Warning: Character Death.

Six Months Later

Katara

As Appa glided to a stop in the palace courtyard reserved exclusively for his visits, he gave a grunt of satisfaction. Aang leaned forward to pat him on the head. "Good job, buddy! Record time."

Katara sighed as she stood up and stretched. "Sometimes I feel like all we ever do is fly from one place to another," she grumbled, then slid down Appa's side, giving him an affection pat as she did so. "Not that I'm complaining, Appa," she reassured the flying buffalo. "You always do a great job no matter how far we're flying." He gave a contented groan and settled down to wait for Aang to remove his saddle.

At least this time the visit was personal, not professional, so to speak. Katara grinned and hugged herself; she could hardly wait to tell Mai and Zuko the news. Suki and Sokka had finally worked out their differences and were getting married in six months! How cool was that!

She stepped away from Appa while Aang busied himself with removing the oversized harness that held the equally oversized saddle in place. Humming happily to herself, she glanced around the empty courtyard, admiring the work they'd all put into it. The stream Katara had coaxed up through the rock garden Toph had created led directly to a shallow pool big enough for Appa to wallow in when he felt like cooling off. There was also a grassy area under some shade trees, but Appa's basket, usually filled with fresh fruit when their arrival was expected—as it was today—was empty.

That wasn't the only odd thing; as Aang floated to the flagstone-covered ground with their travel packs in either hand, Katara realized no one had come to greet them. Usually at this point Ty Lee or Zuko or Mai—or any combination of the three—was waiting for their arrival.

Not today. Katara felt her heart surging with hope; maybe no one was there to greet them because Mai was in the middle of giving birth! She clapped her hands, anticipating a lovely surprise to add to her burden of good news, whispering her hopes to Aang as they headed for staircase leading up to the palace entrance they always used.

When the two of them entered the palace proper, however, there was still no one to greet them, not even a guard or servant in sight. Recognizing that something must be wrong, they sped their steps and headed directly for the part of the palace that housed the Fire Lord and Lady's private chambers, each silently praying that the emptiness of the building wasn't for as bad a reason as they feared.

When they reached the long corridor that led to Zuko and Mai's rooms, they started to hear voices and other sounds; somewhere ahead and around a corner, a door was opened or closed; there was the sound of hurrying footsteps, and, most worrisome, what sounded like a muffled sob. Without needing to consult each other, they hurried in that direction.

"Please, La, please let it just be that Mai is having her baby," Katara chanted under her breath as they rounded the corner.

A scene of utter chaos greeted their dismayed eyes. People were rushing back and forth, speaking in hushed whispers or not at all, no one even noticing the two of them until Aang, after sharing a concerned glance with Katara, stepped deliberately into the path of a hurrying maidservant bearing a bundle of sheets in her arms. The girl squeaked in alarm as she skidded to a stop, the linens tumbling to the floor in a disordered heap. "Avatar Aang!" she cried out, then looked around wildly.

Spotting Katara standing near the door through which they'd just entered, the girl rushed to her side, grasping her wrist and tugging her along urgently. "Please, my lady, you have to come, you have to help, the healers can't seem to do anything…"

Katara spared a second to toss an order over her shoulder: "Find Zuko!" before allowing the girl to drag her along. The fact that one of the well-trained palace servants would dare to put her hands on a friend of the Fire Lord spoke volumes; that the healers couldn't help "her" pinpointed which of the royal couple was in trouble.

Not the bleeding disorder, Katara prayed as she allowed herself to be hurried to the door leading to the Fire Lady's bedchamber. The girl tapped on it gently, then turned the handle and opened it, practically pushing Katara inside. "Please, help her," she begged again before closing the door shut.

Katara took an uncertain step forward, not sure if she should be intruding but not ready to simply turn and wait to be summoned in a more official manner. Then her steps stumbled to a halt as her horrified eyes took in the scene before her.

Mai lay on the bed, moaning feebly; the Chief Healer and a woman Katara assumed to be the midwife worked frantically between her legs, and the blood…Spirits, she'd never seen so much blood coming out of one person. The bedding was soaked with it; the floor puddled, the hands of the Chief Healer and midwife stained to the elbows with it. Katara rushed to Mai's side, thanking La, Agni, and any other guiding soul she could think of that it was the full moon, that her Bending might be able to do something to stop the continuing flowing—no, she moaned to herself, make that gushing—of blood from the Fire Lady's body.

