Disclaimer: Avatar the Last Airbender is created by Michael DiMartino & Brian Konzieko and owned by Nickelodeon.
Based on "The Day of Black Sun Part 2" originally by Aaron Ehaze.
The invasion force made its way to the edge of the crater. Bato stood at the edge. Warriors and two tanks made their way past him and over the edge.
"Surround the periphery! We have to secure the palace by the time the eclipse is over. Otherwise, we'll be in for the fight of our lives," Bato commanded.
Bato made his way down with the rest of them. The tanks and soldiers reached the edge of the capital and made their way in. Firebenders lined themselves up in one of the alleys. Haru, Tyro, and a group of earthbenders came to face them.
"Stop! Surrender peacefully and we won't harm you," said Tyro.
"We'll never surrender," said a Fire Nation fighter, as he stepped forward, made flailing movements with his arms, dashed forward and thrust his palm forward as if to shoot a fire ball, but all that is produced is a pathetic fizzle. "Er okay, we surrender."
He and the other firebenders bowed down and presented their hands in surrender. Katara and Hakoda climbed up to the edge of the crater and looked down at the Fire Nation capital as the soldiers and tanks headed to the palace.
"There it is. The Fire Nation royal palace. We've come so far," said Hakoda.
"It's not over yet," said Katara. Both began to head down.
Zuko and Ozai were in the bunker.
"For so long, all I wanted was you to love me, to accept me. I thought it was my honor that I wanted but really, I was just trying to please you. You, my father, who banished me just for talking out of turn," said Zuko as he pointed a sword at Ozai. "My father, who challenged me; a 13-year-old boy to an Agni Kai. How can you possibly justify a duel with a child?"
"It was to teach you respect," replied Fire Lord Ozai.
"It was cruel! And it was wrong," said Zuko.
"Then you have learned nothing," said Fire Lord Ozai.
"No, I've learned everything! And I had to learn it on my own. Growing up, we were taught that the Fire Nation was the greatest civilization in history and somehow, the war was our way of sharing our greatness with the rest of the world. What an amazing lie that was. The people of the world are terrified by the Fire Nation! They don't see our greatness, they hate us! And we deserve it. We've created an era of fear in the world. And if we don't want the world to destroy itself, we need to replace it with an era of peace and kindness," said Zuko.
Fire Lord Ozai laughed, "Your Uncle has gotten to you, hasn't he?"
Zuko closed his eyes for a second and replied, "Yes. He has." Zuko smiled.
Ozai frowned in disapproval.
A stone wall exploded and revealed Aang, Sokka, and Toph as they ran. A stone structure erupted from the floor where Aang was standing, but he jumped away from it and jumped off one of the metal beams and flipped forward. The two Dai Li agents pulled two slabs from the ground and flung them at Aang, but he deflected them with two kicks. Toph burst through the stone behind Aang and created a hole in it. She landed between the agents and bent two diagonal pillars of stone up from beneath them as she landed, pushed them toward the walls. The agents both landed of the walls feet first and both bent a pillar of stone down at Toph, who blocked the attacks by bending two stone walls up from the floor.
Toph thrust her hands forward and bent a stream of earth at Azula. The stream from the side made contact with Azula. Azula back flipped off the attack and flew back towards the throne. Azula smirked as she landed.
Aang ran forward. One of the Dai Li watched Aang and ran to the side. Aang turned and stopped when he heard a loud, grinding sound. The Dai Li agent slid over the side of the wall and past Aang. He flung himself off the wall and in front of Aang with a pillar of earth, and put himself in front of Azula. The agent sunk into the floor as he landed and bent a large, diagonal wall of stone of from the floor. Aang jumped high into the air, flipped forward, and burst through the wall feet first. Aang landed behind the Dai Li agent, popped him into the air as he landed with one small pillar of stone and knocked him away with a larger one, knocked the agent out of the fight. Aang spun his staff above his head, let go of it as he turned forward, wound up, and shot a powerful blast of air with one hand at Azula.
Azula as she grabbed on to the arms of the throne and cartwheeled away just before the throne was completely destroyed by the air blast. Aang dashed to where Azula was and swung his staff as her, bent out a blade of air. Azula ran between two metal beams. She jumped over the blade of air and at the beam, then flipped off that one back toward the beam behind her. Azula landed on the side of the beam just before she sprung off it as another blade of air barely missed her.
