Hello, People!
Well, that chapter didn't take long to be published, I hope you enjoy it :)
3 hours before the fight
Toph arrived at the caldera city docks, it's been a two-day journey from Gaoling to the firenation, she hated travelling by ship, although she didn't like travelling on Appa very much, but at least he was fast and didn't make her wait that long for her to travel from one place to another, two days on Appa could get her around the entire globe and back, she was exaggerating of course, but it's the perfect way to describe how fast Appa is compared to normal ships.
She thought twice before making this journey, it was the urgency in Zuko's letter that made the decision for her, Zuko doesn't normally use such words in his letters, so if he does use them, it means that this is serious.
She thought it would be exciting since she hasn't had a decent fight in two years since the end of the war, in fact she's been living a peaceful life as the owner of a metal-bending academy in Gaoling, She made it her purpose to teach this new found sub-bending to the earthbenders, and the fact that she founded it herself made her all the more adamant on the matter, the fact that there is a sub-bending that exists because of her made her feel so excited to make it known for the entire world.
She couldn't dwell on it for long though as she was in a hurry, she had to make it to the firenation palace before it's too late.
As she walked to the other side of the dock, she sensed familiar footsteps walking towards her, she smiled as she recognized them immediately.
"Well, well… if it isn't the girls with the face paint."
Suki laughed at this, "It's good to see you, Toph." She said, as she hugged her friend who returned the hug happily.
"Hello, Ty Lee. Looks like, you're bonding so well with the girls, I couldn't make you out this time." Toph said.
Every time she meets them, she would be able to easily make out Ty Lee, as she's always felt her footsteps were different to theirs, but now, she couldn't make her out, which definitely makes Ty Lee an official member of the Kyoshi warriors.
Ty Lee grinned widely at this, "Really? This is so exciting! I really love my time with these girls, they are the best." She said, hugging the two Kyoshi warriors on either of her sides, smiling widely at them.
Toph chuckled at this, "Good for you.", She then looked at Suki with a more serious expression, "I take it you received the same letters I did."
Suki's facial expression got serious as well, "Yeah, I feel like there's something seriously wrong, Toph. The way Zuko described the situation in the letters didn't sit well with me."
"Zuko wouldn't have called us if it wasn't serious, we should head directly for the palace before anybody could."
"You're right." Suki said, before she looked at the Kyoshi warriors with Ty Lee among them, "We're heading for the palace, girls. follow up." Suki instructed, before she walked off with Toph and Ty Lee beside her and the Kyoshi warriors behind them.
They kept going until they reached the tip of the volcano, that's when Toph sensed it.
"Hide!" Toph shouted to the girls.
And as soon as she said it, the girls scattered and they all found places to hide.
"What's wrong, Toph?" Suki whispered as she was hiding beside Toph.
Toph was silent for a couple of seconds, something made her unable to speak, it rendered her speechless, Suki looked on so she might find out, her eyes widened as she saw Princess Azula, with a group of rebels behind her, heading for the battle.
"Should we attack?" A Kyoshi warrior whispered behind her.
"Not now, Lin, we wait until we join the others." Suki responded, and the girls obeyed.
Toph was still speechless, she couldn't believe it, she had this look of disbelief on her face.
Oh Spirits, what's that? Toph thought as she kept looking on.
"Toph, are you alright? I haven't seen you so shaken up before?" Suki asked, worried for her friend, "Is it Princess Azula?"
Toph was able to speak for the first time, "No… It's him." She said, pointing at the ugly mercenary beside her with a dual sword on his back and ponytail.
"That guy?" Suki asked.
Toph nodded, "What kind of spiritual energy is that?" Toph asked, looking incredibly dazed.
"You can sense spiritual energy?" Ty Lee asked.
"When it's really strong, yes. I've never sensed that much spiritual energy in anyone other than Aang, there's something about that guy." Toph explained.
Everyone was silent for a while.
Toph then shook her head, and stood up after the party left,
"Well, Girls. We now know their numbers and their powers. That guy that I just pointed at, we can't fight him head on, our best bet is to make him useless. Which means, he belongs to the both of you." Toph said to Ty Lee and Suki.
Ty Lee smiled at that, "Nothing would make me happier than to Chi-Block such a bad man."
Suki looked at Toph, "Don't worry, Toph. We've got this."
Toph smiled at the girls, "I know you do."
The girls got on with the plan, and they continued on their way to the firenation palace to join Mai, Katara and Sokka,
Only for the plan to go incredibly wrong…
*Present Time*
A battered and beaten up Toph found herself in the woods behind the royal palace with Katara on top of her, completely out cold.
I shouldn't have sent them. That was the first thing that came to her mind upon waking up.
