Chapter Text
Aang returned only a few minutes after Ty Lee, Iroh, Azula and Zuko had gone to the palace. Momo, who had stayed with Katara and Sokka, flew up and got him to land at the house.
“Aang!”
“And us.” Katara smiled when she saw Mai and Toph get off the saddle as well.
“Where have you two been?” Sokka asked.
“We got kidnapped by some crazy hunters Toph’s parents hired.” Mai explained.
“We’ll talk about that later.” Katara noted, “We need to protect the city now.”
By now, the Fire Nation soldiers had made their way to the middle ring and were almost at the upper ring. Everyone got on Appa and he flew them to where the soldiers were starting to advance into the upper ring. The Earth Kingdom soldiers were handling the biggest part of the attack in the middle ring.
Aang sent down a strong blast of wind which threw four soldiers back while Toph created a rock wall that protected them from incoming fire attacks and Mai pinned a few soldiers against the wall. There weren’t many soldiers but they were coming and the group knew they’d soon be overrun. Aang bent down to pick up his friends, planning to take them somewhere safe.
“Guys. It’s too dangerous for you to be here.”
“We’re not just going to run away and hide.” Katara objected.
“But you can’t fight like this.”
“Aang, we can-”
Sokka was cut off by a glow that appeared next to them. In a flash, Aang set his friends down and got ready to fight whoever appeared. Instead of fighting though, Aang lowered his staff when he saw the small spirit.
“Wow. I did not expect a war zone when I arrived. Though, I guess that’s to be expected with you humans.”
“Chisai!” Aang cried, “Are you here to…?”
“I am. A deal’s a deal.” Chisai confirmed, “And you already have the Water Tribe siblings here. How efficient.” With a click of his talons a bright light captured both Katara and Sokka, forcing Mai and Aang to hide their eyes behind their arms, and the two started to grow back to their real heights.
Once the light was gone, Sokka was the first to see the changes, “We’re back to normal!” He cried, hugging his sister.
Katara had the largest smile on her face as she hugged Sokka. Over a month and they were now finally back to normal. It felt so weird to be at eye level with people and to walk around now, but they’d get used to it again.
“Now where are the two Fire Nationals?” Chisai asked.
“They’re not here.” Aang admitted.
“Well that’s a problem. I kinda need them to be here to be able to turn them back.”
“You can just snap your fingers and turn them back now?” Sokka asked.
“No. They have to be within eyesight. Last time I tried to turn someone back without actually seeing them I accidentally made them ten feet tall.” Chisai simply shrugged at the story.
“Right. Get them in your eyesight. If we find them and call for you then will you appear?” Katara asked.
“I can do that. Normally, I don’t like being ordered around by humans but I’ll make an exception.”
“Thank you.” Aang bowed to the spirit as he disappeared.
“They said they were going to the palace, right?” Sokka asked. Katara nodded, “Come on. That’s where we’ll find them.”
The sound of running footsteps made Aang turn his head. When he did, he came face to face with Ty Lee running up to their group.
“Ty Lee! What are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be with the others making sure the King is safe?” Sokka asked.
“We were attacked by the Dai Li.” Ty Lee revealed, “Ozai and Long Feng were working together but then Ozai killed Long Feng and-and he took Azula and Zuko.”
“He what?” Katara asked, her voice dangerously low.
“He took them.” Ty Lee repeated, “He probably brought them back to his main base.”
“Then that’s where we’re going.”
“Wait, hold on! Ozai’s base will be heavily guarded, you can’t just walk in.” Ty Lee objected.
“We have to get them! We can’t just leave them there!”
“I’m not saying we should, but if you go in without thinking Ozai will kill you. You won’t be much help to Zuko and Azula if you die.”
“Then what do you suggest we do?” Katara asked.
“Wait! We can’t just walk in,” Sokka gestures to himself and Katara, “but could two Fire Nation soldiers?”
“Yeah?” Ty Lee said, unsure of where Sokka was going with this.
“So if we knocked two people out and stole their clothes…”
“Then no one would know it was you and you guys could walk right in.” Ty Lee finished.
“We’d grab Azula and Zuko and be back in an hour.”
“Are you guys sure this is safe?” Aang asked.
“Probably not.” Katara admitted, “But we have to try. If we don’t come back in an hour, come and get us.” Aang nodded.