The midwife looked up as she approached the bed, seemed about to bark an order for her to leave when the Chief Healer turned and saw what the other woman was looking at. "Master Katara, thank the Spirits! Can you—?" he gestured helplessly toward his barely-conscious patient.

Katara murmured a promise to do her best as the midwife moved aside to give her room. When she was in position, she raised her hands above Mai's midsection, working just as hard to slow the tide from the inside as the other two were doing on the outside. She moved on instinct, trying desperately to reverse the flow, just long enough for the baby to be born. After that there was so much more that could be done for Mai; if only she could hold on for just a little longer…

Mai's eyes fluttered opened, just for a moment, but in that moment she managed to focus on Katara's face, register her presence long enough to whisper: "Save him." Then consciousness became too much for her waning strength, her eyes closed, and her breathing slowed even further.

"We're losing her," was the Chief Healer's grim pronouncement.

"How close is the baby to being born?" Katara asked with equal grimness. Mai had tasked her, and she would die herself before giving up.

"I see the head," the midwife reported, her voice steady in spite of the stress wearing upon them all. Somewhere outside the birthing chamber, Zuko was probably frantically pacing back and forth, hopefully with Ty Lee and Aang now at his side. He would be grief-stricken at the loss of his wife, but if both mother and child died it would destroy him.

As if summoned by her thoughts, the door to the bedchamber flew open and Zuko entered the room at a dead run. Like Katara, he stumbled to a stop, eyes wide with horror as he saw the amount of blood his wife had lost in the process of trying to give birth to their child. He said nothing, simply continued his forward movement after taking a deep, steadying breath. He reached to take Mai's hand in his from across the bed, sitting opposite the others and ignoring the stained bedding beneath him. "I love you," he whispered, and Katara felt her heart breaking as she realized he was saying his good-byes.

That it was too late to save the Fire Lady.

Their child, however, was a different matter. Katara continued her grim work even as the midwife finally coaxed the baby from his mother's womb and the Chief Healer practically sliced his own finger in cutting the umbilical cord, so frantic was he to separate mother and child.

"It's a boy," Katara heard the midwife pronounce, but was too busy trying to save his mother to look over.

"It's a boy," Zuko repeated softly, reaching up to stroke Mai's sweat-drenched forehead with his free hand. "We'll call him Lu Ten, just like we planned. I bet you can't wait to hold him…"

The newborn offered up a healthy wail, as if in protest of his new name. Or perhaps in protest at the loss of his mother, although Katara stubbornly kept her hands moving, determined to continue to help the Chief Healer as best she could. Come on, Mai, you're strong, you have a husband who loves you and a child who needs you, come on, you can do this, just hold on a little longer…

A gentle hand on her shoulder stilled the Waterbender's frantic motions. "I'm sorry," the Chief Healer said, as much to her as to the Fire Lord. "She's gone."

With a stifled sob, Katara turned away, stumbling from the room as Zuko lifted his wife's body into his arms and cradled it. She heard his own cries of grief as she opened the door, cut off as soon as it was closed. She leaned against the sturdy wooden barrier, then slid to the floor, her face in her hands as she allowed her own tears to fall.

Aang

Aang found her that way a few minutes later. He was more than a bit taken aback by the sight of her so openly weeping, covered in blood he knew wasn't hers but the sight of which made his heart lurch. "Katara?" he said softly as he crouched down next to her and put a tentative hand on her shoulder.

She pulled away, just a little, shaking her head and lifting her tear-streaked face from her hands. "Don't, I'm all bloody, I need to clean up, people can't see me wandering around like this…"

She's in shock, was Aang's immediate diagnosis. He'd seen it more than once since being thawed from the ice three years ago. What she needed was something hot and sugary; the room he'd just left had a tea urn manned by Zuko's Uncle Iroh and Ty Lee as well as a private bathing chamber. He said as much to Katara before gently helping her to her feet.

"Mai's dead," she said dully.

Aang simply nodded; he'd figured that much. Head bowed in grief, he escorted Katara down the empty corridor.

Mai had started out an enemy and turned into a friend, and he knew Zuko must be absolutely destroyed. Especially since this stupid bleeding disease or whatever it was called had supposedly been cured.

