Avatar: Lightning Strikes (IC)

[Mister J]

Sokka had been absent from the pep talk. He remained in the mess hall going over his newly drafted battle strategy. He knew Aang would understand. It was the Avatar's job to inspire. It was Sokka's job, as it had been many times before, to make sure the plan worked efficiently and effectively...and furthermore, that they actually had a plan in the first place. He wasn't peachy keen on just running in, swinging his sword wildly, and hoping everything just worked itself out.

For the most part he was silent, save for the occasional "Hmm" or "Hrm". Every once in awhile he'd take a bite to eat from the sandwich he had fashioned for himself earlier. This time, the plan was pretty simple. (Mainly it was because he figured he knew Azula's actions well enough to plan around them.) Azula wouldn't waste time running. She had a very small chance to get in, take care of Zuko, and reclaim the throne. She sent the letter to him to lure him back so she didn't have to go looking for the latest Fire Lord. Unfortunately for them, so far, her plans seemed to be bearing fruit. However, she didn't realize that he'd be bringing the entirety of her old foes with him.

"Hmm..."

Azula would rush the palace, bringing her small army of "crazies" with her. Sokka looked over the map of the Fire Nation palace again. The courtyard would most likely see the most action. It was large enough for two small forces to engage openly. On Zuko's side it was a point of defense, on Azula's side it was the quickest way to Zuko. It didn't take a guru to figure out which way Azula would be coming.

"Hrm...."

By now, if he had figured Azula's punctuality right, she'd be there...fighting with her army. They'd arrive shortly, but most likely the battle would have already started. The plan was simple: Take down Azula. The mechanics of the plan were a little more complex. Sokka smiled at his genius.

"Yeah, this should work."

They'd crash the airship.

"I hope...heh."

Getting everyone off in time wouldn't be an issue, they'd fly low enough for everyone to use ropes to climb down to the nearest rooftops. Aang would fly ahead to warn Zuko and his troops. With all the firebenders around, the ensuing destruction from the crash could be contained and directed, used to pen in the invading army. In their confusion, the troops could surround Azula's army. The only reason this would work is that the courtyard had one way in and one way out, for an invading army that is. There were smaller openings, yes, but Zuko's troops no doubt had those covered. The only way to cut off Azula's only chance of retreat would be to crash the ship and close the hole. With her army penned in, Aang and the group from the airship would take to the large walls surrounding the courtyard, there by taking the high ground. If everything went as planned, Azula and her cronies would be firstly caught off guard and then rounded up like cattle.

With his plans finished, Sokka rolled up his various parchments and maps and cleaned up his mess. He then made his way up onto the deck to address everyone. After a good explanation of his plan he sat down on a nearby wooden crate and gave a knowing nod to the group, his way of letting them know that he had his heart in this.

"Any questions?"

 

[Eazy]

Ryota listened as Xia gave her own answer, one which he hadn't fully expected, but could partially relate toward, when considering the circumstances. Still, he did raise an eyebrow when she addressed The Avatar, as he didn't understand what that was about, but figured there an interesting story behind it. Of course, this left his train of thought as the young Water Bender started snickering over Iroh's 'clarification' about referring to Azula, rather then the new girl. The young man didn't know if he'd go that far, but the word in question didn't seem so far removed from a hint of truth where it related to her attitude.

Speaking of attitudes, it was a mixed blessing to see an apparent case of airsickness hadn't taken the fight out of the Freedom Fighters representative. Well, he supposed it about time she got around to chewing out the new girl along with every other person she's bumped into since arriving. He glanced toward Longshot, who seemed a little worried on how others would react to his friends comments, but not altogether surprised. Ryota couldn't keep from musing over what an odd couple those two made. One who rarely talked, and another who couldn't seem to shut up for more then a few minutes.

As the girl drew to a conclusion, Ryota started rubbing at the bridge of his nose, half expecting an actual fight to break out within the airship until Aang spoke up. He listened to the entire thing, but perked up a bit when the mention of death came up in particular, realizing it was directed more toward himself and, possibly, Xia. There was a lot of truth in The Avatar's words, though it may have been easier for the Water Bender to let them put his mind at ease if he felt more trusting of this groups collective effectiveness. But, he supposed there was only one way to find out how well everyone would work in the coming conflict.

"Trust me, death isn't exactly my 'Plan A' in the upcoming chaos." The young tribesman explained as he glanced toward Aang, then directed his attention toward everybody and nobody at the same time, giving a slight shrug as he added, "But if you have to go out before your time, there are worst ways then fighting for what you believe is right. That's what I've believed for the past eight years, anyway."

The water bender grew quiet after having stated as such, his mind temporarily reeling back on the images of Akemi during her last day on this world. How she was out there trying to help others who were badly injured by the Fire Nation in their raid on the Northern Water Tribe. And how she lost her life while trying to protect his own during the lunar eclipse. While he wasn't a martyr, Ryota also felt as if he wouldn't exactly be honoring her spirit if he ran away when faced with his own life threatening dilemma which could save others.

Eventually, Sokka entered the room with a number of parchments in hand, which, as anyone who knew the water tribe warrior could figure, meant he'd been planning. Ryota was both hopeful and concerned as he listened amongst the others during the explanation. Once the plans were made public, the mad genius behind them sitting upon a crate before prompting his friends and allies to give their thoughts or questions, he was probably filled more with the later.

"Uh, yes, is it too late for me to change my earlier answer to being the same as hers?" Asked the young water bender as he gestured toward Xia with a nudge of his head, his voice and expression showing he wasn't entirely serious, though Ba Sing Se native's previous notion suddenly seemed a little more tempting.

Letting out a light sigh, Ryota stretched a hand up in order to rub at the back of his neck, trying to ease a bit of the mounting tension which had been pooling within him since stepping onto the airship as he answered truthfully, "Whatever you guys decide upon. I'm behind it. All the way."

--------

Longshot remained quiet after having received the news from Aang alongside everybody else gathered in the room. Which wasn't exactly an irregular occurrence in and of itself, except one look at the youth would show his current silence was largely due to having grown deep in thought. He was in for the fight against Azula, of that much he already decided before stepping onto the airship. During the war, they originally went about striking against the Fire Nation in the wrong ways. Then, after Jet's passing, when they tried redirecting their efforts, it was ultimately futile. This time, he wanted to make a difference. His only concern had been what Smellerbee would think of everything.

The silent marksman kept track of what others had to say, but his interest only peaked again when he heard the familiar voice of his fellow Freedom Fighter fill the room. He gave a brief smile at seeing she was feeling better after they parted ways, followed by a concerned look as she continued telling the new girl, Xia, off about her own decision. Longshot felt it wasn't truly their place for criticizing a strange who found themselves wrapped up in this conflict, yet, at the same time, he knew Smellerbee was right. Even if her way of getting the message across came off more confrontational then needed. Smirking slightly, he mused over how she had a habit of doing so for about as long as they knew each other.

When she reached the point of her 'pep talk' about the Freedom Fighters and how they could have left, causing an uncharacteristic pause in her speech, he had an understanding of what was going through her head. It was a thought which passed through this own on numerous occasions during the past year or so. And, while he wouldn't pretend to know everything there was about what made Bee tick, he knew enough to see where she would likely go next. As she continued and finished her speech toward Xia, Longshot walked toward Smellerbee and stood by her side, placing a hand on her shoulder for a moment as he stared at his leader, his friend, and nodded his head in silent agreement of what she stated. Albeit, his own choice of words would have been less...volatile.

As the rest of the events played out before his eyes, Longshot maintained a watchful vigil, with thoughts of his longtime traveling companion and friend getting into anymore fights remaining a constant concern of his; though he tried not to watch over her like a hawk whenever possible. Then Sokka entered the scene, with promises of a plan. While he never stated as such, Longshot always held a certain respect for the water tribe warrior. He was the only one of the Avatar's group which saw past Jet's hidden intentions during their first encounter. One which, he's ashamed to admit, he took part of despite his better judgment after a long talk in private. Jet always did have a charismatic, persuasive nature to his personality. He knew their former leader always meant well, but it didn't mean he was never wrong.

Once the water tribesman, who perhaps should have inherited an honorary title of a mad genius himself, had finished going over his plans, there seemed to be a short pause in the room. People musing over what, at first glance, could have come across as a desperate persons wild gambit to save face when confronted by defeat. However, when one thought over the logistics of the plan, and weighed over their present options. Well, maybe it was just him, but Longshot could only think of one thing to say about such a plan.

"It's genius." He spoke simply, clearly as he stepped back and started leaning against a nearby wall, his arms folded over his chest as he calmly waited for what the rest would eventually settle upon doing.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Xia and Iroh

Xia wanted to say.

A lot of things.

She wanted to rip this snarky little tomboy bitch a new one for questioning her integrity, for questioning her intelligence.

She wanted to tell her, this war-painted shaggy-haired guerrilla, that when Ba Sing Se was a refuge, it was only a refuge because its bureaucrats were exceptional at spinning propagandist lies. And when it stopped being a refuge, when The Fire Nation joined them inside the walls, it stopped being a refuge and turned into a prison...

She wanted to tell Smellerbee that she hadn't hopped this airship to join in any battle, because, honestly, there had been talk of "cause for concern" and lots of frowny faces but no-one had said anything about fiery carnage. She hadn't signed on to leap into that line of fire. She just wanted to know why she existed. Didn't everyone?

Her eyes burned with furious tears and her lip curled with venom ready to be spat and her hands curled into talons and she...

...she bit her tongue and closed those hands into trembling white-knuckled fists.

Her brother had always been the wise one. The strong one.

Never quite wise enough or strong enough for Mother and Father, but at least he had that knack for shaping Earth with nothing but his chi. And that made him perfect in their eyes. A perfect way out of squalour and poverty.

And Xia? Xia had just been a passing zephyr. Little more than a ghost of a breeze.

Fending for herself became a way of life pretty quickly after that.

And sometimes fending for yourself meant keeping your head down when the shit hit.

But here now The Avatar was talking co-operation and good spirits and peace and calm in the face of tumult and Xia was biting her tongue.

Her name meant heroism, and this made Xia hate her parents most of all. That she would be named after a concept she was too cowardly and pragmatic to embody in the slightest.

The Avatar was talking. He promised that no-one would die.

And Ryota the Tribesman was assuring people that he didn't mean to die either, but really, there were worse ways to go.

...but then there was that other Tribesman.

The Man with The Plan.

That horrifying, horrifying Plan.

The strong mostly silent fellow called him a genius...

But Xia was staring at Sokka like she wanted him to explode.

"Uh, yes, is it too late for me to change my earlier answer to being the same as hers?" Asked the young water bender as he gestured toward Xia with a nudge of his head, his voice and expression showing he wasn't entirely serious.

"I'd say it's a shade too late," she mumbled, unable to tell if she was insensate with rage or disbelief. "No sense staying on the airship if they're going to use it as a juggernaut, is there?"

Letting out a light sigh, Ryota stretched a hand up in order to rub at the back of his neck, trying to ease a bit of the mounting tension which had been pooling within him since stepping onto the airship as he answered truthfully, "Whatever you guys decide upon. I'm behind it. All the way."

Xia was getting a headache. She rubbed the bridge of her nose and clenched a fist so tightly the knuckles popped.

"Yeah," she murmured. "Get me a good-looking jar. For my ashes. When we're done this, and I'm cremated by one of the bad guys? You folk better get me a damn good-looking urn."

She gave Ryota a fierce look, and Sokka, and then Aang, and she gave Smellerbee the fiercest look of all.

"I'm in," Xia grunted. "Let's break some faces."

"Good!" Iroh declared, clapping his hands onto his stomach, his eyes glinting with draconian delight, his smile utterly impish, ready to come out and play. "Now that we've gotten that tediousness out of the way, you were saying something about needing Fire diverted? I think that I can make arrangements to this effect."

 

[ChasNicollette]

Katara

So much input.

Clashing and yelling and metal and fire.

She knew only focus.

Three men came at her at once, but she half-closed her eyes and wafted her hands low, sweeping and circular, and a water whip slithered amongst their legs and brought them crashing to the ground so hard the courtyard itself rendered them unconscious.

A woman came at her from behind but Katara rose like The Moon, palms thrust upward, and that water whip condensed into a pillar of ice that shot up behind Katara and slammed the woman in the chin.

And then, through the raging tumult, Katara saw Zuko about to be overwhelmed by ferocious human beasts and she clapped her hands together, shattering that pillar of ice and with a snapping angling of her head and an out-flung arm, she sent the ice like jagged hail into his enemies. Down they went.

Zuko saw her and staggered and Katara knew that he knew.

She wanted to tell him. How sorry she felt. How useless she was.

How brave Mai had been.

But there would be time for that later. First they needed to survive. First they needed to win.

But Zuko was faltering he was losing his cool he had broken his own root and Katara was swarmed and surrounded there was no way to save him.

Fan shattered arrow and the battle was joined by another. A beautiful deadly wonder.

Ty Lee.

Ocean and Moon, it was good to see her.

Water billowed around Katara and she grimaced and her blue eyes seared and so many water whips crashed out from her gestures all at once it was almost Octopus Style all over again, men and women toppled about her.

Fire exploded in front of her, shattering her stance and her water-billows, knocking her backwards, but before she fell all the way to the ground a fist came out of nowhere and grabbed the front of her robe.

A fearsome disfigured fellow, wiry and strong, grinned jagged teeth in her face and laughed and laughed at her. Laughed so fiercely that spittle flew through the air.

