Invasion of the Fire Nation Part 2

A flame was charging in between Jiahao's hands and the five firebenders followed suit, mimicking his attack. "So, a traitor to the end... NOW!" they all fired their charged fire attacks, six streams of fire to sped to Mai, Levy, Jet, and Droy. Levy pointed two fingers in front of her and she used them to draw in the air. "Solid Script: Water!" Levy swung her right arm and a mass of water that spelled the word 'WATER' clashed with the streams of fire, creating a small steam cloud.
Jiahao's growl could be heard from within the clearing steam cloud. "Spread out! We outnumber them! We can't lose, not when we're this close!"
"You'll need more than numbers to beat us!" Jet confidently yelled as he ran towards two firebenders at such a speed that he became a blur to them. He immediately beat them back and slid to a stop.
"I've had enough of this!" Jiahao yelled before he could shoot a quick, fire blast to Jet, his hand was hit by one of Mai's stilettos. "Stop interfering!" he turned his attention to Mai, and he saw Levy standing next to her. "I will fight off these two, the rest of you hurry up and deal with the men!"
"Yes General!" They all said in unison.
Droy threw out his seeds and they sunk into the ground. "Knuckle Plant!" long, thick green vines shot out and they formed fists and tried to hit the three remaining firebenders who were still on their feet. One of them had made two long fire whips and he lashed through the fisted plants with them.
"Is that the best you got? Fire will burn through your pathetic plants." One of them bragged. Droy stepped back fearfully, as all three of the firebenders had formed flame whips and slowly approached Droy
"Hang on Droy!" Jet yelled as he turned around and sped to the three firebenders. However, he tripped to his feet and he rolled on the ground and he slid towards Droy. He found that his feet were bound with heavy bolas. "Crap!" He saw one of the firebenders he clashed with earlier with a bola in his hand.
"Can't do much when your feet are tied up, huh?"
The five firebenders each shot long blasts of fire. Droy had instantly tossed his seeds into the ground and thick vines grew out of the ground and they even grew around the firebenders, binding them in thick vines. Their fiery attacks were blocked by the vines.
"Haha, nice one Droy." Jet said with a laugh.
"Everyone, burn down these weeds!" they all place their hands on the weeds and were burning them from the inside and they blackened into ashes and they were free from their trap. "We'll burn down those magic seeds before you have a chance to sprout them, magic weakling!" Jet was still trying to get out from the bolas tied around his ankles. The lead firebender had flame daggers on the sides of his fist. "It's time you learned your lesson." He ran towards the two, but suddenly a large figure had stepped in front of the lead firebender and he gave him a hard palm to the stomach. He was then grabbed by the arm and thrown over the figure to the ground.
Jet and Droy were glad to see that their savior was Iroh and he looked at the four remaining firebenders with a serious expression. His open palm was held in front of him while his right fist was poised to strike.
"Iroh!" Droy yelled.
"Glad you came to save us, old timer." Jet said.
Iroh chuckled. "I figured Makarov would need some help, glad I came when I did." He looked to downed firebender, then to the remaining four. "Trust me, when I say this. You do not want to fight me." The firebenders were then shivering at the prospect of facing Iroh, even in a four against one.
"T-that's Iroh…"
"D-dragon of the west…"
"I'm sure you can call off your general and we can discuss this over a cup of tea." Iroh offered.
One of the Firebenders comically pointed forward. "He's just a soft old man now! Get him!" all four charged to Iroh.
Iroh gave a long sigh and he looked forward, still in his stance. "Fair enough, but I did warn you!" he discharged a large ball of fire that caused all the Firebenders to disperse. Once they separated, he then could focus on the one that was immediately attacking him. He ran and grabbed his arm and aimed it skyward so the stream of fire wouldn't hit him. From his peripheral, he noticed two of the four firebenders speeding to him. So he squeezed his grip around the first firebender. He lifted him off his feet and threw him to right to the other two charging firebenders. He crashed into them leaving the three of them sprawled on the ground.
The last firebender stopped in his tracks and Iroh was looking at him while in a firebending stance.
"S-SCREW THIS!" the firebender yelled and he ran off and away from Fairy Tail, thinking he couldn't beat Iroh all by himself.
"I don't believe it, he beat them without magic." Jet said finally getting out from his bola trap.
Iroh chuckled. "You could have beaten them too. You were just in a rough situation." He looked forward and he heard the sounds of explosions and magic spells being cast. "Besides I'd rather be here to defend the guild, should the worst happen."
…
Jiahao meanwhile was shooting flames from his fists and Mai was expertly dodging them, while his attention was momentarily taken off of Levy. "Solid Script: Fire!" Levy extended her right arm with her pointing fingers stretched. The word 'FIRE' appeared in the form of bright orange fire and the fiery word sped to him. Jiahou saw this in his peripheral and he was quick to manipulate the flames to move around him.
"That's the extent of your 'magic'? You're nothing but a lousy pretender!" he aimed the flames she made back to her in the form of two exploding fireballs. Mai quickly ran in front of Levy, roughly grabbed her wrist and took the two of them away from the fire orbs which exploded into the ground.
"Don't be stupid." Mai said. "Unless you can control fire as well as he can, you won't beat him in a fire duel."
"Right you are, so I struggle to see how the two of you are going to defeat me? A fire nation General no less!" Jiahou said.
Mai had a throwing knife in between her fingers. "You sure do talk a lot, don't you. It's getting on my nerves."
"Please, conquering you useless Fairies will look good on my record, so I'm not going home empty handed. Once Fairy Tail is conquered, this world will know how great the Fire Nation truly is."
"Alright, Levy. We're going to beat this guy if anything we just have to shut him up."
"How?"
Mai smirked. "He's arrogant and he already thinks he has us beaten." They both saw a fireball speeding to them and Mai quickly forced Levy down as it veered over their heads. "But I can't fight him and protect you at the same time. So you've got to help me."
"Do you have a plan?"
"He may be a powerful bender, but he's still a bender, so he needs his hands and feet to pull off those moves. If I can pin him down, then he's done." They saw another fireball heading to them.
"Solid Script: Guard!" Levy spelled the word 'GUARD' and appeared in the form of bronze that somehow blocked the explosive force of the fireball.
"Not bad. Okay here is what we'll do." Mai started to whisper in Levy's ear.
Jiahao ran towards the girls and the two of them split off, he then looked to Levy, seeing her as the weaker target. He had shot his fist towards Levy, forcing a long stream of fire towards her. Levy's pointing fingers were glowing as she looked to be preparing another Solid Script spell, but Iroh had stepped in front of her and he managed to easily block Jiahao's flames, making them fizzle out as they reached him.
"Well, I'd have to see it to believe it. But the former General Iroh too? What would your brother say!?" Jiahao said.
"I'd rather not hear my brother's opinion on the matter, but I'll only warn you once, withdraw your forces and surrender."
Jiahao laughed. "As if I'd listen to a washed up, tea-obsessed weakling like you, not only do I get to be involved in the destruction of Fairy Tail, but I get to take down a former General turned traitor!"
"Careful not to let that pride go all the way to your head, and trust me… you'd much rather deal with me than Makarov." Iroh warned.
A knife had veered past Jiahou's cheek and it was drawing blood. "Speaking of the tiny old man, why can't he just use Fairy Law and end this?" Mai asked.
"You want the Master to resort to that?" Levy in slight disbelief.
"Fairy Law?" Jiahao asked. "Let me guess, it's some kind of spell or something that can be used as a last resort?" he condescendingly asked.
Iroh sighed. "From what I heard, yes it is exactly that and you don't want to be on the wrong end of that spell, General. As we speak, Master Makarov is inside and if for any reason, he feels that the threat has escalated, I can guarantee you, he won't hesitate to use that spell and when he does, the Fire Nation's invasion will be over."
Jiahao asked with a chuckle. "Is that supposed to be a threat? I never thought you would try to deter me from attacking, but even if you say that you can't stop me and you sure as hell can't stop Azula."
"Think about this, you have no idea what you are dealing with, and you aren't in our world anymore. No matter what happens the Fire Nation won't win, not here."
