Air Soars (Book 4 of Avatar: the Last Dragon)

by Dapper Stormtrooper

Akodo Zuko has returned! After six long years of exile he has returned to the land of his birth, victorious at last! But not all is well in the Fire-Nation... Nothing is as he remembers it, and while he has been restored to his rightful place by Fire-Lord Ozai he cannot help but wonder if the choices that brought him here, were the right ones.

23. Aftermath

A/N: The Following is rated F; for Finality.

It takes place, chronologically, at the end of the series finale S3E18-21 "Sozin's Comet."

Reader discretion is advised.

---

Moon of the Tiger-Shark, the 16th winter under the guidance of Shinjo Hakoda

"Zuko!"

Katara screamed his name. A short, ragged, bark of air that still somehow seemed to go on forever. Like being punched in the gut at the same instant that her feet mindlessly pulled her towards him.

Oh nonononono!

It echoed oddly, her scream, in a strange two-part harmony. It took her a second or two to realize that they were both screaming. Azula, evil, crazy, harpy that she was, looked almost as horrified as Katara felt as they both sprinted toward Zuko.

While they were both equally horrified, it was Katara who was forced to roll away, a year's worth of battlefield instincts forcing her to turn aside in the face of the jagged blue flames Azula suddenly sent careening her way.

"This is all YOUR fault, you stupid waterbending whore!" Azula screamed, shaking with rage and terror, now hunched like a woman under a horrible burden.

"Azula, you evil bitch, let me help him!" Katara screamed back, trying, and failing, to get closer to Zuko as she spun and wove her way through the chaotic blasts of blue fire that Azula, her hands clawed and shaking, flung at her in exhausted frustration, all of her normal skill seeming to have departed.

He's still alive! Katara realized, her eyes darting past Azula and widening at the sight of him.

Zuko had taken a bolt of lightning and he was still trying to get up, that stupid mule-seal look of pure bloody-minded determination now residing on a scowling face the color of bad wax.

"Get AWAY from US!" Azula roared, her voice hoarse and cracking as tears streamed down her spasming face, only to boil away in an instant. Behind her, Zuko fell over again and, this time, did not rise.

She was just like Zuko had been, when Iroh had gone down in the dusty badlands of the Earth-Kingdom. She'd managed to go even more out of her mind, with guilt and grief and a nearly animalistic sense of protection. Katara could see that now. If she could just-

But her focus, which had been primarily on Zuko, suddenly snapped entirely to Azula as her pained hitching sobs… transmuted into laughter.

Insane malicious laughter rolled through the still-smoldering Agni Kai arena, and Katara forcibly tore her eyes away from the man she loved towards his little sister. Her eyes, normally the same golden-yellow color as Zuko's, were now pulsing wildly. Glowing red pinpricks forming in the center of them and rapidly expanding, consuming the entirety of the iris and the whites. Her face contorted into a wild, painful-looking rictus of a grin as whatever demon had once lived in Zuko took full possession of his younger sister.

Yeah. Great, Katara thought, scowling even as she tensed for a fight. Because she wasn't frigging insane enough already.

The battle began.

Katara hated battle.

-α-α-α-α-α-α-α-α-α-α-α-α-

The madwoman was exhausted. That, Katara figured, was the only reason she was still alive.

Earlier she had looked on in wonder, and no small amount of horror, as the Akodo siblings had fought one another with more flame than should have ever been allowed in one place. Zuko had been masterful, truly inspired in his fighting, seemingly unassailable. She had been reasonably certain that he was using the same strategy that had worked on her at the North Pole, trying to tire Azula out so that they would both have a remote chance of surviving.

But it hadn't worked. Hadn't been enough. Hadn't stopped Azula from finding and attacking his weak spot.

Katara was that weak spot, and the guilt of that fact wriggled through her stomach like fish trapped in a net as she dodged and flitted between the smoking and warped columns of stone in the ravaged Agni Kai arena.

Ten minutes ago, before the duel had begun, Azula would likely have been able to just fill the entire courtyard with stone-melting heat and Katara would have had nowhere to run. But now, even demon-possessed and comet-powered as Azula was, she was obviously exhausted, and the demon riding her body could only manage her normal levels of firebending.

Which, unfortunately, was still very, very, good.

It had been a point of pride for Katara that she had learned how to see the madness growing in Zuko's eye. It had taken some time, and the good fortune to have found what was essentially a textbook on the Fire-Nation aristocracy, but she'd figured out the right words to bring him out of it, to soothe him back to sanity with gentle words and affection.

Somehow, Katara thought, even as the smell of burning stone and ozone filled her nose, I don't think gentle words and affection are going to cut it today.

And yet, despite everything, despite how much pain this lunatic had caused her, caused Aang, and Suki, and all of them… she had to try. She didn't know if she could face Zuko otherwise. He would tell her that it was alright, that she'd had no choice, she knew. He would be infinitely understanding in his normal grim and fatalistic way… but she would still have his sister's blood on her hands, and she didn't know if she could bear to live for the rest of her life with that unfortunate truth hanging between them.

It will have to be the ice then, she thought with an unconscious grimace.

Surprisingly, there was no shortage of water here at the very center of the Nation of Fire. Zuko had told her, in somewhat exhaustive detail, all about how powerful machinery, fueled by steam and lava, pumped channels of the stuff up from reservoirs she could just barely sense in the depths of the mountain. It had been another one of those conversations that she had instigated, one that danced around the actual topic; what was going to happen after.

She had thought it funny at the time. Zuko had been so desperate to make sure that she knew the location of every "tactical advantage" she would have here in the palace. It had taken her a while to understand that that was what safety meant to him, understanding how best to defend oneself in a place. While she had thought it adorably ridiculous at the time, she was now very grateful to have been the victim of a rambling long-winded speech on the Royal Palace's fire-suppression system.

And now, confronted by a wildly cackling possessed firebending prodigy, and with the need for every tactical advantage she could grasp, she matched her chi to the rhythm of that water, pushed, pulled, and bent.

Thunder sounded in the center of Otosan Uchi. Ice shaking under blue-flamed assault even as tsunami after tsunami crashed against stone that had, moments before, held a mad, yet still incredibly agile, Fire-Nation princess.

Azula was practically feral, wildly aggressive in her assault, and entirely too focused on Katara's utter destruction to grant more than a moment or two to think or strategize. Katara was forced on the defensive almost from the beginning, her mind working through the situation with a heart-rendingly painful slowness

"The element of water is change, adaptability. You must take what your opponent gives you and return it to them. There is no opponent so powerful, no master so wise, that you cannot turn their intent, their very strength, against them. Now, pentapus form. Again! Correctly this time!" Pakku had been a grumpy old fart, but, at least when it came to waterbending, he had known what he was talking about.

"Understanding is the beginning of victory. You know this better than anyone; water IS understanding, I think. Push and pull. To hear and to follow. I wish I had learned that years ago. Maybe things would have been better then… better for US." Her Zuko was an idiot sometimes, the kind of idiot that would run himself ragged trying to be everywhere and fix everything with absolutely no concern for his personal well-being. Yet, sometimes, he seemed possessed of a simple wisdom that managed to put even the thorniest problem in perspective.

Azula was mad. In thrall to the demon inside her. And Katara understood grief-bound rage. She'd had to face down that particular monster when she'd found her mother's killer. She understood that, even as insane as it seemed, Azula had likely felt something similar in the moments before the demon had arrived. Now, she and the demon likely wanted the same thing in this moment.

To burn. To kill. To destroy. To hurt. Azula wanted, needed, to hurt Katara.

And, more importantly, much like Katara had needed to see the one who had hurt her, Azula needed to see her hurt.

But that, as Zuko would say, was the flaw in her strategy. It was plain and clear in the way Azula pursued her across the Agni Kai arena like a starving polarbear-dog after an otter-penguin. She needed to be up close with Katara, to see the snarl of pain twist her features. Azula needed to be close enough to touch her, to maybe mark her the way Zuko had been marked by his father.

So, armed with understanding, and the ability to turn force against her opponent, Katara stopped simply bending in defense and started fighting.

She'd learned that those were two different things after all.

She dodged and slid and leapt between columns of stone, ramps of ice staying solid just long enough for her to avoid careening blue flames. She lured a still breathlessly cackling Azula closer and closer, eventually just the barest hairsbreadth away from being burned severely. The light armor that Zuko had insisted she wear took the edge off the licking blue flames as the two of them, pursuer and pursued, spiraled around and around; Katara luring, baiting, voicelessly taunting Azula, until they were right where she wanted.

Katara rolled backward, and time seemed to slow to a crawl even as the still steaming metal of the grate that covered over the reservoir water rattled underneath her.

Azula, barely even a half step behind her now, followed her lead, too caught up in the rhythm of the fight to even conceive of the danger. The red light of her eyes, the same color as the sky overhead, seemed to intensify as her right arm extended to try and shove fire, lightning, and death right down Katara's throat.

Katara leapt out of her roll and, just as Azula's deadly fingers leveled with her, but before she could inhale, she performed the "Crane Leaps from the Cliff" kata.

