The Legend of Percy: Book 2 - Through Grief

24. Challenging Destiny (Finding a Princess Underground Pt. 2)

A/N: Hello all! New chapter, still in the invasion but a lot more personal stakes involved. But, Merry Christmas to you all that celebrate it and have a Happy New Year! I hope all your holidays are enjoyable and filled with love!

Azula still felt the fire of the sun churning through her when she'd heard the commotion outside the chamber. She'd received word from her messenger agent recently about the attack breaking through their defences, so she knew people were on their way. It didn't take a genius to surmise it'd be this group.

Using her good hand, the princess had lit a fire in her palm as she sat in a way that limited the pain shooting around her shoulder. She'd signalled to the two Dai Li, telling them to wait until she gave the go ahead.

With a metallic thunk, the doors had fallen open to reveal the quartet of children.

"You're early." She'd said, with a smirk.

The princess surprised herself with how much she was glad that the Avatar was indeed not dead, but she had other things to worry about. But she couldn't tell how she felt about Percy not being with them. She knew she couldn't have beaten him, even without the eclipse, but that didn't cease her rising panic.

Did he not come? Was I wrong?

He doesn't think of you as important. Your father does.

You know the way to prove your importance to him.

She also didn't know how to feel about the Dai Li and their recent history with conflicting loyalties. If Percy were to show up, who's to say he couldn't turn more of them against her.

With a flick of her wrist, she sent a fireball their way which had the kids scrambling and successfully distracted her from her own thoughts. The two Water Tribe siblings dove to either side as the airbender and earthbender put small shields from the floor up in front of them.

Azula pushed off her throne and carved her right arm downwards, once again, hiding the pain it caused her. An arc of fire came at the Avatar which he deflected with a slice of air. She saw a water whip coming her way from her right and ducked away from it before leaping over some earth that was tossed at her.

The princess bent down and swung her leg around in a circle, sending a wave of fire outwards that all the other occupants in the room were forced to dodge. Right before the airbender could land, she shot a blast of fire directly at him to which he responded by spinning his staff around to dissipate the flames.

Out of the corners of her eyes she saw the other three begin to surround her in the room. She jumped back onto the throne, flipping and kicking out her legs to send each of them their own personal ball of fire. They all backed away from her.

The practice with Percy felt like some of the best training she'd ever done. She felt, even with the burnt shoulder, she could toy with them all she liked.

~~~~~

Percy had seen roughly where Appa had landed on the side of the volcano. He had been riding next to Hakoda holding onto the front of their lead tank.

The resistance from the Fire Nation going up the path had been quite minimal. Occasionally, up the path, he'd frozen the few enemies who weren't desperately retreating up towards the palace. The earthbenders that strode in between the tanks branched away to pull down the watchtowers in landslides.

They reached the top, well before they'd planned, with the Fire Nation soldiers still sending blasts of flames their way. All of them were doused by Percy, but he knew where he was needed most. He manoeuvred Siosi even closer to the Water Tribe Chief.