Jiahao had his fists clenched, "That's easy for you to say when you've got five against one." He said, noting that Iroh, Jet, Droy, and Levy stood in front of him, while Mai was behind him. "So how about this, a challenge to this so-called 'Master of Fairy Tail'?" Jiahao said.
Team Shadow Gear and Mai had gasped as they couldn't believe what he was saying. "You want to take on our Master?" Levy asked with wide eyes.
"Is this guy out of his mind?" Droy asked.
Jiahao looked behind him and saw the Fairy Tail guild with their doors closed. "Do you hear me, Makarov!?" He yelled. "Let's end this right now, you and me, leave the bystanders out of this!"
Makarov from inside the guild was sitting on the bar counter and he had his eyes closed, they slowly opened into a fierce glare after hearing Jiahou's taunting.
"I'll deal with him, Makarov." Thor declared. The god of thunder opened the doors and flew out of the guild to confront Jiahou.
…
In the skies above Magnolia, the sound of metal clashing against each other was heard. Erza and Ping were involved in a huge aerial dual in which Ping was leaping from building to building while Erza flew, using her Heaven's Wheel Armor.
They both clashed as Erza was surrounded by bright white energy and Ping was surrounded by dark purple energy. After their swords clashed they both separated and landed on separate rooftops and they glared at each other. Ping's glare turned into a smirk. "Ha, I'd hope that isn't the best the powerful Titania can offer? Cause if it is, then I have to say I'm disappointed."
Erza thought about attacking her head on but as soon as she jumped but when she saw what looked like two Pings holding the wings of her armor while she stood trying to lift off. "What?!" when she looked in front of her she saw the original Ping speed towards her from the other building, her blade was glowing bright red.
"I got you, Chaos Slash!" She cut right through Erza with her glowing red illusion blade and the wings, as well as the armor plating on Erza's long skirt, had shattered like glass, Erza let out a pained scream. Ping slid on her feet and turned around with a smirk. "Ready to give up and accept defeat, huh?"
She watched Erza turn around and noted her broken sword. She tossed it aside and a bright gold light surrounded her. Erza was then covered in her Black Wing Armor. "If you think that is what it takes to defeat me? Then you have no idea who I am. You directly attacked, Fairy Tail and attempted to assassinate our friends, and you stand there and feel nothing. I can never forgive you for such vile acts."
"Blah, blah, blah… are you done…? 'I'm going to fight for my friends.'." she said in a mocking tone. "That is so… childish!" she prepared a graviton orb in front of her. "All that sentimental crap means nothing to me, so just shut up and fight me!" when she fired her Graviton orb, she was very surprised to see that Erza had slashed right through it, making them explode in two different places in the sky.
Erza said nothing as she shot towards Ping with a yell. "You won't beat me!" Dark Ping yelled as both of their swords clashed with each other and black and white energy was leaking off of them. Erza backed off and used her draconic-like wings to shoot upwards. Ping watched her fly up and immediately hatched a plan. "You can't hide in the sky forever, Piercing Graviton!" in front of a dark purple magic circle, dark red energy bullets were fired into the sky, creating a smoke cloud as the magic bullets pelted Erza. Though the smoke quickly cleared, as Erza's wings cleared the smoke and she had a second sword in her hand as she flew down towards Ping.
"Oh crap!" a second Ping appeared beside her and they both leaped and met Erza in the air. Their swords clashed, but both Pings were sent crashing down to a roof. The Shadow Twin disappeared and Erza landed on the roof, her eyes fully locked on Ping. The dark swordswoman got back up to her feet and she held her illusion blades tight. "I've always lost to your pathetic guild! I'm making sure that ends now!" explosive purple energy surged around her. In her angered state she charged to Erza, continuing the fight.
----Elsewhere in the skies, Sokka was flying Appa and Elfman was riding with him. They watched as a line of Fire Nation catapults were firing huge boulders of fire into the city. Sokka directed Elfman to look down. "You see those, Elfman."
"Yeah, I see em. What are we gonna do about them?"
"I've got a plan for that."
On the ground, a, one of the Fire Nation soldiers lit an oiled boulder on fire and when the catapult was about to be fired, they heard a roar, and when looking up they saw Elfman falling down towards them while performing a full body take over. "Take Over: Beast Soul!" he crashed right into the farthest left catapult, instantly destroying it. The flames from the boulder engulfed him, but he roared as they covered him, giving him a much more monstrous, frightening appearance.
"W-what the heck is that!?" One of the soldiers asked while comically shaking after hearing the explosion.
"Who cares, just get it!" One of the older, bearded soldiers said. "He shot a flurry of fireballs to Elfman who let out a very angry roar.
Because of Elfman's distraction, all the guards and personnel which totaled to about 8 people were trying to stop him. Elfman fell onto the farthest end of the catapults meaning that the rest of the catapults were left unattended. Sokka had landed Appa on the other side of the catapult line and after jumping off, he, one by one, snuck bright blue lacrima bombs onto the catapults. All this was happening while Elfman was throwing Fire Nation personnel away from him. The lacrima bombs had fuses on them and said fuses were already lit so he didn't have time to hang around.
One of the firebenders spotted him when Sokka had gotten to the last catapult. "Hey, what do you think you're doing!?" Sokka rolled under a fireball and he managed to slice the soldier's belt, forcing his pants to fall, revealing his white, pink polka dotted boxers. He comically tried to cover up and Sokka ran past him to the last one.
Once he reached the catapult, close to the one Elfman smashed, he quickly planted the last bomb and he charged his sword and he aimed it to the last Fire Nation guards who stood up to Elfman. A light beam had crashed into them forcing them away. "Elfman, time to go!" Elfman transformed back to his normal form and he saw Appa flying back to him and Sokka. Appa ran over two more guards. Sokka ran up Appa's tail while Elfman easily leaped back onto his back. "Appa, yip, yip!" Sokka whipped the reins and Appa slammed his tail on the ground and he levitated and he flew away from the spot.
A couple of the guards were getting up. "What was that about?" he asked rubbing his head. Their confusion was even more prevalent when they saw the catapults exploding one by one. "OH NO!" they immediately retreated after hearing the explosions. Immediately the firebenders were absorbing the flames in an attempt to keep the fires under controls. The guard looked up and saw Sokka sticking out his tongue and pulling down his right eyelid. Elfman only had a knowing smirk. "Fire Lord Azula will not be happy." The guard groaned.
----Elsewhere, closer to the guild, Katara was being beaten back by a rough water bullet from Kobu. She slid almost falling to her knee. "Even if I lose, you can't beat all of us!" Katara exclaimed.
"You don't think I know that?" Kobu said. "But this is personal!" he broke his large water bullet into long ice javelins and he flung them to her. Katara gasped and she quickly made all her water make a frozen wave in front of her. "I don't think so!" he used more of his water and he fused them with his ice javelins to make a powerful water drill with an icicle tip. The drill exploded in the frozen shield Katara made and it exploded out into huge ice shards.
She fell back and she saw Kobu looking down at her, he formed a very thin ice disk. "I expected better from you. This guild has made you weak. While you were having a good time, I've been training, trying to match up to these wizards!"
Katara slowly got back up. "You're wrong Kobu, Fairy Tail hasn't made me weak! It's just the opposite, there are so many wonderful people here. We treat each other like family!" He slapped her with a water whip and it left a red mark on her cheek.
"Family? Hehe, you're going to talk to me about family!? Well maybe once I take out the Avatar, then you'll know a shred of how I feel!"
He generated a water whip towards Katara, but as it got close to her, she made it split off into different directions.
"What are you talking about!?"
"Shut up, I've officially had enough of you!" all the spilled water on the ground suddenly shot up and Kobu was bringing it all to him, he made a long, thick water whip crash into Katara and she was frozen to a wall. With her arms restricted, she couldn't move. Kobu was taking deep breaths. "Now you stay there like a good girl, so I can take care of business." Out of the corner of his eye, a tremendous wave of water had crashed into him and he was swept away into a brick wall. "Seriously, what the hell!"
"I got him Gray-sama." Juvia's voice was heard and he saw the water mage standing a distance from him.
"The rain woman!?" he exclaimed. "First Gajeel, now you?! What is it with you people joining something as pathetic as this guild!?"
