In Error's Darkest Hour

Disclaimer: Avatar:the Last Airbender duly belongs to Bryke. No profit is made from this story other than the sheer gratification of reviews.

NOTE: At last, I have some time to spare. I'll try not to let so much time pass before I post the next chapter. So sorry for the delay! Hope you are all still interested!

This chapter is heavily influenced by one of my favorite novels of all time. It isn't hard to guess. Hope you like it.

Enjoy.

CHAPTER TEN

Standing anxiously outside the door to her room, Zuko let out a deep sigh.

This isn't as simple as I thought it would be, he pondered silently as he faced the entrance to Katara's room, knowing full well that she was resting peacefully inside. He had no intention of disturbing her. The firebender knew how much training she had been putting herself through just to pass the time in the temple.

She was still avoiding him as much as she could, despite all his persistent efforts to try and talk to her. The waterbender had built a wall around her, a cold, hard, impenetrable fortress, sturdier than even Ba Sing Se, and she had retreated to a place beyond his reach.

And what pained him most was knowing that it was he who had pushed her into this place. He saw how concerned the others had been about Katara and how much they had tried to convince her to be like her old self again. But she had not obliged any of them, and Zuko knew that he was to blame somehow.

He needed to bring her back to them, no matter what. It was his fault that she was being so hard, and so he would do everything he needed to do to break through that barrier.

--

But he was running out of ideas.

Even when the others (Toph and Aang mostly) had tried orchestrating a confrontation (non-violent, of course) between Zuko and Katara, the latter had always managed to weasel her way out of all of these attempts. She was quite good at it, as well. And no one, not even her brother, knew what to make of her strange behavior.

The atmosphere in the Western Air Temple lately was that of industry and growing solidarity. They all tried to focus on their training and on finalizing their plans for the future.

Good news from the outside continued to reach them via the chameleon falcon. Ba Sing Se had been successfully reclaimed in the name of the Earth Kingdom and many of the Fire Nation-controlled areas had also been breached by Iroh and his forces.

The old firebender had decided to retreat for the time being in a small but comfortable tea house in the walled city, to further discuss his plans with the allies and to keep the Avatar informed of the comings and goings in the world.

The Fire Lord had yet to return to his throne but had sent word of a temporary government to be established and to rule in his absence. Ozai was still very much in control of his country and his people. And no one dared question his authority yet.

Meanwhile, things continued the way they were back at the Western Air Temple. Aang was growing to be a talented firebender and was now able to practice using all four elements. He also spent much time in meditation and reflection, trying to figure out just how exactly he was going to fulfill his mission.

Sokka was always busy discussing plans with the others and coordinating with his father and Iroh. And of course, the Water Tribe Warrior did not neglect his own training and found a good sparring partner in Zuko, whose advice helped Sokka improve his already impressive skills.

And in the midst of all this, Zuko anticipated the punishment that was coming. An inexplicable feeling told him that it was drawing very, very near and so he was slightly relieved that he was already able to teach the Avatar firebending before he would be incapacitated by the impending distress.

His main concern now was to somehow patch things up with Katara. Zuko was well aware that a full-blown reconciliation was impossible at this point. But he wanted, he hoped for some kind of understanding between before…before he knew not what was going to happen to him.

On several occasions the firebender had consulted Toph on what to do. And she, in her fashion, had offered as much advice as she could.

"You know," the earthbender had said, "I still think that deep down, Katara has a soft spot for you."

"What makes you say that?" he had asked.

"All that time you were unconscious," Toph related, "no matter how reluctant she was about healing you, she still did. And she never left your side until you finally woke up."

Zuko remembered the moment he had seen Katara, and how haggard she had looked when he had awakened.

"You'll get to her somehow," Toph consoled him, "I'm sure of it."

He had nodded gently.

I only hope it won't be too late, he added to himself.

--

So there he was, the bound object in his hand, anxiously building up the nerve to do what had to be done. He could not think of any other way, and he could only hope that she would not turn him aside this time.

It was one of those moments when he so longed for his mother, or even just Uncle Iroh. Zuko seriously needed some guidance from them.

"What would you have me do?" he asked silently, trying to imagine what his mother would have told him.

But she would have said something like "do what you feel is right, do not give up." And so far, he had followed such lessons. It was now simply time to let things take their course.

"If I don't give this to her now, I may not have another opportunity," he thought, and so built his resolve.

