Ozai's Vengeance

Summary: Twelve years after the final battle, Zuko summons Katara to heal the victims of an epidemic spreading throughout the Fire Nation. Katara/Zuko

Disclaimer: ATLA is the property of Nickelodeon, not me. No profit is made by this story.

Rating: T for Teen

When Zuko saw Katara again, he was already in bed reading maps. It would take real effort to relocate so many sick people. He had no idea where they would settle. Should he organize placement for them in other towns, or leave it up to them to decide where to go? He had no desire to shuffle their lives like a stack of pai sho tiles, but he didn't want to abandon them, either. Whatever you do, someone in the capital will find fault with it. You can't win. Stop agonizing and save these people.

"We need to talk," Katara said.

"Agreed," he said, letting the scroll in his hands fall slightly. He sat up. "I think we should-"

"Correction," Katara said, holding up a hand. "I need to talk, and you need to listen."

Rolling his eyes, Zuko spun the scroll shut and folded his arms. With his good eyebrow, he told her to continue. Katara retrieved the bottle of weasel-snake antidote from her sling bag. She held it up. "How did you know about this?"

"It's a standard-issue Fire Nation first-aid item," Zuko said. "Until someone invents a healing firebending that's good for something other than muscle aches, we have to take medicine like normal people."

Katara shook her head. "That's not what I mean. How did you know what the proper dose was?"

The hairs prickled on Zuko's neck. "It may surprise you to learn that I'm trained in first-aid."

Again, she shook her head. "You knew how to brew the antidote. You told Su-Lin how many ingredients were required and how much time it would take. How did you know those things?"

The prickles turned to goose-bumps. "I watched my uncle brew the antidote for you when you were bitten by a weasel-snake in the Foggy Swamp. He worked very hard on it."

She closed her eyes and drew a shaky breath. "Stop lying to me."

He felt cold and resisted the urge to pull his blanket tighter. He suddenly felt very vulnerable lying down this way. She knows. She knows everything. She's going to leave this place, and never speak to you again. "What do you want me to say?"

Katara's eyes snapped open. They seemed unnaturally bright in the candle-lit dimness. "I want you to tell me the truth!" She shook the bottle. "You said I fought the venom for hours. But you told Su-Lin that the antidote takes days to prepare."

He cleared his throat. "I exaggerated."

"No you didn't. I asked Su-Lin and some of the others. You knew exactly how to make the antidote. They told me there was no way Iroh could have brewed it so quickly after I was bitten." She was pacing the tiny space that was Zuko's side of the tent. "So how did I survive, Zuko? If Iroh didn't brew the antidote, how did I make it?"

"You're a very strong waterbender-"

"Don't even feed me that! I know how strong I am! But waterbending -- especially healing bending -- requires concentration over time. Anything beyond instinctive bending is impossible when you're hallucinating." She knelt down and held the bottle up to his face. "What really happened?"

Zuko swallowed and forced himself to look her in the face. "You were bitten. I gathered the ingredients for the antidote. We gave you the antidote. You got better."

Katara shook her head. "That day in the swamp, we were hiding from a group of Fire Nation soldiers," she said. "They were good -- they probably trained in the tropics. But their supplies were light, because there was a base nearby in occupied territory." Her lips pursed. "It couldn't have been more than a few hours away."

Zuko bit the words out. "What are you suggesting, Katara?"

"I'm suggesting that you lied to everyone about helping Iroh gather the ingredients, because he knew he couldn't make it in time. Instead, you resurrected the Blue Spirit, sneaked into the Fire Nation base, stole the antidote, and came back just in time to save me." She leaned forward. "What I want to know is why you lied about it."

Zuko looked at his hands. There were ink-smudges on his thumbs and forefingers. Katara covered one of his hands with one of her own. "Why, Zuko? Why did you lie?"

He looked up over her shoulder, avoided her gaze. "Some of us don't seek adulation."

She grabbed his chin with her hand. Her fingers were surprisingly strong, and her eyes hard. "Try again."

He didn't answer. Instead, he took her hand away from his chin and moved it to the scarred side of his face. He pressed her hand there and leaned into the touch until his lips just barely grazed her wrist. He could almost feel her pulse there and wondered if she saw his beating just under the skin of his temple or his neck. Now you know. This is the last secret.

Her hand slid away, and he closed his eyes. "You never said…" She swallowed. "I never knew… Zuko, please look at me."

He looked. Tears had formed in her eyes. Her hands twisted in her lap. Guilt and shame gave him a quick stab to the stomach. "Why didn't you ever say anything?" she asked.

"How could I?" he asked, and hated how small his voice was. He cleared his throat. "I was your old enemy. I had betrayed my own uncle. My father's soldiers killed your mother and father. What was I supposed to say?"

"I don't know! Something, at least!"

He shook his head. "It wouldn't have made a difference, and you know it. Your brother would have slit my throat. And if he didn't, Aang might have been tempted." He folded his arms. "More importantly, we had a war to win. You'll excuse me for not being the most romantic pursuer while contemplating effective methods of killing my father and sister."

"You could have said something when the war was won!"

"Oh, yes, that would have gone over very well. 'Lady Katara, please ignore the opportunities you've worked so hard for, and join me in my impoverished ruin of a nation.' Why didn't I think to ask?"

