The battle had turned for the worse since Aaron stepped away to heal Iroh. Dopi’s skin bore splotches of red on it, and the rest of the Lotus was slick with sweat, yet Grandfather floated above them all with a confident smirk.

“Is that all you have?”

“No!” Aaron roared, as he shot several air stingers, each carrying a hint of spiritual energy at his grandfather. The Old man generated a wind barrier that spun in place and soaked up all of the damage. A split second later, Zuko unleashed a torrent of attacks, stringing several fireballs together, chaining it with a fiery axe kick, and finishing up with two flaming whips.

“Overwhelm him,” Zuko yelled, and Aaron joined in, sending air gusts, wind blades, and streams. Jon jon joined in also, unleashing a torrent of head-sized balls of compressed flames. Bumi refused to be left out as he adopted Mark’s strategy, sending numerous pit-sized bullets of stones. Dopi unleashed a new technique he hadn’t seen her use before. Several blades of pure spirit energy flashed forward intermittently, damaging Grandfather’s shields.

For the first time since that fight, Grandfather clammed up, raising several walls of stones to reinforce his ball of rotating air and wind.

The first of his truly lethal attacks came when Aaron began to weave the spirit vines technique.

He felt the swell in Chi and spirit energy before a nearly blinding discharge of energy arced out. Dopi’s eyes grew slightly wider, and Aaron spiked Chi-reinforcement for the boost in Chi and speed. He got Zuko out of the crosshairs just in time to watch a section of the floor evaporate.

Zuko was ghost-pale when they came to a stop.

“Zuko, let’s wrap this up before he tries something else,” Aaron yelled, but they were too late.

Aaron felt energy swell again, and he yelled. “Get back!”

This time, no bright light arced out. Instead, large tentacles of white and red slithered out of the core of compressed earth, and bits of rock shifted to the underbelly of each massive tentacle forming blades designed to rend and destroy.

Aaron was speechless. He recognized some parts of the technique. In the fragment of his memories, he remembered his grandfather using something similar when he faced ancient giant tentacles, but he found nothing concrete in the memories. It was all hazy and in patches.

Bumi, Jon Jon, and Zuko looked just as stunned as Aaron did.

A slow clap rang out. “Bravo. To push me this far,” he said. “Perhaps, it’s time I take this fight more seriously,” Grandfather said.

Without warning, the tentacles surged forth, aimed at them. Bumi moved in time, thankfully. He sent them all flying in different directions, General Iroh included. Another tentacle came swinging for Aaron and Zuko as they came down.

Leveraging his free sub-mind, Aaron gathered air around himself, concentrated it below his leg, and boosted himself and Zuko above the swipe, landing on the tentacle.

Both men ran up the tentacle, and while they dealt with that, Dopi’s floating claws shot forward, running hot, molten lines up and down Grandfather’s rotating shield. It bought Jon jon the chance to launch a combined attack with Bumi—a flaming rock.

Grandfather sent out a proud streak of red lightning that ripped the rock apart, but a dozen or so pieces slammed into his shield, ripping out more chunks of it.

Aaron chose that moment to follow up with a combination attack with Zuko. He created several large balls of air boosted by spiritual enhancement coated in flames that exploded on impact, rapidly expanding. Grandfather’s tentacles blocked most of it, but a single ball did manage to make it through. It splashed and then unraveled against his stone shield, earning a chuckle from him.

“That’s more like it, show me more.”

Aaron responded with the spirit vine technique instead, having sprinted more than halfway up the tentacles at this point, changing foot holds intermittently.

Dozens of thick green tentacles surged from the ground and wrapped around Grandfather’s tentacles, seizing them up and removing them from the fight. The few that made it close to him were shredded to pieces with a wind blade, but Aaron noticed it was noticeably less powerful than his earlier attacks.

As he fell to his knees, Aaron caught the look of surprise and weakness in his eyes, but he saw no fear in them.

