Chapter 47.1- And so the Dragons Danced

Aang was fast. It was one thing to see it animated, and another to experience it in combat. The whistle that heralded the use of Maki’s combustion bending had only been in the room for a second, but he still managed to turn around and begin spinning his staff to protect himself. The room exploded as her attack hit, and even with my guard up I was still sent flying at the wall behind my desk. A wall that instantly parted for me as I flew through. No, no, no.

Why did they never listen? I asked myself with a sigh as I fell against the ground of the next room, a storage chamber and found myself staring at two women who looked inordinately pleased with themselves.

“Do orders mean nothing to you?” I asked.

Azula scoffed, and Toph whistled, raising her head to the ceiling to mime looking away from me. I sighed.

“Let’s go then” I said and shot right through the whole in the wall that Toph had made. Maki, Toph, and Azula. There was no way Toji wasn’t behind this, I thought as the Avatar danced away from every attack I sent. That was fine. I just needed to keep him busy. I needed to keep him from realising that the woman he was probably in love with was dead. Of course, it was as I said that that he spun around my kick and darted around me.

“Katara?” He called. I turned as well, but by the time I’d done so, he’d reached the body. It didn’t look good. My lightning hadn’t been especially powerful with how little time I’d had to call it into being, but it was more than enough to stop a heart. And then she hadn’t been able to move to protect herself and had taken the full brunt of Maki’s combustion bending.

I took a deep breath. A lesser man would have attacked Aang in his moment of grief, but I would not stoop to that. Poison was one thing. I’d had to force myself to agree to even that much, but this was just disrespectful. Besides, it was unlikely to work. I took stock of what was going on. Jeong-Jeong was being overwhelmed by Azula while the two non-benders had been buried up to their necks by Toph in seconds. She had moved to stand beside me now.

“He’s going to be mad” I told her, giving her the silent warning to run.

“Can’t be the greatest Earthbender in the world without ever fighting the Avatar can I?” She said with a chuckle. I wanted to shake her, to tell her that this was not a joke, that we could die here, but I was just grateful to have her by my side.

Another combustion bending blast came in through the window, heading for Aang’s position. Once again, he was blur to my eyes as he picked up the still, unmoving body of his friend and dodged the attack. When he put her down and turned to us, his eyes were white and glowing.

I took another breath, heating up every cell within my body. It would hurt by tomorrow, enhancing myself like this, but that would only matter if I lived to see tomorrow.