CHAPTER 25

Zuko moved slowly. Pushing open the double doors in front of him, he could practically feel his father's infuriating heat radiating from the other side. Something stirred irregularly inside Zuko. He was afraid, yes, but there was also anger and sadness added to the mix. He regretted trying so hard for his father for so long, but it still saddened him that it had come to this. That there was nothing he could do to fix the world but to fight and most probably kill his own father. Iroh stood behind him, encouraging him to keep moving forward, like a real father would have done.

Ozai sat at the end of the room looking smug. He was in good shape for his age and power appeared to seep out of his ego. Zuko could feel the anger starting to bubble up inside him again. It felt like he was a teenager again, angry at the world for not going the way he wanted it to. His father didn't deserve to live so comfortably, then again, there was some satisfaction in the knowledge that Ozai would never get to experience the same things that Zuko did throughout the trials of his recent life. He would never be humbled from loneliness or the hardships on the battlefield, and he would certainly never learn to love someone as carefully and passionately as Zuko had learned. But the topic of love brought up a question that Zuko had never found an answer to…

"Why didn't you want me?" Zuko pointed the question as calmly as he could. He knew that like Azula, his father would attempt to tease and invoke him. "As a son, I mean. If I ever had a child, I would never treat them in the same manner that you treated me, or Azula for that matter." Ozai, without having said anything, also seemed slightly surprised by Zuko's composure. "I would never use my children as tools or pawns, and then just throw them away like broken objects."

"Do you really expect me to answer such a stupid question?" One that I'm sure you already know the answer to?" As far as Zuko could tell, his father had barely changed since the last time he saw him. "To put it simply, you couldn't live up to my expectations. You were weak in body and mind and you were always a step behind your sister. And I was embarrassed by you. The only suitable way to deal with it was to keep sending you away. First to find the avatar, then to keep fighting in the war." A disgusted look was painted across Iroh's face as a result of listening to his brother's words. "Azula proved to be much handier than you, as I actually expected her to succeed in the tasks I gave her, but over time she too became less and less significant to me."

"It takes more than the child alone to build a relationship." While he was good at containing it, it was now clear that Iroh had become infuriated at Ozai's words. "You shouldn't have expected them to do all the work. A parent needs to try just as hard to get along with their kids."

"I had more important things to worry about. I was running a country – something that you had failed to prove you could do yourself Iroh." His father's words were hard for Zuko to hear. "Perhaps if you hadn't let your personal relationships stand in the way of you doing your job, then you wouldn't have to be in this situation and I wouldn't be sitting on the throne."

"I do not regret it. The only thing I regret is not spending more time with my son and Zuko."

"You can have Zuko, but I'm not going to just step off the throne because I know you want me to, brother. No, you'll have to fight me for that."

"No." Zuko took a step towards his father. "I'm going to fight you alone. Uncle has suffered through enough war that he doesn't need to top it off by killing his brother." Out of the corner of his eye, Zuko could tell that Iroh felt grateful for this decision.

"You talk like fighting me is not an issue for you Zuko… do you honestly think that you're going to win? That it'll be so easy?"

Zuko ignited two flames in the palms of his hands. "No, I don't think it'll be easy. And I don't know if I'm going to win, but even if I lose, I'll still prove that I'm better than you."

Ozai grunted in pure amusement at his son's words, but on Zuko's other side he could just manage to hear his uncle mutter "you've already proven that."

The heat of their match began to die with time. Ozai, always more concerned with power and presentation, began from the get-go with impressive force that Zuko was made to worry more about dodging than repelling. Ozai had learned to shoot lightning at such a striking and repetitious speed that Zuko couldn't redirect one lightning bolt without the chance of getting hit by the next. But, with time, Ozai began to slowly wear down, and while Zuko was also extremely tired, he maintained enough stamina to finally be able to throw a few shots of his own. He still wasn't sure whether or not he could win, and he wished he could turn towards Iroh at that moment for advice, but he didn't dare risk it. He probably wouldn't be able to understand his advice anyhow. He also wished he could turn towards Katara, but he couldn't be sure of what her condition even was at that moment.

Running through the palace hallways was like a giant well-decorated maze for Katara. As smart as she was, she couldn't remember which passages she'd already been down and which ones remained uncharted. Piandao and the others must have been holding the guards off pretty well considering she wasn't running into a single enemy throughout her search. Her only enemy at the time was figuring out where the hell she was.

Boots clicking against the floor, she flew past a door that had been smashed open and back-tracked a few steps to take a look inside. It was the throne room where Iroh and Zuko were supposed to have found Ozai, but it was completely abandoned. There wasn't a sign of any kind of fight apart from the smashed –in door and Katara realized that they must have ran somewhere else on their search.

In the throne room there was a large desk pushed up against the side wall. Perhaps there was some sort of map or something that would point her in the right direction to where Zuko and Iroh actually were. But there was nothing of the sort. People who lived in palaces their whole lives probably didn't need help figuring out how to get around their own home. However, she did find some important looking documents – political plans, wealth and income statements, a chart showing the distribution of the country's wealth among the council members instead of the country's districts like it should have been. She couldn't help looking at the documents and thinking how much better off the Fire Nation would be if Zuko was in charge.