Without batting an eyelid, Katara reached up and caught one of those droplets of spittle on her fingertip. Her smile was grim as that droplet rolled around on that fingertip and all the world seemed to go into slow motion as slowly slowly she whipped that finger around and flicked that droplet towards his face.

Slowly slowly lightning fast inexorable unstoppable slowly slowly the droplet hurtled towards the beast-man's face and Katara scowled at him and all of that sudden the droplet exploded into blazingly hot scalding steam and his eyes were sizzling and instead of laughing he was screaming.

He released her robe to claw at his face and her foot came around like a battle-axe and smashed into his skull. He crumpled to the ground.

And then the water puddled below Katara's shoes rose into a spout with her up-flung hands and she hurtled up and came down in a crouch beside Zuko, on the opposite side from the Kyoshi-honed Ty Lee.

"Lets finish this here... for Mai's sake..." He added, softly, knowing Azula had to meet her end in order for anyone to find peace...

Spray reunited around Katara as she straightened and she gritted her teeth.

She knew only focus.

...Azula's greatest sin was not that Mai had died.

It was that Mai had died thinking that all her sullen sombre musings all those years had been right. Mai had died thinking hope was foolish.

Mai had deserved to die hopeful and smiling and in love and surrounded by great-grandchildren.

Mai had deserved to have been proven wrong.

Katara would prove Mai wrong.

"For Mai," she growled, and with pushing hands she turned back the tide of Firebending demons.

 

[UnseenMaiden]

Smellerbee. Smellerbee. Does whatever a Smellerbee does.

"This isn't a time to turn on each other. We're going to need to remain calm and in as good of spirits as possible... I know it might be difficult, but its important... So please, try... No one is forced to fight. I value each person's contribution. As I said, we wouldn't be here if I didn't have my friends to help back during the war, but in the end, protecting the world is still my responsibility and mine alone."

Smellerbee rolled her eyes. While she held all sorts of respect for Aang and knew damn well that the burden of being the Avatar was probably even harder than she could imagine, it didn't really mean she couldn't find him trying to calm everyone down just a bit silly. Though she did happen to be calm now, calmer at least. Not like her. Not like the stranger in front of her that was clearly fighting the urge to scream. Looking at her now, while Aang voiced even his frustration at recent events, Smellerbee saw herself. Not that she'd ever admit to such a thing. Not that anyone would believe her if she did.

Oh, she knew damn well the picture she presented. All action and no thought for the ego of others, and generally this would be true, had been true for as long as anyone living had ever known her. Try as she might, she hated to remember that place herself, a time when she kept everything so tightly bottled, a time when she did nothing because she couldn't see how it would help and didn't have it in her to try. Now this girl, Xia, reminded her of it and brought the past she avoided every single day crashing around her ears.

It was dark, long after she was supposed to be in bed asleep, but this was the only time she could get away. If she had any luck, her mother wouldn't wake up until well after dawn, and she could manage to get some sleep herself for a few hours. For now, she at least needed to be able to get back home without being missed. Gritting her teeth hard enough to hurt, she forced her body to stop shivering, not that the freezing water helped any. Still, it was worth it to be able to bathe her wounds in the peace of the night. Suddenly a twig snapped loud in her ears, causing her to jump and deliver a startled yelp in surprise, dropping the soaked rag in her hands. Hurriedly, she scrambled to retrieve the cloth before the swift current of the stream took it away, her heart pounding her ears with the fear of being discovered.

"Little Bai, what has happened to you for you to be wandering around alone at such an hour?"

Her hands wrapped securely around her prize, just as the small girl looked up at the wrinkled old woman, obvious relief washing through before it was consumed by a guarding weariness she almost always carried about her. Despite what everyone said, she wasn't stupid or addled like the villagers felt she should be for being born to a woman like her mother. Even though the granny was the only person that had ever been nice to her in her brief life, she knew better than to hope that kindness would stay. Especially with the sight she probably presented in the bright moonlight. Keeping her eyes on the woman, she made her way to dry ground and pulled her shift back on. She'd have to scrub the blood out another night.

"It's nothing. I got lost in the woods and fell."

They both knew it was a lie. Only a blind man would have missed her face, all warped and tender as she healed, these past months, or the bruises that seemed to only ever change position on her fair skin. It wasn't as if this sort of thing was even new or unexpected. Bai searched as far back as her memories lead, but not one, not a single one held a hint of kindness, not from her mother, not from the men that came, not from anyone save this woman before her. Those hands, wrinkled and gripping a cane as if for dear life at this moment, were so soft, like feathers. She knew, because she'd felt them on her cheeks, fingers just barely touching her, almost as if she'd been afraid the little girl would break.

She should have died then, with her face on fire and blood running into her eyes, her mother's voice ringing in her ears, scathing with malicious fury, as she struggled to remember how to breathe. Only Spirits knew how she'd survived it, much less how she'd ended up in that woman's home. All Bai knew was days of fevered moments, between long periods of sleep, that shared a stark contrast of pain and tenderness alike. It had killed her to leave that place, far more than her mother's cruelty had ever done. She hadn't understood, and truthfully still didn't, why she was forced to be taken back. Even as Granny cried, even as Bai had screamed and fought, truly fought, for the first time in her short life, it all amounted to nothing. So now she asked a question that had been echoing in her head ever since.

"Why don't you stop her? Why don't any of you try to stop her?!"

Her small voice sounded shrill compared to the calm of the night. Tears clogged her throat and threatened to cloud her vision as she continued to stare at the old woman, waiting for some kind of answer. She looked so sad, her beautiful, wrinkled hands flexing in a gesture of stress. Suddenly she knew. Bai knew that it didn't matter. All that kindness didn't matter at all. Even if everyone else didn't hate her and treated her like this woman did, they still wouldn't save her. Now the tears she'd been holding back slipped down her cheeks and she collapsed to the ground. As she crouched there, her small frame shaking with the force of her sobs, she heard the old woman silently walk away.

Smellerbee grit her teeth in annoyance with herself for even allowing a glimmer of memory to rise. That wasn't her. That would never be her, never again. Bai was dead. She'd died the moment that place was consumed by flames.

When Sokka walked in and explained his battle plan for them all, she welcomed the distraction, forcing any thoughts of illicit matters far from her mind. It was something else listening to him. She just couldn't get used to it, couldn't line this man, completely confident in his abilities and skills as tactical strategist, with the boy that had stumbled upon a Fire Nation camp in the woods so many years ago. He'd been completely useless in that battle, too focused on an ideal of what a warrior should be, rather than the reality of timing in combat. Yet, she supposed, there had been signs of this man even then. After all, he was the one that saved the villagers of Gaipan that day after seeing through Jet's lies when no one else had. Still as she listened, her face paled at the reality of what he was proposing.

"It's genius."

"Not to mention just about the craziest plan I've ever heard.... I like it."

The last few words were delivered with a grin that would probably be described as feral by those that didn't know her that well. To those that did know her and had seen her in action, the grin would probably still make a few leery. It tended to signal that someone was going to experience pain by her hands, and while appreciated in combat, it wasn't something any one of the Freedom Fighters particularly wanted directed their way. At the moment, her smile was really more in response to the madness of Sokka's plan. Smellerbee definitely had to admit that it would more than likely work, and work extremely well, but for someone that had just spent a good amount of time cursing this ship, it was hard not to find some enjoyment at the notion of crashing it on purpose.

As for everyone else, Ryota, while understandably skittish, seemed to trust his charge enough not to argue about it. Xia on the other hand, looked completely furious. A twinge of pity came as she listened to the younger girl rail at them. Despite Smellerbee's own harsh words, she wished that they had the choice to keep her safe, the luxury to keep her from the grief of war. Because there was every chance that she would die out there and only pure dumb luck would be able to save her. Resolve steeled her, soothing away the stress of another life, and a bemused smile twitched at the corner of her lips as Xia glared at her with so much ferocity. Silently, she laid a hand on Longshot's arm, signaling her intentions to die protecting this girl in a fight she didn't belong in, saying goodbye in case she never got a chance to say so out loud.

"I'm in. Let's break some faces."

Then Smellerbee laughed, her eyes crinkling with a mirth that was more than likely displaced at such a moment. Those words, those exact words, she had heard them so many times on the lips of others. She'd heard so many times among her comrades that she knew damn well it was nothing but bluster, false bravery and ferocity in the face of something that terrified them. So she laughed because it was defiance in the face of what was to come and far more effective in making her eat her words than the look Xia had gave her moments before. That was courage, pretending to be brave when all you really wanted was to run and hide and to go back to a time and place when things were better.

"Good! Now that we've gotten that tediousness out of the way, you were saying something about needing Fire diverted? I think that I can make arrangements to this effect."

 

[Mephistophelily]

"...I hate airships," Toph grumbled, leaning over the side of the rail with a rather greenish hue to her face that reflected a similiar tone to that of her robes. It had been awhile since she even thought about stepping foot on one, having hated not feeling earth beneath her toes the last time she needed to step aboard one. It was a terrible feeling, to not know what direction she was going, how close a person was, even where she was standing.

Her head raised up as she heard the commotion between the two other girls remaining on the ship, scowling a bit before returning to the rail. She wanted to comment back at them, to tell them to shut up, that it wasn't helping anything with her current stomach issues or pounding head- but instead, she nearly threw up.

Managing to calm her stomach a bit, she turned around, though her hands refused to loosen on their grip of the rails. A smirk finally managed to slip through as Sokka returned to join the rest of the group, proudly proclaiming his ideas of a plan and grinning as the agreements sounded off. "That's Sokka for you. Let's make everything explode." She laughed a bit- only to quickly clamp her mouth closed. Nope, bad idea.

Iroh seemed pleased with the agreements, mentioning his helping hands in diverting the fire raging below them in the battles taking place. A hand hesitantly raised from the rail, Toph waving it up to get his attention as she tried to gain her balance. Stupid airships. "I can help on that too. Just point me in the right direction, would ya?"

------

Azula stared at her brother as he revealed himself, no expression attempting to make itself known as she watched him, the solemn stare to her eyes refusing to break. He knew all there was to be said by her, and no words could ever reveal the true anger that rested within her. The stone cold stare that she was given in return was the same from him; thousands upon thousands of angry declarations of hatred, anger, and sadness revealed in the mere glance from his eyes.

This finally brought forth a reaction from her.
A smile; a thin, dark smile, veiled slightly by the falling hair as she lowered her head to him, laughing softly. She truly had hurt him, the pain she saw in those eyes like a drug to her eager mind. She wanted more.

The flames he summoned forth reminded her of the child games they played in their youth; Zuko trying to show off once more? "No time for such games, brother," She whispered, only to realize they were a distraction for his other intention. She merely raised an eyebrow as her guards stepped forward, his blades colliding hard against their own weapons. As the flames fell, she noted the arrival of her brother's army, though felt confident that the insanity of her own fellow escapees would be a formidable match. After all, they had true training- but her men... the fury of their warped minds. With a simple gesture, her men were on the attack.

She stood aside as the brothers took on her own, arms folded over her chest as she glanced towards the rest of the battle. Ji Fen had taken off into the melee, furiously swinging the large axe he had found aboard the airship in a mad rage, though still refused to open his maw for any type of cry of battle. She chuckled at this, only to take a silent stance herself as the sound of approaching feet was heard behind her. Her own men knew better than to come up behind her in such a manner... She turned about quickly, her hand raised and scorching the blue flames into the Fire Nation soldier's helmet.

Zuko tried to use this to his own advantage, attempting to strike her, but she moved just as quickly as he, watching every fury driven attack that seemed to be blinded by his sorrow. One of her own took advantage of this fact, an arrow passing through the air at her brother's form. She slipped away into the crowd of lunatics, hunting quickly for her giant companion. She needed him now. She had her brother out in the open...

"Ji Fen! Come to me," She snapped angrily, finally spotting him as he stormed towards her. "He's there!," she announced, pointing through the new throng of men that blocked her from Zuko.

Ji Fen nodded simply, stooping down and taking a deep breath through his nose. With a sharp whistle, the group before her moved, revealing the Fire Lord to her giant friend. She merely smiled, her hand moving upwards and extending two fingers into the air. "Hello brother," She announced simply, only to stomp her left foot down and sweep the right behind her, a sudden mist of liquid leaving Ji Fen's mouth as Azula sent forth a furious blast of flames. It was hard to tell exactly how many of her own men were in the way of this attack, but she had no interest in the well being of those she freed. The only one that really mattered was Ji Fen; more for the fact the man was a giant fuel keg than anything else.

 

[Ahren1]

Aang chuckled softly, perhaps an odd response upon first hearing of Sokka's plan, however the smile that finally came over him was the first of such he had shown since all this began. It seems like they had their plan all worked out.

"Sokka.. It.. sounds pretty crazy, as usual." Aang began, scratching his head slightly as if he was about to veto the whole thing. "But if there's one thing I've learned, it's that the crazier your plans are, the better they work. So let's do it!"

With the incoming responses, it was understandable that the new arrivals were a bit skeptical. Ryota's dedication to their cause was beginning to impress the Avatar, making him realize why he had stood out to Sokka and Katara enough to bring him along to the meeting. Xia had initially voiced her reluctance to fight, but it seemed the inevitable fate of the airship made the choices few. Nonetheless, her newfound enthusiasm was admirable. It could have been a mask for her fear, of course, but bravery was all about doing things even while you were afraid. He had given them the chance not to fight, but no one had seemed to truly take the out. They were all in this now, and the cooperation was making Aang quite proud of the little world-saving group they had mustered up.