Juvia then looked at Kobu with a serious expression. "Fairy Tail accepted and welcomed Juvia with open arms, regardless of my past." She said. "Can you say the same for Ozai's dictatorship?"
"Oh spare me this sentimental crap!" he exclaimed, "If I have to fight you too, then I'll show no mercy."
"No mercy?" Gray stood by Katara's frozen form. "Sounds like you hadn't changed a bit!" he outstretched his hand back to Katara and the ice surrounding her had shattered.
"Thanks, Gray!"
He faced down the three of them and he glared at them. "Heh, typical Fairy Tail, can't finish me off by yourself, so you bring back up."
Gray glared at Kobu. "I had a feeling Katara might have trouble with you, you're no pushover."
"Though, Juvia is curious about one thing. Why are you fighting against Aang? Isn't he the last hope for peace in your world?" She asked.
Kobu scoffed. "Peace is overrated."
"How can you say that? I don't know what kind of problem you have with Aang, but we won't let you hurt him!" Katara exclaimed.
"Hurt him? I plan on going much farther than that."
Gray glared at him. "Geez, what is wrong with this kid?"
"Juvia won't let you hurt my friends anymore!" A blue magic circle appeared in front of her.
Katara though had a feeling she knew what would happen. "Juvia, wait!"
"Water Slicer!" Juvia sent four sharp blades of water towards Kobu. The waterbender showed no fear however as he quickly turned the blades of water into water whips that flowed around his arms.
"You should have stayed away, Rain Woman, you just made things worse for yourself!" Kobu then had pointed his fingers to Juvia and suddenly her left arm turned to water and she blasted a blast of water towards Katara who surprised by the sudden attack. she rolled back and she held the water Juvia attacked her in the air.
"Hey, what's the deal!?" Katara yelled. "Aren't you on our side!?"
Juvia though looked scared as her body was stiffly and slowly walking to Katara. "I… I don't know I…" suddenly she broke into a sprint towards Gray and her whole body turned to water. And she crashed into Gray who slid back one knee.
"What's gotten into you, Juvia!?" Gray angrily asked.
"J-Juvia can't control her body…" Juvia said, phasing back into her normal form.
Kobu who stood with a sick smirk had both his arms forward in a still stance. He moved his hands slightly and Juvia had stood in front of him. "No, you can't, Rain Woman. You've always bragged how your body is made entirely out of water. Well, that's not entirely true, see I know you can turn into water at your own will, and as soon as you fired your own water at me…" he thought back to when Juvia attacked him with her Water Slicer. "I was able to hang onto the smallest bit of water within your body, and now that I have… I control you!" he said with a twisted grin
Gray clenched his fists. "You bastard!"
Katara though looked horrified, when she saw Kobu's face, she saw a flash of an old waterbending master, the old woman who had turned her into a bloodbender, and she even heard that laugh inside her head.
"Hama…" Katara whispered to herself.
----Gajeel is seen shooting an iron pillar towards Hen. The earthbender leaped back and watched at the iron club dig into the ground. "You're gonna have to try hard-" suddenly a platform slightly raised below him, spinning him around, suddenly a rock had slammed into him from the front. While he was able to quickly cross his arms, he still flew back and crashed into a wall. "Yep, that'll do it…"
Toph smirked and glanced at Gajeel who was to her far left. "You're slipping Metalhead!" She smugly said, much to the chagrin of the Iron Dragon Slayer.
"Shut up brat, I'll put you both down if you're not careful." Gajeel punched his fists together. "Iron Dragon Scales!" his skin was then coated with iron scales. "Gihi, let me finish off this kid!" he ran towards Hen who fully got to his feet and smirked and he ran towards Gajeel. Hen made clumps of rock cover his arm, doubling its effective size and he leaped into Gajeel. Though the giant rock arm meant nothing to Gajeel as he gave a hard smack to Hen and he flew back and bounced on his back as the rock arm shattered. "My scales can easily break through your rock." He then chuckled. "You sure you want to keep this up?" Hen punched the ground and his knuckles slightly dug into the ground.
"Ha, that's a question that doesn't need an answer!" he watched Toph standing next to the Iron Dragon Slayer. "One good thing that will come out of this, I'll be the strongest Earthbender in the world after this, heck it'll be even more impressive once I take the both of you out." He said pointing to them.
Toph laughed. "You're in over your head, but I'll shift that brain of yours back to the right place."
Hen threw his fists into the ground and his arms were coated in thinner clumps of rock. "Come at me!" Hen stepped hard into the ground and a small earth pillar rushed him to Gajeel.
Gajeel ran towards the flying Hen. "You're gonna learn today, kid. Iron Dragon's Hard Punch!" Gajeel's fist had a silver-green seal magic seal in front of it, and he let out a hard punch that connected with Hen's right fist. Almost immediately, the clumps of rocks surrounding Hen's fist were completely blown off.
"AAAAHHH!" he screamed out in sheer pain. "DAMN YOU!" Hen covered his right foot in rock and he kicked Gajeel in the stomach, and he jumped back to lengthen the space between the two. He was clutching his hurt fist but he didn't have time to regroup because a pillar shot him up for a moment.
As soon as he bounced on the ground, Toph smirked because she immediately knew where he was. She shifted her foot forward and an earth wave was speeding to Hen, the small wave was going to explode when it got to Hen.
However, in front of Hen, there was a short pillar of lava that shot out of the ground. Both Toph and Gajeel were completely shocked. The earth wave that Toph sent was engulfed by the lava. When the lava slowly sunk to the ground, Hen glared at them.
"Whoa, what the hell was that?" Gajeel asked.
"The ground below him melted and shot out!" Toph said with a surprised expression after observing the vibrations underground.
"Oh yeah, that's right!" Hen exclaimed. "I forgot to mention I can Lavabend, I invented it just the other day, can you?" Hen's stance became less rigid and he sprints forward with his left fist, there was lava on top of his rocky fist and he Gajeel blocked with his fist but he noticed that his iron scales melted from the intense heat of the molten rock. Gajeel stepped back and Hen magnetized rock to his right arm and the front part melted into lava. He gave a quick punch to Gajeel's face, melting the iron scales on the left side of his face.
The iron dragon slayer growled and Hen kept up the attack, Gajeel blocked a punch by catching his fist, an earth pillar had crashed into Hen's gut, forcing him back. He had bruises on his clothes and a few tears. "Heh, yep. I've been waiting for a fight like this…"
"Really, well don't get cocky kid, cause we don't hold back. Even with your lava, we'll beat you."
Toph pointed to him. "You're dealing with the toughest two of Fairy Tail!" Toph said.
"Then show me how tough you are!" Hen said, while in an earthbending stance waiting for an attack from both Gajeel and Toph.
----Near a couple of rooftops, a green beam had blasted into one of the ceilings and Azula was dodging the blasts using her acrobatic skill. She spotted Evergreen on an opposite roof. "I've got you!" she closed her two pointing fingers and circles of lightning surrounded her hands and she shot a surge of white-hot lightning towards Evergreen on the other side who gasped when she wasn't prepared to counter it.
"Watch out!" Freed had flown in front of the lightning strike and he blocked it with his sword.
Though he was surprised when he saw Azula leap off one of Bickslow's dolls. She ignited flames from her feet and she spun in the air, making blue flames spiral around her as she got closer to Freed. He slashed his sword but was surprised when Azula caught his blade by clapping her palms.
"You underestimated me, didn't you? Of all the things Zuko told you about me, did he leave out the part about me being a Fire bending prodigy?" while flames were still keeping her airborne she swiped her foot and Freed was caught in the flames and through lack of concentration, his wings disappeared, but Bickslow caught him before he could slam into the ground.
Azula landed on the same rooftop as Evergreen. "Get out of my way!" Azula shot a sharp flame with her pointing fingers, which Evergreen dodged by hovering into the air with her fairy wings.