The last thing she remembers was that Berserker launched his true power at her, but Katara was able to save her which resulted in both of them getting knocked very far away from the battlefield.
She pushed Katara off of her and got her on the ground, she found that Katara's leg was slightly burned but Katara couldn't feel it as she was out cold.
"Katara, wake up! Katara!" She kept saying as she slapped Katara multiple times across the face.
Katara finally woke up, only to feel the pain all over her body as she moaned in agony.
"Wake up, Sugar queen, you need to heal your leg, it's seriously burned." Toph said.
Katara's eyes widened as she realized what's causing her pain, she shrieked and completely grabbed some water to heal her leg, she kept moving the healing water on her leg until the burn completely cooled down and disappeared.
Katara sighed, "Thank you, Toph."
"No, Thank you. If it weren't for you, I would have been dead or worse."
"What's worse than death?"
"Being completely disintegrated. That was a lot of fire, I could feel it."
"Yeah, that guy is something else, huh?"
Toph's facial expression changed, "Suki and Ty Lee are dead and it's my fault, the plan of Suki and Ty Lee going for Berserker was mine, it was all my idea, I thought it would be better to disarm him, but he calculated every move, it's like he knew we were coming, he knew our every step, and now, I'm left with the guilt of it all. Screw Him! I won't rest until I kill him." Toph said, her face displaying both genuine anger and sadness over her dead friends.
Katara felt sad as well over the death of Suki and Ty Lee as well, "Don't go hard on yourself, there was nothing else you could do." She said, trying to reassure Toph.
"I could have thrown fists with him myself, I could have sacrificed myself instead of Suki and Ty Lee!"
"Like I said, it would have ended up no different than the other option, the only person capable of fighting such force isn't here and-" Katara stopped mid-sentence and her eyes widened as she saw something from the distance, atop the firenation palace,
"Perhaps, I spoke too soon."
Toph felt Katara standing up and looking at something, "What? What's it?" Toph asked, as she couldn't see what Katara was looking at.
"It's Aang!" Katara shouted happily.
He's currently fighting firenation forces, Katara saw him as he made a long jump up in the air that got him to the top of the firenation palace.
She shed tears of joy as she saw him, it's been two years, he's definitely changed since then, she decided it was time to see him in person.
"Let's go, Toph. We have to help him!" Katara said as she ran towards the palace with Toph behind her.
The Avatar fought two forces of nature at once, while Mai and the remaining Kyoshi warriors took on the remaining soldiers of the new Ozai society, The Avatar took on Azula and Berserker, two firebending masters in their prime.
The Avatar kept dodging their attacks, he didn't want to hurt anybody, even though he doesn't know the full extent of Berserker's powers yet, due to the fact that Zuko has been out cold throughout the entire journey, he couldn't get any valuable information from him, all he got was grunts and screams of pain.
Oh, and the fact that they surmised beforehand that he's the reincarnation of Yaketsuku, the ancient firebending master who merged with a dragon spirit.
He did start to understand Zuko's concern though, if Azula was very strong, Berserker is about three times that, and he hasn't used any of his deadly techniques yet on The Avatar, although Aang got a pretty good idea by the look of the completely destroyed royal palace.
The Avatar couldn't hold it in any longer, he had to tell Mai somehow that she has to protect Zuko, he knew it was dangerous to tell them of the firelord's location, he knew the mission of the new ozai society was to kill the firelord, and so revealing Zuko's position would be their win.
"Mai! The package is in the stables, go make sure it's alright." Aang said, deciding to speak in riddles, hoping Mai would catch on.
Fortunately, Mai was really smart, she immediately caught on to what Aang was referring to.
"On it." Mai said, she immediately abandoned the battlefield and made her way to the stables.
Azula's eyes glimmered, she knew Aang's words had a double meaning, but she decided to brush the thought on and focus on the fight.
Berserker kept shooting fireballs at the avatar, and the avatar kept dodging and deflecting them, Azula however caught on to Aang's plan, she knew he was buying himself some time until the arrival of the military forces, what she couldn't comprehend though was… why didn't he just tap into the avatar state and be done with it?
It's either the avatar has lost his connection to his incredible powers again, or he just doesn't want to, either way, she couldn't roll the dice on it, and just kept going forward with the attacks.
The Avatar then decided to stop dodging the attacks and take on the offensive, he used his earthbending to shake the earth beneath Azula and Berserker, they thought it was his plan to push them to the ground and so they both jumped at the same time, only for Aang to catch them mid-air as it was his plan all alone.
His plan was to use earthbending for distraction, and so he would execute on his real plan, he jumped up quickly and caught them mid-air, and then he attacked them with a powerful blast of airbending.