The only one who didn't seem very enthusiastic was Toph, though that was more due to her condition while being on the airship. Having been taught Earthbending by the girl himself, Aang was quite keen on her ability to see through the Earth, as well as how it became compromised in vehicles such as this one. Still, she seemed eager to help, nonetheless.

"Okay, Toph and Iroh can handle the fire diversion. Everyone else make sure any smaller exits aren't accessible... I'm going to back up Zuko.." Aang spoke softly, gazing out the window once again. They were close. Not much time to get ready. "We only have one shot at this... Let's make it count..."

---

Zuko's eyes remained fixated on Azula as more of her 'allies' came to her aid. His teeth clenched tightly as he finally shouted out for her, a rage in his voice unmistakable. "AZULA! Stop running and fight me yourself! Isn't that what you wanted!?"

A fit, gruff looking man came at the Fire Lord next, also wielding two long swords to which he began to swing wildly in Zuko's direction with no apparent form or technique. Such unexpected strikes caught him offguard, putting him on the defensive once again. There was no time for these grunts. These lost souls that were irredeemable if they would blindly follow someone as insane as Azula. He hated them all. As the two continued to trade strikes, eventually one of Zuko's blades connected with the man's chest, leaving a long and painful looking slice right down his belly. Despite the blood beginning to ooze down his body, he continued to assault as if nothing had even happened. It was hard to believe people so oblivious to pain existed. Was this part of their insanity?

It was during this battle that he managed to hear his sister's voice out in the commotion, however it wasn't in response to him. In the distance, he could see his wicked sister summon a rather large man to her side and point in his direction. Before he knew it, the giant let loose a stream of fluid which Azula proceeded to ignite, creating a wave of blue flame unlike any he had seen from her in the past. The man Zuko had been fighting turned suddenly only to have his eyes widen for a split moment before being consumed. His outcry was short, as if he was incinerated too fast for anything further, and now nothing separated Zuko and the incoming blast.

Quickly, he dropped his weapons and swept his foot forward. With a large, sweeping motion of his hands and body, the Fire Lord created a massive, orange tidal wave of flame of his own to collide with the incoming assault. He kept his body low to the ground as the blue flame nearly overcame his, pouring over his shield of fire to cascade barely over his head and further into the battlefield. As it dissipated, Zuko was visibly sweating from the sheer heat of the blast, and now he could see Azula standing there open and ready. For a moment, Zuko turned toward the bravely battling Katara and Ty Lee, proud to have them at his side, however he knew he was losing more men every passing minute. He wasn't going to lose them, too...

But he knew, before calling out to them to get out of the battle while they still could, that they would never listen. Mai had been their friend as well. Azula had been their enemy. He needed them now more than ever, and he wouldn't offend them by not accepting their abilities... Mai.. never asked for help on anything. Always took matters into her own hands. Part of the reason Zuko had been such a strong Fire Lord was because he had her strength as well. But that strength came from a mentality that was apathetic to life. She loved him, and he believed it, but he still had so much to show her... He wanted to see her weaknesses, too. He wanted to produce life with her, to show her how good things truly could be...

And now he'd never get that chance. She died likely thinking she had been a burden to him...

Zuko slumped over a desk, his wrist moving listlessly as he wrote on various parchments. Being the Fire Lord came with respect, power, responsibility and... a hefty amount of paperwork. As he was about to nod off right in his seat, the door cracked open, initiating his furious writing once again as if to pretend he hadn't been tired in the least. His golden eyes glanced up to notice a fair-skinned beauty pass into the room clad in a silken crimson dress, placing a cup onto his desk.

"I saw that." She smirked, glancing down at the cup and pushing it toward him a bit more. "I tried to follow Iroh's instructions..." She spoke softly, watching as Zuko took the tea and sipped it lightly.

"It's great." He smiled, taking his hand and placing it upon her own.

"Yeah yeah.. I see everyone light up when they drink his." She smirked lightly. "Don't lie to me. I hate it when you lie to me."

"I'm not lying. It's very good.." Zuko frowned slightly as if to attempt to guilt her into believing him.

"Mmhmm.. So how was the Four Nations meeting?" Mai replied, intelligently changing the subject.

"Toph is Queen of Omashu now. It's an odd day when Toph is an improvement in sanity." He smiled a bit, merely poking fun at his energetic Earthbending friend.

"I saw her not too long ago. She's turned into quite a beautiful woman, don't you think?" Mai turned her head a bit, gazing toward the wall at nothing in particular.

"I uh.. didn't really notice."

"Tch.. yeah. What did I just say about not lying to me? Anyways, how did you do?"

"I barely formed coherent sentences and messed up one of Uncle's proverbs, as usual. You should come with me next time. I always speak better with you around."

"Uh huh.. I'd argue that one." Mai smirked again, poking Zuko on the nose. "Besides, you're a great Fire Lord. I'm not the only one who thinks so. One of these days, you'll believe it, too..."

"Well, I couldn't do it without you..."

"I'm pretty sure, you could... I'm not what's important. You being happy is what keeps you confident and a strong leader. If something ever happens to me, find someone else that makes you happy.. Things will work out from there.." The dark-haired woman returned her gaze to Zuko's, who looked visibly saddened by such words.

"Stop talking like that.. You're not going anywhere, so stop planning on it." Zuko stood up from his seat and walked around the desk, moving over to Ma and kissing her softly. "So let's talk about something else... Being Fire Lord is tiring work.. Any ideas to make this night a bit more relaxing?"

With a smirk, Mai grabbed his hand, pulling him along to a more suitable room for the rest of their evening...

Such memories enraged Zuko further. He hadn't known it at the time, but he had continued to lie to her in that conversation, telling her she would be okay. She told him to move on, and be happy. That wasn't possible. Not until Azula was gone.. At one time, Zuko had a bit of hope that Azula would come to her senses, that she might be able to function as a normal person once again. Perhaps then he would have been able to forgive her, but she was lost now. Any glimmer of pity, mercy or love Zuko had for Azula was gone forever. The thought of killing his own sister despite all he had done may have bothered him before, but not now... She deserved her fate. He needed to be the one to bring her to it...

With only that thought in mind, Zuko grabbed his swords once again and charged through the battlefield, his gaze fixated on Azula. He wasn't going to let anyone else stand in his way. It would end here...

 

[Mister J]

Sokka was glad that most everyone seemed to be accepting of his plan. It was crazy for sure, but he was positive it would work. Since it was his plan though, he held some responsibility for it and it's proposed success. Haunted by plans of his not being as successful as thought, he was always cautious that something would go wrong. As such, he usually made sure others were out of harm's way as best as possible.

"I'll pilot the airship...

He nodded, as if trying to reassure himself. With a bit of a smile he pushed off of the crate and walked past everyone on his way back down below deck. He moved through the group with solitary focus. Once below, he navigated through the metal hallways on his way to the bridge. He entered and explained the plan to the few fire nation soldiers there. They looked at each other with wide eyes and then nodded to him, offering him tidings of good luck.

His hands slipped over the large steering wheel just as the island came into view. His eyes narrowed as he looked out over the sea.

"This time...it ends."

(Sorry for the dinky post, my brain is on vacation.)

 

[Eazy]

The Water Bender raised an eyebrow as he took notice of Xia's look as she shared it with himself and a couple others on the airship. Toph, Smellerbee and Xia. Ryota couldn't help but wonder if all Earth Kingdom women were quite as aggressive when rubbed the wrong way. Shrugging it off for now, he listened as Iroh and the rest started making plans for their approach on the Fire Nation Palace. This was crazy or genius. Perhaps a little of both. With Sokka, it truly was hard to tell the difference much of the time.

"Guess I'll head for one of the nearest exits on my own and prepare for the whole guarding then dropping down procedure." He offered with a heavy sigh as he started toward his intended destination, offering a passing gesture toward Smellerbee and Xia as he added, "To be honest, an army of rogue firebenders should prove less stressful then hanging around these two."

Silently musing on how he could at least waterbend the latter away, he paid little attention to anything else as he grabbed onto the shoulder strap for the container on his back while departing from the company of the others. Ryota hadn't taken the time for exploring the airship in advance their arrival to the Fire Nation, but he knew enough to locate one of the side exits. He figured the majority of the ships crew would depart from the loading bay area, albeit in a more dignified manner then the previous batch which were dropped when Sokka last had control of one of these things.

Despite how nervous he was, Ryota grinned over the popular anecdote about the final day of the war. It offered some comfort for the trained but inexperienced Water Bender, brief as it may have turned out as he located one of the sought after exits. Closing the gap between himself and the steel door which stood near the end of this long hall, the water tribesman stood before it as he glanced out of the small window. Staring out at the passing clouds, then down at the small platform used for firebenders to stand upon to discharge firebursts during battle.

The chances were unlikely, but he supposed there was a small window of opportunity for any of Azula's troops to latch on with grappling hooks or use a fireburst for reaching such areas when they drew nearer. Grabbing an available harness which hung on the wall behind him, Ryota's shaking hands started strapping it around his waist, clumsily accomplishing the task with a little more effort then it would normally take a person. As he turned, his mind kept telling him to return to where he stood only moments ago, beside the door which would lead him out into the ruckus taking place below.

Unfortunately, he found it nearly impossible for his own feet to follow through, as fear and doubt took the young bender by surprise. In spite of how he joked on the matter, Ryota actually was frightened about the coming battle. While trained, he only faced firebenders in battle once before, and that was during the siege on the Northern Water Tribe where everyone, including himself, lost people important to him. His body leaned back against the wall for a moment, eyes fixated on the same door as he felt his heart beating against his chest.

His mind started reeling over the numerous possibilities which faced him in the remainder of the day, if not longer. Azula's people were madmen, whom could kill a young bender like himself without trying. They could probably even finish him off only minutes after he descending upon the Fire Nation itself. That's assuming a stray fire burst didn't cut the line and send his body dropping to its death. Or if he secured the line wrong in his nervous efforts and it came loose shortly after getting off. And what about....

"Dammit!" The words came out through clenched teeth as he slammed a closed fist against the steel wall behind him, causing an echoing sound to fill the otherwise silent section of the airship.

Following this short outburst, Ryota's legs started to move, albeit with a fair amount of shaking, toward the exit. They were able to steady themselves somewhat by the time he moved through the short distance, though his nerves remained unsteady at the moment. Keeping the door closed for the time being, the water bender loosened the top of his container as he stared out the window once again; waiting for their inevitable arrival.

-----------------------

And so it was decided on unanimous vote. Granted, with some parties less enthused over the notion then others. More specifically, the two newest members of their motley crew who likely hadn't experience anything like this in their young lives. Neither had Longshot, for that matter. At least, not quite on this level of danger and importance. Still, there was enough experience in the silent marksman where, outside of the obvious tension which mounts before a life or death situation, he was able to maintain a sense of calm and serenity throughout the planning as they neared their destination.

"Guess I'll head for one of the nearest exits on my own and prepare for the whole guarding then dropping down procedure. To be honest, an army of rogue firebenders should prove less stressful then hanging around these two."

Longshot raised a hand and placed it over his mouth, trying to block the amused smirk which spread in the wake of the young benders snippy departure. In a sense, he was surprised the tribesman hadn't said anything sooner with how Smellerbee could come across. Likely a case of throwing caution to the wind and not feeling a need for censoring his thoughts now that they were placing themselves into a situation a number of them may not survive. It was a thought which concerned the Freedom Fighter, as he fear not only for his safety, but that of the opinionated young woman who was closest to him.

Regardless of his concerns over her, Longshot did trust in her abilities enough to believe she could handle herself if they ever became separated. A likely possibility, as he considered his own abilities and decided on joining those who were taking up smaller exits on the airship. While not a bender, and with a wind speed which would almost certainly interfere with his arrows, he held enough faith in his aim to know he could make good use of his marksmanship if needed.

Stepping beside Smellerbee, he placed a hand upon her shoulder, waiting for her to turn and look his way. While Longshot rarely spoke, he could often say as much with a glance, expression or gesture of the body then most would with a long winded explanation. Thus, he let her know, during this brief contact, of how he was going to step away for now but hoped to see her safe and sound soon after they were back upon solid ground. Without a word, he also leaned in closer, wrapping the arm on her should around his friend in a brief hug, then releasing before she could think to complain on the gesture.

At the same time, while his eyes could often relay so much to those who knew how to see it, he clearly wasn't without the ability to speak when he desired, "Watch yourself out there, Bee. Life would be too boring back home without you around."

Flashing a small smile as he released the bow from around his back and held it at his side, Longshot started to move away, only to pause when he'd taken but a step from his friend. Suddenly, without warning or any previous hints to tip her off that he'd do so, the young man turned and leaned toward Smellerbee before placing a quick peck on her nearest cheek. His hand quickly moved up to tilt his hat down in order to obscure a clear view of his face as he turned and silently walked off for an unattended exit; though anyone who stood in the direction he left for could possibly see the faintest hint of an even wider smile on his lips.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Iroh

The Fire Nation soldiers filed out of the bridge, heading for jump-off points according to instruction, and as they left, they found Iroh waiting for them. Sokka had explained to them the plan, and Iroh trusted in their skills.

This would be an explosion to end all explosions, a fireburst to end all firebursts, and they would need all of their skill and ferocity. But Iroh trusted in them.

He did pause, however, and touch one of the soldiers on the shoulder-plate.