Evergreen though smirked as Azula tried to step closer to her. "You've fallen into my trap." Her glasses glistened from the morning sunlight. "Fairy Bomb: Gremlin!" golden sparkles was surrounding Azula and they started to explode around her. Evergreen watched as the bright flash created from the explosion was fading. "Hmph, that explosion was enough to beat one of the biggest guys in our guild, that will teach you for messing with my Zuko-sama!" though Evergreen was shocked to see a wall of spinning blue fire around Azula, the flames protected her from taking any damage from the explosion. The flames dissipated and she smirked.
"So Zuko's found himself a new girlfriend already? Cute. Gives me a bigger incentive to take you down."
Evergreen glared at the Fire Lord. "Fairy Machine Gun: Leprechaun!" She flung her fan and a flurry of energy needles at her opponent. Azula shot blue flames from her feet, shooting her forward to Evergreen, but as the bright yellow energy needles got closer, she flipped over and a wave of blue fire had shot forward and clashed with the energy needles, causing an explosion. Through the fading blue fire, bright blue lightning was seen and Azula fired the electric blast. Evergreen was struck by the lightning and she fell from the sky.
Bickslow caught Evergreen and he was on the rooftop as well. Azula's lightning had knocked Evergreen unconscious. "One down, two to go." Azula smugly said. A low growl was heard from Bickslow.
From behind Azula, Freed was about to swing his sword with his Dark Ecriture: Wings on his back. "Dark Ecriture: Fear!" he swung his sword and purple runes were inscribed onto Azula. Suddenly the entire world darkened around Azula and she looked around.
"What is this!?" she exclaimed. She saw her father surrounded by a circle of fire. "Father?"
"Have you brought down the Avatar?" he asked with a firm tone.
Azula bowed in front of him. "It is taking longer than expected, but I am trying."
"Trying isn't how I raised you! You should have wiped him off the face of the planet by now! You will disappoint me, after all, I've done for you!?"
Azula quickly got up as she saw Ozai raise both his arms and his fire engulfed her and she shielded herself and closed her eyes. When she opened them, she found herself in one of the Fire Nation gardens she spent a lot of time in during her youth.
"What is wrong Azula?" she turned back and saw that Ursa was sitting in the garden.
"YOU!?" Azula got ready to strike. "It all makes sense now, how I can't stop seeing you. You've been trying to keep me from the throne since I was a child! Well, how does it feel mother? How does it feel to fail!?"
"The only thing I failed at was not being there when you needed me."
Azula scoffed and stepped back. "Oh please! I DON'T NEED YOU! I never have I've gotten so far by myself!" she exclaimed. "And here you are, after all this time, you still want me to fail!"
"Of course I don't. You're my beautiful daughter, Azula. I only want the best for you." Ursa said in a gentle voice.
"Like hell, I'll believe that crap! You've always put Zuko over me, you've always loved him more than me! Well, that doesn't matter anymore, me – the monster you've feared has become your new Fire Lord! How does that make you feel?"
"I am proud of you Azula."
"Shut up! SHUT UP! Just say it! Stop lying to me, you've feared me, you've always feared me… In fact, you probably orchestrated all of this! Me coming to this world, fighting Fairy Tail, all of it… IT WAS YOU!"
"Please listen to me Azula, I would never do that. I only want the best for you." Ursa said standing up trying to reason with her daughter. "I lo-"
"DON'T SAY IT!" Azula shot flames at her mother and she saw the garden and where she used to stand engulfed in blue fire. She felt a tinge of regret as everything went black again.
…
Azula's eyes shot open and there were dark rings around her eyes. She looked at Freed in front of her and he still held his rapier and his blade was pointed at her while he hovered above her. "You… what did you do to me-" she then smirked slightly. "Oh right, you… all of you! You're in league with her aren't you!?" She yelled.
"Her?" Bickslow questioned. "What is she talking about?"
Azula had a slumped stance as opposed to her regular one and Freed looked at her. "I don't know, she seems different…" then from out of nowhere she blasted a streak of lightning right at Freed, he managed to block it with his sword, but he only blinked before he saw Azula slightly above him in the air and he saw blue flames being shot from her feet and she threw her foot down on top of Freed and he landed on the ceiling and he saw Azula speeding down to her.
"Baryon Formation!" the huge lime energy beam had crashed into Azula shooting her off of the rooftop. Bickslow ran to Freed while still holding Evergreen. "Hey, Freed."
"Thank you Bickslow, she did get me there, but we have to finish this."
Bickslow nodded and they leaped down to the ground where they saw Azula was actually waiting for them. "What took you so long boys?" Azula asked as she shot a stream of lightning towards the two. But suddenly Zuko appeared in front of them, he absorbed the lightning into his fingers and he redirected the attack back to Azula.
She rolled out of the way as the lightning blast and it crashed into a building, making a hole in it. "Zuko? You got here." Freed said.
"I saw what happened to Evergreen on the way here; make sure she gets some help. Then help the others take down the army." He said.
"You sure about this? Fighting her alone?" Bickslow asked.
"Just trust me guys, I can handle this. Plus…" He looked to his smirking sister. "We do have a score to settle."
Freed looked unsure, but in the end, he trusted Zuko, at the same time they did need to get Evergreen some medical attention after she took a lightning strike from Azula. "Very well then, we shall leave it to you. Good luck Zuko." Freed flew away while Bickslow ran after him while holding the unconscious Evergreen.
Both Zuko and Azula faced each other, both in their firebending stances. "So Zuzu? Are you going to challenge your Fire Lord to an Agni Kai?"
"No." he simply answered. "I challenge my sister, to one last fight."
"A rematch of our last Agni Kai, well how brave of you to directly challenge a Fire Lord, but if it is a fight you want, I'll gladly oblige."
"You're not going to win this Azula." He said in a low, serious tone.
"Oh, you really think so?"
Zuko continued. "Even if you beat me, our father will never beat Fairy Tail!"
Azula smirked. "Heh, that man has put me on the sidelines. We were supposed to rule together, but he wanted to keep all the power for himself. Trust me, when I'm done here, I'll rule the Fire Nation, like I was supposed to!"
Zuko glared at her. "You've always been insufferable. It's time someone put you down for good, and that someone is me!"
Azula gave a serious glare to her brother. "You of all people won't keep me from my destiny to rule! You want to put me down for good, I invite you to try Zuzu!" both of them have fireballs growing in their hands and they both shot forward with flames from their feet. They crashed into each other, their fire also clashing, and they had officially begun their dual.
----Back at the foot of the guild, Jiahao stood tall by himself and he narrowly avoided a fast kick from Jet. He then saw a line of thick vines blocking his forward path. Jiahao conjured a large disk of fire that easily sliced through the vines. Though he saw Mai above him and he saw her throw four knives down to him. They stuck through his thin boots and he couldn't move. When he bent down to pick the knives out from his shoes he had to duck under a tremendous stream of fire. He ripped the knife from his shoe and he was shooting jabs of fire to Iroh.
"As if I'll let myself be beaten by a former gene - huh?!" he looked up and he immediately rolled back when he saw the word 'STONE' floating above him while being crafted from – well, stone. He sprinted away when it crashed into the ground and he glared at Levy. "I grow tired of your irritating antics. He made large disks of fire float next to his outstretched hands. No matter how hard all of you fight, I won't stop until I have the Avatar and rest assured I will have backup joining me soon, so my victory is nothing but assured."
He tossed one of the fire disks towards Levy. "Levy!" Jet ran right in front of her and he looked to take the brunt of the attack and he flew back and slid on his back.
"I see… They will jump in to protect the obvious weak link. Makes my job easier, I just have to target y-" he narrowly dodged one of Mai arrows and she was running up to him from behind with one of her throwing knives in her hand. "Stay out of the way, Traitor!" he threw his elbow into Mai as soon as she got close and he threw her over him and she landed hard on the ground. He had a charged fireball that he was going to explode onto Mai's downed body. He leaped up but before he could shoot his charged flames a vine shot out from the ground and he whipped away from Mai.
He slid on his stomach and got back up to his feet. He saw Droy helping Mai back to her feet. Iroh stood in front of the pair of them. He was in a firm defensive stance. Jiahao saw his opening. "See if you can stop this old man." He threw huge fire disk directly at Iroh and he looked at it carefully and as if got closer to him he outstretched his arms to the sides and he clapped down on the fire disk and smoke was rising from his hands as he managed to slow the spinning of the disk as the flames dissipated. But he looked over his shoulder and he saw a fire disk veering around him and speeding towards Levy.