And what about the baby? He was afraid to ask, but if he didn't, then Ty Lee probably would since diplomacy wasn't exactly her strong point. As he led Katara along, he finally worked up the courage. "Katara? Is the baby…"

He hesitated, unable to finish the thought, but she answered him in a dull voice. "He's fine. It's a boy. Mai lived long enough for him to be born. Thank the Spirits for that; otherwise, I really think this would kill Zuko, too."

A fresh spate of tears shook her shoulders; Aang longed to give her a comforting hug but knew she would just push him away; because of the shock, she was fixated on the blood on her arms and clothing and even, he noted, the ends of her hair, where she must have been leaning over Mai as she tried to Bloodbend her back to health.

So all he did was squeeze her hand comfortingly. When they reached the entrance to the chamber where Ty Lee and Iroh waited, he hesitated, then turned to Katara. "Maybe I should…"

"No." She shook her head, seeming more alert, her eyes red-rimmed but the tears temporarily in abeyance. She straightened her shoulders. "They have to know."

Aang dared to put a restraining hand on her shoulder. She flinched away, then looked down at herself. She raised shaking hands to her cheeks. "They can't see me looking like this!"

"Let me go in first," Aang said, and this time she nodded and stepped back.

He opened the door just enough to slip through, thankful that the corridor they'd just traversed was private; no one would stumble across Katara waiting outside the door and be alerted by the state of her bloody clothing to the tragedy that had just occurred. That announcement needed to come from the Fire Lord and not via rumor.

As he entered the room, Iroh hurried to greet him. He'd offered to go check on things after Zuko left, to be there as a helping hand in case he was still denied entry to his wife's chambers as he had been once she went into labor. That was, of course, per Fire Nation custom, which seemed kind of weird to Aang; his own people had always welcomed the father and anyone else the mother wanted to be present at a birth, and he knew Water Tribe customs were similar.

And he also knew he was allowing himself to be distracted because he didn't want to destroy the hope he saw in Iroh's face. "Where's Ty Lee?" he asked once he realized the cheerful girl was no longer in the room.

"She said she needed some air," Iroh replied, his voice grave. "She went to the gardens for a moment." He hesitated, gazing searchingly at Aang's solemn face, and his own features seemed to crumple as he asked in a near-whisper: "Mai?"

Aang shook his head, then repeated the one piece of good news, that the baby was a boy and alive. Iroh simply nodded, then turned and headed for the room's other exit. "I will tell Ty Lee," he said, then he was gone and Aang could open the door through which he'd just entered and bring Katara into the now-empty room.

She immediately moved to the bathing chamber door, closing it softly behind her while Aang sank onto one of the low couches and blew out a heavy sigh. Tilting his head back, he closed his eyes rested his forearm across his brow. "Worst trip to the Fire Nation ever," he groaned. And yes, he told himself, including every time they tried to invade and failed and when he fought Lord Ozai and nearly died himself. He'd rather relive that day over again than go through what Zuko was going through.

Or Katara. She looked so…drained. Almost dead herself. He couldn't imagine how difficult it must have been to try so hard to save a life and then fail—he cut that thought short. Of course she hadn't failed, it wasn't her fault Mai was dead, why had he even allowed himself to think that? He'd have to be careful how he offered any sympathy to Katara or she'd probably bite his head off. She probably did feel guilty, that it was her fault, when it was the illness that had robbed Mai of her life.

He shuddered, remembering how much blood Katara had been covered in. Almost too much to comprehend. "I wonder how long it'll take her to get over this," he muttered to himself as he jumped to his feet, suddenly needing to move, to do something. Maybe go see Zuko?

No, bad idea, he counseled himself. Later, when he had time to adjust to the fact that his wife was dead and that he was now a single parent with a newborn son to raise.

As these and other thoughts ran through his mind, it took Aang a moment to realize the door had opened again. Thinking it must be Iroh or Ty Lee, he turned to offer a sober-faced greeting, only to feel his jaw drop in surprise when he saw Zuko standing there.

"Zuko!" He hurried over and ushered the Fire Lord into the room, doing his best to arrange his features back into an expression of guarded sympathy. "Are you all right?"

He could have smacked himself for asking such a stupid question, but Zuko didn't seem to hear it, just continued walking into the room, stopping next to the low sofa but not taking a seat. He stood there for a long minute, just staring into the middle distance before finally speaking. "The funeral will be in four days. Can you and Katara stay that long?"

