She couldn't breathe. She couldn't feel. Nothing registered except the rapidly increasing pain in her heart and something wet and warm sliding down her cheeks in the pouring rain. She shook uncontrollably. NO. It couldn't have happened…
Her blurred vision focused from staring into the darkness down to the mud-covered blade she gripped tighter in her hands, cutting slits into her palms and fingers, making the blood flow, but she couldn't feel it. All she felt was numbness and the oncoming feeling that she was going to break apart into thousands of pieces and fall…
Like he did…
Zuko…
NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Images and voices flashed back to her of the previous minutes spent, where he had saved her life, but lost his own. The lightning split the sky overhead and the booming thunder was enough to rattle the ribs in her aching chest, as if they didn't shake enough already from the overbearing grief that flooded her being. The tears kept flowing, and now to comply, the wracked sobs and cries followed as she stared into the dark abyss the young prince had fallen into from the broken bridge.
He had saved her…protected her…and she thought he didn't care…
They had been running headlong into the oncoming storm, from his sister, the maniacal she-witch of the Fire Nation, and her two friends, when Sokka had been injured in the fight. Unable to move and unconscious, Toph and Aang had picked him up and carried him off, yelling to Katara to follow, but she stayed behind to give them a chance. Any chance. But she was no match. Fighting three masters to one was a mistake, and after five minutes she was beaten, bloody, torn up, and about to die by their hand.
Until he showed up.
The young proud prince who'd been chasing them all over the world had now jumped from above to fight off and stand between her fallen body and the attackers, blades crossed in front of him, an angry snarl on his face.
"YOU. WILL. NOT. TOUCH. HER."
Azula smirked. "Oh please, choose a side already, Zuzu. If not with us and if not with them, why protect her? She's already half-dead anyway."
He looked down. And she looked up. His chest was shaking from jumping in front of her; rainwater spilled off his long hair and dripped off his nose, and handsome gold eyes shone in the burst of lightning above them. His eyes didn't hold anger now, they held compassion. Her once enemy now was the closest savior she had ever had.
He looked back up towards his sister. "Stand down."
Azula smiled wickedly. "Never."
The rest was a blur for Katara as she watched weakly. Zuko attacked all three in a mixture of sword attacks, firebending, and pure anger, while she strove to stay conscious. He blocked all chi attacks from Ty Lee, and in a matter of seconds, easily sent her spinning across the slippery rocks to land against a tree, unconscious. He encircled himself in a shield of fire to block the shuriken that Mai threw at him, and in some instances, repelling them to hit her back. But eventually, he had gotten close enough to attack her in combat, and for that she had no experience. She went down easily.
He turned toward Azula. And she was ready.
Attacking and spinning, the Fire Nation prince and princess dove for each other in the storm, the lightning giving everything a weird sickly white glow as it struck above their heads. Fire blasts of blue and orange shot from their fingertips, and the fight continued onward as he kept her away from Katara and she barely managed to kill him every move she made.
But both were tiring.
Azula gathered up her last bit of strength, and as Zuko ran toward her, she let loose fire mixed with lightning straight at him. He stopped short and could only stare in horror at the white hot fire coming at him faster than anything he'd seen. His arms went to protect his head. He failed.
But it never hit him as it all went dark, and he looked up in time just to see Katara jump in front of him, protecting them both with a huge wall made of the rainwater she was bending. The lightning took to the water, not to his body, but she cried out at the pressure the lightning forced on the water. It was over in an instant.
She let the wall down and fixed herself in a fighting stance by his side, and he looked at her in the pouring rain. Strands of her hair had been undone by the storm and attack, and her clothes were torn and burned, but the spark was back in her eyes; the same spark that had always been directed toward him when he fought them. But she smiled. "We're ending this."
Smirking at her, then frowning towards his sister, they both attacked with battle cries in the thickening storm. He kicked and she punched. Water and fire now came together to fend off lightning.