A plume of water ten feet high leapt up in response, flash freezing them both in an instant.

Eyes locked on her opponent, Katara saw Azula's sickening grin falter, and then, after another painfully long moment, the red flickered and died in Azula's eyes, finally smothered by ice.

Taking no chances, Katara bent only herself free using the breath she had been holding. She cast around quickly and found a chain, likely used to secure these same grates open, looped around a broken nearby pillar. She grabbed it and with a series of quick bends and movements bound the now unconscious Azula to the grate below her.

Need something to secure this with, she thought, grasping the end of the chain.

Glancing around, she found the perfect linchpin, a dagger protruding from Azula's boot, the hilt just the right size to wedge in between the links of the heavy chain.

That complete, the fight well and truly over, she turned and sprinted as fast as she could back to where Zuko lay, sightless eyes gazing upwards.

She bent water out of the still steaming air and around her hands as she ran, sliding the last few paces on her knees and squeezing her eyes shut as she reached him and began to try and assess the damage.

He was a wreck.

She could feel it. Feel where the lightning had burst through his chest; cracking bone, scorching lung, scarring skin, and breaking his heart.

His very still heart.

Silence.

"No. Damn you."

Silence.

The icy residue of the recent battle melted and unconsciously flowed to her as she poured more chi into the water at her hands; the glow intensifying as she tried to stitch her broken lover back together.

Silence.

The water… found no purchase. Nothing to grab ahold of. No chi. No life to speak of.

Silence.

"No no no no NO. Please!"

Silence.

She tried harder, forcing everything she had into the water, tears streaming down her face and falling into the still expanding pools of water at her fingertips.

Silence.

One of Zuko's hands was still clenched at his chest and Katara, her eyes now wide open in terror, made to move it away, to better visually assess the damage, hoping against hope that she could find something, anything, that would help.

Then something tumbled out of his hand, rattling to a stop with an earth-shaking sense of finality on the blackened tiles a few inches away from his outstretched, lightning-blackened, fingers.

With an almost dream-like slowness, Katara looked away from the new elongated star-burst scar on Zuko's chest to the object just beyond his hand... and found it.

It was a plain blue stone on a woven red band. A single blackened spider-web of lightning-char running through the middle of it.

She picked it up, unacknowledged tears still flowing inexorably out of her like monsoon rain as she stared at it.

"You… you… UNBELIEVABLE ASSHOLE!" she shouted, turning back to the corpse in front of her. "You think that- that- just because you fight a war for me and- and- put up with me, and take lightning for me… that you can just PROPOSE?! We are taking things SLOW! We haven't even TALKED about this! We are supposed to be talking about things like this!" She glared up at the heavens, the red light of the Comet still shining down malevolently. "You get your ass back here and TALK TO ME, Akodo Zuko!"

She was pissed. Unbelievably pissed. And so, she did what usually did when she was that pissed off at him.

She stabbed him.

A blade of ice, glowing like the Moon herself, came down on his chest, into and through the center of his newest scar, and it was as though her waterbending senses were magnified a thousand-fold. She could see the damage, everywhere in his body. All the aches and pains, all the bruises and burns and scars, ALL of it, two decades of trauma.

The water of the melting ice began to mix and mingle with the thickness that was his blood, and so, worries, reservations, fears, and doubts placed on hold, she bent that too. Bent his blood, forcing it to move, to shamble, creep and crawl through arteries and veins, forcing it back from where it didn't belong and sealing the holes behind it.

Silence.

Then, still crying, still screaming, ice and tears mixing with his blood… she bent his heart.

thaaaaaaaaa-thump

"Come on, Zuko. Get up!"

Thaaa-THUMP

"You have to breathe, you fucking moron!"

THA-THA-THA-

"I can't do this without you!" She was still crying, glowing tears still coming down like rain, washing the blood from her hands, the icicle in his chest melting and sealing the hole behind it.

Tha-Thunk

"You… you HAVE TO!" Zuko's whole body leapt off the stone, jerking in time to the pulsing of her fingers. Blood dancing under her fingertips everywhere in his body, his heart, his lungs, his head, his eyes…

THumP-THA

"…please don't leave me."

THA-

There was nothing. No response. No breath. No…

THA-

"You have to breathe! Please, Zuko, PLEASE…"

THA-

-α-α-α-α-α-α-α-α-α-α-α-α-

"…BREATHE!"

-THUMP

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

High Summer, Year 1 in the Reign of Fire-Lord Zuko

And so, he breathed.

Spirits… that hurts.

He opened his eyes to see Katara kneeling beside him, that beautiful if odd look of joy and anger on her tear-stained face. He tried to speak, but found his voice weak and ragged, his lips strangely numb and the whole of his chest feeling like it was full of broken glass. Seeing him struggle Katara leaned down, her ear at his lips.

"Hey," he finally managed, his voice a thin rasp.

She leaned back and glared down at him, furious, if still crying. "'Hey?' That's all you have to say to-" she cut off quickly, leaning back down as he tried to continue.

"You… alright?"

"Am I alright?! You unbelievable moron! You get hit by lightning and-"

"Love… you."

She broke down into sobs.

"…Highness?" A voice came from off to Zuko's left and his eyes darted over to take in one of the Shugenja of Fire, the Crown still in his hands and an appraising look on his face.

Need to get up. We're not done yet.

"Need… get me up, Katara."

"What? NO! you need to be moved to a hospital or- or-"

"Please… Last thing… then… rest."

Breathing was like drinking acid, but he managed to get to his knees with Katara's help. The vision of the shugenja swam oddly before him as he fought against unconsciousness but, with a restrained snarl of effort and pain, he managed to make eye contact with the sage and give him a nod.

"As witnessed by the Shugenja of Fire, Akodo Zuko is victorious in this Agni Kai, by means of dishonorable default. Victory and the Throne are his!" The shugenja declaimed this pronouncement as though there were a massive throng of people present instead of just Zuko, Katara, and a half-dozen of his brothers and sisters. He strode behind Zuko and lifted the Crown of the Fire-Lord into the air reverently.

"I here present to you, Akodo Zuko, son of Ozai and Ursa, your undoubted Fire-Lord. All you who are come this day to do your homage and service, are you willing to do the same?"

"We do so swear," intoned the fire shugenja.

Generally speaking, all of the lords of the lands were supposed to be here for this part. Custom dictated that there was supposed to be a massive crowd to bear witness, to see the Sun's Chosen, bathed in her light and in control of their greatest stronghold, ascend to the throne. Zuko didn't care, this needed to get done and, legally speaking, all they really needed was, him, the Crown, the Shugenja, and the light of the Sun.

All the rest was pointless frippery.

"Will you, Akodo Zuko, solemnly promise and swear to govern the Peoples of the Fire-Nation, her Colonies, and of your other Possessions and Territories to any of them belonging or pertaining, according to their respective laws and customs?"

"I… so… swear." Not quite as verbose as the rote response, but adequate, and the shugenja continued.

"Will you, to your power, cause Honor and Justice, in Mercy, to be executed in all your judgments?"

"I… will," Zuko croaked.

Better than my father did anyway, even if I die in the next five minutes.

"Will you, to the utmost of your power, maintain the balance between this world and the spirit? Will you, to the utmost of your power, maintain in the Fire-Nation the veneration of our ancestors? Will you, to the utmost of your power, preserve, inviolable, the Peace of Akodo?"

"All… I promise. I will… perform and keep. In… Akodo's name… in… light of Holy Sun… I swear." Somehow Zuko managed to recall and choke out the last and largest part of his required oath without dying, Katara still gripping his arm fiercely to keep him from falling over.

Lucky us the Sun hasn't gone down all the way yet, or all this would be invalid.

The Fire Shugenja, as if reading Zuko's thoughts, began to speed up his sonorous chant, racing the Sun as she set in the west. "Holy Sun, Amaterasu, the Crown of the Faithful; bless we beseech thee. Sanctify this, thy servant, our Fire-Lord, and as thou dost this day set a crown of pure gold upon his head, so enrich his royal heart with thine abundant grace. Crown him with all the virtues through the right of his blood, descended from Akodo, Lord of Honor, and keeper of the Peace. Amen."

And with that, he slid the five-pointed crown into Zuko's ragged topknot.

"ALL HAIL FIRE-LORD ZUKO!" he roared. Zuko felt Katara startle at his cry as the other shugenja echoed him. In the distance, the enormous gong at the top of the High Temple began to sound, a roaring continuous crash, audible throughout the city and beyond.

Well, that's done then.

Zuko reached out and grabbed the sage's robe, tugging him down to his level with a growl of effort.

"All forces… to stand down," he croaked into the shugenja's ear. He needed to give instructions, simple commands, simple words that would end this travesty and start something different. "The Fire-Nation… does NOT bow… to Emperor." He was fading fast, each word felt like climbing a mountain. "Heir… is… Akodo Kitsuyi… on Taiyoshima… sister. Azula…" he trailed away, sorrow wracking through him and sapping his strength. But he would make sure she got a proper funeral and was taken home to her ancestors, even if it was the last thing he ever did in this life.

