Katara nodded. Her failure to avenge Pakku back at Omashu, close as she'd come, had stung at her pride. This felt like a second chance. "She's going down."
Toph whistled. "Wow! I didn't expect the sugar queen to have such a bite to her!"
...
Across the way the princess barked out orders, and the lizard mounts shot forwards in a sudden burst of speed. Toph stomped her foot, heaving up four pillars of rock at them, but the lizards bounded over the obstacles with worrying agility. Tanya took the opportunity to leap off her saddle, and fire burst from her hands and feet as she adopted her signature flight technique.
"Well, we wanted to find out who they were and we found out." Sokka stated. "Now let's get out of here!"
"No! We can take them!" Katara argued.
Toph laughed brashly. "Hell yeah we can! That's the spirit!" She stomped her foot again, and this time a huge rock wall rose up in front of the incoming lizards. Tanya simply flew over it, and a second later the wall exploded in a blast of dust and stray bolts of lightning. Azula led the charge through the newly created hole; one hand still crackling with stray bolts of electricity.
Aang shook his head. "This fight doesn't serve us any purpose. Let's run."
Katara whirled around to face him, eyes wide with anger. "What! No purpose! Are you kidding Aang! She killed Master Pakku."
Aang wilted a little at the harsh rebuke, but his expression remained calm and he stood his ground. Calm eyes stared back directly into Katara's. "Revenge won't bring Pakku back. All we're doing is risking letting ourselves get caught."
Behind him Blue nodded silently in support.
But thoughts of escape would have to wait. Mai swung her arms, releasing a volley of thin, dart-like knives. Up above, Tanya coordinated her attack with Mai's, shooting a fireball that curved down towards the group to hit at the same time as the knives connected.
Aang stepped forwards and, with a wide swing of his staff, sent a gust of wind that blew the knives skittering away. He shifted his feet, trying to quickly shift into a new stance to counter the fireball, but there wasn't enough time! The fireball was rocketing towards them like a falling star, and his trained instincts knew that it would hit before he could properly conjure his shield.
Then a whirl of silvery-grey metal and black fabric rushed past. Blue swung his swords together in one fluid motion, catching the fireball on the flat of his blades, and a shower of sparks burst over him as he batted the fireball off to the side.
Before anyone could say another word he turned, sheathing his blades as he did, and grabbed Katara and Toph, bodily hauling them back towards Appa. Sokka had already hopped up on the saddle amidst the chaos, and was waiting with an outstretched hand to quickly heave them up.
"Appa! Yip yip!" Aang shouted, still not aboard the bison himself. Appa gave a confused groan but nonetheless complied, taking to the sky the moment Blue and the girls were aboard. Meanwhile Aang began to gather the air around him, compressing it into a tight ball.
Across the clearing, Azula's eyes narrowed. She recognised the movements he was making from the trick he pulled in Omashu, and quickly surmised that something big was coming. She began to circle her arms, gathering power for another bolt of lightning, but was cut off when Aang slammed the air ball into the ground early.
A wave of fierce wind raced across the dry ground of the Earth Kingdom, dragging up clouds of dust, dirt and small debris in its wake. The grimy smokescreen washed over the three girls and their mounts, forcing them to stop and close their eyes.
Aang was off a moment later, unfolding his glider with a flick and taking off after Appa. The bison had not gotten far, and since gliders were quicker over short distances he had every confidence that he could catch up.
Or he would have been able to, had a ball of fire streaking at him from behind not forced him to roll to the side to avoid it.
Tanya had been too high above the dust cloud to be affected by it, and was now hot on his heels. Literally hot, as the fireballs she was throwing came closer enough each time for him to feel the heat through his shoes. He ducked and weaved, trying every airbender trick he knew to shake her off, but Tanya's skill at flight was great enough to have even a master airbender reluctantly acknowledge it. She pursued him relentlessly, predicting and matching every twist and turn with her own.
"You're not getting away this time Avatar!" Tanya snarled, throwing an arrow of flames that clipped the wing of his glider and scorched a tiny hole in its side. Even that small wound drastically changed the way the airflow ran over the glider's surface, and Aang yelped as the glider listed to the side.
Tanya barked out a harsh laugh, seeing an opportunity, and boosted towards him: getting close enough that there was no way she could miss. One hand drew back and gathered a ball of flame larger than any she'd used today: one strong enough to sear a hole straight through his chest. "It's over!" She yelled, bringing her hand forwards.
