He was too late.
The thought was fire in his mind, consuming his entire body as he burned to the ground. Or rather, he wished he was burning to the ground, if it meant that she was safe, that she was….
No, there was water, she would heal herself. It would be okay, it had to be.
Or that's what he had to think, anyway, with Azula still cackling in front of him, golden eyes glowing with wild abandon. She'd lost it, she'd completely lost it. It'd all come crumbling down, just when she thought she was going to build the world back up in fire.
But you can't build a world in fire. Fire burns.
She struck again, this time thankfully at Zuko, who blocked it with ease. His eyes were full of bloodlust, his bones sharp in his body, the blood within his muscles coursing with new purpose, new passion to fight.
She'd hurt Katara. And now he was going to hurt her.
He charged at her, but his steps weren't full of blind rage. They were carefully planned out. It wasn't like before, when he was chasing the Avatar all over the world, when his entire body was fueled by pure rage. No, this was different. His muscles were fire but his mind was ice. He would control it, he wouldn't let himself get burned again.
As for his sister, he couldn't say the same.
Zuko lunged again, his sister blasting him as she skirted away, a crooked grin stretching across her face.
They continued like this, attacking and blocking, their limbs a fury of sharp movements. But Azula was becoming sloppy. And with Katara still on the ground she was alive she had to be there was no time to waste. She was so cocky and overconfident in her animal like state.
It was a fatal strategy.
"What, no more lightning? How pathetic, how weak."
She broke, stopping dead in her tracks as she turned towards Zuko. Her face was contorted, he limps shakey.
"You can't even shoot lightning, Zuzu, and yet you call me weak?"
She smiled.
So did he.
She shot her lightning, straight at his chest.
And Zuko shot it right back.
He stood there, stunned for a moment, the world around him a blurry haze. But, no, he didn't have time. He couldn't dwell in the facts of what just happened, what he'd done.
One, because of she was still alive she had to be.
And the other, because Azula was starting to rise. But she wasn't going to become Fire Lord today. He was.
He lunged on top of her, a scream ripping from his body. She looked up at him, the confidence having escaped from her wide eyes.
He pinned her down. Zuko glared into his sister, chest heaving with ache and adrenaline.
The sister that he'd always wanted, but the sister he'd never really gotten.
Her eyes were wide, but they soon oozed her special blend of crazed cockiness once again. She narrowed her eyes. So did Zuko.
She smiled, a sickly sweet smile that made Zuko's stomach wrench.
"You can't do it, can you? You've always been weak. No wonder Mother left you. The only girls who you'd ever loved. Dead."
Ah, there it was. The blind rage that seized within him, bringing new forms of power that he'd never known to be possible. It was a rage not meant to be felt by the human body, for humans are not capable of containing such rage. It was like fire. Fire spread, and it burned. Oh, did it burn.
And Zuko, he was only human. Lucky to have been born at all.
He snapped her neck. And she went limp.
Raising himself onto shaky legs, he ran over to Katara and before he could even check if she was still alive she had to be she had to he lifted her into his arms and rushed her into the basin of water on the side of the courtyard.
"Katara, oh Agni Katara, c'mon, heal yourself, for the love of…."
Her eyes fluttered open, as did her lips as she struggled to fill her lungs with air. Zuko's chest ripped in two. Hot tears ran down his cheeks as he cupped the girl's face.
But she blinked. Her face went slack. Her eyes closed.
And then he broke.
His eyes were clenched shut as he sputtered pleas and sobs out from his tear stained lips. Love was so painful. Love was so cruel to Zuko, had always been cruel to Zuko. Raised in a family with a father who'd never given him a second glance, who'd marred his face, who'd tried to kill him. A sister who'd always tormented him, who'd always one upped him, who'd tried to kill him.
Zuko's eyes were still closed when a glowing hand fell upon the girl's chest.
Zuko's eyes were still closed when her eyelids peeled away.
Zuko's eyes we're still close when a pair of wet, fragile arms wrapped around him.
His heart threw up into his chest, his lunged crunching under the weight of his ribs. His bones rattled and shook, his jaw unhooking from his skull.
"Zuko…."
And that was when Zuko realized that not everything had to end in fire.