Sozin's Comet streaked the sky and both of us knew that Ozai would be coming any minute now. Relying purely on instinct and trusting our guts, both Aang and I awaited Ozai in a field of tall stone pillars, both of us standing together on one, hoping this was where he would begin his attacks.
I breathe deeply, slowly soothing and calming myself, readying myself for the challenge ahead. Sensing my anxiety, Aang grabs my hand, squeezing it in his. "It's okay, Suzume. I'm nervous too, but just remember, we'll both face Ozai and work together to defeat him."
I nodded and I quickly release his hand as soon as I see a fleet of Fire Nation airships dotting the air just beyond the horizon, darting towards Earth Nation land. Leading the charge, was presumably the Fire Lord himself. We make out his figure standing on an airship that was in front of the rest and was noticeably larger than the rest. His airship takes the lead, speeding towards Aang and me.
We roughly make out Ozai on the edge of the ship, facing his palms down at the ground. 'Oh no.'
A massive stream of fire shoots out from his palms, setting the ground beneath him alight.
Both Aang and I exchange nods, already knowing what each of us would do and what had to be done. Earthbending rocks from the stone pillar beneath us, Aang directs rocks at the ship, slowing its movements and temporarily unbalancing Ozai, causing him to stop firing momentarily. I close my eyes, drawing light from the comet and aiming my palms at the airship. Two bright, luminous beams of light stream out from them and I combine them into a large singular beam, adding the intense heat from the comet into the light. The light beam pierces through the metallic body of the ship easily like a knife through butter, cutting through the engine and its propellor, destroying the airship and causing it to descend to the ground.
Aang and I stare at the airship as it descended past us, Ozai locking eyes with both of us for the first time. We trade off withering glares before Ozai burns his fancy little outfit, leaving his chest bare. He jumps off the Fire Nation airship, speeding towards us with firebending that made him fly like a rocket through the air.
He lands on the pillar in front of us, staring both of us down. "After generations of Fire Lords failed to find you, now the universe delivers you to me as an act of providence."
Ozai glanced at Aang before turning to me. "And the universe has been even kinder to me by adding another Avatar to the world, another act of providence that I truly appreciate, as if one of you weren't enough. Just because you're a girl, doesn't mean I'll go easy on you."
"Oh believe me Ozai, you'll want to take your words back after I'm through with you," I growled.
Ozai only cackles at this. "What can you do to me, foolish girl? Bore me to death by reading your fairy tale stories to me? You're not even the rightful Avatar."
"Suzume's just at much of an Avatar as I am!" Aang yelled. "Don't you dare insult her, she earnt her place."
"Besides, you're not the rightful Fire Lord either, so who are you to say that?" I taunted. "Iroh was probably supposed to be the Fire Lord until you showed up."
Ozai roars in anger and Aang offers him one final chance at peace. "Please listen to us. We don't have to fight. You have the power to end it here and stop what you're doing."
"But if it's a fight you want." I get into my fighting stance. "Then it's a fight you'll get!"
"Well then, I'm going to have to take you up on that offer!" Ozai shouted, shooting fire from his mouth and hands. Aang gets into his battle stance in anticipation, both of us awaiting his next move.
Ozai jumps up high, spinning in the air and slamming his fist downward, creating a circular wave of flames that spread directly toward us. We jump over the flames with airbending and Aang slams his hands and feet into the stone pillar right below him, earthbending a piece of the stone pillar beneath him into the air. Aang rotates it around and kicks the chunk of rock toward Ozai, who leaps away using his firebending. I draw light from the comet once again, adding heat from the comet into it and sending it at Ozai in the form of a slash. Ozai evades it narrowly, propelling himself at us using a jet of fire from his feet. Both of us jump at him, Aang sending a wave of fire at him with his feet in midair and I muster all my energy and rage, shooting out a powerful blast of fire from my mouth and hands. Ozai counters this with a blast of fire of his own from his foot, our attacks colliding in an explosion.
Both of us land on another rock pillar as a result and we leap away again, blocking a blast of fire emerging from Ozai. The Fire Lord attacks again, sending a wave of fire from a downward kick. Aang and I jump to another rock to avoid the attack and Aang picks up a small part of the rock, sending it toward Ozai with a kick. I launch an air slash at him along with it but Ozai dodges the attacks by sending a blast of fire out of his foot. I send a blast of fire of my own using all my strength to counter his flames. Aang's voice fills my mind. 'Suzume, there's a waterfall behind us, if we can lure him there, we might have an advantage.'
