Shadows and Light

Much later that night, Kobu, Wendy, Hen, Chun, and Carla were inside Kobu's apartment. And he was pacing back and forth trying to figure out the situation. 
"Uh, Kobu. What are you thinking?" Chun asked.
He stopped walking and he faced the rest of the group. "Well it's about the weapons that were being gathered, I feel it goes much deeper than that."
"What do you mean?" Wendy asked.
"Those thieves; whether they know it or not, I think are equipping a small army attack force, and that attack force may come in and attack the town soon."
"What makes you think that?" Hen asked.
Kobu took a seat on a chair in the living room. "Think about it, any rational thief wouldn't steal from the same area twice. But they did. They stole a lot of weapons and magical items, and then they stole a set of ancient weapons. Sure maybe there is a weapons collector out there who wants all this for themselves. But if he wants a single set, why steal the other weapons and magic when they would fetch much less money."
"Now that you mention it, it makes sense," Carla said.
After getting up he started packing his small items into his bag. "Whoa, what are you doing?" Hen asked.
"I'm gonna get the hell out of here. I don't want to be caught up in a war – again… Besides, the people those thieves weaponized will attack, and they will win. The defenses of this town are pretty lax and incompetent. The only defense is that they are in a valley but I'm sure that won't save this place. So I'm going to leave as soon as possible, and you should too."
"NO!" Chun stepped forward while her fists were clenched. "We can't just leave when we know something bad will happen. Abandoning this town feels… wrong!"
"Do you have a plan? Unfortunately, you didn't bring your guild's heavy hitters. And our bending won't be enough. We couldn't take on a pair of thieves! I highly doubt we will take on an assault force, with powerful magic weapons and abilities." He slung his bag over his back. "I know I can't beat them, so I'm not going to try. I've fought Gray enough times to learn that I shouldn't fight battles I can't win."
Chun stomped to the door and she outstretched her hands, blocking his path. "You can't just abandon this town. I won't let you!"
Kobu dropped his bag. "You can't make me, just like you can't make me join your pathetic guild."
"Please Kobu, we have to do something. Running away would be just heartless…"
"You left out the part that makes it my problem."
"Kobu, we can't do this without you."
"Then leave, go back to your guild and save yourselves."
"No, that's now how we do things! I'm a part of Fairy Tail now."
There was a silence, Chun made it clear he wasn't going to move, Hen clenched his fists, getting ready to attack Kobu if he even thought about attacking her.
He walked to the closest wall and he placed his head on the wall in slight agony "You're fighting a losing battle, and even then. What would be your first plan of action?"
"We should tell the mayor." Wendy suggested.
"Good idea, Wen. If we're going to do this, then we need to get going, that guy is probably asleep by now." Hen threw open the door and was shocked to find a pair of pale-yellow eyes looking back at him. He jumped back in fear and got in a stance.
"ALURIA!?" Kobu yelled.
"And Cole!" They saw Cole popping out from behind his younger sister. "Do I even exist to you people?"
"You two come here for an ass-kicking?" Hen asked with a glare.
Chun stood in front of Wendy and had bright purple flames above her fists.
Kobu was much calmer and stood in the doorway. "Can I help you? You two didn't obviously come here for a fight. And if you're here to steal something, well I don't have much other than survival gear."
"Not here to steal," Aluria said in a hushed tone. "Here to warn."
"Warn us about what?" Wendy asked.
"Let me guess, the impending attack force, that you helped supply is going to attack, and you've come to warn us… for some reason."
Aluria looked down in shame; Cole grabbed her shoulder in order to cheer her up. "Hey, Aluria only figured out what was happening last night. The guy we kept meeting, mentioned something called… 'The Shadow'. Like it's some powerful… entity-like-thing."
Kobu rolled his eyes at him. "You mean like a god?"
"Yeah, like that! So we've come to warn ya."
Chun stepped forward next to Kobu. "Well thanks, but we already knew this… well, Kobu figured it out. We want to stop them!"
"Whoa, even though we gave them powerful magic weapons? You've got guts, girl."
"I'm part of Fairy Tail, so I'm going to do what I can to stop them."
Hen put his hand on Chun's shoulder, spooking her slightly. "That's right, we're going to put down those invaders. I dare them to try."
Kobu turned his back to Aluria and Cole. "Well, you guys clearly have it handled, as for me. I am going to leave before the attack comes down. Magic and magic weapons - maybe, but apparent Shadow Gods is where I draw the line."
A bag was suddenly dropped on the ground from Aluria. The bag had her share of jewel from the mysterious man they met. "Then exchange?" she pointed at her half of the jewel she got from the stealing. "My Jewel, for your help."
"Oh heck yeah!" Hen marched over to the bag but Chun stopped him.
"No...You should return that to the mayor if you want to make up. It wouldn't be right to take that money."
"Really?" Hen asked with a disappointed sigh.
"But Kobu... I clearly can't stop you. If you want to leave, then go ahead." Chun said raising her tone slightly. "I should thank you for your help thus far, but now, we have an invasion to stop. She looked to the others. C'mon guys."
As they walked past him Wendy stopped by him. "Um... it was nice meeting you."
"Wendy!" Carla called out.
"Coming!" she turned back to Kobu as she left to follow the others. "Um, good luck..."
After that Hen was last to pass Kobu. "Hey... I don't like you very much."
"Really, I couldn't tell?" he said with mock sarcasm.
"Don't push it, coward. Anyway, I suppose I should thank you for helping us this far. I suppose you're not completely unlikable."
"Tch, I prefer to work alone, but even I am not that blind to my own ego. I can admit whether I made a mistake... I suppose I should treat people better." he clenched his fist. "Dammit!" for some reason there was some anger building up inside him.
"Hey uh. I'm gonna go... hope you stay safe out there." Hen said. "As crazy as it seems, there are people who care about you... well more like one person. Me? Well, I'll be mad if you just up and died, you're stronger and more stubborn than that. So yeah, later. Try not to die." Hen walked off to join the others. Leaving Kobu alone with his thoughts.
----That same night, Azula was on the train, heading to the location of the S-Class request. She looked in the window and she saw her reflection, she jumped back slightly, she noticed that there were bags under her eyes while her hair looked like a tied-up mess. "Ugh... I look like a mess... jeez."
"That look is unbecoming of a Fire Lord!" 
Those were her thoughts but they didn't necessarily come from her, instead, she saw a younger version of herself, sitting in the unoccupied train seat, a red aura, and outline surrounding her, she swung her legs as she looked at her older-self. "Are you kidding me?"
"I still can't believe you joined that pathetic guild. We are much better than that! Better than those peasants. Think about it, you only lost because you were unprepared to deal with that Dragon wannabe. And if you had as many specialized fighters as they did, then the battle would have turned out differently."
Azula looked at her younger self and quickly wondered why this thought hadn't occurred to her. Of course, they couldn't beat Fairy Tail, they couldn't match them in raw power. If they had as many specialized benders as they had wizards, then the battle wouldn't have been so one-sided. "That actually makes sense, and if I knew how tough Natsu really was. Then I would have fared better."
"And you could have left, located your warriors, maybe employ the services of some wizards here. But no, you gave in to your own weakness and joined that pathetic guild!" Azula looked at the guild mark on top of her hand. "That mark should be a reminder of your pathetic loss, your own weakness. Do you know what I would have done when that old man came to recruit me? I would have struck him in the heart, you did it to our fuddy-duddy uncle so what stopped you this time?"
She didn't have an answer for that, or rather an answer that would satisfy her younger self. "I-I don't know..." she said aloud.
"That's just disappointing, well since you're too blind to see the answer, I'll tell you. You've become soft. Your loss to Natsu changed you, for the worst. You've become timid, you let those Fairy Tail peasants try to change you into who they think you should be. They are trying to turn you into a hero... when you should be a leader. But worst of all... They made you weak!"
Azula's eyes grew wide as her younger self said this, her fists tightened as she couldn't take the harmful comments that... well... she herself was throwing at herself. "I AM NOT WEAK!" she angrily exclaimed with some blue flames exiting from her mouth.
"Then prove it." With that, she saw her younger self disappear.
Thanks to her outburst, the other passengers of the train were looking at her. Some with intrigue, others with slight fear.
"WHAT ARE YOU ALL LOOKING AT!?" they all immediately retreated to their seats. "That's what I thought! If any of you decide to bother me, you will get burned. So go back to your business you pathetic peasants!"
Azula took a deep breath. "Good to have the old Azula back." Her younger self thought. She looked at her request and sat back in the train with a smile on her face and proceeded to sleep for the rest of her trip, she would need it for this request.
----Zuko had got back to the guild just as Mira was leaving the guild. "Mira!" she heard her and turned around while giving him her trademark smile. Momo was still standing on her shoulder.
"Greetings Zuko, how are you?"
"No time, Erza wants us to meet at the train station. It's Azula, she took an S-Class request and is going to get herself killed trying to finish it."
Mira's face became serious. "Where is Erza, right now?"
"She said to meet her at the train station. I just hope Azula didn't get too far, I think she's losing it. I'm worried that she's going to get herself hurt." Zuko ran onto the street but he had to take an evasive roll forward because a fast vehicle was about to run him over. After it missed, the vehicle slid to a stop. "Are you craz-" Erza jumped off and she unhooked a black strap off her wrist. "Erza?"
"Azula took the last train, so this is the best way we can catch her! and since Wendy and Chun took Appa, we're going to use my magic, Four Wheeler." Zuko noticed that it looked like a horse-drawn carriage (noticing the lack of horses) with an engine in the front.
"What is that?"
"It's a Magic Four Wheeler," Mira said. "It's powered by the user's magic. It uses a SE plug to connect the engine to the user to utilize their magic. Do you get it?"
"I sort of get it, but we need to hurry."
Erza nodded. "Exactly, both of you get in."
Both Zuko and Mira stepped in. Erza placed the SE plug on her wrist, and the magic carriage moved at a fast speed down the streets of Magnolia in order to catch up to Azula.
----That night, right by one of the mountains. The same person who had taken the shield was looking at a city of light in the mountains, the lights were still seen through the mountainous fog. He held the spear which held a gold blade at the top.
At the same time, an old woman in a navy-blue cloak walked up, creepily to him. "So tomorrow, the Shadow will strike?"
"Yes..." the leader said in a serious tone.
"Saumus, the will of the Shadow speaks through you, with your leadership, we shall take back our ground."
"Exactly." he looked forward. "And the summoning?"
The woman showed her icy-pale blue eyes. "You do not need to worry; our people are ready. And so are the servants of shadow." She said flashing her dark blue glowing palms which were pretty shriveled up.
"I should thank you, Tabatha. Had you not hired those thieves, we would not have gathered the weapons that were able to drive away our ancestors." he then looked forward. "Tomorrow night, the Shadow's Hand will strike!" he stuck his spear on his ground. On top of his hand, there was a black mark of a sharpened hand-print.
----The next morning Chun, Wendy, Carla, Hen, Aluria, and Cole were outside the mayor's office. "You two thieves are not getting in!" one of the guards said pointing spears at the group.
"Will you guys just chill, we've got bigger problems at the moment." Hen said.
"We need to get in to see the mayor right now!" Chun said. "We may not have much time!"
Aluria then made a portal to her right side, stuck her hand inside and as her hand came back out holding her back of jewel, she dropped in front of Kobu's apartment. "Here..." she darted her eyes to Cole. "Cole?"