Fighting onward, all three receiving blows, it came down to Azula cornered against the cliff's edge, with the only exit being to jump to her death or the small, old, and worn wood-and-rope bridge that was fraying at the knots, set on fire already by a wide range fireblast from the princess. She smiled, knowing what they would do if she ran onto it. One or both would follow. Anger took the place of reason in them both right now. And she ran.
Zuko stopped. Katara didn't.
"NO!" he cried out as he sprinted to reach her, and, getting an idea to pull her back, slid on his side, grabbed her leg and pulled her down to the ground, taking immediately one of the swords in his hand and plunging it into the cloth of her clothing and deep into the earth, stopping her from going anywhere, and keeping her fixed in safety, three feet from the edge.
He continued to slide.
"ZUKO!" she screamed, as he slid off the ground onto the rickety bridge, and stopped, flat out on his stomach. He didn't move for a second, until he groaned and shook his head to clear away the dizziness. He looked up. Her blue eyes were fixed wide in fear towards him, the sword by her side buried deep in the ground and her clothing, keeping her fixed so as that she would not follow him.
She…must be safe…
She screamed his name. And he looked behind him. His sister held a blue blade of fire in her hand, her dark brown almost black hair whipping wildly across her face in wet strands. She ran towards him on the creaky, breaking bridge. And he jumped up and ran to attack her.
Katara cried out. She had to help him! But the blade meant to save her kept her a prisoner in that spot. And no amount of shaking, wiggling, and pulling on the blade would set her free. In the process of stabbing the blade down, Zuko had twisted her clothing around the blade, so that she would not be able to rip free. And it had worked. The expertise of a swordsman now kept her from saving him as she tried to break free, but could only watch in despair as brother and sister now tried to kill each other.
Zuko evaded the blazing blade easily and managed to punch Azula in the face, just once, before she kicked him in the gut and made him fall to his knees firmly. And it set off the first snap of a rope off the bridge. Both bodies were jerked, and as the bridge angled dangerously off center, Azula held on, Zuko did not, but only to the last second where he managed to grab the wooden steps of the bridge with one hand.
"ZUKO!" Katara screamed. The tears slid down her face. The blade would not budge.
Azula stood up, holding onto the rope railing. "Now it's time I rid the world of the failure prince," she snarled happily. He looked up with wide eyes as she lifted the fire blade above her head, to finish him off. And as she let it down, he lifted his sword to cut her in the foot.
She screamed as she lost her balance and tumbled off the bridge, but the force of her jumping back made the other rope on the same side snap, and Zuko disappeared before Katara's eyes, as did his sister and the bridge.
"NO!" she screamed as she reached out.
But the bridge still stayed in place against the cliff, two worn and near-to-snapping ropes still held their weight, barely. Zuko held on with one hand, and his sister had managed to hold on, and even get knotted to the bridge in the frayed ropes, below him. He didn't care about her. Putting away his sword, he began to climb, slowly…for the ropes were dangerously close to their limit. He groaned as he pulled himself upwards. "Katara," he whispered, then tried again. "KATARA!"
She heard his cry and gasped. She stopped pulling on the sword and dragged herself as far towards the drop-off as she could, trying to look down. "Zuko? Zuko! Where are you!?"
He pulled up harder. "Right here!"
She still couldn't see him, but hearing his voice had never sounded better to her ears. She looked desperately as far as she could.
He pulled himself up until he reached a place three feet from the top of the cliff. He lifted one hand. "Katara!"
She saw his arm and her heart pounded against her chest. "Zuko!" she screamed. She reached for his hand and just barely managed to grab it.
The feel of her grip in his made the prince's heart stop. To know that someone cared for him, and that feeling of security, that feeling of just "being there" made him smile. She pulled and he pulled and he reached the top of the cliff, just barely peeking over and his gaze immediately shot to her eyes, where he smiled. She broke into a sobbed smile as well, for him to be alive.
