Ok, again with the WARNING: high level violence, some gory details and more character death. So yea, again, read at own risk.

Ok, before I go on, I'd like to make a dedication. So, here goes: eh-hem!

I would like to dedicate this chapter and last chapter to everyone in Victoria, Australia, who has been effected by the bushfires over the past week. Many have lost their homes, loved ones, and lives, and the current death-toll stand somewhere between 180-190. this number is expected to rise to at least 300. This is Australia's worst natural disaster and we've never seen these figures before. In respect for those who perished on Black Saturday, please put a flower in your msn display names. And everyone, be very grateful that you've received this chapter on time, or at all, because I was very close to these fires and was lucky not to have been evacuated and lucky that my town was not burn (though we had lots of spot-fires because of the embers).

Alright, on to the story and hopefully, a more positive note. Read and review and enjoy.

24. The Invaders, Part 4; The Final Battle

It didn't take long for Katara, Aang and Iroh to find Toph and Sokka. They had managed to stay together while they were being chased.

"Are you all alright? Katara, did they hurt you?!" Sokka asked in an over protective big brother act.

"I'm fine. I'm not hurt, they didn't get me," she smiled reassuringly at him and he sighed.

"Well, it's good to see that everyone's ok," Iroh smiled.

"Not everyone," Toph frowned. Everyone looked at her, puzzled. "Where's Zuko?" Her voice hinted panic and Iroh knew that this little blind girl must be closer to his nephew than anyone knew.

"We got split up," Katara explained.

"Well, let's find him," Aang decided. "It should be a lot easier and safer now that we're all together again."

They all took off down the corridor in search of the Fire Prince, all keeping a close eye out for the Fire Lord's men. There was barely anyone around and the group guessed that most of the soldiers were fighting outside of the palace, distracted by the invaders that were surrounding the city. They had only been searching for five minutes when they found themselves in the throne room.

"Um... maybe we shouldn't be in here. You know... just in case the Fire Lord finds us here... that wouldn't be good for us. We need to find Zuko," Sokka said, voice trembling.

"Yea, I agree with Sokka; I don't think Zuko's in here," Katara nodded.

"Ok, let's –"

"What's your hurry, Avatar? Leaving so soon? No, I insist that you stay." The voice from behind them sent electric chills up all of their spines and they all whipped around to see Fire Lord Ozai himself.

"Toph, why didn't you tell us he was coming?!" Sokka demanded in a whisper to the blind earth girl, but as he turned to face her, he realized that they had been snuck up on by Dai Li agents and one of them had put a hand over Toph's mouth and had drawn a blade to her throat while two others held her tightly, lifting her feet off the ground slightly so that she couldn't bend.

"Sorry..." she whispered through the man's hand.

"Hey! Let her go!" Aang ordered and he sent the man holding the knife flying backwards with an air-blast. He fell to the ground, unconscious.

"Now, that wasn't very nice," Ozai leered.

Aang turned to face him again, swallowing dryly. "You aren't very nice either," he retorted as calmly as he could.

Ozai laughed bitterly, "What a comeback! Would you look at his, Shang, the world decided to send a little boy to defeat me. And how does he go about doing it? He tells me that I'm not very nice!"

"How very amusing." A male's voice came from the shadows and a man with black hair and yellow eyes stepped out. "How naive of them to think that they could stop your magnificent plans like this." The smirking man came to stand alongside the Fire Lord, with his hands on his hips. They stood, looking at their rivals for a moment, before the new man gasped.

And for a moment, Katara thought that there might have been an echo in the room, until she turned her head to see that her brother had also gasped. And Sokka and this new man were looking right at each other.

"You..." Sokka breathed.

"You!" he snapped. "What are you doing here?!"

"Oh, so you have all already met Admiral Shang!" It was a statement, as the Fire Lord indicated to the man beside him.

"No..." Toph, Aang and Katara said slowly, looking in confusion between Shang and Sokka.

Iroh continued scowling at Ozai and the new man.