"Aw come on! Do you know how much we made?" he faced a glare from his sister and he then let out a sigh. "Alright fine!" he took out two bags of jewel he and presented them. "We'll give this to the mayor in exchange for hearing us out."
The guards looked conflicted. "Well..."
"You can let them in." they all heard. They all turned around to see Kobu walking toward them. "I can vouch for them, but tell the mayor he still owes me my cut."
"Kobu?" Chun questioned in surprised delight. "Are you really going to help us?"
"Just one time, I... uh... just." he nervously looked away. "You keep extending an olive branch to me. I figure it's about time I take it… just this once."
"That's great," Chun said approaching him with her arms out wide.
"But I don't do hugs!" he quickly said. "I'm not there yet!"
Suddenly Hen hugged him from behind with a soft bearhug, lifting him off the ground. He had an evil smirk on his face, while Chun's eyes turned white with shock. Kobu was comically screaming with blue lines going down his forehead. "Does this make you uncomfortable?" Hen asked.
"Very!" Kobu seethed.
Hen let him down before they faced the guards, the waterbender tried to regain his composure. "Now could we please talk to the mayor?"
The guards looked at each other, confused by the exchange of the group, but figured they had something important to tell the mayor. "We shall wake him up. All of you stay out here."
----The train Azula rode stopped at a station in a desert-like area. "Well this place must not be far?" she thought. When she walked through the train station, there was a rough gust of wind that blew up the hot sand and it covered the area temporarily in a sandstorm. "Ugh!" She took another look at her request and she knew where she had to go to. "So this place is called the Hot Sands? How creative?" as Azula walked through the town, she noticed a few things that irked at her. Firstly was the sweltering heat and the people, they didn't look at her with any sort of respect or fear.
She was seen to be just like them, just like the lowly peasants she viewed them to be. "These pathetic people. They wouldn't last seconds with the Fire Nation around... but they aren't here and what would taking over such a useless piece of land do?"
Her thoughts were interrupted when a brown, spherical ball gently hit her leg. She looked down at is and saw a child dressed in rags, with even a shirt tied on his head to protect him from the heat. He had brown skin and it looked like he kicked the ball as he was running towards him to fetch it.
Azula gently kicked the ball towards the boy and he picked it up with his hands. He flashed her a smile revealing a gap in his teeth, left behind by his recently lost baby tooth. She slightly chuckled and let out a smile of her own and waved to the child.
Once she realized what she was doing, she mentally slapped herself and focused herself back on the task at hand. "Get a hold of yourself! You have no time for this!" she ran through the streets in order to get to her location.
...
She arrived outside of a building and it looked like it had two floors but was clearly the biggest one in the city. Once she entered, she was greeted by the sounds of loud talking and people playing cheery tunes from drums. The walls were lit with torches and it looked like many people who were at the counter were drinking. "Ugh! I swear... I can't escape that stupid guild!" Azula walked up to the counter where a short brown-haired woman stood. She had a white shirt with a cutout above her chest, she had a long, flowing black dress covering her lower body.
"Hey, welcome to the Hunter's Tribe." she greeted.
"Tribe?"
"We're not an official guild as of such, we really just are a group of people who like to hunt dangerous creatures, and dangerous wizards on occasion," she explained. "We also send out requests to other guilds to help us out with certain creatures."
"You're all the same to me," Azula said as she put the request on the table. "But that matters very little to me, I want to do this request! Tell me where I can find this creature."
The woman's dark green eyes shrunk slightly. "Are you sure. Do you at least have a group with you?"
"The only person I can trust is myself!"
"I am sorry." the woman said. "I cannot in good confidence allow this, we lost three people to the 'Nightraven'!"
"She thinks you are as weak as them! Show her – all of them your power!" Azula heard Young Azula speak in her head.
Electricity had danced around her right fingers. "You think that's my problem...?" she asked, her eyelids becoming menacingly sharper. "I picked out this request alone, and I will complete it, no matter what you say!" Suddenly all the other people in the tribe stood up and readied their weapons, others were ready to cast their own spells to use on her. Azula turned around to face them. "Oh, you all want to take me on? FINE, I'm not weak like ALL OF YOU!" to prove this she aimed her fingers at them and swung her arms. "You brought this on yourselves! PEASANTS!" after this lightning shot out from her two pointing, right fingers.
"AZULA NO!" 
After the voice screamed out at her she quickly raised her hand upwards and the lightning had missed completely and blew a hole in the section that transitioned from the wall to the ceiling.
She looked at her hands and they shivered. The confused faces of the tribe looked at her. She turned around and swiped the request from the counter. "Forget this! As usual, I have to do it myself! I'll find and defeat this 'Nightraven' myself!" she declared. "I am a Fire Lord, and I will rise to the challenge!"
Azula marched out of the building and one of the people then spoke up. "Um, what's a Fire Lord?"
...
She leaned on a wooden pillar and had her hand on her forehead. "Azula... please listen-" This voice was clearly Ursa again.
"NO! SHUT UP! JUST SHUT THE HELL UP! I DON'T WANT TO HEAR IT!" She ran through the city without knowing where she would end up, "I can do this! I have to do this! I can't fail, not again!" droplets of tears were flicked off her eyes as she ran.
...
The Mayor of Sky Town sat in his office and let out a single tired blink. "So you and the thieves are teaming up now?" he said. "Is that all you came here to tell me?"
"No," Kobu said walking forward. "What we're here to tell you is much, much worse."
The mayor sat back in his seat. "Continue."
"Those weapons that were being stolen, they were being sold to some people who worship the shadow or something."
"Quote - 'You provide a service to the Shadow, the Shadow provides' - End quote," Aluria said.
The mayor's eyes shrunk a bit. "The shadow..."
"Does that mean anything to you?" Kobu inquired.
"Unfortunately, yes... You see there used to be a dark guild that took over this valley. They called themselves the Shadow's Hand. Apparently, their first-ever member was researching some very powerful dark magic and he turned into a powerful shadow-like demon. He is the one they refer to as 'The Shadow.'"
"So where is this guy now?" Carla asked.
The mayor shrugged his shoulders. "Heck if I know, but the Shadow's Hand used to live here almost fifty years ago, but brave wizards and warriors fought them off. With the help of three legendary weapons, they were able to purge the monsters that the Shadow's Hand summoned. They were the Dagger of Devastation, the Sword of Righteousness and the Shield of Fortification. With the help of those weapons. The Shadow's Hand was chased off the mountain."
"What's so special about them anyway?" Hen asked. "Surely magic weapons can't be all that. I've seen a magic sword before."
"What is special about these weapons is that they adapt to the person using them, and amplify their power and their magic matches with the user."
Kobu thought about it. "Well, that will be troublesome, if these guys use darkness magic, then you can be sure the weapon holders will be tough to take down."
"That isn't the worst part, they use weird magic that is used to summon terrifying beasts infused with their Shadow magic."
"T-terrifying beasts?" Wendy asked with a shiver.
"Well, let me be the first to say that we are completely outmatched," Kobu said. "But what else is new for us," he said with a sigh.
"Except we're gonna win this time!" Hen said.
"Remember the last time we fought against a guild, your guild?"
"You write us off too quickly," Chun said. "We can do this, we have to do this!"
"There is no option of the retreat here, once we lose, that's it, we have nowhere to go. We're not the attacking force this time."
"Well you're not going to leave us now, you're our best shot!" the mayor said.
Kobu sighed. He walked to a corner of the office. "Then we will form a defensive plan, right here, right now." he grabbed a chair and sat down on it. "No one leaves till we have a concrete plan in place..." he eyed everyone in the room. "I suggest you all grab a seat; this is going to take a while."
----Erza, Zuko, and Mira arrived at the train station as the sun was high in the sky. "So, are you sure this is the place?" Zuko asked.
"Yes," Erza replied. "This city is a hot spot for hunting monsters. I saw that request before and there is one place Azula had to go to."
"Alright, then we will visit there first."
"Right," Mira said in agreement. "Come Momo."
The lemur chirped and flew over Mira. "He's been around you a lot, I wonder if Aang will start to miss him," Zuko said. Erza got out of her Four Wheeler and felt slightly woozy, as she wobbled on her feet. "Erza you should rest."
"No. I can't not when Azula is still suffering out there. I will be fine."
"Alright, but you can't push yourself too far, we still need to save Azula from herself." Erza nodded. And with that, the three – and Momo. Headed into the region of the Hot Sands
...
They decided to split up which would help them locate Azula faster. Erza knew that she had to go to the Hunter's Tribe, it was where the type of creature hunting jobs was taken. She walked in and was greeted with the same atmosphere as Azula. But as soon as she walked in, everyone looked at her. Probably because they know well about Fairy Tail and the stories of the legendary Titania,
They all stared at her in awe, and some in fear. The woman who dealt with Azula before quickly gained her composure. "Titani- uh Erza Scarlet. What brings you here?"
"I am looking for someone, she has dark hair golden eyes." The woman quickly remembered the exact person.
"Yes, I remember her, a crazy girl who wanted to take on Ravenbird by herself. Why, do you know her?"
"She is a part of Fairy Tail, she took the request without letting anyone know."
"Well I didn't tell her the location, Ravenbird is a very tough beast, we lost some members to it, and our best are out on a year-long quest."
Erza gave the woman a serious look. "Tell me, where is the beast, I am hoping we can beat her to it. I have one other S-class wizard with me and her brother. We are trying to help her."
"You want to help that crazy witch?! She nearly shot me with electricity."
"Let me apologize on behalf of her. Azula isn't… well. But most importantly, she is resourceful and she'll find the location. I need to stop her before she gets herself killed."
The woman thought about this. "Fine, just be safe."
"I will."
----It was midday in Sky Town, everyone was still in the Mayor's office. "Right, does everyone know the plan?" Kobu asked.
"Yes!" everyone but the mayor yelled.
He suddenly raised his hands. "Hold on! Do you know what I just realized?"
The water bender let out a long sigh. "I know I shouldn't ask but... what?"
"We have our own Team Avatar!" he said excitedly.
"What?" Kobu asked, nearly sounding insulted.
"Hehe, see I'll show you!" "Earth!" He pointed at himself with his thumb. "Fire!" he then looked to Chun who had her hands confidently on her hips. "Air!" he pointed out Wendy who yelped slightly. "and Water!" He looked at Kobu who had his arms folded and his eyes closed. "And we have the others who just hang around like weirdoes," he said comically pointing to Aluria and Cole.
"Hey!" an insulted Cole protested.
"And most importantly..." he scooped Carla in his hands and held her up. "Our own, adorable animal companion!"
"LET ME GO!" the white cat yelled, trying to struggle out of his grip.
"I guess he's right... in a way," Chun said with a giggle
"I have no idea what this 'Team Avatar' is?" Cole said. "What about you sis?"
"Inside comparison between them, we wouldn't know." Cole looked at her questionably. "Similar to an inside joke, Cole," she said with an annoyed tone.
"Ohhh," he said finally realizing it.
Kobu looked at Aluria. "Do you know your part of the plan?" Aluria only nodded firmly. "Good, the plan hinges on you."
"Won't fail." She assured. She opened a portal for her to travel through"Will Return soon," she walked through the portal and it disappeared in a quick flash.
"Good, since the rest of you know your roles, then the meeting is adjourned."
"Wait…" the mayor looked at everyone. "What's my job?"
