Double Bender

Part 53

We flew for several hours, alternating on who's flying Appa. By the time darkness came, Katara had the reins, and Zuko, Geo and I were in the saddle, going over a strategy. Suddenly, the cool feeling of the night rapidly turned very hot. I looked at Zuko with a very scared look. We all looked up at the inky black sky. But, little by little the sky turned to a light grey, then yellow, then orange, then an unmistakeable shade of deep blood red. The comet had finally come.
The red sky kept steady and wouldn't fade. My thought was correct, the comet really had arrived! Even Appa started acting up. Actually, Appa was acting a lot weirder than normal. Suddenly, he groaned and jostled to the side. We were all tossed into each other. It was only a miracle that Katara didn't fall off and was able to steady him. Zuko helped me and Geo sit up and I crawled over to the edge of the saddle and stared to pet Appa's side. "What's the matter, buddy?" I asked, trying to keep the panic out of my voice. Then I looked up and froze. "What is it?" Zuko asked as he pulled me back into the saddle. The words froze in my throat. I couldn't speak. I simply pointed to where I saw what made me freeze. Zuko and Geo looked up and Geo gasped. Streaking across the sky was a large mass of something painting the sky with its magnificent tail of fire. It looked almost like a dragon, flying across the sky with it's long tail streaking out behind it. The thing was Sozin's Comet itself. And it was close to us.
Zuko looked at the comet and turned away. "Don't worry, Zu." Geo said. "We can take Azula." Zuko sighed. "It's not Azula I'm worried about." "Then what's the matter?" I asked. "It's Aang I'm worried about. What if he can't finish my father? What if he loses?" Katara couldn't take anymore. "He's not going to lose." She protested. "He's gonna come back. He has to." We all looked nervously at each other.
After about fifteen more minutes of riding in silence, Geo, who was flying at this point, loudly exclaimed, "Look! Down there!" We all rushed to the side of the saddle and looked down at the Fire-Nation palace below us. In the courtyard, the Fire Sages, as Zuko once told me about, were standing in the courtyard. In front of them was Azula and in the hands of the one in the front was the brass flame that the Fire Lord wore. They were going to crown Azula.
As quick as we could, Geo landed Appa and we all jumped down and rushed as fast as we could to the courtyard just as they were holding the shimmering brass flame over Azula's head. "By decree of the Phoenix King Ozai, I now crown you..." He looked up and saw us and turned ghostly white. He knew why we were here and he knew that we were prepared to fight. "Well?" asked Azula, sounding very irritated, but, there was something else in her voice: Fear. For the first time since I'd met her, probably the first time in her life, she was afraid. She knew something was going to go wrong, but she just didn't know when, where, and what and that was driving her mad. " What are you waiting for? Do it already!" she nearly shouted. The Fire Sage stayed frozen in his position, to petrified to move. Then, Azula looked up, saw us, and grinned. I shivered. That grin scared the crap out of me. It was the grin of a person who was about to do the most horrible things with little to now remorse about it. But even more, it was the grin of a person who was slowly losing their grip on reality. There were dark bags under her eyes which gave her a very menacing look, especially when mixed with that grin. She was hunched over a little bit too, and swaying back and forth, and her hair was cut off in all different ways, some locks were much longer than the others. She was slowly losing her grip on reality. Zuko stepped up to face his sister. "Sorry," he said, laced with a bit of sarcasm. "You're not becoming Fire Lord today...I am." Azula stood up and laughed. "You're hilarious." She said, mockingly. "And you're going down." Geo said, re-taking her place by Zuko. I stepped up and stood on his other side with Katara on my right.
The Fire Sage regained his posture and looked like he was going to crown Azula but she put up her hand and motioned for him to stop. "Wait." She said. "You want to be Fire Lord? Fine. Let's settle this. Just you and me, brother. I challenge you to an agni kai!" "You're on!" Zuko responded.
"Are you crazy?!" Geo whispered angrily. "She will murder you!" "Thanks for the vote of optimism." Zuko replied. "What happened to all of us beating her?" Katara asked. "I thought that was the point of Uncle sending us all. Don't you see what she's doing? She's trying to separate us because she knows she can't beat all of us." Geo paused. "Yeah, what she said." She added. Zuko looked between the two of them, then at me. "There's something 'off' about her." He finally said. "I can't really explain it, but she's slipping. I can take her alone." Then he locked eyes with me. "And this way, no one else gets hurt." I looked at the ground, and then back up at him. Before I could give him a chance to turn around, I threw myself into his arms and hugged him. "Be careful. Don't do anything stupid." I whispered. "Okay, I promise." He whispered. We pulled away and he turned to face Azula.
