Pre-Chapter A/N: Please do check out the first chapter of the novel I'm working on up on pa-treon- it's completely free to access.
What can I say except you're welcome? Here we go with the fifth chapter of 2025. Lovely to have you all here, and I hope you enjoy this one. If you do, feel free to head over to pa-treon and read the following two chapters- I update there on a daily basis so there's always something for you to read. It's also a new year, so this is probably the best time to buy an annual membership on my page.
XXXX- KATARA
There was so much chaos around them that she couldn't even make heads or tails of what was going on. Everything had begun according to plan. Masters Pakku, Jeong-Jeong, Piandao, and Zuko's Uncle had left to the Earth Kingdom to free Ba Sing Se while she, Sokka, Aang, Bato and their allies went towards the Fire Nation. While their friends attacked the Gates of Azulon, it was her, Sokka, and Aang that had gotten on Appa to make the journey to the volcano that the Royal Family had retreated to.
It was when they arrived at the smaller palace that all hell broke loose. They'd arrived to the sight of fire nation soldiers fighting other fire nation soldiers as chaos reigned. And then they'd been spotted and been forced into the middle of all that. At that time, the eclipse only had five minutes left so they didn't have a choice. No one had been able to give them a clear picture of what was going on so they fought their way down to the center of the palace.
Even there, it was more chaos, with so much screaming and fighting, and shouting that she was beginning to wonder if this whole thing wasn't some sort of twisted trap and mind game to waste their time. When they arrived at the throne room, it was to seeing some old men surrounded by Fire Nation soldiers with the old men being protected by soldiers of their own. Unlike those outside, these ones hadn't decided that it was necessary for them to pick up whatever they could find and try to kill each other with it, and seemed to be waiting for the eclipse to come to an end.
Their presence was noticed in seconds and all the present forces turned to them almost as one. The old men seemed to take that as their cue, and their circle broke apart and began rushing at the guards surrounding them. The man on the throne who she figured was the Fire Lord seemed to regard them with boiling hatred.
"How fitting is it that the coward known as the Avatar would choose to confront me at this hour when I am most vulnerable" If he expected these words to have any effect on Aang, then he was mistaken as Aang just watched him with blank eyes. When he moved, it was with all the power and force that one would expect from the most powerful bender in the world. Invisible winds moving at incomprehensible speeds slammed into the first set of Fire Nation Guards that separated them and Ozai, sending them flying backwards and away from the fight with bone crushing force.
"Surrender, Fire Lord. You are beaten" Aang said next, giving a meaningful look at the fighting still taking place.
"You seem to be-" The Fire Lord began to speak, and then suddenly one of the guards behind him broke ranks and stabbed their pike right through his back. She gasped in shock just as the Fire Lord did the same.
"Y-you?" He asked as he fell forward from the throne and onto the floor. The other guards broke their stupor, and moved to attack the one that had killed the Fire Lord, but Katara felt at her water skins and created a whip of boiling water that slapped all of them away from her as she moved to the guard's aid. She had no idea why it had happened, but the fact that the guard had killed the Fire Lord meant that she was at least an ally. Aang, eyes flashing white for a second but no longer, brought an end to the fighting in a matter of seconds. Powerful blasts of air tore through all the fire nation soldiers and guards, sending everyone who failed to surrender into a broken heap on the floor.
The guard who had killed the Fire Lord ripped their helmet off their head, revealing a beautiful woman in a ponytail. For the first time in a long time, Katara learned what it felt like to look at someone more beautiful than her and crushed the feeling of inadequacy that rose in her chest as quickly as she could.
"Who are you?" She found herself asking.
"Zhufu", the guard responded, voice cold as ice.
"Why would you do that?" Aang cut in as he floated to land between them. On looking at the Fire Nation woman, though, Aang seemed to freeze in his steps, obviously taken in by her beauty. Part of Katara couldn't even blame her. From a few meters away, Sokka was in much the same state.
"This bastard raped me. Repeatedly. Multiple times a day, he demanded that I 'serviced' him or else he would see to it that my family was punished for my impudence. I swore that I would kill him one day, and you gave me the perfect opportunity." She said, spitting down at the body of the Fire Lord, even as Katara felt disgust and pity overwhelm her in equal measure—disgust at the pathetic waste of space that was Ozai, and pity for this woman.
XXXXXX- TOJI
Natsu had one great talent in life. It was killing. Zhufu and Maki might have tried to dress it up with pretty words because they never truly understood his best friend. Natsu was a born killer, and it showed in the way he fought Iroh and Jeong-Jeong. Even though they seemed equally matched to most, Toji could tell there was a sharpness in Natsu's movements. A hunger and savagery that neither of the older men had in them. Jeong-Jeong fought like an artist, but Natsu's art was fighting.