Finding two soldiers' uniforms wasn’t difficult at all. Katara and Sokka got dressed up then raced off to where Ty Lee showed them. They adjusted their helmets before going in then walked straight into Fire Nation controlled land. It was weird being around so many Fire Nation soldiers, but, in their disguises, no one questioned why they were there or even gave them a second look. They made their way to Ozai’s tent, which was very clearly marked with a giant Fire Nation symbol on the tent doors and hanging above the tent itself.
“Stop!” A guard yelled, “No one is to go into the Fire Lord’s tent.”
“But we have express permission from Fire Lord Ozai.” Katara lied.
“I’m sorry, but he told us not to let anyone in.”
Sokka put his hands up, “Great. So when we tell him who didn’t let us, what names should we give?” Sokka asked, “I’m sure the Fire Lord, leader of our great nation, who has enough to deal with, would love adding this to his plate.”
The guards suddenly looked very nervous, “Look, we’re just confused. He told us not to let anyone in.”
“Yeah, but we’re also in the middle of taking down Ba Sing Se. Plans change.” Katara told him, “It’s best to just go along with what our Fire Lord says.”
“You’re right. Head inside.”
Once they were inside, the two began to look around for the siblings, making sure to keep their voices low.
“Zuko? Azula?” Sokka whispered, taking off his helmet as Katara did the same.
“Sokka?” That sounds like Azula. He looked towards the source of the voice and saw a cage at the top of a drawer.
“Azula?”
“I’m up here.” Azula called.
Sokka carefully grabbed the cage and brought it down on the table, “Zuko’s over there.” Azula said, pointing to the cabinet so Katara could open it by freezing the small lock and causing the metal to become smashable.
“Are you two okay?” Sokka asked as he collected Azula in his hands and Katara grabbed Zuko.
“You’re big again.” Zuko noted.
“Yeah. Chisai will turn you guys back too. We just need to get somewhere safe then you’ll be back to normal.”
“Finally.”
Sokka and Katara shot a look outside the tent. If they were quick, they should be able to leave the way they came and find a spot relatively safe for Chisai to turn Zuko and Azula back to normal.
“Are you okay with us carrying you two?” Katara asked, “We need to sneak you out.”
“Don’t exactly have another choice.” Zuko reminded her, getting a look of concern and uncertainty from Katara, “It’s okay. Just don’t drop us.”
Katara laughed a little, “Promise.”
“Now, isn’t this a sight?”
Katara and Sokka turned around at the sound of the voice. In their hands, they would feel Azula and Zuko go stiff. In front of them was Fire Lord Ozai.
“I thought I’d have to wait longer to meet the Water Tribesmen who managed to get my children to turn traitor.” Ozai’s words made Sokka and Katara go on the defensive. Only after a few seconds did they realize they were still holding Azula and Zuko, “I’ll make you a one time deal. Hand over my children and you two go free.”
Sokka felt Azula tense up again in his hands and held her closer, trying to assure her that they wouldn’t do that.
“Go to Koh’s lair.” Katara spat.
Ozai rolled his eyes, “I don’t know why I tried reason with snow savages-“ He didn’t get to finish before Azula and Zuko sent fire in his direction which he easily moved out of his way.
“Don’t talk about them like that!” The siblings yelled.
Ozai let out a small chuckle, “This is just pathetic. Maybe I will have to kill your Water Tribe friends before I kill you two.”
Katara handed Zuko to Sokka so she could create octopus hands, glaring daggers at Ozai. Ozai just laughed again.
“Too afraid to fight me?” Katara snapped.
Ozai was still smiling, “I could blow some steam off killing a waterbender.”
Once Ozai advanced forward, Sokka moved toward the exit of the tent and slipped out just as Katara pushed Ozai to the side and ran towards them. They got a few feet away before Ozai caught up to them, making Katara turn around to hold him off. Sokka bent down, setting Azula and Zuko down.
“Get out of here!” Sokka yelled, “Find the others and tell them we’re here!”
“We’re not leaving you here!” Azula cried.
“AH!” Katara screamed, using her waterbending to protect her from Ozai’s attack.
“Go!” Sokka yelled, “Call out for Chisai and have him turn you guys back!” Sokka grabbed his machete and charged toward Ozai.
Azula and Zuko did run. They ran until they heard Sokka and Katara start screaming in pain. Thanks to their small size, they weren’t too far from the fighting and could see Ozai finishing off Katara and Sokka. Sokka was suddenly tossed into Katara and the two collapsed to the ground. The older of the two still put himself in front of Katara as Ozai advanced toward them.