"So sorry it had to end this way, brother." She mocked. "No you're not." Said Zuko. Azula suddenly thrust her palm forward, sending a huge jet of blue fire towards Zuko. Zuko quickly leaped forward and brought his arms down in a swooping motion, bending two ropes of fire in each hand. The two jets of fire collided and exploded. The explosion was so bright, I had to shield my eyes. As the flames disappeared, Azula leapt forward and kicked, sending another jet hurtling towards Zuko, who dodged and sent more jets toward Azula. She dodged an hurled more jet's towards Zuko. It was just a pattern; hurl dodge, hurl dodge, explosion, hurl. Suddenly, just as Zuko hurled another jet, and Azula dodged, the jet flew into the building and it caught on fire. Azula turned around for a split second, looked at Zuko, and growled. Zuko caught his breath and locked eyes with Azula. Zuko suddenly thrust his hands forward, sending out a huge jet that collided with a defense from Azula. I could feel the heat searing my face like a very hot knife, making my eyes water, but I couldn't turn away. I was mesmerized by the scene taking place in front of me, and it was too horrifying and bright not to watch. The two siblings paused for a moment and stared each other down. Suddenly, Azula charged forward and propelled herself upward on a rocket of fire. As soon as she'd landed, she sent a wave of fire. Zuko stood his ground and lifted his left arm, bending the fire away from him. With his right hand, he sent a wave of fire towards Azula, making him seem almost surrounded by fire. Azula leapt out of the way and the fire hit another building. Azula growled again and suddenly and sent the biggest blast of fire I'd ever seen. Zuko looked back at us for a split second and then jumped forward and thrust his palms out to the side, countering Azula's blast. All I could see was a huge explosion of red, yellow, orange, and blue and the slight silhouette of Zuko as he countered the attack, keeping the fire from touching us. They both caught their breath, Zuko looking very satisfied and Azula getting angrier and angrier by the second. She suddenly shouted angrily and lunged toward Zuko. He rushed forward and ducked under Azula and countered all of her attacks. Azula rushed towards him again and tried to throw in another jet. Without giving himself a chance to think twice, Zuko did a full body spin, with jets of orange flame following his palms, and thrust the flaming rings forward towards Azula. With a very frightened look, Azula ducked and the flames hit the Palace again. Azula breathed heavily and Zuko grinned confidently. "What?" Zuko said cockily. "No lightening? Afraid I'll redirect it?" That made Azula snap. "I'LL SHOW YOU LIGHTENING!" Azula screamed. She readied her stance and brought her index and middle fingers down in a swooping motion. Blue lightening followed wherever her fingers went. Suddenly, I saw her gaze change. Everything seemed to slow down. Her eyes wandered away from Zuko and over to Geo, Katara, and I. But she wasn't looking at all of us in one glance...She was looking right at me! She grinned menacingly and changed her stance so she was facing towards me. Then, she thrust her fingers forward. Zuko turned around and saw my petrified look, obviously sharing my realization. I knew I should get out of the way but my feet seemed like they were nailed to the ground and I was too petrified to move. Everything still seemed to have slowed down. I couldn't think straight, my eyesight was suddenly blurring. All of a sudden, Zuko started running towards the blast and suddenly made a giant leap... In front of me. My ears suddenly came back in to focus just as Zuko shouted the word, "NO!" Then...he was hit. Blue lightening flashed everywhere and clashed against the red sky. My eyes wouldn't move from the horrible sight taking place in front of me and I could feel tears pouring from them. Zuko's body convulsed from shock as he somehow managed to pull his arms inward. I watched as he sailed through the air, his upper body curled over, he gave one final painful cry and then collapsed to the ground, his body still convulsing from from the shock. The lightening had passed through his heart.
I couldn't move. I couldn't think. I couldn't do anything except stand there and cry. I suddenly came back into focussing on the situation and locked on my eyes on Zuko, lying helplessly on the ground. Everything suddenly snapped back and I realized that Zuko, the first person I'd met since my parents' death that actually cared about me and didn't treat me like trash, was lying on the ground, close to dying. I couldn't take anymore. I started to rush toward Zuko but a huge jet of blue fire landed right in front of me, preventing me from reaching him. I looked angrily over at Azula, who was now laughing her head off, making me even angrier with her. Without listening and without thinking about the danger, I rushed over to Zuko and knelt by him. I angrily brushed the tears away from my face and looked back down at Zuko's. He looked like he was in so much pain and I couldn't do anything about it. I didn't have nearly enough water close to me so I couldn't heal him. All I could do was sit there and watch him cringe in pain. I pulled his head into my lap and for that brief moment, everything disappeared. It was like everything had just stopped and he was just there, with me. His eyes were closed and cringing and I wanted so much to take away his pain but all I could was just sit there uselessly. Zuko tried to get up, to keep fighting but I could tell the pain was holding him down. "Don't move." I whispered. It was all I could do to keep from crying even more. "It's alright." I soothed. "I'm here." But I'd forgotten. We weren't alone, the world hadn't stopped, and I didn't realize that Azula was getting ready to send one more bolt of lightening right at us. Even though she had already struck her brother down, she knew he wasn't completely out. And she wouldn't stop until he was. And if I went with him, that was just a bonus. I didn't even realize it. I was too busy trying to hold on to Zuko. But Geo did see. And she was about to make the biggest decision of her life. I suddenly heard Katara, "Geo! No!" But it was too late. Azula had already launched the bolt of lightening and Geo had already taken her place and she wasn't going to move. The bolt struck her in the chest, sending her flying towards me and Zuko. She landed hard right in front of us and I nearly screamed. Geo wasn't breathing. Her eyes displayed a flash of pain and then suddenly went blank. They were cloudy and blank and staring right at me. Geo was dead.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand everybody hates me. *Mentally prepares for angry comments*
~Maeve