"Make certain," he instructed sternly, "to provide Omashu's Queen with some of those useful wafers for the air-sickness. She is to work with you men on containing and directing the destruction we intend to wreak, and it would behoove us to have her be in fighting trim before touchdown."

"Sir," the soldier nodded, then hesitated. "But what about you, sir?"

Iroh arched a shaggy grey eyebrow at him and gave him a look that would have made a veteran Fire National soldier soil his armour, let alone a rookie. Fortunately, this rookie had a strong bladder, and he simply shut his mouth and kept walking.

Hurriedly, he sought out the beautiful blind royal and provided her with the aforediscussed wafers.

Meanwhile, Iroh stepped onto the bridge with Sokka and watched him quietly for a moment.

His hands slipped over the large steering wheel just as the island came into view. His eyes narrowed as he looked out over the sea.

"This time...it ends."

Iroh strolled up beside Sokka, his arms crossed behind himself, very much a Fire Nation General again... but then he smiled softly, wanly at Sokka's comment.

"I do not mean to rain on your parade," he murmured. "But to say this is ending? Would be to suggest the same as you perch on the rim of the frying pan, ready to leap. But here we are, and here they are, and here we go: into the Fire."

He pursed his lips, and chuckled softly. "On the bright side, I have always wanted to go down with the ship."

 

[Mephistophelily]

A smile pulled at Azula's lips as she watched her brother still standing after the joint attack between herself and her lumbering friend, having for a moment actually believing that he hadn't been able to defend himself. That would have been a shame; to have won that easily against the new Fire Lord. "You do honor to our Father, Zuko!," She called out, the hint of merriment still lingering in her voice as her eyes followed his drawn blades, raising a moment to his own eyes. So full of anger, a fury he wished to unleash upon her. She would welcome it with open arms.

She wanted to see what resided in him.
She wanted to see his pain, his fury, his broken heart.
She wanted to see the darkness that was truly inside him.

Unforunately, she herself was still unarmed, her only weapon at the moment being the firebending and lightning that she had relied on for her escape from the asylum... And as easy as that had been, she wanted to enjoy the time she spent with her brother, savor the moment that let her see the fruits of her labors with Mai.

The smile refused to leave; a sadistic twist to her lips that was accentuated by the light laugh that built in her throat as she snatched a sword from the recently cremated form of one of her own men... A feat performed by her own self moments ago, though she held no concern over that fact. Guesturing the blade towards him, she raised an eyebrow, calling out to her large companion without removing her eyes from her sibling. "Ji Fen. Leave me."

Even as she spoke, another of her fellow escapees ran past her, his sword raised overhead as he spied the form of Zuko, eagerly wanting to take part in battle of any kind- only to be sliced in the side by the woman who had given him his freedom, a shriek of fury erupting from her as she did so. "How dare you! This is my fight, my battle alone with him!" He eyes raised once more towards her brother, her disheveled hair falling before her eyes as she sneered at him. "You see? That's the proper spirit of the Fire Lord. There are no allies, only tools, pawns that get you what you want. They should mean nothing, easily ended in the same manner as bugs..."

Launching herself into the air, her sword was held above her head, a solemn expression to her face as she directed her fury towards her brother.


[size=-2]Sorry if icky. Toph post coming in a few.[/size]

 

[Mephistophelily]

"Hmyuh?"

Toph raised her head as one of the Fire Nation soldiers hesitantly tapped her arm, offering out an air sickness wafer to her with a weak smile. "General Iroh said that you would be needing this?," he said to her softly, pressing it into her palm. "He'll need you soon, Lady Toph. We can't have you feeling this way if you plan to help."

"I just need to get some dirt between my toes," She grumbled, though took the offered medicine and shoved it in her mouth. "Maybe I should start doing like Katara; carry a satchel of it for times like this. Never thought I'd hafta bring EARTH with me, though..."

The thing was starting to help already, Toph shifting away fom the rail and starting towards her older friend at the front of the ship. Moving to his side, she merely stood there a moment, a louder-than-intended sigh leaving her lips after a time. "This wasn't supposed to happen. Things were supposed to get better. All the suffering and pain, that fighting... if she gets her way, it'll all be for nothing."

She paused, still feeling a bit guilty on her words before. "And I'm.. uhm...Sorry. About the whole Azula comments back at the meeting... I have a bad habit of that. Mouth goes faster than the mind. I guess that's one area I should be happy I have advisers to correct me..."

She could feel the change in the air, the newly arrived armth against her toes from beneath the ship. "We're nearly there, aren't we?" The tone had changed in her voice; a more determined and adamant stance to it as she touched Iroh's arm. "I'll go smother some of the fires for the men. I don't know how much time I can get them wth it, but at least it'll be a safer place to get in there and stop this."

 

[Mister J]

It hadn't been long since he took the wheel that Sokka felt something in his stomach he hadn't felt since he was a young child. It was an uneasy, anxious feeling as if he somehow knew something was wrong or maybe that something wasn't quite right. As is the way of these things, he couldn't quite tell. However, he took a deep breath, swallowed his fears, and let out a long sigh.

"You two better get to your stations. We're coming up on the palace. Good luck."

He waited until they left to wipe the sweat from his forehead. Was he nervous? Sokka shook his head and blinked a bit to finally peer out the window to see the palace's towers, walls, and various buildings just ahead. He turned the wheel slightly, aiming the huge airship for the courtyard. Once there, he tied off the wheel in that position and gathered up his gear as he exited the bridge.

His feet couldn't carry him fast enough through the various metal hallways of the huge ship. His breathing was deep and his body felt stiff. Sokka clenched and unclenched his fists as he ran to the nearest exit. Finally he found it. As he neared the opening, he took hold of the rope that had been fastened to a hook on the inside of the ship and wrapped it around his arm a few times before he hurled himself out of the opening.

The rope unwound from it's coil as he desceneded. He quickly scanned the area as he fell towards the palace below. Everyone seemed to have made it off safely ahead of him and they all were headed towards the courtyard. They were far enough away so that when the ship did hit, they were in no danger of being a part of the explosion that would follow.

Sokka glanced back up as the airship moved ahead on it's own. It's nose was dipped as the huge dirigible descended upon the courtyard. Suddenly though, the rope snapped taut and it wrenched his arm from the socket. He let out a cry of pain as his hand let go of the rope accidently. He had thought he'd make it to the ground before the rope went tight.

The air whipped past him as he fell, his arms and legs splayed out. The world below was coming up fast. With his good hand, he grabbed his sword and pulled it free of it's sheath.

"Space sword, don't fail me now!"

With another yell, he drove the sword into the nearest building, slowing his descent. It drug a straight line down the wall of the building until it shifted loose a few dozen feet from the ground below and Sokka fell, hitting the ground hard, but he was alive...for the moment, that's all that mattered. He took hold of his dislocated shoulder and moved to his feet, looking back up to see the airship close the distance to the courtyard.

The final part of the plan played out as simply as it had sounded when he mentioned it. The airship came crashing down at the rear exit of the large courtyard. The explosion rocked everyone around and sent fiery debris everywhere. Those Fire Nation troops near, calmed the raging flames and blocked what exits they could.

Sokka leaned against a nearby wall and winced in pain as he quickly adjusted his arm and pushed hard against it. His shoulder popped loudly as the bone was forcefully pushed back into the socket. A few tears surfaced and rolled down his cheeks as he took a few deep breaths. Finally, with another deep breath, he made his way towards the courtyard.

 

[UnseenMaiden]

In which Smellerbee does not take PDA well and learns she can't fly

"Guess I'll head for one of the nearest exits on my own and prepare for the whole guarding then dropping down procedure. To be honest, an army of rogue firebenders should prove less stressful then hanging around these two."

Still grinning thanks to her earlier laughter, her only real response to the bodyguard's comment was to rather rudely gesture towards him and stick her tongue out. Quite frankly, beyond her little retribution, she didn't care what he said. It wasn't as if this was exactly a contest for popularity. Besides, she probably was more stressful than a group of Fire Nation rebels. Something which she probably shouldn't have been so proud about at the moment, but hell she was in good spirits all of a sudden. Sad how an imminent suicide mission could do that to a girl.

Then a familiar hand landed on her shoulder, completely demolishing her good mood. It served as a reminder that he too was going into this battle. That he was very likely to get himself killed or at the very least maimed thanks to the odds they were up against. Oh sure, she could argue that when surrounded, twenty men are every bit as lethal as fifty, but that did not make the cold dread in the pit of her stomach go away. So when she looked at him, it was with the knowledge that this too was goodbye and if she could do it all over again, she would have forbade him, as his superior, to come to the Four nations meeting with her. For a few moments she bothered to entertain the notion that forbidding him from doing anything would ever do a lick of good. He may have been quieter than her, but he was every bit as stubborn. Of course, now that she looked him in the eye, she realized he held something she didn't, hope. Shaking her head softly, she didn't bother berating him verbally. He had his way of dealing with battles and she had hers. It wasn't his fault that hope was something that had been beyond her scope for a long time now.

Then he moved closer, giving her an awkward one-armed hug, and she resisted the urge to smack his arm so he'd let her go. He did it soon enough anyways, had probably known what was coming. She'd never been big on public displays of affection. She could probably count how many times she'd been hugged on both hands and still have fingers left over. It was her general experience that she either didn't care for the person holding her, or it only made a stressful moment, like this one, worse. Frankly, she had no idea how to handle it and would really prefer not to. She didn't need her worries distracting her when all her focus was required to fight. Longshot was looking at her....oddly. It was weird to have moments like this between them. She'd known what his eyes were saying, more or less, since the moment they'd met, but every once in awhile he'd come across with something she couldn't decipher. She was too stubborn to admit that she had no clue what he was talking about either. So usually ended up giving him a look that bordered between impatience and petulance until he either explained himself or such mysterious looks disappeared.

"Watch yourself out there, Bee. Life would be too boring back home without you around."

It wasn't so much the words that caught her off-guard, she'd heard similar ones before from other friends, had said them too. A warning, a prayer for everyone to come back safe and sound. It was more that she never wanted to hear them. They hurt her too much and served as a reminder that she couldn't let herself be a martyr, not this battle. Not that she was ever admitting to entertaining that particular thought before. Grinning, she opened her mouth to respond with some sarcastic quip about the many other rowdy members of the Freedom Fighters. Then the words got shocked from her mouth and an uncharacteristic silence fell around her even as Longshot pulled away and hightailed it out of there.

If anyone had been bothering to look at Smellerbee at that particular time, they would have seen a rather odd sight, even going by the short impression most had had of her that day. She did little more than stand there for a good five minutes. Her eyes were wide and her face completely pale, as opposed to the warm blush most would identify with a girl receiving her first kiss, even if it was only on the cheek. For lack of a better term, she was shell-shocked. Her mind was racing a mile a minute to make sense of the event, but nothing she knew of the world matched. Or more, nothing she knew of the world matched her and how people, or even Longshot, generally interacted with her. Not to mention, there was a voice in the back of her head screeching, and getting louder by the moment, that her face, her scars, had been touched. Even covered by dye, she knew damn well they could be felt and was fairly paranoid about them.

So, she was more than sure that if he had somehow not been aware of way she secreted herself away every two weeks or so when renewing the marks on her face, he knew now. In which the correct reaction in her mind, was to threaten him with bodily harm if he ever breathed a word about it to anyone. Except Longshot was conveniently gone from her sight now and the fact remained that he still kissed her. Of all the mad things to do, he had to go do that, to her no less. She mentally screamed, but all that came from her lips was a small squeak. It wasn't the action. The action of kissing her was weird and peculiar in and of itself. That Longshot, whom never, even in her more optimistic imaginings of the future, had ever shown such an inclination towards her before, had done it, was even more confusing. Still, she could easily excuse it away as something stupidly bold done in the spirit of farewells like everything else. It was her reaction to it that was scaring the hell out of her. Since when in her life had her heart ever thumped in her chest like that? Scowling, she shoved it all to the back of her mind. Now really wasn't the time to get philosophical about anything. So she'd analyze it later, or never. Never was good, less complicated. Color found its way once more to her flesh and she cast a glance around, wondering faintly if she'd missed anything important. Many seemed to have left, but she caught one person that she had a mind to talk to and clasped a hand on their shoulder.

"Umm, ok, I don't know your name, anyways. Now that you're determined to go into battle, thought I'd let you know. I'll be there, guarding your back. I don't exactly have experience with something this large, but I have a hell of a lot more experience than you."

As she talked, her fingers were busy, making sure everything was in the places she liked them to be, binding her frizzy hair into a tight knot against her head(Firebenders + long hair = fireball). Then she found what she was looking for and presented Xia with a curved dagger that gleamed wickedly in the light. Smeller bee was rather fond of it herself. She'd filched it off of a bandit not a week after her village had burned. It was a good blade. Clasping the younger girl's wrist, she pulled her closer so she could shift her fingers around the handle the way she wanted them. She had some experience in training, there weren't many among the Freedom Fighters that hadn't needed to show someone new how to best work their weapons. So this felt oddly familiar to her.

"Here, hold it like this. That way you'll put more of your weight into the swing and gain a better hit. Keep your arms close to your body until you're absolutely sure you can strike someone without getting hurt yourself."

Her tone was calm, firm, and the words came slow enough so that she knew they weren't mumbled or otherwise unclear. There was no time for her to go any slower through it all, or wait for the girl to argue, as she had a fair indication she would. These were things meant to help keep her alive and Smellerbee didn't have the luxury to let her refuse them. Letting go, she moved back, twisting her body slowly but surely, demonstrating moves with her own blades that she had found worked the best against Fire Nation armor and helped dodge their flames.

