Aya's POV

The team and I were sitting outside of Ozai's beach house and Aang was practicing his firebending with Zuko.

"More ferocious! Imagine striking through your opponent's heart!" Zuko yelled at him and I cringed at his voice.

Zuko is a very stubborn and loud teacher, while Aang is a calm and gentle student. In my opinion, I think Zuko should tone it down a notch and not get so loud.

Aang stops firebending and turns to Zuko while growling in irritation. "I'm trying!"

"Now let me hear you roar like a tigerdillo!" Zuko demands and 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 and Bubbles run and hide behind Zuko's leg in fear, while he nods approvingly.

Katara holds up two watermelons. "Who wants a nice, cool glass of watermelon juice?"

Aang's eyes grew with delight. "Ooh, ooh! Me, me, me!"

He rushes over to my sister, but Zuko grabs him by the shirt and stops him. "Hey!" Aang keeps trying to run off, but it was useless. "Your lesson's not over yet! Get back here!"

Suki, who was lounging on the stairs next to me, speaks. "Come on, Zuko. Just take a break. What's the big deal?"

My cousin let's Aang go and he runs over to us grabbing a watermelon. "Fine! If you want to lounge around like a bunch of snail sloths all day, then go ahead!"

Zuko walks off as Aang enjoys his watermelon.

"Maybe Zuko's right. Sitting around the house has made us pretty lazy. But I know just the thing to change all that." Sokka mentioned before standing up and taking off his robe, revealing a bathing suit. "Beach party!"

——

All of us head to the shoreside and Sokka excitedly dives into the water, as Katara uses waterbending to create an ice surfboard and surfs on the water. Suki and I sat on the beach and watch Sokka grab some seaweed and bring it to an area, then he takes two buckets and fills them with water and the two of us were confused by his actions.

I looked over and saw Aang stick a piece of wood on a life-sized sand sculpture of what looked to be Appa.

I got up and ran over to him, admiring the sculpture. Bubbles crawled onto my back and chittered.

"Woah!" I smiled.

"Check out my Appa sand sculpture." Aang announces and the real Appa roars at it.

"Not bad, baldy, but I've been working on my sandbending." Toph mentioned as Aang hops down and she cracks her fingers. "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 and I peer down at the replica's details and it was magnificent.

"Woah!" Aang and I gasped at the amazing replica and I noticed a little Earth King and Bosco.

"Wow, you've even made a little Earth King and Bosco." I smiled and Toph gives me a proud smile.

"Try and top that, Sokka." Toph challenged when we see Sokka working hard on his sculpture.

My brother reveals an odd 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 asked, wrapping his arm around my shoulder.

"No, it's Suki."

Aang, Toph, and I begin to laugh at his sculpture of Suki.

"Suki, we'll all understand if you break up with him over this." Toph mentioned as we laughed.

"I think it's sweet." Suki smiled softly and Sokka runs over to her, kissing her cheek.

"But it doesn't even look like- Aah!" Aang got cut off by a fire blast destroying the sculpture and Aang grabs me, pulling me away from it. We recover and see Zuko standing there and he begins to chase Aang, who jumps over the sand replica of Ba Sing Se and Zuko destroys the replica. Aang hides behind his Appa sand sculpture and I stand back with complete shock.

Aang peeks out from behind his sculpture. "What are you doing?"

"Teaching you a lesson!" Zuko shouts and shoots another fire blast, destroying the Appa sculpture and Aang jumps back into the house and Zuko follows him.

I run over to the others and Sokka was rebuilding his sculpture as Katara surfs over to us.

"What happened?" She asked us.

"Zuko's gone crazy! I made a sand sculpture of Suki and he destroyed it!" Sokka yelled and pauses a moment. "Oh, and he's attacking Aang."

Katara, Toph, Suki, and I run after Aang and Zuko and I grab Sokka and drag him along with us.

We eventually find the duo and see Aang airbending Zuko out of the house. We approached them and I go up to Aang, grabbing his hand.

