Ozai's Vengeance

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

Disclaimer: ATLA is the property of VIACOM and Nickelodeon. No profit is made by this story.

Notes: Thanks to everyone who has stuck by me this far. You all have made it a joy to work on this story. I had no clue that OV would get to be this big, or this special, or that it would do crazy things like inspire fan-art or keep some readers up all night (you know who you are!). It will all be over soon, and you have made the hard work worthwhile.

≅

They pulled ashore the next day at mid-morning. Zuko's legs trembled as he pulled himself and a sleeping Sora out of the submersible. The air and light were enough to wake him: he tasted salt and savored the feel of sunlight after so many hours trapped in the dank, bare cabin.

"Any time now," Tom-Tom said, peering at him from over the hatch.

"Oh, right." Zuko handed Sora to Tom-Tom, then levered himself the rest of the way. Katara emerged last; together they sealed the hatch and they hopped down into the water before she let the craft sink.

Staring at it, Katara looked from one corner of the cave out to the open sea on their right. "Are you sure no one will find it?"

"The water here is very deep," Zuko said. "At least, that's what my mother used to say."

Exhausted, they climbed from the cave up outcroppings of slippery, moss-covered black basalt to a gently-sloped plateau. And from there you could see it: the farm, his mother's property, one of the few things she hadn't had to give up upon marrying Ozai. The stucco-and-tile house sat high on the plateau, ringed by rocks and sea on one side and orchards on the other. Some of the palace food supply still came from this farm: it produced the sweetest, juiciest dragon-hearts in the country. He saw pre-fabricated hives for bee-keeping, and a toolshed. A shallow, under-used road led slowly upward toward the farm. He wondered when the caretakers had last seen a crowd this size.

"What's that?" Senzo asked, coming to stand at his right.

"That's where my mother used to live every summer," Zuko said. He pointed to her crest at the gate: a bear's claw-print on gold.

Zuko felt Tom-Tom fall into step on his left. The boy was carrying Kurzu, and for a moment they were a whole generation of men staring at the land and sea. Zuko heard birds, squinted up at them. "Does it have a name?" Senzo asked.

Zuko rested his hand on his nephew's right shoulder. The crying birds wheeled above them, and waves crashed below green land. "Safe harbor."

≅

The caretaker, an elderly man named Bao Juu and his wife, Cho Ahn, were scurrying about the house opening rooms when Zuko collapsed inside the farmhouse kitchen and promptly fell asleep in his chair. He woke and someone had put Kurzu in his lap; the child slept on. Someone had made tea and put it at his elbow; it had gone cold. He heated it quickly.

"Someone looks comfy," Katara said, breezing into the room.

His voice croaked. "Don't you want to sleep?"

"I will, when our room is ready."

He smiled, blinked, and wiped sleep from his eyes. "Suki?"

"Resting."

He nodded. "Good." More tea was necessary. And quite possibly alcohol. He wanted to sleep forever. "The kids?"

"Climbing trees with Toph and Ling." She folded her arms and peered out from the kitchen to a shuttered lanai separating the house from the kitchen garden and outdoor oven. It was afternoon, now; the shadows slanted blue and sharp, and the sun boiled golden down toward the sea. "I can see why you didn't want to give this place up."

"It was my mother's," he said.

"It's beautiful." She hugged her arms. This close to the sea it was cooler; he noticed a threadbare shawl about her shoulders. "Did you come here a lot when you were little?"

"Not often. Ozai hated it. So did Azula. There was nothing for her to do here but torment small animals."

"Well I like it."

Zuko smiled and held a hand out. Katara stood beside him and he leaned his head against her belly. Her fingers threaded in his hair. His eyes fluttered closed. "When will that room be ready?"

"Cho Ahn says any minute, now."

He dug into her a little. "Someone's become the lady of the manor rather quickly."

"I'm good at giving orders. Ask Sokka."

"Oh, I remember. Believe me."

