Falling, Fallen

Chapter 13: Melon Lord

Aang practices firebending punches while Zuko watches him with his arms crossed. "More ferocious! Imagine striking through your opponent's heart!" "I'm trying." Aang said irritated. Zuko wasn't sure if he was still mad about last night or mad because of how he's pushing him. "Now let me hear you roar like a tigerdillo!" Aang gives a light roar as fire bursts come out of his hands and mouth. "That sounded pathetic! I said roar!" Aang roars even louder, as three bursts of fire come out of his hands and mouth. Momo runs and hides behind Zuko's leg in fear. Zuko nods approvingly before seeing Katara approach them. "Who wants a nice cool glass of watermelon juice?" She asks. "Ooh, ooh! Me, me, me!" Aang says excited. Zuko grabs Aang by the shirt of his robes. "Hey!" Aang whines and keeps trying to run off, but it is useless. "Your lesson's not over yet! Get back here!" "Come on, Zuko. Just take a break. What's the big deal?" Suki asks drinking her own glass of juice. "Fine!" Zuko rolls his eyes as Aang happily runs off and takes a watermelon. "If you want to lounge around like a bunch of snail sloths all day, then go ahead!" He walks away. Zuko knew he was really still mad at himself for what what happened last night with Katara and not the fact that Aang just wanted a break.
"Maybe Zuko's right. Sitting around the house has made us pretty lazy. But I know just the thing to change all that." Sokka says taking off his robe, revealing a bathing suit. "Beach party!"
Sokka surfaces the ocean with seaweed on his head and he blows water from his mouth. He grins goofily. Katara uses waterbending to create an ice surfboard and surfs on the water. Suki, watching Sokka grab the seaweed and bring it to an area. He takes two buckets and fills them with water while Aang sticks the last piece of wood on a life-sized sand sculpture of Appa, finishing the last horn.
"Check out my Appa sand sculpture." He smiles. "Not bad, baldy," Toph says to Aang as he jumps off the sculpture. "but I've been working on my sandbending. You're gonna love this." Toph cracks her knuckles and uses sandbending to create a sand replica of the city of Ba Sing Se. Aang peers down at the replica's details. "Whoa! Wow, you've even made a little Earth King and Bosco." "Try and top that, Sokka." Toph smirks. Sokka reveals a grotesque looking sculpture with seaweed for hair, a starfish for a nose, and rocks and shells for eyes and mouth. "Ta da!" "Is that a blubbering blob monster?" Aang says studying it. Sokka gets offended. "No, it's Suki!"Aang and Toph both laugh hysterically. "Suki, we'll all understand if you break up with him over this." Toph giggles. "I think it's sweet." Suki smiles from where she sits on a beach towel. Sokka runs and slides on his knees as he grabs Suki by her shoulders and kisses her on the cheek. "But it doesn't even look like- Aah!" Aang is cut off by a fire blast that destroys the sculpture. Zuko appears and chases after Aang, blasting at him with firebending. Aang jumps over the sand replica of Ba Sing Se and Zuko destroys the replica of that too. Aang hides behind his Appa sand sculpture then peeks out from behind the sculpture fearfully. "What are you doing?" "Teaching you a lesson!" Zuko destroys Aang's Appa sculpture with a fire blast as jumps back up to the house. Zuko goes after him, continually firing blasts at him. Katara comes back to shore and sees the destruction. "What happened?" Sokka looks to her as he starts rebuilding his sculpture. "Zuko's gone crazy! I made a sand sculpture of Suki and he destroyed it! Oh, and he's attacking Aang."
Katara, Toph, and Suki run after them, the latter dragging Sokka. Zuko chases Aang onto a tree and sends another fire blast at him, forcing him to jump onto the roof of the beach house. Zuko subsequently climbs onto the roof with him.
"Get a grip before I blast you off this roof!" Aang yells. "Go ahead and do it!" Zuko blasts fire at him. Aang slides down the roof and into the house and hides behind a dresser. Zuko breaks the roof with firebending and drops into the room. He takes a fighting stance and looks around for Aang just as Aang kicks the dresser at him, but Zuko destroys it. Aang runs into the hall. Zuko augments fire into the hallway. Aang clears his part of the hallway from the fire using airbending. "Enough!" Aang airbends Zuko out of the house. Everyone approaches the firebender cautiously.
"What's wrong with you? You could have hurt Aang!" Katara yells. "What's wrong with me? What's wrong with all of you? How can you sit around having beach parties when Sozin's Comet is only three days away?" Everybody looks at Zuko. "Why are you all looking at me like I'm crazy?" "About Sozin's Comet ... I was actually gonna wait to fight the Fire Lord until after it came." "After?" Zuko uttered shocked. "I'm not ready. I need more time to master firebending." "And frankly, your earthbending could still use some work too." Toph announces making Aang grimace. "So, you all knew Aang was going to wait?" "Honestly, if Aang tries to fight the Fire Lord now, he's going to lose." Aang looks over to Sokka as he says this, frowns, and closes his eyes in defeat. "The whole point of fighting the Fire Lord before the Comet was to stop the Fire Nation from winning the War, but they pretty much won the War when they took Ba Sing Se. Things can't get any worse." Katara described. "You're wrong. It's about to get worse than you can even imagine. My father asked me to attend an important war meeting. It was what I dreamed about for so many years. My father had finally accepted me back. I wanted to speak out against his horrifying plan to burn down the Earth Kingdom but I'm ashamed to say I didn't. My whole life, I struggled to gain my father's love and acceptance, but once I had it, I realized I'd lost myself getting there. I'd forgotten who I was." "That's why you were upset when you came out of the meeting." Katara wondered. Zuko nodded. She sunk to her knees. "I can't believe this." "I always knew the Fire Lord was a bad guy, but his plan is just pure evil." Sokka muttered. "What am I gonna do?" Zuko stood up from his rock seat and walks to Aang. "I know you're scared, and I know you're not ready to save the world, but if you don't defeat the Fire Lord before the comet comes, there won't be a world to save anymore." "Why didn't you tell me about your dad's crazy plan sooner?" Aang glares before walking away. "I didn't think I had to. I assumed you were still going to fight him before the comet. No one told me you decided to wait." Aang stops and holds his head with both hands sinking down to his knees panicking. "This is bad. This is really, really bad." "Aang, you don't have to do this alone." Katara says. Toph, Zuko, Sokka, and Suki stand next to Katara. "Yeah, if we all fight the Fire Lord together, we got a shot at taking him down." Toph grins. "All right! Team Avatar is back! Air. Water. Earth. Fire." Sokka gives Suki a clump of leaves and holds up a large leaf. "Fan and sword!"
"Fighting the Fire Lord is going to be the hardest thing we've ever done together, but I wouldn't want to do it any other way." Aang smiles. Everybody except Zuko laughs and walks over to Aang for a group hug. "Get over here, Zuko. Being part of the group also means being part of group hugs." Katara smiles holding a hand out to him. With a resigned look on his face, Zuko joins the hug kind of enjoying the closeness to her. Appa flies in, knocking the entire group over.
After a good break another lesson between Aang and Zuko begins. Under the pavilion, Katara watches with Momo at her side. She'd come to enjoy watching them during their lessons. The way the firebender's muscles would flex during different workouts and exercises made her cheeks grow with heat.
"There's one technique you need to know before facing my father - how to redirect lightning. " Aang smiles at the older boy. "If you let the energy in your own body flow, the lightning will follow it." Zuko his fingers to show how the energy should flow through the body. "You turn your opponents' energy against them." "That's like waterbending." Aang comments as he joins in practicing the lightning redirection form. "Exactly. My uncle invented this technique himself by studying waterbenders." "So, have you ever redirected lightning before?" "Once, against my father." "What did it feel like?" Zuko stops practicing the lightning redirection form. "Exhilarating ...". Zuko admits. "but terrifying. You feel so powerful holding that much energy in your body, but you know if you make the wrong move, it's over." "Well, not over over. I mean there's always Katara and a little Spirit Water action," Aang smiles and turns to Katara. "Am I right?" "Actually, I used it all up after Azula shot you." Katara admits. "Oh." "You'll have to take the Fire Lord's life before he takes yours." "Yeah, I'll just do that."