She gasped but before it got closer to her the disk exploded after a thunderbolt struck it. Then the doors of the guild burst open.
"The Avatar?" but to Jiahao's surprise he didn't see Aang walking out of the guild, but someone arguably much worse. He was facing the guild master of Fairy Tail himself. And it looked like Makarov had fashioned a glare to the Fire Nation general. "Who are you supposed to be?"
Makarov replied in a serious tone. "I am the guild master of Fairy Tail?"
"You're 'Master Makarov' I didn't expect you to be so… tiny… but never-the-less. You're the guild master of this lousy guild huh?" he got in a fighting stance. "So let's end this, then!"
Makarov dug his hands into his coat pockets. "Tell me, why is it you want to kill Aang?"
"Excuse me?"
"You heard me!"
Jiahao stepped back in confusion, almost wondering why Makarov asked that question. "You were being serious? You should know the last Avatar has been a thorn in the Fire Nation's since before the hundred-year war. We had a feeling the next Avatar would give us trouble, so we needed to him or her executed."
"You do realize he is only a child, correct? 13 years of age to be specific."
"Whether he is a child or not isn't relevant, he still presents a threat to the Fire Nation. With all four elements at his disposal, he could easily topple over the empire we have spent years building."
Makarov had his right fist clenched, though he remained calm. "So, you are perfectly alright with slaughtering children, is that what you are saying?"
"Are all of you Magnolians this simple-minded? If a child was born and you knew this child would do so much damage to you and your people. Topple over the progress that you have spent 100 years to build? Would you still worry if they were a child? Say what you want, but the Avatar is a big threat to the Fire Nation, we've done so much to build our dominance over the other nations and I'll be damned if I let a bald child tear all of it down to pieces!"
"I see." Makarov slowly took his hands out from his pockets and his eyes were closed. "Do you know that I consider the members of this guild my own children?" Jiahao looked confused, why Makarov would build that kind of relationship with his lower guild members was unfathomable. "That includes Aang as well. So, when I first heard all the suffering and pain he's endured at your nation's hands…" Makarov's shot open and they let out a bright gold glow, as his voice lowered into an angered tone. "…you can't even begin to imagine the rage I feel!" a bright yellow aura was forming around him. Levy, Mai, Jet, Droy, and even Iroh were fearful of what Makarov was planning to do.
While Jiahao showed the same fear, albeit less of it, he wouldn't allow himself to be intimidated by Makarov. Jiahao was in a stance as he was ready to attack.
Makarov continued though. "The suffering he and his friends endured at your precious Ozai's hands… the fact that I was unable to help them… brings tears to my eyes!"
"You'll find a reason to cry when I'm done with you!" Jiahao generated a compressed fireball in front of him and he sent a raging fire stream towards Makarov. A bright orange seal appeared in front of Makarov and as it spun, the fire that Jiahao sent to him, split two ways and when the powerful fire stream ended, Makarov was unharmed, there weren't even burn marks on his jacket. "Are you kidding me!?" he exclaimed. He prepared two fire disks at his sides. "Fine, I'll just cut you to shreds then!" he tossed his fire disks towards Makarov, but as fast as he could toss them, he saw that they were broken down by sharp beams of light that shot through them. Jiahao grunted as he saw a beam of light approaching him, he created a huge wall of fire that managed to block the single beam. He then swiped his foot, breaking down the wall of fire into several flame arcs. After the arcs were sent, Jiahao didn't relent as he sent wave after wave of fire jabs.
Makarov then put his hand forward and a light barrier formed which had blocked all of the fire that was thrown his way. Makarov appeared to be floating above the ground and there were two bright yellow magic seals to his side and out of both of them, a beam of white light shot from them. They both combined and they created much smaller bullets that sped to Jiahao.
Jiahao ran forward with long lashes of fire spreading from his hand he managed to use this to slap some of the beams of light, though some of them managed to pierce through his body. Jiahao let out a fierce roar as he jumped up and he flipped. A huge lash of fire was generated from his foot and he slammed it down on Makarov. He smirked when the flames still covered him but was instantly frustrated when he saw that Makarov had made a sphere of wind sphere around him to keep the flames away from him. "Seriously, are you just going to stand there!?" Jiahao threw a fire disk in frustration but Makarov proved how powerful he was by easily swiping his hand through the disk and the flames faded away.
"I won't entertain fighting you at my full strength." Makarov said, but suddenly his eyes were encased in a bright yellow glow. "However…" he muscles started to bulge and he was growing substantially in height. "Hear me now, general!" suddenly Makarov's shadow loomed tall high over Jiahao, the Fire Nation general looked at Makarov who was almost as tall as the guild itself, and his muscles grew substantially. His stance lowered and Makarov looked down to him, his eyes still covered by the bright yellow glow, his hair and mustache becoming sharper as well. "If it's war you and that fool Ozai want, THEN IT'S WAR YOU SHALL GET!" Makarov declared.
Jiahao didn't know what to do, but he wasn't going to just back down simply because Makarov grew to be two to three stories tall. Despite how outmatched he was. "I'LL SEND YOU TO HELL!" Jiahao angrily said, he leaped up and he made fire afterburners below his feet to get up to Makarov's head. Then he made large flame disks but he never got to unleash the attack because Makarov had swatted Jiahao like a fly and he was sent flying across the city.
"Ow, it's going to hurt when he lands." Droy said.
"Serves him right." Mai remarked. "He talked up a big game and he got swatted… literally, either way, that'll knock him off his high horse. Wonder where he'll land?"
----After Chun apologized to Wendy, she fired a powerful, bright purple fire jab to her. Though before the attack could hit, they all heard: "WENDY!" they all watched at Happy leaped in front of Wendy and he took the fire jab and when he was hit he flew back into Wendy's arms and they both fell to the ground.
"Happy!?" Wendy said as she looked down at Happy and there were swirls in his eyes.
"I smell burnt fish…" He muttered in his dazed stupor while spinning swirls replaced his eyes,
"I told you she was our enemy, now look what happened!" Carla said pointing to Happy. "The he-cat got burned."
Lucy stepped in front of Wendy. "Wendy, you heal Happy, I will reason with Chun." She said holding one of her golden keys.
"But Lucy-"
"I'll be fine, I'll try to make this quick." She said, and she gave a wink to Wendy. "Gate of the Scorpion I open thee! Scorpio!" she swung her key and after a doorbell sound was heard, Scorpio appeared at Lucy's side.
"We Are!" he cried while he folded his middle and ring fingers.
"W-what the hell is that!?" one of the fire nation soldiers asked.
"I don't care; just eliminate it along with the rest of them!" they all with the exception of Chun fired long streams of fire towards Lucy and Scorpio.
Lucy pointed forward. "Scorpio, stop them."
"Yeah! Our sand will stop their fire. Sand Buster!" Scorpio got on all fours and he aimed his mechanical scorpion tail at their fire and a tremendous sand tornado was fired from his scorpion tail. The sand was able to blow out all of the fire and a couple of the soldiers were blown back by the sand stream.
"Yes, we got them!" Lucy cheered.
Chun meanwhile was standing still, she looked at her hands and remembered how she had hurt Happy earlier. "I-I I almost burned Wendy… why did I…" she then saw a blast of sand approaching her, she made a cyclone of purple fire surround her. When the sand cleared, and the cyclone ended, there was a circle of small shards of glass at her feet. "What do I do? What do I do? What do I do?"
Suddenly an object crashed in between the two sides and it created a huge dust cloud. "KYYAAA!" Lucy screamed.
When the dust cleared, it was revealed to be the injured body of Jiahao. "General!" one of the still standing Firebenders exclaimed. "What did you monsters do?"
"We're the monsters?" Lucy asked. "You people fight for a dictator! Don't you feel bad for everything you've done!?"
"We have our orders, so we're going to do what our nation expects of us!"
The two remaining firebenders shot sharp jabs to Scorpio, he guarded and he took the hits as he blocked them with his tail. Jiahao glanced at Chun from the ground, still unable to get up due to his injuries. "What… are you doing just standing there, little girl? Don't you care about your brother?"
