A crash had me up and running, bracing myself for impact. Behind me, Aang whipped out his staff, spinning it professionally and rising up an an air twister. A pillar came crashing, and Aang broke through the solid concrete easily with his staff.
"What's going on?" Katara asked, getting to her feet. She opened her watersack, bending a bubble in the air with utmost control.
"We're under attack, I'm guessing," I said, squinting through the sun's rays.
"No way," Sokka yelled. "It's them. Azula's back."
Three airships rose from the mist, with the leader standing on top. "I wish I could kill her," I said under my breath.
"I'm going to hold her off," Zuko said, "You guys go ahead and take cover."
"Yeah, good idea," I said gruffly.
"What? You're not going to help?" Zuko asked. "You're so stubborn. I thought you were going to argue to fight her yourself."
"Nope. I'm not going anywhere near her. She's all yours," I said with a jerk of my head, turning around. "Toph, bend the wall down. We're going to have to get through the tunnel." Zuko started to run towards the airships, while Aang and Toph pushed a tunnel through the wall. "C'mon, Appa!" I yelled, trying to push him into the tunnel. "We don't have time!"
"Appa hates tight spaces," Aang groaned. "We'll have to figure another way out."
"Dad, you have to take the airship," Sokka said. "Get everyone out of here." We'd brought back a few more people from the Boiling Rock after we stole Azula's airship to escape, including the deceased Chit Sang's friends.
"No. You can't go!" Katara argued. "We can't let them split us up again."
"I'll see you again, Katara. I promise you. But Sokka's right." Hakoda said, pulling her into a tight embrace. "I've got to get these guys out of here."
Katara sighed and nodded. "Be careful." Hakoda motioned for everyone to follow him, and they ran towards the airship parked out back.
"I have an idea," Toph said.
I looked over my shoulder to see Zuko grab onto the edge of the airship, pulling himself up. Azula grinned wickedly, shooting fireballs at him. My attention snapped back to Toph.
"What's your idea? Because if we don't get there now, Zuko's going down."
"Hop on Appa," she ordered, and we did as she said. She bended a rock shield on Appa's face to protect him and us.
"Yip-yip!" Aang said, and with one mighty push of his tail, we were flying towards the airships. Fire wrapped around as as Appa cut through the attacks. Below me, Zuko had pulled back his fist to punch a blazing ball of fire at Azula. But she had the same idea in mind.
As blue collided with red, the explosion pushed them both back off their feet. Zuko rolled towards the edge so fast, I knew he wasn't going to make it.
"We have to get Zuko!" I pointed. The sudden boom! of two great powers colliding reminded me of the time I'd first met Zuko, and he'd challenged me to an Agni Kai, only because I'd pushed him that far. The day the color of my fire had changed into a cold blue instead of a scorching red.
Zuko was turning his leg in the air and the fire tornados of red and blue were turning huge. I brought my leg back down, as did Zuko, and I put my two hands in front of my chest towards the tornado whipping at our clothes, the flames licking the air, and pushed.
Iroh's face was frozen in fear and his hands were up, trying to tell us to stop, but it was too late. Zuko had kicked off his fire tornado.
