Fall of the Azure Princess

Earth pillars were shooting out of the ground elsewhere in the city. Hen was dodging then by running on top of them, but he took a misstep, a pillar hit his stomach and was thrown up into the sky. As Hen hung in the air, he magnetized rocks to him and he melted them to form a lava star.
While turning around in the air, he shot it to Toph. Gajeel saw this and intervened. "Move, twerp!" he pushed her out of the way and made his iron sword to slice through it, but he screamed out loud as the lava star had cut through his iron.
Hen landed on the ground and fake-cringed. "Oof, that looked like it hurt." He said with a smirk.
Gajeel's arm returned to normal and he held it. "You are one dead brat."
Hen smirked. "Oh yeah, well you can eat it! Or eat this!" Hen melted the ground in front of him and made a wave of lava that sped to Toph and Gajeel.
"Get down!" Toph yelled, she pushed down Gajeel and made a very thick earth tent that was made to defend against the swarm of lava.
Hen smiled. "Oh yeah, I'm totally hot!" he yelled. He then looked annoyed and put his hands on his hips. "I've got to work on my one-liners."
From inside the earth tent, Toph held the structure together. "Well, I've never dealt with a lavabender before. Any ideas Metalhead?"
"He sure can take a beating, but I've got a move that will finish him for sure, getting close will be a problem with all that lava," Gajeel said.
Toph then looked to be in thought. "If I can hold him off long enough, can you finish him off? I hate to admit, but this guy might be too tough for just me. Don't know a way to deal with that lava yet."
Gajeel smirked. "Guess you can't do anything without me, huh?" Toph made a hole in the ground for Gajeel to dig through.
"Just stick to the plan!"
He climbed into the hole. "Before I save you, give him hell!" Gajeel climbed into the hole and Toph closed it. She sighed and bushed the back of her wrists against the walls of her earth tent and it made the rock and dry magma explode outward in front of her.
"You want to beat the best Earthbender in the world?" Toph announced. "Then do your worst!"
Hen smirked. "Heh, ok!" he heated the ground in front of him but Toph had made him sink into the ground and he was momentarily trapped. She used this opportunity to step hard and made a wave of short earth pillars to race to the trapped Hen. "Ah crap!" the pillar had hit him in the chin, causing him to fly back. He rolled and stumbled to his feet, but as soon as he found some semblance of balance, three cylindrical pillars had crashed into his chest and he was pushed back even further to a hard wall.
He fell to his chest and was panting. Toph had restrained his wrists and feet. "What's the matter? You got nothing else to say?"
Hen focused on the ground beneath his palms. "Nope, I've cause know I can't lose this. As long I can keep my friend safe, I'll take all the beatings if I have to." He heated the ground under his palms and hot lava had burned his wrists and ankles but also melted the rocky restraints. He didn't care about his injuries, as he shot his fists forward, he sent Toph flying back in an earth wave. Her body bounced along the ground, but she stopped herself, slid on her feet and stuck her hands into the ground. She glared right up at Hen.
"You've got to be the most troublesome Earthbender I've ever had to deal with."
Hen smiled. "Coming from the 'Blind Bandit', that's a compliment and a half. But I'm not done yet!" he formed the lava stars on his sides. "Since you can't see, aerial projectiles will give you trouble!" he flung both lava stars to her.
Toph used her heightened hearing to have an idea of where the lava stars were. She launched herself back into the air before the lava stars could slice her. Once she hit the ground she heard a bullet of lava speeding to her, she made a forward curved wall, splashing the liquid rock all over, but making sure her rock was solid. Hen shot a large rock to Toph's curved wall, but as soon as the structure shattered. She had disappeared.
"Think you can hide underground?" he made pillars of lava shoot out in all directions so he wouldn't be surprised. But he was even more surprised when he saw Toph hand grab hold of his foot. He was startled and he received a headbutt from her after she dug herself out of the ground.
Toph landed on the ground and she made pillars rise out of the ground around her opponent. They were systematically hitting Hen in certain places just to manipulate his movement. She started by throwing a pillar to the left underside of his ribs, sending him stumbling in the opposite direction. She then hit the right side of his face, then his stomach, and his left knee forcing him to fall to the said knee.
Finally, she sent an earth wave that engulfed Hen which sent him flipping into the air and he slammed into a wall, making spider-web cracks in them. He slid back down and his focus was on Toph. He was panting, had bruises and scratches all over his body. Some of the scratches drew blood. "Damn… I'm really up against it… I guess there is a reason she is the best." He thought back to when Chun had kissed him on the cheek and he blushed after having the thought. Hen snorted and spit blood out of his mouth. "I won't lie down. The only way you win is if you put me down!"
Toph chuckled. "That's a shame, cause I kinda liked you."
Suddenly Hen saw a shadow leaping into the air. "Huh, crap! Gajeel!?"
"You put up a good fight kid, but it's time to put an end to this! As Gajeel was falling back down, he created a pale green seal in front of him. "Dragon Slayer Secret Art: -" his legs transformed into a giant drill and Gajeel's entire body was rotating at high speed. "Karma Demon: Iron Spiral!" he fell down towards Hen.
"Get past this!" he flung a wave of lava towards the drill but it was deflecting the lava away from him as he got closer because of how fast it spun. He watched as Gajeel got closer and closer. "No… it's over… even if I put up a barrier… I'd still lose…" he let his stance fall lose. "Chun… I'm not as strong as I thought I was… I'm sorry…" Gajeel's attack had drilled into Hen bringing the battle to an end. He could swear there were some tears in his eyes.
As soon as Gajeel jumped back onto his feet. Hen was lying on his back. A huge, bleeding scar on the middle of his chest, his pupils had disappeared, marking his defeat.
"Dammit Gajeel, why don't you kill him next time!" she sarcastically said.
"Hey, I held back! Besides, there are still some things I need to work out with that attack, but as you can see it got the job done." Gajeel said.
Hen coughed and remained on the ground. "Oh wow, I'm not dead. Haha… ow!"
"You gonna be ok?" Toph asked.
Hen chuckled. "Nothing a little gauze, and medicine can't fix. Besides, this will make one bad-ass battle scar when it heals."
Toph let out a single laugh as well. "You are one crazy kid." She helped him up to his feet. "Least we can do is get you patched up before we figure out what to do with you."
"Yep… but…" he looked to Toph. "Could you do me a favor? The firebending girl, could you at least make sure that you guys get to her before anyone from my side does?"
Toph looked upwards. "Don't worry about your girlfriend, she's with Lucy and Wendy, and if I know those two… They'll sort her out without hurting her too much."
"Hehe, thanks. Now if you don't mind, Imma pass out now…" with that Hen fell asleep from sheer exhaustion.
"Great now we have to carry him all the way back," Gajeel complained. "What a bother." His lips formed a smile afterward "Gi hi, but I sure like the guts of this kid."
----Erza and Ping had continued their intense battle, Ty Lee's eyes could barely keep up with them as she stood on a ceiling. Their blades continued to clash. Ping was on the defensive, she slid back while Erza was pushing at her. She was soon overwhelmed as Erza had overpowered Ping, pushing her back with so much force that the Fire Nation swordswoman had lost her balances as she stepped back. She rolled onto her back but used that momentum to get back on one foot while resting on her left knee.
"Fine, but let's see if you can keep up with this!" She created a Shadow Twin and it glared at Erza. Erza held her stance, waiting to see what Ping planned to do. But Ty Lee leaped off of a ceiling, getting the attention of both Pings.
