Part 3: Chapter 23

AN: I've said for months that this story will be 3 parts, but I recently decided it has to be 4 parts (maybe even 5), the reason being that I feel like big chunks of time need to be divided by something more monumental than a chapter break. Hope you enjoy this chapter! Special thanks to everyone who kept asking when I'd continue! I really needed that nudge.

"Since darkness waits for me, then all the more

Let me go down as waves sweep to the shore

In pride, and let me sing with my last breath;

In these few hours of light I lift my head;

Life is my lover—I shall leave the dead

If there is any way to baffle death."

-Sara Teasdale, excerpt from "Since There Is No Escape"

Katara made sure to pull her hood above her head before she entered her tent with the porridge for Zuko. Ever since he and the others had come to rebuild the village, she had been careful with her disguise. No waterbending. Hoods over her face. A tea made of cane flower to cause her voice to sound lower, although she tried to talk as little as possible. When she had first moved to the village months ago, she had received from the villagers the respect of a healer and the fear of a witch. She had slowly gained their trust over months of delivering babies and tending broken bones, but they always kept her at an arm's distance.

Taking a deep breath, Katara steadied herself to see Zuko again. When she had seen him fall on the dias the night before, she had assumed the worst. She chuckled as she thought of how she had gotten to him first. As others had rushed to him, she had bended puddles of rainwater into ice, causing them to slip and fall. When she realized he was still alive, that even though he had pulled out the arrow, he wouldn't be in danger of bleeding to death, she had decided in a split-second that she would bring him back. She could not let him die, or leave him in the hands of those who might try to kill him under the guise of healing.

But she hadn't been prepared for the pangs of guilt and longing that wracked her as she tended to his shoulder. After he had fallen asleep, she had brushed his hair back from his forehead, part of her wishing she had never left. He was married though. And even though there was no announcement, Katara could guess that Mai hadn't come to Szenton because she was pregnant.

When Katara stepped into the tent, she saw Zuko trying to sit up.

"Oh good, you're awake. Here, I brought you porridge from the camp. How's your shoulder?" she asked as she offered him the bowl.

"It feels better," he said. Gods, she had missed hearing that voice.

"Your friends are worried about you," Katara said as she sat beside him, carefully lowering her head to avoid eye contact. "No one knows where you went. I think it's better you stay here until they find out who it is that wanted to kill you."

"You know, I haven't seen your face yet," Zuko said. "Maybe you're the one who wanted to kill me."

Katara laughed at the ridiculousness of his thought. She thought of how many ways she could have killed him with an overdose of the herbs and solutions next to him. "Fire Lord, if I wanted to kill you, you'd be dead."

Before she knew what was happening, Zuko lunged at her, grabbing her hood and pulling it away. Without thinking, she looked up and saw the recognition on his face. She flipped her hand to bend the porridge to his face and ran from the tent as he yelled her name.

. . . . .

Katara covered her face with her hood as she ran to the refugee camp. She could disappear among the crowds. Emotions were running high after the attack last night. Aang and the others had tried to fight off the Glass Triangle, but the guerilla fighters had disappeared as soon as Zuko had been struck with the arrow. With a mix of refugees and Szenton citizens, no one could figure out who had been the ones to attack. The mass confusion had been the best cover.

Zuko would look for her though. She had to decide if she needed to disappear again. Although it would be harder than before, given her condition.

As she walked down rows of tents, she caught snippets of conversations.

"...and then the arrow just hit the Fire Lord! And those in the front said he just disappeared! Like a spirit had just whisked him away!"

"...it's probably just a stunt. Why would anyone attack him outright?"

"...the Avatar is still looking for him, they say. If they're in cahoots, he's not showing it."

Katara shook her head as she kept walking. Rumors spread like a disease, especially among those who were already scared. As she neared the end of the row of tents, someone tugged on her robes.

"Sho-ren Kya, will you please come see my little sister? She's got a bad cough."

Katara turned to see one of her favorite villagers, a little girl named Dahlia, holding onto her robes. She stretched out her hand and Dahlia took it, leading her back down the row of tents to a tent where her mother stood outside wringing her hands.

"Thank you, Sho-ren Kya, Azalea is in here," Dahlia's mother said, holding back the tent flap. Katara sighed quietly to herself and thought, at least Zuko won't think to look for me here, before ducking into the tent.

. . . . .

Zuko dropped to his knees in front of the Glass Triangle and their young hostages. All at once, he felt exhausted. He had tried to lead the Fire Nation with honor, but the Glass Priestess was right, in her own warped way. His bloodline was cursed. The world would be better once he and his entire family were gone. Maybe then the violence would stop.

I can't do this anymore, he thought. None of this is worth the price.

"I surrender," he said. "Let them go."

As the twelve masked women looked on, Zuko bowed his head. His left hand was still tightly bandaged to his chest, immobilized. He was ready to end this. His life, his honor, none of this had served him in the end.

