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No. 116710
>>116709 During Ty Lee's performance, however, Azula basically does what she did in Return to Omashu, demanding the net to be set on fire in order to make things more entertaining, though it's obviously as payback for what Ty Lee said earlier and perhaps to motivate Aang to reveal himself. Both Mai and Aang are concerned, but Azula ignores their complaints (mocking Aang's 'doubt in Ty Lee's abilities' especially after having heard his words to her earlier). As the frightened Ty Lee manages to keep her balance and continue with the show, she gets an applause or two before Azula does something a little extra harsh. While everyone is amazed with Ty Lee, Azula still appears bored, her attention more focused on finishing a cherry from a plate brought earlier. She casually flicks the cherry pit straight in Ty Lee's direction, hitting her hard enough to hurt and distract her, knocking her delicate balance off. Ty Lee begins to fall down towards the still burning net. Mai stands up as if ready to run over and try to catch her but Aang immediately leaps forward, blows out the fire and with the same gust of air, cushions Ty Lee's fall. The crowd is completely silent. Azula, satisfied with the results, tells her officers to arrest Aang, confiscating his glider as well. Aang, taken by surprise is grabbed before he can make a move. Mai runs over to Ty Lee and helps her up. Azula's men remove the head wrap Aang had been wearing to hide his arrow. Azula tells the Captain of the ship who had been accompanying her that her eyes didn't deceive her before. She also tell Mai and Ty Lee cheerfully (as Mai is still helping Ty Lee) that she's willing to overlook this "little bump" in their friendship as it's not their fault they were "so easily deceived by this Airbender menace. It's in their nature after all." Azula says this in a way, complete with the appropriate look of disappointment on her face, that gives the impression that she knows that they knew Aang was an Airbender the whole time and just trying to hide it from her. Mai shoots her an angry look but doesn't say anything back, since she isn't too happy about Azula being so willing to risk Ty Lee's safety just to confirm a suspicion she wasn't sure was true (as well as to punish Ty Lee herself). It appears Aang is doomed, but luckily he still has some soot in his nose from his volcanic imprisonment. The resulting dramatic sneeze helps him to slip out of his captors' firm grasp. As a a literal firefight begins, the frightened audience clears out. Angry Azula tells her two childhood friends they can redeem themselves for their mistake by helping to catch him. Ty Lee gives Mai a look that basically says "I know what she said, but we can't." Reading this, Mai sighs and apologizes to Ty Lee and says they don't have any other choice. What follows is a scene of Mai, Azula's soldiers attempting to catch Aang by him across the circus ground, with Mai and Azula keeping up with him best. Ty Lee stays out of it, still trying to decide in her head what she should do as she sees her friends fighting each other. She thinks back at how scared she was falling to what seemed like certain doom, all the fear she felt around Azula and, in contrast, how much fun it was hanging out with Aang all day and how he, someone she barely knew, had already saved her twice in one day and his encouraging words. When she snaps out of her deep reflection she sees that Aang is surrounded. When Mai succeeds in tying Aang up and holding him still, Ty Lee's face turns serious.
Azula, meanwhile, boasts that Aang, as destiny ordained, has been defeated by Fire nation like other Airbenders before him. A brief conversation happens between the two as Azula mocks Aang as an example of why his people had no chance against the Fire Nation, but she also tells him that he can make things easier for himself IF he gives her information on where she might find the Avatar since if someone as young as Aang is still alive, there must be more Airbenders around somewhere and if there are still Airbenders alive and the Avatar hasn't been born into either the Water Tribe or Earth Kingdom, then the Avatar must still be among their ranks. Aang hesitates to answer and just looks at Mai, whose eyes look away. It almost looks like Mai feels ashamed of what she's done, but the emotion on her face isn't strong enough to really express it fully. When Aang refuses to answer her, Azula shrugs and says it doesn't matter since she has "plenty of other ways to make him talk." As the soldiers prepare to lift Aang up and take him away, Ty Lee suddenly shows up and subdues them, displaying her Chi-Blocking skills before Aang for the first time. Both Mai and Aang are stupefied. Once Ty Lee makes quick work of the platoon, she stands between Mai and Aang, attempting to reason with Azula and tell her in her own naive way that Aang is not an enemy and says that if Azula would only give him a chance like they did, she'd realize that, Airbender or not, Aang is a friend. Azula tells Ty Lee to quit with her childish nonsense and warns her that what she's doing amounts to treason. Ty Lee refuses to back down at Azula's command, so an upset Azula begins putting her down and yells at Mai to arrest her as well. Mai walks up to them menacingly appearing like she's going to comply without question. Ty Lee gulps and prepares herself to fight her, but Mai surprises everyone by pulling out one of her knives and cutting the ropes that bind Aang and saying to them that they should get going. Azula freaks out and asks what she's doing? Mai turns around and explains to Azula calmly, but in a pretty smart aleky tone, about how she "miscalculated" how much fear she strikes into Mai herself. The gloomy girl tops this her short speech off with how much Azula's personality and following her around like a dog bores her and besides, the way Azula described being a traitor "sounds like it could be nice change of pace," in her dull life. Azula, naturally, is furious and shows off her skills at bending lightning for the first time. Thanks to a now free Aang, the three just barely evade Azula's bolts long enough for Ty Lee to get close enough to block her chi. When all is said and done, Mai tells Aang he needs to get moving before Ty Lee's chi blocking wears off. At this point, Appa shows up right on cue, having sensed Aang was in trouble. Aang thanks his new friends for what they've done for him but tells them they didn't have to since now they're in trouble because of him. Mai scoffs at Aang again to not be so full of himself, crossing her arms and looking away. Aang just smiles and prepares to leave, but just as he does so, Ty Lee asks where he will go. Aang says that he'll probably head back home like he originally planned to which Ty Lee begs to come with him. Mai and Aang are taken back by the suggestion, to which Ty Lee explains that there isn't very much else they can do now except wait to be arrested and that it might be more fun to see the Air Temple where Aang comes from. Azula, who is still struggling to pull numb body off the ground, shouts at three that no matter where they go she'll find them and make them suffer for their insubordination. Mai groans and says if it'll get her out of this dump and away from Azula's yelling, she's willing to go anywhere ('I doubt my parents'll notice I'm gone anyway').
