CHAPTER 26

Zuko woke up on the floor of the palace, realizing he must have fallen unconscious from the pain in his leg. The first thing he saw was Katara vigorously trying to put his leg back in order with her waterbending. She was sweating profusely and he wanted to help in some way, but he knew any kind of distraction would just upset her. Squatting next to the side of his head was Iroh, who was also concentrated on Katara's work.

Zuko was still in pain, but he felt a little more peaceful knowing that his uncle and Katara were both safe. He whispered up to Iroh.

"I'm sorrying for getting so absorbed in the fight. I just wanted things to finally end and be over with. This would've happened years ago if we hadn't killed the Avatar."

Iroh looked down at him. "All that matters now is that we're all here to make up for it."

Zuko knew that Katara could hear him since the apology was also meant for her, but she kept her eyes trained on his bleeding leg. He could feel that she was still a little pissed at him for putting himself in unnecessary danger, but he was too happy to see her to really care.

"Is Azula dead?" he whispered back up to Iroh, who nodded in affirmation. "Is Ozai dead?" he added.

"We're going to go back in and check once the dust settles in the arena." Iroh said.

"Good idea."

"You're not coming." Katara finally spoke.

"What?" Zuko asked.

"You can't walk. Iroh and I will take a look while you wait here."

"That hardly seems fair. I did all the work. What if he's not dead and something happens?"

"She's right Zuko," Iroh began, "you've done enough. Besides, seeing your own father in that state might be much harder than you realize, even if it was our intention."

Katara bended the rest of her water into Zuko's leg, mending his crushed bones back into place. When she finally looked up at him, she expected him to seem irritated at having to stay behind, but his face portrayed the opposite. He seemed genuinely contented to be sitting there with her, and this made her realize that she couldn't be angry at him. They were both alive and that was all that mattered right then.

As Katara inspected the arena with Iroh, she could look up and see that night was turning into dawn. She could see the rest of the palace that remained intact and wondered where the others might be at the moment.

Ozai's arm was sticking out from under the boulder that had crushed him. It wasn't moving. Katara bent down to check the pulse in his wrist while Iroh watched on carefully. There was no beat, his blood wasn't flowing, he was cold.

"He's dead." She claimed and Iroh nodded. "What should we do with him?"

"We'll have to leave him here for now until I can get someone to collect him and Azula. They'll be taken to a special burial ground reserved for the royal family."

The words seemed bittersweet.

"Should Zuko be able to see this?" Katara asked.

"If he truly wants to. He might need it in order to move on."

"I've seen enough." Zuko startled the two by limping up behind them. "It's sad, but it's what was necessary. That's the way war works."

Katara stood up and pulled Zuko's arm around her neck so he could use her for support.

They began searching for the others as they helped Zuko hobble through the palace. They couldn't go back up the stairs, so they headed outside into the gardens.

"I've been thinking uncle," Zuko started "that I shouldn't be the new Fire Lord." Iroh and Katara both looked at him. "And I know that you don't want to be Fire Lord either."

Katara eyes sunk a little in disappointment. If anyone was going to make things better in the Fire Nation it was Zuko and Iroh. But she was surprised when he turned to her and told her his plan.

"If I was Fire Lord, we wouldn't be able to be together in the same way anymore. We could try to get married, but we'd never be able to leave and the strain of running a nation would make us drift apart, I know it. And that's not something I'm willing to risk, so I'm proposing that we remodel the Fire Nation government into something a little more democratic."

"What did you have in mind?"

"Something a little more similar to how the water tribes do it. So that members of the council are selected by merit instead of by family rank and decisions are made fairly by a large group of people instead of being dictated by one man." He could tell that they both liked the idea. "Katara, if I'm going to do this, I'll have to stay in the Fire Nation for a while in order to get everything established. You don't have to stay, but-"

"Of course I'm staying you idiot."

Iroh laughed as Zuko turned to him. "I would like it uncle if you and some other members of the White Lotus would stay and be a part of this new government for a little while in order to get it on the right track. We need to make sure we have responsible people doing the work."

"I agree nephew." Iroh smiled.

The others finally managed to find them in the gardens and Katara began healing those seriously injured. Incredibly, almost everyone survived apart from some members of the KK, who everybody took the time to remember in silence.

As the sun rose higher, they all sat in the gardens, taking the time to rest knowing that no one was going to come attacking them now that Zuko had technically inherited the throne. The knowledge of Ozai and Azula's death seemed to blow through the palace like a gust of wind that settled in peace once it had spread. This breeze would eventually make its way into the streets and through the nation, and then around the world.

Zuko, Katara, Toph, and Sokka sat next to the koi pound together. When they spoke to each other, they whispered even though they didn't have to. Exhausted, Toph and Sokka fell asleep on the bank and Zuko and Katara moved off to the side so as not to disturb them.

"Do you remember when we had sex in the Southern Water Tribe?" Zuko asked, taking Katara off guard.

"Um, yeah?"

"Yeah… we should do that again." He grinned and pulled a cherry blossom from the branch above them.

Katara laughed. "Well do you remember when I took you captive and tied you to a pole and you had to be fed like a dog?"

He blushed and smiled at the memory of their reunion. "Maybe…I don't quite recall…" he joked.

He took the cherry blossom and ran it up and down the skin of her arm, realizing how intense the entirety of their history together was. "Did you ever imagine us being together like we are now?"

"No," she stated, "but I always imagined that we could've been friends."

"You did?"

"We're very similar people Zuko. I've known that since the beginning."

"I didn't." He said, disappointed in his past self.

"You figured it out eventually," she touched a scratch on his cheek to heal it. "We've both grown a lot. It's almost scary how fast you change in such a short time."

He loved her. It was such a complicated emotion, but it felt so simple. And it felt so good knowing that she felt the same. She didn't say the word much, but she was always the type of person who was better at speaking through her actions. She could touch him and he could feel her love through her fingertips. Maybe it was something waterbenders could do, but more likely it was just something Katara could do.

"Katara…" Zuko started.

"Hmmm?"

"I want you to live with me here, in the Fire Nation while we get things set up. We could rent a little home in town where it's quiet," Katara smiled and moved her hand to a bruise on his neck, "and then we could travel around for a while and try to establish more peace between the nations."

"That sounds good to me."

"And then maybe we could settle down somewhere and start a family."

She sat up and looked at him seriously for a moment. "Are you sure that you want to spend the rest of your life with me like that?"

"I can't imagine being happy doing anything else."

She seemed to take this into consideration. "…me neither."

He tossed the cherry blossom at her face. "Then I guess we're stuck together."

She grinned and laid back down on the grass. "I think we always were."