'so, what kind of trouble is katara in?' asked sokka, sitting next to me and aang on appas head.
'i don't know. in my vision, i just knew she needed help.' aang replied.
'it would be nice if your avatar powers could be just a little more specific from time to time.' said sokka
suddenly, a rumbling noise came from the ground.
'what is that?!' i asked, looking down at the dust cloud that seemed to be travelling along a road.
we descended next to it and saw it was toph.
'need a ride?' asked sokka, completely throwing her off guard.
she fell back into the ground.
'oh shit' i said, gliding down and pulling her onto appa.
'get off me old lady!' she said as i dropped her down.
i rolled my eyes and sat back down by sokka and we flew over the outer wall.
'so how did it go with the guru? did you master the avatar state?' asked toph
aang kind of spaced out, his eyes glazing
'aang, are you ok?' wondered sokka
'i'm great. it went great with the guru. i completely mastered the avatar state. heh heh...heh. yeah.'
---
once we arrived in the throne room we asked the king if he'd seen katara, and whether she was okay.
'katara's fine. you have nothing to worry about.' he responded
'but, in my vision. i felt so sure that she was in trouble.' said aang, still visibly worried
'well, she met with the council of generals to plan the invasion. and since then she's been off with your friends, the kyoshi warriors.' said the king
'see aang?' said sokka, 'she's with suki. they're probably back at our apartment right now, talking about makeup or something.'
i winced, thinking how disappointed aang would be if they weren't.
'ok, maybe you're right.' he said, calming a bit
'believe me, if there was any danger at all, bosco's animal instinct would sense it.' the king smiled, motioning towards the bear.
but bosco didn't exactly look like the kind of bear with "animal instincts".
nevertheless, we made out way to our house.
the wall that toph had knocked down was only just being reconstructed and momo ran up to us, chittering excitedly.
but katara was nowhere to be seen.
'there's no one else here.' said toph
'katara is in trouble! i knew it!' aang realised.
'oh no.' sokka muttered
'wait, someone's at the door.' said toph, just as someone knocked on it, 'actually, i know who it is. it's an old friend of mine.'
she walked over to the door, sliding it open to reveal iroh standing in the doorway.
'glad to see you're okay.'
'i need your help.' he said
aang and sokka panicked.
'you guys know each other!' shouted aang, really confused.
'i met him in the woods once and knocked him down. then he gave me tea and very good advice.'
'may i come in?' asked iroh and toph nodded, 'princess azula is here in ba sing se.'
of course.
'she must have katara.' said aang
iroh nodded sadly, 'she has captured my nephew as well.'
'then we'll work together to fight azula, and save katara and zuko.' said aang
'woah there. you lost me at, "zuko".' sokka said
'i know how you must feel about my nephew. but believe me when i tell you there is good inside him.' said iroh, placing his hands on sokka shoulder in a pleading way.
'good inside of him isn't enough. why don't you come back when it's outside him too, okay?'
'if we want katara, we need to get zuko' i said, 'teamwork makes the dream work?'
'of course you'd side with the fire nation' seethed sokka.
'this isnt about us and the fire nation. this is about helping people' i retorted
he sighed and gave in, finally agreeing with us.
'i brought someone along who might be able to help us.' said iroh.
he brought us back outside to show us a dai li agent sitting on the porch.
toph lifted him up with earthbending and put two stone slabs on either side of him, keeping him there.
'azula and long feng are plotting a coup.' said the man terrified, 'they're going to overthrow the earth king.'
'my sister! where are they keeping katara?' shouted sokka, pointing his machete at him.
'in the crystal catacombs of old ba sing se, deep beneath the palace.'
we left for the palace quickly and waited outside for the right spot.
'well whaddya know.' said toph, holding her hand to the floor, 'there is an ancient city down there, but it's deep.'
toph pushed the earth next to her open and created a passage down below the palace.
w'e should split up.' said sokka, 'aang, you and y/n go with iroh to look for katara and the angry jerk...no offense.'
'none taken.' said iroh, but i lightly elbowed him anyway.
he shrugged and carried on, 'and i'll go with toph to warn the earth king about azula's coup.'
momo jumped on his shoulder and he turned around, ready to leave.
but i stopped him.
'ill be down there in a sec. okay?' i said and aang nodded.
i turned my attention back to sokka and took his hand in mine, 'i'll see you soon'
he nodded and planted a small kiss on my cheek, making me blush like crazy.
i let go of his hand and hugged him.
i sprinted into the tunnel and walked between the two, 'sorry, im back'
aang pushed rock further down the tunnel and said hi.
but an awkward silence ensued.
'so,' said aang, speaking again, 'toph thinks you give pretty good advice. and great tea.'