"She's still alive, Zuko," Katara said, still kneeling on his right, and a gasp of shock exploded out of him before he could stop it, ripping through his chest, the pain of it making him fall forward, only to be caught at the last moment by Katara on one side and the sage on the other.

"Thank you," he whispered. "Thank you, thank you, thank you…" and he kept whispering it until he slipped into unconsciousness.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

…he drifted.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

"See this!? Know… means?"

"…"

"…I am in charge… his care."

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

"…by all accounts… location unknown. No reports…"

"…alright, sweetie… aura is clear… not… fault."

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

"…then I said… 'kick-a-pow' space-sword slice! …barely even …so many high-fives…"

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

"Promised… piggyback… get the fuck up, Sparky."

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

"We barely even… all squabbling with one another… no idea where… You really need to get some rest, Katara."

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

"…need sleep. …sure he would not want you damaging yourself…"

"Yeah? Well… idiot!"

"You will not… my son that way!"

"Perhaps… calming tea… the two of you…"

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

"…Brother? If you don't get up, right now, I'm going to go find Aang, or maybe that Sokka fellow, and start making out with him. How do you feel about that?"

…what?!

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

It was warm.

The sunlight shone in on the quiet room, falling against black stone and the side of his futon like a bar of molten gold, as he swam back to consciousness.

And there, in that hazy warm light, like some kind of fantastical dream, was Katara, fast asleep, curled up on his left side, her head tucked into the crook of his shoulder.

Yet, there was something wrong with the scene, something so strangely off about the whole thing. Zuko's still cloudy brain struggled for a long moment to figure out what could be wrong with a tableau that was perfect beyond his wildest imaginings.

What could be wrong with her? She looked beautiful, despite the dark bags under her eyes. She always looked beautiful to him, so what should be wrong with her curled up on his left like this?

My… left.

He shouldn't have been able to see her. He hadn't turned his head and she was on his left, his blindside.

His previously blind side.

He lifted his right hand, which currently felt as though it were a thousand pounds, overhead and into his vision. He twisted it back and forth, marveling at his newly returned depth-perception.

"…Huh," he said quietly.

He was sure there was something he was supposed to be doing, there was always something he was supposed to be doing but… but he was still so so tired. With the last of the energy left to him he managed to turn his body on its side so he could see his Katara with both of his eyes, depth-perception giving everything a new and shockingly vibrant feel.

Mystery solved, and exhausted by this effort, Zuko wrapped his arms as tight as he could around her, closed his eyes, and went back to sleep.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

When he awoke the next time Katara was seated in his old desk chair at his bedside, scribbling through a small leather-bound book. He watched her for a moment, her eyes moving over the text, her face set in a pensive frown.

Spirits, she's beautiful.

Her eyes flicked to him for an instant then quickly back down to her book. Then she froze, her eyes growing wide and slowly drifting back to him as her mouth fell open.

"…Hey," Zuko croaked.

She just stared at him, her mouth still slightly ajar, as though she wasn't sure what to make of him.

Zuko stared back, a small smile appearing on his face as he drank in the sight of her. Alive. Alive and beautiful. Beautiful blue-grey eyes, wavy brown hair, red kimono setting off the darker red band at her throat…

…RED band?

The band on her necklace was different.

Maybe the old one was damaged and she needed a new one? …No, wait, the stone looks different toooo…

"Uh oh," Zuko said quietly.

She was not supposed to have found that necklace. Not yet anyway.

"'Uh oh?'" Katara said, beginning quietly but her voice rising as she slowly rose to her feet. "'UH OH?'"

"Uhhhh…"

Her fury seemed to abate suddenly and she put her book down on the side table. She drifted over to his bedside, and gently sat down next to him.

"How are you feeling?" she said quietly, almost sweetly, and danger gongs started going off in Zuko's brain.

"Uh… well… enough." Despite his best efforts it still came out as half a question as he worked himself up into a sitting position.

"Well. Enough." Her tone was not a question. It was more an indictment.

"Look, Katara, you… you weren't meant to find-"

"Weren't meant? Weren't meant!? I wasn't MEANT to find it!" Katara growled, sweetness evaporating like the thin façade it was. "You had it in your hand! It was the last thing you did before you DIED!"

"Uh… sorry?"

"You jumped in front of lightning, grabbed a betrothal necklace, and then promptly DIED," she snapped. "Were you under the impression that I wanted some big stupid over-dramatic gesture? You couldn't have just popped the question over dinner the next day? Couldn't have just… just…" she was suddenly fighting back tears.

It was a losing battle and she fell forward, sobbing quietly into his shoulder. Zuko wrapped his arms around her and made shushing noises.

They sat that way for a long time.

"It's ok, you know," Zuko said quietly. "If… if you don't want to marry me, we can-" he was cut off as Katara shook her head, back in the crook of his shoulder, in negation.

Zuko bit back a hiss of pain, apparently something was still broken in there.

"I didn't say that," Katara said, now rising from his tear-soaked shoulder. "I just… you were dead. And then you weren't. And then you started giving all those commands like you thought you weren't going to last the night. And then- I was- you- you left me."

"I had to be sure. I wouldn't have liked to sell my life too cheaply. Had to make sure that things would be better… for you. I never want to leave you, Katara. Not ever."

"Well, good," she said leaning back further and wiping tear residue from her eyes. "Because the entire world is now convinced we're betrothed, and backing out now would be terribly embarrassing."

"…How precisely does the entire world-"

"I… uh… had to tell them you'd already asked," Katara said, cheeks heating. "They were trying to get me out of the room so that the 'real' doctors could have a look at you. I had to keep it up in front of all our friends, and your ministers, and your mother-"

"My mother is HERE?" Zuko yelped.

Oh, boy. Now I'm in trouble.

"Yes, unfortunately," Katara grumbled. "She's not nearly as nice as you made her out to be!"

Zuko paused for a moment, considering.

"I may have told her that there wasn't anyone in my life the last time I saw her. She may think… you're making some sort of power play?"

Katara just glared at him.

"Katara, we weren't even on speaking terms the last time I saw her," Zuko said defensively. "It will all be fine. I will just have to explain…" he trailed off for a moment, his still somewhat muddled brain catching up to the many and varied implications of all this information.

"What?" Katara asked, noting his suddenly pensive frown.

"Marry me," Zuko said softly, turning to look her dead in the face. "Please. I… I should have asked you properly ages ago, but-"

"Zuko," Katara said, a soft smile appearing on her face. "I know you already did. Back in the badlands."

"You- you did?" Zuko asked, utterly stunned. "Oh… well… fuck."

"I mean, I didn't know what that all meant at the time but, apparently that doesn't matter? According to your uncle, I'm actually within my rights to have you prosecuted for 'dishonorable conduct' because we didn't immediately find a shaman."

"Well, yes. That's… yes. But… I just… I wanted to ask you properly. For real. I promised myself I would as soon as the war was over and… well…" He frowned again, glancing toward the door to his bedroom as if enemy soldiers might come bursting in suddenly. All he saw was the copper eyes of Tokugawa Koshaku peeking at them through a crack before quickly disappearing.

"The war is over, right?" Zuko asked, turning back to Katara.

"Yes. The war is officially over," she said with a nod and an absolutely brilliant smile.

"Right. Good. So… marry me. Please. Be my wife. Help me deal with…" he gestured around them, "all of this."

Katara paused for a moment, looking around and seeming to muse over the room he'd just gestured to.

"All of this, huh?"

"You know what I mean."

"Hmmmm…" She took a pose of deep contemplation. "I'll… consider it."

"Consider it? Ash and Bone, Katara that's just-" He was cut off as Katara leaned forward and began kissing him rather thoroughly.

"Ok," she said after they parted.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

It had taken a great deal longer to get Katara's permission to get out of bed than Zuko would have liked.

He was not particularly surprised by this, however, and he was sure he would have been more irritated if he hadn't just died.

Three times, Katara had said.

Apparently, his heart had stopped again right after the coronation, and then again the night after. This was why she had not left his side for more than a few minutes in the intervening two weeks.

It was that last piece of information, that he had been unconscious for over two weeks, that really spurred Zuko up and out of bed. He had a nation to run, and the longer he sat idle the more likely it was that the fracturing he had begun with his declaration of Sengoku, and that had been infinitely exacerbated by his father's madness, would continue.

He'd had to promise a lot of things just to be allowed to try and get out of bed. Things that, as he was the head of state in the Fire-Nation, were probably illegal in a technical sense.

"This is a really stupid idea," Katara grumbled as she helped him dress. After she had granted her permission she had bustled around the room, nervous energy seeming to make up for Zuko's lack as he adjusted to life back on his feet. She'd settled on a light crimson and gold yukata for him, deeming the formal Fire-Lord regalia as unacceptable due to the pressure the heavy chest piece would put on his bandage-swaddled chest.

"As you know, I excel at stupid ideas," Zuko said idly, moving his arms gingerly through the sleeves so as to not strain the still extremely sore chest muscles underneath his newest scar.

"I don't know if 'excel' is the right word," Katara said with a huff as she finished wrapping the obi loosely around his waist. "Stop," she snapped as Zuko's hands, mostly on reflex, moved to gather his hair up into the topknot.