One masked woman stepped up to him, her white mask glittering with black stars. She pulled a black obsidian knife from her sleeve, and Zuko fought to keep his eyes open. He would watch his assassin at the end.

A gust of air knocked the woman back as an air bison roar boomed through the crowd. Zuko felt backward and scrambled away as Aang dropped to the ground beside Appa. Aang helped Zuko to his feet and asked, "What's going on?"

Zuko only pointed to the twelve women who each pulled out knives, katanas, or held fists of fire. "We're outnumbered," Zuko shouted over the din of screaming children and Appa's bellows. "Where are the others?"

Aang and Zuko turned to keep their backs to each other as the twelve priestesses surrounded them in a circle. Aang didn't respond to Zuko's question.

"Stand down, Firelord, or your nation's children will suffer!" one of the twelve women said. Nearby, one childish scream abruptly cut off.

"Aang!" Zuko grabbed his friend's arm with his free hand. "Let me do this. There's no way out. The others aren't coming."

Just as he spoke, a water whip knocked each of the Glass Triangle henchmen off his feet, freeing the children. "Let's end this, Priestess," a voice shouted above the crowd.

. . . . .

Just as Katara entered Dahlia's tent, she heard screams. Throwing off her hood, she raced into the Szenton square. Standing there inside a circle of combatants were the two men she had ever loved.

In a split-second, Katara took in the scene. Children around Dahlia's age were held by a group of scared but determined men. Their katanas caught the sunlight in a flash of light. As she took in the scene, a woman shouted, "Stand down, Firelord, or your nation's children will suffer!" Katara watched helplessly as one man slit a throat in a wash of red.

Fear, anger, desperation rose in Katara like a fever. Her hands bended water from her pouch in an instant, whipping the men away from the children. As soon as they were safe, she turned to the women in black headscarves and white robes. Like a bolt of lightning, she knew who she was facing. "Let's end this, Priestess," she called as she readied a waterwhip around her.

. . . . .

Aang whooped in joy when Katara showed herself, coarse dark robes billowing around her like a storm. Zuko set his jaw in determination. With only one hand, he went through a succession of steps, shooting fireballs at the women and dodging their sweeping blades. A throwing star came dangerously close to swiping his cheek as he moved through his firebending stances. He could see Aang deliberately resisting entering the Avatar state, knowing that he was still afraid of losing control with children and townspeople nearby. Zuko knocked down two priestesses and glanced over to see Katara sparring with another. She was moving slowly, awkwardly, as if she was out of practice or injured. He hoped to the spirits she was okay. Spinning around, he saw a priestess sprinting toward him with one arm held away. He recognized her figure, her run, the graceful sweep of her arm as she raised her hand to kill him.

"Mai?" he whispered. Aang crashed into him, knocking him to the ground.

"Focus, Zuko!" Aang cried.

The priestess stopped and lifted her mask. "Hello, little airbender," Mai said. Zuko and Aang both froze. Zuko crumpled into himself, feeling the weight of the world crash over him again. He didn't even move as she raised a knife above him.

"Zuko!" Aang threw himself before her, taking the knife into his own chest. Zuko felt himself leap at Aang, pushing him aside to ram a fireball into his wife. Mai fell and stopped moving.

Zuko turned and knelt beside Aang. "Aang, you stupid, stupid airbender," Zuko cried as he looked at the knife sticking out from Aang's chest. "Katara!" he screamed.

Nearby, the fight had slowed. Several priestesses fled into the woods, wounded henchmen limping after them. Katara was sitting beside the child whose throat had been cut.

"Katara, you have to help Aang!" Zuko shouted. Katara lept to her feet and ran toward them. "The little girl, she's bleeding out, but I think I can heal her in time," Katara said breathlessly. "Aang?"

Zuko gestured toward him with his free hand. Aang coughed weakly, a small amount of blood trickling from his mouth. "He doesn't have much time," Zuko whispered. Katara glanced back toward the little girl.

"Katara, I'm so glad I got to see you again," Aang said. His hand weakly reached up to brush her face. Katara grabbed his hand, tears streaming down her face.

"I can save both of you," she said, trying to draw water from her empty pouch.

"No, my love. It's my time. I just didn't know it," Aang whispered. His hand dropped to rest on her stomach. "If it's a boy, name him Izmael. If it's a girl, Kazia." Katara nodded, and Zuko glanced between the two.

"What? What boy? Katara, just heal Aang!" Zuko pressed. Aang's eyes fluttered close.

Katara looked up at Zuko, her eyes overflowing with tears. "I can't heal them both, Zuko. Stay with him as he passes on to the spirit world." She got up and ran to the injured child.

Zuko held the Avatar in his arms until his breaths slowly ceased.

END OF PART THREE

AN: Now you know why this chapter has taken me 5 months to finish writing. Part 4 starts next week!