"You prepare the citizens for an evacuation. They can't be here when the attack goes down, the last thing we need are civilians getting in the way."
"I'll get right on that!" he ran out of his office.
"Hehe, see you do have a heart," Chun said to Kobu.
"Only because it is necessary, the last thing we need is to be responsible for someone getting hurt, and since this is my plan, it would have happened on my watch." He sighed and looked out the window. "I still have no idea what we're up against, I went on what the Mayor said, but he wasn't exactly there to see their magic with his own eyes," he said turning to the group. "So I'm just preparing for the worst-case scenario.
"Are you going to be ok?" Wendy asked.
"Honestly, I haven't been ok for a long time… really I haven't been the same since I lost everything…"
Chun grew concerned. "Oh, Kobu…"
"I don't want a pity party, ok. We should stay focused on our tasks."
"But… you should talk about it to someone."
"Just forget it, we're not about to do a quote 'bonding' session."
Cole chuckled. "Sounds like the perfect time, the calm before the battle."
Kobu let out a sigh. "I'd rather not, let's just say that I've been on my own ever since. You can thank the Avatar for that, but that's a story for another day." He walked to the door. "C'mon, we've got to prepare the city defenses. We've only got a couple of hours tops."
He left the office, leaving just Chun, Hen, Wendy, Carla and Cole inside. "Well… he's clearly got some issues." Cole noted.
"He's getting better." Chun defended. "He went through a lot, let's just say. I can't tell you what happened cause I'm not in a position to tell you, I'd rather let Kobu say it himself."
"Hey, whatever makes him do his best, I'm all for it," Cole said. "But I'm still mad about giving our money back. Do you have any idea how hard we worked to get those items?"
"I think you meant 'to steal those items.'" Carla pointed out.
"Potato – potato." He casually countered. "Anyway, we should help out ol' sourpuss. Least we can do after he came up with this plan."
…
Kobu was overseeing what looked like a lookout which was on one of the palace towers, which had a telescope. He stood on the floor below and looked up at the tower "Make sure you have a view of the entire town. We can't be surprised when they show their faces."
"Hey um Kobu?" he turned and noticed Chun standing behind him.
"Hey, just give me a second." He turned to her. "Let me guess, you want me to talk about my feelings?"
"I know it's hard for you to understand, but I care about you Kobu. Hen does too… to a certain degree."
"Why must you worry about me so much? I'm fine."
"You admitted you've never been ok, and you've been on the run from the magic council. That can't have done any good. I just want to help you."
"Help me?" he questioned. "Chun you can't help me, because last time I checked, it's impossible to bring people back from the dead! What's worse I can't seek vengeance because I'd just humiliate myself in the process! And even if I get stronger, I'll never be able to beat the Avatar much less kill him. And if I can't even beat Gray, then I'm nowhere near the level I need to be at. So I ran. I couldn't stand to be around those two! I don't belong in your little 'Fairy Tail family'… or I guess any family now."
"But that doesn't mean you have to be alone, Kobu. I can't imagine what you're going through, but I know that being all by yourself isn't going to solve anything. Having to carry all that weight, by yourself? You're being way too hard on yourself."
"As you said, you can't imagine what I'm going through, so stop trying to relate to me alright."
"I won't stop you know, not when you're going through so much. I want us to be friends, Kobu. And friends help each other in times like this. They are there to help, even listen without expecting anything in return."
Kobu looked to think about her words. "Chun… can I tell you a secret?"
"Of course."
He struggled to let the words come out, but when they did, it quickly made Chun aware of how deep Kobu's pain was rooted. "I… I hate myself…"
Chun only let out a very silent gasp and put her hands over her mouth in shock. Her pupils shrunk at this revelation. "Kobu…"
"Look don't turn this into a big deal, I opened up as you wanted and-" He was shocked when Chun engulfed him in a big hug.
"H-hey! I-I told you, I don't do hugs…"
"I don't care, you need one!" she cried out.
Suddenly Chun felt Kobu's hands on her back and was surprised but also delighted to know that Kobu was hugging her back. This told her, he really was starting to change for the better. "Thank you..."
----After nearly turning a bar inside out, Azula finally found the location of the Ravenbird she was hunting. She didn't get why everyone was so scared of it. She then figured if she took it down single-handedly, it would prove how much more superior she was to them.
The location was apparently an abandoned town in the desert that became its nest. The town was called Oasis Town but was changed to "Daemon's Rest", due to the Ravenbird claiming it.
Azula passed signs that warned anyone who was going in the same direction to stay well clear of Daemon's Rest.
"'Daemon's Rest.' That Daemon won't be resting when I am done with it." Azula said to herself.
"Azula, please don't do this!"
"You again! Just get out of my head!" she said aloud, but didn't care since she perceived herself to be alone. "If I do this, I can prove that I am superior to these impudent swine!"
"You have nothing to prove Azula..."
"Yes, I do..." Azula looked at her hands. "I am losing my touch, the longer I spend here, the more content I am with staying with Fairy Tail. That can't happen, that guild is an infestation of weakness. And I am... better than that."
"But, making new friends will be good for you."
"I am a Fire Lord! I don't need friends! Only loyal followers! Fairy Tail does nothing for me!" she again looked at her guild marking. "I was stupid to get this mark! As if I would stay in Fairy Tail, I belong in much better company!"
With her new conviction, she rushed through the desert ground, kicking up sand as she stuck to the path. She continued to follow the signs that led her to the destination.
...
Azula managed to get to find the town that became the rumored Daemon's Rest. She slowly made her way through the town which had lots of abandoned buildings. She knew that she needed to keep her wits about her.
But she suddenly faced a tremendous bird-shaped creature that sat atop a mountainous formation that formed just over the town. This made it so the creature had an eye over the entire town. The bird was black with what looked like a longer neck than usual. Its size was humungous, standing big enough to topple most small to medium-sized buildings.
Luckily for Azula, it was asleep so she had enough time to figure out her next move. But after seeing the size of the thing, she took a slight step back.
"Heh, having second thoughts?" after hearing her younger self mock her, Azula shook her head.
"No... I thought it wasn't going to be this big. Oh well, I just need to look for a weak spot."
"Just don't back out like a coward. This is your moment, your moment to get back on top of the food chain! All you have to do it take it!"
"Get out of my head so I can concentrate!" Azula said in an angered whisper. "I'd try for the chest but it is pretty concealed, so I'll have to get it to move so I can strike it down quickly." Azula pointed two-fingered finger guns on her hands and prepared to fight. "Here goes nothing!" she swung and spun her arms forward like a windmill and both her fingers shot out sharp, fast streams of blue fire. They hit the wings of the sleeping giant. The already dark left wing had two scorch marks on it. Its eyes opened, revealing brown eyes with a purple energy flame inside it.
The bird awakened and stood up and stretched out its wings, shooting gusts of wind in all directions. Winds then surrounded the bird and they were colored black and purple. Azula's fear greatly rose as the towering figure looked down on her. "SCCRREEEEEEE!"
"oh agni..." Azula said after realizing the task in front of her. The bird leaped off its landed in front of the very wide path Azula was on. The shockwave of the bird landed had forced Azula back. After she was briefly dazed, she rose and saw Ravenbird walking menacingly to her. It screamed at her.
"Back off you beast!" she swung her legs, sending arcs of blue fire to the bird. This made it step back from Azula, but it let out a fierce scream. "Little effect." the bird screamed in front of Azula and the high pitched scream, gave Azula a brief spell of tinnitus.
She covered her ears and saw the bird running to her and it spun with its wings stretched out. Azula had flown back and hit the ground hard after she was hit. The bird was instantly over her and it threw its beak down towards her attempting to impale her. "AHH!" she screamed and rolled out of the way as the beak shot through the ground, making a hole where she last lay. She rolled from another beak strike, rolled to her feet and was managing to avoid each of the beak strikes. Once the bird stopped, Azula had sparks of lightning around her fingers. "Enough!" she shot a long burst of lightning right into the left eye of the bird, and it let out a scream of pain. It arched its neck back. She looked for a tall building and when she saw her next position, she shot propulsion flames from her hands and flew up to the building.
She landed on the top of the building and had a good view of the whole creature. It was still recovering from its blinded left eye. She couldn't blind it completely because she was looking at its already blinded side. "I need to finish this!" she charged up another lightning shot and was aiming for the chest. She hit her target and the bird then fell down to its side. "Haha! Got it!" but she was instantly surprised when it was slowly getting up." the purple and black energy surrounding it was more prominent this time. Its previously blinded eye opened and it was colored purple instead of brown. The bird took to the sky and saw Azula on her building. It instantly flew towards the building. Azula then used her afterburner flames to take to the sky above the creature. She was shocked when she saw that the building that she stood on, disintegrated into rubble.
Azula landed on the ground. "Damn you!" another lightning blast was fired to the bird and it screamed in pain. She kept the lightning going as streaks of electricity were surrounding it, but it still stood. "JUST DIE ALREADY!" the lightning burst made an explosion around the bird and all this did was make it step back.
There were lined scorch marks all over its body from Azula's white-hot lightning. "SCREEEEE!"
"No... It's not enough?" the bird rushed to her. She rolled out of the way and it crashed into a building, instantly reducing it to rubble. Azula placed her hands closer together before a large flame was formed in between them. Her blue flames eventually turned thinned and sharpened into a large, thin disk of blue fire. She ran, spun and tossed the disk to the bird. It was hit square in the chest and there was a scorched wound that went down in a line. But the bird refused to go down. Instead, it screamed in defiance. "Fine then!" she shot forward by propelling flames out of her feet and knuckles, she boosted herself towards Ravenbird at fast speed.
The large beast in response extended its wings and was ready to strike. It watched Azula go underneath, and while she was there, she stopped and shot a tremendous burst of fire from underneath and the bird was being scorched. It lifted off its talons before it let gravity take over and roughly fell back onto the ground.
Azula was dazed after taking the impact, suddenly she was grabbed by its left talon and it flew up into the sky. "LET ME GO!" she had flames in front of her hands and burned the talons. The heat from the flames made the bird release her.
Once she was let go, she shot flames out of both her hands and feet to try and slow her landing. But she was a fraction too late and she hit the ground hard as she was trying to slow down. She slowly stood up and her whole body was in pain, she tried to limp away but the bird had crashed right into the ground behind her. This sent her rolling forward, there were rips and tears in her outfit, were scratches on her skin after she hit the ground from her fall.
She crawled to a rock, that was tall and heavy enough to support her weight. Ravenbird still eyed her, as if she was wounded prey trying to escape. Azula was panting and tried to figure out her next move. "Pathetic! Father would have taken this thing down by now, and here you are, just fighting to survive!" 
Azula held her head, she couldn't take the criticism from her younger, more critical-self. "Stop it." she pleaded. Without thinking, she ran forward, long whips of blue fire followed her. The bird spun and tried to swing its wing at Azula but missed. She whipped the head with her fire whip, but it did little. The bird let out another scream that hurt Azula's eardrums. While she was disorientated. The bird heaved Azula up into the air with its long-necked head.
While she was high in the air, the bird followed her and it grabbed her with its talons again. Ravenbird let itself fall to the ground, and it hit hard, with Azula taking a big chunk of the impact. The bird let her go and it slowly walked away but continued to observe its prey.