"Never stop moving, you hear me. If you stay still you'll be easier to hit. It's going to be confusing as hell out there, so do your best to keep your focus only on those most likely to do you personal damage. It won't do anyone any good if you start screaming your head off about something that's happening on the other side of the courtyard."

Just then a call sounded throughout the ship, a signal that Sokka's master plan was about to be enacted. Soldiers rushed past them, before her feet copied their movements, running towards the various exits on the ship. Grabbing a rope, she loop around her hands, expertise gleaned from almost a lifetime in the tree tops allowing her body to move almost completely through instinct. Hopping on a nearby railing, she looked over her shoulder and grinned, wind whipping loose tendrils of hair around her face.

"Time to learn how to fly."

Air rushed past her as she jumped, the rope uncoiling fast and hard as Smellerbee kept her eyes on the incoming ground, her hands holding tightly onto her only means of support, body tensing for the landing. She knew something was wrong only a second before it actually happened. It wasn't enough warning to stop her from gasping as the rope suddenly fell slack in her hands and what was once a fairly steady downward descent turned to her tumbling head over heels in the air. She didn't scream. Somehow she kept in her mind that their surprise would be ruined if she screamed as she continued to hurl wildly towards the ground. Instead she looked, hoping to spy something she could grab onto or plunge a knife into to slow her fall. There was nothing near close enough.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Xia- "Parachutes are for Sissies."

It had fallen from her lips easily enough. A declaration of intent.

A declaration of war.

'I'm in. Let's break some faces.'

...and the best she'd gotten was funny looks, and from the war-painted harridan, she'd managed to elicit a laugh.

Fair enough. Her ears burned red and her face went a shade of purple but she bit her tongue hard. She reminded herself that wild humour was a perfectly acceptable response to impossible odds. That laughing in the face of danger was a time-honoured tradition.

It was not a tradition that she chose to honour.

But she bit her tongue before she allowed herself to deride others for indulging in the same.

She glanced up at Iroh. In the small time she'd known him, the eyeblink-span of time, she'd been annoyed and frustrated and mystified by him. But she knew he was the closest thing she had here, thus far, to a confidant.

She looked to him for support. For a word of wisdom above and beyond the faltering attempts at wisdom she'd managed to glean for herself.

But he was leaving. He walked out of the room in the direction of the bridge and her mouth hung open.

She went from purple to pale and her eyes went wide.

Great. Now what do I do?

She stood there. As lost in her search for immediate direction as she was in her search for answers. As much as The Old Man could piss her off, she felt like a bit of a cast-off without him.

Xia reached after him, as if to draw him back to her by Spiritual puppet-strings.

But he was gone. Off to do Dragon things, while she was here alone amongst strangers.

...but as she reached out, a hand took hold of her shoulder.

"Umm, ok, I don't know your name, anyways. Now that you're determined to go into battle, thought I'd let you know. I'll be there, guarding your back. I don't exactly have experience with something this large, but I have a hell of a lot more experience than you."

The harridan. But before Xia could bitterly acknowledge her lack of preparedness, the Smellerbee girl grasped her wrist and pressed a knife-hilt into her palm. Xia blinked with surprise, with startlement, so stunned by the gesture, the armament, that her normally scathing tongue was unmoving in her head. She wanted to say that she knew how to fight, she wanted to say that she had a pair of swords of her own...

...but the gesture was a mixture of kindness and necessity and she opened not her mouth.

"Here, hold it like this. That way you'll put more of your weight into the swing and gain a better hit. Keep your arms close to your body until you're absolutely sure you can strike someone without getting hurt yourself."

And really, really, she looked at the way her hand held the blade and she listened to Smellerbee's advice and really, really, she had been doing it wrong. This felt stronger. As if this were the way an Earthbender would wield a knife.

She liked that. She liked that very much. Felt stronger.

And then... a demonstration. Tried and true manoeuvers, efficacious against Fire Nationals. Xia's eyes darted about, quick as she could manage, drinking in stances, foot-placement, sturdiness of position, ebb and flow, neutral jing.

"Never stop moving, you hear me. If you stay still you'll be easier to hit. It's going to be confusing as hell out there, so do your best to keep your focus only on those most likely to do you personal damage. It won't do anyone any good if you start screaming your head off about something that's happening on the other side of the courtyard."

This was Xia's turn to want to laugh, but she kept it back.

She kept it tightly-woven, bound to her heart.

'Never stop moving,' she mused, darkly. Well, that's one thing I can promise her I'm good at.

But before she could make a comment to that effect, the call came out, the alarm was sounded, and Smellerbee bounded atop a railing, rope grasped.

"Time to learn how to fly."

Xia blinked.

But then Smellerbee was gone, diving diving down...

...and oh, the rope was not properly anchored, bolts and such having rusted through or somesuch, and the rope popped free and in that instant, in that instant, Xia knew that Smellerbee was going to die.

Kindness.

Kindness and necessity.

Unwritten things.

Xia did not could not would not think.

All was stillness.

All was emptiness and all was form and all was stillness.

She was over the side and the wind lashed and whipped around her and her own long braid jack-knifed behind her head.

The knife rolled over her fingertips, the hilt twirled in her grasp and before she even knew she was doing this she was throwing that strong strong gripped knife back out behind her, throwing it with Airbent force... the knife blew back up towards the airship and the thrust with which she threw the blade translated to thrust that threw Xia forward, faster than falling, faster faster faster she flew like a crossbow bolt.

The rope lashed the air like Xia's braid and she flew past it. Her target lay ahead, Xia gritted her teeth, reaching reaching stretching stretching, always she was cutting things so damn close...

Xia grabbed Smellerbee's collar. "It is written."

She wrapped Smellerbee up in her arms, and as Smellerbee was twisting to try and land so Xia also twisted with her, a corkscrew in space, a mid-air balletic aerobatic move. Instinct. Inevitability. Ancestral memory.

Something her Spirit remembered that her muscles and mind did not.

"'It is all a brown falling leaf...'"

The ground roared up to meet them, big and wide and yawning, eager to crush them with the weight of The World.

"'...no different from anything else.'"

And Xia threw a punch, threw a punch straight downwards as she and Smellerbee got their feet beneath themselves, threw a punch straight downwards, a perfect Earthbender punch and her chi responded, her wu-wei responded, and instead of Bending Earth, she Bent the Air.

Air exploded out from her punch in a hemisphere in a halved globe in a blossom in a detonation and the wind pushed down against the ground and blasted back up against the two of them and became a ruptured, transitory cushion.

They landed.

Unbroken.

As lightly as a brown falling leaf.

Panting, Xia fell to one knee, holding her head, dizzy, unable to comprehend the scope of what had just happened, she clenched her eyes shut. And even though she was confused as Hell, she managed to keep from screaming her head off.

She drew her swords. Her two swords. And she held them with a newly-learned grip.

"My name," she panted, opening her eyes to face The World and The Fire Nation, "is Xia. Pleased to meet you. (Sorry about your knife.)"

And then the airship struck the ground, and it was thunder and it was shattering and even as far away as they had landed, the impact still rattled Xia's teeth.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Iroh- "Don't Mess With The Dragon"

Quietly, keeping his own council on matters of warfare, when Sokka suggested that they get to their own stations, Iroh knew exactly where he needed to be.

He kissed Toph's hand, roguish and impish, a flirt to the very last, and then kissed her on the inside of her wrist.

"It is an everlasting shame that you will never see yourself, my Queen," he murmured softly, as one last lingering guardsman hurried up to them, wide-eyed and worrying. "Because you are a wonder to behold. Fret not about what you said of Azula, do not worry about offending an old man's sensibilities. Speak only from your heart; Bumi loved that about you most of all."

Then, without any further hesitation, he turned to that guard, grasped the guard's wrists, and placed that guard's hands on Toph's arms. "Get her safely to the ground. Or I will bend Fire upon you so powerfully that your ancestors in The Spirit World will have to fan themselves and wonder what part of the afterlife they wound up in after all."

And without another word, he ran from that place.

Navigating the metal halls, praying that everyone was wise enough to get clear, he sprinted.

To the boiler room. To the furnace.

Coal burned and it fueled the airship's propulsion and kept hot Air in the balloon.

And it was with the force of this Fire that the airship would explode.

Holding his side for a moment, Iroh panted. "I am getting," he decided, "much too old for this."

But as he panted, he steadied.

He drew in breath. He closed his eyes.

He breathed. Deeply, deeply did he breathe, filling his lungs and expelling the Air and filling his lungs and expelling the Air.

True power in Firebending comes from the breath, not from the strength of the muscles.

In Nature, Fire cannot burn without Air. Remove the Air from a campfire and it will fizzle.

So it is also with Fire born of chi, born of a Firebender's will and intensity.

It was this that had first caused a much younger Iroh to wonder if all Benders were secretly one and the same. If all elements were one element. Because if Fire and Air were so inextricably linked--

Iroh breathed.

In through his nose, and out through his mouth.

Iroh breathed.

The furnace before him began to tremble. The Fire within the furnace swelled and contracted in time with his breathing.

Iroh opened his eyes. Iroh breathed.

The Fire within the furnace burned with all the colours of the rainbow. Burned with searing saffron and azure sky blue and sunlit gold and moonlit white and nephrite green.

Iroh found his root. Locked his stance. Raised his fists.

He breathed...

...the cast-iron door of the furnace burst wide open and the flame poured out and the airship hit the ground and Iroh thrust his fists out to his sides and his fists flew open, arms wide and fingers spread like Dragon-wings and even from that tiny room, even as he magnified the Fire a hundredfold, amplified the explosion, he directed it, blindly, from within...

The Fire roared.

...and those Fire Nation soldiers who'd arrayed themselves on the rooftops found the Fire to be so much bigger than they'd expected, and yet somehow, it curved to their will, to their chi, as though someone had already nudged it in the right direction...

The Fire blasted outwards and spread and became a blazing blazing wall of searing searing carnage through which even a Firebender would need luck and a thousand blessings to pass safely.

And the burning blazing hulk of the shattered scattered sundered airship scraped and cracked and twisted upon the ground and as it did so, as it did so, a singularly massive impossible blue Fireball blasted out through the back, burning as did the colour of the sky...

...and through the hole this Fireball made as it cannoned out from the back of the ship, The Dragon of The West dove and rolled and rolled and rolled a good long way, even as Fire and shrapnel poured down around him, he rolled...

...and he landed, in a heap, again panting, singed and black with soot and coal-dust, he landed in a heap and he sat up and his ears were ringing.

"Yes," he nodded to himself, as if something had been confirmed for him beyond a shadow of a doubt. "I am getting much, much too old for this."

And he sat on his rotund rear end and he began to laugh at the top of his heaving lungs.

 

[Ahren1]

Aang's fingertips placed themselves against each other in his usual meditative stance. He had exited the airship early in order to prepare for his role in the plan. Seeing that he could fly on his own, it was necessary that he would go on ahead to warn the troops in the courtyard, but as the legendary Airbender stood upon one of the metal platforms reserved for firebender assaults, he stared out into the dark sky with a solemn gaze. This may not have been the most dangerous thing they had ever done, but it was certainly dangerous. Dangerous enough to get someone killed. He had put on an optimistic front as always, but inside, his heart began to ache with the worry that someone he cared about would not go on living past this night.

And he was supposed to abandon them? Fly away before they possibly needed him the most? For a moment, he turned back to the opening of the ship, wanting to go back inside and be there with his friends during this important mission, but he knew he couldn't risk that. If he didn't warn Zuko and his guards ahead of time, innocent people would surely be caught in the imminent destruction.. and most important of all, Katara was there. He couldn't bear to have her come to harm as well. He needed to get to her as quickly as possible. Parting his hands, Aang withdrew his glider from his back and with a sharp motion, the wings flapped open. Taking a deep breath, the Avatar launched himself into the air, soaring with all his speed to the heart of the Fire Nation...

--

As the enraged Zuko charged his demented sibling, he had no consideration for pause, even as more of her allies began to rush into his way. It was to no surprise that she mercilessly struck down one of her own people in order to preserve the battle for herself. If there was only one thing the brother and sister agreed on now, it was that they each wanted to fight the other alone and with everything they had. The problem was, the odds had been tilted into Azula's favor. She had cheated the fairness of any such encounter by murdering Zuko's beloved. While he would be wrought with intense emotion that most likely hindered his ability to fight in combat to his full effectiveness, Azula thrived on chaos, fed on anger, and lived on destruction. This whole event was fuel for her insanity. It was quite possible that no one could face her equally in such.

But Zuko would try. Even if Mai were here, she'd nonchalantly wave her hand and tell him not to worry about her, that there were more important things, that revenge was pointless. But none of that mattered right now. While he was strong willed, Zuko had been worn down so many times in his life that Azula was the last straw. He couldn't walk away from this one. He wouldn't try to reason with her. There would be no more detainment. No more treatments. No more effort put into keeping her alive. All of his effort now would be to turning his sister into ash. No, not his sister. She wasn't even that anymore. There was a time when even Azula didn't want Zuko dead, despite their vastly different ideals. Obviously that time was gone.