“I know your father, you know? A good fighter for a Southern Water Tribe barbarian. I’ll have fun sending him your dead bodies.”
“Aang will kill you for this.” Sokka warned.
“The twelve year old Avatar? He can’t stand against me and you know it. The second he finds out about what has happened to you, he will go into the Avatar State and I will kill him. Once I do that, the Avatar will be gone and the world will be mine.” He chuckled, “And this is all before Sozin’s Comet.”
“You won’t win!” Katara snarled, blood was running down her face but it only made her face more serious and scary.
“At least you’ll die optimistic.”
The two braced for Ozai’s attack with Sokka still in front of Katara, hoping, in vain, that she would survive and get away. He was fine with dying if it meant Katara could have a chance, however slim, of surviving.
But the attack never came.
Instead, they heard Ozai’s scream and saw Azula and Zuko pressing their hands into Ozai’s eye. Sokka had to wince at the sight in front of him, it wasn’t pretty. He grabbed them both when Ozai tossed them to the side.
“I told you to run.”
“A thank you would be appreciated.” Azula said, then noticed Ozai start to get back up “Now we should run!”
“Good idea.”
—---------------------
Toph tossed another Fire Nation soldier to Aang, who slammed him into the ground. Both kids were breathing heavily and trying to keep up with the flood of soldiers.
“We have to retreat.” Mai told them.
“We can’t just leave these people.” Aang argued.
“If we don’t go now, we’ll all be killed.”
“Aang, she’s right.” Toph agreed, creating a rock shield to protect them from the incoming fire attacks, “We won’t hold out much longer here.”
“We’ll get to Appa, grab Katara and Sokka then leave.” Ty Lee told him.
“Fine!” Aang clearly hated the plan but they didn’t have another one.
They ran off to Appa, who was roaring at some of the soldiers and slammed his tail down in front of them, making them fly back. Mai helped Toph get onto Appa while Aang and Ty Lee jumped on.
“Appa, yip-yip!”
“Keep an eye out for Katara and Sokka!” Aang yelled back.
“I’ll be sure to do that.” Toph mumbled.
Mai and Ty Lee leaned over the side of the saddle, scanning the ground for any hint of their friends. It was now that Ty Lee wished they were still in their regular blue clothes. At least the blue made them stand out against all the red of the Fire Nation camp. It was also hard to keep an eye out for them while they were being attacked by fireballs, but Ty Lee’s eyes eventually landed on two figures running for their life out of the camp.
“Found them!” Ty Lee yelled.
Aang took his eyes away from the scene in front of him for five seconds. Five seconds was all the time needed apparently for a fireball to be launched at them and hit Appa dead center. The bison began to fall to the earth which allowed people to grab his legs with ropes. Appa roared in distress as Aang attacked them with airbending.
“Get Katara and Sokka!” Ty Lee yelled to Aang and Toph, “We’ll help Appa!” Toph and Aang nodded, running towards their friends.
—---------------------
Sokka and Katara were running as fast as humanly possible through the camp. Thankfully, they were still in their disguises so people didn’t try to stop them but when they saw Ozai chasing after them a few soldiers did reach out to grab their wrists. Katara hit anyone who grabbed her or Sokka, who had a harder time breaking free of holds because he was holding Azula and Zuko, with a water blast. Finally, they couldn’t run anymore and hid in a tent, watching Ozai and a band of guards run past them.
“What do we do?” Katara whispered.
“I have an idea, but you're not going to like it.” Sokka was talking to Azula and Zuko.
“If it’s splitting up…” Azula warned.
“You two are still small. You can get through the camp without being seen and tell Aang where we are.”
“No!” Azula snapped, “Can’t we get Chisai to turn us back?”
“We can’t call Chisai now because that would draw too much attention to us.” Katara told her, “We’d be dead before he could snap his talons. Sokka’s plan is the only one we have right now. You two have to go.”
“And if we leave you two here, you’ll die.” Zuko objected.
“Hey, give us some credit. We survived the Fire Nation this long. You two have to run. We’ll be fine.” Sokka set them down, “Aang and the others should be a few miles that way. Get them and get back here as fast as possible.”
“We will.”
The two bolted from the tent the second they got the chance. They were prepared to keep running for multiple miles, for hours. If they could get to Aang then he could fight their father and Katara and Sokka would be safe. The longer they spent trying to get the Avatar, the more danger Katara and Sokka were in.