"What's wrong with you? You could have hurt Aang!" I berated Zuko with anger.

"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!?" Zuko exclaims to us and we just looked at him. "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." Aang admitted and I nodded, squeezing his hand.

"After?!" Zuko asked with shock.

"I'm not ready. I need more time to master firebending." Aang remarked.

"And frankly, your earthbending could still use some work too." Aang grimaces at Toph's words.

"So, you all knew Aang was going to wait?" Zuko asked us and I nodded.

"Yes."

"Honestly, if Aang tries to fight the Fire Lord now, he's going to lose." Sokka admits and Aang looks over to Sokka as he says this, frowns, and closes his eyes in defeat. "No offense."

I rub his knuckles and gave Aang a sympathetic smile.

"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 explained.

"You're wrong." Zuko denied and turns away from us. "It's about to get worse than you can even imagine. The day before the eclipse, 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."

——

Flashback to one day before the Day of Black Sun.

"Welcome, Prince Zuko. We waited for you." Zuko walks up to his father and he bows to Ozai and sits down next to him. "General Shinu, your report."

"Thank you, sir." Shinu Stands up and walks up to the opposite side of Ozai across the table. "Ba Sing Se is still under our control. However, earthbender rebellions have prevented us from achieving total victory in the Earth Kingdom."

"What is your recommendation?" Ozai asked him.

"Our army is spread too thin, but once the eclipse is over and the invasion defeated, we should transfer more domestic forces into the Earth Kingdom." Shinu explained.

"Hmm. Prince Zuko, you've been among the Earth Kingdom commoners. Do you think that adding more troops will stop these rebellions?" Ozai asked his son.

"The people of the Earth Kingdom are proud and strong. They can endure anything, as long as they have hope." Zuko commented.

"Yes, you're right. We need to destroy their hope." Ozai remarked and Zuko wasn't happy with his plan.

"Well, that's not exactly what I-"

"I think you should take their precious hope and the rest of their land and burn it all to the ground." Princess Azula suggested.

"Yes..." Ozai agreed and Azula looked pleased. "Yes you're right, Azula." He stands up and walks to the world map. "Sozin's Comet is almost upon us, and on that day, it will endow us with the strength and power of a hundred suns. No bender will stand a chance against us."

"What are you suggesting, sir?" Shinu asked Ozai.

"When the comet last came, my grandfather, Fire Lord Sozin, used it to wipe out the Air Nomads. Now, I will use its power to end the Earth Kingdom..." Zuko looked astonished as Ozai was smiling, "permanently. From our airships, we will rain fire over their lands, a fire that will destroy everything; and out of the ashes, a new world will be born, a world in which all the lands are Fire Nation and I am the supreme ruler of everything!" The war generals applaud at his plan.

——

End of Flashback.

"I wanted to speak out against this horrifying plan, 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." Zuko finished and I was in complete shock by this.

"I can't believe this." I say and fall to my knees in disbelief and Katara grabs my shoulder.

"I always knew the Fire Lord was a bad guy, but his plan is just pure evil." Sokka remarked and I stood onto my feet again.

"What am I gonna do?" Aang asked and Zuko approached him.

"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." Zuko informed him.

"Why didn't you tell me about your dad's crazy plan sooner?" Aang asked as he walks away and I turned to him with worry.

"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." Zuko reasoned and I go up to Aang as he begins to stress out.

"This is bad." He holds his head and sinks down to his knees. "This is really, really bad."

"Aang, you don't have to do this alone." Katara assures him and I nodded, grabbing his shoulders.

"We are right here with you." I tell him and the others stand next to me

"Yeah, if we all fight the Fire Lord together, we got a shot at taking him down." Toph added and I stood up next to my cousin.

"All right! Team Avatar is back!" Sokka announced and points at Aang. "Air!" Then Katara. "Water." Then at Toph. "Earth." Then Zuko and I. "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 and grabs my hand, squeezing it.

All of us laugh, except Zuko, and we surround Aang for a group hug.

"Yeah!"

"Alright!"

"Woo!"

