Your Highness, most honorable Fire Lord Zuko,

It is with greatest condolences that I inform you of your uncle Iroh's passing. He died in his sleep, peacefully. As requested in his will, he will be buried beside his son in Ba Sing Se. The Jasmine Dragon is…

The rest of the letter blurred, and the paper fluttered from his trembling hands to the floor of his bedroom.

It's not true. It can't be.

The floor seemed to tilt underneath him.

He repeated it to himself again and again, as though to steady himself.

It's not true, it can't be, it's not true, it's not true…

His heart was hammering so hard against his ribcage, desperate to escape its prison and find the truth, find where Uncle had really gone... A sudden pain seared through his chest like lightning, and his heartbeat became frantic, erratic, faster and faster and what was happening, it hurt so much, he could hardly breathe, could hardly stay standing on his collapsing legs—

Clinging to a bedpost as though it was the last thing left in his world, Zuko tried his best to hold on.


The door burst open with a bang only Toph could force out of it. But something was different this time, something was wrong with the way she slammed open the door, and Katara looked up in alarm.

"Katara, you have to come NOW!" Toph yelled. "Something's wrong with Zuko!"

Panic surged through her, and immediately she followed Toph, only halting a moment to grab her waterskin. They rushed through the halls of the palace, shouting to each other as they went.

"What happened?!"

"I don't know, I don't know! He was just in his room, and suddenly I felt his heartbeat go crazy, jumping all over the place so fast and just stopping sometimes, and now he's half collapsed and his breathing is all messed up and Katara, I think he's dying!"

They only ran faster, their footsteps deafening in the dead silent palace, until they finally, finally got to the right door and wrenched it open.

He was leaning heavily against a bedpost, battling to stay upright, with one hand clutching at his chest as though he could rip out the source of his pain. He was barely aware that they had entered.

"ZUKO!"

Katara rushed over to him just as he slid to the floor, trembling, his breathing shallow and irregular and much too fast. Looking into his eyes she saw with alarm something like flash-blindness or shell-shock, and she wondered with despair what in the world had happened before she bent the water out of her pouch and pushed her hands onto his chest, the water glowing as it entered him.

In her mind she felt around his chi paths, searching frantically for the problem. There were many old spiritual wounds here, some scarred over, some only half-healed— but this was not news to her. She knew how broken he was.

What was news to her was the gaping, empty hole that could only be described as bleeding profusely in her visualization of his spirit. And no matter what she did, she could not manipulate any amount of his chi to fill that void — she could staunch the spiritual bleeding, could stabilize his physical heart, could save him, and she did, but the aching emptiness in the core of his being (an emptiness which, oddly, felt rather familiar to her) was not under her power to change.

She withdrew her hands and opened her eyes, the blue-white glow of healing fading. His breathing had eased somewhat, and he appeared to be in no immediate danger. At some point, Sokka and Aang had entered the room and were now looking down worriedly at the pair. Katara turned back to Zuko, who curled into himself, eyes downcast.

"What was that I felt?" she whispered.

He didn't answer. Something in his eyes sparkled, and he put his head in his hands with a muffled sound of anguish. It might have been a sob.

A paper rustled in Toph's hand as she picked it off the floor. "What's this?"

Sokka took it from her, his brow knit in concern and confusion. A moment passed as he read. Silent shock crossed over his eyes, and he handed the letter to Katara.

Tears jumped to her eyes when she saw it. Oh, oh no…

"What is it?" Toph asked again, the slightest hint of fear coloring her voice. She could sense their reactions to the paper, but she couldn't imagine what it could possibly say.

Katara choked out the terrible truth. "Iroh is dead."

Toph's unseeing eyes widened. Aang covered his mouth with a tattooed hand. Zuko was wracked with suppressed sobs. Katara took him in her arms and held him, remembering how she had felt when her mother died.

"It's okay," she breathed, saltwater streaming down her face and into his dark hair like glittering beads. "It's okay to grieve."

And he broke, crying into her shoulder, weeping the way he hadn't since his mother left all those years ago, sobbing the way he'd never been allowed to before — openly, audibly, showing vulnerability in the presence of others. He had no idea how healing it was for him to cry like that.

He had no idea how proud his uncle was of him, for everything.

A/N: Ugghhh I know I haven't posted in forever, and this is super depressing, but don't worry. Today I'm posting two (rather silly) dialogue pieces as well, and I've had an AU stewing in my head for a while... we'll see what happens with that.