Our Future

Chapter 3. •Healing.•

GENERAL POV (AS PER USUAL)

The war had ended.

Aang had finally managed to defeat Fire Lord Ozai at the last minute after coming out of the Avatar State that had been 'caused' by Ozai himself, who had accidentally smashed the Avatar into a rock, hitting an old scar that Azula had inflicted upon through a lightning strike. This 'accident' had opened Aang's seventh chakra, immersing him into the all-powerful and offensive Avatar State. But fortunately, the Avatar had managed to come out of his powerful state before landing a fatal blow at the Fire Lord. And decided to remove all of his firebending forever through energy bending, despite its life-threatening risks and dangers...leaving Ozai powerless and defeated...

Peace had been restored and the Fire Nation's once powerful and tyrannous Fire Lord had been locked away for as long as the new and future Fire Lord intended.

That is...if he were to leave the silence of one particular room, along with a particular water bender.

"Let go of me!" Azula screamed, thrashing about, making her ebony black hair fall messily into her gold, wild eyes. Cuts and less-than-severe burns marred her face, as well as other parts of her body. The fire bender's arms and legs had been terribly burnt or singed into a live crisp because of Zuko's final blow.

But Toph refused to release the iron clamps that now bound the fire bender. "I'll roast you alive if you don't let me go this instant! The throne is mine! The crown is mine! I am the Fire Lord!" Azula shrieked crazily, her eyes nearly rolling back into her head as she threw her head back.

"Oh shut up will you?" Toph yelled at her, stomping her bare foot onto the ground, causing it to shake. Aang chuckled at the fierce earth bender, petting Appa who had come out of hiding from inside the Palace during the recent Agni Kai.

"Where's my sister you maniac?" Sokka demanded, glaring at Azula. He held a dagger underneath her chin, threatening her. "If you hurt her..."

Azula then cackled madly, her eyes blazing and bloodshot. She threw her head back and thrashed about again, as Toph grunted and bended some rocks to keep Azula down and hopefully still. The blind girl had to restrain herself from strangling the enemy.

"Hurt her! HA!" Azula shrieked, a wide grin stretching from one ear to the other as she stared Sokka down. "Hurt, peasant, is a total understatement!"

At that, Sokka's eyes widened, as well as Aang's.

"You're lying!" Sokka shouted at Azula, ignoring the sudden stabbing pain in his chest as Suki placed her hands on his shoulders, trying to calm him down. "You're lying!" He then pressed his dagger further against Azula's throat, drawing a tiny line of blood. But she didn't flinch.

"No she's not..." Toph whispered, her cloudy gray eyes growing wide. Her already fair complexion paled into a ghostly, pasty white. Toph then turned to face Sokka, following the vibrations underneath her feet. "She's not lying, Sokka..."

Sokka dropped his dagger as it clanged onto the ground loudly and he swayed a little, dazed. Suki quickly caught him and held him still.

"Where is she?" Aang demanded at Azula. "What did you do to her?"

But the crazed fire bender simply rolled her eyes several times, to the point where Aang thought she'd lost control of her own eye muscles. Thin trails of blood from her wounds ran down her fair skin, staining it crimson. Her grin simply stretched wider and he could see the tiny blood vessels reddening her fiery eyes.

"Enough!" Toph shouted, and stomped her foot again, removing the rocks from weighing Azula down. The earth bender girl then started to drag Azula away.