Zuko folded his hands over his chest in thought. He had nothing else to do at the moment, really.

The dragon had been terrible, monstrous, not at all like the dragons of his own world. Instead of sinuous and graceful, it had been huge and bulky like a bear, covered in black jagged scales whose seams bled lava. He remembered the dragon's false jaw made of black iron - just before it opened wide and engulfed the peninsula in flame.

Zuko had reacted on instinct, fighting away the flames with his own, expending all his energy to do so. But he'd survived, unscathed, and so had the few archers standing next to him - at least until the wall melted at the bottom and collapsed. He didn't remember much after that.

He peered up through the smoke and saw Jaina Proudmoore and several other mages moving through the ruins, using their spells and summoned water elementals to extinguish the flames. She spotted him and jogged over.

She was likewise unharmed, though the hems of her clothes were burnt and her hair was sticky with sweat. "Are you alright?" she asked. Her voice trembled slightly with fear, but she remained calm and poised.

"Yeah," he said, sitting up to prove it. He coughed, and then groaned as it pulled his bruised muscles.

"Have you seen anyone else?"

"Toph and Sokka. Apparently Katara's alive too, and Tyrande."

Jaina nodded, looking somewhat relieved. "That's good news. Come," she said, reaching down to help him stand. She then turned aside, sweeping her gaze over the ruined city, her blue eyes wet with sorrow.

"Listen, I, uh," Zuko said, "I'm sorry that Katara and I -"

"No," the archmage said. "Garrosh would have taken any excuse to attack. And if I didn't have forewarning, all those people would still have been here when Deathwing came."

"That's one way to look at it," he murmured, then asked, "Where did the Horde go?"

"I saw their survivors fleeing. There's no need to pursue them. Perhaps Garrosh will think our civilians are dead..." She sighed, and moved on to find more survivors.

IIIII

The survivors numbered few, and once reconnoitered, returned through a portal to Stormwind. The mood was morose, tense, exhausted. Several of the veterans had tears on their faces; others stood wide-eyed and shivering.

Jaina and Tyrande went aside to speak quietly together. Zuko sought his friends to stand near, though he had nothing to say. Castle guards approached the group to question them about the battle, but their questions were met with shaking heads and quiet stares. No one wanted to describe what they had seen.

Anduin Wrynn entered from a side corridor, bags under his bright eyes. He stifled a yawn as he went to the two women, asking, "How did it go?"

Priestess and mage exchanged a heavy glance before looking back down to him. "Anduin," Jaina said softly, then halted.

"What? Has something happened? Did the Horde win?"

"Nobody won," she said. "Deathwing came."

Anduin's face froze in shock. He looked over those assembled, and seemed to realize they were all who had returned, or would ever return.

"Where is my father?"

Jaina closed her eyes and bowed her head.

Anduin let out a ragged breath, and then pinched his eyes shut, forced himself to stand straighter and smoothed out his tunic. He swallowed hard and opened his eyes, clearly struggling to retain composure. "What is the next course of action?" he asked stiffly.

"We don't know yet," Jaina said. "But the Horde have also taken severe losses, and are unlikely to attack again soon. We have time to plan."

He nodded. "Your people can stay here in Stormwind, of course," he said, and cleared his throat. "E-excuse me." He turned sharply and exited down the hall from which he came.

"We should go talk to him," Katara said suddenly.

"What? Why?" Sokka said.

"He just lost his dad!" she hissed in a low voice. "We all know how it feels to lose a parent, we should comfort him!"

"But we barely know him, and besides, he's a prince and we're just some strangers, he's got stuff to do."

"So? Zuko's a prince too!"

Zuko raised his hands. "But -"

"And you're both going to be leaders of your nations soon."

"What am I supposed to say?! 'Hi, sorry your dad died, want to come hang out with me and my other half-orphan friends and chat about losing parents'?"

"I don't know," she sighed. "But nobody else is talking to him."

"Maybe he wants to be alone."

"Well, I'm going to talk to him," she said.

She began to move, but Sokka grabbed her shoulder. "He's got his own friends to talk to him, alright?" he said.

"Does he? I haven't seen another kid or teenager here at all," she said.

"It's the middle of the night, they're probably asleep," Zuko said.

By then, most of the survivors had filtered out, the room steadily emptying. Jaina and Tyrande discussed strategy, their voices occasionally rising in some disagreement, before they both stopped and seemed to remember the kids were still present.

Jaina approached them. "You all need a place to stay, don't you? I'm sure there are quarters available here." Without waiting for a response, she ushered them all down a hall and asked the first servant she saw to find them some rooms.