"Greetings, General Iroh," the Admiral bowed mockingly.

"If it isn't my talented for trouble pupil," he sighed wearily. "I see you fulfilled your dreams of becoming one to sit at the right-hand side of the Fire Lord."

"Although, before our father passed away, it was you he anticipated to be Fire Lord. But of course, you ended up a failure," Ozai smirked.

"I'd hold my tongue if I were you, Brother," Iroh advised, sagely.

Ozai laughed again, "I don't need your wisdom, tea lover!"

"It is a shame that you do not know what is best for you," Iroh said sadly. "Stand down, the both of you, for if you do not, you will only cause more trouble for yourselves."

"Don't be stupid, Iroh! We're both master firebenders," Shang dismissed.

"But you are clearly outnumbered," Iroh indicated to the Avatar, his waterbending and earthbending teachers, Sokka and himself.

"Give it up, Fire Lord Ozai! It's over," Katara spoke, only to receive another laugh.

"You miscalculate, all of you. You're fools! It is you who are outnumbered!" Ozai spat. Then he clicked his fingers and what seemed to be a whole division of an army filed into the throne room through the side doors, flanked with a number of Dai Li agents. The two who were still holding Toph back pushed her forward to join her group.

Almost immediately, Katara, Sokka, Toph and Iroh found themselves in combat, but his time, there was no running; they were all surrounded.

Shang seemed to be fighting Iroh with more gusto than anyone else in the room, but before anyone could get to Aang, Ozai yelled out, "Leave the Avatar! He is mine to finish!"

With that, the two enemies looked each other in the eye. The final battle had begun, at last.

"Azula?" Zuko shook his little sister's body gently in his arms. She didn't move. She didn't stir. He waited. "Azula?"

He felt a sharp pain gripping at his insides as what had just happened to Azula became clear to him.

"Azula..." he breathed with a sob. "No... come back."

He shook her a bit more and looked at the bracelet, begging it to light up for a moment so that his sister would open her eyes one more time. But it didn't; the beads stayed the way they were.

Zuko shook his head, not wanting to believe what was happening – what this meant. He wished he was dreaming. He wished he were imagining. He wished that nothing of that day had every happened and that Azula was alright. He wished that she was only pretending, and that she would jump up any minute and laugh at him, telling him that she had fooled him and rub it in his face. Anything! Anything but let this be true. Anything but let her really be gone.

He sobbed loudly over her body and shook his head again.

This can't be happening! This can't be true! This can't be real! Please, no!

But it was real and he knew it. And the worst of it was that it was too late to change it. The Fire Princess was gone.

He squeezed his eyes shut and held her tight, wishing all off the world away. And suddenly his eyes shot open. He looked around.

What was that?

He listened and there it was. Always changing, never stopping. The sound of fighting. And the Prince knew exactly what it meant; the Avatar had found the Fire Lord and his friends were fighting his soldiers.

Gently, he lifted his dead little sister up in his arms and walked her over to the bed in the guest room, which was somehow still in tack. He cradled her in his arms for a moment before he set her down, stroking her head and pushing her hair out of her bloodstained face. He draped a blanket over her and kissed her forehead with tears running from his eyes.

Then, he made one of the hardest choices in the world and it tore him apart as he did it. He left the room and his sister and he went to find the others. He had to help them defeat the Fire Lord. He had to get back at the man who had destroyed his family.

As much as he wanted to stay with Azula and cry over her mangled body, he knew there was no point. If he wanted anyone to be there for him when this was all over, he needed to go and help them before they were killed too.

Water… Earth… Fire… Air… It shot from Aang towards Ozai and the Fire Lord deflected it. He made it look so easy. Fire… Lightning… The Fire Lord delivered his attacks with vigour. But as Aang tried to defend himself, he found himself falling, slipping, needing to dodge – losing.

This was bad, oh so very bad. Aang couldn't keep the panic from his face. He couldn't lose this battle.