Azula barrel rolled and did the splits as she landed on the ground. Azula ran off, Aang chased after. Azula ran behind the metal beams. She jumped onto and jumped off a beam just as Aang sent another blade of air at her. Azula continued running forward and hopping from the wall to the beams and up to one of the stone beams the Dai Li agents had attacked Toph with. Aang did a small pole vault with his staff and kicked a blast of air at Azula, but missed. Azula slid down the stone beam. She jumped off the diagonal wall Toph had created to block the attack earlier and landed on the other one before she flipped off of it and landed on the floor.
Azula as she turned and faced Aang. Aang and Toph ran at her. Azula turned and rans towards the large stone wall. The other Dai Li agent slid down the stone beam toward the floor and Azula. The agents landed behind her and then bent a pillar up from beneath her, which sent Azula into the air toward the hole in the wall that Toph had made. Sokka climbed up into the hole. Azula fled toward him. Azula passed just inches above Sokka's face as he ducked down. She smirked down at him while he looked back at her fearfully.
Azula landed on the other side of the wall and ran toward the exit. Sokka tried to climb back down. He stopped and ducked timidly as the Dai Li agent, Toph, and Aang jumped over him and through the hole, one at a time. Sokka dropped down and followed after. Toph chased after Azula. Aang caught up to her from the side.
"I can't pin her down. She's too quick," said Aang.
Aang, Toph, and Sokka ran forward. Toph strafed to the side. Inside the tunnels, Azula ran out the doors. The Dai Li agent slid out of the room and blocked the entrance with a large stone. The Dai Li agent slid over the ground and after Azula just as Aang burst through the stone and continued chasing them. Azula and the agent ran away. The Dai Li agent was knocked to the side by a stone pillar ejected out of the side of the wall. A hole opened in the side of the wall and Toph flew out of it. The agent hit the inside of the groove of one of the steel beams supporting the tunnel. He tried to attack, but Toph smashed his stone gloves into dust before she grabbed both sides of the beam's grooves and pulled them in, which trapped the agent. Toph admired her work. Aang ran past her and she followed. Aang and Toph ran down the tunnel. Sokka caught up to them.
"Wait! Aang, Toph, stop attacking," said Sokka. Aang, Toph, and Azula all stopped. "Don't you see what she's doing? She's just playing with us. She's not even trying to win this fight!"
"Not true, I'm giving it my all," said Azula sarcastically.
"You're trying to keep us here and waste all our time!" Toph pointed out.
"Um, right. I think your friend just said that genius. And since you can't see, I should tell you I'm rolling my eyes," said Azula super sarcastically and rolled her eyes and to emphasize her point.
"I'll roll your whole head!" Toph replied angry.
"She's just baiting you again," said Sokka.
"Okay, so what do we do? Just ignore her?" Aang asked.
"Or you could use the Avatar State," Sokka suggested.
"It's a trap. Don't say I didn't warn you," said Azula.
Aang entered the Avatar State. His eyes and tattoos glowed.
Aang used his earthbending bending to to trap Azula. He focused all his energy on the information he wanted. He touched her throat and tried to open her sound chakra; his hope was that it would cause her to tell the truth.
"My mother said I was a monster," Azula whispered loud enough for only Aang to hear.
"No, it's a lie that you told yourself," said Aang.
After a moment, the glowing stopped.
"Where is he?" Sokka asked.
Azula furrowed her brow. She had planned to distract Sokka, but when she opened her mouth, nothing came out.
"She won't talk," said Aang.
"What did you do to her?" Toph asked.
"I tried to unlock her truth chakra," Aang replied.
"The what?" Toph asked.
"Look, I think we should just move on and look for the Fire Lord on our own," said Sokka. They left Azula there.
"After I leave here today, I'm going to free Uncle Iroh from his prison and I'm going to beg for his forgiveness. He is the one who has been a real father to me," said Zuko.
Fire Lord Ozai chuckled and said sarcastically, "That's just beautiful. Maybe he can pass down to you the ways of tea and failure."
"But I've come to an even more important decision," said Zuko. He paused and said. "I'm going to join the Avatar. And I'm going to help him defeat you."
Fire Lord Ozai grinned slyly, "Really? Since you're a full blown traitor now and you want me gone, why wait? I'm powerless, you've got your
swords, why don't you just do it now?"
"Because I know my own destiny. Taking you down is the Avatar's destiny," said Zuko. He sheathed his swords. "Goodbye."
Zuko started to walk away.