There was to be no "excessive" or "unnecessary" movements she had declared. Apparently, just reaching over his head now fell into that category.

"Sit," she commanded, pointing to Zuko's old desk chair. After he had complied, she moved around behind him and, as though she had done it a thousand times before, she put his hair up into the topknot.

Then, very much as though it were the first of a thousand times, she slid the five-pointed crown of the Fire-Lord into it. She handed Zuko a mirror and he stared in wonder at his reflected image.

The crown he'd never expected to wear overtop of a pair of unexpected, if still mismatched, yellow eyes.

"Unbelievable," Zuko breathed.

"I have to say I'm pleasantly surprised as well," Katara said beaming over his shoulder. "Honestly I have no idea exactly what I did to…" She frowned, her fingers trailing over the scar that still stretched over the left half of his face.

"Enough. You did enough," Zuko said, smiling back at her after planting a kiss on her palm.

With a nod of determination, he tossed the mirror on to his bed and climbed his way back to his feet. He breathed in and felt his chi, now back to some semblance of normal in the absence of the comet, flare in response.

He exhaled and took a balanced step forward.

And then another. And another.

"Now, we're going to try and avoid too much excitement, alright," Katara said in a no-nonsense tone as they made their way out of his bedroom and through the room that had once served as his office. "Your health is still in a delicate state and we're not going to-"

"KEII!"

The roar, the ancient Fire-Nation word for "respect" sounded from uncounted throats as soon as Zuko slid open the door that led into the palace hallway. He reflexively dropped into a stance, his hand grasping at the air where his sword should have been, as his eyes took in the sight of a hallway lined with armored soldiers. Instead of a threatening, however, all of them were resting on a single knee, their fists grounded on the floor next to their wakizashi. The posture of a warrior prepared to end his life at the word of his lord.

The only figures in sight on their feet stood to the right and left of the doorway. Matsu Haki, bowing as best he could with his crutch and Tokugawa Koshaku, in a half bow and with Zuko's own wakizashi proffered towards him in two hands.

Really need to start thinking ahead, Zuko thought, straightening up out of his defensive crouch, irritated with himself even as he felt Katara begin to bristle at his side.

All of this was the traditional formula for a Fire-Lord greeting his first dawn, and he really should have explained a few things to Katara before charging ahead like a hippo-cow scenting feed. There were any number of simple rituals that would have to be conducted soon and Zuko forced his brain to shrug off the happy lethargy that had permeated it in that warm sunlit room behind him.

It was time to go to work.

With a nod of thanks to Koshaku, Zuko solemnly took up the blade that represented his duty to his people and, moving slowly and deliberately, slid it into his belted obi.

Then he turned to Katara, who seemed a hairs-breadth away from an explosion, and proffered an arm in her direction, hoping against hope she took the hint and didn't just start screaming at people.

With a sniff and a last silent glare at the kneeling soldiers in view, she slipped her arm through his and the two of them began moving along the hallway.

As they went, the soldiers, officers from the Legion mostly, rose from their position of subservience and fell in behind Zuko. The thump of Haki's crutch directly behind him almost created the semblance of a marching drum as they moved through the palace.

"What are they all doing here?" Katara hissed as they continued walking.

"Acknowledging my authority," Zuko replied in an undertone. "It is a traditional formality. If I were to stop and take their wakizashi it would mean that I also reject their service." He frowned for a moment, his brain providing him with a rough checklist of things that would need to be prioritized and accomplished. "There will likely be some small gathering out in the outer courtyard. It would be best if we go there next, to accept their fealty on mass, so that the government can actually… exist." He phrased it as half a question, fully aware that Katara was already annoyed by all of the current "excitement."

"A small gathering. Fine," Katara grumbled in an undertone. "Just… keep your upper body movements to a minim-"

Suddenly, in defiance of nearly everything Zuko had ever seen, or had ever even expected of her, Mai appeared, moving at a run and skidding gracelessly around a corner, her tawny eyes wide around flying short hair. She paused upon seeing him, eyes going even wider in shock, then dropped into a full kowtow, just long enough for Zuko to snort in amused disbelief, before she got back to her feet. She even had to visibly re-compose herself, smoothing her clothes and shaking her head in frustration at the effort.

"You going to be alright?" Zuko asked wryly amused.

Her eyes narrowed dangerously. "You are an ashhole."

"I will take that as a yes," Zuko said, feeling a grin form on his face. "It seems that I have my physician's permission to do the formal acquiescence from the Herald's Balcony," he continued, nodding his head at Katara. "Can you ensure that enough people are present for custom to be satisfied."

"That… that shouldn't be a problem," Mai said, an odd look on her face.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

The roar that hit him was like nothing he'd ever felt before.

It reverberated through his very center, shook his bones in their sockets, and jerked him upright into the unconscious position of attention.

A wave of sound more forceful than any kata of water or earth.

The open space below the Herald's Balcony, that is to say the previously open space, was full to bursting with people. Roaring, cheering, people. Their fists in the air in triumph, some with gouts of jubilant fire bursting above them. His people were not given to overt displays of emotion at most times, but he could swear he saw people dancing in the densely packed crowd. He'd thought the plaza full before, when he'd formally been welcomed home after Ba Sing Se, but, based on volume alone, he was forced to redefine that definition in his head.

He'd expected a few hundred people. A few rank and file soldiers and guardsmen, a scattering of government officials and palace staff. A few living symbols of the people that would soon make up the backbone of his new government.

Instead, it seemed to be ALL of the government, the army, AND the entire population of Otosan Uchi, the second-largest city in the world.

The whole city, the surrounding villages, and the larger part of both his army and that of the Matsu, all of them somehow crammed into a space in no way designed for all of them. Standing on rooftops, hanging out of windows, small children waving from atop their parents' shoulders. All of them dancing and screaming and weeping in joy, as though the Sun herself had decided to pay a visit.

Zuko, utterly dumbfounded, and not really knowing what else to do, gave a small half-hearted wave.

Somehow, the crowd got even louder, and Zuko realized that there were people cheering outside the palace as well, clogging the streets, their cheers echoing off the cliffs of the caldera and back to him.

Somehow, the noise increased, another impossible order of magnitude louder, as Katara, a similarly flabbergasted look on her face, lurched forward and came to a rest at Zuko's side.

It looked like Mai, a triumphant smile breaking through her placid mask, had pushed her.

"I think they like you!" Zuko said. Or, rather, tried to say. He couldn't even hear his own words as they left his lips, and so he settled for gripping Katara's hand behind the railing.

The cheers continued until somebody remembered what it was that they were supposed to be doing. Silence rippled out in waves from spots in the crowd as people fell to their knees in obeisance. Soon the only sound left was a slight ringing that the new silence left in his ears.

It hung there for a long moment as Zuko's still slightly shocked brain tried to recall what was supposed to happen next, what he was supposed to say to begin his reign.

Anything will probably be fine. Just so long as it isn't "Hello, Zuko here."

"Rise…" he said eventually, the acoustics built into the balcony around him carrying his voice out to the silent masses. "Rise. And let us begin."

The roar returned, somehow even louder than before.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

Strangely, Zuko found himself idly curious what his grandfather would have made of all this.

From what Zuko remembered of the man, he was a stickler for decorum and for maintaining the prestige of his position. Gravitas was his watchword. His wife, Zuko's Nana Ilah, had been even more of a tyrant for that sort of thing in Zuko's recollection.

On the other hand, Azulon had also been very concerned with getting things done. "The worst enemy of a good plan is the desire for a perfect plan," he'd once told Lu Ten in Zuko's hearing. Zuko had found that phrase in his copy of LEADERSHIP, and his grandfather's angular scribbled handwriting spoke of a man who had very little patience for wasting time in any fashion.

So, Zuko admitted himself curious as to what he would have thought of his grandson, the Fire-Lord that governed his first week in a bathrobe.

He might have keeled over from apoplexy… but then again, he might have understood. Things needed to get done. Also, Ilah had not been the type to take no for an answer, regardless of circumstances.

And neither was Katara.

On the whole, Zuko didn't mind her proscriptions much. Formality had its place, of course, but most of what he had to do now was nod in approval at various declarations and occasionally affix his signature and seal to things. Information was collated and presented, reports were submitted, and all of the promises that he'd had to make were sorted through and acted upon.

Ba Sing Se, though already liberated from "King" Seizuka by the White Lotus, was formally ceded back to the Earth-King. Kuei was safely ensconced back in his palace, and Lords Toritaka and Edo squabbled in the brusk manner of earthers over who would carry the official document to him.

The province of Hinowa was released as well, Zuko's face-saving policy was to simply undo all the conquests under his father's tenure, and with it went Omashu (formally renamed AGAIN in the royal records) as well as Gaoling.

Interestingly, Gaoling, Toph informed him, would likely try to strike out on their own. Their uncompelled surrender to the Fire-Nation was not being looked upon very favorably by the other Earth-Lords, and the council of merchants that actually ran the city were not particularly looking forward to whatever repercussions that might entail.