His voice was completely devoid of emotion, as if he were talking about something inconsequential. Shock, Aang concluded. Better tread carefully. "Of course," he replied. "We'll stay as long as you need—as long as you want us to," he corrected himself. The Fire Lord wasn't supposed to need anyone. He hesitated before asking the next question. "Are you—are you sure you want to, well, do this so soon? Shouldn't you give yourself a little time…"

His voice trailed off as Zuko turned to look at him, eyes blank, face stony. "Mai was Fire Lady. She will be given a state funeral the prescribed four days after her death as is her due." With that pronouncement, he turned and headed for the door, hesitating a moment after opening it, standing with his back to the room. "Please tell Katara I appreciate everything she did to try and help," he said in a low voice. Then he was gone, the door whispering shut behind him, leaving Aang to try and process what had just happened.

A funeral for Mai. In four days. Wow. They didn't waste any time in the Fire Nation. He only hoped Katara would be up for the ceremonies such an important event would no doubt consist of.

Heck, he only hoped he would be up for them.

Four Days Later

Katara

The funeral was about to start. Well, the procession anyway. She'd tried her best to get Zuko to put it off for another week so King Kuei and other foreign notables could join them, but he'd insisted that tradition demanded a funeral four days after the Fire Lady's death and so here they were, standing on a balcony overlooking the courtyard where a gigantic crowd of Fire Nation mourners were gathered.

She still couldn't quite grasp the fact that Mai was gone, although she'd been there to witness her death. Thank the Spirits that their son was healthy and thriving in spite of the difficulties surrounding his birth.

She snorted quietly to herself. "Difficulties" was the understatement of the century. But little Lu Ten, named in honor of Lord Iroh's long-dead son, was already showing the same type of tenacity and determination that his father always had. Again, thank the Spirits for that, and for the young mother they'd found to nurse him alongside her own baby.

Of course, things would be a lot better for the infant if his father would visit him once in a while. It was as if Zuko blamed Lu Ten for his mother's death, although he vehemently denied it the one time Katara had brought it up.

"I'm just busy right now," he'd practically shouted at her, then apologized for losing his temper. "Look," he'd added in a softer tone, reaching out to place a hand on her shoulder. "I promise. Once the funeral and ceremonies are complete, I'll go see him. Right now it's just…I just have a lot to do."

Katara had swallowed her objections and allowed herself to pretend to believe him, mostly because she knew Zuko was practically drowning in his own sea of guilt.

Just as she was. Just as she knew she always would be.

She started as she felt a hand on her shoulder and half-turned to see who it was. Aang, of course, trying to comfort her with his silent presence, just as he'd been trying for the past four days. Of course, he'd only gone the "silent and supportive" route after he realized she absolutely refused to let him talk her out of her blaming herself for Mai's death. She just didn't want to hear one more person tell her she'd done all she could and that it wasn't her fault.

She knew better. If she'd been a better Bender, if she'd practiced her Bloodbending more, she could have saved Mai. She was convinced of that, and no matter how hard Aang or anyone else tried to convince her it wasn't doing her any good to blame herself, she couldn't stop.

She managed a wan smile for Aang as her thoughts continued to churn and her insides continued to mirror the anger and guilt by doing the same. She'd barely eaten in the last four days; none of them had, to be honest, and she found herself wishing Sokka and Gran-Gran and her father were there for her to lean on. No doubt they'd all tell her the same stuff Aang and Zuko were telling her, but she hoped hearing it from them might actually make it sink in.

She would just have to wait until she got home. For now, she had to endure the ceremonial viewing of the body, the cremation, and then the interment into the royal family's vault deep beneath a shrine on a country estate that had been built centuries ago for the sole purpose of serving as the place where the mourning family members could go to spend time with their lost loved ones—or gloat over deceased rivals, as Zuko had once cynically put it when he was feeling particularly depressed in the days leading up to the arrival of Sozin's comet.

Mai was gone, taken from them too early, never able to be a mother to Lu Ten, leaving Zuko alone to raise his son and rule his nation. Would it be too much for him to bear, would he vanish into his grief as his uncle had once done?

She doubted it. Zuko was strong, and had friends and family by his side to keep his grief from overwhelming him.

We won't let it happen, Katara vowed silently as the murmuring crowds fell silent. Zuko stepped forward to begin the chants honoring Mai's life as well as mourning her death.

We won't let it happen, she told herself again, even as she felt tears begin to gather in the corner of her eyes.

To Be Continued in "One Door Closes", coming soon.