'On it, Aang.' I begin to leap back to another pillar of rock with Aang, luring Ozai to come forward. I glance behind quickly and sure enough, I see the waterfall. Ozai follows us in hot pursuit, launching more blasts of fire and we leap into the waterfall. Using waterbending, Aang sends some of the water from the waterfall toward the flames, extinguishing them and causing Ozai to jump back. I encased myself in the waterfall's water, punching the water from the waterfall at Ozai and converting the water that flew out into ice shards. Ozai breathes out fire from his mouth, melting all the ice shards. Aang and I then summon a huge wave of water from behind us, launching it at Ozai. Ozai shoots out a large stream of fire from his hands, dissipating the water. 'Knew he would do that.'
Bending the hot steam around Ozai, I quickly bring down its temperature by removing the heat from it, converting it into ice and freezing Ozai temporarily. He descends down quickly from the waterfall as a result but a quick burst of flames from him melts the ice and he comes flying back up to us straight away, looking even angrier than he already was. He shoots a large burst of fire at us, but Aang jumps to the top of the waterfall to avoid the attack while I waterbend a huge wave to meet his blast of fire, steam the result of the reaction. I send the steam to Ozai but he breathes fire at the steam, causing it to part and I meet his blast of fire with a blast of water of my own. Aang earthbends some of the rocks from the top of the waterfall at Ozai, but he dodges them, flying past them easily. Ozai rockets up after him and flips forward, shooting fire from both feet. Aang jumps to the other side of the waterfall to escape the hot flames. I create tentacles from the water beneath Ozai, aiming and coiling them around Ozai's leg, pulling him back from Aang and back down to me.
Ozai manages to control his descent, glaring at me furiously, displaying his anger by roaring and breathing fire at me. I counter by breathing fire of my own and unleashing a loud cry, drawing as much heat from the comet and mustering all my energy and anger into the fire I breathed. The fiery explosion produced sends us both back, knocking Ozai against the waterfall and sending me off the waterfall, knocking against one of the stone pillars. I cry out in pain, using airbending to soften my fall.
"Time to end you, little girl," Ozai declared, flying over to me and aiming his palms at me, ready to shoot out streams of fire.
"No!" I spot Aang behind him, waterbending a huge wave of water from the waterfall that knocks him away from me and extinguishes the fire at his feet.
"You're a lifesaver, Aang," I smiled.
"Let's go!" Aang ordered and I dash back to the waterfall, using the water from it to carry me back up.
Ozai recovers from the attack, flying over to us with fire jets at his feet. Both of us bend water from the waterfall, ready to repel any blasts of fire from him. Ozai only grins smugly at this, bringing his hands back and the air around him beginning to crackle.
'Out of the water!' I quickly ordered internally, realising what he was going to do. Both of us drop the water we were bending, quickly leaping up to the rock on the waterfall as Ozai shot a powerful blast of lightning at the water below us. 'He's smart, I'll give him that.'
I bend a huge wave of the water below, launching it at Ozai but he evades it nimbly, continuing to push forward and chase us down. We leap away from him as he shoots fire at us from both his feet, landing on one of the pillars of rocks behind the waterfall. 'Should we go on opposite sides? We'll be able to distract Ozai better that way.'
'Sure.'
Aang leaps on one of the pillars of rocks opposite to mine as Ozai bore down on us, using each of his hands to shoot a stream of fire at us. I counter it by shooting a stream of fire of my own with both my hands, countering his blast. By adding more heat and channelling more energy into my stream of fire, I slowly begin to overpower his. Meanwhile, Aang dodges Ozai's blast of fire, leaping onto another pillar of rock and earthbending a boulder at Ozai.
Ozai uses his other hand to destroy the boulder with firebending before he starts conjuring up electricity with it, shooting it at me just as my flames almost reached him. I release my grip on the fire, leaping onto another pillar as his electricity landed on the one I was previously standing on.
Aang lightbends light from the comet at Ozai, surprising him and slowing his attack as he was forced to get out of the way.
I subsequently airbend a gust of air at him, pushing him back and allowing Aang and me some time to retreat further from him by leaping onto other rock pillars. A blue shot of electricity suddenly whizzes past us, knocking down the rock pillar we were both standing on. We leap onto the surface of another rock pillar just in time, seeing that Ozai was standing on the rock pillar just in front of us and bending a blast of lightning at us.
