Chapter 35

In The End

A/N: Chapter 35 of the series. Thanks to Rosey for proof reading this and every other chapter. Also thanks to everyone who's posted a review. They're very much appreciated.

Disclaimer: Avatar... belongs to Nickelodeon.

Katara felt a cold shiver run down her spine, even before she looked at Zuko's expression. She wanted to turn around, but knew she only had one slim chance of actually healing and closing the gushing wound on Zuko's shoulder, and it was hard enough because the Prince didn't stay put.

Then she heard him shouting, and knew something terrible had happened. She dared to look back, noticing when Zuko's hand squeezed her leg, and saw what had made him shout.

Her own scream died in her throat, the air in her body leaving her when she saw what had happened behind her. She saw the look of surprise on the Avatar, and how the blue glow slowly began to disappear. She also saw the orange glow that had been surrounding the Phoenix King, and it was immediately sucked back into him.

What terrified her the most where the faces of the two opposites; Aang's face showed surprise and confusion, while Ozai's face showed savage glee and satisfaction for what he had just done.

She felt Zuko trying to get up, and through the healing water, she felt how his power rushed through his body, getting ready to fight. For a fleeting moment, she felt how Zuko's energies flowed and was privy to the righteous anger and fury he was feeling. She pushed him down, knowing that if she let him go, he would be killed.

"What are you doing?" Zuko asked, his voice a mix of anger and pain. "Aang's going to get killed!"

"If you go there you're going to get killed!" Katara shouted. "Aang can take care of himself, or I'll fix him afterwards! I don't want you to die!"

"If I don't go there…!"

"Trust others!" Katara interrupted him. "For once in your life, trust someone else! If you move you're going to die!"

"It doesn't matter!" Zuko said, moving his right hand from Katara's leg to her face. "I was prepared to die since the beginning. Aang is the Avatar, and the world is going to need him to get over this war. This is what I was meant to do, Katara."

"You will sit here and let me finish, Prince Zuko," Katara said, her voice unwavering. "Or will you force me to blood-bend you and get you to stay put?"

"Katara…!"

" ." Katara repeated, hoping against hope that Aang would find a way out of the grave problem he was in, or that someone would arrive to help them.

Sokka wouldn't recall later what went through his mind in that moment, only that he found himself swinging his sword at the Phoenix King's head, intent on ending the madman's threat and save his friend's life.

Ozai, still trapped inside the stone hand, twisted the dagger inside the Avatar's side causing blood to spurt from the wound and the air-bender to scream in pain. It was that very scream that caused Sokka to erase each and any limit he'd have about striking a helpless enemy, and swung his sword directly at the fire-bender's head.

The Phoenix King let go of the dagger and threw a barrage of fire at Sokka, who covered himself with his sword, the fire not hot enough to melt the meteor but it did cut the momentum Sokka had built.

However, the young man did not let a thing like fire stop him, and he struck down again, knowing the fire-bender was locked in place inside the stone hand. Ozai only covered his face, and Sokka's sword struck the armor plated forearm of the Phoenix Lord's right hand. The meteorite sword cut through the armor and into the flesh, but the metal absorbed most of the strength of the swing and Sokka didn't quite cut the hand through. Blood gushed outside and the Phoenix King screamed in pain; Sokka pulled the sword back and swung again, but Ozai pushed himself further into the stone hand, letting the rock block the sword that was aimed at his head.

Sokka cursed out loud, and in the moment it took him to dislodge his sword from the rock, Ozai threw a bolt of lightning at him. Hoping his sword could protect him again, Sokka covered himself with it, and even if the sword itself didn't react as a conductor, the impact sent him flying several feet away, getting knocked out as he struck his head on the ground.

Ozai ripped a piece of his clothes and wrapped it around his injured wrist, knowing the loss of one hand was a price he was willing to pay if it meant killing the Avatar. After he tied the cloth tightly, he ignored the pain and squeezed in further into the stone hand; putting his left hand out, he shot out a bolt of lightning straight up and then willing it to come back straight down.

The bolt struck the stone, shattering most of it into pieces, lightly injuring the Phoenix King, but not enough to incapacitate him. He limped out of the rubble and looked around, his eyes immediately falling on the injured Avatar, who held his hands around the dagger, trying to stop the flow of blood.

"You almost took everything away from me," Ozai practically hissed. "But you didn't believe me; you thought you could outsmart me, didn't you?"

Aang didn't reply; he had already gone into shock and his mind was trying to cope with the pain, ignoring everything else around him. Ozai pointed his left hand at the bleeding kid on the floor, and sparkles began to appear around his entire arm.

"He's going to kill him!" Zuko growled. "Katara! We have to do something!"

Katara panicked; she was nowhere near closing Zuko's wound, but she knew he was right. It all came to stopping healing Zuko's wounds and let him fight, and probably die, or keep working on him and instead let Aang die.

'I hoped I never have to do this again,' she thought. 'But if it means saving two lives, so be it.'

"Shut up and let me concentrate," Katara said. "And if you move, I'm going to punch you on your wound."

"What the…?"

Katara bent the water from her hands back into her bag, and placed her right hand on Zuko's battered face. She looked away and pointed her left hand at Ozai, getting ready to do something that made her sick to her very core.

"Stay quiet, Zuko," she whispered and let her powers flow, but instead of focusing on water, she focused on the blood flowing through the Phoenix King's body.

Ozai suddenly felt his limbs heavy and unresponsive to his brain; he wanted to move forward, but his body stopped moving all of a sudden. He reached out for his power, but even as it flowed through his body, he couldn't make it take form or use it offensively.