Suddenly he cried out and fell backward. She screamed but held onto his hand. Through the tears of pain that formed in his eyes, he looked down. Azula, still attached to the bridge, laughed insanely at the blade she had driven into his calf. She yanked down and he cried out, the pain burning and licking at his leg. And the pain pulled him down. He knew then that he had to save Katara's life, but there was only one way.
He managed to kick Azula back down to her starting place for stalling time, and through the tears of pain in his eyes and the rain pouring down on them, he managed to look back at Katara. Hope filled her tear-wracked eyes. He winced at the pain, looked down, and swallowed. This would be the hardest thing he would ever have to do. But it was either this, or Azula would kill him and then kill Katara, fixed to the spot. He had to save her, if he could not do so for himself.
"Katara," he whispered. "Look at me." The thunder cracked overhead and the rain poured harder. He gripped her hand tighter in his. It was the only thing holding him up besides the other hand gripped to the fraying rope. "Look at me."
Emotion left her face. "No," she whispered. Fear came back to her eyes, and her face then twisted into sorrow. "I'm not letting you go!"
Tears filled his eyes as he looked at her, and then back down, to where Azula had recovered and was now climbing again, back to kill him… and then Katara.
He looked up. "Let go," he ordered softly.
"NO!"
"Katara, let me go!" he yelled.
She gripped him tighter. "I can't!" she screamed. "I WON'T!"
He held her hand tight, squeezing it. "Let go," he whispered through clenched teeth. "Let go. Let go, please…"
Azula climbed, laughing.
NO…
Katara's grip was so tight that she was shaking both of theirs.
"I can't. You care about me. And I for you! I can't just let you fall!"
She was crying. He was too.
NO……
Azula reached up. One more climb for her and she was able to stab him in the back.
He looked down at how close she was, and looked back up. "Yes…yes," he whispered, gripping her hand. "I do…I do care about you. But please. For me. You MUST let me go!"
NO!!!
Her eyes wide and her teeth clenched, her tears fell. He was trying to save her.
Her gaze left him as she saw a hand gripped with a dagger behind his back. "ZUKO!"
He turned. Azula was ready.
He looked back to Katara. "LET ME GO!"
She sobbed as her hand quickly released his.
He slid down a bit, but caught the rope with that hand as he took his blade that he slipped into the sheath in the hand she had let go. And before anyone could think, he took the blade out and nimbly sliced through the remaining two ropes holding up the bridge.
"NOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Katara screamed.
The ropes, Azula, and Zuko disappeared, and his last gaze was on her face…
Her scream echoed through the rocks and canyon as the thunder cracked and lightning still sizzled above her, but nothing mattered now. She looked angrily at the blade that held her captive, and with more strength than she knew, pulled up. The blade scraped against the ground but came easily, and she fell backwards, shakily holding the blade in her hands against her chest. Her breath was shaky and uneven, but her face mirrored pain as she shoved herself upwards and stood at the edge of the cliff, staring down into the blackness of the void where they had disappeared…
She couldn't believe it.
He…he had sacrificed his life to save hers…
And the numbness had started…
The relapse of the fight and his end had shaken her… how could he do that? Give his life for hers? She thought he hated her, them, especially Aang. Why?
But remembering the look in his eyes toward her as he dropped…the tears spilled harder as she continued to grip the blade in her hands. There was something there, something that made him save her, something that was beyond words, beyond description. It wasn't a stranger saving a stranger, it wasn't an enemy saving enemy, but they weren't friends, were they?
"Yes…yes," he whispered, gripping her hand. "I do…I do care about you."
He cared…about me…
She looked down at the blade in her hands and closed her eyes as the lightning struck behind her, the water still falling from both the drenched sky and her blue eyes.
"Why?" she whispered, as she sobbed again, "why?"
The lightning drowned her voice as she screamed to the sky, the blade still in her hands as a sign of what he sacrificed, to save…
…the girl he fell in love with…