She drew back and sat on her knees. "Hey. Wait. I was just talking about courting. You know…some panda lilies and a foot massage?" Her eyes widened. "You wanted to marry me?"

Zuko drew on his most royal voice. It gave him some semblance of dignity. "Anything less would have been a waste of my time."

"But you didn't even…! You never…! How in the world could you have wanted that from me, without spending any time with me?"

He frowned. "Did you forget the period when we lived together?"

"I meant non-combat situations," she said. "You know, conversations that didn't involve one of us being tied to a tree."

Like the one we're having right now? He sighed steam. "I don't have to justify myself to you," he said.

"Yes, you do! You chased Aang for years! You wanted nothing more than to find him and bring him back to your father. Now you tell me that you wanted to marry me, but you wouldn't lift one finger to pursue me? You, Zuko, the man who never gives up?" She stood up and pulled aside the curtain. "You must not have really loved me, if you weren't willing to work for it."

He pushed the covers off and stood. "You want to know why I chased him but not you?"

"Yes."

"The Avatar I had evidence of."

Her brows knit. "What?"

"I saw him with my own eyes at the South Pole. I followed his bison, listened for stories of his deeds, and kept any shred of evidence I could find of his whereabouts. I had clues. I had a trail to follow." He looked at the ground. "You left me none."

Her hands met her hips. "So this is my fault?" She poked his chest with one finger. "Stop acting like I spurned you when you didn't even give me a chance to decide one way or the other!"

He batted her hand away. "You loved Aang!" He clenched shaking fists. "Why should I have pursued you when you were so clearly in love with someone else? Especially when he would do anything to make you happy? Should I have blundered into your relationship and made a fool of myself, instead?"

"Better that than keeping this big secret for years and years!" She ran her fingers through her hair. "I still don't understand why you couldn't just tell everyone that you stole the antidote, that day. Sokka would have started trusting you a lot sooner."

"Sokka is a very smart man, and he would have seen right through me."

"Sokka is dense as lead when it comes to matters of the heart, Zuko."

Zuko frowned. "What did you just say?"

"I said that Sokka is as dense as…" Her eyes widened. "Lead."

Suddenly it all made a horrifying kind of sense. The sickness. The "heavy" water. Why boiling that water didn't help, and why the first place to experience "Ozai's Vengeance" was a refinery town in the middle of nowhere.

"Dear sages, I've been so stupid," Zuko murmured. He reached down for his shirt and threw it on. He poked his head outside the tent. "Round up the villagers for evacuation! I want these people gone by tomorrow! Tell them they're not coming back!"

"Yes, my Lord," someone said, and Zuko re-entered the tent. He wrestled open his bags and hunted about for his twin blades.

"It's the refinery," Katara was saying. "It has to be." She gave him a despairing look. "Isn't there some sort of safety protocol? They can't just release toxins into the water, can they?"

Zuko buckled the sheaths into place. "Not anymore, they can't."

"It was right in front of us the whole time," Katara said, slipping on her shoes. "Why didn't we see it?"

Constantly picking fights with one another might have had something to do with it. "It doesn't matter. What matters is that I find the ones responsible and punish them." He knelt and did the laces on his boots.

"Oh, no you don't. I'm coming with you."

"Katara, I need you here to help evacuate these people. They'll listen to you."

"Hey. Whoever did this took away my bending. No one gets away with that." She patted the waterskin at her hip. "I'm not letting you go alone."

"I won't be alone. I'll have plenty of men with me."

"None of whom are healing waterbenders," she said. She folded her arms. "Iroh would never forgive me if I didn't do my best to protect you on this mission."

"And you think I'll ever forgive myself if something happens to you?"

She smiled. "You sound just like Aang," she said, "but you're still stuck with me." Before he could protest, she held up one finger. "And that means we can't just go riding up to that refinery expecting answers. There isn't anyone there, and the overseer lives at the port."

"It may be the overseer's fault, you realize. I sincerely doubt anyone in this village would knowingly poison their own water supply."

"If that's the case, he probably ran with his tail between his legs when he saw your ship arriving. We'll have to track him down."

"All the more reason to get moving," Zuko said. "We should get to the refinery."

"First, we ask the villagers if they know anything," Katara said. "What does either of us know about refineries? We don't even know what to look for."

He gave her a level stare. "You're at your most irksome when you're so intelligent."

"I know," she said. "It's one of my best qualities. Shall we?"

≅

Note: Congratulations to the readers who predicted what the illness at Tetsushi was. You people really know your heavy metals! While researching this story, I went to the Center for Disease Control website and looked up symptoms of severe lead poisoning. I suggest everyone go have a look. Beyond the symptoms and the "heavy water" clue, the largest clue was the name of the village itself: Tetsushi. In Japanese, "Tetsu" is a word for steel or iron, and "shi" is both the number four and the word for death.

Thanks are also due to all the wonderful reviewers who have made it so much fun to write this story. I've received nice notes saying that this is an "original" story for the 'ship, and I couldn't be more pleased. I wanted to avoid both capture and arranged marriage in this story, and it looks like I've succeeded! Thanks so much, everyone.