"What?!" they both yelled in unison, this gave Erza the time to attack one of the Pings and she clashed her sword with her illusion blade. The other Ping was about to help but Ty Lee got in her way. "Fine, then I'll just have to cut my way through you!" Ty Lee said nothing as she charged to her, Ping wildly swung her sword but missed, allowing Ty Lee to leap over and jab her right middle finger onto Ping's right collarbone region, which eliminated the use of her right arm. "No!" she used her free left arm to blast a graviton attack to Ty Lee but missed. The Acrobat had leaped over her again and gracefully landed behind her. Ping growled as she was surprised that Ty Lee was putting up such a fight.
"I finally found a place where I am truly happy, and I won't let you take that away from me!" Ty Lee declared.
"Tch! It will be a cold day in hell if you think you can beat me!" she tried to pass dark magic to her arm, but she couldn't, meaning she was down to her weaker left arm.
"Then I hope you brought something warm." Ty Lee charged to Ping and the swordswoman found herself on the defensive trying to avoid Ty Lee's chi-block strikes.
"Impossible, how am I being pushed back by her! Grrr!"
Back with the original Ping, she was struggling against Erza as her sword swings had less speed to them. This allowed Erza, even with her… shapelier to avoid Ping's strikes. "Grr! Enough of this! Dark Gravity!" after sticking her illusion sword into the ground, a dark grey see-through hemisphere exploded around them forcing Erza to step back. After the explosion she watched Ping speeding towards her from the air with her blade glowing red. After their blades collided, there was an explosion which forced Erza several feet back.
She suddenly lost the feeling in her right arm as it suddenly became limp. Not caring around her arm, she summoned a multitude of illusion katana blades that surrounded her. "Try dodging this!" Ping flung the illusion swords to Erza
"I don't have to!" Erza said running straight to the attack. "Requip!" a golden light surrounded her, and she changed to her Heaven's Wheel Armour. "Circle Sword!" Erza had swung the Heaven's wheel swords sending an expanding circle of energy to deflect the multitude of illusion blades heading her way.
"Even with one arm, you're no match for me!" she used Shadow Form technique to create many Pings to act as decoys so this would allow her to plan a final attack on Erza.
"Then prove it, Requip!" Erza changed armors again and after the gold light engulfed her, she disappeared completely and suddenly the shadow Pings were being eliminated in quick succession. Many of them weren't able to see an attack coming.
"What!? How is she!?" the real Ping was slashed across her stomach and she could see a pale red scar after there was a cut in her gi. "Damn, how are you-" she saw Erza stop and Titania was in her Flight Armour. "No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, NOO! I will not let Fairy Tail humiliate me again!" a surge of dark energy surrounded her and she was trying to gather up as much energy as she could, but she looked to have glitched for a second.
With the other Ping, she could feel herself getting weaker and weaker as she started panting in sudden exhaustion. Ty Lee slowed down her attacks to a stop. "Do you need a break?" Ty Lee mockingly asked.
"Don't talk to me like that!" she fired a graviton orb to Ty Lee and while it hit her she stumbled back she glared at her. "An ordinary magic spell hits harder than that!" she rushed to Ping. The swordswoman generated her illusion blade in a panic but missed and Ty Lee jabbed her left shoulder, and Ping's left arm had numbed and flopped like a noodle.
"No! I can't lose to you!"
"You didn't just lose to me." Ty Lee said. She looked forward and saw the other Ping's left shoulder had become limp.
"AHHHH!" the other Ping yelled. "My arms! What magic did you two use on me now!?"
Ty Lee looked to her and showed Ping her open palms and wiggled her fingers. "No magic here, just these hands."
Erza transformed back into her red, flaming pants and pointed her sword at the original Ping. "You lost because you don't know the weaknesses of your own magic, nor how to utilize it properly!"
"Weaknesses!? I. Have. No. Weakness! I am not like you flies who have to gang up on your opponents."
Erza held up her pointing finger. "One: Your Shadow Twin technique has a weakness. Yes, it creates a second physical copy of you, but unlike your shadow clones, they consume a lot of magic to keep together." Erza thought back to when she had to fight the two Pings before. "If you fight together, it can be unstoppable, but apart, your magical power will weaken."
"HOW!?"
"Simple." Ty Lee said. "Splitting yourself must come with some kind of cost right? Since you're splitting yourself in half, each half will only be half as strong." Ping's eyes grew wide, she wasn't aware that her magic came with that side effect. "That's why, you were much slower and weaker, and that's why I beat you so easily."
"And another side effect, if one half tried to gain more power than they are capable of, then the other half will suffer." Erza said.
"Which is why you were getting tired so quickly just now!" Ty Lee exclaimed.
"SHUT UP!" the Pings yelled in unison. The original continued. "I don't need a lecture on my abilities, especially from some weak, clown, like you!" the clone Ping ran to Ty Lee but the Acrobat has slipped behind her and shot Ping with several chi-block strikes to the back, making her fall to the ground. Her entire body was paralyzed.
"Which brings us to your second weakness," Ty Lee started.
The real Ping felt the strikes on her back, and she too fell to her stomach. "Both you and your shadow twin can feel the same pain." Erza said. "Which is why you lost the feeling in your arms. That's because your clone was chi-blocked."
"No…"
"But that is without getting into your third and final weakness." Erza said.
"You said I only had two!"
"Your third weakness is how you fight. You feel the need to keep drawing on all the darkness around you, but when you split yourself, you became half as strong, so when you tried to power up, your clone became significantly weaker!"
Ping's eyes grew while on the ground. "You have literally become your own worst enemy." Ty Lee said.
The real Ping's eyes shone purple, her clone had disappeared and she could feel her power returning to her. "RAAAAHHH!" she fully stood up as the black magic pumping through her veins was covering her arms and legs. "YOU TWO ARE DEAD!"
Erza extended her hand in front of Ty Lee, wordlessly telling her to stay back. "I won't let you hurt anyone from our family ever again!"
"I'll do more than hurt your family when I'm done with you Erza!" her eyes darted to Ty Lee. "And you, once I take care of this red-headed stepchild. You're next!"
Erza tightened her stance. "You brought all this on yourself, Ping."
"Shut up! If you truly think so, let's end this." She proposed. "One last attack, with everything we have put into it. The most honorable way to finish a battle between two skilled swordswomen," Ping cloaked herself in all the dark energy she could. Her single sword was covered in red energy.
Erza simply held her sword tight as she dropped the other one. "Erza don't do this!" Ty Lee warned.
"Don't worry Ty Lee, not only do I carry the will to defeat Ping, but the wishes of everyone in Fairy Tail. All of you give me my strength, and I will use it to purge the evil right in front of me." She calmly said.
Ty Lee had blinked some of her developing tears away and smiled. "Don't hold back Erza."
"Are you two done!?" Ping said with a sadistic smile. "Cause I am ready!"
"Ready!" Erza said with a serious tone.
They both stared down each other, shut out the noises of the other battles going on elsewhere. Both battlers were completely focused on each other.
As soon as it was deathly quiet around them, they both launched off their feet towards each other. The grip on their katanas was tight and they mirrored each other stance and in the blink of an eye, she slashed past each other. Sliding several feet away from each other with their backs facing each other,
The energy around Ping was growing as both she and Erza were panting. No word was spoken from the two…
Ping's illusion blade disappeared and she fell to her knees as the dark energy around her had instantly disappeared. Erza fully stood up and turned around to look at her downed opponent.
