Zuko stumbled against her, and Katara made him sit down. "You just got hit by lightning. You shouldn't be standing up, even if I did heal the worst of it. I'll not have you undo my hard work." she told him.

"I'm all right, just tired," said Zuko, voice raspier than normal. Katara frowned at this, but then one of the fire sages came over from the somewhat distant rooftop where they'd watched the Agni Kai. "Are you injured, Prince er... Fire Lord Zuko? We'll need to find a physician."

"I'm a healer," stated Katara. "Unless you have a waterhealer available, you aren't going to find one better."

"Oh. That's good," said the Fire Sage.

"Shouldn't there be people around here?"asked Katara, looking around at the empty courtyard and soaked, fire-ravaged buildings. Zuko and Azula had made a fine mess of this part of the palace. "Where is everyone?

"Princess Azula banished them, my lady."

"All of them?"

"Yes, all the guards, all the servants, the Dai Li, everyone except us."

Katara and Zuko both turned to look at where Azula was chained to the grate, still screaming incoherently. She'd mostly stopped spraying blue fire from her mouth, but what were they to do with her?

"I think you may have saved us all from a terrible fate," said the Fire Sage, looking at Azula. "Now that she has offended Agni, she cannot be crowned Fire Lord."

"Offended Agni how?" asked Katara. "Why were you going to crown her when she's..." Katara gestured at Azula. Fire Nation. These people made no sense, even when they weren't actively being evil.

"Agni Kai are sacred, and attacking a witness to force your opponent to either defend the innocent or let them die desecrates the Agni Kai. No one who offends Agni in such a manner is fit to rule- book 4, stanza 32, line 4." said the Fire Sage. "The Fire Sages will not crown or lend support to such a person." He glared at Azula, then turned to frown at Katara. "Though you should not have strayed into the plaza. If you had interfered in the fight, you would have been the one to offend Agni. Do you understand?"

"Oh," said Katara. "I don't actually know anything about Agni Kai," said Katara. "I didn't expect a formal duel, I was expecting a battle, and Azula likes to cheat and I didn't trust her... I certainly wasn't trying to offend Agni."

The Fire Sage sighed, "We can let it go, given you didn't actually do anything until well after Azula attacked you." Then he paled, "do you know what happened to Fire – er, Phoenix King Ozai?"

"Avatar Aang stopped him," said Katara, hoping as she said it that it was actually true. Aang would win, he HAD to, or everything they'd done would be for nothing, and a significant swath of the Earth Kingdom was now burned-out ruins. Could still be ruins, if Sokka and the others hadn't managed to stop the airfleet.

Katara looked down at Zuko, who was sitting with his head in his hands, not saying anything. All right my foot. "We need to get Zu– your new Fire Lord, inside where he can lie down and I can keep an eye on him. And I'd imagine there's somewhere we can lock up an insane firebender that she can't burn down?"

"Yes, though we've no guards."

Katara frowned. "Then we need to drug her until we can retrieve the guards."

"Find the guards, tell them to come back," said Zuko, his voice rougher than normal. "Also the rest of the palace staff if you run into them. NOT-" He started coughing, his face screwed up in pain. "- not Dai Li. And need" more coughing, "messenger hawk."

"We will do so, my lord," said a new Fire Sage, who seemed to be in charge. "But perhaps we should get you somewhere your healer friend can take better care of you first?"

Zuko nodded, and Katara and the junior Fire Sage helped Zuko into the palace. It took longer than Katara had anticipated, and she was very glad when they finally got Zuko into a well-stocked infirmary. They deposited him on a nearby bed, and she took a long critical look at him.

Her friend was pale, not warm enough, and sweaty. Shock, presumably. And that burn badly needed dressing before it could get infected. She didn't like the coughing, either. Lung damage? She set to work again with the healing water. Zuko had much less internal damage than Aang had had, despite having been hit by more lightning. He must have managed to redirect some of it. Katara shivered. If that lightning had hit her, she very much doubted she'd still be alive.

Later, a Fire Sage came by and told her that Azula had been drugged and taken to the Caldera City prison. At least that one still had guards. Hopefully they could trust them. One of the other Fire Sages had promised to keep an eye on the Fire Princess and make sure that nobody got confused about who was in charge and let her out.

She sent out the messenger hawk, telling it to go find Aang, then another hawk to Sokka and a third to Iroh. Hopefully, all the hawks would find their recipients alive and able to receive the news.

Aang, you'd better be alive. Azula fought an Agni Kai with Zuko. She's in prison. Zuko is now Fire Lord, but not crowned yet. Zuko has lightning injuries. He'll live. I think he redirected some of it, because he wasn't nearly as badly hurt as you, but he shouldn't travel or do much of anything for a while.

Azula was losing the Agni Kai when she decided to attack me while I stood there watching. Zuko jumped in front of me, but couldn't fully redirect in mid-air. Brave idiot. He was down on the ground and Azula kept throwing lightning whenever I tried to go near him, so I had to fight her. I won. Then the Fire Sages showed up and I found out Azula forfeited the Agni Kai when she attacked me. She apparently offended Agni, and she definitely offended the Fire Sages who are in charge of crowning the Fire Lord. So they all support Zuko's claim to the throne.

The situation is chaotic. Azula banished everyone from the palace, so now we have to find them. I keep half-expecting both of us to get murdered in our sleep by angry Ozai supporters or the palace guards who have shown up. Cannot leave, help appreciated. Toph, we could really use your lie-detection skills right now.

Katara

Then she sat down, suddenly at loose ends. The war was now over, presumably. Now what?