Chief Korra, a wry grin on her face, offered that "Lord" Beifong had actually sent her a letter asking if she would be interested in mercenary work. He apparently had seen the Battle-Maidens as they rode north to meet with Zuko, and had been rather impressed.

Impressed and obviously desperate if he was willing to reach out to yet another foreign power for protection.

Many of the southern islands that had been claimed by the Earth-Kingdom in the long distant history, and occupied by the Fire-Nation in more recent memory, were formally given over to the Unicorn of the Southern Water-Tribe. While Hakoda technically had neither the numbers nor the ships to effect such a claim himself, Zuko assured him that he was more than willing to trade, in fish, and rhino-whale meat and oil, for iron ships of their own which would supplement their airships.

As well, his fingers interwoven with Katara's, he assured his future father-in-law that the Fire-Nation navy had the honor to be at his service. In perpetuity.

Very soon the Southern Water-Tribe was going to be family, and Zuko had rather strong and well-documented opinions on the importance of family.

But these were the easy decisions. Zuko had made promises, and those promises would be fulfilled. Any minister or bureaucrat who was unwilling or incapable of effecting these changes was also soon revealed to be incapable of keeping their job.

Zuko was not sure if he was best pleased by the fact that those officials who had had their names on his old list were found to be missing from the palace. He doubted that they could get up to too much trouble away from the halls of power, but he would have felt better if all their heads were on spikes somewhere that he could see them.

These were the simple things. Simple decisions that were obvious and actionable.

Then there were the bigger problems. The sort that were not talked about in the re-formed and still rapidly changing Daijo-kan. They were the sort that kept him awake at night as he waited, scowl on his face, for the other sandal to drop.

Despite weeks of searching. Despite the importance of the task. Despite the seeming impossibility of it… no one knew where his father was.

After action reports had been startlingly similar from both halves of Zuko's divided forces. They had arrived at their respective areas of operation prepared to engage superior forces, to fight a losing battle, and buy the people of the Earth-Kingdom and the Colonies as much time as they could. Instead, they both had come across the enemy in a state of absolute chaos. Combat, such as it was, had consisted of picking off anyone stupid enough to not surrender.

Sokka gleefully related how the enemy airships had been attacking one another or simply flying away in seemingly random directions when he'd arrived on the scene. Five of the twenty-five airships were already nothing but wreckage in Chameleon Bay before the battle was even joined, and a further three had turned back to the fight, signaling their desire to defect as soon as they realized who it was that Sokka represented.

Emperor Ozai had disappeared right out of his bed chambers without a trace, and sheer shock, outrage, and panic had subsumed the air fleet in short order.

Sokka's enthusiastic recitation (something that, even considering the subject matter, Zuko was tremendously pleased to see) lost some of its excitement as he described what Zuko assumed must have been a rather bloody scene aboard the HMAS Sozin's Fury, his father's flagship. Most of the Royal Guard had committed seppuku in shame at Ozai's apparent cowardice even before Sokka could board the vessel. Based on interrogations of the surviving crew, as well as a thorough inspection of the ship, Mai reported herself convinced that Ozai was no longer aboard. She could only provide speculation as to where he might have gone, and why.

And almost the same thing had happened in the waters to the west of the Colonies.

Hakoda shook his head in dismay as he recounted how the enemy navy had never even made it within sight of the coast. They had barely even left port when Lord Bayushi, one of Ozai's most powerful supporters and the one in overall command, had disappeared as well. The other admirals and captains of the fleet, not men and women who had been selected for acting on their own initiative, had halted in place and sent letters asking for instructions in these new circumstances.

Their requests had gone unanswered by the admiralty, and Zuko had decided to personally respond to those requests now. This despite the fact that they had to know what had transpired in the capital by now.

Mai suggested that he may eventually be known as "Zuko the Sarcastic."

But that was still better than "Ozai the Mad," he supposed.

The other matter of sleep-depriving importance was his sister. She'd been moved to someplace secure but, as of yet, nothing had been done for her. What was to be done with her was the question, and the conflict between Zuko the older brother and Zuko the Fire-Lord was the reason he spent half of his nights awake, mentally coming to grips with the problem.

"We've moved her to the Silent Wing for the time being," Mai said quietly as they walked through the palace halls. They had already been working for the four hours Katara had allotted his health and were now headed back to Zuko's rooms so that he could lay awake on his futon and continue to try and figure out what in the Sun's name his father had done with himself.

"How many times has she tried to escape?" Zuko asked. Such an attempt would cost lives he was sure, and he wanted to be certain that whoever paid that bill was honored appropriately.

"None," Mai said, shaking her head at Zuko's shocked look. "Her guards report that she has not, in their sight at least, firebent at all. She…" she faltered slightly before continuing with a grimace, "she alternates between insisting she is the Fire-Lord, weeping and… singing."

"Singing?"

"More just humming. She… she never could carry a tune. Your Lady Mother reports that they sound like the lullabies that…" she shook her head again in something akin to surprise. "She awaits your permission to visit."

Zuko was about to object, to state the obvious, that of course his mother was allowed access to his sister, but he drew up short of that. He still had to remind himself that he was the Fire-Lord now and that, no matter how simple a thing seemed on the surface, it had to be thought of in the most serious terms.

His sister was dangerous, to herself, to others, and to the nation itself. She was an Akodo, and had been the barest whisper away from being the Fire-Lord. Those High Lords that were even now moving at a dignified pace towards the capital might be more than happy to seize any opportunity to unseat him. Even if it meant kneeling to a lunatic.

Vengeance could make people stupid, and he'd likely killed quite a few of their relatives over the course of the last year.

"I will have to see her," Zuko said finally. Mai opened her mouth to object, but stopped as Zuko continued. "I will accept whatever measures you deem necessary for my protection, but I will need to see her before I can make a decision."

"Of course, Your Majesty," Mai said with a bow.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

"Hey. Hey. Look at me," Katara said quietly, taking his hands and kneeling next his slumped form.

Zuko glanced up at her through the fringe of his loose hair as he sat on the balcony outside of his old rooms. The royal apartments were still being gutted of everything within and wouldn't be ready to be lived in for a few more days.

"She's… well, you're right, she's unwell," Katara continued. While she had chosen to use Zuko's preferred term "unwell" her tone made it clear that she actually meant "wolfbat-shit crazy."

Which was fair, but really didn't make Zuko feel any better about it.

"She thought I was our father," Zuko said quietly, eyes anguished overtop of a scowl. "She thinks I'm the man who's been… torturing her. For years." Where once he had possessed only an informed suspicion, he now felt he had irrefutable proof of that. He'd never thought to see Azula grovel like that, something he knew from experience would have only resulted in provoking Ozai to violence.

He groaned out a sigh as he rubbed his mangled face.

"I can't be her brother, because she killed him. That was when she started screaming. Started screaming and thrashing and… wailing." He shuddered at the memory, noises issuing from his sister's throat that no human should ever make.

The only positive thing that had come out of the encounter was confirmation that, in her current state, she couldn't seem to firebend.

"You. Are not. Your father," Katara said, squeezing his hands fiercely.

"I… might be just as bad," Zuko said, his eyes growing unfocused. "I was prepared to kill her, Katara. Kill her over the throne like some…" he exhaled in frustration. "Ash and bone. Where is that bastard? He can't have just disappeared. It doesn't make sense!"

"I…" Katara hesitated, seeming to come to grips with something. "I think… Aang did something."

"Aang? Katara, I think your brother might have noticed the Avatar."

"Yeah, but… I don't know." She looked up at the sky as though expecting to see the Air-Nomad flying overhead on his glider. "It's just a feeling I have. I always believed that Aang could save the world, and now it's pretty close to being good and saved."

Zuko snorted. "I think you're the one who did most of the saving here."

"I did play a rather major role, yes," Katara said with a smile, her nose in the air in mock haughtiness. Her grip tightened on Zuko's hands and she tugged him to his feet. "Come on, I've already finished dinner, and unless you want to have to duel Sokka for any part of it…"

Zuko snorted in disbelief as she dragged him through their rooms. "For the spirits sake, Katara. You are a princess who lives in a palace, you don't have to cook anymore."

"Is there something wrong with my cooking?"

"Of course not. But if you keep invading the kitchens the cooks are going to think they've done something to offend you. I imagine seppuku via wooden spoon will ensue. Probably very messy."

"Well, as soon as they figure out how to make seven-flavor-soup correctly, as in, without spicing the turtle-seal meat into oblivion, then I'll let them do it."

"It was lightly peppered."

"It was basically just one-flavor-soup at that point! Practically a sacrilege."

The two of them, the Fire-Lord in his bathrobe and his fiancé the master-chef, bickered in this fashion through the hallways of the palace. The sound of it echoed around and startled elderly servants who were long used to the traditional harmonious silence. It seemed to fill the palace as the two of them made their way to dinner where their friends and allies were waiting.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

Autumn, year 1 in the Reign of Fire-Lord Zuko

Zuko had finally come to accept the fact that the balcony outside of his new offices had a better view.