We all looked at Zuko, who was standing away from us.

"Get over here, Zuko. Being part of the group also means being part of group hugs." Katara tells him.

With a resigned look on his face, Zuko joins our hug. Appa suddenly flies in, knocking all of us over and I laughed.

——

Later, I was watching Zuko and Aang have another firebending lesson with Bubbles and Momo at my side. Zuko told me was gonna teach Aang how to redirect lightning and I was nervous.

I've never redirected lightning before, and I hope I never have to. It's very dangerous, because if done wrong it can pierce your heart and you could die.

"There's one technique you need to know before facing my father - how to redirect lightning." Aang smiles at Zuko's words. "If you let the energy in your own body flow, the lightning will follow it." He uses his fingers to show how the energy should flow through the body. "You turn your opponents' energy against them."

"That's like waterbending." Aang says as he joins Zuko in practicing the lightning redirection form.

"Exactly. My uncle invented this technique himself by studying waterbenders." Zuko remarked and I smiled at the thought of my father.

I miss him, I hope he's okay.

"So, have you ever redirected lightning before?" Aang asked Zuko.

"Once, against my father." Zuko answered.

"What was it like?" Aang asked him.

Zuko stops practicing the lightning redirection form. "Exhilarating... 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."

Aang chuckles, "Well, not over over. I mean there's always Aya's healing ability, Katara and a little Spirit Water action, am I right?"

I sat up, shrugging. "Actually, Katara used it all up after Azula shot you."

"But you can still heal me, right?" He asked and I looked away.

"I don't know." I admit with worry.

If I'm being honest, I'm unsure if I can actually revive Aang again if he does get shot down. The spirit water helped me with saving him, I didn't do all the work. I'm not able to revive his Avatar spirit, only the spirit water can do that.

Also, my wings are a huge issue. I'm not at my full potential right now, so that probably means I can't heal the sick or injured fully.

"Oh..."

"You'll have to take the Fire Lord's life before he takes yours." Zuko tells Aang.

"Yeah, I'll just do that." Aang remarks and I looked at Aang, who seemed worried about doing that.

——

"Gather round, Team Avatar." Sokka announced and we surrounded my brother, who 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, then Aya will fly in and distract him with her fire, and while the Melon Lord is distracted, Aang swoops in ... and bam!" Sokka destroys the Melon Lord symbol with the line. "He delivers the final blow."

"Uh... what about me?" Toph asked.

"For now, you're the Melon Lord's forces." Sokka told her and she got excited.

"So I get to chuck flaming rocks at all of you?" Toph asked.

"Whatever makes the training feel more realistic." Sokka remarks.

"Sweetness."

——

Third Person POV

Toph stood on top of the cliff, surrounded by boulders 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, Aya, and Momo, who look at Suki and Sokka, while Bubbles was hiding somewhere on the beach. Sokka signals to the others to start moving and Aya sneaks away to get closer to the Melonlord. 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, and 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!" Sokka scolds.

"I am not Toph. I am Melon Lord! Mwah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!" Toph laughs menacingly.

(Am I the only who feels like Toph would make a great villain?)

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 with their bending. Aya swoops in without using her broken wings and distracts the Melonlord by surrounding him with her firebending, so Aang can perform the final blow.

"Now, Aang!" Sokka yells.

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. Aya's fire vanishes and she stares at the Avatar with with concern and her arms fall to her side.

"What are you waiting for? Take him out!" Zuko exclaims.

Aang shakes his head, "I can't."

"What's wrong with you?" Sokka asked him as he approaches him and Aya walks closer to them. "If this was the real deal, you'd be shot full of lightning right now and Aya would be down."

"I'm sorry, but it just didn't feel right. I didn't feel like myself." Aang admits and Aya grabs his shoulder with concern.

Sokka takes out his sword and slices the head off the Melonlord. Aang winces as he hears the squishing sounds.

"There, that's how it's done." Sokka said and Momo slurps on the melon juice, while Aang was horrified by the scene.

