Disclaimer: I sill don't own ATLA.
Avalon was a blur in the distance before Zuko even got to his feet. He raised his arms in annoyance before taking off at a dead run. Flames licked at the sky, fueled by the burning timbers that had once been their safe haven. As his legs pumped against the ground, Zuko's conscious subsided, letting the muscles take over.
It traveled through the twisted corridors of his mind, wandering aimlessly. It ended up outside a door that had "dread portal" written all over it. He knew what memory lay inside the door, and hey, it couldn't hurt to open it now. It might just make him angry enough.
(Zuko's POV)
I feel the fire tingling in my body, starting in the tips of my toes, and then creeping up to fill me. The feeling was so …right. I feel so whole, like I haven't in such a long time. Every hole that eats away at my heart fills with fire. The night sky above me, the comet blazing on the horizon, I charge the palace.
Running through these halls, memories bombard me. Me, as a child, darting down them, Mother yelling at me to slow down, but laughing as she did. Mother. Her memory only fuels my anger. The pictures on the walls glare down at me, the past kings judging me as I run. He should be around here somewhere.
I hadn't realized it, but fire has enveloped my fists. It must be the comet, for I put in no conscious effort. I throw open the giant, gaudy doors into the throne room. The fire that normally surrounds the Fire Lord, my father, is gone. Which means that he is.
I curse under my breath and pound on the pillar two to the right and three straight away from the throne. A door opens before me and I walk into the blackness that melts before my fiery forearms.
Follow the twisting staircases. Turn right at the fork at the bottom. Take the second passage to the left.
Wait, I halt for a moment. Ozai must've known that we were coming, there's no way he wouldn't. Which mean that he isn't going to be in the royal "coward's palace", as I call it. He's going to be somewhere else, somewhere discreet. I think hard and fast. I have to get to Ozai when the comet is at its peak in the night sky.
First, I try my room down in the bunker. No go. Then I try Azula's. Still, no Ozai. Where is he?
Something, destiny maybe, pulls at me, dragging me to my mother's long abandoned bunker room. I pause before I enter; something tells me he is in here. I can practically taste the evil in the air. I say a few words to my mother, calling out to her wherever she is, asking for help. Finally, one last thought traipses through my mind. I love you, Avalon, no mater what.
I do not try secrecy. I burst open the doors with a fire kick. Ozai fills my vision. With an angry cry, I rush him, shooting fireballs. He blocks them easily, without even turning to look at me.
"Zuko," he says, and I hear the scornful smile in his voice, "Come back for round two?"
"It's over, Ozai," I snarl.
"That's father, to you," he replies coolly, sending a fire blast at me.
"You're not my father. You never were, you never will be," I shout, growing even more furious. Fire creeps up my arms, swathing my whole body in flames. Ozai is in the same state, a fiery beam of a person. Fool, I think, don't waste your breath shouting at the man. Just finish him.
I put everything that I have into my attacks, but Ozai blocks them with easy, returning them with three times the intensity. Images flashed through my mind rapidly. Iroh, laughing as he served tea in the Jasmine Dragon, trying to teach me how to bend lightning in that gods-forsaken, barren land, loving me as if I were his own son.
I remember what Katara and Aang had told me. How it was Aang's destiny to kill the Fire Lord. But if he's dead, then who cares? I'm here, I can do it. I will.
My hands move with a mind of their own, a mind that had listened to every word Iroh ever said, no matter how ridiculous it had sounded at the time. Something new fills me, not just the warmth of fire, something else, something sharp, and so hot it's cold.
Lightning! I'm doing it! I can see Ozai's face, he is shocked. The last time we met, I had redirected his own lightning back at him, but he wasn't expecting this. Blue streaks shot from my fingertips and power overwhelms my body. I am drunk on it, losing ambition and the ability to make decisions. All I want to do is kill him.
The lightning hits him, square in the chest. The fool, he never learned to redirect the lightning. That was always his way. All offense, no defense. I walk calmly towards his body, lying prone on the ground. Is it over? Something wells up in my throat, drowning out the power of the lightning. I stand over him, and his eyes open. They are glazed, but still alive. Oh god, I think, he's still in there.
A laugh startles me. It comes from the corner of the large room, the corner that I had ignored when I entered, for I was so intent on Ozai.
Azula steps out of the shadows, clapping her hands slowly. It is the only sound in the room, echoing off the walls.
"Well, well, Zuzu," she says, "Who knew that you had it in you?"
She walks over to me, and I tense and back away.
"Don't worry, Zuzu, I'm not going to hurt you," she smiles, "Yet."
"Not another step Azula," I warn her, feeling as helpless as I used to. No, I am not helpless.
She stops, obeying me for once, "I see he's still alive," she comments dryly.
I don't respond.
"So, finish him," she eggs me on, "That's what you're here for."
She backs away, and I take my place over him. I look down into his eyes, the same molten gold orbs that he gave me. They stare at me, obliging. I try to glare at him, but traitor tears fall from me eyes.
"Show no weakness," Azula urges me.
Ozai's body starts shuddering. I realize, with a dread shock, that he is laughing.
"Come son," he chokes, "Do something … right … for once."