Fire Lord Ozai stood up and said, "Coward! You think you're brave enough to face me but you'll only do it during an eclipse. If you have any real courage, you'll stick around until the Sun comes out. Don't you want to know what happened to your mother?"
Zuko as he stopped in front of the doors and turned around. Ozai as he grinned venomously. Ozai can feel the eclipse.
"What happened that night?" Zuko asked.
"My father, Fire Lord Azulon, had commanded me to do the unthinkable to you, my own son. And I was going to do it. Your mother had found out and swore she would protect you at any cost. She knew I wanted the throne and she proposed a plan. A plan in which I would become Fire Lord and your life would be spared," said Fire Lord Ozai.
"So, where do you think he will be?" Aang asked Sokka as the three of them went down the hall.
"I don't know. I know we believed the War Minister, and that was a big door. Maybe a smaller less ornate door would be the way to go. He would need to be close to his people, so I think it would need to be close to the end of the hall," Sokka replied.
"I'll use my earthbending to find out where people are," said Toph.
The three of them headed to the end of the hall.
"Your Mother did vicious, treasonous things that night. She knew the consequences and accepted them. For her treason, she was banished," said Fire Lord Ozai.
A tear streamed from Zuko's eye as he said, "So she's alive."
"Perhaps. Now I realize that banishment is far too merciful a penalty for treason. Your penalty will be far steeper," said Fire Lord Ozai.
On the edge of the eclipse, the moon passed over and the rays of the sun shine through. Ozai's eyes quickly opened. Ozai stepped forward and swung his arms out and created two arcs of electricity from the tips of his fingers. He thrust his fingers forward and fired an incredible bolt of lightning at Zuko. Zuko caught the lightning with the tips of his fingers. Zuko slid backward from the force of the attack, the lightning surrounded his body and made his hair stand on end. Zuko sunk his body down and pulls his arms in as the electricity ran through his body, then thrust his other hand forward, redirected the lightning in Ozai's direction. The bolt struck the ground where Ozai was standing and created an explosion that knocked Ozai against the wall and the tapestry behind him. Zuko fled while, Ozai straightened up his hair fell over his face. The tapestry fell down and a fire caused by the explosion burned in front of Ozai.
Aang, Sokka, and Toph were a few steps away from the smaller door when they heard an explosion. Zuko came out from behind the door.
"We need to leave now," Zuko said.
"But I could still face the Fire Lord," said Aang.
"Without knowing how to firebend? Come on, let's get out of here," said Toph.
The guards were coming, as they ran back the way they came.
"Our best bet is bending our way out," said Toph.
Aang and Toph used earthbending and created an opening up and out and used a rock slide. They made it back to Appa and Momo.
"You go on ahead. I need to find my uncle," said Zuko.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, I'll meet up with you later," said Zuko.
"If things don't work out and we need to escape, we'll be at the Western Air Temple," said Aang.
The palace was surrounded by the tanks and warriors. Katara laid Hakoda against one of the tanks. They both took off their eclipse glasses.
"What should we do, Hakoda? Shouldn't something have happened by now?" Bato asked.
"I don't know. But now that the eclipse is over I expect we're going to see some firebenders any minute," said Hakoda.
Bato suddenly looked up in shock. Katara turned to look in the same direction. Five Fire Nation war balloons ascended into the air. The balloons were powered by firebenders.
"My own invention. Oh this is terrible!" The Mechanist exclaimed. Teo silently placed a consoling hand on his father's shoulder.
Behind one of the balloons ascended an enormous zeppelin. Everyone stared up at the five war balloons along with five huge zeppelins decorated with dragon motifs. Bato, Katara, and Hakoda. Katara turned and pointed into the sky.
"They're back!" Katara pointed out.
Katara ran forward. Appa carried Aang, Sokka, and Toph and flew. Aang looked up at the war balloons. He was worried. Appa landed and Katara ran up to him. Aang looked down at Katara uneasily. Sokka, Toph, and Momo in Appa's saddle.
"It was all a trap. Azula knew we were coming and she's plotted out every move," said Sokka as he and Toph jumped down from Appa. "We just got to get to the beach as fast as we can. If we can make it to the submarines, maybe we can get away safely."
"They've got air power, but so do I!" Aang said as he opened his glider. "I'm going to do what I can to slow them down."
Aang threw his glider into the air. He caught onto it and flew into the air as it looped back to him. Appa growled. Katara climbed on him.
"Appa, you and I can help too," said Katara.
Aang flew toward the zeppelins in the distance, Appa and Katara followed behind.
To Be Continued...