The Avatar yelped as Ozai sent him backwards with a powerful fire blast that left the ground where it ended up hitting cracked. He was panting heavily, but not as heavily as Aang. He could sense the boy's fear, and he loved it and loathed it at the same time. He loved that he scared a hero so much and made him tremble. Ozai loved the feeling of power. But he loathed a coward who couldn't defend himself, and that was why he killed them.

As Zuko pushed himself to keep going and not give up, he tried to work out where the battle was raging. He realized that it was so hard to track someone when you were so full of rage and emotion. Maybe that was why he had never been able to capture Aang. He had been too full of rage to be concentrating properly.

But as he walked, he recognized the area and when he pointed himself in the direction the noise was coming from, he guessed that the battle was in the throne room.

Forgetting everything else, he knew what he had to do.

Aang tried to deflect the lightning, but the Fire Lord was too powerful. The Avatar was blown backwards into the wall.

"Aang!" Katara cried, as Ozai charged at him. But she couldn't do anything for him.

Aang watched as his doom came at him. He squeezed his eyes shut and looked away.

Goodbye world… goodbye friends…goodbye Katara…He felt a tear trickle down his cheek as he braced himself for death. But the strike never came.

Zuko ran as fast as he could towards where the fighting was. He entered the throne room. There was Katara, tears pouring from her eyes as she fought a dozen firebenders at the same time; she was absolutely surrounded. Sokka was cornered by five, but he wasn't giving up. Toph was battling a number of Dai Li agents and Iroh was surrounded by at least twenty soldiers.

And Aang was on the ground, the Prince's father charging at him.

No…

He couldn't let it happen. He charged at his father and pushed him off his path. He fell to the ground, but jumped back up quickly, glaring at his son.

"Zuko!" Aang called gleefully, as he too got up smiling. But his smile fade when he saw the Prince was soaked in blood.

But Zuko wasn't looking at him; he was glaring harshly, with such an intensity of hate, that if it had been directed to someone other than Ozai, the victim would have surely turned to ashes.

"Well, I didn't kill you after all. I will be sure not to make that mistake again." The Fire Lord took a fighting stance. "How do you feel? Knowing the truth about Azula? Do you think you're a bad brother for not having been there for her?"

Tears trickled down his cheeks as his father's words hit him and he charged at him, firebending and all self control forgotten. And for that moment in time, Zuko didn't care if he died or not. All that mattered was killing this man – this monster – who had ripped his world apart.

The Fire Lord saw his son's ferocity and knew that he would be fighting to the death. He got ready to shoot lightning at him, but he suddenly couldn't breathe; Zuko was strangling him. He grabbed his son's throat and they flung each other around.

"You killed her… you killed her… why?! Why did you have to kill Azula?! How could you kill your own daughter?!" he shouted and sobbed at the same time. "All those things you did to her... how could you?! How could you do that?! Why did you let those things happen to her?! Why did you have to kill her?! How could you kill her?!"

"The same way I'm going to kill you! I killed your sister because she was a traitor and a bitch and she had turned into the same failure you are!"

"YOU KILLED HER!!!"

Ozai smirked; he loved to see the people he loathed in pieces.

Aang looked between the father and son. What was going on? What were they talking about? Why was Zuko upset about Azula? Did he just say that his father had killed Azula?!

They were attacking each other viciously, clawing at each other's throats and Zuko was deep in tears of rage.

It was right then that Aang noticed that he wasn't the only one watching. He looked to see that Admiral Shang was watching the father and son fight with an almost terrified look on his face.

"Shit! How the hell did Zuko find out?!" he whispered to himself, unaware that Aang could hear him. He looked around fearfully and spotted the nearest exit. Quick as he could, he made a dash for it and disappeared. Aang stared after him in confusion for a moment before he forced himself back to reality and the fight before him.

The Fire Lord threw Zuko back and came on the offensive.

"Zuko!" Aang tried to help his friend, but Ozai was attacking him too furiously to be stopped. He looked around to the others in the room, but they were all busy.