Then, before he knew it, she was coming at him, blade in hand. He had never known her to be skilled with such weapons. Azula had been a firebender at the core all of her life. Not only had she learned to conjure lightning at a remarkably young age, but she had actually evolved her bending to a higher degree, literally. The blue flames had proven that time and time again. So why now did she choose cold steel? Nonetheless, Zuko saw this as an opportunity to best her. As she came down, he raised his blades, blocking her strike with both of his dao swords at once. Their strength contested each other as their eyes matched again before the Fire Lord pushed back, swinging his arms up and around. The blades trailed with, leaving trails of flame as they did, and just as quickly as he deflected, he attacked. Each connection of the blades causing marvelous sparks to eject themselves into the air. This time he would win.. and this time there would only be one walking away...

---

A group of guards continued to block various attacks coming from every direction. Eventually their backs pushed against each other as they became surrounded. A much larger group than their own, made up of the most sadistic inmates one could imagine, circling them without an ounce of mercy in their eyes. As each inmate conjured up a special and devastating blend of firebending, the guards clenched their teeth, prepared for their imminent destruction.

The fire rushed toward them like a tidal wave from all sides, the heat rushing around as their eyes reflected their last sights.. until the flames began to change direction, whirling around the guards instead of splashing onto them. The majestic flame spun faster until it rose into the air, coating the sky with a roof of fire before dissipating harmlessly into tiny embers. Growling at their attack somehow failing, the inmates looked around quickly. One pointed forward, while the rest turned to face that particular direction.

Shadowed, standing atop a pillar of Earth, stood the silhouette of a bald human, his hands raised upward, palms flat. With a snarl, a massive, mangy haired inmate extended his hand, sending a rather impressive fireball at the motionless figure. The eyes of said figure narrowed as he moved only one hand, literally capturing the fireball in his hand and closing his fingers around it, snuffing it out instantly. The momentary flash of light from the fireball had revealed a brown eyed young man, his expression stone serious. His eyes then glanced upward, forcing all the inmates to do the same. His raised hands had not been the result of his stopping the attack, but rather the conjuration of another one. In the air, hundreds of water droplets were forming, seemingly out of nothing. They soon transformed into sharp shards of ice, gleaming brilliantly in the light of the moon. With a sharp descent of his other hand, the shards came down, striking each inmate with extreme precision. While the attack was impressive for being so precise to begin with, the guards noted that while damaging, none of the shards had been fatal.

This was most definitely The Avatar.

The pillar of Earth he had perched upon soon found its way back into the ground. Aang then approached the guards with a hint of a smirk upon his face. "Figured I'd cool things down for you a bit... Anyways, the airship with the others should be here soon.. and by here, I mean crashing down in front. I need you guys to gather the rest of the men and guard any other exits, as well as calm the fire of the inevitable explosion.. We're locking Azula in... Don't worry, I'll take care of the rest of these guys..."

With a nod, the guards rushed off. Some of the remaining inmates looked in the direction of Aang, rather annoyed that their prey had been sent off. While one charged directly, one snuck up behind. However, being ignorant in the skills of the Avatar, the sneaker was not as stealthy as he expected. His soft steps still causing enough vibration for Aang to sense his approach through the Earth. Pivoting around swiftly, Aang raised his hand once more, causing the Earth to crumble up and around the man's feet, making him fall face first into the pavement. It didn't stop there, however. The rocks continued to shape their way over his entire body, leaving only his eyes and mouth free, but otherwise completely trapped in stone.

The other who had been charging was disposed of just as fast as Aang spun back around and thrust out his palm, sending him flying back with a savage gust of wind. It was then that Aang could see the ship closing in, and angling its way down into the courtyard. Everything was coming into play... He caught a glimpse of Ty Lee, and then Katara.. He wanted desperately to go to her, but then...

--

The blades of the siblings continued to clash, the fury in Zuko's eyes more apparent with each passing moment. His emotions were getting the best of him, and with each block and parry, Azula felt stronger. During one particular deflection, she even managed to fake Zuko out, and come back down on her blade quickly, slicing against his hand, causing him to drop one of the swords, allowing her to slide downward and grab it herself. On her return upward, both blades were coming from two directions, and Zuko only had one to defend himself with.

But as the blades connected, it was not with steel, nor Zuko's skin, but stone, encrusted around the arms of the Avatar, who now stood between Zuko and Azula, his eyes digging deep into the soul of the insane woman. However, it seemed there was no soul to stare into. It was almost frightening how lost she looked. Before she had a chance to react, Aang thrust out his palm like he had previously with the other inmate, sending Azula backward with a powerful gust of wind, only to have her stopped by the courtyard wall itself. As much as parts of him wished to, he had reserved enough force to where she was still alive, but seeing how everything was going to plan, her escape would have to be very well planned.

Aang turned to Zuko, dropping the Earth from his arms. Simply the expression and the pain in Zuko's eyes told Aang everything. Mai had passed, and Zuko was slipping, allowing his anger to drive him now. This was proven when his gaze back to Aang was not a look of relief, but frustration.

"This.. THIS IS MY FIGHT..." He shouted back, his voice echoing with intensity yet a sorrow that reflected his true feelings.

"Mai was a friend to all of us, and we've all been hurt by Azula. I'm not going to claim to understand your pain, but everyone here wants to help, for Mai's sake.. and yours.." Aang spoke back calmly, placing a hand on his friend's shoulder. The rage in Zuko's eyes subsided a bit, knowing that Aang was right, as always. "Let's do this together.."

Nodding, Zuko grasped his sword once again, gazing to the spot where Azula was tossed. Would she still be there, willing to face him with the Avatar by his side?

 

[UnseenMaiden]

The battle still rages..Katara may not be rescued this post..but the next one..yes

"One star in the sky,
flaring brightly as a dragon's eyes,
Say your wish it requests,
But leave your sins or suffer death."

Turning slowly on the tiptoes of one foot, Ty Lee balanced precariously on a pedestal, her body shaking mightily with the strain that her face did not show, as she sang the child's tune haltingly over and over again. Her grandmother was old and frail and spoke in a voice that reminded her alot of boiling water, but she was nice and even remembered all of her and her sisters' names and number, even if she couldn't quite place them to the right girl. She'd come to visit not more than five days ago and had taught the old rhyme to them. Ty Lee had been singing it ever since and it was beginning to get on everyone's nerves.

"Ty Lee, will you stop that racket!? It's so juvenile."

Immediately, she stopped and tilted her head back so far that her body followed and the leg not currently occupying the pedestal was forced to compensate by sticking out in the air. Mai looked peeved, something that was becoming more and more common these days. It would have been worrisome if she had let herself dwell upon it. Sure Mai had always been rather somber, but she used to at least smile every once in awhile and laugh. Now it was like her aura was turning gray before her very eyes. Grinning, Ty Lee shook her head and immediately regretted it as her balance was completely upset and she landed rather haphazardly in the shallow pond beneath her. Most kids would cry, but she giggled and smoothed her dripping hair from her eyes before turning her attention once again towards her friend.

"We're kids, Mai. Juvenile is what we do."

"Don't listen to her, Ty Lee. Mai's just sour because Zuzu is off fishing with Uncle and Lu Ten."

Azula smirked, the self-assured confidence that came with practically knowing she was right. Which became ever wider as Mai's cheeks colored as she scowled at the princess. Ty Lee wasn't sure why she bothered hiding it. It was obvious to everyone but Zuko. Though, to be fair, everyone else had probably known about it before Mai herself had. Zuko was their prince and their friend, not to mention Azula's brother. Mai knew just as well as Ty Lee did that decorum just didn't allow school yard crushes on the royal family. That still didn't explain Ty Lee's conspicuous silence as Azula and Mai fussed at one another.

"Am not."

"Are too."

"I do not care about your brother, Azula."

Zuko wasn't like most boys their age. Even though he was the Prince of the Fire Nation, he tended to keep to himself when among the other nobility, or chose to hang around Azula, even though she teased him and got him into trouble more often than not. Azula was closest to Mai, but Ty Lee had been her friend two years longer than her. So she'd known the royal family longer, known Zuko longer, and had probably liked him longer. Still he wasn't like most boys their age. He didn't try to bring her flowers or try to hold her hand. He just saw her as his little sister's friend. He only seemed to have eyes for Mai. Shaking her head free of the troubling thoughts, Ty Lee laughed as she noticed the fact that Mai was growing ever more flustered by the moment.

"Then why are your cheeks so red? Ooo! Wait until I tell Zuko!"

She was scarcely twenty feet away before Mai caught up with her and made a mad lunge for her legs. Letting herself be caught, a confused Zuko looked down at them. Taking a deep breath, she meant to blurt out the confession anyways, but Mai was there before her and muffled the giddy words with her head. Zuko's eyes narrowed and then his gaze traveled from the pair to his sister, before returning back to them. Then she assumed he'd stared at Mai just a little too long because his cheeks reddened a bit and he quickly turned away, mumbling something about girls being weird.

Fire flared bright and hot against the landscape, consuming all in its' path, friend and foe alike. As she spotted it, Ty Lee breathed one small word of terror and denial, even as her body, honed by a lifetime of training, sprang into action. Ducking low to the ground, she narrowly avoided the blade meant to be her demise, kicking a foot out so it connected solidly to her attacker's jaw. Then the flames came to consume her and she was in the air, spinning, fans flared in an attempt to use the air to ward off the worst of the burning death around her. In truth, she was probably only spared thanks to Zuko's own bending.

Landing firmly only the ground, she shirked her robe from her shoulders, the pale green cloth smoldering as it continued to burn on the stones. Despite the chaos surrounding them, her gaze automatically found Azula. Her grin was one of triumph, of madness, and Ty Lee could feel her heart breaking for a second time that day. At that moment, there wasn't a thing she wanted more than for all of them to go back to their childhood. It may have not been a perfect time, but they'd all been happier. Maybe, just maybe if they could return to a place where Azula did nothing more than push people into the mud, maybe it was possible that things could turn out differently.

She felt the change in the air before she actually saw the woman. It was a testament to how completely distracted she had been by regrets that she hadn't heard the mad woman's screams as she lunged towards her. Pulling away just in time from the swords descent, her hand moved, fan folded under her wrist to avoid unnecessary bloodshed, twi fingers poised rigid as she struck at a pressure point and then another, blocking the flow of her chi as easily as throwing rocks in a small stream. How silly she had been to forget that battle still raged all around them. Yet, even as she fell into the rythym of attack, her eyes returned to the fighting siblings, her heart lurching sickly each time they came dangerously close to the other, not entirely sure which she was rooting for, knowing that she only didn't want either to die and that such an outcome was impossible.

Suddenly pain flared bright and hot in her side, causing her to cry out. It was only a moment of distraction, but it was enough. Enough for Ty Lee to notice what seemed to her copious amounts of blood dripping down her side. Enough for the large madman she'd been trying to bring down, to take advantage of the distraction and throw the girl forcibly from him. She caught herself from skidding hard into the paving stones of the courtyard, but not quick enough for to gain the footing she needed to get away. It was odd, the sense of calm that pervaded her as she looked up at him, his eyes gleaming with madness, hands pressing hard against her ribs in an effort to stave the bleeding. His hands flared red and she knew her death was imminent. Then an arrow embedded itself in his skull and the light went from his eyes.

The world was consumed by light and heat and sound. For a moment, a small moment, Ty Lee forgot about all that had happened and was happening. Her mind was filled with nothing more than the catastrophic sight of an airship crashing. Shakily, she stood up straight, her free hand searching for some free bit of cloth she could use to keep the pressure on her wound. Finding something, her fingers worked it loose and pulled it around her ribs as tightly as she could manage before tying it in place. It would have to do. There was nothing else for it at the time.

Zuko's voice, so familiar, yet so laced with pain, caught her ear and her head turned automatically even though she couldn't make out the words. Somehow, she hadn't been expecting to see him, Aang, the Avatar. Yet, there he was, calm in the storm. Then her eyes strayed as she looked for Azula, only to find her crumpled form against one of the courtyard walls. A soft cry found its' way from between her lips. With so much death around them today, was it any wonder that she thought Azula too had met that fate?

 

[Eazy]

"What I wouldn't give to be an Airbender right about now." The young Waterbender mused to himself as he stared down at the ground below, as he prepared for making the jump as the signal reached his ears only a few seconds ago.

Even an Earthbender seemed rather tempting at this point, as he considered the options of softening the ground below or causing it to rise up and meet his descending feet about halfway down. Not that such things mattered now, as he knew every second of hesitation was only bringing the ship and himself closer to a fiery death. It was perhaps fortunate that Ryota couldn't see what happened with Smellerbee only moments earlier, or the young man almost surely would have lost what little nerve he built up for the inevitable jump.

"Oh, what the hell..." The water tribesman whispered to himself as he made one last check on the line, insuring it was fastened securely before taking a step back and almost literally charging out of the airship.

As the wind beat against his face and rippled throughout his clothing, the instant adrenaline rush countered against the surges of fear which were more evident within Ryota only moments ago. His concerns and worries about a fatal encounter below remained evident, however, as he literally reached the end of his rope. The young warriors body jerked back as the long length of rope came to the limit of its reach, his hand feeling the material burning against his hand as he attempted to correct himself as he hung in the air.

Unfortunately, the distance below remained too high for any hope of safely landing on the ground itself, even with a few waterbending tricks to soften the fall. Thus, the tribesman started swinging with the rope, aiming his body toward one of the nearby noblemen homes. If anything, it would help break his fall, though he hoped for a few fast acting Waterbending tricks to aid him along the way. And it only took a couple of swings, before Ryota released the line attached to his harness, sending him several feet down and landing, with a near thud, onto the roof of the home.