Chun's eyes grew and her fists were clenched. She then glared at Scorpio, there were tears hanging outside of her eyes. "I-I never wanted to hurt anyone… but…" she thought back to when she shot Happy, and also the time when she first fought Aang when he was on the job with Lucy. "Maybe I am just as bad as they are? I can't run from this… no matter how hard I try…" she glanced at Lucy. "Forgive me, Lucy, Wendy… I'm not worth your kindness and I don't deserve your friendship…" She swung her leg and a bright purple arc was shot to Scorpio. The spirit had shot a short blast of sand that chopped up her flames.
When the soldiers beside her started to get up, she swiped her at them. "Stay down." She said in an angered tone. "No one else has to get hurt, let me deal with them myself. You'll only get in my way." Jiahao let out a satisfied smirk when he heard Chun speaking in such a manner. "If you want to be useful, then help the rest of the army."
"You don't order us around!" one of the soldiers said.
"Please don't make me ask again…" she said with a more threatening tone. The tears were still hanging. The soldiers quickly complied and left to help the rest of their army.
"I have nothing… even if..." she sniffled as bright purple flames were blowing out from her hands. Her hair was even blowing from the intensity of the flames. "Right now… I have nothing…"
Lucy looked very concerned and she could see that Chun was suffering inside, but she didn't look like she wanted to talk. "Chun, please calm down… we can talk about this! I can help you…" She pleaded.
"S-sorry Lucy… but there is nothing left to talk about." a tear fell down her left cheek and she sprinted right to Scorpio while her hands shot out long flames that pushed her forward.
"Scorpio!" Lucy exclaimed.
Scorpio was in a defensive stance, Chun's foot made contact with his metal tail. She stepped off of his tail and leaped high into the air, she quickly shot quick bursts of bright purple fire which were being blocked by Scorpio's blasts of sand.
Once Chun landed on her feet, she rushed towards Scorpio. "Yeah feel the wrath of our sand! Sand Buster!" Once the huge sand storm rushed to her, she springboarded off her feet, transitioned into a front flip and she waved her hands, creating a spinning wheel of bright flames around her. The flame wheel cut right through the sand and Chun landed a kick on Scorpio's face and she kicked up off of him. She grew a huge comet of fire which she threw down onto Scorpio after she kicked off him.
The explosion of the purple fire was tremendous and it forced Scorpio to retreat back to the spirit world in a flash of gold.
"Scorpio!" Lucy fearfully exclaimed.
Chun landed on her feet and she faced away from Lucy. Meanwhile, Jiahao was chuckling as he limped up to his feet and hobbled to her. "That's right; you've finally tapped into that aggressive fighting spirit that was deep inside you all along."
"It feels wrong to be doing this!" She said clenching her fists.
"Really? You fought with the intensity of a true firebender. At this rate, you could be better than Azula if you really set your mind to it. The only thing holding you back is your own restraint."
"Chun, don't listen to him!" Lucy yelled, still trying to get to her despite what she did to Scorpio. "You're not like the rest of them, you're different! I know it!"
"She only fears your power, that's why she is constantly trying to get on your good side. Don't you see? Those two know they can't beat you, plus they are scared of you."
Chun still looked away. "I-I don't want people to be scared of me…" she muttered. "I… I didn't want… any of this…"
Jiahou smirked. "And yet you fought with everything you had back there, what triggered that, the threat of your own life? Or maybe it was trying to keep your brother…"
"Brother? Chun, what is he talking about?" Lucy asked, Wendy also listened into the conversation while Happy was still unconscious and Carla watched over him.
"Nothing that concerns you, weakling."
Chun had her head down. "It doesn't concern anyone…" she said, soon she did the unthinkable and she threw her elbow into Jiahao's stomach, aggravating the injuries he had already sustained.
"W-what do you think you are doing…?" he said, struggling to find his voice while sprawled on the floor.
Chun looked down to him. "After all you've done, you just got off easy…"
"And what about what you've done?" She turned around and saw Carla glaring at her. "You think you're completely innocent in all of this?"
"I didn't want to do any of this… but… no matter what I do… I'm always going to be kicked down." She said muttering the last part.
"Still, you chose to fight with those monsters, despite everything!" Carla said pointing to her. "Here you stand fighting against us, yet you claim you don't want to hurt anyone. Can't you see your own contradictions?"
Chun turned to fully face them. "You think I chose to fight for them? I was left with no choice! You don't know what I went through. And what would you know about someone in my position? I've basically lost someone important to me!"
"Oh, Chun…" Wendy thought as she remembered when she had lost all her friends and family at Cait Shelter. She knew it all too well, her world was crumbling and Chun didn't know where or who to turn to. She only knew one thing… and that was to fight away her frustrations.
"It's clear she won't listen to reason." Carla said. "If we don't stop her, she might make it to the guild and who knows what might happen."
"Wait!" Wendy said. "There has to be another way."
A golden light appeared close to them, and appearing was Loke and he appeared to have a serious expression. "Loke?" Lucy gasped in confusion.
"Sorry I'm late, but I'm afraid she's right. If we don't stop her, we don't know what kind of damage she will do to the guild. Plus, I'd rather not risk the chance of her hurting you."
"Wait… who are you?" Chun asked.
Loke adjusted his glasses. "I am Loke, I am the leader of the 12 zodiac spirits. I am here to protect Lucy. And I don't plan on holding back." His palm was covered with light energy.
Chun looked forward and her instincts told her to immediately fight back, this caused her to summon a flame above her right hand without even realizing it. She looked at the dancing flame and she almost looked mesmerized by it, reminding her of when she summoned her first flame in front of her family. It was a happy time in her life, and already that happiness was gone. She looked right at Loke and he charged his light magic in his fists.
Her instincts were screaming at her as if they have fully awakened for the first time. If she lost here, it's likely the magic council will arrest her. Even if she surrendered, she doubted Fairy Tail would be able to prevent the council from taking her.
She needed to run! 
No, she wouldn't get very far, plus there is no way Lucy and Wendy would let her get away so easily. Plus she didn't like her chances at outrunning Loke, and she wasn't going to test that.
Surrender? 
She couldn't guarantee her own safety with that option, plus it's not just about her anymore. Hen is still there somewhere and she planned to escape with him regardless of what happens. If something happened to him, she'd never forgive herself and she would only crumble farther. "No… I can't lose anyone else…" This left her with only one option.
Fight!
"No I can't…" as much as her body told her to move, her legs were frozen. As much as her head was screaming at her: Fight! Fight! Fight! Her heart was breaking and she couldn't dream of hurting either Wendy or Lucy.
As she stared out into the distance, Loke got close and his right fist was glowing brightly. "Regulus Impact!" Chun's instincts reacted yet again before she could fully comprehend what's going on. She was high above him and after realizing she had already dodged his attack, she was already charging her lightning and threw her two pointing fingers down to Loke.
The lightning strike created a forceful explosion as it hit the ground, separating the two from each other.
Chun landed on her feet and watched Loke approaching her, she decided to put as much space between her and Loke. "Can't beat him if I go in blind…" she avoided another punch from Loke's Regulus Impact; the shock wave created from the attack was enough to crack the brick wall behind her. While her eyes grew wide, she didn't stay still as she kept trying to avoid Loke's attacks.
----As the fights were raging all over the city, the majority of Fairy Tail was in a straight line, trying to beat back the Fire Nation army. The army managed to form a roadblock with their tanks standing in a line and any magic that was thrown at them was being weakened by their magic absorbing lacrima, they even managed to fit them on some of the fire nation tanks.
"Great, they're blocking the path!" Suki exclaimed.
"How should we get through them?" Cana asked as she threw an exploding card to a firebender that was rushing towards them.
Suki looked to Warren who was also fighting with the rest of the guild who were just blasting projectile spells to the roadblock. "Where is Sokka?"
"EVERYBODY MOVE!"
The all looked back and saw Sokka and Elfman on top of Appa and the bison roared and was on a collision course with the roadblock.
"Everybody get down!" Suki yelled.