As it turned out, they didn’t have to run too far. Aang and Toph were making their way through the camp as well. Toph could feel the two tiny figures running towards them and told Aang where they were.
“Azula! Zuko!” Aang cried happily, “Thank the spirits you two are okay! Ty Lee told us that Ozai captured you.”
“He did and now he’s going to kill Katara and Sokka.”
“WHAT!?!” Aang and Toph yelled.
“Show us!” The siblings wasted no time climbing into Aang’s hands and pointing in the direction of the hiding Water Tribe siblings.
Toph used the ground to push herself along for extra speed and Aang used his airbending. Unfortunately, this was seen by a number of Fire Nation soldiers who chased after them.
“Aang!” Katara cried, hugging her friend.
“Guys. We have a problem.” Sokka warned.
Soldiers circled them, creating fireballs in their hands or holding spears. One of them ran forward, slicing Sokka’s arm so Katara used her waterbending to cut the spear and send the person back. Toph, seeing that they were outnumbered, created an earth circle around them.
“What do we do?” Aang asked.
The circle began to grow hotter since firebenders outside were blasting it with firebending. Sweat started appearing on their faces.
“Come out, Avatar!” Everyone froze at Ozai’s voice, “You can’t hide forever!”
“I got a plan.” Sokka smirked, wiping the sweat from his face.
Ozai continued to blast the rock with fire until it started to crack. When the rocks started moving, the soldiers backed up, prepared for an attack from the earthbender. The rocks broke into hundreds of small pieces and were shot at the soldiers. While they were busy deflecting all of them, Katara jumped forward, knocking people back into the tents with a water whip. On the other side of the battle, Aang and Sokka were working together. Once Aang disarmed one of the soldiers, he tossed the blade to Sokka, who fought a lot better now that he had a weapon.
Ozai, too dedicated to fighting the Avatar, didn’t notice his two kids slip away. They got about 30 feet from the fight before going inside a random tent.
“Chisai!” Azula yelled.
The spirit appeared before them, looking annoyed, “What?”
“You said you would turn us back.” Azula reminded him.
“You humans are so impatient.” He still snapped his talons and Zuko and Azula started growing. Within seconds, they were back to their normal height.
“Attack my forest again and I shrink the four of you down so that you’re smaller than ants.” The spirit warned.
“We’re never going near your forest again.” Zuko said.
“Good.” With that, the spirit disappeared.
Zuko and Azula took a few seconds to admire their returned height. Similar to Sokka and Katara, it felt a little weird to now be over five feet tall when they’d spent over a month as five and six inches tall. Once the novelty wore off though, they turned towards the battle.
Azula ran towards the fight, jumping into the air as lightning shined brightly in her hands. With a smirk, she landed on the ground and sent a lightning blast straight at her father.
“Pathetic.” Ozai sneered, “Even when you manage to return to normal, you’re still fighting for the wrong side!”
“Really? You mean the side with the sad old man who hasn’t left his palace in decades is the right side?” Azula asked, a giant smile on her face.
“You had such potential. Your death will be a warning, Azula.” Ozai sent a giant fireblast at her which she narrowly dodged.
“Yeah. Yeah. You still have to actually kill me for that to work and right now you can’t even land a hit.” All that did was anger Ozai more, “You know, for all your talk about how I have to be a perfect firebender, I at least thought you’d be halfway decent at it.”
As Ozai continued to attack, his moves got more and more sloppy. Azula kept his attention trained on her while the others handled the soldiers that had surrounded them. A fact Ozai didn’t notice until the very end of his battle with Azula when he actually did manage to hit her.
“Ah!” Azula fell to the ground, clutching her arm in pain.
“Enough of this, Azula.”
“Agh!” Sokka jumped forward, stabbing Ozai in the side.
Ozai grabbed Sokka’s collar, throwing him to the side, “Peasant!”
“A peasant that has you cornered with six to one.” Ozai turned around, now finally noticing that everyone was circling him.
“It’s over.” Aang declared, “Surrender now.”
“You must think I'm a fool.”
Sokka really wanted to say kinda, but bit his tongue.
“Surrender. Now.” Aang repeated, “We don’t have to fight anymore.”
“It’s oddly charming to see that you are just as weak as the rest of your people. They were not strong enough to live in my world and neither are you.” Ozai had fire in his hand and was about to advance towards Aang but not before lightning hit him square in the back. He fell to the ground, shaking for a moment, but his breathing stopped a second later.
