The wind blew between the teeth of a lion turtle's skull. Those enormous bone structures rose around the island like the jaw of a giant. Moss and lichen covered their surface, while waves crashed against them with a constant echo.
In the distance, the Fire Nation airship rested tilted on the beach.
Katara leaped onto one of the skull's teeth and landed firmly. Her gaze locked onto the figure slipping among the shadows of the bone formations.
—Taga? Where are you going? —her voice echoed in the silence of the titan's cemetery.
Taga stopped.
—Aang needs to be protected.
—I agree —Katara adopted a combat stance, spreading her feet and bending her knees—. But I don't think that's the only thing you're doing here.
—I know my ways may seem unusual to you —Taga stared at her, his eyes gleaming in the sunlight—. But I assure you, everything I do, I do for Aang.
—For Aang? —Katara narrowed her eyes—. Or to get the staff?
—You have no idea what we have lost —Taga's voice grew deep, laden with ancient weight—. You have never known a world with airbending masters.
—I know Aang —Katara replied, not retreating an inch—. He may be the last of his kind, but he is the reason this world knows peace. His values as an Air Nomad have brought balance to chaos. It is because of Aang that the Water Tribes, the Earth Kingdom, and the Fire Nation now work together, seeking harmony. A peace we once believed unattainable.
Taga slowly shook his head.
—You speak of peace, but there will never be true peace between the elements. There never was. Your precious Republic City is built on lies.
—It is built on hope —Katara's fingers curled, and the water from her waterskin began to serpentine around her arms—. Do you know what hope is, Taga?
—Saving my people requires more than hope —Taga's eyes hardened—. It requires sacrifice.
—I saw you try to crush the Renegades' aircraft. You were ready to kill them —Katara stepped forward, the water spinning faster around her hands—. I know what kind of airbender Aang is. But what kind of airbender are you?
Taga was silent for a moment. Then, his expression changed. His mask of calm cracked, and his face grew colder.
—Aang did well to bring us here. There is great strength in him, but also weakness.
—Weakness?
—Yes —Taga turned fully toward her—. You.
He lunged at Katara without warning. His body moved like a serpent, his feet barely touching the surface of the stone tooth. His fist, wrapped in a spiral of compressed air, aimed directly at Katara's chest.
She reacted on instinct. The water serpentining around her arms condensed before her, forming a liquid shield that froze into solid ice in a fraction of a second. Taga's fist struck the barrier with a crash, and the ice cracked but held, trapping the man's right arm in a crystalline prison.
Taga did not stop. With his left arm, he traced a wide arc and generated a hurricane wave of wind that struck Katara in the chest. The young woman was thrown backward, her body spinning in the air as the wind carried her. She opened her eyes just in time to see the sea rushing toward her, and she plunged into the water with a violent splash.
Taga leaped to another of the lion turtle's teeth. Without losing momentum, he extended both hands toward the airship and generated a blast of wind that enveloped the aircraft like a miniature tornado. The metal groaned, and the hull plates bent. Before anyone on board could react, the pressure of the compressed air crushed the hull like an empty can.
—No!
Katara's eyes widened as she emerged from the water. A deafening explosion echoed across the island as the airship burst into a ball of fire and twisted metal. Flames rose toward the stormy sky, and the aircraft's remains rained down on the beach like smoking meteors.
Katara gritted her teeth. The fury she felt at that moment was a fire burning in her veins, hotter than any flame she had ever fought. She moved her hands with furious speed, and the water around her responded. Blades of water, thin as razor edges and fast as arrows, tore through the air toward Taga.
He dodged them. His body moved with impressive agility, spinning and leaping among the lion turtle's teeth as the blades passed within centimeters of his skin. One grazed his cheek, opening a superficial cut from which a thin line of blood welled, but Taga did not even flinch. In the air, he condensed wind beneath his feet and kicked. A blast of compressed air shot toward Katara, striking her shoulder and pushing her back dozens of steps across the water's surface.
Taga closed in quickly. His feet touched the water only for an instant before propelling himself again, using airbending to increase his speed. He charged at Katara and threw a straight punch at her face. She turned her head at the last moment, feeling the wind of the blow graze her cheek.
Taga stomped on the water. The air beneath his foot expanded into a shockwave that repelled the water around him, pushing Katara away. She leaped back and landed on the sea's surface, her feet supported by a thin layer of ice she created at the moment of contact.
—Aang trusted you! —she shouted, her voice laden with rage and betrayal.
She launched a water whip that cracked through the air like thunder. The whip's tip struck Taga in the chest, and the impact stunned him momentarily. Katara seized the opening. She froze the water beneath the man's feet, immobilizing him in a block of ice that reached his knees.
Then she raised both hands toward the sky.
Four pillars of water rose around her, each as thick as an ancient tree. Katara held them in the air for a second, the veins in her arms straining from the effort. Then she brought her hands down sharply. The pillars bent like felled logs and crashed down on Taga, striking him with a force that would have split any normal man in two.