Everyone in Fairy Tail had managed to either duck down or squeeze out of the path of the raging bison. Appa had crashed right into the tanks and he sent them flying. His armor taking the brunt of the impact, leaving him practically unharmed,
He roared and he heaved another stray tank that was on its side. "Alright, Appa!" Suki cheered.
"Hey!" Sokka and Elfman jumped off of the bison. "It was my plan to bash through the roadblock," Sokka said. Suddenly a flame was heading to Sokka and Suki managed to jump in front of him and block it with her Kyoshi warrior shield.
"Was getting burned also part of your plan?" she asked with a smirk.
Sokka sighed. "Whatever, how are we doing?"
"Gray and Juvia ran off to help Katara," Cana said. "We've done alright for now, did you deal with those huge fire rocks yet?"
"Yeah, they aren't going to be using long-range weapons against us any time soon. By the way, where's Natsu?"
"Where do you think?" Macao said with a smile. "He's going after that Azula chick."
"Ah man, I totally wanted to see Natsu beat Azula's butt!" he moaned.
"We have much bigger issues here." Cana reminded.
"Right, I just hope the others are all right."
----Meanwhile, Natsu was speeding through an empty street and he noticed a dazed fire nation soldier on the ground. He picked him up by his and butted his head as he brought him up to his face. "Where's Azula?" he angrily asked.
"I-I-I-I don't know… p-please don't hurt me…" Natsu quickly dropped him and the unfortunate grunt had run off to hide. Natsu's nose was in the air as he caught a whiff of a familiar scent. Well, two scents.
A smirk grew on his lips. "I found you!" he chuckled before he took off through the empty street.
----Erza was letting out a loud yell as she shot forward to Ping, still adorned in her Black Wing Armor. She clashed with Ping who was also in the air and the Fire Nation swordswoman had gotten the worst of the exchange as she rolled onto an empty street, her illusion blades disappearing as she let go of them.
"If you were wise, you would surrender." Erza said, standing a distance away pointing her sword at Dark Ping's downed body.
"Well, fortunately… I'm not you." She breathed as she tightened the grip of her hands… "I refuse to lose, especially to you annoying Fairy Tail wizards." A dark seal had formed around her and it looked as if she was boosting herself with even more dark magic. "You should also know that my magic fuels me, the angrier I get." Her eyes had turned purple, her hair was let loose and she had black vein-like marking on her hands and feet. "And without my weaker half… I am free to unleash the full extent of my power." Erza kept her guard up anticipating an attack from her. "See, beating you isn't my only end goal. I've been beaten… defeated… humiliated by that pink haired menace!" She yelled. "And believe me, once I'm done with you, I will crush him, all the humiliation I went through will be nothing compared to what I do to him."
Erza glared at her. "You aren't going to lay a finger on him!" She declared. "You'll have to kill me first before I let you even get close to Natsu!"
"Fine then, but you called for your own death, not me!" Dark Ping snapped her fingers and three shadow clones had jumped out of Erza's shadow and they held her in place.
"W-what is this!?"
The real Dark Ping's Phantom blades appeared and she slashed through her own shadow clones, but most importantly she slashed right through Erza. The scarlet-haired mage screamed as most of her Black Wing armor was shattered to pieces.
She slid away from Erza and she pointed her blade at the downed mage. "What happened to all of that talk? I didn't think the mighty Titania would go down to such a simple attack." Erza stood back up, a golden light surrounded her and she formed her Purgatory Armor. As the black armor covered most of her body, her hair was let loose as she swung a very large spiked mace that was the same length as her entire body.
"You have a twisted mind." Erza said. "But you've also very dangerous, so that is why; I'm going to put you down right here!"
Dark Ping glared at her. "I won't lose to you or Fairy Tail again… Never again!" Ping jabbed her illusion blade into the ground and it sent a reddish-purple energy wave to Erza. The energy wave engulfed Erza but she still stood tall, proving the durability of her Purgatory Armor. "Heh, it's going to take a lot more to beat that armor huh?" she increased the dark energy surrounding her and she shot forward to Erza. Erza ran forward while she swung her spiked mace and it created a tremendous blast of wind that sent Ping across the street.
She crashed into the wall and she fell to her stomach and watched Erza rushing to her. Dark Ping stood up as her illusion blades had disappeared after she let them go. She made a wall of 7 dark red Graviton orbs in front of her. After firing them to her, Erza had decided to toss her mace to them. The orbs exploded but Erza's sword passed right through the attack and it stuck itself in the same wall that Ping hit earlier.
Erza noticed that Ping had disappeared and there were red orbs that were being thrown at her and she could see that Ping was on a ceiling. She was about to chase but a whistle distracted her and another Ping was speeding to her with illusion blade. Erza tried to knock her with her fist, but her arm went through her as the shadow clone disappeared. Though she was surprised to see a huge shadow looming over her, when Erza looked up she saw Ping had formed a Grand Graviton right above her.
Her eyes grew as she watched Ping throw the crater down on her.
…
Ty Lee had seen the explosion and noticed that a huge crater was made. "ERZA!" she yelled. She was about to leap off of the ceiling she stood on to help her. But there were two Dai Li agents heading to her.
She was about to fight them but one of them was shot with a Tornado shot from Alzack. "Heh, got him." The second agent was about to restrain him with his rock hands but he was hit with a sniper shot from Bisca.
She gave a thumb's up to Ty Lee and Alzack. "Thanks, Bisca." Alzack said.
Ty Lee though found it hard to keep her eyes off the crater, and since most of the Dai Li agents were dealt with… "I need to head over there."
"Alright then," Alzack said. "I'll handle things from here."
"Thanks." She leaped off the ceiling in order to get to Erza to help her. After landing on another ceiling she wiggled her weak right arm as she still had no feeling in it after it was chi-blocked. "C'mon wake up!" she poked her arm but it only flopped around. "Great…" She could hear the screams of Erza and Dark Ping ahead of her; she climbed down a pipe to reach the ground and continued to follow the sounds of fighting in the distance.
----Orange and blue flames were dancing very brightly, and the explosions of light were reflecting off the buildings. Zuko rolled backward and he avoided a long fire jab from Azula. "What's wrong Zuzu? Are you running?" she swung her arm and a bright blue arc of fire spread to Zuko, but he sliced through it with a fiery chop. He created very thick fire whips that were looking like they were going to engulf Azula.
The former princess had created a swirling orb of fire that surrounded her. When the explosion engulfed her, Azula flipped over and she was blasting powerful jabs of fire down to him. Zuko had unsheathed his dual swords and he was deflecting her orbs of fire away from him. Azula landed close to him and she shot two fingers forward, trying to get a point-blank shot on him but Zuko crossed his wrists and threw her arm upwards, forcing a long stream of blue fire upwards.
Azula swept Zuko's legs, forcing his back to the ground. His eyes closed for a second, but once he opened them he noticed Azula's leg dancing above him with a blue thick blue whip of fire following it. He quickly rolled out of the way as she went for the stomp. He quickly got up to his feet but he was forced back as a stream of fire crashed into his gut. He fell back and Azula chuckled to herself.
"What's the matter Zuzu? Feeling tired?" She mocked. "I've always been better for you; it's my destiny to lead the Fire Nation. Hell, it's like Father said, you're lucky to be alive!" Zuko's fists tightened, as he further held tighter onto his swords.
"If I recall, you lost our last battle!"
"Only because that little water throwing peasant got in the way!" Azula countered.
"That was your fault; you're the one who tried shooting her with lightning!" Zuko exclaimed. "But now it's just you and me, nothing is going to get in the way of me beating you!"
Azula laughed. "You could never beat me! And you never will!" she shot a long burst of fire to Zuko. He managed to make a blade of fire shoot out of the ground to split Azula's flames but he looked to be struggling to hold it. "Face it, you should have run and hide… Just like Mother!"
This made Zuko snap, his eyelids grew and he screamed as the flames he made grew and they were easily splitting Azula's flames but then Zuko made the flame blade travel right through Azula's fire and she was caught by the resulting explosion and she flew back and slid on her back.