Suddenly, his eyes met a familiar scene. Time went in slow motion as Katara was surrounded by soldiers and she gathered water around her in a circle and made it like an octopus, with many tentacles lashing out at her opponents.

Just like in Ba Sing Se…

Aang knew what he had to do.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, but none of them heard him. He sat on the ground, cross-legged, and brought the earth around him upward so that he was completely encased within it. He shut his eyes and began to meditate.

I need to get into the Spirit World. He hoped this wouldn't be a replay of what happened in Ba Sing Se; he still had a hole in his back from where Azula had struck him.

He cleared his mind of all things, until the only thing left in his head was the voice of the Guru, "Let go of them, Aang. Let them flow down the river, forgotten."

I need to let go of Katara...

But you love her!

It's the only way. I need to let her go. Anyway... she's... with Zuko now.

Aang felt a tear stray down his cheek at that thought. He loved Katara, with all of his heart. He'd loved her since the day he met her – since he opened his eyes and found himself in her arms. But that was a dream to him now. He had to let her go, or this would never work. He would never be able to save them.

He inhaled, repeating the same words in his head, If you love her, let her go. If you love her, let her go. If you love her, let her go. If you love her...

Aang slowly exhaled, still repeating the words in his head, and suddenly, the cosmic energy was flooding him; he had unlocked his seventh Chakra.

Aang was in the Avatar State.

Zuko charged at his father, only to be thrown backwards once again. By then, he was slightly bleeding from several wounds his father had caused him. But the Prince wasn't giving up; he would avenge his little sister. His father would pay.

He lunged at the man and was knocked down. But he didn't care anymore if he was killed or not; his life was so screwed up that all that mattered to him at the moment was killing the man in front of him, even if it meant killing himself.

Another attempted attack, another fail, and another strike backwards. Prince Zuko found himself on the ground, but he was too weak to get up again. His father charged at him and he shut his eyes. But the scene was interrupted by the sound of earth being blown apart from within and a bright light began to shine.

All fighting stopped and everyone looked to see Aang. His eyes and tattoos were glowing a brilliant blue; he was in the Avatar State.

Some of the more cowardly soldiers left he room in a hurry while the others stood there, looking awestruck.

The Avatar stepped forward and blew soldiers away with powerful air-blasts. He sent some flying with earth pillars and sprawling on the ground with a water whip. He burnt a few to a crisp as they charged at him. His friends were all still as they watched everything unfold before them.

But the Fire Lord's men had sent for reinforcements. At least one hundred new soldiers had packed themselves into the room with ease and everyone resumed fighting. They were greatly and dangerously outnumbered and strongly outmatched, even with Aang in the Avatar State.

The Fire Lord was leaving him to the soldiers, and so, he turned back to his son and charged. Zuko had only just found his feet and was pushed several meters backwards into a wall. Ozai charged at him again and Zuko was sure he was about to meet his end.

But as his father drew nearer, something appeared between them. It was a Spirit, Zuko knew straight away. It was a woman with long black hair, wearing a white dress with red and gold trimmings and a black veil.

In a split second, she formed an immense wall of blue flames – but no, it was pure electricity! – and the Fire Lord was blown backwards.

Once again, all other fighting stopped and everyone focused their attention on the scene.

"Keep away from my brother!" Princess Azula told her father harshly from her spirit form. Everyone looked at her incredulously and Aang came out of the Avatar State.

"Princess…" Ozai breathed in both amazement and anger.

Suddenly, a majority of the soldiers were hit by a tidal wave and knocked unconscious by its force. Everyone looked to see the Moon Spirit, Princess Yue, floating in mid air, her blue robes flowing elegantly from her form.

A majority of what remained of the soldiers were knocked stone cold by blue flames that issued from the other side of the room. They all turned once more to see a woman, dressed in silky red and gold robes. She had a gentle, motherly expression despite her frightening stance and she had long black hair. Her eyes were gold and she was altogether beautiful.

"Ursa…" Iroh and Ozai breathed in union.

"Mum…" Zuko whispered.