Ping was looking at her arms and water drops were falling onto them. "N-no… this isn't possible…" she said. It was seen that she was crying, her tears were falling down her cheeks. "This… this can't be happening. This can't… be how it ends. We can't lose… the Fire Nation is… the greatest empire… in all history…" she struggled to say in between the tears.
Erza looked down to Ping and she could see her entire body was covered in a purple aura and she was surrounded by black flames. "Any country that can mock the suffering of others so callously has a long way to go before achieving greatness," Erza said in a serious tone.
Ping didn't bother to look at Erza. "…" she could see that the flames surrounding her were burning her body to ash, but she didn't look like she cared. It was almost serene as she disappeared into ash. What was left of Dark Ping was blown away.
Ty Lee walked to Erza and was still trying to take it in that they had won. "Erza… that was… wow."
"Are you alright?" Erza asked.
"Yes, I'm fine…" she gave Erza a sweet smile. "Thanks."
"Hmm. Let's go home, Ty Lee."
Ty Lee giggled. "Hehe, yeah, let's go home together."
----Gray faced Kobu and shot eight ice lances at Kobu. The waterbender simply outstretched his hand and the ice shattered into small pieces. He melted the ice shards and fused them to form a long water whip. "When will you learn?" he swung the whip at Gray and the water wrapped around his stomach. Kobu raised him into the air. "I'm highly motivated to win, so I will do whatever it takes!" he slammed Gray onto the concrete floor. "I'll slam you down through the ground if I have to!" he was raised and thrown to the ground again. Kobu repeated this for the third time, he slowly raised him into the air.
"Gray-sama!" Juvia yelled. Gray's heavily scratched and bruised face had moved, his eyes shot opened and he grabbed the water tendrils and froze them before shattering them. Once he hit the ground, he placed his hand on the ground.
"Ice-Make: Floor!" the floor around the both of them became ice, Gray slid towards Kobu. The water bender lifted some of the ice and made numerous icicle spears. Gray was pelted by the ice spears and he rolled back. Kobu instantly evaporated the ice on the ground, creating a steam cloud that had created a cover for him.
Gray got up to see the stream, he looked around for Kobu but he couldn't see anything in front of him. He was suddenly swept to the ground and saw water snaking away from him. "Heh, you're a coward, just like the rest of those Fire Nation snakes."
The steam suddenly cleared. "Coward, you say?" Kobu said. "Fine, he shot water to Gray's legs and swept him to the floor again. "You can't even fight me, your spells take time to cast, so all I have to do is attack you quickly, and you're at my mercy." He held up a water whip and an icy razor blade was at the end of it. "It's over." He shot it to Gray but the ice wizard stood up and clapped his hands on the ice blade, instantly stopping it.
"Nice try, now it's my turn!" he froze the whole water whip. "Ice-Make: Ice Geyser!" he slammed his hands to the ground; he made a large tower of icicles that hit Kobu, almost impaling him. He was trapped in the icicle tower. Kobu looked up to see that Gray was forming his ice bazooka. "Now It's over! Ice Cannon!" he shot the ice cannon to the trapped Kobu. A tremendous explosion of ice was seen
Katara and Juvia watched as Gray stood tall after his last attack. The ice turned into mist, and from the mist. Kobu walked through it with lots of bruises on his body. He was also limping slightly.
"Should have known it would take more than that to take you down," Gray said.
Kobu was slowly panting. "I didn't come this far, to be stopped by you!"
"Gray!" Katara yelled she wanted to help him against Kobu.
"Stay back!" he warned.
"Face it, as long as I can bend your ice, I will beat you!" suddenly a huge wave of water exploded behind Gray.
"Huh!?" the water engulfed him, and it soon formed an orb of water around him. But before it was about to fully close, the orb froze.
"No!" Gray slowly climbed out of the small space and stood on top of the almost frozen orb. "You're only making this hard on yourself!"
Gray stretched his hands forward, making an X-shaped mass of ice float in front of him. "You're the ones who started all this crap! Ice-Make: Arrows!" out of the ice shaped X. Shards of ice were raining down towards Kobu.
But Kobu had stopped the ice shards in mid-air before they could pelt him. Kobu then shifted them into water, fused them together into a long water whip that snaked around him. He sent his liquid projectile back to Gray and the tip turned to an ice drill.
Gray angrily growled and stood in a stance similar to an archer, and icy energy was being generated in his hands. He formed an ice bow before he formed an arrow from blinding, blight blue energy. "I'm a lot stronger than you think, Super Freeze Arrow!" He released the bow and a bright blue seal appeared as soon as he fired. The ice arrow collided into the water drill with the icy tip. There was an explosion of blinding blue light.
They both ran to each other. "Ice-Make: Hammer!" Gray threw his ice hammer to Kobu, but the waterbender had punched it to pieces.
He turned the broken shards of ice into droplets of water and he sharpened them into very thin, long ice needles. He flung them to Gray and he let out a pained scream. "AHHHH!"
Kobu watched as Gray was taking out the icy needles. "That looks like it hurt." Kobu remarked. Gray had red prick marks all over his exposed body. "You sure you don't want to give up? I promise I'll make the Avatar's death quick."
"There you go, thinking you've won already! You think you've got everything figured out haven't you?"
Kobu still remained in his stance. "Please, unlike Ping and the others, I actually have a good chance of beating you. And I don't plan to let it slip through my fingers. I will get my vengeance, and anyone who gets in my way will suffer the consequences! Which includes you!"
A surge of water exploded around Kobu, without moving, the ice around him was melting, and he swung his hand and he made water cover his entire body, save for his head. The water shot him to Gray. The ice wizards had grabbed Kobu's hands and their fingers locked as water and ice were surging around them. Water was rising over Kobu while long, shards of ice were growing from behind Gray.
"How… how is this possible, I should be beating you!?" Kobu yelled. "I've got plenty of motivation to take you down, so why…?"
"I know a thing or two about seeking revenge for a loved one, so I can understand how you feel, but you're wrong!"
"And how so!?"
Gray's grip on Kobu's fingers tightened, which caused the waterbender to angrily tighten his grip as well. "You're only using your family as an excuse!"
"WHAT!?" Kobu screamed, the water around him made wave crashing sounds.
"You heard me! You're not mad at Aang, you're mad at yourself and you're trying to pin the blame on someone else so you don't have to feel guilty." Gray said with a firm tone.
Kobu's eyes only grew wide as he only grew more furious. But he was lost for words. "No… I… shut up! You don't know anything! You weren't there!"
Gray threw a knee to his gut, Kobu had bent down and the water surrounding him had fallen to the ground. Kobu fell to his knees, but Gray lifted him up by his collar so he could get his message across. "You think you're the only one who's suffered?! Katara lost her mother when she was only a little girl!" he threw Kobu to a wall which left a crack on it. He fell down to a sitting position and watched Gray slowly walking to him. "Aang already blames himself for the entire war, the death of his people, and for Ozai's dictatorship as it is!"
"SO WHAT!?" Kobu yelled. "I'M NOT GOING TO CRY ABOUT IT ALL DAY!" he screamed. "I HAVE TO TAKE MY ANGER OUT ON SOMETHING, ON SOMEONE!" his tone had softened. "Otherwise… all of this… all of this…" his anger had risen and made a water bullet after standing up. "WOULD BE POINTLESS!" he shot the water bullet to Gray, but it was sliced in half by an ice blade that he made to cover his right arm.