Azula who was extremely wounded had her hair all over the place, and she had a bloody nose and cuts on her face. Her fist clenched when her mind was bombarded with disparaging remarks about herself and remarks about self-preservation, love, and worth. She held her head and let out a loud scream. But surprisingly a chuckle escaped from Azula which evolved into sick laughter. Her hair covered her face, but she whipped it over and was laughing while her pupils were shrunken.
"...now I get it... No one wants me... not father, not mother and not even Fairy Tail. Heh, this was a mistake. I'm too weak for father, I scare my mother and I can never fit in with Fairy Tail." she looked right at Ravenbird. "WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!" she screamed. "No one wants me, so what's the point!? DO IT! FINISH THIS!" Ravenbird was scratching his talons on the ground, like a bull about to charge its target. Azula's crazed look calmed to where she was normal, and as it charged to her, her life flashed before her eyes. How she got everything she wanted, how she was praised by her father, how her mother appeared to like Zuko over her. How she used that favoritism against Zuko by making him miserable, how happy she was when it was just her and her father after Zuko's banishment. How everything led up to her being the new fire lord, then when her life was turned upside down by Natsu. And here she was, stood right at death's door, her hand on the knob not quite sure if she wanted to turn it or not.
There was a loud impact and everything went silent. Azula stood there in shock, her pupils were shrunken as she watched a red-haired warrior step in to save her. The Adamantine Armor doing enough to keep back Ravenbird from progressing any further.
"Er-za?"
The armored wizard was holding back the advances of the large beast. "Zuko, get Azula to safety!"
"Zuko is here?" Azula asked. Her wrist was suddenly grabbed and he slid the both of them to a corner of a torn down building.
"Are you hurt?" Zuko asked, demanding her attention.
"I-I'm hurt everywhere..." she said, still clearly shaken. "But I guess I'll live... No thanks to both of you..." As Erza was holding back Ravenbird, Momo appeared on top of it. "It that the Avatar's pet?"
Momo suddenly flew off the bird's head and a tremendous black and purple energy beam completely engulfed the Ravenbird. Azula looked up and saw what looked like a demon with white hair. "Who is that?"
"Right, you probably didn't see her like when the Fire Nation attacked the guild. That's Mira."
Azula imagined Mira's sweet face and that was immediately shattered by the scary look of her Satan Soul form. "That thing is Mirajane?!" Azula blinked but she put it to the back of her head. "Questions later, right now we... uh, I need to take that thing down."
"Azula... look at yourself!" Zuko yelled. "You're a mess you're nowhere near strong enough to take this thing down alone. None of us are, that's why we work as a team. That's why Fairy Tail is strong, when we fight together, we cover for each other's weaknesses."
"I don't have weaknesses!" Zuko only stared at her while he folded his arms. She shamefully looked away.
"Don't say anything, but we're going to fight this thing. You can stay here while we fight it off... or you can help us!"
Azula stayed silent but broke eye contact with her older brother. Zuko didn't stay there for long as he left to help Mira and Erza.
----The sun was setting over Sky Town. Kobu was constantly going over the map of the town. His eyelids were struggling to stay open. He hadn't rested at all that day and was trying to stay awake. Before he could pass out, a steaming cup of coffee was suddenly in his view.
Kobu turned to see Hen presenting it to him. "You look like you need it," he said.
The water bender accepted the cup before he gave Hen a suspicious glance. "You didn't spit in it, did you?"
"There are easier ways to get you, namely a rock to the gut would be enough. Spitting in your drink is amateurish."
"I suppose."
"Hey, I gotta ask?" Hen said rubbing his finger on his cheek. "Are you and Chun? Well..."
Kobu chuckled. "You want to ask if I fancy, Chun don't you?" he asked with a smirk. "What if I told you that I did? What would you do?"
"W-what well. It's not that I like her. I just worry cause well." he fake chuckled to himself. "You two would not be a good fit."
"Sure, keep telling yourself that." Kobu looked forward. "Let me give you some advice, and this is going to sound extremely cheesy. But if there are people you care about, spend as much time with them as possible, tell them how you really feel about them. Cause in our line of work, we could lose them. I know from experience."
Hen blushed and looked away. "I uh... well... hey! You didn't answer my question!"
"I didn't have to. You're the one who got her out of her shell. I'm just the lonely charity case. If an answer is what you're looking for, no I don't see her that way. So you don't have to worry lover boy."
"I said that I didn't..."
Kobu closed his eyes. "Yeah, I heard you, you don't 'like' her," he said using air quotes. "But if she ends up finding someone else who does. Don't come crying to me."
"What are you-?"
A portal opened up behind them. Aluria walked out of it. "Enemy approaching soon!" she warned.
"Thanks, tell everyone to take their positions." She nodded, she walked back into the portal. "That means you too, Hen!"
"But hey we aren't done here!"
"Focus on not dying first, then I'll laugh at your oblivious love life later." Kobu ran off while Hen stood there in a slight shock.
"Hey!"
...
As the sun was setting, there was a tremendous silence among the town as all the innocent civilians were evacuated. "It's too quiet." Hen said as he stood with Cole.
"Ah, yeah, but I wouldn't worry. Quiet doesn't usually last," he said. "My sis is usually never wrong. I just hope this plan works."
"Yeah... I'm more worried about what Chun has to do."
...
Speaking of Chun, she was placed on one of the roofs in the town center, Aluria had just appeared before her and the two were talking. "Nervous?" Aluria asked.
"Very," Chun replied as she looked at her hands. "I'm not sure if I can pull it off... the leader is a bad guy sure but am I really capable of doing that?"
"The first one is always the toughest."
"Have had to... you know..."
"Kill? Only once, it was out of necessity. Only way to ensure Cole and I's freedom."
"But..."
"Your choice... if not an option, we find another way."
"Okay, thanks."
*BOOM* there was a huge explosion near the western wall. They saw a hole in the wall, suddenly there was dark smoke rising from the area in the wall. It wasn't long before ghouls and people wearing black tribal gear with spears ran through the wall with a battle cry.
"Go, I will locate the leader!" she disappeared into a portal and left Chun by herself.
"Ok..."
...
Kobu saw the ghoulish, floating skeletons with black auras around them. "Hold them off!" Kobu ran forward and saw some of the human members of the shadow's hand with strong melee weapons. He faced someone who held a large hammer. He blocked the strike by making an ice shield but it still smashed through and he slid back on his feet.
He ran towards the hammer wielder and leaped over him. "He's all yours Hen!" the hammer wielder was confused, and suddenly his legs sank into the ground like quicksand. He looked up to see the evil face of Hen, the top of his face was covered by a dark shadow.
"So, tell me, do you know how to fly?" he asked with an evil smirk.
...
Kobu had slashed through two ghouls with a water whip, he heard a scream and saw the same hammer wielder from earlier fly over him and crashing into the walls. "Heh, of course!" one Shadow's Hand member tried to slash Kobu with his cutlass. The Waterbender dodged it and used the water from the grass and flung it to the sword holder as tiny ice bullets. The cutlass couldn't block all of them and he was hit my many of the ice bullets.
"This isn't right, where is the leader? Is he seriously letting his grunts to all the dirty work." He looked around and of the Shadow's Hand members he spotted, not a single one of them had the legendary weapons. "And to top it off. Where are the magic weapons... this is not good," He used large bullet of water to sweep the legs of the blade wielder. Once he fell to his back. Kobu had created a larger bullet of his own water with a wall of ice at the end of it. He threw a punch similar to how Hen would when Earthbending and the combined water attack had crashed right into the attacker and he flew into the wall and he knocked a few chips off the large wall. "Where is this guy already?"
Suddenly there was an echo in his head, which made Kobu duck down in pain. "Leader, here! East wall!" 
"Is that you Aluria, how did you get in my head!" he received no answer to his question, but the echoing in his head was suddenly gone. "Tch! Damnit!"
"Hey, Kobu!" Hen yelled as he threw a rocky fist at another shadow ghoul. "Did you hear that weird voice too? It said the leader was at the East Wall."
Kobu thought for a moment. "Looks like she might have told everyone." He focused his attention on Hen. "Hen I am going to check out the East wall, make sure you clean up any stragglers here."
Kobu was about to be ambushed from behind by an ax-wielding member of the Shadow's Hand. But he was suddenly kicked. Cole had cracked his fist. "You get to the East Wall, sis has the power to talk to people's minds when she's traveling through her portals. So I say trust her. Hen and I should stay back here. If you guys need backup, sis will let us know."
The water bender let out a defeated sigh. "…Would have been nice to know she could do that! But whatever, make sure no hostiles get in!"
"Roger that." Hen replied. They watched Kobu running towards the other side of the town. "Well, I suppose it's us defending this wall."
"Will your friends be alright?"
Hen sighed. "I wished it was me taking on the leader, but I would be better here than Kobu, that way nothing big gets past us."
Suddenly they saw a large man holding what looked like a magical machine gun over his shoulder. "Out of the way kids, the Shadow will extend its reach!"
"Speaking of something big…" Hen said with a smirk. "Alright tall, dark and... not handsome. Come and get some!" both Hen and Cole charged to the large man.
...
At the Eastern wall. The leader of the Shadow's Hand, Saumus. Along with the creepy woman from before, Tabatha had silently entered the city through the underground sewer system.
Saumus had all three weapons on his person. The shield behind held by his left hand, as well as the sword behind held by his right. The blade from the gold dagger was stuck to a durable, metal spear that was tied to his back.
"The Shadow's Hand will take back this land," Saumus said to himself.
Tabatha with a wicked smile on her face had turned to her leader. "Be cautious leader, for we are not alone."
They both heard echoing around them. A portal appeared to the side of Saumus. Aluria shot out of it and she landed a kick in his face. She flipped backward and landed in front of him with her right hand and left knee hitting the ground.
"You dare betray the Shadow!?" Saumus spat.
"Force of shadow must be expunged!" Aluria said in a serious tone.
"Then the Shadow will consume you!" the shield turned from gold to black with red electricity surrounding it. The same happened with the sword and the dagger.
However, a bolt of lightning crashed into the ground where he stood, he slid back while the explosion shot dust into the air.
Chun joined Aluria. "I'm not out to hurt you, so just leave!"
"Useless," Aluria said. "Negotiation with cultists is futile!"
Tabatha stepped forward. "You honestly think you children can last in a battle with the Master and Head Shaman of the Shadow's Hand?"
Chun got into a fighting stance. "If we have to!" She watched Aluria disappear into thin air. She suddenly heard an echoing in her head.
"Getting Kobu, hold on for a moment!"
Once she was gone. Chun took a deep breath. She twirled and made a wall of bright purple fire separate them. Saumus had backed away slightly while Tabatha only stared at the flames with interest.
"Your flames are beautiful. Your fire magic must be powerful. I suppose you must have been trained by Fairy Tail's own Salamander, haven't you?"
Chun looked at the flames dancing above her hand. "No, I'm not trained by Natsu. But he'd be pretty disappointed if I lost to either of you!" she leaped off her feet shot off her flats and shot flames from her feet, as she closed in towards both Saumus and Tabatha. The leader stepped forward and used his shield to block the impact from Chun's feet.
The fire bender felt magical energy damaging her from inside and she was sent back flying by the shield and rolled on her back. She quickly got up to see Saumus speeding to her. Chun used her jet flames to shoot away from Saumus' sword slash. Once she distanced herself, she charged up her lightning and shot it directly to Saumus, but it was blocked but the shield. The shield let off a dark red glow as soon as the lightning was blocked.