He'd liked the view from his old rooms quite a lot. That balcony had looked out over the city that he had been banished from allowing him to just make out the movements of the people he was sworn to protect in the streets below. This view had that as well (though the people below were distant enough to possibly only be imagined) and, due to its placement near the top of the palace, it had a view of the ocean as well.

There was a significant rent in the eastern edge of the caldera which made up the perimeter of Otosan Uchi. The natural break in the stone had been adapted to in typical Fire-Nation fashion and now served as a defensible natural gateway between the city and the harbor town on the slopes of the mountain below. Zuko had no doubt that, on the days closest to high summer, Holy Sun would rise in that opening.

At the moment, however, the long shadow of the palace stretched eastward toward that rent as the Sun set behind him. Visible through the gap, still flickering in the dying light of day, one could just make out the subtle rolling motions of waves on the Bay of Flames.

Katara had approved, and that had been a rather important factor in Zuko deciding not to simply have these rooms sealed off and forgotten.

They were mostly bare now, those rooms behind him. The portraiture and sculptures had all been removed and carted away after great personal effort on the part of the palace servants. Now all that remained in the inner office was a large desk, ornate without being ostentatious, a few chairs, a tea setting, maps, charts, bookshelves that were rapidly filling by the day, and the lurking, seemingly infinite, stacks of paperwork on his desk that lay in wait for his perusal and signature.

All of these things… and a small vase at the corner of his desk that held a single purple flower.

His court botanist (something Zuko was still somewhat surprised to discover he had) had informed him that it was called "false indigo." False in that it would not produce the same purple dyes that "true" indigo or southern plum-weed would.

This was Katara's addition to his office. To "brighten up this gloomy place," she had said. Much to the court botanist's delight she had already co-opted one of the many palace gardens and had ordered it entirely seeded with the flower.

Zuko doubted that this would be her only addition. To his office or to the palace at large.

For himself, he planned on eventually adding another desk. She'd promised to help with all of this after all.

The wedding was just under three months away now. High winter in deference to Unicorn culture and defiance of his own. He'd managed to assuage the indignation of his more traditional ministers and the High Lords by putting off her crowning, which normally would have happened directly after the wedding, until high summer of the next year.

Zuko was happy to let them bicker about when things would happen instead of if.

He'd made it perfectly clear that asking if either wedding or crowning should happen were not topics best discussed in his presence or otherwise.

But, all in all, he considered things to be running as smoothly as he could reasonably expect. The economy was still in terrible shape, but trade was on the uptick. The brief unification of Fire-Nation and Earth-Kingdom had shown just how much demand that each had had for the other's goods. Earth-Kingdom silks and Fire-Nation steel were now being exchanged with gradually increasing alacrity. Despite having only been home for two months Hakoda had already managed to provide a rather large shipment of furs, fish, and oil, and Sokka would pilot a pair of decommissioned corvettes back with him.

The Daijo-kan had settled into something like stability, now filled with competent people, many of whom were of no major family and had very little in the way of larger political agendas.

There were exceptions to this, of course. While Mai was still somewhat on the outs with her family, she was still a Shosuro, one of the great families. As well, Haki was now Minister of War in deference to his service, his wounds, and his family's aid. Zuko had finally had a chance to meet Matsu Nao, Haki's wife, along with their seven children, when they had taken up residence in the palace accommodations meant for senior staff.

She and Katara had gotten along immediately and famously which worried him for reasons he could not quite discern as of yet.

The High Lords had finally arrived at the palace to pledge their loyalty and, as of yet, none of them had overtly tried to assassinate him. They were either exceptionally pleased to have been victorious in the Sengoku, like the Matsu, or significantly quelled from their defeat, like Bayushi. The new Lord Bayushi, her father having mysteriously disappeared from the fleet, was eager to ingratiate herself back in the court. Lord Soshi had gone out of his way to assure Zuko that the Jang Hui river was once again clean, full of fish, and ready for inhabitants as soon as was politely possible.

Yet the tension was still palpable. Currently, the many changes Zuko was making, to administration, to the economy and tax codes, to the legal system, were readily accepted as the aristocracy jockeyed for position in the court. He was certain that, once the ash settled however, the subdued mutters would turn back into shouting, backstabbing, and duels of fire and steel.

They'd eventually realize that there was an earthbender on the Daijo-kan after all.

Uesugi Ren occupied the newest position on the council; Governor-General of the Fire-Nation Colonies. As part of his office he'd been given charge of those members of the Dai Li that, having nowhere else to go after Azula had banished them in her madness, had remained in the Fire-Nation. Ren's brother had always been of the opinion, when he could be compelled to give one at least, that the Colonies required more representation in the central government, and Zuko considered the few things Rin had said to be almost sacrosanct.

And besides, who better for the position than the one they had once called "Fire-Nation Man?"

But people would bicker. They would demure in public and scheme in private. They would try to submit legislation for Zuko's approval with something both incredibly stupid and potentially profitable for them written on page fifty-four and assume that he wouldn't spot it.

They really should have been thanking Mai and Katara who had both told him, together and individually, no less than a dozen times, that he could not simply execute everyone who pissed him off.

The fact that it would be a lot easier was not deemed a valid excuse.

So, like his ancestors before him, he adapted. He hired clerks to read his paperwork and present summaries. Then he hired other clerks to check their work. THEN he hired, or rather had Mai hire, several surreptitious people whose job it was to ensure that those clerks weren't taking bribes.

And then he still read everything that crossed his desk.

Killing was so very much easier than governing.

But, at the moment, he was simply enjoying the view. Wind in his face and the faint smells of salt and sulfur in his nose.

It was almost like he was back on his ship, at the command tower, arms folded behind his back as he fought for enough calm to plot his next move.

Calm was much easier these days, but the moves and plots were now infinitely more complex.

He supposed he ought to go inside and make one last stab at the ever-present, ever-growing, mound of paperwork before heading down to dinner. Katara was making something called stewed "sea prunes," which she and Sokka were very excited about. Zuko was intrigued to try something that had made her practically giggle with excitement.

But then the wind changed direction, the smells of salt and sulfur replaced by that of cold mountain air and fresh earth in a gust.

Zuko glanced behind him and, were he a more excitable person, he might have fallen over the railing in shock.

There, sitting on the railing on the side of the balcony, was the Avatar, covered in a thin patina of mud, his robes almost more holes than cloth, and, despite the wide grin on his face, looking more emaciated than Zuko had ever seen him.

He waved as Zuko's mouth fell open in shock.

"Fire-Lord Zuko," Aang said eventually. He slipped off the railing and into a slight bow in the Fire-Nation style.

Zuko, operating mostly on reflex, bowed back to the same degree before finding his voice.

"Avatar Aang."

They stood in silence for another long moment, Aang still smiling as Zuko, his face working silently, sorted through the variety of emotions that fought for dominance in his brain.

"Go on, ask," Aang said, still smiling.

"Where have you been?" Zuko said, keeping most of the snap out of his tone.

"Oh, you know, around," Aang said, waving airily at the space between them. "Mostly the Spirit World, but, well, that's kind of the point really, it's all around us." He hummed to himself in thought. "Honestly, not the question I thought you'd ask first… but thanks for being concerned for me." He seemed genuinely pleased by that fact.

"What… what question did you think I would ask?" Zuko asked.

"Oh, you know. The BIG one."

Zuko stared at him for a long moment.

"It's alright you know. You can ask."

"…where is my father?" Zuko asked eventually, his tone on the cusp of dark and stormy.

"Safe," Aang said with a nod.

"Safe? He's… he's still alive?" Zuko asked, small flames unconsciously gathering at his hands.

"Oh yes. Very much so. Possibly more alive than at any point previously."

"Where?" Zuko barked, no longer trying to restrain his temper. "Aang, I know that you don't want to have to kill him, but I cannot leave him alive. His continued existence will be a perpetual threat to my rule and the stability of my nation. I will-"

"Nope," Aang interjected, still smiling, his eyes full of mirth.

"Aang, this is serious."

"Oh, I know, but, believe me, this is the way it's got to be," Aang said rapidly. "Let's just say that, the man who tried to burn the Earth-Kingdom to the ground will never be seen again."

"Aang you don't understand my father. If you… Ash. If you have left him alone he will find a way to escape. He is powerful, and insane, and utterly determined to-"

"Oh, I understand him," Aang said interjecting again. "I might, no insult intended, understand him better than you do now." He put his hand on Zuko's shoulder and Zuko was shocked to discover that the boy he had once towered over was now at least a half an inch taller than him.

"You see," Aang continued, his voice in an almost conspiratorial whisper, "now that the taint of Fu Leng is out of him, he's got a chance. A real chance to atone."

"Fu Leng?" Zuko said, rocking back in surprise. The ancient tales of Fu Leng, a kami that had fallen to earth so hard he'd punched all the way through to Jigoku, were somewhat uncommon.

"Oh yes. Most of this has been his doing," Aang said, nodding sagely. "He's always there, waiting for just the right moment to strike. Sozin's betrayal? Just the kind of thing that leaves a crack for him to slip through." He brightened. "But, not to worry. It's all settled for now. Once I figured out what I was doing, pulling him out of your sisters was a snap!"

"Pulling… what did… AANG!"