He then gave Kobu an uppercut to his jaw with his left fist and the waterbender was left on the ground. "New flash, EVERYONE'S got dead people in their lives! That's no excuse to get everyone else dead along the way!"
Kobu's eyes were shaking, as Gray's words looked to have a huge impact on him. As he got up, he was shaking with rage. He was furious with… well, everything that has happened to him up to this point. He even considered letting Gray punch him around, after all, he couldn't even protect his family, so he already felt worthless enough as it is.
Gray noticed that Kobu wasn't making a move at all. "You don't know what to think anymore, do you?" Kobu grunted as he looked at Gray. "You've been twisting your own point of view so much that everything's all screwed up in your head! You keep this up…" Gray lifted up his ice blade and Kobu's broken expression was reflected in the crystal. "You can't be true to yourself! Or your family!" Gray had run past him and slashed through him once, which sent Kobu to his knees. When Gray's back was turned to him, he continued. "You're lying to your own heart!"
Kobu had a stream of blood leaking from his mouth; he stood up and turned to face Gray's back. "Are you… telling me… that I… my revenge… is for nothing…?"
Gray turned around. "That's exactly what I'm saying! You're no better than Ozai this way! Look at yourself, you've become just like him!" Kobu's pupils had shrunken in his realization. All that about 'driving fear into his enemies'. That is exactly Ozai's Modus Operandi, so how was he any different? "It's time to clear your head Kobu!" A long ice blade of ice grew on Gray's left forearm to support the blade on the other arm. He sprinted to him, Kobu though realized too late and couldn't do anything to counter or avoid the attack. "I'm gonna beat some sense into you!" Gray yelled. "Ice Blade: Seven Slice Dance!" he started slashing with the ice blades by spinning his body in a way that the ice blades were perfectly slicing Kobu. The first five slashes had hit their mark perfectly, then he finished him off with a dual slash that sent him hovering about the ground. The ice on Gray's arms shattered before Kobu hit the ground in defeat. He didn't move a single muscle after taking all that damage.
Once Kobu was done, Gray looked to both Juvia and Katara who both had shocked faces. "What? You didn't think I was gonna lose to this guy did you?"
"Gray-samaaaaa!" Juvia cried endless tears as she hugged Gray. He tried to get her off him.
"Hey, not so close, Juvia!"
Katara walked above Kobu's knocked out body. "What should we do with him? Given how unstable he is, we shouldn't just let him go, but he hasn't exactly killed anyone so handing him over to the council seems… cruel"
Gray scratched the back of his head. "Maybe the Master will know, anyway we should head back and check on Aang."
----Chun had made it all the way to South Gate Park and leaned on a tree. "Maybe I lost them… I can't go on like this… Maybe I should just leave by myself; I'd only hold Hen back from his goal." 
"I always knew Fire Nation were cowards." She heard. Turning around, she found the voice belonged to Leo. "But to be honest, running after attacking my master was just beyond cowardly. It was just shameful." Leo had Lucy, Wendy, and Carla with him. Happy was still being held by Wendy.
"Why…? Why can't people just leave me alone!?" Chun yelled.
"You made an enemy of Fairy Tail, we can't just leave you."
Chun had her fists clenched but she took a deep breath. "Fine… whatever…" she said to herself. "I've lost everything anyway…" she muttered.
"Chun?" Lucy said, but an explosion of bright pink flames circled around her.
"I didn't want any of this! But everyone keeps pushing me! So for once, I'll push back!" she fired a fast blast of pink fire to the group but intentionally missed and set a bush on fire.
"She's like a cornered animal!" Carla yelled as they saw Chun's eyes sharpened. Lucy could see that they were very similar to Azula's eyes when she first saw her.
"No… we have to get her to calm down, I think she's snapped!" Lucy said.
"You think?" Carla retorted sarcastically.
Loke tightened his fists. "I'll defeat her."
"Wait…" they saw Wendy holding out her hand in front of Loke. "I'll fight her with you."
"Wendy?" Lucy questioned.
"It's like Zuko told me," She said. "I am a Dragon Slayer too, and this is to protect Aang, and to save a friend."
"Wendy? Are you talking about saving her?" Carla asked. "Because I forbid it, she is just like the rest of them."
"No, she isn't!" Wendy yelled. "She's crying out, but no one has been able to help her since."
"So you're suggesting we calm her down?"
"I'll help too!" Lucy said. "Chun isn't like the rest of them, she's different. We just have to snap her out of this! Her flames are not purple anymore, they became pink." Lucy noticed. "I think her flames are getting hotter, so we need to get her to calm down. Besides, I don't think she really wants to hurt us."
"How do you figure?" Carla asked.
"She intentionally missed us just now, and when she fired lightning at me. Fire Benders generally have good aim right? So I think we need to calm her down before she's pushed over the edge and does something she regrets."
Loke nodded and smiled at Lucy. "Heh, whatever you say, Lucy."
Wendy had gently put the sleeping Happy on the ground, then she faced Chun. It was only then Chun realized that Wendy was going to fight as well. "W-wait… you're going to fight?" Chun made a wall of pink fire explode in front of the group, causing them all the back away. "I don't want to hurt you Wendy, so just stay back!"
"I won't!" Wendy yelled. "I choose to fight with my friends, even if it is against you!"
Chun huffed. "Don't say I didn't warn you!" her flames died down, and bolts of lightning were being generated in the tips of her two pointing fingers. "For what it's worth… I'm sorry!" she shot a bolt of lightning to the group.
Loke had glared straight at the attack. "Stay back, everyone! Regulas Impact!" Leo had thrown a punch, which created a bright yellow seal, throwing a bright yellow energy lion at the electrical discharge. The bright white sparks spread everywhere but no one was really hurt. "Huh?" Leo noticed something curious about her last attack. "Lucy, her lightning wasn't as strong as it was the last time." He noted.
Suddenly it clicked in Lucy's head. "Wait… is she just trying to scare us into running away...?" she thought. She remembered the pink fire Chun was letting out. "She really doesn't want to hurt us, she's only been trying to get us to run away!"
Chun looked mad, but a tear droplet hung over her sharpened eyes. "Why won't you just leave!?" she yelled. "You think I want to hurt you!?"
"We won't leave Chun," Lucy said. "You need help, and we aren't leaving until we help you!"
"My wellbeing isn't your concern!" she yelled. "This is your last warning. Leave before I do something that I'll regret."
"No!" Wendy yelled, surprising Chun as her eyes widened slightly. "I won't! Fairy Tail is my family. And I refuse to abandon them."
Chun's stance had loosened; her arms were falling to her sides. "Family…" she muttered to herself.
Carla had noticed this would be their chance. "Wendy! She's wide open, you have to attack now!"
Wendy closed her eyes. "I'm sorry Chun…" she started to suck in all of the air around her. Once she had enough air inside her mouth, her eyes opened and her cheeks puffed."Sky Dragon's Roar!" Wendy blew a tremendous stream of sparkling winds that engulfed Chun as she was overwhelmed by the winds. Chun couldn't even generate any flames to fight against it. Then again, she didn't even want to at this point. The battle was over the minute Wendy declared she wouldn't run away.
Chun was blown away into a small stream in the park, causing a splash.
"Chun!" Lucy yelled as she and Wendy were the first to run to her, Loke carrying Happy, and Carla followed. As they got closer, they saw she was wet, on her knees and it looked as if tears were streaming down her cheeks, but she wasn't sobbing.
