Forbidden | Avatar the Last Air Bender

Chapter 14: The Chase

The Second Meet-up, and a Life and Death Situation

Tasha's POV

The afternoon sun shone on our sweaty faces as we trotted on an Ostrich Horse that we bought earlier in the morning.

The lazy afternoon heat was killing me, and I was just as exhausted as I was the previous day. Nothing interesting has had happened ever since we escaped from Azula and the burning ship - though the adventurous side of me really wanted something exciting to happen.

All of a sudden, the Ostrich Horse stopped abruptly, and I was almost thrown off from it's back. Rubbing my head and shaking my thoughts off, I looked at Zuko questioningly. He had his eyes narrowed to the ground, and I could sense his burning curiosity as he stared intently at something on the road ahead of us.

Following his gaze, I spotted three pairs of gigantic animal footprints on the ground - as if from a giant lizard. The footprints followed front, and I saw that it led to a pretty far distance away from where we were. Not to mention, there was a streak of white fur lining these footprints, as if from a giant white furred creature.

"What's going on?" I asked curiously, scratching my chin.

"My sister and her friends are chasing the Avatar." Zuko frowned. "It's time to have a rematch."

"Okay." Was all I managed to say in all of my irritation at his previous sentence. I bit my lip in frustration, forcing myself to keep inside all the resentful things I wanted to spurt out. I still detested Zuko for being so desperate in finding the Avatar, even though I somehow managed to accept him as a friend.

"Let's go." Zuko said hastily, and the Ostrich Horse was soon sent into a fast gallop along the tracks, and all I could do was hold on to Zuko's waist as tight as I could to prevent myself from falling off.

3rd Person POV

Just as according to their plan, the Avatar split up with the rest of the gang to lead Azula and her team astray. Azula followed the tracks of Appa's fur, leading her to an old abandoned earth kingdom village, where Aang sat, waiting to confront the Princess.

Azula and Aang stood facing each other in a stand off, both preparing to fight each other.

"Oh, look who we have here, it's the Avatar." Smirking, Azula titled her head sassily.

"What do you want? Why do you keep following us? Just who are you?!" Aang questioned in a half shout, steadying his fighting stance, letting his staff point to Azula accusingly.

"You mean you don't recognize me?" Azula pressed on, crossing her arms.

"Can't you see the family resemblance?" Azula titled her head, smirking. "Give up, Avatar. You're tired and have no more strength to fight me."

"No. I will fight you!"

Without another word said Aang sent a gust of strong wind towards Azula, but she was quicker than any airbender could be - she dodged the attack without breaking a sweat as she started flinging huge balls of blue fire towards Aang.

The two immediately got into an intense fight. And eventually with Aang getting cowered into a corner by Azula's strong and agile fire bending moves, the Princess smiled in victory at the Avatar's petrified face.

"Do you still want to fight me, Avatar?" The Princess mocked, lighting starting to form on her fingertips.

As if on cue, a mysterious figure shot a large fire ball to Azula, causing her to lose her concentration and lose the lighting that was forming on her fingers.

"Yes I do." The figure said, and with the unmistakable voice of his - this figure turned out to be Zuko.

Hissing in anger and disgust at her brother, Azula shot fire balls towards both the Avatar and Zuko.

As the battle continued, a certain girl was standing at the side, watching hopelessly as they fought. She wanted to do something - but Zuko just wouldn't let her no matter how much she persisted. Zuko claimed that it was a match that he always wanted to have, and that she was not to intervene.

Tasha's POV

I stared in horror at the horrible battle between the Zuko, Princess Azula and Aang. I wanted to do something - both the Avatar and Zuko were losing against Azula. She had them cornered so many times, and if not for the help of the other, they would've been long toasted by her mysterious blue fire.

Suddenly Azula had both Aang and Zuko pinned to the wall as the two panted in exhaustion. I couldn't take it any longer - I had to help them!

Running forward with water from a huge barrel in front of me, I shot it with huge force to Azula, causing her to be flung to the side, hitting the floor with a loud thud.

"Tasha?!" Zuko exclaimed in huge pain, clutching his shoulder in pain.

"Are you alright, Zuko?" I glanced over to him and quickly healed the wound on his shoulder.

"Who's this? Oh - it's seems you have a new girlfriend, Zuzu. A water bender, to be more exact. How much of a traitor can you get, brother." Azula's voice interrupted our short conversation.

Azula shot a look of disgust at me. I narrowed my eyes and studied her closely. That evil look in her eyes literally pierced through the depths of my soul - she must've hated me.

She flung a huge fire ball towards me, and I couldn't react in time. Thankfully, a shot of air from my side caused the fire ball to explode into steam.

Glancing to my side I saw Aang, who had immediately jumped back into battle. Briefly thanking him, we proceeded to fight Azula who didn't seem to get tired of the battle.

As we were in battle, Zuko regained back his strength and joined the fight as we tried to take Azula down. As if the spirits were on our side, Katara and a new earth-bender girl showed up.

Initially I grew uncomfortable with the awkwardness shared between Katara and I, but I brushed it off when the battle with Azula intensified. Noticing the new girl, I was truly amazed by her strength and power. Though she seems small and petite, she was strong. Very strong. Not to mention, she was blind.

Using all of my strength, I raised my arm to create a huge wave which flung Azula into a corner. Seizing the chance, the five of us - Zuko, Aang, Katara, the girl earthbender, and I - cornered Azula, each of us in our fighting stance.

"Give up now, Azula! You've been cornered!" Aang shouted, his eye brows burrowed in a frown. Veins throbbed out of his sweaty arms.

Giving a slight smirk as if she wasn't daunted by his comment, Azula raised her arms up in defeat.

"Okay, okay you've got me. A princess surrenders with honor." Azula sighed, as if on pretense. "And look what we have here, enemies and traitors, teaming up to fight all against little old me."

I shut my eyes in frustration and slight irritation. I am not a traitor to the fire nation; I was never even a part of it!

"Give up, Azula!" Katara shouted. My eyes flipped open as I readied my stance to fling a stream to fire towards her. It's time to let her know I can fire bend, I thought to myself.

Expressing an eerie silence, I followed Azula's stern eyes as she glanced at the five of us. Suddenly, she fixed her glare at me, and I could sense the fear I felt as her stare pierced through my soul. My eyes widened in fear just by looking right into her eyes.

Without another warning, Azula shot a bolt of lighting towards me.

And at that moment, I wanted to scream and shout out in pain; for everything around me became blurry and shaky - I felt waves of shock and pain coursing through my body at the impact of lightning striking my body. Not long later, I felt myself stumble into a void of darkness as my veins coursed with the huge amount electricity in my body.