A/N- This story has been a year in the making, but after all of that, I only produced one rough draft of a chapter. Oh well. I really have been busy (lazy) lately. This hasn't been beta read yet. And I am looking for a beta reader by the way. Anyone who would like to be my beta reader should include that in a review, or otherwise send me a PM...

The Day When We Must Part

The bright light of the sun poured through the curtains, glancing about the large room and pausing as it touched the face of the waking Fire Lord. Morning, Zuko thought as he struggled to get up from the spacious bed. He had just inverted himself as a wave of pain crashed into him, causing him to fall back down and clutch his throbbing forehead.

Thinking as to why he was in pain, he drifted back to the night before, where he had consumed copious amounts of lychee wine. He did not even like lychee wine, but after the sake was gone, the insubstantial dessert wine was the only thing left on the table. To the servants' dismay, the lychee wine was soon gone, as well as the Fire Lord's coordination, and as a result, they had to carry a drunken Zuko up flights of stairs for the third time that week. On the way, Zuko accumulated various bruises, a few shattered antiques, and multiple amused onlookers, adding to the problems already present with his hangover.

However, being too tired to complain, he closed his eyes again and drifted into what he hoped would be better than the current situation…

Zuko found himself walking with Mai in a bright forest. Birds were chirping, the trees opened for the sun's radiant glory to shine in, and there was a peaceful grace about the area. Nature's beauty was in full bloom.

However, Mai seemed to be bored out of her mind. To her, he thought, the birds were probably annoyingly high pitched, the light too hot, and the peace too unsettling. And as Zuko recalled, she never really liked green. But if nothing else, Zuko felt at peace like never before.

"It's been years since I've felt like this, hasn't it?" Zuko questioned. Thinking Mai would answer, Zuko turned to her.

Mai simply smiled and gently nodded. Too gently, Zuko thought.

Deciding not to raise inquiry of Mai's strange behavior, Zuko continued walking among the trees. He did not notice when Mai stopped behind him. Nor did he notice when the green around him slowly faded into oblivion. The consuming darkness behind him swallowed the light and color as Zuko walked forward, still seeing the deep green of the forest.

"If only I could stay like this forever," Zuko proclaimed, "Isn't this beautiful, Mai?"

No response.

"Mai?" Zuko slowly turned to find that behind him, there was nothing but darkness. In the darkness stood a lone figure of a woman, slowly walking toward him.

Suddenly feeling vulnerable, Zuko found he could not move. For seemingly no reason, a pang of fear surged through him as the figure crept closer. Seconds were hours, and Minutes were centuries, as inches between him and the woman disappeared.

Finally, after a few millennia had passed, the woman's face had come into view, and Zuko found a reason to have fear. Before him, stood the twisted shadow of Azula.

Her hair unkempt and wearing a torn cloak, Azula crept closer, wearing a perfectly devious smile, in contrast to her mangled appearance. "Hello Zuzu."

The sound of her voice sent shivers down his spine. She seemed more cunning, more twisted than he ever remembered, more instable than she was when he had fought her on the day of Sozin's Comet. A pitch black aura seemed to emanate from her. He felt his heartbeat quicken as she stopped before him, her wicked grin casting his mind into the past where the pain related to it threatened to devour him. He forced out a weak reply. "Azula…"

"Oh my… Aren't you quite nervous? I might even venture so far as to say that you appear to be afraid." Azula mocked.

"I… I'm not afraid of you." stammered Zuko.

Azula smirked. "Oh, but you are. You always were a horrible liar, you know, Zuzu. If only Mai could see you now." She paused, leaving time for Zuko to shutter at the sound of Mai's name. "Oh that's right. She's dead, isn't she?" She said flatly, blatantly dropping the words down like a hammer.

Zuko recoiled at having a painful memory brought up in such a blunt manner, but still found himself immobilized by fear. Azula continued. "Wouldn't it be nice to join her? Two lovers in each other's arms in the afterlife- doesn't that sound sweet? I personally think it does."

Zuko trembled as he felt the excitement in Azula that he had felt many times before, when she was about to do something significantly cruel.

She pulled a knife from under her cloak and brought it up to Zuko's neck. "Now…I think that I will follow through on that suggestion. How about you start begging for your life? Maybe I'll spare you. Or maybe…" Azula drew the knife back with a delighted expression. "I won't." She thrust it forward.

The blade inched closer but froze as time stopped again. Zuko found it strange that he could think so quickly that the wicked smile on Azula's face appeared to be motionless. As he looked at the gleaming metal about to cause his end, he considered Azula's suggestion of joining Mai.