Dopi chose that moment to flash in front of him with a spirit-filled punch, but he easily parried it and counterattacked like he’d done a million times. However, she was only pushed a couple of meters back instead of sent flying off the earth dome as he intended.

She grinned at the discovery and unleashed an unstoppable torrent of kicks, punches, and energy attacks. Jon and Bumi joined in a moment later, and Aaron bore witness to a peculiar sight—his grandfather getting pushed back.

Still, the confident smile did not leave his face—even as he sliced the hundredth vine that came at him.

“Give up,” Jon jon said. “You’re outmatched, Paku.”

“Or don’t,” Dopi snarled. “Give me the pleasure of ripping you limb from limb.”

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“You’re a lot more violent than I remember, Dopi,” Paku laughed. “And as for surrendering, why would I do that? My backup just arrived.”

Aaron followed his Grandfather’s eyes to an approaching figure. I was General Wang.

“Aaron!” Uncle Wang called out, confused.

“Uncle!”

Wang's gaze slowly took in the battlefield around him, before settling on his Father. His eyes burned with rage.

“What is the meaning of this.”

“I am merely taking matters into our own hands,” Grandfather explained in an indifferent tone. “You’ve seen the destruction and neglect young children with more spiritual power can wreak if it’s not guided properly. We’re on the cusp of victory, I couldn’t risk all that we’ve fought for.”

“He’s a child,” General Wang slowly said as his fist balled up and his whole body vibrated. “More importantly, he’s the Avatar. It’s his destiny to restore balance to the world, not yours.”

Grandfather’s face twisted into a vicious snarl. “Destiny? Was it the Air Nation’s destiny to be wiped out 100 years ago? Was it my Destiny to be the only survivor! Was it Roku’s destiny to be blinded by his friendship with Sozin? And was it the world’s destiny to lose more than half of its population to a man-made plague wrought by a child drunk on power!”

His spiritual power swelled with each sentence, forcing everybody except Wang to their knees, their very souls wincing in pain.

“I’ve had enough of destiny,” he said. “I will wipe out that sniveling snail, Samir, teach that brat, Mark, a lesson he will never forget, and finally show the Fire Nation their place. Will you help me build and Utopia for the thousands of Air Nation people to come? Or have you become soft-hearted and afraid of power like your nephew?”

‘Shit Shit Shit!’

Aaron panicked. Ever since Uncle Wang failed to capture Samir during the invasion, he’d been different. He was distant, apathetic, aloof—a shadow of his former self. What grandfather was offering was a chance to finally set things right. Get revenge for his fallen Ghosts and remove the thorn in his side that was Samir.

Aaron knew his Uncle cared deeply for him, but he knew how much pain Samir had put him through.

His heart dropped to his stomach as his uncle’s eyes met his, and the man's lips drew something closely resembling a smile. Suddenly, he pulled his spear and leveled it against his grandfather.

“Choose another host,” Wang said. “I have no issue with you returning to the physical world, spirits knows we need it. But the avatar's body is not yours to puppet.”

Grandfather’s gaze grew frigid. “You disappoint me, Wang.” Grandfather stretched his finger forth and fired a beam of pure spirit energy. Wang spun his Spear, and it lit up with blinding blue energy as he whipped it skyward, splitting the beam of light.

“Do you any other body measure up to the Avatar’s.” He swung out and a wave of light flashed out. Wang gritted his teeth as he thrust his spear. A spear of light shot out of his spear tip, wrapped in a funnel of spiritual wind.

It pierced through the wave and crashed into a wall of earth Grandfather suddenly rose.

“Get out of here!” Uncle Wang roared, pulling Aaron from his reverie. The monstrous pressure his grandfather had generated suddenly eased up as a thick pressure burst from Uncle Wang.

“Such spiritual pressure,” Dopi muttered.