He bent almost to his waist to dodge around a powerful fist from General Iroh, and turned the bend into a smooth backflip to avoid a flame missile from Jeong-Jeong that sought to take advantage of his seemingly occupied state. Toji smirked at that. Natsu had a degree of spatial awareness that none could ever match. It was like he had eyes at the back of his head sometimes, the way he could tell what was happening around him. He spun up from the backflip and shot right at Jeong-Jeong. The white haired man pursed his lips before flaring his hands to lift a wall of flames to ward off Natsu's approach. As if!
Natsu cut through the flames like the son of Agni he was and came face to face with his former Master. The man stepped backwards, and in a second, Iroh was there to help. He met Natsu blow for blow for a second, but Toji could see the way he winced when blocking Natsu's punch with his forearm. Natsu hit harder than anyone Toji had ever met, and he did it relentlessly. He dodged around the General's retaliatory palm strike and lashed out with a kick aimed at his head, matched with fire aplenty.
With a twist of the wrist that Toji had to commend, the old man deflected both the powerful driving kick and the flames that came along with it. Natsu's old master darted around the wider old man and aimed a powerful fire blast at Natsu's head with his fist. Natsu turned to the flames at almost the last second and allowed his body drop to the floor into a split. The flames went over his head, while Natsu rose from the floor with an uppercut aimed right for the older general. He stepped backwards in a flurry of expert footwork and opened his mouth, showing us why he was called the Dragon of the West, and spewing out a sea of flames. Natsu then proceeded to do something that had Toji doubting his eyes. He was used to the bullshit to some extent, but this was just an entirely new level.
He breathed in and proceeded to swallow the flames that Iroh spewed out. Both Jeong-Jeong and Iroh froze at the sight just as Toji did. Even Natsu himself seemed shocked that he worked and then that shock turned into a smirk. He jumped at the old General and the man scurried backwards like he had just realised the truth of the situation. He was prey, nothing more, and Natsu was the baddest predator of them all.
As Natsu chased him, Iroh slammed his foot on the ground with a lot more force than he needed to, obviously some form of signal for Jeong-Jeong to do something. But instead of Natsu's master, the ground in front of Natsu exploded as someone jumped out of the hole and dove right on Natsu, slamming Toji's best friend into the ground. Obviously, an earth bender, the man was a giant, easily nearly as tall as the Mountain and about as muscular. His upper body was bare, and he wore only a light green knee-length shorts with overlapping panels to protect his dignity.
He grabbed a hold of Natsu's face with his hand and used that to push his head deeper into the ground. Natsu seemed to strain against the grip but could barely get any leverage. The surrounding ground began to rise to enclose him then, reminding Toji of the state they'd found Natsu in after that bastard Bumi had had his way with him. But Natsu had grown by leaps and bounds since then. Not only that, but he'd practiced this exact situation with Toph.
He was almost fully enclosed within the earthen prison when the entire thing exploded and sent the earth bender flying. The man sailed through the air for a few feet before landing on the ground smoothly. Even as he tried to play it off, Toji's keen eyes could see the reddening on the skin around his left palm. It progressed up his wrist before stopping at the bracer that he wore. He had a brown bracer with metallic studs around each wrist and each ankle. He was dressed shockingly similarly to that mad bastard Bumi, and the longer Toji looked at him, the more similarities he could see.
"And who are you supposed to be?" There was a false lightness to Natsu's tone as he stood up to stare at the three men who had taken their stances opposite him.
"You took everything from me" The Earthbender said before stomping on the ground and sending a giant javelin of pure stone right at him. Natsu turned, allowing the earth missile to miss him.
"I don't even know who you are" He replied with a confused tilt of his head.
"You will" the earthbender replied and all four of them exploded in motion at the same time. Both Iroh and Jeong-Jeong's fire attacks went practically ignored as Natsu dodged around them in his chase of the earthbender. The man stood his ground, which displayed bravery that Toji commended, even if he knew it would avail him little. He stomped the ground and multiple boulders flew into the air under his command.
He held them aloft by holding his arms up before pushing said arms out at Natsu and sending the boulders flying at him. Natsu smirked and, in a move that Toji had come to learn was one of his favourites, created two fire whips — one on each hand. With the whips, he slashed through the boulders like they were made of paper, but before he could do anything else, both Iroh and Jeong-Jeong darted in from the sides and grabbed a hold of the ends of the whip.
Toji watched as the whips flared for a second before they suddenly went from originating from Natsu's clenched palms to creating tendrils that wrapped around his wrists. They dragged the whips to hold him still and Natsu was forced to stand with his hands outstretched as the earthbender shoved his arms into the ground. They came up with rocky gauntlets around them. Toji leaned over the railing to get a better view as the earthbender began to run at his friend.
Sighing at his show coming to an end, he turned and picked up his staff, testing the balance for a second before he prepared to turn the earthbender into a kebab. Just as he was about to toss it, though, he felt himself freeze in place. Natsu had turned to him and was staring daggers into him. "Don't you dare" his friend said and Toji took the warning for that it was and put down the weapon. The earthbender reached Natsu and landed a powerful punch right to his friend's midsection, making him spit out blood.
