The fiery glow of Sozin's Comet blazed across the sky, its ominous light casting an infernal hue over the world. High above, Zuko and Katara soared on Appa, the air bison slicing through turbulent winds toward the Fire Nation capital. Katara glanced at Zuko, his face etched with worry, eyes shadowed by doubt.
"Zuko, don't worry," she said, her voice steady. "We can take Azula."
Zuko's jaw tightened. "I'm not worried about her. I'm worried about Aang. What if he doesn't have the guts to take out my father? What if he loses?"
Katara's expression softened, but her resolve held firm. "Aang won't lose. He's gonna come back." Her eyes narrowed, fixed on the horizon. "He has to."
Zuko followed her gaze, his determination hardening, and Appa pressed forward under the comet's baleful light.
In the Fire Nation's Royal Palace, Azula sat enthroned, her golden robes gleaming, her eyes sharp with paranoia. Servants bustled, preparing her for her coronation, but her patience was fraying. A servant offered a bowl of cherries, and Azula plucked one, spitting out a pit with a venomous glare.
"What am I holding?" she demanded, holding the pit like evidence of betrayal.
"A cherry pit, Princess," the servant stammered.
"Correct," Azula said, her voice low. "And what day is this?"
"It is the day of your coronation," the servant whispered.
Azula's smile was a blade. "Yes, it is. So, please. Tell me why, on the most important day of my life, you've decided to leave a pit in my cherry?" She flicked the pit, striking the servant, who flinched.
"It wasn't a decision," the servant pleaded. "It was just a small mistake."
"Small?" Azula's tone was deadly soft. "Do you realize what could've happened if I hadn't sensed the pit in time?"
"I suppose you could've… choked?"
"Yes," Azula hissed. "Then you will understand the severity of your crime."
"I understand, Princess. Please, forgive me."
Azula leaned back, mocking. "Oh, very well. Since it is a special day, I will show mercy. You are banished. Leave this palace immediately."
The servant fled, and Azula's gaze swept the others. "What are you all looking at? I have two feet that need scrubbing. And make sure you get in between the toes. I won't have my first day as Fire Lord marred by poor foot hygiene."
The servants scrambled, their fear tangible.
Meanwhile, an eel hound carved through the ocean, carrying Sokka, Toph, and Suki toward the airship base. The comet's glow shimmered on the water, hauntingly beautiful.
"It's weird to say," Suki said, "but the comet actually looks beautiful."
"Too bad the Fire Lord's about to use it to destroy the world," Toph shot back.
They reached the shore and scaled the cliff, only to see the airship fleet airborne.
"We're too late!" Sokka shouted. "The fleet's already taking off!"
"Then we're taking off, too!" Toph said. "Where's the closest airship?"
Sokka pointed. "It's right—"
Toph's earthbending launched them toward the nearest ship. They landed hard, scrambling across its hull. Far ahead, Fire Lord Ozai stood on the lead airship's edge, his silhouette stark, surveying the land he meant to raze.
In the palace, Azula's throne room crackled with tension as Dai Li agents approached.
"You sent for us, Princess," the head agent said. "Is everything all right?"
"Everything's not all right!" Azula snapped. "Do you know how long it took you to get here?"
"A few minutes, I guess," the agent said.
"Five, to be precise," Azula said, "in which time an assassin could've snuck in and done away with me!"
"My apologies, Princess."
"Is this how you plan to treat your new Fire Lord? With tardiness and disloyalty?"
"The Dai Li would never betray you!"
"And that's what you told Long Feng before you joined me," Azula sneered. "You're all banished!"
"But—"
"Goodbye!"
The agents left, and Azula called, "Send in the next group!"
Aboard the airship, Sokka, Toph, and Suki crept toward the control room. Sokka signaled silence. Toph smashed the door, metalbending it into armor and subduing the crew. "That's how it's done!" she said, shedding the armor.
"Good work, Toph!" Sokka said. "Take the wheel."
"Let the blind girl steer the giant airship?" Toph scoffed.
"I meant Suki."
"That makes more sense."
Suki took the wheel. "What about the crew?"
Sokka grabbed a speaker. "Take us closer to the water." He announced, "Attention, crew, report to the bomb bay for hot cakes and sweet cream. We're celebrating a birthday."
In the bomb bay, the crew gathered. "I'm Qin Lee, from communications," one said.
"Engine room," another replied. "Big airship, you know?"
"I can't believe the captain remembered my birthday!" a crew member beamed.
The doors opened, and they plummeted into the ocean. "Happy birthday," an engineer muttered, frowning.
Sokka eyed Ozai's airship. "Fire Lord Ozai, here we come," he said, pushing the throttle.
In the palace, Lo and Li approached Azula.