The sound of a woman clearing her throat gave him reason to open his eyes. Cho Ahn stood there, hunched and shy, looking pointedly away from the Fire Lord, the Bloodbender, and their rumored bastard. "My Lord, your room is…"

"Lovely," Katara said. "Come on, Sparky. Up and at 'em."

"My legs won't move…"

"Sure they will. There's a nice warm bed waiting for you upstairs…"

He stood with her help. She looped his free arm about her shoulders. "I feel like an old man…"

She turned in his arms and squinted at him. "You know, you're right," she said, eyes widening. "I think I see a gray hair!"

"Maybe you should conduct a more thorough inspection," he said, nodding toward the stairs. "Move." Zuko turned and Cho Ahn's sun-weathered face was more than faintly pink. "Thank you, Cho Ahn."

"It's good to have you back, my Lord," she said, bowing. "Your mother would be pleased."

He had no idea what to say to that, so he simply smiled again and followed Katara up the stairs.

≅

In the bedroom, Katara shucked off her dress and he molded up close to her -- she held Kurzu and he held her -- and he had enough time to say "This is right," before sleep claimed him completely.

When he woke it was evening and the sun was just a violet line between the sea and the sky that he perceived through half-shuttered windows. He lay on his back. Glowing blue water swathed his legs. "I'm just taking some of the soreness away," Katara said.

"Don't you ever rest?"

"Full moon tonight; it's hard to sleep."

Zuko turned to say something to Kurzu about his mother being a madwoman, but the child was gone. He blinked, turned, and saw Kurzu standing up in a crib, cheerfully gnawing the rails. "You found a crib?"

"Cho Ahn did."

He squinted. "That's probably the one my mother used for Azula and me. And the one her mother used for her."

"Oh, so an antique?"

"Very funny." He smelled fire. "Is something burning?"

"Saya and Tom-Tom made a firepit. Sokka took the boys hunting. Now they're all out there cooking 'tasty little meat-creatures.'" She smiled. "Suki's out there too. I asked her if she wanted to rest, but she said being with the kids helps."

Zuko's good eyebrow lifted. "So we have the house to ourselves?"

The water momentarily lifted from his legs and snapped across his stomach. He doubled over. Gloving his hands in fire, he raised them: "Looks like they're fighting again," he heard Senzo say from the lawn below. The boy likely had no idea his voice carried so far. "You can see the flashes."

"Yeah, fighting, that's it," Toph said.

"What does she see in him?" Tom-Tom asked.

"Wouldn't know," Zuko heard Toph say. "I don't see much."

Sokka spoke up: "Let me tell you the one about the saber-toothed moose-lion cub…"

"Daaad, you told us that story an hour ago! You tell it every time we go hunting!"

"But Sora wasn't there to hear it!" Zuko watched Katara try to restrain her laughter. She held a hand over her mouth as her shoulders shook. "Now, once upon a time, there was a fuzzy little meat creature named Foo-Foo Cuddlypoops…"

"Was it a boy or a girl?" Sora asked.

"Uh…"

Barely keeping her giggles in check, Katara sent two ribbons of water back to their respective skins. Zuko held his hands out, and she crawled up along the mattress to lie down beside him. Her hair tickled his chin. For a moment they were just two people, her arms around him and his around her, and he could let other concerns drift away. This is what it's for. This is what it was all for -- Ozai and Aang and all of it. It was so we could have this moment.

"I like this part," Katara said.

"I like this part, too." He linked their hands. "I have something to tell you."

"Oh?"

"You won't like it."

"You want another baby," Katara said.

"Are you offering?"

She pinched him. He pried her hand away from his side and enlaced their fingers again. He kissed her scalp and set his chin over her head. "I told your brother."

"Uh, he kind of already knew about us…"

"Not about that. About Aang. About you and Aang. And the baby."

She went rigid in his arms. He shut his eyes and willed his heart to leave his throat. "When?"

"Before we left."

Katara sat up. His skin felt cold, suddenly. He opened his eyes and she was sitting on the edge of the bed, hands between her knees, shoulders slumped. "Why?"