"Sounds great…" Chun said in a sad tone. "Having a family that would do anything for you, and in turn, you do your best for them." She said looking to both Wendy and Lucy. "That's the kind of family Fairy Tail is huh? I wish I had a family like that." She said with a forced giggle.
"Chun, what are you talking about?" Lucy asked.
"You did beat me… I guess the least I can do is give you an explanation." Chun started to explain herself. "As you know, I'm from the Fire Nation, I came from a wealthy family actually… my parents are both Fire Nation Diplomats… I have no idea what that means, but that isn't important, what matters is that I was born a Firebender, the only one in my family's history actually so it was kind of a big deal." She nervously rubbed her arm. "So for as long as I can remember, they got me the strictest teaches, always got me to learn and master new forms… and the only time they would talk to me would be about my firebending lessons." She let her arms fall as the sadness was starting to take over. "So… I hated it… I wasn't allowed to be myself, to bend fire the way I wanted to. But my older brother changed all that."
"Your brother?" Lucy questioned.
"That's right. His name was Han, he was extremely nice to me and he convinced me to just bend fire my way. As soon as I started doing that, my flames changed color. He also showed me how to just be a kid and just have fun. We always played together, and defied our parents a lot, but as long as he was with me… I felt like I could do anything if he was around me…" Chun looked down, warm tears continued to fall down her face.
"Chun, did something happen to him?" Wendy asked.
"Yes… my brother, he passed out one day and wouldn't wake up." She sniffled. "He had a very rare disease that no one has ever seen before. They told my parents that there is a good chance he… h-he…" Chun was starting to choke up. "T-that he would die."
Everyone was shocked and Lucy covered her mouth in horror. "Oh my… Chun I…"
Chun who was still on her knees had broken down into a semi-sob. "He woke up, but he's still very sick. Then people from the army showed up, they saw how good my Fire Bending had become and offered my parents a deal, that I would be drafted into the army to become a master firebender. Of course, they took the deal but I refused. But the army didn't want that… so if I didn't help them… they'd let my brother die… They would do nothing to help him!" Chun was starting to break down as he fists clenched on her knees. "My own brother, the only one who ever loved me!" her cries had chuckles in them at the same time, just emphasizing how badly she was breaking down.
Loke and even Carla looked on in sympathy. Wendy and Lucy were simply in shock. Her sobbing had reached its climax, and she appeared to be laughing too. "Oh and that's not even the best part. Because of his disease, he can't even remember me anymore! Not a single thing! Me? His own little sister!" her pupils had shrunken as she looked up to the sky.
Wendy, in particular, felt a pang in her heart because she knew exactly what that felt like, to be forgotten by someone who means a lot to you, and by no fault of their own. Jellal was that someone to her and he was currently in jail, still having zero knowledge of the time they spent together.
Chun in her hysterical state continued. "The world is a horrible place isn't it!?" she screamed. "It just takes away everything you love and leaves you with nothing! Less than nothing! What's even the point of even living anymore!?"
She didn't expect what happened next. Chun felt a pair of hands around her and only just noticed that Wendy was hugging her with all her might. "I'm sorry Chun. I'm so sorry." Wendy could also feel the tears starting to fill her eyes. "I know exactly what you're going through. Someone who was like an older brother to me lost his memory too, and I lost my whole world too." Wendy thought about all the people she had lost in her life, Jellal, most recently her old guild Caitshelter, and of course her dragon Grandeeney. "But you can't just give up on life; it doesn't just take away from you. Because I found a new family,"
"Chun," Lucy said as she walked to the two. "You shouldn't have to suffer alone, friends and family are there for each other in times of need. We want to be there for you, Chun."
"They are right," Loke said adding his words as well. "I was ready to give up on life too; yeah I was just the same until Lucy saved me."
"Fairy Tail sticks together, no matter what." Chun had looked to see Happy had woken up. "So you're not alone, aye!"
Chun couldn't believe they were sticking up for her… even more so it sounded like they were inviting her to join their family. "You guys… are you really asking me to…"
"That is up to you..." They all gasped to see Makarov walking up to them. "I was looking for that worthless soldier I threw, and I walked in on this. Let me say that, I am disgusted by Ozai trying to make a soldier out of a little girl." He said. Chun had looked right at Makarov with teary eyes while Wendy was still embracing her. "You kids shouldn't be fighting in stupid wars like this; you're all still young and have your lives ahead of you. You leave the fighting to the foolish adults."
"B-but, after all, that's happened-?"
"Listen to me Chun," Makarov said with a serious expression. "Whatever you decide to do from here, just make sure that…" there was a brief silence before Makarov continued. He put on a smile and gave her a peace sign. "Make sure you have fun, alright!" he said in a cheery tone.
Chun smiled slightly, she calmed down from her spell and fell further into Wendy's embrace. "Everyone… I'm sorry…" Chun took a breath before she let everything she heard sink in. "I surrender…"
Just like Chun's mental state, there seemed like there was calm all over the town as the fighting was dying down.
----Azula was sliding on her back. There were scratches all over her outfits and skin. She saw Natsu high in the air, holding a tremendous ball of fire over him. She still could only see his glowing red eyes. "Why you runnin' Azula?" he tossed it down to her.
She gasped, scurried up to her feet and ran away, but was still in the radius and was flung away by the blast. After she landed on her stomach, she looked up and glared at Natsu. "Why did I run? I can just bend his fire… no… It can't be…" the thought only frustrated her even more. "No! You think you can scare me!?" In her anger and frustration, she shot a fast jet of blue fire to Natsu. The force of the attack had forced Natsu to step back several feet. She smirked as her hair fell over her face.
"Did you forget who you're dealing with?!" Natsu said with a growl, the blue fire that Azula shot was being sucked into Natsu's mouth. "Hehe, as if I needed to be more fired up, keep em coming princess!" the flames surrounded Natsu and they engulfed his entire body. "Fire Dragon's: Sword Edge!" Natsu leaped to Azula and started to punch her continuously, while flames were burning around his body. A final punch sent her sliding back on her feet.
As she slid back, she shot blue flames from her feet and flew away from Natsu and landed on a ceiling. "STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM ME!" Azula generated lightning and shot it down to Natsu. As they hit him, he only stepped back.
"That won't work anymore!" Natsu leaped up to meet her on the ceiling, she leaped away to put some more distance between herself and Natsu. "Stop runnin' coward! You've had this coming for a long time!"
----"Ow!" Levy was wrapping bandages around Hen's chest. She, Mai and the rest of Team Shadow Gear were outside the guild with Toph and Gajeel. Freed and Bickslow were inside the guild, tending to Evergreen.
"Stop moving so much. You'll only aggravate the wound." Levy said.
Mai had her arms folded. "You're lucky we're even helping you at all. If it were up to me, you'd still be out there."
"Yeah… I know… and I'll admit, that is my bad… ouch! I should have tried to block that. Ugh! Seriously, don't you guys have healers for this stuff?"
"We do," Toph said. "But they aren't here; they are out there fighting your friends."
Hen looked down. "Oh… but hey, only one of them are my friends! Ow, oh come on!"
"Would you stop moving?" Levy said in an annoyed tone.
They all heard heavy footsteps approaching the guild. Erza and Ty Lee were arriving. "Erza's back." Jet said.
"Looks like you're alive," Toph said. "Where's the crazy sword girl?"
"Gone." Erza simply said.