Opening the door as slightly and as carefully as he could, Zuko slipped the letter in and then left as quickly as he could, hoping against hope that she would read it without hate.

--

Katara stirred when she heard her door open. And for the first few moments all she could do was stare wide-eyed at the object that had rolled in, a bound scroll that was not of ordinary paper.

She had a pretty good idea of the sender of such a message and she had half a mind of destroying the thing right then and there.

Katara sighed, remembering her promise to Toph. After all, she had to give Zuko some credit for his persistence. But then again, that was the characteristic she had always seen him exhibit, in their whole acquaintance.

And here he was again, trying to make her change her mind. She was firm about her decision, but she also knew that she would have to confront him eventually. Perhaps picking up the letter would be the first step. Besides, she had nothing better to do at the moment.

And also, she was also extremely curious as to the contents of the letter. She debated with herself for a few moments before deciding to at least glance at it before destroying it.

Slowly and carefully, the waterbender, picked up the letter, unrolled it and began to read, steeling herself for whatever would appear.

"Katara,

Forgive me.."

She frowned. How typical. Again, she was tempted to melt the whole thing in an instant, but then, she could see how long the letter was and again, curiosity got the best of her.

After all, she tried to convince herself, she didn't have to agree with anything written on the scroll, she didn't have to even believe any of those words. She had only to read them.

And the moment she found doing so distasteful, she could simply toss the thing aside.

Besides, what could he possibly have to write to her about that would change her mind about him? As her stubbornness began to take over again, Katara felt a faint tug at her heart. She had always been a kind and gentle person by nature, and harboring such anger was such a burden on her.

And yet, she held on to this negative emotion, clung to it like it was her last hope. She would not risk being betrayed again. The waterbender shook her head and turned her attention back to the missive.

"I hardly know where to begin, but perhaps it's best that I start with that. There are no valid excuses, no justifications, no good reasons for the mistakes I've made in the past, for the way I treated all of you, for the way I let you down.

I know what you must think of me and I know that you are sick and tired of my trying to apologize to you. But I will have you speak to me again, if that is possible. Please, please, allow me to explain, and to apologize yet again for everything.

And yet again, I'm begging you to take a chance on me, to trust me like you did in Ba Sing Se. This time I really have changed, and I have no other wish than to help Aang defeat my father and restore balance to the world."

Katara stopped reading at this point in the letter. She glanced and saw that she had barely reached halfway through the message but she was already sick of it.

"Same old stupid speech," she muttered angrily, more annoyed with herself for having believed that she would see something new in it.

In her anger, the waterbender tried melting the letter with some water or crumpling it in her hands but she found that the material on which the letter was written was not mere paper but some leather-like substance which could not be easily dissolved and, she suspected, easily burned either.

He had taken precautions, and wisely so.

With an exasperated sigh, she tossed it aside, to a dark, far corner of her room. She was determined not to read it again. It irked her that he had the audacity to even approach her in such a way. More annoying was the thought that he expected some sort of response for such a tired, tedious message.

And yet, for all her frustration, she had still managed to read the few sentences next to the one about restoring balance to the world.

It went something like "I know that I bring out the worst in you and I am sorry for that. I will try to make amends for the damage I have caused, especially to you. Please tell me what I must do to make things better, to lessen the anger in your heart."

Even as the letter lay discarded in a corner, the words she had read stuck in Katara's mind.

"I bring out the worst in you."

Her brows furrowed and she folded her arms across her chest.

"You know nothing about me," she whispered, her eyes sparkling, "absolutely nothing."

And so the letter stayed hidden, discarded but never destroyed, in a remote corner of Katara's room, unread but unforgotten for the next few days. Zuko had stopped trying to speak to her in those days, as if simply waiting for her to react to his letter, but she said nothing of it.

But a strange and sad event occurred that made Katara decide to finish the letter.

--

"It has come."

Zuko had known at that very moment that all he had been waiting, fearing, had now arrived. The shadow had taken over him.

He had barely time to announce it to Aang before the firebender was completely taken over by pain.

Slowly but surely, his sight begin to blur and he could no longer hear the concerned cries of Aang, Toph, and Sokka as they ran to his side. His eyelids dropped heavily, and the firebender could feel a great pain emerging from the center of his chest, near his heart.

He fell to the ground, clutching at his chest, moaning and groaning in extreme pain. There was commotion in the temple as the Avatar and his friends struggled to keep him steady and stable.

Katara was called for and she responded to the urgency of their call. They had all been anticipating some sort of danger coming to Zuko, but nothing like this.

