The stares were incredulous. As each person took in consideration what this meant, Zuko could only lie there and think about what he was going to do now. If he ever got back to being himself again, this was going to mean serious trouble. Sure, he could clear it up, but it was going to take a lot. His breathing currently was the only true thing that worried him, because he was so stressed and exhausted and in pain that it was being deeply affected. It hurt so much. And now that the truth was out, that hurt even more.
Guards turned to whisper but Aang, Katara, and Mai continued their staring at the motionless body in the mountain of flooring. Sozin was completely loopy now, laughing hysterically as he analyzed each person and that included Zuko himself on the dark floor.
"He did ….what?" Mai whispered in horror.
"I tell you the truth. He did indeed kill Azulon. Or rather, I did with his help no matter how much of a weakling he seemed. It was a time to prove his worth!" Sozin laughed as he said this, and it sounded audibly through Zuko's own mouth, no longer in his voice as it had been. Now Sozin had control of even his vocals.
"Then this means…" Aang had his head in his hands, just standing there looking dumbfounded.
"Yes, it means what you think, young Avatar."
More silence and he hated it still. The screaming from his mouth had ceased, which gave Zuko room to think but it was still torture. He couldn't believe what he had been reduced to. Sobbing and screaming. Pain. But it all made more sense now that everything was going on. And now he had to stop the old man before everything went completely wrong.
Taking to his feet with a stronger stance now, he gritted his teeth together and approached Sozin carefully, stumbling across the space between them with a good amount of difficulty. The spirit saw him and stood there waiting, as if he expected Zuko to fail again because he knew he would. But Zuko couldn't, not again, and he would make sure of it.
"You don't spill secrets of ours to my friends. And you don't try to attack my friends either." The strange rush of adrenaline Zuko had suddenly gained felt weird but he was going to use it because it was there and that was the best part. Sozin suddenly went stone-faced as he realized Zuko actually meant harm.
"So you've gotten up despite the pain? Well this will be fun indeed." Sozin cackled gently, and outstretched his arms. Zuko was grateful for once that his friends couldn't see him fighting.
He attacked first; flipping into the air and attacking Sozin with a fiery blast that contained so much he was very surprised to find the man's beard and hair were still intact. Sozin blasted him next, holding his hand straight out to then flip it onto Zuko's arm, but it missed as Zuko was up the instant it was blasted.
It seemed like the others had noticed something in the way his body had suddenly gone limp but none had run over to help which meant they knew something was happening. Feeling more relieved about that than ever, the young Firelord jumped back up into a defensive stance and attacked again, blasting Sozin once more. This time he caught the man's arm lightly. Sozin blew it out, as he actually caught fire, but only a small burn was left and it healed itself immediately.
Roaring with rage, Zuko jumped upon Sozin next and pinned the spirit to the ground. Here, they were made of pretty much the same thin substance and he was making use of that. The strange energy seemed to be more powerful than any he had ever had before, and as he choked the spirit with his arm around the other's neck, he grimaced against the pain entwined with his body.
"You. You think you can make me suffer like this. I'm not the weak young boy you once overtook. Get over it. Get away. Go." Hissing, spitting in the old man's face, his own eyes flitting over Sozin, and the anger swelled still inside of him. That he would be put to shame like this and then have everyone find out the truth, it was too much for one person.
"Oh-but you don't know who-what I can do ... do to you…" The old man choked out, glaring at him fiercely, or trying to under all the pressure. Even dead, his face was turning multiple shades.
"Saying that too confidently will end with you in a place even you can't deal with. So I beg of you to stop this foolishness right now and leave. I don't want to fight. Not you."
"Ah, but what would you do if I…did… this.." Sozin flipped his entire body up into the air, and Zuko was thrown to the floor, his body making a large crunch when he hit it.
Groaning, he looked up to see the old man grinning widely above him. Then, gritting his teeth, Zuko stood up and tried to hook the man with his foot. It failed of course. A large spurt of flame came at his face and he had to jump on top of Sozin to avoid it, kicking him in the shoulder before bouncing off and landing on the ground. Taking a full look around was one thing but he found he didn't have any flames to use. For some reason, here, where he was trapped in his own consciousness, he was unable to summon any fire.
"Caught you now, boy." Sozin grinned when he saw that Zuko was trying to clench his fists together to create some sort of fire.
Shaking his head once more, the Firelord jumped up again and tackled Sozin once more. The spirit slammed fire into his side, but he ignored the pain that immediately spread up it, and instead cracked one of the old man's arms backward. Sozin grunted yet slammed Zuko down into the floor again. It was getting more painful by the minute, the spread in his side which now seemed like a long stream of burned skin. Zuko still ignored it and pushed the man off of him, cracking him down into the darkness. Sozin's neck appeared at an odd angle and he let out a long moan while Zuko looked at him curiously through his hazel eyes. Awaiting a response.
The next thing he knew, he was being flung back as Sozin floated up, and he lay there on the cold, what felt to be obsidian, ground. Floating feet above him, no longer in a solid form, Sozin glared horridly down at him.
"You think you've won, don't you? I wish I could say it was true, but I fear not. For as you see, while in spirit form, I am very strong and will not hold being attacked. I do know that you are aware of this, and are also aware of the mistakes you have currently made…" Sozin lifted his hand, preparing to shoot him with fire from it.
A scream erupted from his mouth and he jumped up, and did so high enough that he met with Sozin's form, but went straight through it. Sozin cackled as he landed, straight on his feet.
