmness to him, and even if his brows

were furrowed in concentration, the expression Zuko bore could pass for that of someone taking a test

that had been well prepared for in advance, and he was blocking every blow that came his way with

relative ease, only firing when necessary, and simply staring ahead as if he was waiting for something,

although Aang had yet to figure out what it was.

Azula, on the other hand was a picture of distress. She was firing humongous blows right left and centre,

and as her cheeks grew redder and redder, her temper grew worse and worse, and Aang was sure that

she was just about to blow her top, when she produced something Aang had only seen once before,

when Azula had snuffed out the life of an old man as if he had been a mere insect to be stepped upon,

and it had unsettled Aang greatly. Now, as he saw it being turned on someone who was fighting for his

life, someone young, who had a long time to live, Aang found that he could not watch. Apparently Katara

felt the same way, for she had her face in her hands, but there was no way to block out the noise that

rang in his ears. Aang just did the best he could to ignore it. But he couldn't.