Zuko dreamed of Deathwing descending on the Fire Nation, standing over the bodies of dragons Ren and Shaw like a firehawk on its prey, before turning to speak in Fire Lord Ozai's voice, even while clutching Ozai's body in its massive claws.

Zuko fearlessly looked up at them, looked at his father's body, and only uttered, "Thank you."

IIIII

Zuko woke before dawn and wiped his brow of sweat. He did not enjoy dreams like that - but recent events had turned his thoughts to home, and the similarities between Deathwing and his father were too strong to ignore, as was the selfish wish that someone else had dealt with Ozai by now.

He rose from the plush bed in the guests' quarters. The room was large and lavish, but at least not decorated in red and gold like the Fire Nation palace. The white walls and blue tapestries were refreshingly cool-colored.

Across the room, Toph slept like a rock on the floor next to her own bed.

Zuko exited quietly, shutting the door with care, before walking down the hall. He had no destination in mind, only hoping to clear his head before sleeping again.

He found himself in the open, grassy courtyard, quiet but for the songs of night birds and crickets. The walls had open arches, allowing an impressive view of a lake below.

As he made his way for the ledge, white cloth caught his eye, and he turned his head aside and saw Anduin sitting at the base of a tree. Noticing him in return, Anduin stood quickly. "Is there something you need?" the Stormwind prince asked in a courteous tone.

"I didn't know anyone was out here," Zuko said. "I'll just g-"

"It's ironic, isn't it? How because of the attack on Theramore, there were fewer casualties overall."

"There were still a lot of casualties," Zuko said, and immediately regretted it. How stupid! Of course Anduin knew that!

"But they were all soldiers. People who... who knew it could happen, who risked their lives anyway. I think that's how my father would have wanted it. Him, instead of innocent civilians."

Zuko tried to think of something positive to say. "He was pretty brave out there."

"He was a soldier at heart. He had always hoped I'd -" Anduin broke off, clearing his throat.

"Sometimes parents want their kids to turn out a certain way. But it doesn't mean you have to. If he hadn't told you to stay behind..."

"I know. I... I almost didn't listen. I was tempted to sneak in with the rest of you, to do my part."

"What are you going to do now?"

"I wish I knew. There'll be a funeral, a huge one, all the other leaders will be there probably, then a coronation ceremony... I wish Bolvar were here."

"Who?"

Anduin smiled weakly. "An old friend." He sat down on the edge of the courtyard overlooking the lake. "He stood in as Regent when my father went missing, when I was a child."

Zuko sat as well, secretly relieved not to have to stand anymore. "What about the Queen?"

"She died when I was an infant."

"Oh." Zuko frowned. "Mine went missing when I was young, too. No one ever found her."

"I am sorry to hear that." Anduin paused thoughtfully. "You mentioned your father earlier..."

"Yeah, he's... trying to take over the world, where I'm from." And probably succeeding, by now. "My friends and I are on a mission to stop him."

"That must be very difficult."

"Yeah. Well, at first I was trying to stop them," he admitted with a sheepish shrug. "I was obsessed with his approval. I thought I could reclaim my honor that way. But joining them was the smartest thing I ever did."

"I pray you succeed, then, and bring peace to your world," Anduin said, staring off at the valley below.

"Yeah. You, too."

The Stormwind prince looked over, his expression troubled and torn. "I don't know how easy it will be. Garrosh won't stop until we're dead, neither will Deathwing. There's so much hate between all sides that no one even wants peace except a few of us! And now I- I'm going to be King. The people will expect me to follow in my father's footsteps, to be a warrior, and aggressive, and try to take back Azeroth from the orcs. But I'm not like him. And I'm just a boy. Will they even listen to me?"

"I don't know what to tell you," Zuko said. "It's the same for me. My father's Fire Lord. We've been at war for over a hundred years, and my people think I'm a traitor for trying to stop it. I have no idea what I'm going to do once I'm Fire Lord instead."

"You- are also a prince?"

"Yeah. But, I have my friends, I have the Avatar and a lot of others on my side. A lot more people want peace than it looks on the outside. I'm sure it's the same here. You have Jaina and Tyrande, right?"

"Yes, and Prophet Velen and the dwarven Council..."

"...Uh-huh." Zuko nodded absently, not knowing what those were.

"When this is over, it would be good to have you and your friends as allies," Anduin said, forcing another faint smile.

Zuko nodded. "We'll both need all the help we can get."