In spite of her dislike, Katara still felt reluctantly obliged to him for having saved her life. And she could not find it in her to refuse the pleas of Aang and the others. And of course, her own instincts as a healer could not pass by unheeded.

Something in her could never bear to stand by and do nothing while someone was suffering. Even him. Especially him.

With a sigh, the waterbender readied herself for the healing process. She would owe him nothing, one side of her resolved. She would never let him die, another side of her asserted. She brushed these warring thoughts aside as she prepared.

Kneeling beside Zuko's writhing body, she put her glowing hands upon the wound in his chest and she closed her eyes in concentration.

But the moment Katara touched him, Zuko winced sharply and his golden eyes snapped open.

Taken aback by such a reaction, Katara's backed away slightly.

"What's going on?" Aang cried around her. Toph and Sokka expressed their concern as well.

But Katara could not hear them. All she could see were those golden eyes, staring at her, pleading silently.

All she could hear was the ragged voice with which he spoke her name.

"Katara, please," he muttered with difficulty. He placed a hand on one of hers.

"What are you doing?" she whispered sharply at Zuko, "I don't understand."

Her questioning gaze met his and in those golden orbs shone a painful understanding. He knew that she hadn't read his letter. He knew that she still refused to forgive him.

But something wasn't right. He wasn't telling her something.

And then she realized it.

Perhaps he already had, and she had simply refused to listen.

"Let go of me," Zuko said simply, even as he struggled in pain. He weakly tried to push her away.

Aang, Toph, and Sokka looked at each other in puzzlement. What could he mean?

"What?" Katara cried out in surprise, but her glowing hands were already on the wound and she was just moments away from completely healing the wound.

"Please," Zuko begged, "you must let go of me."

But before Katara could do anything else, Zuko let out a loud and piercing cry of pain. The waterbender looked down at her hands and her eyes grew wide with horror.

"Katara, what are you doing?" Sokka cried out.

The wound had grown, and a strange, black liquid was flowing from Katara's hands and into Zuko. The longer she held on to him, the more this strange poison seemed to spread. Blood and venom seemed to mingle, causing even more agony to the helpless firebender.

She couldn't control the water. Katara struggled but the more she held on, the more the poison flowed into the open wound. Nothing like this had ever happened to her before.

"Zuko, what's happening?" she muttered in fear but he was unable to answer her. He had stopped screaming and seemed to have been knocked out by the severe pain.

"Katara!" Aang cried out, "it's getting worse! You have to stop it!"

"I can't, I can't," the waterbender replied, tears flowing down her cheeks, "I don't know what to do! It won't stop!"

"His heartbeat's slowing down dangerously," Toph warned them, "you'd better stop trying to heal him and just let him go. You're only making it worse."

And painful as it was to admit it, Katara knew Toph was right. The waterbender had never abandoned anyone in pain before, she had always been able to heal anyone somehow.

The moment, she lifted her poison-soaked hands, the black liquid stopped spreading. But it had already covered a good part of the firebender's body, encompassing his entire chest and reaching as far as his arms and neck. His body was shaking slightly and he seemed to be lost in some strange and inescapable nightmare.

Katara sat down in shock, staring at her hands, which were now drenched in a mixture of poison and blood. Where had it come from? Why did this happen?

Her tears continued to flow down her cheeks and she did not know what to do anymore. Her gaze went from her tainted hands to the blackened body of Zuko.

Had her anger and stubbornness caused all this? Was she really so cruel?

Unfortunately, the others seemed to have similar suspicions. She couldn't explain what had just happened. None of them could. But a greater darkness hung in the air now.

Carefully, Aang and Sokka lifted Zuko's body and prepared to move him to better place. Katara rose to follow them but Aang shook his head at her silently.

"I think it would be best if you stayed away from him for now," the Avatar advised, with a hint of coldness in his tone.

"But," she began to protest.

"You'd better do as he says," her brother told her, "he can't handle much more pain."

"But I..," Katara continued, her blue eyes shining.

Aang shook his head sadly.

"It shouldn't be too hard," Toph said almost accusingly as she helped the boys move Zuko gently, "you've had a lot of practice."

--

In a few moments, Katara had slammed the door of her room and had rummaged about until she found Zuko's letter.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," she kept muttering as she wept and unrolled the scroll.

Crumbling into an exhausted heap in one corner, she struggled to read the rest of the message even as her tears blurred her vision.