"Why have you banished your servants?" Li asked.
"Your Dai Li agents…" Lo added.
"And the Imperial Firebenders?" Li finished.
"They'd all betray me," Azula said. "Like Mai and Ty Lee."
"We're concerned for you," they said.
"My father sent you, didn't he?" Azula accused. "I'll be the greatest Fire Lord in history."
"Considering today…" Lo began.
"Postpone your coronation," Li suggested.
"What?" Azula roared. "Fight an Agni Kai!"
"We're not firebenders," they said.
"Lo, you're banished. Li, you stay." Azula stalked off.
"But, I'm Li," Li said. "Who's banished?"
Lo shrugged.
In Ba Sing Se, the Order of the White Lotus faced Fire Nation tanks.
"Ba Sing Se," Bumi said, "the Order is here."
"Here to set you free," Pakku added.
Iroh unleashed a fireball, breaching the Outer Wall. The Order charged, Bumi earthbending their platforms. Iroh deflected fire blasts, Pakku froze soldiers in ice, and Piandao disarmed them. Jeong Jeong, on fire jets, toppled tanks with fire walls.
In the palace, Azula stood before a mirror, winding a ribbon around her hair. It snagged, and her frustration surged. She grabbed scissors, glaring at her reflection.
"All right, hair," she muttered, "it's time to face your doom."
As she raised the scissors, a deep, malevolent voice echoed in her mind—Vaatu, the spirit of chaos. "Cut away your weakness, Azula. Embrace the chaos. You are power incarnate."
"Who are you?" Azula demanded, her hand trembling.
"I am the end of order," Vaatu purred. "Sever your doubts, your humanity. Become the Fire Lord they will fear forever."
Azula's eyes blazed. She sliced her bangs, the strands falling as Vaatu's laughter echoed.
Above the Earth Kingdom, Ozai unleashed a fire blast, igniting the land. Aang, from a stone pillar, sent Momo away and earthbent rocks at the airship, damaging it, then struck with fire, crippling it. Ozai faced Aang, shedding his armor and rocketing toward him.
"It's Aang!" Sokka cheered from their airship.
"The universe delivers you to me," Ozai sneered.
"We don't have to fight," Aang said.
"I have all the power!" Ozai roared, attacking. Aang, now in the Avatar State, his eyes and tattoos glowing, countered with a torrent of air, earth, water, and fire, their clashes shaking the heavens.
Sokka's team crashed their airship into the fleet. "Airship slice!" he said. They climbed to the roof, but Suki was separated.
"I'm okay!" she shouted, leaping to another ship. "Finish the mission!"
Sokka and Toph jumped to another airship.
In the Fire Nation plaza, Azula knelt for her coronation, the Fire Sage raising the headpiece.
"By decree of Phoenix King Ozai, I now crown you Fire Lord…"
Appa landed, and Zuko leaped off. "You're not becoming Fire Lord today. I am."
Azula laughed. "You're hilarious."
Katara joined him. "And you're going down."
The Fire Sage moved to crown Azula, but she raised a hand, stopping him. Her eyes locked on Zuko, manic and gleaming.
"Wait," she said, her voice sharp. "You want to be Fire Lord? Fine. Let's settle this. Just you and me, brother. The showdown that was always meant to be. Agni Kai!"
Zuko's face was grim. "You're on."
Katara turned to him, shocked. Azula's lips curled into a sly smile.
"What are you doing?" Katara whispered. "She's playing you. She knows she can't take us both, so she's trying to separate us."
"I know," Zuko said. "But I can take her this time."
"But you told your uncle you'd need help facing Azula," Katara pressed.
"There's something off about her," Zuko said. "I can't explain it, but she's slipping. And this way, no one else has to get hurt."
Katara nodded, trusting him. The courtyard stretched before them, a vast arena under the comet's glow. Zuko knelt at one end, Azula at the other. They rose, turning to face each other. Azula shed her Fire Lord garments, her movements deliberate.
"I'm sorry it has to end this way, brother," she said, her tone dripping with sarcasm.
"No, you're not," Zuko replied, assuming his stance.
Azula's smile was predatory. She spun, unleashing a blast of blue fire. Zuko leaped forward, bending flames in each hand and sending them toward her. The fires clashed, the courtyard erupting in heat and light.
Azula's movements were erratic, her precision faltering. Zuko pressed his advantage, countering her wild attacks with controlled bursts. She snarled, her blue flames growing fiercer, but her stance wavered, her eyes flickering with something unnatural.
As the fight raged, Azula's body stiffened. Her head tilted back, and a guttural laugh escaped her lips—not hers, but Vaatu's, resonating with ancient malice. Her eyes glowed a sickly crimson, and her body convulsed as black tendrils of energy coiled around her.