Thwack!
One second she was there, the next a hairy mound of white fur had replaced her. Distracted by their dogfight, neither Aang nor Tanya had noticed Appa circling back towards them. The sky bison had brought the full force of its weight, and some of its instinctive airbending, behind a tail slam that knocked Tanya away like a pinball. With an admitted twinge of satisfaction Aang watched Tanya, who's light frame made her ever so susceptible to being blown away, go whizzing through the air and crash down in a large thicket.
Then Appa gave a pained groan, and Aang looked over in concern to notice a black patch of burnt fur and skin on his tail. It must have been where it had collided with the fireball Tanya had been building. The burn looked quite nasty, with some tufts of fur in the middle entirely incinerated to reveal spots of bubbled, angry red skin.
"Appa's hurt!" He yelled to the others, worry overtaking him. "We need to set him down!"
Sokka made to pull on the reins, but stopped as a hand grasped his shoulder. Blue shook his head, and with his other hand pointed to the clearing they'd just fled, where the tank train could still be seen.
Katara picked up on what he meant. "If we stop now, they'll catch up to us again."
"You can't expect him to keep flying when he's injured!" Aang shouted.
Katara winced at the rebuke. "Not for long. Just until we find a source of water far enough away that they won't find us."
Aang didn't like it. He was tired, scared, and now worried sick about Appa, but logically he knew they were right. Burying the guilt he felt at allowing Appa to keep hurting he shot off ahead on his glider, keen to find a source of water as quickly as he could.
...
Azula, Ty Lee and Mai, all looking slightly grey from the thin layer of dust and grime coating them, pulled their lizard mounts to a stop at the edge of a large thicket. A thicket which, for the past few minutes, had been belching thick black smoke.
"She is going to be so mad." Ty Lee whispered worriedly.
Azula did not respond, instead continuing to gaze impassionately at the dense mass of hedges. A second later a rustling noise, the sound of something pushing its way through, caught their ears, growing louder and louder as it drew near.
Twigs snapped as they were bashed aside, leaves shrivelled and crackled as they burned in the heat, and a few small animals fled in terror of the glowing red demon that stormed through their home.
Finally, Tanya pushed herself free through the undergrowth.
Angry red scratches marred every inch of her skin, her clothes were smudged with dirt, and at some point half a bird's nest had become tangled in her hair. That was all second however to the pure murder in her eyes. Thin wisps of smoke roiled off Tanya's body as her firebending reacted to her barely-controlled temper, raising her body temperature enough to set alight small bits of debris around her.
"I'm going to eat that bison." Tanya declared, the calmness of her tone so obviously forced that its contrast to her rage-filled eyes made it all the scarier. "A nice, juicy sky bison steak, with plenty of spices and honey, seared by my own flames. I always found revenge to be best served hot."
The lizard mounts beneath Ty Lee and Mai stepped back instinctively. Ty didn't blame them. Only Azula's held its ground, with its rider watching the scene with put-upon dispassion.
"Please don't pick another fight right now!" Ty Lee begged in the privacy of her mind.
Azula sneered, looking Tanya up and down, and then opened her mouth. "That was foolish."
"Oh shit."
Heedless of the sudden spike of tension in the atmosphere, Azula continued. "The plan is to run them down. Pursue them until they exhaust themselves. You shooting off alone was unnecessary."
There was a pause as Azula left an opening for Tanya to reply, yet for a few seconds the golden-haired girl did not take it. She was deathly still and silent for a moment, giving no visible reaction, but Ty Lee could feel the storm of dark aura roiling around her. Tanya was struggling to keep her temper from exploding.
Finally Tanya reacted. With deceptive, almost eerie, slowness a smile spread across her face. Not a happy smile, not superior smirk, or even a wolfish grin; the plainest, most emotionless smile that had ever existed.
"Apologies, princess. I saw the Avatar isolated from his allies and took the opportunity without considering the tactical implications. It won't happen again." She droned out in an almost monotone voice. Almost, because Ty Lee swore she could detect the faintest tinge of sarcasm lacing it. Or perhaps she was imagining it. The contrast between the deadpan calm of Tanya's voice and the seething fury glinting in her eyes was setting her on edge.
Azula frowned, but her thoughts on Tanya's unusual reaction were hard to read. "Good. See that it doesn't." She answered at last. With a tug of the reins her mount began to turn around. "Now hurry up and let's get moving. They can't have gone too far."
...
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