As he feared, however, his momentum and the roofs slanting design caused Ryota's body to start rolling and then sliding downward. The bender could hear the water sloshing about within its container, with some of it leaking out from the uncorked top, but almost all of it came out as his arms acted out the proper motions; channeling out the panic he felt as he focused the chi which flowed throughout his body. The water flowed toward the edge of the roof, before forming into a makeshift ice barricade. One which he crashed into legs first, but was successful in stopping his further descent.

A light groan escaped Ryota's lips as he reached down and rubbed at his legs, idly musing about how he could now focus on the pain in his legs, rather then those which throbbed within his arms, hands and just about everything else above his waist. Regardless, as the sound of the airship crashing, and the heat permitting from the scene of the main battle reminded him, there remained little time for licking ones own wounds. Thus, he carefully stood to his feet, steadying his breath as he gathered himself into as close to a proper stance as he could, then letting his arms move, in a fluid motion, as they took control of the scattered water and frozen ice which remained around him.

Several seconds later, the Waterbender was sliding down an ice slide which led him down and onto the ground below. Ryota may have taken this time for kissing the dirt floor beneath his feet, were it not for the sounds of battle. The Southern Water Tribe native focused his chi once again, liquefying the ice and pulling the water as he prepared to place it back within its proper container. Which he did, although he kept enough of it out so there remained a spiraling flow of bendable water wrapped around his left arm, on the chance of needing it quicker then it'd take to pull it back out of the container on his back.

"Now comes the fun part..." He mused with a hint of dry sarcasm as he worked out a few cricks in his neck, before heading off toward the source of the ongoing civil war between the siblings and their respective allies.

----------------

A number of issues ran through Longshot's mind as he scribbled away on a parchment of paper he received from one of the guards on the airship. The most obvious of which, being focused upon what he did with Smellerbee right before departing from the others. His thoughts were occasionally focused on the wisdom in doing so during a time such as this, though he knew that, if given the opportunity, he'd likely do it again. Furthermore, he'd come to know Bee well enough during the past several years to expect that she wouldn't let the brief distraction hinder her concentration during the following conflict.

The silent archer had felt the outline of her scars against his lips when he kissed her, of course. While he'd never seen or felt them before, he had long suspected their presence after years of her constantly applying the dye to her face in private. It was a suspicion he kept from Smellerbee during the majority of their time together as friends. Granted, while the scars in and of themselves mattered little to how he saw or thought of her, the young man had remained fairly curious as to the history behind them. At the same time, he realized it wasn't his place to open old wounds, nor had doing so ever rarely been tolerated within the Freedom Fighters ranks. They were hers to deal with or share as she wished. Provided how she handled them did nothing to lead her toward self destruction, he'd continue to respect the privacy.

Finishing the note he'd written out on the parchment pressed against the metallic wall of the airship, Longshot then rolled it up before placing the note securely within the small canister. The small canister in question, being the type which were strapped onto the back of messenger hawks, such as the one perched upon his shoulder at the moment. Another item he was able to secure from one of the crew as everyone hurried into place. Upon the parchment was a note for the eyes of Pipsqueak, notifying the temporary leader of the Freedom Fighters about the situation within the Fire Nation.

Best case scenario, the worst of this ordeal would be settled before the others made it out this far; meaning they could instead help out in securing the damaged Nation from further attacks in the aftermath of this melee. If things came to be their worst, however, they were going to need anyone and everyone they could muster up to help during any future conflicts with Azula's people. It was with this in mind that he stood by the small entrance and set the messenger hawk free, before they were too close to the frenzy taking place below the airship.

A short time later, the signal was echoed throughout the halls of the airship, though he suspected the time was near as they approached their destination. Taking just a moment for allowing a deep breath of air and tightening the strap which held his head wear firmly in place, Longshot stepped out upon the small platform, grasping onto his line with an iron tight grip, as he leaped from the safety of the Fire Nation airship. While on the way down the expression etched upon his face maintained its calm demeanor, his heartbeat raced, beating against his chest as he glanced up shortly before the line ran out of slack. It allowed him to prepare for the inevitable whiplash, then resume giving his full attention toward the Nation he was being carried over.

While time wasn't a luxury he could afford, Longshot showed great patience as he carefully watched for an opening; his back generally pointed in the direction the airship was going as he glanced over his shoulder. Regardless, he did find an opening, in the form of a rather large tree in the direction the airship was heading. He tugged and pulled the rope with his arm, hefting his body weight with his upper body strength, then swinging his legs up and wrapping them around the line. Hanging upside down, he reached into the side pockets and pulled out a pair of gloves, placing them securely around his hands. Accomplishing this and now being able to see straight ahead as he hung upside down, Longshot wasted little time in swaying his body as he hung from the line, bringing him closer to the tree, nearer toward the ground.

Waiting until the right opportunity, the young man released the harness around his waist and let the grip his legs held on the rope go at the same time, doing so in mid-swing, which sent him spiraling toward the tree. It had been tricky, and near impossible, but the silent archer timed it just right where his hands were able to grab onto one of the highest, sturdiest tree branches. Swinging upon the strong, wooden branch, he felt the momentum tugging at his arms just as he released his grip, sending him feet first into a branch about several feet lower. Planting both of these feet against it, he continued going with the momentum by launching downward and toward one of the lowest branches, which he swung from once before releasing and finally dropping down.

Longshot's landing had been surprisingly quiet, but the impact was enough to send jolts of pain up from his arches and along both of his legs. Not only this, but the initial effort of catching onto the highest branch, particularly from the speed and distance in which he fell, felt as if it should have been enough to rip one or both of his arms clean from their sockets. If he were a little higher, if the airship had been moving a bit faster, or had he not released before the full weight of his body tugged any further at those now sore arms; they very well might have. As it stood, he was extremely lucky to have made it out with only sore muscles, potentially blistered hands and a few small scratches from the leaves.

"That...was a lot more impressive then my landing." Came a now familiar voice from behind the Freedom Fighter, his skilled ears having somehow missed the approach as he attempted to regain his strength as battle cries bellowed in the distance.

"I'd clap in appreciation if my hand wasn't exactly busy at the moment." Explained Ryota as Longshot turned around to stare at the young Water Bender, noticing the water which continued circling around his left hand as he approached the silent archer, "You notice anyone else making it out on the way down?"

While Ryota couldn't exactly read the Freedom Fighter's expressions like Smellerbee and others whom knew him could, the slow shaking of his head was universal enough for him to catch onto his meaning, "Me neither, save for a few of the crew which have passed my way ever since. Guess we were both too busy trying to insure our own safe landings at the time."

A particularly large burst of Firebending in the distance captured both of their attentions, forcing each of the young warriors to push their respective yet collective concerns about their comrades aside for the time being.

"Well, if they made it safely off the airship, then heading out toward the thick of things should just about be the surest way of seeing them again. Shall we?" Ryota pointed out as much for his own benefit as Longshot's, focusing his bending to draw out a little more water from the container on his back, allowing a similar spiral of water to swirl around the right hand now.

Longshot remained silent, but nodded his head in agreement while unstrapping the bow on his back and the cover for the bag which held his assortment of arrows. Holding the weapon at his side, prepared for taking out any number of projectiles as would be needed by him during the remainder of the day, the young Freedom Fighter started sprinting forward as the inexperienced Waterbender followed his lead.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Katara

The Fire was a problem.

Fully realised, an Avatar could extinguish preternatural gouts of flame with mere droplets of Water. As powerful a Bender as Katara had become, she could not match an Avatar for sheer output. Thus, her tendrils of Water, lashing the air around her in waves and whips and spurts and spouts and dagger-sharp whorls of ice, could be subtracted from the equation with the merest Fireburst.

She was getting tired, startling herself, shocking herself.

Water whips powered out from her gesture, her whirling, and doubled-up whips of Fire cut them down, bursting them into hissing steam. Hurriedly, she managed to reclaim the vapourised Water from the Air, condense it into icicles to pin those particular Firebenders to the Earth, but the effort expended to do so was just a hair more than that which would have been required to do so for liquid Water.

It was thus that they were wearing Katara down. A hair at a time.

It took just a little bit longer to grab steam back into Water. It took just a little bit more focus.

Her focus was slipping.

Wearied, her fingers grasped at the latest hiss and flash of Water to vanish out from under her, but even as she contracted it back into liquid another Fireburst blew it back into steam, and another immediately following dispersed the steam with a flash and a crack of thund'rously expanded Air. Panting, she reached for her waterskin, and found it dry. Empty.

The healing Water, too, she'd had to weaponise this, as valuable as it had been. True, she could heal with natural Water, but Spirit Water was so much more potent in that regard. And it was gone.

She bit the inside of her cheek and forced herself to improvise.

The courtyard had a great pool, and her hand flashed out to her side, her knee partly bent, and she took hold of the Water of this pool.

WIth a howl and a sizzle, even as the Water rose and began to shape itself into a battering ram of epic proportions, a Firebender blew himself up into the sky with an explosion from his feet and barreled down into the surging pool-water... Fire coruscated around him and as he cackled the Fire crackled and that new source of Water was cast to the four winds...

Katara cried in mounting frustration, growled through fiercely gritted teeth, and reluctantly tapped into lessons taught to her by the Bloodbender Hama, costing several nearby trees their lives as she hauled Water out of their arboreal flesh...

She gathered this Water around herself like a shield, but that selfsame howling cackling Firebender landed beside her after another such explosive rise, and his Fire poured forth. For a moment, Katara was blinded by her own steam...

Fire sundered the cloud and blew the steam apart and that Firebender's foot cracked into the side of Katara's head.

Seething, sputtering, she nonetheless went down, clinging to consciousness as if by her fingernails, struggling to keep from blacking out.

His fist pounded into her cheek and it felt like smelted iron and again she could only barely keep from fading...

He was topless and barefoot and he had eschewed the stolen armour of many of his companions. His hair was red, dyed red, and it's close-cropped cut resembled jagged flame against the night. His bare skin was covered in scars, knife-inflicted scars, and each of them, repeated over and over and over again were the characters of Azula's name.

He laughed like a Spirit gone wrong and he grabbed her by her throat. When the rain of icicles came down, summoned by Aang himself-- Katara wanted to call out to him, but she could not find the words, could not find the breath, could not find the Air --this madmadman simply cast Fire up over his shoulder without looking and the frozen Waters that could have fallen on her, healing and ammunition, vapourised when they hit the dome of flame.

When the airship crashed, the beastly slender creature laughed even louder.

"I know you," he snarled, softly, in her ear, his voice like razor-wire. "The Avatar's Consort. The Spirits whisper your importance to me, over and over. Blessed Lady. The Spirits tell me of a stolen face, of a woman still desperately sought by an Avatar of the distant past. Perhaps I shall steal your face. Perhaps I shall become the stuff of legend, even amongst The Spirit World."

He raised his hand, and it lit up with Fire, and he held it near enough to Katara's face that she struggled to recoil even as he held her fast.

She tried to pull the saliva from his mouth, the teardrops from his eyeballs, anything anything anything but The Moon was not full, she could not Bloodbend even to save her life, and he was, perhaps intentionally, perhaps out of preparedness, severely dehydrated.

"Will he still love you," the madmadman wondered, voice draconic and serpentine, "when your face is marred beyond repair?"

Katara simply smiled at him softly.

"Do your Spirits tell you," she managed to rasp, "what'll happen to you when my brother gets ahold of you, should you do this? Any of my friends? You'd be lucky to feel The Avatar's wrath. Pray he gets to you first, or there will be not enough left of you to become legend."

The madmadman made a face, momentarily horrified, as he hesitated...

...and then the fracture in his resolve healed itself over with the force of dedicated insanity, and his fist flared with Fire great indeed as he drew it back to blow Katara's head clean off...

Katara gazed at him with pity. She did not close her eyes. She did not look away.

 

[Mister J]

A whistling sound cut through the air as a small curved object seemingly came out of nowhere to crack the red haired man across the head. It wasn't near enough to knock him out or cause any long term damage, but it was enough to distract him from his assault on Katara. The man turned, slightly agitated as he rubbed the spot where the boomerang had hit. Standing just a few yards away was Sokka, a scowl spread across his face as he reached up and caught the boomerang as it returned to him.

"Get away from my sister."

The words came out with anger laced around them, but it was a calm, concentrated anger. The man turned away from Katara and slowly walked towards the Water Tribesman. He lifted his hand as a small spark ignited into a larger ball of fire that writhed and twisted about in his open palm. Sokka slid the boomerang back into it's sheath and pulled out his sword. From the look on the red haired man's face he grossly underestimated the non-bender as nothing more than a pest.

Before the man could attack though, Sokka moved towards him with the grace of a trained swordsman. He stepped to the side as he brought his sword up in a cutting arc. The man dodged away and as he did so, Sokka spun and caught him in the chest with the heel of his foot sending him back a few feet. The Water Tribesman followed through with a spin that brought his sword back around to catch the man off-guard.

The fire bender gasped as he was slashed across the chest. Not a deep wound, but one of surprise. He'd caught onto the fact that the girl's brother was no pest to swat at.

Sokka did not let up though. He curved the sword down on the back swing and brought the tip of it back around, allowing it to dive down towards the man's gut. However, the fire bender easily side-stepped the blade and back-handed Sokka as he moved forward with the momentum of the thrust. The slap caused him to stumble to the side, his back to the man.