"I…" Zuko threw his head back on the pillows. "It was…" His hands fisted. "It was tearing the two of you apart."

"That's my call to make, not yours." Her voice had taken on an edge. He winced.

"I worried about telling him-"

"Apparently not enough to ask me about it, even though it was my story and my baby and my marriage!"

"You were never going to tell him!"

"So what? He didn't need to know!"

"Secrets like that can destroy an entire family! I should know!"

Katara made to speak, but stopped short. She mastered her breathing and turned to him. "This is why I'm scared to be with you, Zuko. Moments like this. When you just go ahead and make all these decisions and don't tell anybody." She leaned forward. "How am I supposed to give up my whole life at the Temple just to join someone who won't even include me?"

"I do include-"

"No. You ask me for help, sometimes. That's not the same."

"You think it's easy asking you for help? You think I like-"

"No, I don't," Katara said. "I don't think you like it at all. I think you wish you could take care of everything all by yourself and not have to depend on anybody." She reached for his hand and squeezed it. "But that's not how life works, Zuko. In real life, you need help. And that means partnerships. But you can't establish a partnership with someone when you don't include them in your decisions."

He looked at their two hands. It was oddly like that moment on the ship to Tetsushi, her small palm in his long fingers. His voice came out rougher than he wanted: "What are you saying?"

"I don't know," she said. "Don't you have anything to say?"

He rubbed a thumb over her knuckles. "I…" Why was this so difficult? "I seem to… I have a history of doing what I think is right at the time, only to realize later that I made the wrong choice. So I have to make up for it." He squeezed her hand and covered it with both of his. "Everything I've ever accomplished, I've had to work hard for. But it's been worth it."

Katara frowned. "No one's disputing your accomplishments, Zuko."

"What I'm trying to say is…I'm going to fail. A lot." He raised his eyes. "I've never figured anything out the easy way. It's hard for me to listen to other people. I have to learn things on my own. So I make mistakes all the time. This isn't any different. I'm going to make mistakes -- I have made mistakes -- with you. And I probably always will, until I die." His head tilted. "Which, given the past few days, could be any time now."

Katara laughed. "I certainly hope not."

"Well, that's charitable of you." He looked at their hands again. "If you think you can put up with that, then we can keep going on like this. If not, then…" Say it's okay. Pretend it's okay. Be mature. Be a grown-up. "Then… Then I'll chase you to the ends of the earth."

She grinned. "Zuko never gives up."

He kissed her hand. "Not without a fight." He rose, stretched, and moved toward the crib. Kurzu held his little arms up, and Zuko lifted him. "You're getting heavier by the day…"

"Hey," Katara said. He turned. She was looking at the coverlet. "You think you could maybe put up with an overbearing, stubborn, hot-headed, matronly, know-it-all Water Tribe peasant?"

Matronly? Where does she get this stuff? "Only if there are bending battles."

She snorted. "That goes without saying."

≅

Thick clouds scudded over the moon and the sea brought a chill to the breeze as the fire flickered and danced before them. The children took turns roasting yams on long sticks over the fire: "Don't hold it so long, it'll fall, you're losing it!" Sokka bragged about the Kyoshi dry rub: "Zuko, I know you like it spicy, but you gotta let the meat mellow out a little, otherwise you'll get an ulcer…"

"Meat mellows out?" Tom-Tom asked. "What is it, a nomadic musician?" Zuko held out his mug and they clinked together. The boy was smiling. For a moment in the blurring shadows Zuko saw what he would look like as a man: tall and thin like Mai had been, sharp-featured, but perhaps a little better at smiling.

"Hey, Tom-Tom, do you know the Secret Tunnel song?" Senzo asked.

"The what now?"

Senzo, Saya, Siida, and Sora burst out with: "SECRET TUNNEL! SECRET TUNNEL! SECRET SECRET SECRET SECRET TUNNEL!"