——

Aya's POV

That night, we were all eating dinner, but Aang was facing away from us and I was so worried about him. He couldn't take out the Firelord when we were practicing and I knew why.

He doesn't want to kill him. Aang doesn't believe that killing is the answer and I agree with him, but how is he gonna take down the Firelord without killing him? The Firelord isn't exactly the easiest person to reason with. I want to support Aang here, but I don't see any other solution here. Maybe killing is the answer this time.

Katara walks over to us with a scroll. "I have a surprise for everyone!"

"I knew it! You do have a crush on Zuko!" Toph chirps and we all look at her while Katara blushes bright red and Zuko's eyes grow with shock.

"Um...." She trails off and chuckles. "No..."

Zuko looked away with red cheeks and I giggled when my sister continued to blush.

Katara clears her throat and continues. "I was looking for cooking pots in the attic, and I found this!" She unravels the scroll showing a painting of a happy dark-haired baby playing at the beach. "Look at baby Zuko. Isn't he cute?"

I smiled at the picture and giggled.

"Aw!"

We all laugh, besides Zuko, and I turned to my cousin.

"Oh, lighten up. I'm just teasing." Katara smiles.

"That's not me. It's my father." Zuko tells us and my eyes grow.

Oh. That's a mood killer alright.

"But he looks so sweet and innocent." Suki reasoned as Katara rolled up the scroll.

Looks are deceiving.

Well, that sweet little kid grew up to be a monster, and the worst father in the history of fathers." Zuko remarked.

"But he's still a human being."

We all looked over at Aang as he said that.

"You're going to defend him?" Zuko asked.

"No, I agree with you." Aang reasoned and stands up. "Fire Lord Ozai is a horrible person, and the world would probably be better off without him, but there's got to be another way."

"Like what?" I asked him.

"I don't know." He shrugs and perks up. "Maybe we can make some big pots of glue, and then I can use gluebending to stick his arms and legs together so he can't bend anymore."

Wouldn't that be something.

"Yeah, then you can show him his baby pictures, and all those happy memories will make him good again." Zuko sarcastically remarks and Suki, Sokka, and I giggle.

"Do you really think that would work?" Aang asked with excitement.

"No!" Zuko bluntly said.

"This goes against everything I learned from the monks. I can't just go around wiping out people I don't like." Aang mentioned, pacing back and forth.

"Sure you can. You're the Avatar. If it's in the name of keeping balance, I'm pretty sure the universe will forgive you." Sokka replies to him and I shook my head.

In the long run, you'll just feel guilty for killing someone. It will haunt you for the rest of your life.

Aang turns to Sokka, losing his temper. "This isn't a joke, Sokka! None of you understand the position I'm in."

"Aang, we do understand. It's just..."

"Just what, Katara? What?!" Aang snaps at her.

"We're trying for help!" She shouts back.

"Then, when you figure out a way for me to beat the Fire Lord without taking his life, I'd love to hear it!" Aang yelled before walking away.

"Aang, don't walk away from this!" She called, but I got up and stopped her.

"Let him go. He needs time to sort it out by himself." I told her softly and pulled her back to us.

——

Third Person POV

Aya woke up from her deep slumber when she heard a faint singing and Bubbles follows her actions. Aya's eyes were very heavy and she wasn't fully awake, but she got up and left her room with Bubbles behind her. She trudged to the balcony and climbed over the railing, landing on the ground. Bubbles lands on her head and Aya continued forward toward the ocean.

When she reaches the water, she starts to swim and heads for a gigantic island that mysterious appeared overnight.

——

Aya's POV

I woke up to something touching my face and my eyes open to see Bubbles licking my cheek.

"Hey, Bubbles." I greeted her and she climbed off my body as I sat up, rubbing my eyes. "I had the weirdest dream..." I trailed off when I noticed my surroundings and it wasn't Ozai's house; it was a strange and remote island. "Wait."

I stand up and Bubbles crawls onto my back.

"Where are we?"

——

The beginning of the end.

Three more chapters to go🥺💕