All the World is Lost (A:TLA)

Prologue: The Crossroads of Destiny

[starts after the Dai Li show themselves in the catacombs]

Katara lifted her head and looked around. The Dai Li were everywhere along the walls of the catacombs, jumping down to land in formation around her. Katara shakily got to her feet and called the water to her aid, forming octopus arms all around her and daring the agents to challenge her.

Aang was in a similar situation, only instead of the Dai Li surrounding him, they were arranged in perfect formation behind the prince and princess of the Fire Nation. Zuko looked ready to kill someone (which he most likely was), and Azula had a small but smug smile on her face, like she knew the Avatar had no way out of this predicament. Both were in a bending stance, waiting to attack.

Aang got to his feet and fell into his bending stance, only to realize what Azula already knew: they were hopelessly outnumbered. Aang looked over at where Katara was waving her octopus arms around, daring the uninterested Dai Li agents to challenge her.

There's too many, Aang thought dejectedly, then he remembered something that Guru Pathik had said to him when he was opening his last chakra: "The only way is to let her go."

Aang knew now what he had to do. As much as he hated it, he had to access the Avatar State, or both he and Katara would be captured, killed, or even both. "I'm sorry Katara," Aang said softly, not knowing that these three words would be the last he ever spoke for a long time.

Aang pulled some of the light teal crystals around him with bending to make a protective and private dome, then sat in the center in his meditating position. As he meditated, he found himself back on that thin bridge of purple light in outer space, the Earth below him and the giant vision of himself in the Avatar State in front of him. Aang closed his eyes as he felt the Avatar State triggered inside him, control along with it.

Outside the dome, no one knew what was happening. As Aang's tattoos glowed with Raava's spirit energy, the dome glowed too. Everyone, even Zuko, took a step back. Katara turned her head to the glowing dome and couldn't help but feel a sense of hope flood through her. Maybe they would get out of this alive.

No one noticed the Fire Nation princess making her way around behind the dome, to where Aang's back faced.

After a few anxious seconds, the top of the dome burst open, like a volcano blowing its top, and a beam of white light shot out of it. The gust of wind that came out threatened to knock everyone off their feet. It took all that the people had not to fall over.

Katara could only watch in awe and pride as Aang rose out of his crystal dome, his eyes and tattoos aglow with the power that Raava gave him. Katara smiled despite the situation around her. He did it, she thought as Aang stopped rising and hovered several dozen feet in the air, looking down at Zuko, Katara, and the Dai Li below him. She couldn't help but shed a tear of happiness at the sight.

BOOM

Katara was temporarily blinded and deafened by the bolt of lightning that Azula had shot at Aang's back, perfectly centered below the Avatar's shoulder blades. Katara could only watch in horror as the bolt that connected Aang's back with Azula's fingertips finally faded away, and Aang began to fall towards the ground below.

This simple movement snapped Katara out of her shock. Her tears of joy had turned to tears of pain, but she payed no attention to them as she created a wave using the water around her and rode on top of it to the falling body of the Avatar. She managed to catch him before he hit the ground, nearly drowning Zuko and the Dai Li in the process.

When the water finally receded, it revealed Katara kneeling on the ground, Aang's body in her arms. The tears continued in streams down her face as she looked at Aang's broken, burned, once lively form, now lifeless in her arms. She looked up as Zuko and Azula began to step towards the pair, no doubt going to end the fight once and for all.