Title: Dream

Author: Loki40766

Disclaimer: Do you really think I would be writing fanfiction if they belonged to me? No, they are not mine. I don't know who they do belong to, and if you sue me, you are not going to get much.

Pairing:Zuko/Katara with past Aang/Katara

Zuko dreamed of fire. It twisted around him, smothered him. He could not breathe. The smoke, it was too much. He was choking, dying. Where was Katara? She was water and surely she could put out the flames. Yet, was not he, fire? Why would the flames not answer his call? This was not how it was supposed to be. He had captured the Avatar. Had brought the creature before his father and reclaimed his honor. So, why was this happening?

"You know why, Zuko," was whispered on the wind.

The voice, Zuko tried to grasp it. Tried to hold onto the voice, which was the only thing that seemed the slightest bit familiar to him in this hellfire. The voice was familiar. He knew this person, but from where?

"Come now, Zuko. Don't you remember me," a figure wearing familiar orange clothes and carrying a staff, appeared in front of him. The figure's voice rasped, as if speaking was hard for him to do. The fire around them vanished, and they both appeared to be in a glade.

The Avatar! How was this possible? Zuko had taken part in the creature's death. He knew the Avatar was dead. They had made his death shameful. Had made him die by hanging, a death that that the creature would have easily been able to prevent if had control of his wind element, to keep the rope from going taut. The drug, that had been within the Avatar's system, had prevented him from doing so, though. Zuko looked closer. There was a ring of bruises around the Avatar's neck. It looked as if someone had tried to strangle him with a...rope.

Zuko remembered the stories that his nursemaid had told him, when he had been little. He remembered distinctly, the stories of vengeful ghosts and spirits that had returned to the mortal world, from whatever afterlife they had been in, to haunt the living, and to get their revenge on the ones that had wronged them in life.

Zuko looked at the silent and still Avatar, amanner that he felt was very different from what he could remember of his nemesis, and said with a courage that he did not feel, "What is this, Avatar? You could not defeat me in life, so now you haunt me in death? You are a coward. There is no way I can possibily fight you in the realm of spirits. You control this place completely."

"If I wished to kill you I would have already done so, Zuko. Have you forgotten, Zuko, that I used to defeat you every time we fought, but I never killed you even when I had many chances. I was honorable. I let my enemy live, but you were the unhonorable one. You trapped me by the hand of another, by my love which I so foolishly had for Katara," a sad look came over the dead Avatar's face.

"I loved her, you know, but now I see that she never loved me. She was attracted to me, yes, but it was only lust: for me and for my power. Katara turned on me. She turned on me for you. The question, that you should be asking yourself, is if she will do the same to you."

"She will never turn on me, Avatar. She loves me. It just took her a little time to understand who was the better man," Zuko sneered, but the seed of doubt, in Katara's love, had been planted. He vowed to himself to test Katara to see if she truly loved him.

"You would do well not to trust her so, Zuko. After all, she turned on her own brother, even," another figure seemed to step out of the shadows. It was the dead, Sokka, who had been killed by several firebenders in the final attack to get the Avatar. Zuko looked closer, and sure, enough, his clother were riddled with burn and scorch marks.

Sokka looked at him and sneered.

"I will look forward to when you die, bastard, which will probably be soon, knowing my dear sister," and at the end, the ghost's voice was littered with sarcasm as he seemed to fade back into the shadows.

While Zuko watched as Sokka disappeared, the Avatar vanished. He reappeared behind Zuko, and wrapped his arms around Zuko's waist. The dead Avatar brought his mouth up to Zuko's ear and rasped," Watch her, Zuko, maybe one day you will make a wrong move, and she will find out that she loves Zhao more than you. Then you will be as me Zuko, you will be dead."

With those last spoken words, the dead Avatar, released Zuko, and vanished. The next thing Zuko knew, was that he was once again, trapped in the hellfire. Zuko felt the flames closing in on him, burning him, choking him, killing him.

Zuko shot out of bed, awakening Katara, who sat up sleepily and asked," Zuko, are you all right? You are covered in sweat. Do you need me to call a healer?"

Zuko stared at her. The Avatar's rasped words blaring in his mind, and he wondered if he would ever be able to trust her again.

"No, Katara. It was just a dream. I am going to take a bath. Go back to sleep," he told her.

"Do you want me to join you?" Katara asked with a coy look in her clear bright blue eyes.

"No," was all he told her as he walked into his bathing chamber, and he knew the answer to his previous thoughts.

No, he would never trust her again.

12/29/05

This is my second attempt at fanfiction, and I would greatly appreciate if you would review, so please push the little button and tell me what you think.