Senzo jumped up and mimed strumming a lute. His hand rolled through the air as he spread his feet. "And diiiiiiied."

And then he was in chains.

The manacles whistled down from somewhere in the trees. They were long, and they yanked Senzo straight up off the ground. But Saya was already rising with him on a pillar of earth, and her arms were out: "Give me back my brother!"

Suki was moving, fans out: "Saya, no!"

And Toph was in the air, too -- Zuko saw her arc over the fire, limbs askew, and she didn't so much break the chains as snap them. Long bones of steel crunched together in her two fists. "Toph!" Zuko shouted.

"On it!" She stomped on foot, brought her hands high, and they were in a tent of earth. Senzo crawled away, his hands and feet trailing steel. Suki had gone white. Something exploded on one wall of the earth-tent; dirt rattled down on all of them. Sora was crying. Kurzu wailed.

"Toph," Sokka said. "How many?"

Her white lips made a small line. "Too many."

Tom-Tom had his hooks out. He used them to pick at the odd chains that once held Senzo. "What…"

Zuko remembered where he had seen those manacles before. And then his stomach plummeted, because it all made sense: the way the Funshutsu couldn't be tracked, their remarkable skill at dispatching and deposing leaders, their headquarters hidden in a wine cellar, how they influenced local culture, how they suddenly appeared as though from underground. "I brought a little souvenir from Ba Sing Se," Azula had told Ozai, once. "Dai Li agents."

Suki was talking: "But the Dai Li were-"

"Former employees of Azula," Zuko said. "And now the dregs are staging a coup."

Katara frowned. "How did they know we were here?"

"Someone betrayed us," Sokka said.

Toph's eyebrows twitched. "They're underground. Must have held off before, they knew I'd feel 'em coming."

"How long?"

"Not long enough."

Zuko turned to Sokka and Suki and the children. They had all drawn together around Senzo. Saya still held him as though she expected him to fly away. "I'm sorry."

Sokka was kneeling at the fire. He smeared ashes across his eyes. For a moment, Zuko saw the boy that had faced him that first day at the South Pole. Then Sokka rose and the man stood there, blue eyes bright against the ash, beard already sparkling with sweat. Sokka's sword whispered free of its sheath. Zuko found the sound strangely comforting. "Let's do this."

Zuko turned to Katara. She nodded to him. Her water-whips hovered near her face. He put a hand on Toph's shoulder. "Now."

Toph stomped one foot, raised her hands, and the earth beneath them shot upward. He saw the battlefield for the first time. It crawled with hundreds of men and women, firebenders and earthbenders judging from the attacks, their dark shapes moving in the orchards and on the grounds and dear sages why are there so many, how can there be so many, am I that much of a failure? A flaming boulder soared past them; the children shrieked.

His lips firmed. "Open the earth."

Toph frowned. "What-"

"Do it!"

Toph shrugged, turned on her heel, and brought her whole fist into the earth. The seam opened from there; the ground shuddered and cracked in a long jagged line stretching from her fist into the darkness. She made a ripping motion and the ground sheared like torn cloth. She straightened. "Now what-"

But he was already moving. He sent his awareness deep into the pit of his oldest fires and his arms made a form like flocking birds, they were rising -- I learned this from watching waterbenders -- and fire boiled up through the crack in the earth. Lava surged in a burst of liquid orange heat. He raised it like a wave, drew it higher, his arms shook and the people below screamed -- I love you as my own -- as he split the wave. Lava pooled sideways, ringed their little tower. The screaming ceased, smothered in a tide of brilliant golden death.

He stared at his mother's orchards consumed by flames. Then there was a pair of stone hands near his face, and a flash of metal, and he was staring at Tom-Tom's whirling body. And the losses -- his birthright, his people, his sanity -- no longer bit so deep.