"Don't fool yourself, you cannot defeat me!" Saumus said. Chun ignored him and threw quick jabs of fire towards him, but the shield blocked it again. "Enough of this." he dropped his sword. "If you won't surrender. Then I will purge your light and make you see the darkness of the shadow." his hand was surrounded by red and black energy. "Possession of the Shadow Daemon!" he chanted. A black and red seal appeared below his feet and there was an explosion of red-black energy. He directed his free hand forward and red and black skulls with energy trails shot forwards to Chun. The energy passed through Chun and suddenly she could feel all sorts of Negative thoughts passing through her head. She put her hands on her head as if to silence the voices.
'Weak'
'Soft'
'Disappointment'
'Pathetic'
'Useless'
'Monster'
All those thoughts from people that have said those poison things to her had hit her at once. As the energy surrounded her, she was starting to feel this unbridled rage for all those that wronged her. Azula, Kobu, The Fire Nation, Her Parents. She wanted to destroy them and leave nothing left. The possession magic was trying to awaken dark feelings that Chun had and bring them to the surface. She laughed maniacally as the magic was about to fully awaken her own inner darkness.
"Sky Dragon's Cure Roar!" a huge gust of air had passed through Chun, the possessive energy was being immediately dispelled.
Saumus' eyes shrunk slightly. "A Dragon Slayer?" he thought as he noticed Wendy and Carla running to Chun.
"Chun." Wendy kneeled down and helped out Chun who was on her back. "Please, be ok?" The firebender slowly opened her eyes and looked up at Wendy.
"W-Wendy? Ugh... what happened back there?"
"You were hit with a possessing spell; he was trying to get you to join their side." Carla briefly explained.
She slowly got back up. "Ugh... that explains all that stuff I saw. The voices I heard."
"Chun, are you-?"
"No, Wendy. I'm not ok. I'm angry, and I know exactly who I am going to take it out on! So I am not holding back."
"And neither should you Wendy," Carla said looking at the Dragon Slayer.
"It doesn't matter if a Dragon Slayer stands in my way. I will not let you halt me!"
A portal appeared to his left and a long blob of water had jabbed him, sending him sliding back. Aluria and Kobu popped out of the portal.
"Ugh... never going in there again!" Kobu said feeling very dizzy. He shook his head and regained his focus.
"Focus, enemy in front of us," Aluria said.
Before long Tabatha had walked to Saumus' side. "It seems our enemies were prepared for an attack."
Saumus looked at the sword he dropped earlier, extended his hand and it magically magnetized itself to his wrist. He tightly gripped it. "You will all fall before us, Children!"
Kobu glared back at him. "Not if you fall first!" Chun quickly made a thick wall of flames in front of Saumus and Tabatha. "Now Wendy!"
Wendy's face became serious and she raised her right hand in the air. A sky-blue seal formed above it. "Fast wind that run the heaven..." as she chanted bright energy was surging underneath the feet of Kobu, Chun, and Aluria, surprising them. "...VERNIER!" They noticed themselves becoming very light on their feet. But Wendy wasn't done. "Power of the stout arms that tears heaven... ARMS!" Wendy pushed the seal in front of her. Auras were flaring off the three in front of her. Chun had pink fiery auras leaking off her arms and feet, Kobu's was blue and Aluria's was white.
"Enchantment magic?" Tabatha asked as the flames were lowering themselves.
"This is amazing! I feel so much lighter and stronger. And I feel my flames are going to be so much better." Chun thought.
"Use it wisely, Chun. We're not going to get another shot at this." Kobu reminded. He sucked up water from the trees around him, causing them to shrivel up and explode from the dryness. He noticed his water had a brighter glow to it. He swung his water blob to hit Saumus, but he blocked it with his shield. He only slid back from the hit.
An idea popped into Chun's head. "I got it. Aluria, can you hold off the old hag?"
"Old hag?" Tabatha asked, sounding insulted.
"Neutralize old hag." she used her enhanced speed to throw a knee into Tabatha's face. In which the old woman let out a pained scream.
"You children, need to know your place!"
Chun only sniffed her nose and created a powerful stream of bright purple fire that completely engulfed Saumus. As the flames covered him, he revealed to be protecting himself with his shield, but he was struggling to stay on his feet. Once the flames stopped, he regained his balance. "Kobu, freeze water to his shield!"
"Why would I...?" it suddenly clicked what Chun's idea was. "Thermal shock, brilliant!" He complied with her idea and he used his large blob again as Saumus recovered, he moved to guard himself, but as soon as the water crashed into the shield, it instantly froze and the ice was quickly turning to water, then steam as it was cooling the hot metal of the shield. The steam had blinded him for a short moment.
He glared at them. "You will pay!" he ran towards Kobu but the Waterbender noticed he moved a lot faster thanks to Wendy's Vernier. He avoided getting slashed and he leaped and kicked off the shield. As he flipped in the air, he noticed two barrels full of water close to him, he made them explode out of the barrels and made them cover Saumus in an orb of water. He instantly froze it, imprisoning him in an orb of ice.
"I suppose her enchantment even strengthens bending." Kobu thought. "Useful..." Chun stood next to him.
"I'm tagging in!" she had a bright pink ball of fire that was sparking wildly above her hand. She tossed it to the ice orb and it shattered into large pieces. Saumus was sent flying from the orb and he rolled on the rocky ground of the town as he had frost all over his skin and was shivering. "Shall I warm him up," Chun asked winking at Kobu.
"I don't to quips either."
"Aw, you're no fun!" she was throwing fireballs as big as herself in jabs towards the recovering Saumus. He was hit by one of the fireballs and lost his balance before he quickly recovered. He blocked the remaining fireballs with his shield, and they all noticed it was glowing with the amount of heat it was absorbing.
"And this is taking too long." Kobu had taken the large ice shards that were on the ground and reformed them into a long, thick water whip. "I don't know how long these enhancements last!"
Carla and Wendy joined them. "Then we should make our next attack count," Carla said.
"All three of us?" Wendy suggested while asking.
"Definitely!" Chun said.
Kobu then shot two water whips to Saumus. Aiming for his shield, and they froze instantly. The water froze all the way to his arms in order to prevent Saumus from escaping. "He's stuck, if you're going to do it, now is the time.
Both girls nodded. Wendy was sucking in all the air around her, and Chun was taking a deep breath as well.
"Sky Dragon's Roar!" Wendy blew a cyclone of sparkling wind to Saumus, following her was a large stream of flames that traveled next to Chun's bright purple flames. They both crashed into Saumus and the air and flames combined to create this wonderful horizontal cyclone of purple fire. Both Chun and Wendy looked at their combined attack with amazement and wonder.
"Whoa..." both girls breathed.
"Be amazed at your combined attack later, he's getting back up."
They watched as he was slowly getting to his feet, significantly weakened by the fire cyclone. Chun glared and they saw the shield had dust and many burn marks on it. "This is really stupid... but it is what Natsu would do!" She shot forward, propelling flames from her bare feet. She went extremely fast given she was still powered by Wendy's enhancements.
"What are you doing you fool!" Kobu asked.
Chun let out her own battle cry and threw her fist forward with a purple flame in front of her. Her fist connected with the shield and lines of purple fire spread across it. Saumus had seen her eyes, they were sharper and marked with fury. Surprisingly, purple spider-web cracks were spreading all over the shield and only a short time later, it completely shattered like glass into small metallic pieces with wisps of fire floating into the air. Saumus flew far back and rolled on the ground roughly.
"CHUN!" Wendy yelled. "Are you alright?"
She turned around to face the ground and she had teary eyes but comically tried to put on a strong face, while holding her right fist up, which was steaming and had red burn marks on it. "Hehe, of course, I'm alright!"
Kobu shook his head. "Natsu is not a good influence for you."
Wendy took Chun's hand with both of her own. "I'll help you out." Wendy's hands shone with her healing energy and it spread to Chun's hurt hand. She felt the pain going away and the burn marks disappeared. "Wow, I can't feel it anymore. You're amazing Wendy."
Wendy bashfully looked away with a blush. "I-I'm not that great."
"RAAHHHH!" they all saw Saumus getting up with black and red energy surrounding him. The sword and the spear on his back were covered in this energy.
"Oh, of course, that wasn't enough to beat him," Kobu said.
Suddenly a portal appeared next to them and Aluria had shot out of it while she was panting. "Old hag, tougher than anticipated."
"Now see here!" they saw Tabatha appear next to Saumus. "I may be old, but calling me a hag is just downright rude."
"It's over," Kobu said. "We outnumber you; you couldn't hope to beat all of us."
Saumus growled as he wanted to disagree but even with his magical weapons, he couldn't beat them. Not when they were enhanced with Wendy's magic.
Tabatha noticed Saumus' tense nature. "Calm yourself, Saumus. We should never give up on the Shadow." she placed a hand on Saumus' back. "You aren't the only one with enhancer magic, little dragon." her eyes shone dark purple and a black and red seal appeared under Saumus. "The hand protects those who live in shadow... Daemon Curse!" a red and black aura surrounded Saumus and he felt his power increase drastically.
"Damn!" Kobu cursed.
Tabatha put both her hands on the ground and got to her knees. "I shall use our extended reach of the shadow to ensure victory."
----Erza, Mira and Zuko continued to fight against Ravenbird. Erza switched to her Purgatory Armor. She swung her sword at the chest of the large bird. A large cut was made on the chest and it screamed in pain.
"Zuko, Mira!" Mira shot past Erza and she slashed the exact spot with her claws, further hurting the large beast. Zuko shot a stream of fire at its wound, further burning the inside of the bird a little.
However, it didn't look deterred in the slightest. A burst of lightning had hit it in the crown of its head. The three looked back to see Azula standing on shattered remains of a building, her long messy hair blowing in the weak wind. "I don't like leaving things half-finished."
Erza smiled and Azula joined them on the ground. "How do we defeat this thing?"
"Our attacks are clearly hurting it, but for some reason, it still stands," Erza said. "The magic inside this bird must be very powerful."
Soon a bright white light appeared below the talons of the Ravenbird. It soon started to sink into the light. Azula glared at the bird, she felt she still felt she needed to beat it, and after her younger self egged her on… "You're not going to escape from me!" Azula ran right to the bird and she hung onto the feathers. The others were shocked at Azula's foolish and desperate actions.
"I'm going after her!" Erza ran to the sinking bird as well and despite both Zuko and Mira's protests, she wasn't going to let Azula put herself in even more danger again.
----The shaman began her chant. "Servant of the Shadow, I, Tabatha Blight summon... Morthutaka – The Aerial Menace!"
A colossal black and red magic seal appeared above the town. "And of course, the enemies just keep coming!" Kobu cried. The seal was releasing a blood-red light that shone down all over the town.
Everyone stopped to look at the seal. Even Hen and Cole who dogpiling on top of the large man they fought before.
The mayor saw the light from inside his office and he looked even more afraid of what he was looking at as the towering menace was going to arrive. Soon there was a bright light that shone underneath the magic seal, black bird-like talons were slowly falling through the magic seal.
"YES!" Tabatha yelled. "You will be put down by the Menace of the Sky. Morthutaka-" she stopped because as her creature was being summoned, she saw two other people falling down with her creature. "WHAT!? More interference!"