Hen only let out a gasp. "Bad Ass… Oh crap, I'm next aren't I?" his eyes turned white.
"Relax, that Ping was created by dark magic. The real one is reformed, but she's in prison." Erza briefly explained. Hen tilted his head in confusion.
"I feel like I'm missing something big here… did you guys knock me out that badly, am I dreaming right now?"
"What did you guys do to him?" Levy asked, directing her gaze to Toph and Gajeel
"Brat asked for it," Gajeel said.
Hen groaned in pain. "Yeeeah, I kinda did…"
Ty Lee glared at him. "Let this be a lesson to you, never mess with Fairy Tail!"
"Wow, you're cute…" he simply said. She seriously considered chi blocking him, but reconsidered it.
"Hey, we're patching your ass back together, so don't push it," Toph warned.
Hen looked away. "I'll be good…"
…
It wasn't long before Sokka's group had come back, though they were shocked by Hen being healed. "Uh, why are we helping him?"
"Heeeey, uh… they did it." He pointed to Toph and Gajeel.
Toph sighed. "Ok, last time I'm explaining this. We roughed him up, so we're healing him."
Levy had finished bandaging Hen. "There, you should be fine, just try not to do anything stupid." Hen stood up.
"No promises. Now I hate to eat and run but… I've got to get back out there, there is someone I've got to find."
"Uh… are we really going to let him go?" Sokka asked. "He's was fighting with the Fire Nation remember?"
Hen sighed. "Yeah, I was and I won't deny that. But there is a friend out there who might need me, and I don't give a damn what side you're on. If you get in my way, I'll make you get out of my way!" He was glaring right at Sokka while being glared back at.
Elfman let out a laugh. "Haha, now that's a real man!"
"Say let him go, Sokka," Suki said. "Besides if he had bad intentions, don't you think Toph would have buried him alive by now?"
"She's not lying." Toph sang.
"Besides, we already took out their army, so I don't think we have to worry," Cana added.
Hen chuckled. "Thanks, you guys… and trust me… I'll find a way to pay you back for helping me out."
"Hen?" he turned to see Lucy, Happy, Carla and Chun being held by Wendy. "You're ok?" Chun asked.
"Oh my?" Hen gasped in fake concern. "Were you worried about me?" Chun ran and wrapped Hen in a hug.
"Of course I was, you dummy!"
He hugged her back. "Yeah, I was worried too. I was about to come and get you. But I kinda had to get bandaged up."
"Are you her friend?" Lucy asked as Chun let go of Hen.
"Yep, and seeing that she isn't hurt much, I assume you guys took care of her. So thanks, I owe you guys too."
Makarov had walked out from behind them. "I believe there is a way you both can owe us, and enjoy yourselves in the process."
Sokka had a feeling he knew where this was going. "Oh no, sorry Master but you seriously can't be suggesting what I think you are. The joker earthbender sure, but not her! She's an evil firebender like the rest of them!"
Wendy had clenched her fist and she walked in front of Lucy and angrily glared at Sokka. "Shut up Sokka!" Everyone was surprised by the sudden anger Wendy was showing. "You have no idea what she has had to go through. So I won't let you turn her away just because she's a firebender!"
Sokka had no idea how to respond. "Uh…"
"Hey." Joining them were Gray, Katara, and Juvia. Gray held the unconscious Kobu over his shoulder. "Before we move on any ideas on what to do with him?"
Hen gave a glare. "I have a few ideas." He darkly said.
"Hen…" Chun said, trying to get him to see reason.
"Fine, I guess lump him with us… but fair warning. He's probably going to be pretty pissed when he wakes up."
The doors of the guild opened, behind them was Aang and he was being helped by Porlyusica. "Hey… is everyone ok?"
Katara ran up to him. "Forget about that, what about you? What about the poison?"
"Porlyusica helped get rid of it for me." He replied. "So I'm mostly fine now."
"Hey, Avatar." Aang looked over to Hen. "Sorry about the whole trying to kill ya thing, hope there were no hard feelings." Chun uncomfortably shifted herself behind Hen.
"Uh, how much did I miss?" Aang asked.
"A lot more than you know Twinkle Toes," Toph said folding her arms.
They heard the sound of someone running. Zuko was running towards them. "I saw the streets are empty, is everyone ok, huh?" he saw Hen and Chun with the Earthbender protectively standing in front of Chun. "Ok, we'll talk about that later."
"Yeah… and for that matter, since we've been brought here, where's Azula?" Hen questioned.
"Hmm, and an even better question, where is Natsu?" Aang asked.
Zuko smirked before looking to Aang. "Where do you think?"
Aang sighed. "Right, I should have known. But how is he doing?" They heard Natsu screaming and they saw him punch the ceiling of a roof Azula was standing on. "That answers that question."
Chun, on the other hand, was completely surprised to see Azula on the run. "I don't get it, she's not fighting back she almost looks…"
"Scared?" Zuko said. "Well, truth is, I would be too if I had to fight that version of Natsu."
"You don't want to make Natsu angry." Happy added. "She's going to get the beating of her life."
…
Azula had leaped into the air and Natsu followed behind her. "No! I'm done!" she yelled. "STAY AWAY FROM ME!" she screamed. She shot flames down to Natsu, he ate them and they both landed on a ceiling. After he swallowed he wiped his lips with his fisted hand.
"Keep em coming, I'm getting a major fire in my belly."
"No, I don't care who you are, you should have at least been burned, or singed by lightning!" Natsu stepped forward and she took a step back. "You're not human! You're something else!" she was swinging her arms and her fingers generated lightning. "YOU'RE A MONSTER!" She screamed. Azula sent the lightning to Natsu, and he crossed his arms and he took the attack without even flinching
Azula let out a feared gasp as he saw him running to her. "Like you can talk!" he punched her with a fiery fist which sent her off the building. He stood on his feet and watched Azula getting up after hitting the ground. "Like I said, you've had this coming for a long time!"
…
"This really is happening?" Chun asked. "H-how is he doing that, he isn't afraid of her at all!"
Gajeel chuckled while he folded his arms. "Got that right. That bone-headed princess has tarnished the dragon's reputation for nobility and grace. She's getting taught a lesson she won't soon forget."
"The short answer?" Aang said. "He's Natsu that's why."
"Um…Long answer please…?" Chun asked.
Makarov cleared his throat. "His most powerful driving force will always be his righteous anger."
"Righteous anger?" Hen asked as everyone had turned to the guild master.
"If you want Natsu to push through, to triumph over adversity, to overcome any obstacle he may face, make him mad. It is a sure way to get him motivated."
"There's your long answer," Aang said.
Makarov turned his attention to the orange and blue flames lighting up the sky. "All you young people pay close attention. You are about to see a true Fairy Tail wizard in action, carrying out our most sacred duty as a guild… eradicating evil."
…
There was another explosion, Azula had fallen back after losing her balance. She watched Natsu walking to her with his fist on fire. His eyes were covered in a red glow. "You said you wanna see a dragon, huh!? Then I'll show you what an ANGRY one looks like!" Azula swore she heard a dragon's roar from Natsu. "Let's see you try to pull off that fancy lightning now, Princess!" his flames were surrounding him. "I'm so fired-up right now, I just might explode!" After another dragon's roar, she could see an image of Igneel behind Natsu.
"This… this is a Dragon Slayer… He's… He's a Monster…" she thought. She got in a stance and prepared lightning around her fingers. "DO YOUR WORST, YOU BARBARIC BEAST!" the lightning Azula was generating was starting to surround her body, and parts of her hair were standing up. She ran to him. Natsu sped to her too.