Later on the Team is on the rocky cliffs near the beach.
"Gather round, Team Avatar." Sokka says as he puts a carved melon on a draped mannequin. "In order to take out the Fire Lord - or in this case, the Melon Lord - our timing has to be perfect." He kneels down on the ground and uses a stick to draw a line heading toward the Melon Lord symbol. "First, Suki and I will draw his fire. Then, Katara and Zuko charge in with some liquidy hot offense," Draws another line. "and while the Melon Lord is distracted," Draws a third line. "Aang swoops in ... and bam!" Destroys the Melon Lord symbol with the line. "He delivers the final blow." "Uh ... what about me?" Toph asks. "For now, you're the Melon Lord's forces." "So I get to chuck flaming rocks at all of you?" Toph asks. "Whatever makes the training feel more realistic." "Sweetness."
Soon Toph is surrounded by boulder coated in grease with small bowls of fire set out in front of each boulder. "Mwah-ha-ha-ha!" She laughs.
Katara and Sokka look at Aang and Momo who look at Suki and Sokka. Sokka signals to the others to start moving. Sokka and Suki run toward the Melon Lord, but become confronted by stone Fire Nation soldiers, who suddenly rise out of the ground. Sokka cuts one stone soldier in half and Suki kicks down another one. They keep running, but a large burning rock boulder falls out of the sky. Suki jumps over the boulder. Sokka finds himself fallen down just a few inches away from the flaming boulder and jumps up. "Watch it, Toph!" He yells. "I am not Toph. I am Melon Lord! Mwah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!"
Toph lights a second boulder on fire and sends it through the air at Zuko and Katara. They run around the boulder and become surrounded by a circle of stone Fire Nation soldiers, which they quickly destroy. "Now, Aang!"
Aang jumps, preparing to strike the Melon Lord with his glider staff. Aang looks at the Melon Lord and changes expressions from anger to uncertainty. When he lands, Aang stops his attack just before smashing the Melon Lord. He backs away. "What are you waiting for? Take him out!" Zuko yells. Aang shakes his head. "I can't." Sokka walks up to them. "What's wrong with you? If this was the real deal, you'd be shot full of lightning right now." "I'm sorry, but it just didn't feel right. I didn't feel like myself." The younger boy admits. Sokka takes out his sword. Aang, winces as he hears squishing sounds. "There, that's how it's done."A piece of melon falls on the ground near the Melon Lord. Momo slurps some melon juice out of the piece. Aang, who is horrified at the scene runs off.