Just as things seem about set, a sudden earth tremor begins as the top of the mountain explodes. As the circus people nearby begin to scatter and panic, we see scenes of how the earthquake is affecting the area (including that scene mentioned above where the two young Fire Nation guys who were arrested for treasonous talk escape their jail cell because the quake made the wall collapse). Pillows of smoke begin to race down the mountain side and lava bursts forth from crevices. Mai and Ty Lee tell Aang they should get away immediately, but Aang looks back at the panicy circus and then at Azula and the others lying helpless on the ground and says they can't just leave them. Though Mai insists they don't have time and that there's nothing they can do except save their own hides, Aang picks Azula, who yells at him not to touch her, and airbends her limp body onto Appa's back. Aang, Mai and Ty Lee load the other soldiers with her as well. Aang tells Appa to take them away. When Ty Lee asks Aang what he plans to do, he says that maybe he can buy the people at the circus some more time, but tells them Appa should be able to take them somewhere safe. Aang takes his glider back and flies to where the smoke pillows are coming down towards the circus. Aang attempts to use his Airbending to its fullest to hold back the toxic smoke and cool off the lava, but it all seems to be in vain until the minute he himself becomes engulfed, as we see him in the smoke, coughing and struggling to breathe, his eyes and tattoos start to glow. Mai and Ty Lee, who are watching from the sky as they fly away on Appa, think that Aang is a goner. Azula, peeking over, laughs at his failure and says that it looks like the two "became traitors all for nothing," telling them also not to think that just because Aang's done for that this means she's gonna go any easier on them for what they did. At that moment, they see the bright glow of Aang in his Avatar State. Aang uses his increased power in the Avatar State to gather all the smoke in the area around him in a twister shape beneath him (obscuring his legs) as he shoots into the air. In the AS, he also bends both the lava and water from a nearby stream or river around him (similar to what he did with the water while in the AS in the canon episode 2). He uses the water to cool off the lava, creating a tall coiling pillar of cooled volcanic rock while at the same time gathering all the smoke and effectively cleansing it of its toxins and heat. The circus people and Mai and Ty Lee in the distance are totally mesmerized by what they've seen. When Azula sees this, she points out that Aang is in fact the Avatar, wondering how that's possible ('I-It can't be! That's impossible! That little brat's the Avatar? The master of all four elements?') Mai and Ty Lee look at each other equally surprised at this realization. When the bulk of the eruption appears to have subsided, Mai stomps her foot on Appa's head and orders him to take them down. After they land, Mai and Ty Lee toss Azula and the other soldiers off Appa onto the ground. Azula tells them that they're fools without a clue what they're doing. Before they take off to go get Aang, Mai stops Ty Lee and tells her that Azula might have a point and that if they choose to leave with Aang now, they might not ever have a chance to come back. Mai also says that if Aang IS the Avatar and was hiding it from them the whole time, how do they know they can trust him to be telling them the truth? Ty Lee pauses for a minute and then tells Mai that since they found Aang, she knew there was something special about him and that she always knew by that the universe had something special planned for her. That was why, she says, she joined the circus in the first place because she felt it was her calling, but now "I can't help but feel like Aang is calling a little louder." If Aang is the Avatar, she goes on, maybe all of the events of their lives have been leading up to this moment, maybe they were meant to become friends with Aang and maybe the reason she was supposed to join the circus was to eventually find Aang under the mountain. Perhaps if they go with Aang now, Ty Lee finishes, she can find out where she is meant to be and, maybe BOTH of them can, she adds. Mai doesn't say anything, but after looking into Ty Lee's mixed sad/happy expression, she shrugs and just say "Well, better than staying here and dealing with Azula." Ty Lee gives Mai a big hug, which causes her to tense up for a moment, but Mai returns it. Mai makes a funny face that looks as if she's thinking "What have I gotten into?" As they take off, Azula screams at them that she'll track them wherever they hide, and with the Chi-Blocking starting to wear off, spits out blue flames from her mouth in rage.
We cut to Aang curled up on top of the coiled pillar of rock he's created, sulking as he holds his glider and the circus folk stare up at him. He sees Appa with Mai and Ty Lee on top coming into view. They tell him to hop on. Aang is happy to see that they're alright and leaps on Appa's head as he flies away. We skip a little ahead to see Aang holding the reigns of Appa as he flies over the water. Ty Lee is chatting up a storm about how amazing Aang was. Aang blushes a little, but just gives a quiet thank you to Ty Lee for her complements. Mai interrupts Ty Lee and standing over Aang, casting her shadow on him, demands to know why he didn't tell them he was the Avatar earlier and also demands to know what else he's hiding from them. Aang turns his face forward, refraining from eye contact with Mai has he pilots the sky bison and just says in sad voice "I'm sorry I didn't tell you that before, but I didn't want you guys to know cause...I never wanted to be the Avatar." End episode.
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