rebuilding the world

Part 19

It took two weeks since the lights first appeared, but the gaang returned from seashell island to the fire nation palace and started to prepare for a possible disaster. All 20 airbenders moved to the palace, along with Ursa, who had received her original face back, Noren and Kiyi. Zuko was happy to have his family back, and for Aang for finding more of his people, but he was also afraid of the possible disaster. He told that to Katara every time he saw her since they came back to the palace.

"Zuko, calm down, there will be no disaster" she would say to him, hiding the fact that she thought a disaster is imminent. They were both right. One night the palace shook, waking everyone up. they gathered in Ursa's garden, the safest place for earthquakes. Toph insisted there was no earthquake, but the shaking did not help her convince them she was right. She was right, however, and soon two figures jumped from the ground. One was male, with a thick armor in red, black and gold. Zuko and the rest of the fire nation people in the group recognized him, Kai, a former fire lord and the one who invented the Agni Kai. The other was female, and had a Kyoshi warrior uniform on. Suki recognized her as Shena, a Kyoshi warrior that turned against her people for a chance to be fire lady. The two were big, much too big for humans, but were too solid in their form to be spirits. Padma appeared behind Aang, she whispered something in his ear before disappearing again.

"Padma says that those two are corrupted spirits, they were banished from the spirit world. they're the disaster she warned us about" he called. Katara looked at the corrupted spirits, Kai and Shena, she heard the horror stories of the things they did from Aang while he was going to a fire nation school. They killed so many of their own people for no good reason. She assumed it was these deeds that made them corrupted spirits, but she still wondered why they were here now. Kai laughed, his voice echoed throughout the capital, so loud is was almost deafening. Shena walked to the edge of the capital, banging on the wall of the volcano the capital sat in. now the ground really started to shake.

"something's coming up!" Toph called. She bent a thick slab of rock under the ground and when the lava came shooting up the entire capital rose with it, falling back down when the lava fell back to the earth. One crisis averted, but the two corrupted spirits still stood unharmed.

"why are you here? What do you want?" Aang called to them. They both looked at him, but did nothing to attack.

"we want the fire lord, we want what is rightfully ours" kai's loud voice echoed once more. Katara looked at Zuko, he had his back to her, she couldn't tell what he was thinking, or feeling. What would he do?

"what exactly is rightfully yours?" Zuko called.

"the role of fire lord, the role of fire lady, the entire fire nation, or we will end it all" Shena's loud voice echoed.

"what do we do?" Sokka asked.

"I am the fire lord, but we have no fire lady. I am unmarried. I can give you the throne and the crown if you'd like, as long as you leave th capital unharmed and the people here living" Zuko called.

"Zuko, no. you can't" Aang said.

"what does Padma think about this? What do the spirits think I should do?" Zuko asked.

"I think you should fight them, not give in to their demands. With the fire nation under their control the world will plunge into chaos bigger than when your father ruled the fire nation, or any of your ancestors in the past century. With them in charge the prophecy will fail and you will die" Padma said.

"if we fight them we'll die, we can't fight them, they're too big" Sokka called.

"not if I go into the avatar state like I did in the northern water tribe, remember that?" Aang asked.

"you lost consciousness after doing that Aang, we can't let you do that" Katara said.

"there is a way to fight them without actually fighting them" Padma said.

"what is it?" Zuko asked.

"they are corrupted spirits for a reason. Kai only cared about being fire lord and the power that comes with it and Shena only cared about kai and making him happy. If kai goes down, so does Shena" Padma said.

"how do we take him down?" Suki asked.

"you show him a fire lord that cares for his people, not only about his power as fire lord" Padma put a hand on Zuko's shoulder. Zuko swallowed his spit and looked at his friends, scared of what he was to do.

"how do I do that?" he asked.

"you know how" Padma put a hand on Katara's shoulder before floating away. Zuko and Katara looked at each other, they knew what to do, but how would it be received by their friends? Katara was the first to snap out of this particular thought, she took Zuko's hand and ran with him towards the two giants, despite the protests of everyone else. they stopped mere steps from the legs of the giants, Katara used her bending to freeze their legs, prevent them from moving away. Zuko burned the hands of the giants whenever they tried to squash them. Aang and Toph ran towards them and wrapped them in a rock sheet to let them do what they needed to.

"the air and earth must fit as a glove" Padma whispered as the two young benders worked together as one to create the rock sheet.

"for the fire and water to live and let love" she whispered again as Zuko and Katara hugged each other and kissed.