"Everything is going to be fine now," Aang said, gesturing expansively as he verbally barreled forward. "I've just got to make a few changes. Got my work cut out for me, you see? Got to rebuild the Air-Nomads."

"Rebuild the…"

"Yes, that's actually why I'm here. Not that it isn't great to see you, Zuko, but I've got a few requests. I hope the whole 'destabilizing the enemy forces right before the final climactic battles' is enough of a contribution."

"…You …you took my father… and Lord Bayushi… into the spirit world?" Zuko said, finally piecing the things Aang had said together.

"Yep! Shoji's actually an ok guy. Or, he will be. Great sense of humor! He's got some issues to work through, but still, sharp as a tack that one!"

Zuko, who knew Bayushi Shoji to be one of the greatest schemers and political masterminds of the current era, could not help but feel that this was a somewhat inaccurate description.

"But, here's what I was hoping for," Aang continued. "One, I would really like it if I could have the Air Temples back? While a place isn't something we should hold on to, any more than anything else, it would be nice to have somewhere that the initiates can call home while they're coming to terms with that concept."

Zuko's mind was still reeling but, with an effort of will, he managed to force all of the confusion back into the dark recesses of his brain. A negotiation, one that had the potential to be far more important than anything that was on his desk was beginning, and he needed to be completely present for it.

"Of course," he said aloud. "They are yours. There has already been some discussion on attempting to renovate them for-"

"Oh, that part won't be necessary," Aang said brightly. "I just want to make sure we're all on the same page in terms of 'ownership.'" He made air-quotes around the word as though it were merely a hypothetical concept.

"Done," Zuko said with a nod.

"Next, and this is the BIG ask, I need you to do something for me. Something I admit that I even had trouble with. I need you… to let go."

"Let go of…?" Zuko didn't like the sound of that.

"I have to rebuild the Nomads," Aang said, still smiling but now somewhat sadly. "And those people are going to have to come from somewhere. I'd like your promise that, if someone asks to join me, you have to let them go."

"I do not see why that would be a problem," Zuko said, cocking a scarred brow as he waited for the other sandal to drop.

"Because I mean anyone," Aang said. "Children, the elderly, criminals, the very lowest of the low. If you order someone to commit seppuku, and they ask to come to me instead… you have to say yes."

"Aang… that doesn't… why would you want someone with no honor?" Zuko asked, shock mixing with disgust at the idea. "Will you rebuild your people with dishonorable scum?"

"I'm going to rebuild the Nomads with people. We're all people; flawed, fallible, mistake-prone people, even you and me. But," and here Aang's smile returned, confident and serene, "they can choose to try and be better. They may not succeed, but they have to be given the chance to try."

"I do not think that… If I give them an easy escape, criminals will just use that to evade justice," Zuko said musingly.

"Perhaps that's what they think they'll be doing," Aang said, his smile going wry. "But I can assure you that, the next time anyone sees them, they'll be unrecognizable. They will have atoned for their misdeeds and come to a place where they can be truly free."

Zuko continued musing over this for a long time, weighing the utter certainty in Aang's voice against the complications.

"I suppose. As a samurai, the decisions one makes are-"

"Nope!"

"…'Nope' is not an explanation, Aang."

"I'm afraid that that's the third and final thing," Aang said his smile growing sad once again. He reached behind him and pulled out a somewhat battered piece of wood, carved with patterns of air and shaped like a wakizashi.

"I need you to hold on to this for me."

"What? Aang this is-"

"Part of the bargain I made. Part of letting go for me. I'm not… not bringing back the Dragon dojo. Just the Nomads. We came to the final and ultimate conclusion that, in order to be truly free, to truly soar like air, I can't be samurai anymore. It's the conflict, you see. It makes you stronger, makes you a better warrior." He shook his head. "But it makes me a rather poor monk. So, I'm going to be the last one. The Last Togashi. The Last Dragon." And with that, he placed the wooden symbol of his position into a shocked Zuko's hands.

"Maybe, someday, you'll find someone else to carry that," he continued solemnly. "I don't know, I can't see that far ahead. But until you do, I want you to hold on to that for me."

"You… you're sure? Absolutely sure?"

Aang closed his eyes, inhaling deeply as he raised his face to the sky, his tattoos gently brightening as he did so.

"I really am."

Zuko sighed and looked down at the piece of wood in his hands. It was much lighter than he expected it to be.

"Alright then. I accede to your requests. All of them. But if any of these… criminals escape, from wherever it is that you are holding them…"

"They can't. It's quite literally impossible, not as they are anyway."

"Alright then. I accept." Zuko paused for another moment, idly examining the wakizashi he had taken responsibility for before snorting in some combination of shock, mirth, and acceptance.

"Will you come down to dinner?" he asked, looking back up at the still rather emaciated young man. "You look half starved, and I am sure Katara would love to see you. She has been worried sick."

Aang's smile turned a little sad again. "No. I'm afraid not. She'll likely hug me, and try to feed me, and do all those small wonderful things that make her amazing and made me fall in love with her in the first place." He sighed. "This is still kind of new and fresh. I need some more time for the paint to dry." He perked up a bit and his smile became almost a smirk again. "Besides, it's sea prunes. So there's that."

"You are just trying to avoid your inevitable scolding," Zuko said, a crooked smile of his own splitting his face.

"Oh yes, that too," Aang said with a laugh. "Much easier this way, now she's just going to be mad at you for not…" he snorted in real mirth, "for not capturing me." He let out a loud peal of laughter. "Imagine that! Katara actually wanting you to capture the Avatar."

Zuko chuckled as Aang continued laughing. He stopped abruptly when Aang, still laughing, without the aid of his glider, or bending at all, rose off the ground, still half-doubled over with laughter.

"See you at the wedding, Hotman!" Aang hooted as he floated weightlessly several feet in the air.

And with that he shot upward into the darkening sky so fast that, within a single heartbeat, he was no longer visible to the eye.

Zuko stood there for a long time, still gripping the wooden wakizashi, scowling his normal scowl up at the sky above him as it completed its transition from day to night. The stars had even begun to put in an appearance before he was finally startled from his thoughts.

"Zuko?" Katara called from the door of his office, "I know you want to read everything, everywhere, at least twice, but if you don't hurry Sokka will eat everything in the palace."

"Coming," Zuko called. He deposited the wakizashi on his desk, next to the vase, as he moved past it towards Katara. She had started to turn away from him, toward the long staircase that let down to a more reasonable altitude, but Zuko caught her around the middle and kissed her.

"…what's wrong?" Katara asked, looking up at him curiously, if somewhat breathlessly, after a long happy moment.

"…We'll talk about it later," Zuko said eventually. "Why don't you try to explain what exactly a 'sea prune' is again."

There would be time for her to shout at him later, Zuko figured.

He had all the time in the world.

-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-Ω-

Summer, year 13 in the Reign of Fire-Lord Zuko

"Yeah, I get that, dad. But why a sword?"

The two girls who sat across the low tea-table from him here in the Indigo Garden were a study in subdued contrast. With the exception of one major feature, they were entirely physically identical. They had their mother's dark skin, their father's darker hair, and an angular aristocratic cast to their jawline that reminded Zuko of their great-grandaunts, Lo and Li.

They wore their hair the same, they dressed the same, and, despite the different elements they bent, they often seemed to fight in the same way, fire and water bursting and circling like a tempest.

Where they differed were their temperaments, and their eyes.

Kya sat straight-backed and calm in seiza, her teacup held at precisely the right angle, and looking at her sister somewhat askance out of the corner of her yellow eyes.

Honora, on the other hand, was sitting cross-legged, leaning backwards on the grass with one hand, the other idly twisting her teacup back and forth as her blue-grey eyes examined the patterns in the glaze.

"I mean," Honora continued, "why not a spear? Or a tetsubo? Or a boomerang?"

It was almost everything Zuko had not to snort in laughter at the two of them. They'd taken to emulating, consciously or unconsciously, their Aunt Mai and their Uncle Sokka to such a degree that he could almost see the two of them in the background, rooting them on.

"Tradition," Zuko answered aloud, and took a sip from his own teacup.

"Yes. Ok. Right," Honora said, leaning forward, her mother's eyes now intent. "But I'm pretty sure that somebody once told me that 'tradition' was never a good reason to do a thing."

"Father said that tradition was never a reason not to try something new," Kya said, her eyes flicking back to Zuko.

"Ok, sure, but hear me out here," Honora said turning to face her sister slightly. "Dad's been trying to get people to accept that we're not doing the whole abri… abrination-"

"Rule of abrogation," Kya supplied with all the dignity possible for a very mature ten-year-old.

"Yeah, that. Been trying to undo that for years. I mean, we've got a waterbending, near master, as a Fire-Nation princess for spirits sake and yet people are still yelling about how everybody needs to remain isolated. How stupid can you get? I mean, look at Yu Dao, look at Gaoling… I mean, Republic City. You've even got people trying to say that benders should be isolated from-"

"I am eager to hear what mother will say when she hears you refer to yourself as a 'near' master," Kya said rolling her eyes as she took another sip of tea.