“What did you do?” Aang asked.
“He couldn’t be reasoned with Aang.” Azula told him, “I did what I had to do.”
“You killed him!” Aang argued.
“I saved you!”
“You took a life!”
“And you’ve never done that?”
“Guys.” Katara stepped in between them, “We can work this out later. We need to get back to the others now and tell them about the Fire Lord’s death.”
“She’s right. If the soldiers hear Ozai is dead and Azula, uncle and I tell them to back down then maybe we can prevent more death.” Zuko added.
“Then that’s what we’ll do.” Aang still glared at Azula.
—---------------------------
Once the news spread of Ozai’s death, the Fire Nation forces pulled themselves back. It wasn’t perfect, but it did allow everyone time to heal their wounded and rest. Katara and Sokka wasted no time in finding their father and people. Their father informed them that they had lost three warriors in the battle, but everyone else was okay. Hakoda was shocked, both to see his kids back to normal but also to hear about their stories. Stories they told him while being fixed up.
—---------------------------
“Aang?” The Avatar turned towards the young firebender.
“Yes?”
“I’m not sorry about what I did. My father had to die. It was the only way to protect you and end this war.”
“It was a human life, Azula, and you took it without even thinking.”
“Without thinking? Aang, I’ve spent the last few weeks thinking about it. The second I was declared a traitor I knew there was a possibility that I’d have to fight my father and kill him or he’d kill me. I’m not saying it was an easy choice or something I enjoyed doing but it was my job. You should understand that.”
“I really don’t.” Aang admitted, “I always thought I could find a way to end this war peacefully. It just doesn’t make sense to me to end violence with violence. It’s a never ending circle where everyone loses.”
Azula looked away, gently touching her bandages, “I can see that.” She admitted, “But, if I’m being honest, I don’t regret what I did.”
“Really? I mean…Ozai is Ozai but he was also your father.”
Azula forced herself to push back any emotion, “I know. It’s not a choice I loved making, but it’s what the fight required.”
“And what did you want?” Aang asked, noticing two tears slide down her face.
“Not to kill my dad.” She admitted.
She wasn’t expecting Aang to hug her, “I’m sorry.” He whispered.
“Thanks.”
“You made the choice that you thought you had to to keep us all safe. I can’t say you didn’t have good motivation, but…I still think there was a better way.”
“Well, you know there’s still a whole world that’s going to need someone to clean it up. I won’t promise to go along with your advice all the time, but we can start trying to fix things the Air Nomad way.” Aang smiled at Azula’s words.
“I’d like that.”
—-----------------------
Zuko and Azula, who spent the rest of the afternoon speaking with Kuei and Aang, eventually made their way over to where Katara and Sokka as evening was setting in. The two were sitting against Appa. Hakoda and another Southern Water Tribe warrior had already finished bandaging them up so now they were just resting.
“Gonna run off to the Fire Nation now?” Sokka asked, changing his voice so that they’d know he was joking.
Azula took a seat next to Sokka, kissing his cheek, “You’d be lost without me. I, sadly, cannot leave.”
“And I think I’d be lost without you.” Zuko said, sitting next to Katara, “So I can’t leave either.”
“Hey. Thanks for saving us back there.” Katara told him.
“You saved us first.” Zuko pointed out, “Makes us even.”
“Well, it’s over now.” Katara sighed.
“What happens now?” Sokka asked.
“Now Aang can hopefully bring some kind of balance to the world now that our father is out of power.” Zuko said.
“Have you talked to Iroh about what this means for you?” Katara asked.
“One of us needs to be the Fire Lord.” Azula told her, “We just don’t know which one yet.”
“That’s something future Zuko and Azula can worry about. For now, let’s just rest.” Katara said.
“I like that idea.”
Hakoda and Iroh came to check on the kids a few minutes later. When they arrived they found the four fast asleep. Sokka and Azula had moved over to the other side of Appa and Sokka was now practically hugging his girlfriend, whose face was hidden in his neck. Katara rested her head on Zuko’s chest and Zuko had his head on top of Katara’s.
“Let them sleep.” Hakoda whispered.
“I couldn’t agree more. People need their rest.”
Both men slowly walked back, making mental notes to tell the guards to have no loud noises around while they walked towards the king and Aang to talk about what would come next for Team Avatar.