The Warrior's Gambit (Zutara)

XLI

They came from the sky.

Aang awoke to ash falling like snow, coating the ground in a cloying, musty topcoat and poisoning the air with an acrid tange that made you cough in the back of your throat.

They came from the sky like blades in the rain, sharply spinning down to strike.

They came from the sky like a thunderstorm blistering in suddenly, thrashing trees and wind whipping everywhere.

They came from the sky and from the very beginning, there was no mercy.

Aang stumbled out onto the main deck of his house, fingers clenched at the railing, watching people scream as the fire of Zhao's fury rained down upon all that took shelter, creating craters in the earth and killing anything within a five-foot radius.

"How did they find us?" Ty Lee said, blasting a powerful airstream at a few rocks that rained against the roof, shoving them into the streams instead.

"It must have been my fault," Aang said, "After Shoji, I was so depressed...they must have followed us back!"

"Not a chance, it's been days, Aang," Toph said, joining him on the porch. "I kept track of your back; no trails. Nothing, not a single baddie following us. I didn't fuck that up, I couldn't have," she said firmly, "It could have been a traitor...or a slip-up...or hell, I don't know." Toph began running off the porch. Ty Lee pulled her back.

"What are you doing?" she asked frantically.

"Fighting, Ty! What does it look like!" Toph snarled, "I'm not gonna sit around!"

"You're blind!"

"I've always been blind!" Toph thundered, eyes alight with fire, "That's not a big surprise! I gotta help, I gotta!"

"She means you can't see anything in the Swamp, Toph. You're as good as literally, truly, blind," Aang agreed. "I just saved you from the Spirit World, so no, I'm not going to watch you die again."

"I'll go to High Hill. I'll...I need to help!"

Aang and Ty Lee exchanged looks. "Take some children there. Protect them on the hill," Aang instructed. "And don't try to be the hero."

Toph saluted. "I'll leave all that to you, Twinkletoes."

They watched Toph run off into the fight and Aang looked at Ty Lee. He kissed her, just once, because he didn't know if he could let her go if he gave her another. Ty Lee pressed her forehead to his. "Aang, let's go."

Those that could fight were already knee-deep into trying to fend off everyone. Iroh was casting fire back at the blimps, and already he'd felled one, which was falling swiftly towards the trees. Shen and Dhakiya fought side-by-side, forming a protective barrier for those that couldn't fight to flee. Aiga was helping guide everyone away. The swampbenders were creating huge monsters from the vines and leaves as they tried to bat or grab fighters from the sky.

A few men shimmied down on ropes and Ty Lee quickly jumped and rolled over to incapacitate them as they hit the ground, making their bodies jelly as they flopped helplessly on the wet soil. Had it been a humorous moment, Aang might have compared them to dogfish freshly caught from the ocean.

Aang jumped into the line with the swampbenders, helping them create giant arms and monsters from the earth. The entire forest seemed ready to help them; sending large animals to attack the men, having vines and foliage swallow those that stepped in the wrong places, and sending alligator cats with their huge jaws to snap and bite off limbs or a sabermoose using his gargantuan horns to send men in packs flying through the hair.