Water Lily in a Sea of Fire

Chapter 85: The Final Battle

Ozai stood on a pillar of rock facing Aang. "After generations of Fire Lords failed to find you, now the universe delivers you to me as an act of providence," he said deeply.

"Please listen to me," pleaded Aang. "We don't have to fight. You have the power to end it here and stop what you're doing."

"You are right. I do have the power. I have all the power in the world!"

Flames shot from Ozai's hands and mouth. He looked down at Aang who took a defensive stance. Ozai jumped up and spun in the air before slamming his fist down creating a ring of fire that spread out towards the Avatar. After leaping over the flames, Aang slammed his hands and feet onto the stone pillar breaking off a layer and hurling it towards Ozai who launched himself with his firebending to avoid the crash of rock against rock. The Phoenix King propelled himself towards Aang who jumped towards him sending out a wave of fire just as Ozai kicked out a fiery blast of his own and the two attacks collided in an explosion.

"Go, Aang!" yelled Sokka from the airship. "Airbending slice!"

"Shouldn't we be helping him?" asked Suki.

"The Fire Lord is Aang's fight. We need to stay focused on stopping the rest of the fleet from burning down the Earth Kingdom."

"Since we don't have to deal with Ozai, we'll go back and help the others," said Nai.

Suki turned the ship around.

"It looks like there are still nine ships that haven't been taken," said Sozoh.

"So how do we take them?" asked Sokka.

"You see how those ships are over the others?" Nai pointed.

"They look like they're landing on top of them."

"Exactly. There's a hatch at the top. We need to get inside and hope we can get control. Our allies have probably been put in the brig by now, and security's going to be a lot tighter."

Suki steered the ship towards one of the lower ones.

"I'm going over," said Nai.

"I'll go with you," said Sokka.

Suki looked at him. "If you're going, so am I."

"Sozoh, Zaro, you can keep control of this ship," said Nai. "Keep it steady over top of the other one. Rizin, Tadashi, you can come with us."

"You're not going without me," said Toph.

The six of them went down to the lowest deck where they watched as their airship moved closer to their target.

"It looks close enough," said Nai. "Let's go."

She, Rizin, and Tadashi stepped outside onto the platform and jumped onto the other airship beneath them.

"We have to jump, Toph," said Sokka. "It's not far below us."

"You ready?" asked Suki.

"No," said Toph. "But that's not going to stop me."

Sokka led her out to the platform where the three of them jumped and then followed the others towards the hatch.

----------------------------------------------------

As soon as the Order of the White Lotus arrived at the inner wall of Ba Sing Se, Pakku drew up a tidal wave of water freezing it over the wall while trapping the non-firebenders in ice allowing Piandao to slice through their weapons leaving them stuck and defenseless.

Like a badgermole, Bumi went underground. Making his reappearance in one of the streets of the city, he found himself facing six fire tanks. They unleashed a barrage of fire blasts upon him, but the King of Omashu drew up a solid wall of rock protecting himself from the flames. Going on the offensive, he pulled boulders from the ground and sent them hurling towards the vehicles where they were embedded in the fire cannons. Spinning around he stomped on the ground sending pillars of rock beneath the tanks launching them into the air until they fell on top of each other. Bumi laughed madly as he watched the dazed soldiers inside slowly crawl out of their tank column.