In the skies above Sky Town. Erza and Azula found themselves falling down into the town. Above them, was the large black bird they were fighting. "Oh, come-the-hell-on!" Azula yelled as she fell. Erza requipped into her Heaven's Wheel armor she looked to Azula who used her jet propulsion to fly to the top of a building. Azula noticed Chun and Kobu on the ground. "They are here too. Seriously, what is going on!?"
Everyone on the ground eyed the large bird and as soon as its head fell through the white light. It let out an angry screech. "I don't care about any interferences!" Tabatha yelled. "Morthutaka, destroy the emissaries of light! I Tabatha Blight, shaman of the Shadow's Hand, command you!"
She dodged a bright purple flame that was thrown at her. "Do you ever shut up?" Chun rhetorically asked.
"You should learn respect!" Saumus said. He charged forward to the five of them he was suddenly much faster, there were lines of shadow energy that followed him. Chun was right in the line, but she felt a hand touching her shoulder and she disappeared from view in a flash. When Saumus missed Chun. Kobu flung a thick blob of water to him, making him slide further back. He formed the water into a water sword with an icy grip and hilt.
"I'm embarrassed to say I picked this up from someone I currently despise," Kobu said as he looked at Saumus. "Let's go, creep!"
...
"..." the voice sounded like a faint whisper
"...keup..." it got only slightly louder
"Wa...p..."
"ake up..." the voice was more audible and the message was becoming clearer.
"WAKE UP!"
Chun's eyes shot open, the second she did she found herself floating in a mysterious purple space. Outlines of buildings were seen for brief seconds and white particles littered the space.
"Awake?" Aluria looked to Chun, the fire bender blinked just to figure out where she was.
"Yes... unless I'm dreaming..." she tried to balance herself but saw she was floating away uncontrollably. Aluria quickly grabbed her wrist.
"Personal Pocket dimension, careful."
"So this is where you disappear to?" she covered her mouth in shock after realizing she heard echoes of her own voice. "Cool, my voice echoes in here!"
"Hurry!" Aluria extended her other hand to make an exit portal. "Stay too long and you'll be absorbed by the dimension."
Chun noticed her hand was becoming wavy. "Gah! TAKE ME OUT OF HERE!" she comically shook Aluria who constantly kept her stoic face.
...
The two appeared back from the dimension in a flash and they saw Kobu sliding back. "Oh nice of you two to join us!" he swung his water-ice blade through the air several times, sending fastballs of water to Saumus who sliced them with his sword, but they turned to ice. This distraction allowed Kobu to get up close with what was left of his sword. He formed it into an ice dagger and impaled it in his chest.
Saumus screamed as he stepped back. Suddenly black skulls with ghastly tails were fired at them. They managed to dodge the attack as the skulls exploded around them. Tabatha smiled as her large bird destroyed a building behind her. "Morthutaka! Eliminate those pesky children!"
Before Morthutaka could take a step, lightning had struck the face of the bird.
"I've got a score to settle with that bird!" they all saw Azula and Kobu, of course, was the most shocked out of all of them.
"A-AZULA!? What the hell are you doing here!?"
"Right..." Chun said with a sigh. "She's part of our guild now," she answered while glaring at the Fire Lord.
"The vetting process for your guild is unsurprisingly low," he said.
"Relax, my quarrel is with that thing!" Azula said. "And none of you better get in my way."
"Head's up!" Saumus leaped into the air and was going to slash Azula who only just realized this.
"AZULA!" suddenly Wendy was rushing to her and vortexes of air were spinning around her arms. She pushed Azula, and the vortices on her arms pushed both herself and Azula far from each other. This did prevent Azula from being struck by Saumus.
Once Azula got up, she saw Saumus being fought by Kobu's Water whips and Chun's Fire whips. He was avoiding both of them.
"You let a weak child rescue you. How pathetic are you!?" Young Azula screamed inside Azula's mind.
"Don't listen to her, you were saved because she cares about you!" Ursa said trying to counter Azula's own poison thoughts.
"Stop it!" abandoning her own inner battle she looked up at Morthutaka and saw Tabatha petting it.
"Let us cause chaos together, Morthutaka!"
"She must have been the ringleader, so if she goes down, then so will this bird." Azula thought. She looked at Chun who was helping out Wendy. "You two, help me out. If we put down this witch, then we will weaken that bird."
"U-um..." Chun was torn between yelling at Azula and just silently complying.
"She is hesitating, show her who is in charge! You are the fire lord!"
"No 'um.' I'm your Fire Lord, you still answer to me. So, if I tell you something, you do it. Without question! Got it, whelp!?"
Chun's lips were quivering as a tear rolled down her face. All that rage she felt from earlier was building up. "...no..."
"Excuse me?!" Azula replied almost doubling back in shock. "What did you just say?"
"I... said... NO!" she angrily screamed as a wide circle of tremendous flames surrounded her, the flames made a pink glow around Chun. "You're not going to push me around anymore!"
"You dare take that tone with your fire lord?!"
"YOU'RE NOT FIRE LORD HERE!" Chun screamed. "I answer to Fairy Tail, not you or the Fire Nation! Not anymore! Now I have a job to do, so don't get in my way! And if you decide to backstab us and hurt any of my friends, there will be nothing to stop me from holding back against you."
Azula blinked in shock. "Little girl, is that a-"
A flash of lightning fired right past Azula's right eye, sparks trickled across her cheek, tickling her skin. "Yes! It is a threat!" her finger was smoking after she released the lightning. She ran to help Wendy to her feet.
The Fire Lord watched Kobu being thrown back by Saumus. "You plan on standing there and being useless?" He used the rest of his water from his water skin and made them surround his arms. Aluria had appeared out of a portal and swung her leg into Saumus' face.
"Me and Kobu fight Saumus." Aluria said.
Wendy, Azula, and Chun saw Morthutaka glaring at them. "Yes Morthutaka, destroy them!" a bright white slash had gone through Morthutaka's face. They all saw Erza landing beside them in her Heaven's Wheel Armor."
"Erza?" Chun and Wendy questioned.
"Greetings you two."
"I don't believe it." Tabatha breathed. "The legendary Titania? Here!?" she smirked. "Well then, I will go down in legend for bringing down the iron woman of Fairy Tail." She had purple energy surrounding her and she spread it out in a pulse and the pulse covered Morthutaka and he was screeching and he felt his power grow.
"Someone is going to have to take out the old woman, otherwise the bird will be unstoppable," Azula said.
Chun looked forward. "I'm still feeling Wendy's magic flowing through me. So I'll use it to beat that woman."
"Please." Azula scoffed at her. "You may be a prodigy, but you don't have the killer instinct."
"I don't need to kill anyone, that's not who I am. And I'll end this without having to go there, so just keep that bird away from me!"
"You can't give me orders!"
Chun shook her head. "Fine, do what you want, just don't get in my way!" she leaped in the air and she kicked a long, huge blast of fire down to Tabatha.
"Gah!" Tabatha backed away from the flames. "Morthutaka, stop the girl!"
Erza floated in front of the bird. "You shall do no such thing!" she had eight blades form a circle around her. "Circle Sword!" she flung the circle of eight blades which formed a bright ring of white energy, they extended to the bird and it was slashed by the energy ring.
Azula just stood on the ground. Her mind conflicted because while she wanted to stop Morthutaka, she didn't want to because Chun told her to. She watched Chun who continued to fight against Tabatha. "I will deal with you later." She thought.
She looked at Wendy. "I'd like to ask... for... ugh your help. First I need you to heal me, I took a nasty spell when I last fought that thing."
Wendy looked at Azula and gave her a serious nod.
...
Elsewhere in the city, the large man Hen and Cole were fighting was firing electric bolts from his magical machine gun. Cole and Hen were hiding behind a crumbling rock wall. "Hey buddy, this is taking too long, and the others may need our help," Cole said.
Hen smirked. "Right, its time we ended this!" Hen punched his own wall to pieces and two of the crumbling rocks hovered beside him. "You gotta distract him."
"One distraction coming up!" Cole ran off and hid. Hen had hurled a boulder. It crashed into the large man and he was nearly knocked off his feet.
"Over here ugly!"
The man was focused on Hen but felt a tap on his shoulder. When he predictably turned around Cole punched him, and he saw two of them. "Hey, buddy which one is which?"
The large man, powered his weapon and fired bolts at both of them and while one of them disappeared, Cole managed to dodge it. He then turned around but was horrified to see Hen with a large spinning disk of lava hovering above his head. Hen smirked as his hand was the closest thing to the lava disk. "Oh, you're looking at this? Yeah, I'd run if I were you! Too late!" he tossed the large lava disk and the man used his magic rifle to block it, but his disk passed right through the rifle and it rolled up his body.
The man collapsed to his back and there was a vertical burn stripe in the middle of his body, his eyes rolled to the back of his head.
"Wooo! That was awesome!"
"Yeah, but we gotta help my sister and the others."
Hen looked to the big man they defeated. "You go ahead, I've got an idea."
...
Azula was firing long blue blasts to Morthutaka who already had disappearing flames on his feathers. She stood on a building that was close to the hovering menace. "Is there anything else we can try?" she looked at Wendy who was hovering with the help of Carla. "You're the 'Sky Dragon Slayer' right? Surely you have magic that can take this thing down? Sure it's not a dragon but..."
"I... um..."
"You know what, forget I asked. I'm clearly asking the wrong dragon slayer." she shot lightning at the bird and it let out a loud scream. "Just heal us if we go down. That's all you're good for apparently." a frown appeared on Wendy's face, and while Azula felt a pang of regret for what she said. She put that to the back of her head when they watched the bird speeding towards them. Azula growled then fired a huge blast that partly covered the bird in flames, stopping its momentum.
Erza flew towards it in her black wing armor, she cut along its back with her black sword. It screamed, and she flew back up to survey her work.
Just as they thought they were making progress, a purple aura covered it, and suddenly its wounds were being healed. "Of course, it can heal itself."
"The only way we can beat it is to hurt it while its master is down," Erza said.
Azula sighed. "And that other useless girl is fighting her."
"Don't say that about her, she's trying her best!" Wendy said, trying to stick up for Chun.
Azula scoffed. "Yes, it looks like all she's doing it running away."
...
Chun meanwhile was avoiding blasts of dark energy. Tabatha was having trouble keeping up with her. "Stay still you brat!" Chun, however, moved out of the way from Tabatha's last attack. As Chun moved, she blasted a quick, fire jab to Tabatha, but she stretched her left hand and blocked it with a dark purple seal. "You cannot hit me while I am under the protection of the Shadows."
Chun kept that to the back of her mind. "I'm sorry, but I need to tire her out for my plan to work." She looked right up to three fighting off Morthutaka. "Please hold it off for a little while longer..." She avoided another attack as she leaped back
"You cannot hope to defeat me, little girl." Chun took a breath and ran forward, she slid and twirled around all the attacks that were thrown at her. She leaped forward and bright purple flames appeared in front of her right fist. She could feel the flames burning her but she threw a punch into Tabatha's cheek. There was a burn mark left on Tabatha's left cheek and she stepped back.
Chun tried to soothe her fist by covering it with her left hand. A pink aura was pulsing around Tabatha and the same aura pulsed around Morthutaka as well. Tabatha was panting.
"It worked!" Chun exclaimed.
"I'll give you that little girl, but you shall not get the best of me again!" she placed her hands on the ground. Two large black magic circles appeared to her sides. "Canis Trio – The Daemon Guard, and Ursa Minor – Child of the Stars, I Tabatha Blight Summon you!"