"This vessel is mine," Vaatu's voice boomed through Azula's mouth, her body moving as if puppeted. "Witness the dawn of chaos!"
Zuko staggered back, his voice thick with shock. "Azula—what is that?!"
Before he could react, Azula's body—now fully under Vaatu's control—moved with unnatural speed. Her fist, wreathed in dark energy, struck Zuko with a single, devastating punch. The force sent him crashing across the courtyard, his body skidding against the stone, unconscious before he hit the ground.
Katara screamed, "Zuko!" and rushed toward him, water bending at the ready, but Vaatu-Azula's crimson eyes turned skyward.
"The Avatar," Vaatu growled, Azula's voice warped by his presence. "He is the true prize."
With a surge of dark energy, Azula's body rocketed into the air, propelled by jets of blue fire laced with black tendrils. She streaked toward the cataclysmic clash where Aang, in the Avatar State, battled Ozai above the Earth Kingdom. Aang's glowing eyes and tattoos radiated power as he wove air, earth, water, and fire against Ozai's torrents of flame, their clashes shaking the heavens.
Vaatu-Azula appeared before Aang, her crimson eyes gleaming. She lunged, her fist wreathed in dark energy, aiming a devastating punch. But Aang, in the Avatar State, sensed the attack, his body twisting to dodge with supernatural grace. Within him, Raava, the spirit of light and order, surged to the forefront, her presence amplifying Aang's power.
Aang's glowing eyes widened, his voice a blend of his own and Raava's, laced with shock and confusion. "Vaatu? You shouldn't be free! The seal I placed on you should hold for another fifty to sixty years!"
Vaatu, in Azula's body, laughed, a sound that chilled the air. "Foolish Raava," he sneered, Azula's lips curling. "The Avatar's absence for a hundred and fifty years, the Fire Nation's slaughter, the chaos they sowed—it fed me, strengthened me. The world's suffering broke your seal, and now I am free!"
Raava, through Aang, bristled, but Vaatu lunged again, and the battle erupted. In the physical world, Aang and Vaatu-Azula clashed with elemental fury—blue and black fire met torrents of air, earth, and water, their strikes tearing the sky. In Aang's inner mindscape, a vast, ethereal plane unfolded, where Raava's radiant form faced Vaatu's writhing, shadowy mass. Their battle was neck-and-neck, each strike shaking the spiritual and physical realms.
Aang's body, battered and cut, mirrored Azula's, her form scarred from the relentless combat. Vaatu's mocking laughter echoed as he sensed Raava's strength waning. "I've won, Raava! I've won!" he taunted, Azula's face twisted into a cruel grin.
In the mindscape, Raava appeared before Aang, her light dimming. Behind her stood the spirits of all past Avatars, their faces grave. "Aang," Raava said, her voice heavy, "this is the last time you will see us. To weaken Vaatu and cast him into another dimension, we must sacrifice our souls. It will give you time to grow stronger, to prepare for his return."
Aang's eyes widened, his heart aching. "No, Raava, there has to be another way!"
"There is none," Raava said, her tone resolute. "He will return, Aang. We are buying you time. I'm sorry we cannot defeat him now."
The past Avatars nodded solemnly, their forms beginning to fade. "Be strong," they said in unison.
In the physical world, Aang, still in the Avatar State, raised his hands, channeling the collective power of Raava and the Avatars. "No, you're not," he declared, his voice a defiant roar. A blinding beam of light, like a kamehameha, erupted from his hands, surging toward Vaatu-Azula.
Vaatu's crimson eyes widened, but his mocking smile remained. The beam struck, and behind Azula's body, the sky tore open with a sound like ripping fabric, revealing a swirling vortex—a portal to another dimension. The force of the beam pushed Vaatu-Azula backward, the dark energy around her unraveling.
Vaatu's laughter turned to a scream as he was sucked into the vortex. Azula's eyes flickered, the crimson glow fading, and she regained control, her body trembling. With a thud, she collapsed to the ground, her consciousness slipping. Through blurring vision, she saw a figure approaching—a blond boy, his face indistinct but unfamiliar. Then darkness claimed her.
Aang landed, his Avatar State fading, his body exhausted and covered in cuts. Ozai, defeated in the chaos, lay unconscious nearby. Aang staggered, the weight of Raava's sacrifice and the loss of his past lives pressing on him. The comet's light dimmed, but the battle's cost lingered, a promise of Vaatu's return looming over the fragile peace.
Back in the Fire Nation, Katara knelt beside Zuko, healing him as he stirred. Her eyes lifted to the sky, where the vortex had closed, and she whispered, "Aang… what happened?"
The world held its breath, awaiting the Avatar's next trial.