She got up and when she next looked at Zuko, she was shocked to find that he had bright blue lightning dancing around him. "No… he couldn't…" she was shocked when he pointed two fingers at her and shot a long bolt of lightning right to Azula. Having no idea how to redirect it, she leaped to the side and watched the lightning ignite the wall behind her.
Zuko then shot numerous fire jabs at Azula which she proceeded to block. She was surprised at how Zuko was suddenly coming at her, almost as if she awakened another side of him.
She then glared and she formed a spinning wheel of fire in between her hands and as she was about to shoot it at Zuko, but out of the corner of her eye, she saw the vision of Ursa in a shop window. "You again?!" she yelled. "LEAVE ME ALONE!" she threw her flame wheel towards the shop window and completely shattered it.
Even though Zuko was confused by her actions he swiped a fiery arc to her. When Azula saw it she flipped over it at the last minute. Azula was panting and threw a death glare at Zuko. "You can't beat me alone can't you!?"
"What are you talking about?"
"Oh don't lie to me, you can see her too can't you!?"
"Her who?" Zuko asked, still having no idea what Azula was going on about.
Azula having enough of this fight started to draw her lightning. "Shut up, this will all be over with you bowing at my feet!"
"Over my dead body!" Zuko began to summon his lightning as well.
"That, my dear brother… can be arranged!" They both shot their lightning to each other. As soon as both bolts hit each other, a deafening flash was heard and both Zuko and Azula flew back away from each other.
The deafening boom of lightning gave both combatants a spell of tinnitus. When they both got up they couldn't hear anything but a loud ringing noise.
"Ugh…" Azula then looked to Zuko and she looked at her hands and she noticed they were shaking. She had thought back to when Zuko called her out and said that he would redirect her lightning. "Snap out of it!" she told herself. "I can't lose against him… or anyone from this pathetic guild…"
However, she narrowly dodged a flame from Zuko. "You're slipping!" Zuko said while he was close to her. He elbowed her in the stomach and Azula stumbled back before she leaped up and shot flames from both her feet and palms to launch her up to a rooftop above. Zuko followed her up and as soon as he got up to the roof he dodged a lightning strike from her.
"Still think I'm slipping, Zuzu?" Azula yelled before she created bright blue flame daggers that turned into long blue fire whips. She swung her arms, but Zuko leaped over them and he watched at flames slice through a rocky ceiling.
Zuko while in the air had swung his foot and sent three waves down to Azula. She blocked them but she did get caught by them and she rolled to the edge and she balanced on the edge and nearly fell as she looked down. "You're slipping!" she momentarily remembered Zuko's words and they stung because she was very close to falling. This wasn't like her; she's supposed to be perfect, not teetering off the edge of embarrassment, and literally teetering off a roof. She wobbled away from the edge but she was then kicked off the roof by Zuko and she fell down and landed on her feet.
Zuko was about to stomp on her but when she rolled away, he had a clean shot at her back but he suddenly remembered Erza's words. "You're talking about putting down your own sister? How can you be okay with that!?" He hesitated, allowing Azula to retreat to the rooftops again. Zuko grunted and he followed her up.
When he climbed to the top he narrowly avoided a sharp jab of fire that was aimed at his heart. "Why don't you just go down like the weakling you are!" she exclaimed.
Zuko didn't answer her question as he shot a charged shot of fire at Azula. He could see it, the cracks beginning to form, not only in Azula's psyche but also her stance, she wasn't as precise and perfect as she always would be, he also noticed she seemed to be looking around as if she feared some invisible force was watching her.
He could actually deal the final blow if the opportunity presented itself. But was he willing to go that far? He remembered feeling regret when he watched Azula fall to her supposed death back at the Western Air Temple.
He swiped Azula's fire stream and this only made her leap up and she generated thick flame whips from her hands and feet. The danced all over the rooftop, scorching any tiles that were in the path of her flames, Zuko was able to roll away and jump to another rooftop.
During this respite, he also thought back to when he finally returned to the Fire Nation after his exile. Azula did actually express concern for him when she discovered he visited Iroh while he was imprisoned. Then there was their vacation to Ember Island. She expressed the same concern when he entered their old summer home.
Then there was the time when she shockingly opened up, saying that their mother loved Zuko more than her. And even muttered: "My own mother… thought I was a monster…" Though she played it off by saying afterward: "She was right of course but it still hurt." So the question was: Was she still hurt? Cause if she was, was killing her really the solution? He saw her flying towards him with huge boosts of flames from her feet. She swiped her leg and forced a very powerful arc to him. Zuko shot an arc to counter it, causing an explosion.
He quickly turned around and saw Azula charging her lightning again, though he looked very prepared for whatever she threw at him. She threw her pointing fingers forward Zuko, a surge of lightning rushed to him. Zuko had caught her lightning with the pointing fingers on both his hands and he quickly threw his left pointing fingers to Azula but only on instinct. He could see Azula's eyes growing wide as she wasn't far enough to dodge it. He couldn't reverse the process and the lightning was already in the process of leaving his fingers…
Suddenly, a strong grip forced his arm into the air, forcing the lightning strike to surge into the sky. Zuko looked and saw that Natsu had forced his arm away, probably saving Azula's life.
"Natsu?!" Zuko said with a shocked expression. Azula looked even more shocked.
"You've done enough Zuko. I'll take care of Azula!"
"Huh!?" Zuko said he couldn't believe Natsu was doing this, was Natsu really going to argue with him about him fighting Azula? "You are not serious! This isn't a game Natsu!"
"Well, I'm not playing!" Natsu argued.
Zuko butted his head against Natsu. "This doesn't concern you Natsu!"
"When you're trying to kill your sister, it really concerns me!"
"You don't get it!"
Natsu then let go of Zuko and took a step away from him. "Zuko, I'm sorry…"
Zuko was surprised and was also taken aback by Natsu's suddenly apology. "Oh… well, I appreciate that, but you need to…"
"No, I meant I'm sorry for this." He then threw a very strong punch to Zuko's stomach and the firebender had fallen down to his knees while clutching his gut. He couldn't even say anything as he fell into unconsciousness.
Azula was absolutely shocked. "W-what the hell what that all about?" she asked. Though she looked amused as he mentioned that Zuko was about to kill her. "We're you protecting me? How sweet!" she sarcastically said.
Natsu didn't turn to face her. "Don't flatter yourself, I did it for him, not you."
"Excuse me? I don't follow, it seems that if you want to help Zuko, a very good way would be to help him dispose of his monstrous little sister."
"Don't get me wrong, Zuko is a friend and he's a strong guy, even despite how much of a prick his dad is. If he killed his sister, he'd be going along that same path. I wasn't going to let that happen."
"You obviously didn't do your research, our father is successful. Right now we dominate our world because of him. And I will spread that domination here!"
Natsu turned around to face Azula. "Oh believe me, when I find Ozai, he's going to get the beating of his life so bad that Azulon will feel it! But until then, if you want to get to Zuko or Aang, you'll have to go through me. And like I told Zuko, I ain't playing around this time."
Azula though looked amused and wasn't fazed by Natsu's glare. "Oh, you mean you went easy before? Well, now I'm interested. Why don't you show me the true power of a Dragon Slayer."
Natsu's hand caught fire as he looked dead at his opponent. "Be careful what you wish for… I hate the fact that you think just because you can walk all over people." The flames around his fists expanded while letting off a miniature explosion.
"I hate it that your nation killed a whole bunch of people just to kill Aang."
The flames continued to grow.
"I hate it how you guys killed off most of the dragons in your world…"
The flames were blowing back wildly, to the point that the flames engulfed his arms and they licked his cheeks.
"And I really hate the fact that you think that fire can be used only for evil! So I'm gonna have to take you down a notch. DO YOU HEAR ME!?"
"Take me down? Fine by me, let's see what you can do, you PINK HAIRED PEASANT!" she created huge jet propulsion flames that launched her to Natsu.
"LET'S DANCE, PRINCESS!" Natsu sprinted right to the speeding Azula as she made a compressed ball of fire in her hand and Natsu had pulled back his right fist. Both of them collided and when they did, huge blue and orange pillars of their fire shot up into the sky. The anticipated battle between Natsu and Azula had finally begun.