Out of the magic seals, two large figures floated through them as the seals shone white. A three-headed, muscular dog hovered out of one of them and from the other, a bear with stars on its fur.
Tabatha panted further. "Enjoy being torn apart, little girl."
They both took steps to her. It was Ursa Minor who leaped forward and spun in the air in order for his back to land on her. Chun quickly stepped to the side but she was smacked by the paw of Canis Trio. She stood up quickly and saw that Canis was going to charge into her with his heads. Chun shot off her flats before shooting up high using flame bursts from her bare feet. She leaped on and off Canis and gained more altitude. She eyed Ursa Minor and charged electricity in her fingers. She shot it to Ursa Minor and when he was hit the stars on his body shone brighter as he took damage.
She hit the ground but she noticed an attack from her peripheral and ducked under a dark flaming skull.
"You've got good instincts, and despite being powered by that dragon slayers' magic. You are adept at your abilities. Why don't you join the shadow?"
"What?"
"I saw it, that anger inside you. When Saumus tried possessing you. It almost worked if not for your friend." Chun was scared for a moment as she remembered when she nearly let her own negative thoughts take over her. "Why don't you embrace it, it is clearly eating you inside."
Chun clenched her fists. "It's true, I do harbor resentment for those that have treated me unfairly. But me acting on those terrible thoughts would only make me as bad as they are. Then... then I'll be no different from that monster, Azula."
"Don't you get it, there is a darkness inside you that's begging to be free. Putting it in a cage will only make it worse."
"Even so, I'd lose myself if I embraced it. And I'm never going to let that happen, I've seen what darkness does to people," she remembered what happened to Ping when she got her magic, and how she acted much worse when only her darker side came back from the Woodsea. "So I won't become a monster fuelled by hatred!" she quickly turned around and shot a powerful fire blast that exploded all over Ursa Minor. The Shadow beast was on fire and it roared in pain.
"Ugh..." Chun noticed that Tabatha looked like she was in pain. "The beasts are like super linked to you, aren't they?"
Tabatha kept her mouth shut. "Canis Trio shut that girl up! Let's see if she likes being engulfed by fire!" Canis Trio opened up his mouthes and he fired an all-engulfing fire that looked to completely drown Chun in fire. "Hahaha! That is what you get, child!"
Wendy looked down to see this and was immediately scared of what happened. "CHUN! NO!" She was completely covered by fire, and the glow was so bright that it reached all those in the sky. Wendy looked like she wanted to cry, but suddenly the fiery glow started to change color and they turned pink before they changed again. The dancing flames had changed to a vibrant bright purple.
"IMPOSSIBLE!" the flames started to shrink somehow, Chun was right in the center and the flames were being compressed into a small orb of fire that Chun had made in between her hands. She was sweating as it required so much concentration. All of Canis' flames were compressed and Chun looked up and an idea formed in her head.
"As Hen would say: 'It's only stupid if it fails!'" She thought as she shot flames from her feet and looked to be flying up to Morthutaka while carrying the compressed flame. "MAKE WAY!" she yelled as she flew past Erza, Carla and Wendy. Azula only looked on in confusion. Chun was getting closer and Morthutaka opened its mouth as it let out a loud caw. "Here's my cue!" She threw the compressed ball of fire into the mouth of Morthutaka. "Bullseye!" As the flame was released there were sounds of fireworks being heard and the eyes of the beast grew wide.
Suddenly Morthutaka's head grew and there was a tremendous explosion of pink and purple fire. Fireworks of the same color littered the sky for a second because it mixed with the Shadow magic of the beast. The head of Morthutaka was blown into ashes, as a result, Morthutaka's body was falling while turning to ash.
...
Hen watched the sky as the pink and purple fireworks were fading. "Man... Chun, you're so awesome!" he thought.
...
"NO!" Tabatha yelled as black lightning surrounded her.
Chun landed on the ground and fell to her knees. "I... am... pooped." she fell to her back and was panting. "Wait till brother hears about this..." Wendy and Carla were looking down at her.
"Chun!?"
She chuckled. "I'm alright... extremely tired, but alright."
Right about the same time, Kobu was thrown towards them, and so was Aluria. "Kobu!" Wendy yelled.
"This guy is too tough," Kobu said. He looked to Chun. "I saw what you did, it was stupid and reckless."
The girl smiled in response. "That's kind of what I was going for..."
"Still... you... did a good job."
Chun smiled. "Thanks, Kobu, that means a lot-" her head leaned down as she fell into unconsciousness.
Tabatha was angrily panting while black lightning still surrounded her. Saumus walked to her side. "Calm yourself, Tabatha, their fire battler is down. Without their most creative fighter. They don't stand a chance.
Before he could speak any further. Erza had landed on the ground. "Are you the ones causing all this?"
Saumus scoffed. "Titania..." he tightly held his sword. "I will be glad to etch my name in history as I will be the one to bring you down-" suddenly a bolt of lightning struck Saumus and he fell to a knee. He spotted Azula walking to join the others.
"I want to get this over with quickly! That bird was supposed to be mine!" Azula said with a growl.
Saumus walked forward. "Even though you outnumber us, we still have the power of the Shadow to aid us…" a large shadow suddenly covered them and their view of the sky was suddenly eclipsed.
"BOMBS AWAY!" the large man that both Cole and Hen were fighting was suddenly flying down towards Saumus, Tabatha and her creatures.
"Ursa Minor, catch that buffoon!" the large bear caught the man and threw him over to his right. "Who did that?"
Aluria's eyebrows lowered slightly. "Even I can predict the exact person."
Cole suddenly arrived. "Alright, I'm back what did I miss? Holy crap is that Erza Scarlet?!" he exclaimed.
"ENOUGH!" Saumus yelled. "You people will hold us back no longer, all of you will perish. You will be a blood sacrifice to the Shadow!"
"Nah, not interested!" a wave of lava was suddenly launched from their right side. They both ran to escape. When the wave crashed, only the beasts were affected. Hen appeared on the scene. "Now we… Oh, Erza you're here." He noticed Azula. "And I see you brought the Devil's favorite with you!" he said with a smile.
"One more… One more remark like that from you and I swear!"
Hen chuckled. "Chill, I'm just messing around, you know having fun."
"How can you have fun in the middle of a battle!?"
Kobu walked forward. "As much as I hate to agree with her, she's right. We need to end this now."
"Agreed," Erza said.
Hen looked at Aluria. "How many of those portal things can you make?"
"One at any given moment." He suddenly dodged a flaming skull.
Hen looked at Chun. "And how is she doing?"
"She's just asleep," Carla said. "But you saw she defeated that giant bird, so those things aren't invincible."
"Wendy, stay with Chun. You protect her in case these guys get any ideas. The rest of us will clean house. And Erza could you do me the favor of beating that crazy guy with the sword and spear."
"This isn't my request; however the least I can do is purge this evil where it stands." Still, in her black wing armor, she summoned a single blade to deal with Saumus.
"Come at me!" but he didn't need to ask as Erza was speeding towards him already. "Help me, o Shadow." He was surrounded by black mist and his eyes shone red. The sword was covered by black energy. He blocked Erza's strike and forced her back. Before Saumus could move he deflected a blue disk of fire that was thrown to him by Azula.
"This isn't me helping you, this is me wanted to get this done as quickly as possible," Azula assured. This brought a smile to Erza's face, even though Azula insisted she wasn't doing to help her.
Only, Kobu, Hen Aluria, and Cole were left to deal with Tabatha and her two beasts. "Heh, you four won't be a match, not when I summon another Shadow beast." Before she could begin her chant, water covered her mouth and it quickly froze into ice.
"We've seen your casting enough times to figure out how it works, can't speak, can't chant!" Aluria flashed behind Tabatha and threw her knee into her back which forced her to the ground.
She muffled behind the ice and the huge Ursa Minor had towered over Aluria, but before it could strike, a large boulder was launched into it. "Hey, big bear. Over here!" the stars shone brighter on its fur and suddenly blasts of white energy flew in all directions. Kobu and Hen made walls of their solid elements that protected them while Aluria touched Cole's shoulder and disappeared into thin air in a bright flash.
Once the bright flashes ceased, Hen chipped off parts of his rock wall and he made his spinning lava star. Alright dog, you know how this works. You're gonna fetch the large disk alright?" but Canis Trio looked very uninterested and fired a stream of fire that looked to cover Hen.
When the flames dispersed he was gone. Tabatha laughed. "Now that your friend is nothing but ash…" Suddenly rock cuffs were shot to her hands and she was thrown to the nearest wall, where they kept her contained." Hen was seen standing in front of a portal.
"Thanks for the save, portal girl."
"My name is Aluria." She simply said.
Hen lifted a couple of rocks and made a large lava star. "Now let's end this!" it spun like a buzz saw and he flung it towards Tabatha.
The old lady's eyes grew wide while her pupils shrunk, when she closed her eyes, she heard what sounded like a slashing sound, but noticed that she was still ok, but she felt her magical power draining. Black electric bolts surrounded her. She saw that Canis Trio had lost the central head and the part where the head was sliced off had ashes leaking off it.
"You didn't think I'd slice you, who am I, Azula?"
"I heard that!"
"Wasn't trying to hide it!" he yelled to an obviously furious Azula. "Anyway." Suddenly Aluria appeared in front of the constricted Tabatha. She roughly elbowed her stomach which was enough to make the old woman double over in pain. "Ouch. Well, we'll deal with her, hey Kobu!"
Hen noticed Kobu rolling away from a paw that slammed into the ground as he was still dealing with Ursa Minor. "Yes!"
"The old lady is down, so we should end this!" he could see that the Ursa Minor had ashes surrounding its body due to Tabatha being unconscious.
"Alright!" he then made his icy hilt and a hairline thin blade of high-pressure water was made. He saw Ursa Minor throwing a bear paw at him, but Kobu slashed through it and the left paw of Ursa Minor hit the ground and turned to ashes.
"Whoa…" Hen gasped. "That water sword thing really works!?"
"Yes, when water is used at a high enough pressure. It can cut through anything. But it requires a lot of concentration, so I can't exactly go swinging it aro-" the Ursa Minor roared and Kobu turned around and he stuck his water sword into the chest and it painfully roared again as the chest area was turning to ash.
Kobu let his sword turn to water and saw Aluria exited out of a portal and was on top of the ailing Ursa Minor. "Something sharp, please!?" Kobu used the water from his water skin to form a sharp blob made of water and as he flung it to Aluria, it turned to a long, sharp ice shard. She caught it and she stuck it into the head of Ursa Minor. One last angered roar was all the creature could let out as it was turning to ash.
The last beast was Canis Trio (maybe Duo now) and he was shooting fire at Cole who kept disappearing and reappearing. Cole whistled and he waved to the beast. "Hey, over here ya mutt!" The then dual-headed demon dog ran to Cole but the ground underneath his running body was cracking and there was a red glow from underneath. Suddenly a sharp spike made of quick-dried molten rock had forced itself through the stomach of Canis Trio. The spike had red cracks on it too. A whimper escaped from Canis.
"Oof I felt that one." Hen said. Both he and Cole watched the beast turn into ash.
"Let me go!" they heard Tabatha yell. "I will not allow myself to be bested by children!"
Kobu sighed as he stood there with Aluria. "Well, do we put her out of her misery?"