But the thought of Zuko reminded her that she still needed to find him. She darted back out into the hallway and ran down an unfamiliar corridor where one of the palace kitchens seemed to be located. A servant started to come through the double doors of the kitchen, but quickly ducked back inside when she noticed Katara at the end of the hallway. Katara followed her into the room and grabbed her by the back of the collar. The woman was screaming frantically, probably thinking these were going to be the last moments of her life, but instead Katara lifted the little woman up by the shirt and placed her down in one of the kitchen's chairs.

"Where's Ozai?" she asked calmly, but with a sturdiness to her voice.

The woman started sobbing and shaking with fear. Katara sighed.

"I'm not going to kill you, just tell me where the fuck he'd be right now."

"In the throne room." The woman managed to get out.

"You lie. He's not there. Tell me where else."

The woman thought in silence for a time, seeming to calm down a bit. "Maybe in the arena?"

"How do I get to the arena?"

"Make a right at the end of the hallway and take the stairs all the way down, then make two lefts and a right and it's behind the two big gold doors."

"Your directions better be correct or else I'm coming back for you." Katara threatened and sprinted off towards the stairs.

When she made it to the hallway with the large golden doors, she could hear the fighting happening on the other side. She was about to push the doors open and burst inside, but took a moment to check herself. was it right for her to intrude? The concept of honor in the Fire Nation was hard for her to understand. Should she help them, or would that be dishonoring them from their own fight? But she couldn't rest easily just standing there on the other side of the doors. She managed to nudge one of them open just a crack so she could take a peek inside. The first thing she was able to see was Iroh's figure watching from the stands.

He's not fighting? Zuko's fighting alone?

As if reading her mind, Iroh glanced over at her and motioned for her to come in carefully. She crept over to where Iroh stood, making sure not to get hit along the way. From what she could see, Zuko was doing a lot of dodging, but that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. If he could keep it going, he could possibly beat Ozai in the same manner that she beat Azula. Still, she wanted to help.

"This is hard for me to watch Iroh." she whispered.

"For me as well, but it's not time to interfere yet. He wants to do this on his own. He deserves to be able to prove himself after all these years."

"But he's already proven himself."

"To us, yes, but not to himself."

Katara understood. She trusted Zuko's fighting abilities. While his father might've had more experience, she could tell that he didn't train nearly as long or as hard as Zuko did every day. He bended in a manner that was similar to Azula's. Just by watching Ozai, she could tell that he didn't have respect for his bending abilities. He saw it as a weapon – something that he owned, instead of feeling it as a part of his soul, as something that he should be thankful to have.

"Your fight with Azula was successful?" Iroh interrupted her thoughts.

"Yes."

"Is she…?"

"Yes." Katara felt sorry for a moment, remembering that he was Azula's uncle as well. "I'm sorry Iroh, but she'd only cause serious problems if I let her live."

"I understand . . . her story is an unfortunate one, but she never expressed any desire to find self-realization like Zuko did. If she had been different, her story would've ended differently."

Katara didn't say anything and instead focused back on Zuko. He was visibly hurt, but not fatally wounded. Ozai kept pushing him back, but the Fire lord was not in the best condition either. His stamina was dropping noticeably and Zuko had managed to get a few hits in. Every time Zuko got hurt, he would come back from it with the same amount of energy, but Ozai's strength kept decreasing little by little. The two were so engrossed in the fight, she wondered if they could notice anything but each other.

Come on Zuko, make your move. Use everything you've got.

Almost as if he understood her, Zuko managed to get a massive blow in. Ozai, in anger, whipped his arms and shot some lightning straight for Zuko's chest, but he deflected it just as Iroh had taught him. The lightning headed back towards Ozai, but narrowly missed his head, instead hitting a massive column behind him, which then began to collapse.

The arena was slowly starting to become unstable and Katara knew in her gut that it was time to leave. Iroh called for Zuko to fall back, but he remained focused on Ozai, like he was so determined that it put him in a trance.

"Zuko, let's go!" Katara shouted as her and Iroh made their way down the steps of the arena stands.

This caused Zuko to look up for a moment, finally noticing that Katara had been there watching him, and he felt a leap in his heart, but his focus quickly went back to his father.

"I can finish this once and for all. Go on and I'll catch up!" He called to them.

Before they could argue, Zuko kicked out a whip of fire towards the fleeing Fire Lord. It hit him in the back and he was pushed through the air and sent beneath the crumbling ceiling. As if on cue, the roof decided to collapse completely at this moment, crushing Ozai entirely.

As Katara and Iroh reached the gold doors, she whipped out a stream of water to try and pull Zuko back with them. It wrapped around his waist and began dragging him backwards, but his leg got caught and crushed under a falling rock. He yelled out in pain as Katara ran towards him to pull him out, dodging the falling wreckage and using her waterbending to destroy anything in her way.

AN: Okay guys there's only one more chapter after this which I'll probably post sometime throughout the week along with the epilogue. so hold on tight and thanks again for reading :)