Azula and Berserker were knocked away from the blast, and they smashed onto the debris behind them, giving them the worst back pain.
Aang then landed gracefully right in front of the two, taking a fighting stance in front of them and waiting for their attack.
Berserker was pissed at the fact that the avatar was currently just playing with them, and to top it all off, he was showing off in front of them with that slow landing, Berserker's nostrils flared with anger,
"Should I use my technique, Firelord? I don't think there's any other to defeat that man at the moment, he's really strong." Berserker asked, Azula concurred with him on that last part, the avatar has gotten exceptionally better since the last time she's fought him, he's become more direct with his hits
Azula immediately shut down the idea, as she got on both feet and took a fighting stance again, "No, just stick to the plan, it'll all be over soon." The Princess said, before she attacked the avatar with a powerful firebending blast and the fighting continued.
Aang knew they had something up their sleeve, but he just decided to trust his own plan and kept on fighting the two.
His plan was to keep fighting them until the military arrives, he would have to keep up with their fighting techniques until help arrives, he was starting to question what took them so long, but he remembered just how slow the military is when it comes to the preparation for a fight, apparently the firenation military is no different.
Aang kept deflecting their firebending blows, tossing the blasts left and right, he questioned why Berserker hasn't used his technique on him yet, he surmised that it might have something to do with his energy, but what is he keeping the energy for? Not to brag about his status, but their greatest enemy is standing right in front of them right now, why not use your technique on him and be rid of it?
Aang prepared so well for the blast, he believed that it might come at any moment, and so he had a counter plan for it.
From what he read about Yaketsuku, his technique takes some time to be launched, he has to well it up from his stomach before launching it at his opponent, that takes some time, and that was the main reason Yaketsuku fell.
The previous avatar took advantage of that small problem, and capitalized on it by slicing the previous owner's head off.
Aang didn't have it in him to slice someone's head off, or even take away his life, but his counter plan was to use the technique the lion turtle taught him before his fight with Ozai, the one he never used due to his stupidity.
The technique was to take someone's bending away, by using an ancient technique called energy bending, the lion turtle said that before the time of the avatar, they didn't bend the elements, but the energy within ourselves, the lion turtle taught the technique to Aang and so he decided that whenever the time comes, he would strip Berserker of his gifts and take his bending away, something he should have done with Ozai.
He decided not to dwell too much on the past and try to keep up with what's going on.
He felt his plan taking effect when he heard the sound of the military marching towards the royal palace.
That's when the fighting stopped.
"Now, Berserker!" Azula shouted, as she took the front line and fought with Aang, while Berserker gave up the fight with the avatar and turned away.
Aang knew something was wrong, why's Azula so enthusiastic about the arrival of the military? The arrival of the military means their certain demise… right?
Only for Aang to be proven wrong as he found out exactly why Berserker was holding in the energy.
He turned around to find a large battalion consisting of almost half of the military forces standing right in front of the destroyed royal palace, they were so well-organized and ready for battle.
Turns out that was the opening Berserker needed all along.
"Surrender now, or face the consequences!" The leader of the battalion said.
Only for Berserker to smile menacingly in front of them, "What took you so long?" Berserker said as he was facing the military.
Aang stopped fighting Azula as he knew exactly what was going to happen, Berserker started welling up the energy and he knew that was it.
"No! Stop!" Aang shouted at the top of his lungs.
But it was too late as Azula created a barrier of blue fire right in front of him, it blocked his eyesight but it didn't block his ears as he heard exactly what happened out there.
Suddenly a large beam of fire was created, that beam was so high that it reached the height of the former royal palace, Aang could see it from behind the wall of fire that Azula created.
The fire then formed the great dragon, and with a single swing of his hands, it was launched at the military forces.
The battalion was reduced to ash in mere seconds.
Aang took down Azula's wall of fire, only to see that the battalion was no longer there, the entire forces and the houses behind them were turned to ashes right on the spot.
Aang's eyes widened, he was unable to move, he couldn't believe what he just saw, how could someone be so evil? How could someone take the lives of so many men?
At this moment he remembered Ryu's words to him, he didn't know what part of this situation could bring Ryu's words up in his mind, but that was all he could think of at the moment,
"It makes you a defender of mankind, you're different than the rest of us, you don't have the choice to stop fighting, it's your destiny to keep fighting for the rest of your life."
Did I fail as a defender of mankind? Aang asked inwardly.
The Avatar couldn't believe what was happening, he couldn't feel himself.
He couldn't even feel when his eyes and tattoos started to glow.
The anger he felt triggered the avatar state and all Azula could think of at the moment was how to escape the mighty Avatar's rampage.
Thanks for reading
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