"I hate to admit it but you are terribly strong. The only problem is that you will not be able to hit me at all. Fire would be the only thing, and in case you haven't noticed, you have none. The only way you will get rid of me is if the work is indeed done."
Turning toward the spot he had been earlier, Sozin began to regain his grip on Zuko's body. He wouldn't allow that to happen. Zuko jumped up as quickly as he could and ran toward Sozin, determined not to allow anything to happen to his friends anymore nor anyone else. Mai would not be hurt, he was determined to make sure of that. With the last bit of remaining strength he found he had, he also found the fire that was inside him, and blasted the spirit with it, summoning it all.
Everything went a fiery orange.
Drifting past the point of feeling.
Nothing seemed to matter, he had done his job, had he not?
Everyone would be safe now.
Even those who had been injured by what he had said or they had heard.
Justice would be done by him for not surviving for himself.
The color increased by the minute as he lay there, only suddenly conscious that he was himself again. Everything ached. His side was covered in a burn, it had followed him to his actual body. Eyes unwilling to open. He noted this almost immediately as he could hear things around him, but it was so mixed together and cloudy that at first, the sounds were indescribable. Then things became swiftly clearer and he could make things out. Many voices. Concerned ones, and all of which were his friends.
Groaning loudly, he listened as they all became silent. The whole room went completely silent. Someone coughed. A voice cut through his stuffy hearing.
"Zuko?!" It was Aang; he sounded panicked. The only thing Zuko could fear as he tried to force his eyes open was how long he'd been asleep for.
"I doubt he's awake, Aang." Sokka's normal cynical tone was the next to come up and he had never thought he'd be so grateful to hear that voice.
"He groaned for the first time I think he's probably in some sort of consciousness." The annoyed sound of Katara's voice cut across, she was probably rolling her eyes.
His eyes finally opened a crack, although it seemed to take extra force, and he tried rolling. Stupid body was too sore. That meant he was stuck in this position until it decided to not be as dumb. Honestly, Zuko was starting to wonder if staying in weird spirit form was easier as human bodies were always so clumsy and even the first time that he'd had everything happen to him, he'd wished this at some point or another. It always came after somebody was possessed. He just knew that's how it was, but he didn't like it in the slightest.
The others had obviously seen his movement and he forced his eyes open just a little more to see them all peering down at him, Mai included, who was the closest to his face and the most concerned. He gave a tiny smile when he saw her.
"Well hello." He managed to choke out, and she nodded, the concerned look loosening.
"You're back." Slowly, she let a smile cross her face, and then she backed off a little ways, beckoning the others to follow.
"Zuko you were out cold for a week…" Aang said, still looking worried. He stiffened and moaned a little at this, a week was far too long to be out for.
"N-No… a week?" Ashamed of his distinct stammering he continued to stare at Aang and now in horror.
"Yeah it was rough, we had to get you to drink water and that wasn't pleasant. But hey, apparently it worked, because you're here."
"Sokka, we don't need you to recount any gruesome details." Katara shook her head in astonishment at her brother now.
"What…what happened? I need to know."
"Well, we got you out of the floor with both Aang and Toph, even though by that point she could barely walk. The guards promised to get rid of that society and I'm assuming killed someone because they were gone in the next hour. I know it isn't exactly the road you wanted to take but someone had to do it. After you were put here, Toph retired to a room to nurse her feet, and I cleaned up the dining room with the help of Aang. The rest of the week…well we've mostly been in and out of here, the dining room, and our bedrooms, I guess. A few trips outside simply for the sake of sunlight, but most of the time we were pretty sure you…weren't going to wake up." Katara explained, and he saw the fear in all of their eyes, etched in after a week of waiting nervously no doubt.
There were a few moments of silence as Zuko took this in. At least maybe now things could get back to normal but after everything that had happened, normal didn't seem like a plausible idea. In fact, it very much felt impossible with all that they'd had to go through. He felt weak, but a little triumphant over his victory of Sozin. Suddenly, he took a sharp breath in as he realized they hadn't heard about that and thus had become quite clueless.
"I suppose…you want to hear about my experience?" He sighed, looking around at all of them, and seeing nods, began to explain what had happened that morning he'd woken up and suddenly been possessed.
The whole explanation took quite a while as he was still shaky and weak feeling, but once he forced everything out, silence remained. Most were probably astounded something like that could even happen. He'd even explained how he'd killed Azulon that first time around, and how everything had played out with his mother taking most of the blame and leaving.
Maybe things weren't going to be normal, as Mai seemed a little more distant, and Aang looked distrustful half the time over the period of the next week and a half as he recovered in that bed. Once he was finally up on his feet, everything, all the emotions, came washing over him like a tidal wave, and he retired to the balcony where so much seemed to have played out.
Outside was almost silent. No society stood at the gates while the sun went down and no one was running in and out to announce that something horrible had happened. Zuko realized all of a sudden that it felt as if a weight had been lifted off his shoulders. He was free. Free of the spirit who had haunted him for so long, no longer tumbling down into darkness or getting little sleep. No more fear of what he could do.
Strange, he thought of it, because so much had just ended. The society had simply dispersed when his guards had taken care of it. Sozin was no longer going to bother him, he'd blasted him with a fierce wave of fire. Sometimes, maybe, things ended suddenly. At least those were the bad things. All the young Firelord could think was that all good things come to an end, but bad things, they come to an end swiftly.
A/N: Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, people of all types whoever you may be or whatever you may be, that was the end! I hope you enjoyed. Hope it didn't seem to rushed or too many words used or too many run-on sentences or whatever else I'm guilty of because I know I'm guilty of all of those things. Thank you so much for reading, and please, review, review, review!