"I'm going to enjoy this" The earthbender said before landing another punch to Natsu's head. Toji was impressed that the punch hadn't knocked out a tooth or two and began to wonder how long his friend was going to take this one for before he got his answer. Iroh and Jeong-Jeong were at opposite ends of the garden, each one dragging at the fire whips that kept Natsu's hands bound. The earthbender came around for the next punch and this time, Natsu was ready. Right before the punch landed, Natsu dodged underneath it. The flames binding him turned an ethereal green that forced both men to let go with screams of pain.
Natsu brought the flame whips back around and tried to use them to tear through the earthbender's body, but only ended up succeeding in getting a nasty cut into the man's side as he used his bending to push himself off of the floor and backwards away from Natsu. Toji's friend snarled at the miss before he was set upon from both side by the firebenders. As one, they unleashed powerful blasts aimed at him. Natsu spread his arms out before cycling them like a windmill, creating some sort of fire shield that blocked both attacks but surrounded him in a tornado of green flames.
The fire tornado became smaller and smaller until Natsu became visible again, and Toji could see that he was gathering the flames and concentrating them into a single spinning ball in his grip. Like a shot from a canon, he fired it right at the Earthbender in front of him. The man set his mouth into a grimace before he lifted multiple earthen walls from the ground and tried to use them to block the attack. It didn't matter. The green fireball tore through the earth walls before hitting the earthbender center mass and exploding into a fireball that hurt Toji's eyes to look at.
One down, Natsu seemed to be getting into the groove of things as he shot at his former mater at full speed. The man managed to block the first fire punch sent his way but was forced to dodge away from an arc of green flames Natsu created with a roundhouse kick. Jeong-Jeong and Natsu exchanged fiery blows at a speed that most would have struggled to keep up with. So far, Toji had found the white haired man to be the least impressive of Natsu's assailants — not including the Earthbender, who clearly didn't belong in a fight of this level- but it was turning out that the man had hidden depths of power that were just waiting to be unleashed. Natsu's green flames overwhelmed Jeong-Jeong's when the two men punched at each other at the same time, but the white haired man managed to dodge out of the way of the slowed attack with ease.
His fingers lashed out, sending flames spearing at Natsu faster than Toji had ever seen any of Natsu's attacks move. Natsu, ready for it, spun his hands in a circle in front of him, blocking the attack in an explosion of green flames. Iroh barged into the fight by shoulder-checking Natsu just after he'd managed to dash into the white haired man's guard.
Natsu took the hit with grace, only stumbling for a few seconds before he found his feet again. Iroh opened his mouth and sent a sea of flames at Natsu that his friend cut in half with all the ease of a hot knife parting a stick of butter. He retaliated with multiple lances of green flames, but both men made sure to dodge after they'd seen the destruction that Natsu's green flames could cause. The rock garden had seen its fair share of damage from the spars between Natsu and their favourite psychotic princess, but now the statues could barely even be recognized for what they were. Natsu had blown up an even dozen since Toji got in place to begin watching, and looking around told him that quite a lot of destruction had pre-dated his arrival.
"Jeong-Jeong, step back. I must do this." Iroh suddenly said.
Natsu tilted his head as the white haired man took a few steps backwards, basically withdrawing from the fight.
"Nuh-uh. I didn't consent to this. Come back in. This old man won't last a few seconds dancing with me alone" He said, speaking to Jeong-Jeong while pointing at Iroh. The former General, as unflappable as he had a reputation for being, clearly had never had to deal with someone like Natsu before.
"I am Iroh, Son of Azulon and Ilah. General of the Fire Nation. Dragon of the West. The last Dragonslayer. You dare to talk down to me, boy" His voice boomed in an act that would have intimidated most others- Natsu just mimed picking at his ears for wax. Toji almost actually began clapping. That was masterful.
"You will die, Natsu Wu. I wish I could say that I would take no pleasure in this, but I will say a prayer for you when you are gone, and I make my penance."
"Do you think I'll get to call myself a dragonslayer when I kill you? Natsu the dragonslayer has a ring to it, don't you think? In fact, I think it sounds just perfectly right to me. Come at me, Old man. Give me your best, and when I kill you, the world might remember your last gasp if I will it," Natsu said and rose to his full height, making a 'come hither' gesture.
A/N: Two guesses as to who the earthbender was, and the first two don't count. Please, please, and please, check out the first chapter of my original novel up on pa-treon- completely free to access so have fun. As always, the following two chapters are up on pa-treon. If you just want to read complete chapters and not my work in real-time, then feel free to purchase this story as a collection on my pa-treon page so you get to read each chapter after I finish it and not neecessarily the daily updates available with a regular pa-treon membership- nice way to support this story and me while you're at it. Enjoy!