"YOU OWE AANG AND ZUKO A BIG APOLOGY! YOU STUPID DRAGON WANNABE!"
"I WILL PUT YOU DOWN, NATSU!"
As they closed to each other Azula had her fingers to Natsu's head and released her lightning but a split second later a storm of fire and lightning erupted around them, and Natsu looked as if the lightning was completely ineffective. He headbutted her and she backed away. "And I'll put you down, Princess! Dragon Slayer Secret Art:" he was swinging tremendous masses of fire with his arms in a circular fashion and a tremendous torrent of flames surrounded him. "Crimson Lotus: Exploding Flame Blade!" the fire exploded around Azula and the flames were barraging her. There was also too much fire for Azula to manipulate and her flames weren't enough to keep the attack at bay. The explosion had sent her into the air.
The flames had faded into fire whips, the smoke cleared; Azula crashed into the ground and remained motionless.
…
Everyone at the guild had either shocked or impressed expressions on their faces. Chun had her hands over her mouths. "Azula was beaten…?!"
"Not just beaten." Hen said. "She was thrashed. Chewed up and spit back out. Heh, you think she's dead?"
"Do you think we're in the business of killing people?" Toph asked.
"Never mind, stupid question."
The cheering was heard as the war had been won. Fairy Tail had beaten the Fire Nation.
Lucy looked out as Natsu turned back to the guild. "We may fight and disagree sometimes, but when all is set and done, everyone in Fairy Tail relies on one another for strength and guidance." She looked to the other guild members who were celebrating. "Every single member has their own role to play. If you ever need any help, you know they've got your back. I'm so lucky to be a part of this guild." She smiled after compiling her thoughts.
"Hey Lucy?" she turned to Mai who was talking to her.
"Yeah, what's up?"
Mai let out a single chuckle. "Did anyone ever tell you, you look like a crazy serial killer when you smile like that?" she joked.
"WHY WOULD THEY!?" Sparkles suddenly surrounded her. "My smile is beautiful!"
"Whatever you say."
----Natsu had joined back with the others as everyone was inside the guild, and those that were hurt were taken to the infirmary. Kobu was splashed with water and he gurgled and shot up in his bed. "Gah! Where am I!?" he saw Aang, Katara, Gray, Juvia, and Chun looking down at him.
"Kobu, you're awake," Chun said.
He saw Aang and glared at him. "You!" he growled, but he calmed himself down after he saw Gray scowling at him. "Where the hell am I?"
"Relax, this is Fairy Tail's guildhall, and this is their infirmary. They patched up our injuries."
Kobu got out of bed, pushed past the others and got to the door. "I'm out of here!" he simply said
"Where the hell do you think you're going!?" Gray angrily asked.
"Getting the hell away from here!" he yelled as he got into the guildhall and everyone looked at him. "The hell are you all looking at!?" a water whip was wrapped around his arm.
Katara was trying to stop him. "Will you calm down ok? We just want to talk!"
"And I'm not interested, so get the hell away from me!" he yelled. "You can't make me stay here!"
"Leave him…" Makarov told Katara.
"But Master, we just want to help."
"We shouldn't force him if he doesn't want to. He wants to stay; it has to be his choice." Katara begrudgingly let the whip fall and Kobu angrily stepped away and opened the doors of the guild. He took one more look at all the members of Fairy Tail.
He stepped outside and the doors closed.
The rest of the guild was silenced. "I say good riddance!" Hen yelled. "That guy is a buzz kill!"
A knock on the door was heard. "Heh, maybe he came back," Makarov said, but he opened the door and saw an arguably worse sight. Lahar of the Rune Knights.
"You again!?" Natsu yelled. "The hell are you doing here!?"
"Fairy Tail was recently involved in a city-wide battle, while the town was previously evacuated. We are here to make some arrests."
Sokka glared at him. "Yeah, well you missed a bunch of Fire Nation soldiers outside that we took care of, so you might want to get on that!"
"We already picked them up." Suddenly Runes formed, covering the windows and doors. "We are here for them." He looked to Chun and Hen. Wendy gasped, but Hen stepped in front of his partner.
"Yeah, well one of your marks got away, Kobu, a waterbender you may have heard of him!?" Hen asked.
"We have one of our people already looking for him."
"And Azula?" Zuko asked.
"As for the leader of the Fire Nation, we have yet to locate her."
"Yeah, so why don't you get on that?" Hen growled.
"We will, but we are here to ask some questions and arrest you two."
"Hen…?" Chun said sounding scared.
"Enough of this!" Hen yelled, he raised two rocks through the wooden floor and melted them into lava stars. "You want to arrest me, that's fine. But you're not going to treat her like a criminal!" tilting her head to Chun
Aang, Katara, and Sokka took notice of Hen's behavior. "Is there going to be a problem?" Lahar asked, as his knights ran in to stand in support Lahar.
"Yes there is, and if any of you jerks lay a finger on her, you're going to get a face full of magma!" he growled. "That was your first and last warning!"
"Hen, stand down!" Erza said, raising her voice.
"Last time I checked, I don't take orders from you!"
"Then maybe you'll listen to me," Makarov said with a growl. "Calm down." The guild master turned to Lahar. "Lahar, shall talk about this?"
Lahar sighed. "Very well, we will negotiate. Stand down." He commanded his knights to stand down.
"Mira, Zuko. Come with me." Makarov said. "Iroh… make us some tea."
Iroh smiled. "As if you even had to ask?"
The four had entered a back room to negotiate and Hen dropped his lava stars. "Man today has been one hell of a ride."
"So you two are friends?" Aang asked.
"Yep."
"But how?" Sokka asked.
Hen chuckled. "You guys are pretty closed-minded you know?"
"What do you mean?" Aang asked.
"You're an Airbender, and you're buddies with a Waterbender and an Earthbender; what's the difference here?"
Toph had her eyes closed. "Well to be fair he's got us there."
"We're not all haters here." Hen started. "I'm not gonna let crap like Nation politics stop me from making friends, only idiots do that. Case and point, Azula." He said. Sokka chuckled at Hen's example. "Chun may be a Firebender, but she's not the one who decided to screw everyone over, Ozai is. Just because she's Fire Nation, doesn't mean she's a monster, not everyone from that county is."
Katara and Sokka looked at each other and thought about Hen's words.
Toph approached Hen and punched him in the arm. "You know what, you're alright Hen. Thanks for the fight, it was pretty epic."
Hen smiled. "No prob." He saw Gajeel sulking on the railing. "Yo, Gajeel! When I'm fully recovered, I'm coming for you! You owe me a rematch!'
Gajeel smirked. "Gihi. You're on, kid." He gave the earthbender a thumbs up.
…
The talks were still in progress and Chun was nervously sitting by herself. "Are you ok, Chun?" Wendy asked approaching her with Carla walking beside her.
"Y-yeah… I'm just… I don't know what happens now. I'm just scared is all…"
"Well, Hen will keep you safe, I'm sure," Wendy replied. "Plus, Natsu and I won't let them put you in jail."
"That's right," Natsu said placing his hand on Chun's head, startling her. Happy stood on Natsu's shoulder. Chun turned away from him, still scared of the display he showed against Azula. "Wendy told me everything."
"Huh!?"
"I just want to ask if it is true?"
She still looked away from him. "Y-yes… I'm sorry. I didn't want to… I-"
"What's his name?" Chun looked up to him in surprise. "Your brother, what's his name?"
