Chapter 36.6- And so the Dragons Danced

He just looked at me like I had said something extremely stupid. It was the kind of look he had when I first suggested w go cliff diving some years back. He’d ended up becoming a true believer iun the end, but he’d thought it was quite stupid and risky in the beginning.

“It’s the Avatar” He replied like he was speaking to a child.

“Yes, but he’s a man as well. A child even, if the reports from Sung and the others are to be believed. We know that this spirit has worked o everyone that the Dai Li have tried it on. The texts say that Kuruk himself fell to spirits in the end and that Yangchen had lost to a few in her lifetime. That means the Avatar isn’t immune to spirits so why not?” I ventured, playing devil’s advocate.

“It. Is. The. Avatar” Toji was not interested in playing ball and arguing the merits and demerits of my plan with me, it seemed. I nodded, accepting the logical counterpoint. Fucking with the Avatar seldom went well for all involved, and being on this side of things, I could see the Avatar in a completely different light.

He had escaped a Prince of the Fire nation on multiple occasions, and ‘unskilled’ or not, Zuko was still beyond 95% of firebenders out there. Then there was the debacle at the Fire Sage’s temple that had been hushed up for a while but had leaked heavily in the aftermath of the botched North Pole invasion. He’d dealt our nation the greatest defeat in our history and was still a child. Needless to say, most of the fire nation military wanted to have nothing to do with the Avatar and Toji shared that opinion.

I turned to the spirit next. It was too risky to leave as a threat on the chance that I would need it one of these days. I didn’t even consider something as braindead as brainwashing Ozai or Iroh. They were too dangerous to be taken alive.

“No, don’t please” Kah snapped out of its dazed state for a second, sensing its doom and dove right at me. It was too late, I’d already pointed my palm at it and let loose. I’d been circulating my inner flame all around my body when I started, so it took a second for my power to concentrate itself, properly. But once it got going, it really got going. The darkness fled the cavern like it was chased. The heat that I’d been allowing to build within my body asserted itself into reality with a snap. I watched the colour of my flames shift as it darkened in the center, shifting from orange to a light blue, and then lightened all the way back to white. All the while, I grit my teeth and ignored the screams that sounded out in my mind.

Toph had collapsed to the floor. Toji was holding his head and Amara had fallen unconscious. It was too late to stop now, I thought as I pushed even more power to my fire. I felt the screams cut off abruptly but kept the fire going. Something told me it wouldn’t be that easy, and I was right. I felt my left leg seize up and almost give out on me, and then my right hand, the one I wasn’t using began to inch up my body of its own accord.

When it grabbed a hold of my throat, I ignored it and kept feeding all I had into the flames. My own hand began to choke me out but I kept my attention on roasting this creature out of existence. I hadn’t even begun feeling the effects of the lack of oxygen when the screams returned to my mind. The cavern had become a boiler in the minutes since I’d begun. I turned to Toji after he managed to make it to his feet again and gestured with my head to get the others out of here. Credit to him, he hesitated. But the heat became too much for him in time as well. The fact that I was being choked was actually working to my advantage. I could just hold my breath and focus on the flames even as I felt all the oxygen in the room be used up in the fire.

It was when the stones behind him began to pop and crackle that I finally felt the feeling of being unable to continue. I pushed through the first signs of exhaustion. I couldn’t allow this thing escape here. No. This was it.

Toji took the others out and I felt myself roar even with my hand around my neck as I channeled more of myself into the flames. From white at the centre, the flames darkened once more. I felt it within me as they shifted to a burning green. A familiar green. The screams amplified in my head, becoming even more desperate until they gave out. This time, I felt my hand return to my control as my leg did the same. I returned some of my weight to it cautiously for a second before I fell to my knees as the flames cut off against my will.

Where the spirit had laid, there was just a mass of ash that began to dissolve right before my eyes.