"I am just saying that we could do a lot of good by-"

"Alienating the entire court, the shugenja, and possibly the spirits themselves by-"

"Is this an argument that I need to be present for?" Zuko asked mildly interjecting himself into the debate before the two of them regressed all the way back to hair-pulling.

His daughters stopped immediately and bowed toward him in twin apology.

"No, father," they chorused.

"Good," Zuko continued. "Now, in answer to your real question, Honora, yes, if you would like, you may swear your oaths on a boomerang when the times comes."

Honora looked immensely pleased with herself even as Kya restrained a pout.

"While your uncle will be very pleased with this, no doubt, I imagine being called 'The Boomerang Princess' will become rather tiring eventually. I will, of course, expect you to have the weapon with you at all formal occasions and to be able to demonstrate your mastery with it to any curious honored guest who asks. If you would like this to be your formal statement to the world about tolerance and acceptance, I would never stand in your way."

"Errr…" Honora now looked rather unsure even as her sister's pout subtly shifted into a gloat.

"The larger point I was attempting to make," Zuko continued, "is that it is not weapons, whether that is a katana or a boomerang, nor is it bending, whether that is fire or ice, that defines what it means to be samurai." He paused for a moment and surveyed his two oldest children. "Tell me, what is it that does define us?"

"Honor," Honora said.

"Compassion," Kya said.

"Yes. Those two, along with all the tenants of bushido. We are defined by the conflict between our oaths, our desires, and the workings of the world itself."

"I still don't really understand why fighting is what defines us, father," Kya said. "You have always said that peace is our ultimate goal."

"Conflict does not always mean fighting, daughter. It means striving against those forces which contradict your own. It forces us to better ourselves, to constantly reevaluate our beliefs and our way of life. To accept conflict, and accept one's place in it, one must also acknowledge that there are things that are worth fighting for."

"Like honor. And sea prunes," Honora said smiling widely.

"Like whatever you deem worthy of your time," Zuko said with a nod, successfully restraining a wince at the mention of sea prunes, the greatest enemy of his adult life. "The katana is the Fire-Nation's traditional symbol of that concept. Willingness to stake one's life on their beliefs, to defend them until the Sun falls out of the sky if necessary. It is a tradition that stretches all the way back, to the first of us."

"Huh," Honora said, a small contemplative scowl forming on her face. "Well. I don't think I'm ever going to stop fighting for the things I believe in. So… a sword it is." She looked up at her father pensively. "I can still use a boomerang, right?"

"Yes you may, daughter of mine," Zuko said with a bark of laughter. "Yes indeed."

- End of Avatar: The Last Dragon -

---

A/N: Holy shit. I did it.

.

I really can't describe to you all the feels I'm having right now. Mission Accomplished, unfurl the banners, pop the cork and rock and roll 'cause it is DONE!

.

/author takes a deep breath to settle themselves.

.

So, here we are, the end, the finale, the coup de grace. I hope you've enjoyed it. I hope you get even the barest tingle of what I'm currently feeling at that fact.

.

Thank you for reading. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

.

FINALE-BITS

.

The agni kai (I need you to believe): I hope you are all not to upset with me for my "deception" over Zuko's death. I mean, he was dead. For like 2500+ words! But that is not the real point. The point was that I needed you to believe he was, believe that I was willing to kill him off. I needed you to react, to have emotions about it. That, in my humble opinion, is the whole POINT of all this. Good fiction, good writing in general, should make you feel something. I hope that, even those of you who heavily suspected that things would go down like this, had an inkling of doubt. If not, well, I apologize. I'm only a writing hobbyist.

.

All this said I hope I did the Last Agni Kai justice. It is the one of the greatest scenes in this show, and I think, in general. The music, the kung fu, the shock of Azula changing the game. All of it, brilliant. As I've said before, I think, it stands in stark contrast to the last 15 minutes of the series, which I think was something of a failure. I'll discuss why later in these notes.

.

Katara invents internal medicine on the fly: Bloodbending is a tool, and a tool can never be evil. It's what you do with it that matters. It's people that are good or evil. We've had this conversation before. I'm rambling in the author notes because I'm so excited.

.

Wrapping things up: I think I've wrapped up most of the major plot points here in the aftermath of the duel. Given a glimpse of how I see things shaping up in the future for the Atla world. If there's something that wasn't clear (or more likely something I missed) feel free to comment or PM. I love feedback, you know that, and as I cannot guarantee much of anything being published in the immediate future, I am more than willing to spill any and all various beans. One of the ones that I know is a bit unclear, and thus will explain now is…

.

Avatar Aang: So, the big one. What happened? Why did Ozai just… disappear?

.

Kinda anti-climactic wasn't it?

.

But that was the point to me. Aang wanted to be a pacifist, wanted to solve the conflict without compromising his beliefs. It's one of the great failings of Atla, which you may have discerned by now that I love, that he never really does that.

.

Certainly, that last fight scene is epic. It is well animated, and dramatic, and some really cool bending kung fu. Mark Hamill is terrifying, and Aang is triumphant.

.

But it's a fight. It's Aang meeting violence with violence. It completely contradicts Aang's theme to me and his victory is only made possible by two last minute deux ex machina. Why exactly does heavy duty chiropractor-y reactivate the Avatar state? I though the problem was spiritual? And suddenly not only does the wild, previously uncontrollable Avatar state return, Aang suddenly has complete control over it.

.

Probably because the Dragon-Turtle said so.

.

And that is not Aang taking control of his destiny, that is Aang being given something at the last minute by other forces.

.

It changes the moral of the story to "If you believe hard enough, and refuse to change or compromise on those beliefs, eventually the universe will bend to your will."

.

That's stupid. That only works if you are basically a god.

.

So, I'm doing it differently. Aang goes on a year long spirit quest, sacrifices a lot, learns to let go, and emerges a changed man, a fully enlightened avatar, with a new mission and the powers to do it.

.

He retains the ability to take, (and to grant) bending. This is his right as Avatar, who is the physical manifestation of one of the Kami. Hantei, the Kami of Balance. As well he gains the ability to enter the spirit world at will, to navigate it freely and use it to travel impossible distances. So, yes, in my world Aang simply poofs into Ozai bedroom, waves cheekily, grabs him and poofs him into the Spirit World, where Ozai has no bending, and no method of escape.

.

No way to escape… unless he achieves the same sense of enlightenment that Aang has.

.

This is how Aang is rebuilding the Nomads. He's taking them into the spirit world, providing guidance, and letting them figure out how to get out. Something that he assumes, correctly, will only be possible once they figure out how to really let go.

.

Then, he'll make them an airbender.

.

But he's got to get off the fence to do that. Stop wanting things that are diametrically opposed. Dedicate himself to his philosophy. That's why he's the last Dragon.

.

Hope that all makes sense.

.

Republic city: Gaoling is going to be republic city, should I ever actually start on redoing the Legend of Korra. (I think that in the cards, and I won't even have to dig out my ancient DVD player, as LoK is coming to Netflix in August.)

.

But yes, I think it makes sense for Gaoling, as I have presented it, to be Republic City in the future. Wealth independent city that's going to see an influx of immigration from the Water-Tribe and has a dispossessed Fire-Nation minority that will grow with increased trade ties. I can see a republic forming there, although Aang will have little to do with it except possibly to defend it from the Earth-Kingdom.

.

Book 5: Book 5 is a thing that is happening in the future. It won't be like the previous 4 which is why I feel comfortable putting the "end of" phrase here. It will be a series of non-chronological one or two-shots that show scenes for many different POVs. It will dart to times before the war, to after, to during. Mostly just whatever I feel like writing and think is worth sharing. Don't expect any regular updates on that for a while, but it is coming.

.

The future of Dapper: As I've discussed, my muse is a flighty and intemperate mistress. I don't have a huge stockpile of stuff waiting to be published but I am working through some stuff and thought this would be the place to talk about it briefly (if brevity is even possible for me)

.

The big thing I am working on at the moment is "updating" books 1 and 2 of this series. I flatter myself that I am a better writer now than I was 3 years ago when I started this project, and honestly 1 and 2 are almost painful for me to re-read.

.

So, I'm fixing them. If you are subscribed to them and see a flurry of update notifications that will be why.

.

Hopefully, I will regain some motivation to finish books 2 and 3 of Katara's big book o bitching (the unofficial title)

.

I've already decided that I will re-watch LoK once it comes out on Netflix. We'll see if my muse wants to join me for popcorn. If I DO take on LoK, expect it to be changed wildly in plot, characterization, ships, and overall themes.

.

Probably no giant robot fights.

.

I also have an idea that keeps kicking furniture over in the back of my brain for a 1940's Avatar-Godfather type AU. But again, we'll see.

.

Thanks: My gods. This really is it. I cannot thank you enough for reading this far. 450,000 words and two years of my life went into this fic. That's not even counting the hundreds of thousands of words lost in re-writes and one very ill-timed google drive snafu.

.

Thank you for reading. For Commenting. For feeling something.

.

Thanks for coming along for the ride with me.

.

Stay safe, stay honorable, and never be afraid to fight for what you believe in.