"What… is happening?" Ozai asked out loud, feeling pain in his right arm, almost as if the blood inside his body was trying to escape through his wound.

"You have two options," the Phoenix King heard as his body turned and moved towards the place where he'd last seen his son. He noticed Zuko was awake and looking at him with anger; the hand of an obvious water tribe peasant was on his son's face and the other was directed at him. "You can stop struggling and wait until the guys from the White Lotus come and imprison you, or you can have all your blood removed from your head. What's it gonna be?"

"You can blood-bend?" Ozai asked, surprise filling his face. "I believed that impossible!"

"So is energy-bending, and Aang was taking your power away." Katara replied. "Right before you stabbed him with your dagger."

"Let me go, water peasant!" Ozai growled. "I am the ruler of the Fire Nation! You can't treat me like this!"

"You're a fool and a murderer," Katara growled back. "Aang might have wanted to end this without forfeiting your life, but the rest of us aren't so merciful; so I repeat what I said before, quit struggling or I will end your life."

"Katara…" Zuko whispered. "Let me move; I have to go check on Aang."

"You will not move an inch," Katara whispered back. "No one will die today, except maybe your father."

"Release me!" Ozai shouted. "I command you to release me!"

The Phoenix King poured all of his power through his body, trying to regain control of it through sheer willpower. His blood began to boil, and his power manifested itself as flames surrounding him.

"If you don't stop, you're going to burn yourself to death," Katara calmly said. "I will not be responsible if you choose to commit suicide."

Sweat began to pour from Ozai's body, but it immediately evaporated as he continued building his power around him, unable to release it. The blood in his right hand evaporated and created a fine red mist that began to surround his body.

"I said, release me!" Ozai shouted, and the flames that were dancing around him changed from yellow to blue. "You are not worthy of doing this to me!"

Katara struggled, feeling Ozai's will as she had felt Zuko's emotions through the link in their powers. She hadn't used blood-bending as much as she had used water-bending, but she didn't know someone could resist that technique.

"Stop!" Zuko shouted. "Father! If you keep it up, you will burn yourself up with your own power!"

"Shut up!" Ozai shouted back. "I will not suffer this indignity! I'd rather die by my own hand than being controlled by a lowly water peasant!"

Zuko raised his right hand, and sparkles appeared on the tips of his bloodstained fingers.

"Do not call her that," Zuko growled. "Now yield, father, or else I will throw a bolt of lightning through your heart."

"Zuko, I've got this," Katara said. "There's no need for that. If your fa…, if the Phoenix King doesn't stop, he's going to burn himself up."

"It doesn't matter!" Ozai said. "Who has more resolve, you traitor? This filthy water peasant or I?"

Ozai did not wait for an answer; he merely kept building his power, knowing that even if he didn't manage to get free from the water witch, he could explode with enough power to take them all with him. Electricity began to pulse around the fire surrounding him, creating a miniature magnetic storm above him.

"What is he doing, Zuko?" Katara asked, struggling to contain that much power.

"He's turning himself into a bomb," Zuko replied, his fingers still pointing at his father. "If he can't get free, he's going to explode. I'm gonna have to end it right now."

"I said no!" Katara said. "Your body can't take it anymore, Zuko; if you use what's left of your power I don't know if you'll survive!"

"If it means keeping you from dying or from killing someone in cold blood, then so be it," Zuko said as he willed what little power he had left, his very life force, and focused it on his fingers. He silently thanked Katara for the energy she had given him, and thanked his good luck for being able to see her again. Had his left arm worked, he would have taken Katara's face and kissed her, but guessed that not every dream could come true.

"I'm sorry for taking your pendant," Zuko said, a smile on his face. "I wish I could have given you one made by me."

"Zuko, stop talking nonsense and don't make me blood-bend you," Katara blushed and felt panic gripping her. "I can't control both of you, so don't do anything stupid."

Zuko's smile grew and he looked at her with his one good eye.

"You're beautiful," he said. "Your eyes are what kept me going. I couldn't have done anything without you."

Zuko aimed at his father's heart, not wanting to make the man suffer, took one last deep breath, and tried to ignore the painful look Katara gave him.

"You don't have the guts…," Ozai said, lightning bolts shooting out randomly outward from his body. "Neither of you do!"

Zuko's vision turned blurry for a second, and felt his arm and body going numb; something out of the corner of his eye caught his attention, but he dismissed it as a crazy hallucination.

"You'll fail," Ozai viciously said. "Then I'll kill all of you, even that useless sister of yours! You two failures can be swept under the rug and I'll start anew!"

"Shut up!" Katara shouted. "Both of you! This is madness!"

"Madness was failing to kill my two damned offspring and their mother," Ozai viciously smiled. "That's all about to change."

Katara felt desperate, not knowing if she should take matters into her own hands and kill Ozai before Zuko did it. She looked around, noticing the bleeding Avatar on the floor, blood pouring from his wound; she saw her brother, lying unconscious from the bolt and the hit he'd taken, and then back at the battered Zuko, whose fingers were glowing with the light of electricity.

"Don't make me do this!" She said as she looked into Zuko's face. She was surprised when his injured left hand touched her face.

"Lend me your strength one last time," he said. "We can do this together."

Katara nodded, and moved her hand from Zuko's face onto his chest; she felt his heart beating rapidly, nervous and afraid from what was going to happen.

"I'm with you," she whispered. "Do it."

Zuko nodded, gathered his life around his hand, and threw it in the form of a lightning bolt at his father.

End of Chapter.