"I- It's Han, but why-?"
"Ok, I got it!"
"You 'got it'? What are you talking about?" she was confused about what Natsu was going on about.
Natsu smiled at her. "I got it, as in I'm gonna help him."
"W-wait… help him… but how!? He's in a different world."
"So? I already told Aang, we're gonna help him get back to his world. And I haven't told him this yet, but I'm going with him."
Chun shook her head several times. "You mean you're seriously going to go to our world?"
"You bet!" Natsu confidently said. "And I'm gonna help him kick that Ozai's ass."
"Y-you're going to fight Ozai himself!?" she said in shock. "But he's powerful, plus you don't know anything about him."
"Who says I need to know the guy to beat him up? Besides, I took down Azula, didn't I?"
Chun smiled slightly and blushed a bit. "Yeah… you did."
"And I've taken down stronger guys that her, and so has Aang. You should see us when we work together, we're unstoppable!"
Chun was silent, but she then asked her question. "You really think you can help him?"
His hand fell on her shoulder and looked at her with added seriousness in his eyes. "Chun, I promise I'm going to find your brother, and I'm going to help him. That's a promise from a wizard of the Fairy Tail guild. And Fairy Tail wizards always keep their word." Natsu gave his signature grin. Chun was simply speechless. Warm tears were flowing down her cheeks. She immediately ran and latched onto him and she buried her head into his chest and was crying, but these were tears of joy and relief because maybe things were finally starting to look up for her.
"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" she cried. Natsu only smiled while the others happily looked on at the scene.
Erza and Katara approached the two. "H-hey, Chun. Erza and I want to apologize for the things we said to you back in the tower. So, we're very sorry…"
"We had no idea what you were going through. We see now that you are very different from how we imagined you, and so." Erza bowed to her. "I will allow you to punch me."
Chun's eyes became white as she was confused by Erza's offer. "N-no that's fine. That won't be necessary…" she rubbed the tears from her eyes. "But thanks, it means a lot."
Happy then flew over to Chun. "So what about you and the earthbender? Are you two-?" Happy asked in a suave tone.
Chun's cheeks turned red and defensively held her hands up. "W-what n-no!"
Happy chuckled evilly. "Oh no." Katara groaned.
"You liiiike hi-" Hen turned to look at them.
"Did the cat say something?" he asked.
Chun was trying to cover Happy's mouth. "No, nothing important!"
Lucy sighed. "At least I'm not being bullied anymore."
Though Toph had patted her back, "Don't worry Luce, you've still got me!" Toph grinned.
"Why do you torment me…?"
----Makarov, Mira, Zuko, and Lahar exited the back room. "So what's going to happen?" Sokka asked.
"Everything is sorted out." Lahar said. "We will search for Kobu and their General, as for you two our business is done here." Lahar had left with his knights and with that, left the gates of Fairy Tail.
"And don't come back!" Toph yelled.
"Alright… so what happens to us?" Chun nervously asked.
Makarov looked to both Chun and Hen. "As for you two, we have agreed that you won't be arrested on one condition…"
They both looked nervous at Makarov's serious face. Chun was shivering but Hen grabbed her hand. She was startled and turned to him. He nodded, then she nodded back. Chun closed her eyes. "Ok, we're ready to hear it."
"You two must…" they waited with bated breath at Makarov's condition. "Join Fairy Tail!"
There was a ding going off and Chun and Hen both turned white. "That's it…?" Hen said, still looking comically shocked.
"We agreed with a deal with Lahar, that way we can keep an eye on you," Makarov said.
"Soooo, what they are on probation?" Toph questioned.
They both recovered from their shock, Chun was smiling while Hen thought about it. "Well, I guess we'll need to-"
"YES!" Chun exclaimed without a second thought. "We'll do it, we'll join Fairy Tail!"
Hen nodded. "If she's in, then so am I!"
"So you two are a 'package deal' huh?" Toph joked; Hen was glaring slightly at her while the comment flew over Chun's head.
"Stop it." Hen said.
"We're going to have fun with you two." Happy evilly said. And he and Toph hi-fived.
"Damn straight," Toph said.
----Near the outskirts of Magnolia, there were two Rune Knights that were frozen to a wall, but they were very much still alive.
Kobu stood by them and had a brown cloak over him. His old Water Tribe jacket was thrown to the ground. His ponytail was undone. "Sorry, but I'm not going to jail…" he looked out and saw the sun setting. "Tell your leader, no hard feelings, but I'm refuse to be captured by anyone." As he walked away his thoughts turned back to Chun and Hen. "They definitely would have joined Fairy Tail by now. No way in hell I would fit in, too much bad blood there. So I guess I'll have to do something with myself now." Kobu left Magnolia and disappeared into the forest.
----As night fell, Chun looked at her bright purple Fairy Tail marking on her left shoulder. "I still can't believe this is happening."
"Believe it!" Hen said, admiring his mark on his right shoulder. His Fairy Tail mark was colored dark brown. "Cause we finally have a family that wants us around."
"Y-yeah… family." She said with a smile. "Hehe, Hen. They helped us and did us a huge favor. So we need to pay them back."
"Don't have to tell me twice!"
"Well going on a job with us would be a good way to start." They saw Natsu, Aang, Lucy, Toph, and Happy were waiting for them. "So you in?" Natsu asked.
"You're already asking us to come with you guys?"
"Of course," Lucy said with a smile.
"Will we get to kick some butt?" Hen asked.
Toph smirked and put her hands on her hips. "What do you think?"
"Then I'm sold! What about you Chun?"
She smiled. "Of course, we'll go with you!"
"Great!" Aang said. "We'll show you the ropes."
Lucy smiled. "Alright, with this job, I'll be sure to fix that broken window in my house!"
"Did someone break into your house?" Chun asked.
"Yeah, but they didn't take anything. It was weird. They broke through the window."
Natsu chuckled nervously; he remembered his fight with Azula as she broke into her living room. "Hehe, yeah I wonder what happened? Haha."
Chun let out a happy sigh, and had a warm smile as she closed her eyes to take everything in. "Is that a smile?" He asked. "I haven't seen that on you in a while."
"Yes… because for the first time in a long time. I'm looking forward to the future; maybe things aren't so bleak after all." Chun's smile said a lot of things, but mostly that she was going to be fine, and was excited for the future for once. And maybe she and Hen would have some fun in Fairy Tail.
----One person not having much fun was Azula. After managing to evade capture from the Rune Knights, she was hiding in an abandoned building. She remained there even after hearing the Rune Knights had left the town. She was sitting in a corner by herself with her head in her hands. She remembered glimpses of her humbling battle with Natsu.
She shook her head and leaned back on the wall. "Sorry, father… but I have failed…" she closed her eyes. "So is this what you wanted, Mother? For me to be put in my place because my place in this world is at the bottom of the food chain, Sure I'm Fire Lord, but that means nothing here." She heard nothing. "Heh, you won, so you don't need to bother me anymore I guess. Fairy Tail did your dirty work. Now I'm sitting here, a Firebending prodigy in a dirty building trying to survive like a filthy mongrel. How the mighty have fallen."
Still hearing nothing she sighed. "Is this what I deserve?" she thought back to Natsu's words. "Father will have my head if I return empty-handed…" Azula had her head in her hands, she sobbed lightly. She had no idea where to go or who to turn to. She felt completely alone, but this time with her ego being completely shattered.