Time passes by in a blur and then she is leaving him. She tears herself away, saying something about her obligations, touching his face and looking into his eyes, and all Zuko can hear is that she is leaving.
He feels like a bender again, like a warrior again, when she is with him. When she leaves, he feels as though he could summon all the elements. He feels as though the wind itself must drive her back to his side. He feels as though he can drag the ocean into his palace to beach her ship against his walls. He will raise a massive wall of earth to close her in and keep her.
He wonders how Aang could ever have let her go.
Aang.
They didn't speak about it, but of course, he knows. She never left him. She still loves him. She is leaving Zuko to return to him.
Aang.
Aang who only ever loses control where Katara is concerned.
Aang will find out, sooner or later, and then it will be the Avatar summoning the earth and the wind and the sea and perhaps it will be fire itself that finds him.
Let the Avatar come. Zuko will go straight out to meet him, face to face and eye to eye.
Zuko will fight for her.
Against the Avatar, Zuko will lose.
She was worth it.