Suddenly, Aaron was assaulted with flashes of his Grandfather controlling spirits with his spiritual pressure alone. He understood part of the technique, but it was well beyond him for now. However, it made more certain than ever that his grandfather could not be allowed to have free reign over the world. He wouldn’t just stop at the Fire Nation.

“What are you doing just standing there,” Zuko said, grabbing him by the shoulder. “He said, Run.”

“We can’t,” Aaron said. “We’ll be running for the rest of our lives if we do. He needs to go down today.”

“Then what are our options,” Jon Jon asked as he panted. He looked exhausted, but Aaron was certain he’d fight to the end if he had to, if not for his son, then for the world. The entire battle was a testament to their dedication.

“The spirit vines are the only thing that stands a chance of holding him,” Aaron said, “but I don’t have nearly enough spirit energy to summon them a second time.”

“I still do,” Dopi said stepping up, “If he’s weak enough, I can even help the Avatar spirit expel him. Let’s put an end to this madness.”

Aaron nodded and their attention turned back to the battle.

Grandfather and Wang had both stopped holding back. Wang fought with an unnatural speed and power, but his spiritual presence grew smaller with each move. His eyes burned with the crimson light of Chi-reinforcement. He zipped around the battlefield firing Stingers, and wind arrows, and weaved through impossible attacks, leaping over tentacles, and parried great balls of spiritual energy.

Aaron knew his Uncle didn’t have long left, but he couldn’t afford to act without an opening either. The opportunity they were looking for came when Uncle Wang unleashed his most powerful attack yet.

His spiritual presence, which had kept their grandfather’s own at bay, suddenly disappeared before his spear whipped out at supersonic speeds.

It crossed the distance before them in the blink of an eye and carved a giant hole at the center of the earth and spirit construct grandfather rode.

Grandfather’s eyes went wide for the first time in the fight, looking genuinely surprised, and that was when they struck.

Hundreds of vines burst out from the ground and snapped at Grandfather. He shot rays of spirit that incinerated dozens at a time, but one finally snagged his leg, despite his extraordinary perception, and it was all it took. Dozens of tentacles snaked around him, slowly overwhelming his puny physical might and containing his spiritual power.

He wriggled and screamed all the while. Before he had the chance to pull out another impossible technique, Dopi sprung forward and dug her fingers into the Avatar’s chest and the world exploded in blinding light.

Grandfather’s spirit was thrown out of Aang’s body, while Dopi crashed to the ground opposite Aaron.

“Dope!” Aaron ran to her side, but somebody got to her downed body faster. It was Grandfather. His spirit body had wide gashes that leaked unnatural light and he had a glare that could melt stone.

“I should’ve killed you when I had the chance! You've ruined everything. Months of planning lost!” Multi-colored rays of light poured from his fingers ripping through Dopi’s chest. She died without a sound.

Aaron, however, did nothing but scream. Tears rolled down his face, tapping into emotions he never knew he felt.

“You monster!” Aaron roared as he activated Chi Reinforcement and White Flash. He blasted forward so fast, he felt the muscles in his hand rip from the effort. He reappeared, his hand halfway through his Grandfather's chest.

The Old man screamed in surprise, backhanding him. The blow dislocated Aaron’s jaw, snapped him out of Chi-reinforcement, and sent him spinning.

Aaron saw a dozen attacks converge on his grandfather’s location through blurry eyes, but the man blocked all of the attacks, generating a rotating wall of spiritual energy and wind before promptly disappearing.

Aaron struggled to his feet; his eyes wet with tears. He rushed over to Dopi, arriving just in time to see her lock eyes with him, hand stretched out. She faded before he touched her.

It was like a piece of him was gone.

Behind him, Aaron sensed his uncle collapse from exhaustion. His injuries from the fight, it seemed, went beyond just the physical. Zuko and Jon jon rushed over to Aang, giving him the attention, he sorely needed, while Aaron stood still, gritting his teeth, his body vibrating from anger and grief.

It was personal now. Grandfather needed to go.