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Chapter 28

Aang blew the door open with his staff. The room was one large hall, being supported by pillars on each side. At the end was a throne, Azula sitting in it. Ozai was nowhere to be found.

"So, you are alive after all. I had a hunch that you survived. It doesn't matter, I've known about the invasion for months."

"Where is he? Where is the Fire Lord?"

She pouted, sarcastically. "Hm, you mean I'm not good enough for you? You're hurting my feelings."

Sokka pulled out his sword, pointing it at her. "Stop wasting our time and give us the information. You're powerless right now so you're in no position to refuse."

"And stick to the truth. I'll be able to tell if you're lying."

"Are you sure? I'm a pretty good liar." Her face became expressionless. "I am a 400 foot tall purple platypus bear with pink horns and silver wings."

Toph paused. "Okay you're good, I admit it." She surrounded Azula in a cage of rock. "But you really ought to consider telling the truth anyway."

Azula gave her a small smirk. The stone surrounding her shattered. "When I left Ba Sing Se, I brought home some souvenirs. Dai Li agents." Three of them dropped down from the ceiling. Aang swung his staff down creating a blast of air. They threw up two walls protecting themselves.

The three of them flew forward, attacking them. I stayed behind, holding my hand out and only seeing sparks appear. A weird feeling coursed through my body, like I was going to be sick or something. One of the Dai Li agents ran towards me and I dodged, grabbing their arm and flipping them. He grabbed my leg and pulled, making me fall to the ground. I watched as they escaped, going through a hole in the wall.

I got up we and followed them. "I can't pin her down. She's too quick." We continued running after her, being led through the tunnels.

"Wait! Guys, stop attacking. Don't you see what she's doing? She's just playing with us. She's not even trying to win this fight!"

"Not true, I'm giving it my all," Azula said sarcastically.

"You're trying to keep us here and waste all our time!" Toph said.

"Um, right. I think your friend just said that genius. And since you can't see, I should tell you I'm rolling my eyes," she said.

"I'll roll your whole head!" Toph yelled.

"She's just baiting you again."

"Okay, so what do we do? Just ignore her?" Aang asked.

"It's the only thing we can do," I said.

"We don't have a choice. We just have to get out of here and find the Fire Lord on our own somehow." We all turned away from her and began walking away.

"It's a trap. Don't say I didn't warn you." Aang and Toph stopped for a second.

"Ignore!" Sokka yelled as we continued.

"So, Sokka's your name right? My favorite prisoner used to mention you all the time." He stopped and turned around. "She was convinced that you were going to come rescue her. Of course, you never came and she gave up on you."

Sokka gave a cry of anger and rushed at her. Toph pinned Azula's arms above her head. "Where is Suki?!" Sokka yelled. "Where's Suki?! Answer me!"

"Sokka, she won't talk." Aang placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Where are you keeping her?!"

There was a blast from somewhere else in the tunnels. "Oh. Sounds like the fire bending's back on." Azula kicked her leg up, sending a blast of blue fire at us. Sokka jumped back dodging it. She sent out a ball of fire towards him that I blocked using my own bending. Azula jumped up, breaking herself out of the stone restraints. "Dad's all the way at the end of the hall and down the secret stairway on the left. I'm sure he'll be more than happy to see you now." She ran down the tunnel.

"I fell for it! I used up all our time," Sokka said.

"It's not your fault, Sokka. Azula was ready for us. She had every move planned out."

"And now it's too late."

"Maybe it's not too late. The eclipse is over but I can face the Fire Lord anyway," Aang said.

"No. I don't think that's a good idea."

"But I'm ready! I came here with a job to do and everyone's counting on me."

"The Fire Lord knew we were coming this time. We thought we had the element of surprise on our side but we didn't. It just wasn't our day. What we need to do now is go help our friends," Toph said.

"I guess you guys are right." He sighed.

Sokka put a hand on Aang's shoulder. "You'll have another chance. I know you will." We left the tunnels.

We flew back down to everyone else using Appa. "It was all a trap. Azula knew we were coming and she plotted out every move. We just got to get to the beach as fast as we can. If we can make it to the submarines, maybe we can get away safely."

"They've got air power, but so do I! I'm going to do what I can to slow them down." Aang opened his glider and jumped up.

Katara hopped on Appa and flew up. "Appa, you and I can help too."

"Everyone, let's get back to the subs!" Sokka yelled. We followed him down.

Katara and Aang joined us again. The door of the air balloons opened up. "Try and find cover! I think we're about to see some bombs." We all gathered close to Toph as she created a cover over us. As the bombs hit it, smashing it down, she created pillars to keep it up.

The balloons began heading past us. "Why aren't they turning around to attack us again?" Katara asked, watching them.

"They're headed for the beach. They're going to destroy the submarines!" Aang yelled.

"We'll be stuck here!"

"How are we all going to escape?" Sokka asked.

"We're not," Hakoda said.

"Then our only choice is to stand and fight. We have the Avatar, we could still win!"

"Yes, with the Avatar we could still win on another day. You kids have to leave. You have to escape on Appa together."

The two of them seemed shocked. "What? We can't leave you behind. We won't leave anyone behind," Katara said.

"You're our only chance in the long run. You and Sokka have to go with Aang somewhere safe. It's the only way to keep hope alive," he said.

"The youngest of our group should go with you. The adults will stay behind and surrender. We'll be prisoners but we'll all survive this battle."

"I've got some experience with the Fire Nation prisons. It's not going to be easy but we'll get by," one of them sighed.

"They're at the beach already!" Sokka yelled. Seconds later everything shook as the submarines were destroyed. A cloud of smoke went up, signalling our doom if we stayed any longer.

Everyone leaving all begrudgingly got on Appa. They said their goodbyes, and we left.