Zutara - Their Spark

Chapter Seventeen - Chaos

They'd made it past the flaming gates and docked three minutes ago. The Earth Benders we're pushing back the fire benders one step at a time but they weren't fast enough.

Zuko growled as he fought flame with flame, getting nowhere. Boulders burst around him and showered him with debris. He covered his side with a wall of flame but rubble still flew threw and into his eyes. He blinked rapidly and saw his opponent had grown by two and they were already firing on him. Before he could defend himself, Katara was freezing them solid.

They would let stay like that for long, they were already melting the ice. Katara grunted as she worked to lift them in the air and threw them into the sea behind her. Huffing, she turned and continued moving.

She reached for a wounded earth soldier and started healing his burns quickly.

These were bad but she would have to really heal him after the battle. She would do the minimum right now.

"There are so many. Do you think they knew we were coming?" The soldier groaned up at her.

"It's possible. I can't believe we never thought that the Fire Nation might anticipate this. But don't worry, we should have at least equal numbers with the Water Tribe." Katara tried to encourage the soldier without lying to him. There were a lot of fire bending soldiers here. But that wouldn't stop them. It couldn't, not now.

"I'll help you more later are you okay to fight?" Katara asked, pulling back her hands.

"Yes, much better, thank you." He gritted his teeth and stood, running over to his squad again. Kataras stood and eyes scanned the crowd again. She had two objectives.

Help their wounded as fast as she could, and keep Zuko from getting hurt. She didn't want to admit it, but she was afraid he would have trouble hurting his own people, even if he was on their side now.

Suddenly, the sky darkened and the sun was gone. She looked up and blinked at the sky, the moon was beginning to layer over the sun and she felt her own ability strength with the presence of the moon.

Her mind flooded with fear and she scoured the chaos for Zuko. Without his ability he would be left vulnerable. And even though the Fire Nation soldiers would be too, it made her heart beat faster. When she finally found him, he was busy directing a squad, his yell barely made it through the noise to her.

"Build a wall and push them back!" Seconds after he spoke, a thick wall of dirt and rock flung up between them and the fire benders and they pushed them a yard back before it crumbled. It took energy, but they could do it. Without any need of instruction, the other squads followed suit and wall after wall began pushing their opponents back.

This just might work, Katara thought and grinned.

But then, the arrows started flying through the sky.

Aang was silent. He glided through the air of the halls, not feeling good about the lack of security in the palace. Shouldn't this be the worst of it? Maybe they were hiding because of the eclipse. Without their power, they were useless against the Avatar.

"Come out Ozai!" He yelled and came to a stop, giving up on stealth now that he was inside.

"I'm afraid you'll be disappointed." Aang spin at the sound of Azula's echoing voice.

With a start, he realized that Ozai wasn't even here. "No." He whispered, despair and anger flaring, everything was for nothing. People were probably dying down in the battle and it was for nothing.

"You didn't actually think we would leave my father unprotected and out in the open on the one day without our powers."

Aang could still feel the absence of his fire bending and knew Azula wouldn't come out until her ability returned.

He quickly set out to find her before that happened.

Her mocking laughter echoed and he couldn't locate exactly where she was. He flew down hall after hall, blowing open the doors of room after room. Nothing. Where was she?

"You're running out of time."

Aang knew she was right, he felt his power return bit by bit. The battle would soon get much worse and he had two choices. Give up and take everyone - who was left- home. Or take on Azula in replacement for Ozai.

At least the latter meant they went home with a small victory.

Aang slowed and stopped in the middle of the hall. He sat carefully and took a deep breath.

This would be the first time entering the Avatar State since he unlocked it. But he knew he was ready.

Within seconds he was glowing. He whipped around and immediately knew where Azula was. Instinct took over and he was on a mission.

Katara felt like everyone was screaming. From every side of her someone was calling her name for help. Whether it was from arrows or burns, too many people were hurt. Too many for her to help. And selfishly, she was checking every two seconds that no one she knew- no one she cared about- was calling her name. It was hard to find anyone in the fighting. When she thought she'd found Zuko, she realized it was only some one else in Fire Bender colors. And the same with Sokka and her dad in their water bender colors and Toph in her earth bender ones. She reached two people at on once and ripped out the arrows in them. One in a mans shoulder, the other in a women's thigh. Both wounds were extreme and would take time. Katara didn't have time. She was frantic in her healing, willing it work faster.

"Katara!" She heard someone scream, this one wasn't from pain, but panic. She looked up to see a fire bender racing toward her.

Her brief hesitation at pulling away from her patients was enough for Zuko to react.

He flung a wall of fire in front of the man but he jumped through it and continued moving, Zuko cursed and launched himself at the man.

In the same second Zuko made contact, the man pushed flames from his hands in a burst. Instead of hitting Katara, Zuko was fling back as the fire licked up his chest. He groaned but got up quickly. The man must not have good control of his ability because he pulled out thick knives and started in on Zuko. The moon had yet to fully pass the sun, so his bending was still on the weak side, and he knew he could take this guy on easy in combat.

That was until the blade embedded deep into his side. He gasped and his body flared with heat. He heard Katara scream and for a second he wondered if she was hurt. But when he hit the ground he couldn't think much of anything except the pain.

He watched with hazy eyes as Katara continued screaming and a darkness covered the sky. From the west a large wave was coming. A tsunami.

Katara was tense with power as she moved the wave. It grew steadily. At this rate, the entire coast would be under water. The firebenders knew this too. They ran at her, sending balls of Fire to take her out. But the earth benders had her covered, blocking every attack. They prepared for the wave and started to retreat. Someone grabbed him and started carrying him away. He wanted to say to let him go. To let him help Katara, but when he opened his mouth, he coughed up blood.

"Shhh. Zuko." He was startled to hear his uncles voice. He glanced up and saw the tear streakend face of Iroh. "It's okay."

Zuko knew it wasn't, pain radiated through him. His head lolled back as Iroh carried him.

The last thing he saw was Katara, Sokka, and Toph faced against the entire fire nation army.