'the key to both is proper aging. what's on your mind?'
aang paused for a second and looked back at me, hoping i wouldn't tell anyone.
'well, i met with this guru who was supposed to help me master the avatar state, and control this great power. but to do it, i had to let go of someone i love, and i just couldn't.'
'perfection and power are overrated. i think you were very wise to choose happiness and love.' said iroh, calmly.
'what happens if we can't save everyone and beat azula? without the avatar state, what if i am not powerful enough?'
'i don't know the answer. sometimes life is like this dark tunnel. you can't always see the light at the end of the tunnel, but if you just keep moving...' began iroh as we opened up into a large cave filled with crystals, 'you will come to a better place.'
i caught up with them and hugged aang, reassuring him, 'you can do it aang, it'll all work out'
we went through a tunnel and broke through the wall, appearing in a cave.
'aang!' katara cried, hugging him.
iroh rushed up to zuko and hugged him as he and anag death stared.
i smiled and waved at him but he didn't notice
'aang, i knew you would come.' smiled katara, letting go of aang and hugging me quickly.
'uncle, i don't understand. what are you doing with the avatar!!' said zuko, angrily pointing at aang.
'saving you, that's what.' aang replied, rudely.
zuko lunged at him but iroh grabbed him just in time.
'zuko, it's time we talked.' he said, turning to us and motioning for us to leave, 'to help your other friends. we'll catch up with you.'
aang bowed and exited through he tunnel with katara.
i lingered for an extra second but ultimately followed them into the cavern.
'we've got to find sokka and toph.' said katara just as a stream of blue fire rocketed towards us.
aang blocked it with a wall of rock and azula appeared from behind the blast.
katara ran round the wall and brought water crashing down on azula who blocked it easily.
in retaliation, katara created a larger wave and it fell on top of her again, turning into steam on impact.
a moment later, azula jumped out of the cloud and sent three balls of fire hurtling towards us.
katara and aang blocked it with water and i mad a wall of air in front of me.
she landed on a piece of rock and aang destroyed it with one quick movement.
azula dropped down between all three of us, ready to hit any two of us at a time.
we stood there, silently waiting for someone to attack first.
then, zuko appeared and joined us, looking side to side before finally landing on aang.
zuko, why?
he sent a blast of flame towards him but aang blocked it quickly.
azula smiled and attacked me and katara, sending blue fire in our directions.
i blocked it with air and she kept sending more in our way.
aang fell back against a wall and i landed on the ground.
azula poised herself to fire at me but katara blocked it with a wall of water.
i stood back up and landed behind her, striking as hard as i could but still not hitting her.
katara finally knocked her to the ground and held her in place with water tentacle things.
i ran to help aang who was still in pain from zukos blast and pulled him out of the hole.
zuko broke kataras hold with a blast and i caught his attention.
i somersaulted over the top of azula and katara and sent a wave of air at zuko.
he began firing quick blasts at me and i jumped away form all of them.
'i thought you had changed!' yelled katara, hurtling after at zuko.
'i have changed.' he replied.
i kept dodging his attacks and protected katara from any fire.
i saw azula hit aang into he wall out of the corner of my eye and felt the impact as it happened.
katara stepped front of me and tried to hit zuko back, only for him to hit both of us into some crystals.
aang kept from his wreckage and began hurtling towards us on top of some stone.
but then a dai li agent swatted him off and sent him to the floor just as i had started to stand up.
more agents jumped down from he walls and surrounded us.
i picked myself up and stood in front of aang as he surrounded himself in the crystal.
azula, zuko, and half of the agents stood in lines, ready to hit him.
his crystal cocoon began to glow and he rose out of it.
i got ready to fight them but felt something hit my back.
it was lightning.
the pain in my back was unbearable.
it coursed through me as if it was ripping apart each part of my limbs, bit by bit.
my sight faded all too quickly as i hit the stone ground.
but the impact from the ground was nothing compared to the static i could still feel tearing through me.
the light from the cave filtered through my eyes. leaving me enough sight to tell a little about what was going on.
katara sent a wave forward and picked aang up, just as iroh came down from the walls.
'you've got to get out of here! i'll hold them off as long as i can!' shouted iroh, readying himself for another attack.
all the soumd around me was muffled - like i was underwater.
katara rushed up to me, knowing she could only take one of us out.
'it's fine' i said weakly, 'keep him safe'
she nodded and ascended out of the cavern through a waterfall.
i was alone.
i felt my spirit waver - was i dying?
i shut my eyes tight and heard a high-pitched ringing in my ears.
soon i felt a hand on my arm and i couldn't move away without using all my energy.
then, i felt my spirit enter my body again.
aang was alive.
i opened my eyes with all the strength i had mustered to see zuko carrying me away.
then it went black.