The woman smiled at him and he smiled back as more tears came to his eyes.

For years now, Ozai had not seen her face – her beautiful face. The face he'd fallen in love with. He knew love was weak, he hated love, but whenever she was around, he had to put up with it, because as much as he hated everything about love, and as much as he hated her for leaving him and choosing her son over him, Ozai still loved Ursa.

His lips were slightly parted as he gazed up at her, and she stared sadly back at him. Those eyes, her eyes – they were so perfect, but so full of sadness and longing and anger and hate and still, they managed to be full of love. Ozai felt his heart slow down for a moment, or maybe it was beating faster than ever and everything around him was just going in slow-motion because of what was going to happen next...

Ozai stared dumbfound at his lost wife and Aang realized how distracted he was. As quick as he could, the Avatar shot a deadly fireball at him and in a split second, the Fire Lord was on the ground. It all happened so fast, it was hard to believe anyone had moved at all, but the deed was finally done.

Ozai never took his eyes of Ursa for the last few seconds of his life, and he never spoke a word or made a sound. He just looked at her, and no one but her, wishing that she hadn't been such a fool as to leave him, and wishing that he hadn't been so stupid as to push her away from him and despise love, just because it was weak. He wished, that just for a moment, he had let himself be weak around her.

But his wishes died with him.

He moved no more.

All was silent and still for a moment, as everyone took in what had just happened. They all waited for it to sink in. Then…

Everyone on the Avatar's side looked back to Aang and cheered. The Fire Lord was finally defeated; the war was over. Katara, Sokka, Toph and Yue turned to Aang and cheered. Zuko, cheered half-heartedly and Iroh, Ursa and Azula smiled fondly at him, their faces soft and admiring.

Ozai's soldiers gave angry cries and the Dai Li agents suddenly tunneled under the ground where they were and disappeared without a trace. The Fire Nation soldiers continued their angry cries, until Azula spoke.

"My brother is your leader now, do as he says," she ordered with the same voice filled with authority she'd use any other day in front of soldiers.

They all looked up to her and realized who she was. More to it, they saw that she spoke the truth. Fire Lord Ozai was dead, and Prince Zuko was the rightful heir to the throne. If Princess Azula were still alive, their father would probably have ordered that she take over after him, but as they looked up at her spirit, they understood she was dead. Who else did that leave in line for the throne? Zuko!

Hesitantly at first, they all got down on their knees and bowed in front of Zuko. The Prince felt his heart stop in his chest for a moment at the suddenness of it all. It was so confusing and unexpected that he almost forgot everything that had just happened altogether. He had to remind himself to breathe.

"What are your orders, Sir?" one man asked.

The new Fire Lord thought for a moment. "Go send out word to all of the Generals, Admirals and others in charge of leading soldiers and tell them to forfeit and retreat from the battles around the city peacefully."

The soldiers bowed again and left quickly to fulfill their new master's orders. A new era had begun, and the war was at an end. The men would serve their new Fire Lord.

The throne room suddenly felt very empty, much to everyone's relief.

"Zuko!" Katara ran up to him and flung her arms around him. He kissed her and pulled her in close to him.

Toph and Iroh cheered and the three Spirit women laughed, Aang sighed and Sokka made gagging sounds, before both of the boys turned to look at the Spirit women.

Ok, sorry if that wasn't up to my usual standard, if you read the first A/N, you'll understand that I had a tough week, so please forgive me for anything that seemed inadequate. I tried my best and edited and rewrote a few times, so be happy it isn't way worse, cuz it could have been.

I hope you all liked it, I'm sure you at least get the main gist of things that happened so that I at least won't confuse you in the next chapter(s). No, it's not the end of the story yet. A few more chapters to go. So, thank you to everyone who's reviewed, and just remember that the rule is four (4) reviews by next Sunday or NO UPDATES! Got that clear? Yes, I've put it up a number cuz I can. Four reviews or no update.

Now go and review and JOIN TEAM ZUTARA!