Thinking thoroughly, but not as clearly as he should have, Zuko searched for something that could bind him to the world, for reasons to stay alive. He rationalized that the world needed him as the Fire Lord, but all he could think of was Mai. Everything else seemed so…so… dull. The single word brought a rush of memories that cascaded through him like an avalanche.

He could only think of the bored smirk that could turn into the gentle smile he loved, and the sarcastic glare that could melt into the loving gaze he longed for. The thought of her permeated his being, and his instincts pointed towards being with her again. He realized that the world meant nothing to him, if it was keeping him from his love.

As he reached his resolution, time started again, and the knife raced towards him. Zuko closed his eyes and smiled, waiting to see Mai again.

There was no pain.

Zuko, shaken by the ease of his death, tried to open his eyes. To his dismay, they could open. Looking down he could see that the knife had stopped before his throat. Azula pulled it back quickly, and laughed. The sound resonating through the darkness was the sound of pure twisted joy.

"I decided to change my mind," Azula coolly informed Zuko after retaining her diminishing composure. "You can have your life back." Turning her back and smirking all the while, she left Zuko standing alone, dumbstruck.

Zuko slowly realized what was happening. He was losing his chance to be with Mai again. The shock overcame his fear and he broke free of the chains, and ran towards Azula.

"Wait!"

"I want to be with Mai!"

"Please!"

"I beg of you!"

Azula never looked back and Zuko couldn't get any closer to her, though he sprinted faster than he ever had before in his life. Slowly, she drifted out of view.

"NO!"

Zuko woke up in a cold sweat. Glancing at the ceiling, he wiped his forehead and slowly pushed himself up. The light had become intense since Zuko had fallen asleep and overflowed through the curtains, causing him to cover his eyes and squint. As he found that his headache was gone, he proceeded to climb off the unnecessarily large bed.

It was then when he remembered why he didn't need the vast sleeping space anymore.

Zuko froze as the dream crashed into him. The images racing in his head were real, and living. Every detail became clear, clearer than even the room around him. Even more real was the memory of Azula's wicked smirk.

He sat, motionless at the edge of his bed, replaying the memories over and over again, trying to convince himself that it was just a dream. But it wasn't a dream. Azula stood before him, with the same knife, and same twisted expression as before.

Zuko started backwards, and turned around to protect himself. He waited.

When nothing happened, he looked in the direction Azula was to find that no one was there.

He tried reminding himself that Azula was locked up in a mental facility, but nothing would calm him down. The image of the prison up in flames and a cackling Azula appeared in his mind.

He shouted at his troubled head, and guards rushed in, ready to fight. But the only thing to fight was the struggling Zuko's noise, and Zuko dismissed them when he saw them.

From there, it took him many long moments before he was grounded in the real world enough to move on, but the lingering whispers that reverberated like screams invading his consciousness suggested the perfect opposite.

I tried to kill myself. What's wrong with me? She isn't even dead. She just... just...

It was true that Mai's body was never found. What they found instead, was a bloodied mass of clothing. Zuko and the rest of the Fire Nation had clung to the hope that Mai was still alive, trying to come back home, but after months passed with no sign of her, the people began to lose hope. Even so, Zuko waited.

Many months later, Zuko still had a thread of hope left in him. But the dream seemed to cut that thread. And now, Zuko felt as if he waited in vain.

Ignoring the dream as best as he could, he found the schedule of the day's events on his nightstand. As he overlooked the useless meetings on daily affairs, his eyes drifted to the date. It was the first day of wuyue, the fifth month, the day that Mai disappeared two years ago.

The simple ink arranged in the characters hit harder than any pain he had felt in a very long time. The dream threatened to attack him again, but he barely suppresed it enough to stand up.

In a pitch black mood, he trudged to his drawer, and found his ceremonial hair piece. As he picked it up, two red ribbons caught on to the hard metal, and gently glided to the floor

A mental chain snapped.

Zuko slammed his fist into his dresser, turning the delicate wood's fine craftsmanship into shambles, bent down to pick up the ribbons, and threw them out the window.

The guards rushed back in back to see Zuko again, but then started towards the dismantled furniture once they saw it.

Zuko saw them quietly stepping towards the mess and shouted at them. "GET OUT! OUT! NOW!"

As the guards scurried out of the room, Zuko began to calm down, but rain clouds still thundered across his appearance. He grudgingly changed his clothes, roughly put on his hairpiece, and hurriedly stomped out of his room.

In the courtyard below, a ghostly pale, but beautiful woman picked up the ribbons which landed beneath the shade of the trees. She glanced up at Zuko's window and sadly turned. As she stepped into the sunlight, she faded away into nothing.

To be continued...