Too stunned to react, Aang quickly grabs hold of me, swinging his arms quickly to create a tornado shield, whirling away us from Ozai onto another rock pillar. 'Are you okay, Suzume?'
'I'm fine, thanks for saving me again.'
We leap from rock pillar to rock pillar as Ozai pursued us, shooting blasts of lightning at us which we evade. 'We can't keep running from him, Aang.'
'Maybe we can, I have an idea. Remember how we sorta bent sound last time?'
'Yeah, I do.'
'I have an idea.' All that was needed to convey his idea to me was the brief glance and nod exchanged between us.
Aang vibrates the air behind Ozai, prompting him to look back for a second before I constantly amplified the vibrations of the air particles beside his ears, creating a discordant mixture of sounds that ultimately caused him to clap his hands over his ears. The sharp cacophony of sounds also began drifting over to us, and it was getting progressively harder for me to concentrate on bending air particles. Once I saw Aang get into his earthbending stance, albeit with some trouble, I knew he was ready to fully carry out his plan.
'Now Aang!' As soon as I decreased the vibration of the air particles, Aang earthbends a massive boulder at Ozai, knocking him back into an earth pillar far behind us.
Aang and I immediately began fleeing, and as we do, I came to a realisation. 'Even if we were to keep using the same tactic, Ozai would probably be able to overcome the sound and since the sound waves also affected us, we wouldn't be able to keep bending sound all the time.'
'Meaning...we're probably going to have to redirect his lightning or find another way to counter his attacks.'
I nod beside him and we land on another rock pillar, luring Ozai in and getting into the stance Zuko taught us to redirect lightning. Ozai, who was now up as if nothing happened to him, takes the bait, bridging the gap between us and unleashing a monstrous blast of lightning at us. I inhale deeply, controlling the lightning with my fingers with extreme difficulty, letting its energy flow with mine momentarily and successfully redirecting it to my fingers on the other side of my body. I aim the blast of lightning at Ozai, savouring his stunned expression. 'He's going down.'
'No Suzume! We can't do this, it could kill him!' Aang shouted internally.
Even with the massive wave of adrenaline dictating my bending, something within me made me decide against killing him at the very last moment so I do the next best thing, unleashing the lightning blast directly in front of Ozai and destroying the rock pillar he was standing on to buy us some time. Aang unleashes his lightning blast into the air, both of us dropping to the ground and groaning in pain from holding that much energy in our bodies.
Ozai emerges in front of us with fire jets at his feet, bending a huge blast of fire at us with his hands. Aang and I quickly raise the ground in front of us to form a rock wall to protect us from his fire but his fire blast easily overpowers the wall, throwing us both off the rock pillar and sending us flying through the air. I take a quick glance below us, realising there was a lake directly beneath us. I waterbend the water beneath us, shaping it into a funnel to catch both our falls.
We then waterbend waves from the water, riding on them to shore. Just as we regathered our composure on the shore, we turn to see Ozai already rocketing towards us with fire jets at his feet, flying over the water toward us.
I waterbend water tentacles from the water beneath him, grabbing hold of his legs and hands with it and dragging him down into the lake with all my power. I release my grip on the tentacle and Ozai resurfaces momentarily but Aang sends waves of water crashing on him, knocking him back from us.
"This is our chance, his firebending should be affected by the water," I advised.
Both of us ride out to him on waves of water and he breathes fire at us with his mouth, both of us extinguishing it with a strong tide of water. We knock him further back by waterbending a strong tide in front of us, knocking him back against a stone pillar. Ozai grunts in pain and we continue shooting further blasts of water at him, but he dodges them all somehow, managing to heat himself up once again with small flames of fire.
He directs a strong blast of fire at both of us with both hands and we quickly waterbend a huge wall of water to block it. He persists with his firebending, continually knocking fire blasts at both of us at lightning speed and we eventually couldn't keep up. The water we bent to protect ourselves from his fire blasts was insufficient and Ozai's blasts of fire manages to drive us back. He then begins rocketing towards us again with fire jets, this time staying a high distance from the water.
The air around him begins crackling again and knowing what he was going to do, we quickly make our way back to the shore, leaping out of the water just in time and onto shore as Ozai struck the water with lightning.
We get back up quickly, already finding that Ozai was nearing us. Aang quickly earthbends a circle of rocks around us to protect us. Ozai cackles evilly from outside, just right outside our earth sphere.
"Both of you are weak, just like the rest of your people! They did not deserve to exist in this world...in my world! Prepare to join them! Prepare to die like your parents!"