Quickly, the red haired man took hold of Sokka's collar and yanked him backwards. Sokka took advantage of the momentum and jumped into the tug. His head hit the man square in the jaw and sent him sprawling backwards. The two of them hit the ground hard and then scrambled to get to their feet, one hopefully before the other.

The red-haired man sprung to his feet and quickly launched a raging ball of fire at Sokka. He rolled out of the way and jumped to his feet just in time to get greet a fist as it struck him across the cheek. The fire bender hit him hard, but as he stumbled back, Sokka twisted his heel and hooked his foot behind the other man's ankle. He pushed off with his other foot and in mid-air, spun around to crack the man across the face with his foot.

Sokka once again hit the ground as the other man stumbled back. He clamored to his feet and crashed into the man, pushing both of them off of their feet. On the ground, the two batted and punched each other, grappling as they rolled around. The man managed to pin Sokka down as he rolled atop him, but his face suddenly contorted and he fell over on his side, Sokka's sword plunged into his gut.

Sokka laid there for a second or two, breathing heavily as he looked over to Katara.

"You okay?"

 

[Mephistophelily]

"Lady Toph, here, take hold of this." A rope was pressed into her palm, a disgusted look crossing over Toph's face as she hastily thusted it back towards the soldier offering it. "Queen Toph-!," He protested, trying once again to give it to her, a panic in his voice. "The Dragon has asked me to make sure you reached the ground safely-!"

"And you're doing a wonderful job so far," She growled, pushing away the rope once more. "Stop trying to give me that, and just let me hold onto you. Once we're far enough from the ship, let go."

"L-let go?"

"You heard me." She paused as she grabbed onto the side of his uniform, leaning to his ear a moment. "You think I'm crazy, don't you?"

"I wouldn't say such a thing, Lady Toph." There was a hesitation to his voice, as though holding back a certain aspect to the comment. This only made her chuckle.

"Why not? Everyone else thinks so. I'm quite happy with it, too. It's what earned me my crown. Everyone has a little craziness inside them. Only some of us let it control them too much. Like- well, like her." She gave a nod towards the fire she could feel down below, a searing heat that radiated towards the lowering airship. "I'll never get that way." With a rather overly-pleasant smile, she gave him a shove from the exit, clutching onto the side of him as he clung to the rope.

"I've let go!," He declared to her over his shoulder after a few moments, a fear echoing in his voice.

"Great. So did I." She could feel it already, the earth below her that she had ached so badly to feel for the whole ride. She wanted to drop down and kiss it as soon as she landed- but instead would settle with letting it hug tightly to her and her skydiving firebending friend, summoning up a large pillar of sandy earth from below them; the hissing cascade billowing up
to meet them mid way in their plummet.

She was laughing.
He was screaming. Stilll.

Brave warrior indeed.

"Relax, firepants. We're safe." She smirked, getting up as they slid back down to the ground with the lowering sandfall, only to pause and frown. The heat was a thousand times worse now. "Ok, let me rephrase that. We've landed. I can't promise you much on that safe part." Stomping her foot down, she forced a block of rock to raise up beneath him, bringing him immediately to his feet with assistance on her part, using it to shove him forward. "Well?! Isn't that what Iroh sent you with me for?! C'mon, man, get to helping me here! Point me in the right direction and get outta the way!"

"Shouldn't we at least wait for the others?"

"What, you think they won't be able to figure out who's making the stone tidal wave?," she asked flatly, folding her arms.

 

[ChasNicollette]

Katara

And there he was.

"Get away from my sister."

A voice as cold as The South Pole itself. And as unstoppable as the tide.

He'd come so far.

A guardian, earnest but foolhardy, attempting to whip into shape the most meagre of resources to stave off insurmountable threats.

They'd laughed at him. At his attempts to be more than he was. To try and lead by instinct, to try and defy the odds with sheer reason. Scientist and sceptic and sentinel.

But he had come so far. A swordsman who could stand up to a master, a warrior who could fight off superhuman threats with skill and will and star-ore and steel.

He'd left home to help her save Aang. Just because he'd believed in her. And he'd believed in her all along.

And Katara believed in him.

Her eyes sang as she watched him and she struggled to her feet, struggled to Bend-- struggled to Bend--

She watched him and she knew she was saved.

He crashed against this villain, this searing sneering psychopath and fists struck flesh and feet cracked bone and flame scorched sky and still Sokka stood until at long long immediate inexorable last they grappled tangled bled--

The red-haired man died with a gurgle. Sokka's meteoric jian impaling his stomach.

And Sokka was still concerned only with her.

"You okay?"

She grinned at him as she staggered towards him and sagged to her knees at his side, impulsively hugging him close, her arms around his shoulders.

"I'm okay," she nodded as she drew back. "I'm okay. Are you okay?"

And then she glanced upward, towards the sky. "Hold that thought."

She held out her palm, cupped as if catching rain. And some of that selfsame Water her enemies had blown into steam condensed into fluid into that cup of her hand, and she brought the palm between them.

The Water leaped out of her palm, encircling them, orbiting them, a long thin wreath of glistening gleaming purity... and the Water glowed the pale white of The Moon, and things realigned that were misaligned, currents that flowed in a misdirected fashion found themselves redirected.

And in that moment, both Katara and Sokka were healed. Restored, rejuvenated.

And then Katara's eyes hardened, as that healing water became a bracer of ice on her left shoulder, and another tendril of summoned frozen vapour became a jian all her own, fitting neatly into her right hand.

"Okay."

 

[Mephistophelily]

Azula's face seemed locked in a consistent sneer as she swung her blade against her brother's, each attack brought about by either sibling resounding with a harsh clashing of metals. Her hand raised to signal more of her army of the insane in a brief moment, the fury inside her welling so greatly that she could even feel the burning inside her throat- whether it was from pure hatred or her own abilities causing her body to lose control for a moment, she wasn't certain. Did she even care? Not particularly. All that mattered was-

Her thoughts were lost within one split second as her sword came crashing down; not against another blade, not against Zuko's flesh, but a stone-clad barrier that refused to let her pass.

The Avatar.

Staring at her, staring into her eyes as though trying to see inside.
*Now, now. You won't like what you see there.*
She wanted to scream, to unleash that burning fury inside her upon him, to create the pain that tore within her for everyone that stood in her radius....

But before she could manage such a thing, he took action himself, the hand that blocked her bending the air around them and slamming her back hard against the stone walls of the castle. Her head collided first, Azula's dark fury being shrouded for the time being with a new darkness all its own as she crumpled to the ground.

"A-zuuuu-laaa!!"
The howling roar sounded from across the firey grounds, a horrified pain behind it as the loyal lummox barreled through both ally and foe to his fallen queen, the battle axe he had claimed falling to the dirt. Those nearest him could actually feel the ground shudder as he dropped to his knees by her side, delicately picking her up as the yellowish fluid that once was housed in his mouth dribbled down his chin.

His light puffing was growing into more of a heaving wheeze, staring a moment at his leader in his arms with rather loving and concerned eyes before shooting a glare beyond death in the direction of Zuko and Aang. The wheeze grew further still, a heavy panting of fury as he stood up, Azula draped over his shoulder as he pointed in the two men's direction. "Ji Fen hurt men who hurt his Azula!," he howled, plucking his axe back up before storming towards them.


The man's mass caused the ground to shake with each pounding step, vibrating the earth beneath the battlefield heavily as he stormed across, a lumbering mass of muscle and fury. The thudding motion he made could be felt easily by those nearest him...

...and a certain someone approaching.

Toph grit her teeth as she and her appointed guard neared, grabbing his sleeve and bringing him to an abrupt halt. "There's no one ahead of us for about 30 paces, is there? I can only see him.."

"Him?"

"Just answer the damn question."

"N-no, we're clear," the guard stammered out, balking as Toph dropped her foot back against the dirt with a heavy thump. She lingered there for merely a moment, stooping down a bit before raising her arms up and forward, a focused grunt of effort leaving her as she brought forward a giant avalanching wave of rock towards the only person she could truly 'see' on the field before her.

She could see it; the flood of rock and boulder, barreling towards the giant who dared to attack her friends. Her body stayed braced against the ground, controlling the earth beneath her to take down the man before her.

It slammed hard against the large man, sending him staggering back as the large wall of rock poured down upon him, nearly sending his beloved package from his arms.


He was fighting it, a rather losing battle, but still managed to keep his standing position. Another roar, another infuriated slamming of his fists, but now rather swinging aimlessly as the girl's attack created a dust cloud that left him as blind as she.

Azula stirred, her head still reeling from the wailing of the wall. A smile grew upon her lips, spying the attacker of the lumbering anti-hero clutching her so tightly to his chest. "Such loyalty," She purred, pointing ahead of them towards the Queen of Omashu. "Ji Fen, let's kill that disgusting little dung-beetle."

 

[UnseenMaiden]

Smellerbee.. Ty Lee tomorrow..hopefully *sighs*

Spirits….

She wanted to close her eyes. Her world was just whistling past and the ground and buildings were getting ever closer and she wanted to close her eyes and block it all out. So many battles, so many horrible moments where she could have died and had even come close to doing so a few times. Yet, she’d been so caught up in the heat of the moment that she hadn’t given a thought about it until well after the fact. Even then she hadn’t felt this terror fluttering in her chest. She was so helpless to stop any of it. They’d mourn her, of that she was certain.

A lot of outsiders would think they weren’t too close to her and maybe that was true. She did tend to keep everyone at a safe distance, especially after certain events, but the Freedom Fighters were closer to her than anyone she knew. They were her family. They would mourn. Someone else would be elected as the leader. She wondered who it would be. Perhaps, Pipsqueak or Longshot. They both had the respect of everyone. Pipsqueak was better at keeping up morale, but he tended to look on the bright side and consider some precautions as unnecessary. Longshot’s silence presented a problem. a lot of the newer members didn’t understand him or exhibit the patience to learn.

Her heart gave a sickening clench when she thought of him. Would he miss her? She knew he would, she’d been a near constant part of his life for over a decade. When she was gone it was bound to feel strange with her missing. Would he miss her, like she’d miss him if their situations were reversed, like they had been so many years ago? A voice inside of her doubted it. He hadn’t been dead. He’d just left her. If something like that happened again….. that would…. she’d…

Suddenly her clothes were fair too tight on her, bindings, sleeves, color, belt, shifted just a couple inches higher on her body and pulled to something uncomfortable, painful, and she was still falling. It wasn’t until she heard words, snatched by the air rushing around her, them, that she realized she wasn’t alone and the reason for the awful constriction of her upper body was that the foolish confrontational girl had grabbed her and was falling as well now. Strange, it was the added victim of her demise that brought terror of the inevitable crashing around her.

“I’m sorry.”

She probably hadn’t heard, but there it was, a choked apology for failing in doing the one thing she’d promised to do for her. Even if had only been a silent promise, she’d failed completely. Then insanely, they slowed and stopped and dropped, feather light, to the ground. Her eyes, still as wide as when she’d first realized she was falling, turned around upon her, staring in acute surprise that she couldn’t fathom words for. Instinct made her gasp for air, reaffirming that she was indeed alive, that the ground under legs and hands were real. As her wits gathered back around her, she decided to say nothing. The girl looked bewildered enough. Drawing attention to her saving both of their lives would only provide further distraction for the upcoming battle.

"My name is Xia. Pleased to meet you. (Sorry about your knife.)"

For a moment, she frowned. She had been fairly attached to that dagger, proud of it in a messed up way. At the time it had meant an upgrade, a complete shedding of her old life, as she exchanged it for the scorched kitchen knife she had been keeping for self-defense those first few weeks. Then the airship crashed and burned somewhere behind her and she stood, shrugging kinks out of her body as her fingers flirted with her garments, shifting weapons once again and pulling out a gleaming pair of khurkas. Her mind sped to catch up with what was happening, shying away from anything liable to cause her worry or stress. Like whether Longshot was in the battle yet, if he’d made it, because he had better have made it to solid ground. There was no other option.

“Smellerbee. You don’t want to hold swords that way. At least not that close. You’ll cut yourself.”

She’d done often enough to herself to know. Jet had yelled at her for a week for that stupid mistake. The memory brought a small smile to her lips as she turned to see how far ahead of them the battle raged. It seemed Sokka’s plan had worked, sort of. A good bit of people were distracted. It just didn’t seem like enough to make this a fair fight. Though, they were among the group that had taken down Azula’s last reign of terror, and that wasn’t quite including Aang’s incredible power.

“Stick close as best you can. I’m going to try my best to see you through this alive.. Xia.”

Most didn’t think of her as quick on her feet. She couldn’t see why, except that maybe most of her attacks had little to do with her racing across the ground and more to do with the speed of her hands. Yet, her lithe frame was bound by muscles honed by a life of hardness, and finding her way through trembling treetops did a lot to make her feet sure of their footing. What distance was lost with their fall was quickly recovered as she ran mindlessly through the unfamiliar streets and small courtyards. Only a few sparing glimpses were given as she went, enough to make sure the Ba Sing Se native was keeping pace, before she turned her attention forward, picking out a few vaguely familiar faces, searching for one that would more than likely be far removed from where she would do battle. Her eyes never claimed their prize, but she didn’t let that sway her from dodging the first attack, bending her body so that she leaned under the axe’s swing, before she rounded up behind the woman and plunged her own heavy blade into the enemy’s side and pulled, blood quickly marking the lethal path it had taken. A smile flirted with her lips the entire time, adrenaline finally picking up where her tired body had insisted on stopping mere moments ago.