"It's time for you to choose. It's time for you to choose good!" Iroh's words floored Zuko. Zuko had always thought he was on the good side – hunting down the only man who was stopping the Fire Nation from freeing the people of the Earth Kingdom from their oppressive rulers.
But recently, he had begun to doubt that. Confusion gripped Zuko and before he could ask Iroh to explain himself, panic gripped him too. The floor rumbled and jagged crystals emerged from the ground, encasing his uncle, barely avoiding puncturing his skin.
A cold and silky voice grabbed Zuko's attention, and he snapped around to see its source. "I expected this kind of treachery from Uncle. But Zuko, Prince Zuko, you're a lot of things, but you're not a traitor, are you?"
Zuko demanded an immediate release of Iroh. Azula ignored him and tried to tempt him in to joining her in taking the city and returning home as a hero. Azula and Iroh's arguments become background noise as Zuko tried to process the situation.
By the time Zuko snapped out of his thoughts, Azula had left, promising to let him choose and Iroh begged him to consider what he really wanted.
Zuko couldn't answer, he didn't even know if that's what he wanted anymore.
Not too far in the distance, a fierce battle raged. The trembles of the ground, crashes of rocks and waves, roaring of flames and air would have terrified most people but for Zuko, this was a siren. "I don't know what's right anymore, uncle."
He charged down the tunnel. It opened into an arena of rocks and lakes illuminated by glowing crystals. He perched at the entrance and surveyed the scene. Azula, his sister always tormented him and almost killed Iroh. But she was still his sister, his family and she was promising his honour.
Then there was Aang, his archenemy, the person he was doomed to chase for all his life. Zuko believed his destiny would be shaped by a final battle between himself the Avatar. But recently, he began to doubt it. Aang had not only spared him but saved him in the past. Aang had once asked if the two could have been friends. Maybe he was right.
Finally, there was Katara. For so long, she was nothing more than the Avatar's over-protective friend who kept standing in his way. But she was the first person to show him kindness, she even offered to try to heal his scar. Zuko brought his trembling hand to his scar as he pondered his destiny.
Despite being outnumbered, Azula effortlessly dominated the battle, forcing her opponents on the defensive. She darted around the battlefield, tormenting her foes with fireballs and reappearing elsewhere before they could strike back. Would Zuko fight her or use her as his ticket home. Home.
Zuko announced his presence by hurling two fireballs, which landed between the combatants and broke up the fighting. He jumped from his ledge and assumed a fighting stance.
His eyes darted between the two sides. First Azula with the cold smirk. Then Katara whose face betrayed a glimmer of hope against hope. He turned between them and then punched with a grunt.
Azula flipped backwards to avoid the fireball, her smirk collapsing into a frown. "What are you doing?" She flung a quick succession of blue fireballs at Zuko.
Zuko crossed his arms and blocked the fire. "Restoring my honour!" He retaliated with a powerful punch that Azula effortlessly avoided.
Azula launched numerous swift attacks at all three of her foes in quick succession with a fury they had never seen before. Yet, despite her efforts, she was clearly on the backfoot.
She rolled away from a water whip and leapt over a fireball before being knocked over by a glancing hit with a stream of air. She recovered and kicked blue fire at Zuko, which hit him in the chest and made him stumble.
Her moment was short-lived. A water whip to her right from Katara and an air blast to her left from Aang brought her crashing to the ground. Before she knew it, she was encased in earth up to her neck. "Enough!" cried the Avatar "you're beaten."
Azula cackled in her confines "I wouldn't celebrate so soon." The ground rumbled and the earth encasing her shattered. Azula nonchalantly brushed dust from her shoulder. "No doubt you're familiar with the Dai Li."
Dozens of Dai Li agents descended into the arena and took formation in overwhelming numbers.
At Aang's instruction, Zuko and Katara fought while he buried himself in a crystal mound. Before long, he burst through the mound, eyes glowing with a godly wrath.
Zuko had seen this many times before, but this was the first time it filled him with hope, rather than fear. Hope short-lived, as Azula felled the mighty Avatar with a well-timed bolt of lightning in his spine.
The Dai Li advanced to mop up the last traces of resistance until they were stopped by a large wall of fire. "Uncle!" Zuko exclaimed as the powerful firebender entered the fray.
"You have to get out of here!" Iroh rushed them away and put up a fierce fight against the Dai Li. Iroh covered them and backed away toward a waterfall where they made their escape.
Once they left the catacombs, they reunited with Sokka, Toph, and the Earth King. They mounted Appa and escaped the city, carrying Aang's limp body. Katara opened her bottle of spirit water and bended it onto Aang's scar. The water glowed and soaked into him. Finally, Aang opened his eyes and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
It was lucky, Zuko thought to himself, that Katara hadn't wasted the water on his scar.
Ba Sing Se was still visible on the horizon. The sound of screams and explosion rang through the deep red sky as smoke from the once impenetrable city had filled the sky. "The Earth Kingdom has fallen".