His comment fills me with more anger than I know what to do with. I shut my eyes, trying to hold it in. My hands creep to the hilts of my broadswords.
"Come on, Zuko!" Azula spurs me on, irritation clear in her voice.
I look one last time at my father, still trying to laugh at me, scorn me.
One of my swords is raised over his body, poised for the end. Azula is smiling in that nasty way of hers, I hear her through the red mist filling my ears and eyes.
"Truly, Zuzu, you are my brother."
With one swift stroke, I almost end his suffering. But I make the mistake of looking into his eyes right before my swords plunges into his chest.
"No, I'm not," I whisper.
Azula's eyes, possibly the only thing we have in common, widen in surprise and anger and disappointment. Her lips tighten into a sneer, and she sends a bolt of lightning at Ozai, killing him once and for all.
"You're weak Zuko!" she screams at me, "You always have been!"
The comet has ended, and I am left with a feeling of complete emptiness. I doubt if I could even shoot a fireball. Azula closes the gap between us, her arm cocked for a punch. I grab her wrist as she comes at me.
"No," is all I can say. I twist her arm and she flips with it, her body twisting accordingly. She lands on her feet, but I sweep them out from under her before she can find her footing. On the floor, one of my feet resting on her chest, she glares at me.
"Why do you think you're doing this?" she snarls.
"Honor," I reply simply, "I finally have my honor."
Aang rushes into the room, finally. I smile inside. He takes in the scene in a second.
"Come on, Zuko," he calls to me, "It's over. Leave her."
Oh shit, what am I going to do with Azula? My instincts tell me not to leave her, but do I have a choice? She makes it for me. She grabs my foot and sends me spinning away, jumping to her feet, shooting lightning at Aang. He leaps over it.
"Bad move, Zuzu," she says, "Don't misjudge me. I won't make the same mistakes as Father," here she laughs, "I will be the most powerful, the most cunning Fire Lord this nation as ever seen!"
I see the drunken power in her eyes, and now I understand it.
Aang grabs my arm, but I shake him off. Azula pisses me off so much. She smirks at me and then says, "Oh, Zuzu, there's someone who's just been dying to see you."
Mai appears in the doorway. Uh-oh.
"Hello, Zuko," she says, her voice the same monotone it has always been.
"Mai," I say, trying to be civilized.
"Zuko, come on," Aang begs me, dodging another lightning bolt from Azula. They engage each other in an all-out fight. Which leaves Mai for me.
"Mai," I begin.
"Save it," she cuts me off, sending three sharp blades in the general direction of my heart, "I don't want to hear it."
Ugh, how could I ever feel anything for her? She is so …un-Avalon. Maybe that's why I needed her so much. She was nothing like Avalon, not in the slightest bit. That's what attracted me to her so much. She helped me forget what I had done to Avalon.
"I'm sorry," I try again, my voice sincere. I was sorry that I had used her like I had. I was sorry that I had hurt her, but there was no other option for me.
"I don't care," she sneers. Well, I tried.
Katara runs into the room, shouting for Aang.
She grabs my arm as we flee. I wrench away from her, rushing back into the room.
"Zuko, no!" she cries after me. It was a foolish move, and I pay for it. I redirect some of Azula's lightning, but part of it found its mark, and that's all that's needed. I don't remember Aang carrying me out of the bunker; I don't remember Katara healing me.
As I rushed into the burning city, I remember Azula's sneer, and my father's last words. I remember the compassion I felt swelling my throat shut, forbidding me to do anything to my father lying helpless on the floor. But now I know that I can kill Azula in a fair fight. I have the strength, I have the skill, and I can kill her if I get the chance. I don't want to, but I have to.
Compassion, I recall Iroh lecturing me on compassion and my mother too after I had thrown bread at the turtle-ducks in our pond. It is what sets me apart from the monsters that were my family. It is what I found during Sozin's Comet, and it is something I never want to lose again.
(Third person POV)
People were rushing out of the city like rats, scurrying away from the fire. Zuko found Avalon almost immediately, helping an older couple out.
"Where are the others?" he shouted over the crackle of the flames.
"Helping," Avalon replied, "Trying to get everyone out."
"What started this?" Zuko asked.
Avalon looked at him and rolled her eyes, like it should have been obvious. It was.
"Azula," Zuko stated glumly.
Avalon nodded, answering the question Zuko hadn't necessarily asked.
"Where is she?"
"Gone," Avalon said, "Her and a whole bunch of others just started the fire and left."
In the end, the city lost half of its population to the deathly fire. Aang was high above the city, looking vainly for survivors. As he gazed at the ruins of the city, something caught his eye. He frowned, and flew higher. The ashes …
Aang kept going up, striving for a better viewing point. Finally, as Aang looked down at the city, his assumptions were verified.
In the parts of the city where the burning was the worst, the very blackest parts where the fires had started, the ashes spelled out a message. He Ping, the city of peace.
Author's note – Okay, so I was toying around with doing a chapter in Zuko's perspective for a while, so now seemed like the right time. That's the first time I've done anything other than third-person, and I think it went pretty well. Not horrible at least. So, yeah, R&R. Please?