Aluria shrugged her shoulders, Hen and Cole walked onto the scene. "I believe we should leave that to the Mayor guy." Hen suggested.
"Isn't there one more we have to deal with?" Cole asked.
"Right, the other guy."
...
Speaking of Saumus, Azula continued to barrage him with bolts of lightning which he had to keep blocking with his sword. He then screamed as he tried to extend his shadow aura. But as he did there were black cracks along his skin and before long there was a pulse explosion of black energy.
Saumus had black cracks along his skin and he dropped his sword as it had shattered. Meaning all he had left was his spear. He quickly equipped it. "Where is Tabatha?"
"I'd worry more about you." she blasted a sharp jab of fire to him, once he avoided it, she followed up by launching herself into the air. And while airborne, long thick whips of fire extended from her arms as she fell back down to Saumus. She made them explode on the ground close to him which made his fly backward.
He got back up and glared at Azula, he spun his spear and swung it down on Azula who was able to avoid it. Once the strike was avoided, he could see Erza flying to him. He pulled he spear from the dirt and prepared to strike Erza but a wall of blue fire blocked his vision. This distracted him enough for Erza to fly right through the fire and cut right through his spear with her sword.
A gasp escaped Saumus' lips and he fell to his knees in defeat. Azula walked closer to him and she had electricity surrounding the tips of her fingers. She wordlessly aimed her fingers at him.
"DO IT! He is an enemy, and all enemies but be eradicated!" Azula's younger self goaded.
"Azula, deep down, that isn't who you are. You are better than this, better than Ozai could ever hope to be."
"Will... you... two... SHUT UP!" she screamed while she fired her lightning into the air.
She was panting and just hoped that both voices would just leave her head. "Azula?" she looked at Erza who was starting to Saumus' wrists together. "Is everything alright."
Azula turned away from the red-haired mage. "Just leave me alone." she left Erza alone to deal with Saumus. But with this, the battle had finally concluded.
----"Ugh..." the moment Chun started opening her eyes, her vision was greeted with artificial lights. She heard talking and noticed they were back in Kobu's apartment, minus Azula and Erza. "Ow... that was some crazy dream..."
"Chun, you're awake!" Wendy said noticing her friend arising from her slumber.
"Yeah, why are we back in Kobu's place?" she sleepily asked while sitting up.
"We're recovering from the fallout from the battle with the Shadow's Hand."
Chun's skin became slightly pale. "Oh wow, t-that really happened... I blew up a shadow bird and gave Azula a lightning warning shot?" she asked while nervously sweating.
Hen kneeled beside her bed. "Yep, and you were awesome!"
She blushed before looking away. "Oh wow... guess... now that I think about it... I am stronger than I thought."
Hen chuckled. "Yep, people could even see your pink fireworks from outside the town."
"Oh, stop already," she said with a giggle
"Are you two done?" Kobu said looking at them with folded arms. "We should get back to the mayor's office."
"Right... so what is left to do?" Chun asked as she slowly rose to her feet.
"We debrief the mayor, collect the payment. Then go our separate ways." Kobu said.
"Yep, we don't linger for too long," Cole said. "I like this guy."
"Wait... where are Erza and Azula?" Chun asked.
Hen was the one to reply to her question. "Well they are still in town, but since this was our job, they are just standing by Appa."
"I suppose we're going to head back with them..." Chun looked ahead with slight fear.
"You know we can take her right?"
"I guess, I just hope it doesn't come to that."
Wendy soon stepped forward. "I-I'm sure she won't start anything. Not if Erza is there to watch her."
"Yeah, you're probably right Wendy."
The sound of a portal being made was heard. They saw Aluria standing in front of it. "Shall we?" she asked.
"About time," Kobu said.
...
"THANK YOU SO MUCH!" The mayor was rapidly shaking both Wendy and Chun's hands. Kobu watched this with a tired expression.
"U-um you're welcome..." they both nervously said.
"So, what happens now on?" Carla asked.
The mayor smiled. "What do you mean? We bring back the citizens and go on as normal, little cat."
Kobu shook his head. "You can do that, or you can have defenses in place just in case there is another attack. Their leader may have been captured, but unfortunately, that Tabatha woman escaped somehow." he glanced at Hen.
"H-hey, I thought she was properly restrained."
The water bender sighed. "Well if there is nothing else to discuss, I'd like to take my payment and leave."
A portal was made and Aluria and Cole stood beside it. "And that's our cue," Cole said.
"You're leaving already?" Chun asked.
"Can't stay in the same place for so long," he said.
Aluria bowed in front of all of them. "We apologize for all the trouble we've caused."
The mayor gave them a serious look. "Well, you did prevent the town from being taken over by the Shadow's Hand. And the issue wouldn't have been brought to us if it wasn't for you. But you still contributed to the problem. So I'll give you a 30-minute head start."
"That's all we'll need!" Cole said.
"We should thank you for your help," Aluria said to the others in their group.
Hen winked. "Think nothin' of it. Just down' what's right."
"We hope to see you again," Wendy said.
"Don't count on it, little dragon slayer," Cole said. "But we've got to go, but who knows we might meet again. Let's hope it's not on opposite sides."
"Goodbye," Aluria said as she leaped into the portal. Cole gave a two-fingered salute and leaped into it as well.
Kobu shook his head. "Well looks like that is done. And with that, my work is done too." he looked at the Mayor. "So, about my payment..."
"Right." the mayor handed Kobu's sack of jewel and he turned to the door of the office. "I'm leaving, goodbye."
"Wait!" Chun said grabbing his free wrist.
Kobu closed his eyes before letting out a sigh. "We've talked about this. I am not going to join your guild. Clearly, I'm not as likable as you and Hen."
"Fine, if you won't come with us. At least find another guild to join, because you being alone isn't good for you."
"I've been fine for this long haven't I? I've been solo ever since after the Fire Nation attacked the Northern Water Tribe."
"But you're not fine!" Chun said.
"Tch, apparently you know me better than I do."
Chun let go of his wrist. "That's not what I'm saying at all, Kobu. What I'm saying is..."
"You need someone watching your back, doofus." Hen said. "Chun has a point; sure, you can handle things on your own well, but what happens when you can't. You'll wish you had someone watching your back then."
"Look Kobu, being alone will eat at you. You need to give yourself a break and realize you're more worthy of companionship than you realize. And with what you told me before, I think you joining a guild will be good for you. It will keep you out of your own head for a while."
He looked down and he looked like he was feeling guilty. Guilty for a lot of the things going on around him that he felt he caused. "Fine... I'll start looking. You know, while dodging the magic council at the same time."
Chun took both his hands and looked at him with a happy smile. "That's great! Please write to me when you find one."
Kobu quickly took his hands back. "I-I'm not good with... physical contact either. But yes, if I find one, then I'll write to you. But until then, you can stop worrying about me. I can take care of myself."
Chun giggled. "Deal."
Kobu opened the door and proceeded to leave them, but not before some last words. "And… I should also apologize for being so tough on you. It wasn't warranted. Not all of the Fire Nation is as bad as I first thought... I'd say you're the best among them."
"My, my. Kobu apologizing for a wrong? Who are you and what have you done with him?" Hen asked.
"You're right," Kobu answered with a playful smirk. "I'm a spirit from the spirit world and I've possessed his body to interact with this world."
"And he's got jokes too... should I be scared?"
"Not if you don't annoy me."
"And there he is." Hen said. "But on a serious note, try to tone down that, 'forever annoyed' face of yours. And try not to get yourself killed. Chun and I won't be there to dig you out of the next hole you find yourself in."
Kobu did chuckle and he turned away from the pair. "I'm not really good at goodbyes... but I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't miss this."
"Aww." Chun cooed.
"And that's my cue to leave..." he walked through the open doors. "And one more thing, Chun, Hen. I don't know who or what possessed your guild master to let Azula become a member. But watch your back, that girl is unhinged and looks like she can snap, without moment's notice."
Chun's face became serious. "I'll keep that in mind... thanks for the warning Kobu."
"Don't mention it, I don't want to lose anyone any-" he cut himself off. "Now I that's really my cue to leave." he sped walked through the halls to be by himself.
"Uh... what was that all about?" Hen asked.
"Well... we should let him tell us. I think we pushed him enough as it is." Chun said with a chuckle. "But I think he'll be fine."
"As long as he doesn't turn into 'Water-Tribe Dictator' again. Then maybe he will be ok." Hen then looked down for a moment, almost as if he had something on his mind. "So, this is just me being curious, but you don't like Kobu do you?"
Chun jumped in shock at the question. "What? No." she even giggled at the thought. "What would make you think that?"
The earth bender blushed and immediately turned away. "U-um no reason. I just don't think you two would be a good fit is all."
Chun tilted her head in slight confusion. "Hen, are you ok? Did you hit your head or something? This isn't like you."
He awkwardly chuckled. "Oh I'm more than ok!" he then grabbed her and started playfully ruffling her hair. "I need a rock to hit my head just for me to care about you?"
"Haha, ok! Ok!" Chun laughed. "I get it, let go of me!"
Carla walked to the pair. "Are you done, because we should probably collect our earnings."
"Right I almost forgot," Chun said. Both girls walked back into the mayor's office. "Hen, are you coming?"
He shook his head several times and looked at them. "Y-yeah." "I really am a rock for brains…" he thought.
----As the others were getting their pay, Erza was waiting by Appa and was feeding him. She even received a lick from the Bison. She heard footsteps and saw Azula walking to her. "Azula... how are you feeling?"
"You don't want to know." she angrily seethed. "I just want to get out of here." as she talked, Appa was slowly backing away from her. "What are you looking at!?" she yelled to the bison. Appa turned away. "That's what I thought, you dumb animal."
"What is your problem?" Erza asked, raising her voice.
Azula angrily raised her arms and paced around. "Oh, my problem?! Haha! Where do I start!" she began to walk in circles, and as she spoke, she listed her problems by counting on her fingers. "How about my mission to capture the Avatar. What do I tell father when I return? I bet he will be happy to hear I've become part of the same guild as him! Or how about how I've failed in my duties as the new Fire Lord. I don't even want to go into how much Natsu makes me seethe with rage because of how I lost to him. Or, do you want to hear about how my own mother neglected me!"
"Your mother?" Erza asked.
"She loved Zuko much more than me, thought I was a monster. She hoped for my downfall!" her pupils shrunk as she pointed to her head. "She's in my head Erza... Telling me about how she loves me and sending these mixed messages." tears fell from her eyes. "I don't know how to deal with it. She tells me to be nice and stuff but that goes against everything I ever grew up with." Erza stepped forward to hug her, but Azula pushed her away. "NO! I can't Erza... I'm not ready for this! I'll come with back to the guild but no offense, I can't talk to any of you right now." she climbed up on Appa who was nervous when she sat on his pack. "I am not going to hurt you, bison!" she sat right at the back and folded her arms. "I won't move from this spot until we reach the guild."
Erza gave Azula a sad look as she continued to wonder how she could get Azula to communicate better with everyone else. But it even looked like she had her own inner turmoil to deal with. "She is changing, but she fears what will happen if she allows herself to fully become one with Fairy Tail. What should I do, Ursa?"
As Azula sat on Appa she had angry thoughts in her head. "That little brat has not only stood up to me but also she took my mark away from me." She remembered when Chun had been the one to slay Morthutaka when it was Azula's job to do so. "This ends now. I will show her how her, exactly why she should never get in my way."
----