"They're on the move," Toph said behind him. He saw them, too: men skating along the lava on bits of rock, sending up fire and sparks in their wake. The family formed a defensive circle around the children. The invaders leapt and he'd know that Dai Li run anywhere, they moved straight up the tower. Toph did something with her hands and spikes sprang forth from the tower; the Dai Li skated around or used them as footholds. Then they were over the top, in the air, and Zuko saw Ling's wires glittering darkly: suddenly they weren't men but meat, dripping and falling, devoured by flame. Blood misted over his eyes; he had to close them-

A stone fist sent Zuko flying. He skidded and nearly fell off the tower entirely. His fingers clawed dirt and he flipped over -- the sky was orange and purple -- with fire trailing from his feet. He landed just as Sokka's sword plunged into the other man. Dai Li were in the air; fire whips were in Zuko's hands. He stood beside Katara and Sokka stood beside her and Toph beside him -- oh look, a whole team of traitors -- Toph ripped rocks from the earth and sent them flying, Sokka's sword flashed in his hands, Katara bent steam from the lava and it sizzled, searing hot, into the groaning faces of their enemies before evaporating.

"It's too hot! My water's going out!" Katara pushed yet another tide of humanity away with just her water-whip. They kept coming. Zuko whirled and the man before them no longer had a head.

"Find some more!" Sokka yelled. Fire screamed through the sky toward them; a boulder soared close to Toph and she punched straight through it. Cool, damp wind coasted over Zuko's sweating face. He looked up. There behind the clouds was the moon, full and bright, and he saw a ghost of a glow there.

Katara stared at the moon, too. "There's another way." Tears appeared in her eyes. The clash and clang of the battle diminished. Suddenly there was just the sound of Katara's breathing, and his son's crying, and his own blood in his ears.

His hand found her face. "The Fire Lady before you killed to save her family."

Katara blinked and tears rolled down her face. "Stand back!" They did. She was already moving when she spoke: "Suki. Cover their eyes."

Her body swam up through the darkness. Their enemies charged upward, leapt through the air, she let them come, let them mass up, smirking in homespun uniforms of red and green, ten men deep-

-and her arms were scythes that cut them all down, fluids sucked straight through their skin, they fell as dry husks, useless chaff. A thick shining wheel of their blood spun above her head. Zuko blasted their paper-thin bodies away with a jet of flame. Their ashes coated his boots.

That ash plumed upward as three bodies rocketed up through the tower and fell down again. Zuko counted a Dai Li agent -- his skin looking somehow older than his uniform -- and a firebender -- a country boy by the look of things -- and-

"Shuzi," Katara said.

"My baby," Kurzu's nanny said, holding out a bundle of cloth. "Please take-"

"It was you," Sokka said. His voice was venom. His sword was out. "My wife, my child-"

"She passed the test!" Toph shouted. "How-"

"Shuzi, your people need you," the Dai Li agent said. Zuko didn't recognize him, but he recognized the effect of his words: Shuzi's eyes went blank, her posture slackened. She reached into a pocket and retrieved a small vial. And then she began shaking it out. She poisoned the food. She poisoned Kurzu. She killed Sokka's child. And she had no idea. A flicker of control there in her eyes and she said, almost apologetically: "You didn't pack the children's beach clothes, my Lord."

"Shut up," Sokka said, and his sword was in her, and in the Dai Li too, and it made a wet rasp as he twisted it. Blood bubbled out of her mouth. Her arms flopped uselessly; her baby tumbled down-

-and Sokka caught the daughter of his child's killer, the blankets soaked with blood already and the child squalling worse than Kurzu, and he handed her to Suki.

"You'll never stop us," the Fire Nation boy said. "There are too many of us; we're taking this country back with the Funshutsu's help and there's nothing you can do to stop it-"

"Oh, spare me," Tom-Tom said, and his hooks neatly ripped the other boy in half. Tom-Tom spat. "I can't believe I used to…" Growling, he kicked the youth's remains over the side.

"They used you to get to me," Zuko said. "They would have continued to do so, if I hadn't killed Yun Zi. Dear sages, they could have…"

"You got played," Toph said.

"That boy was right about one thing," Ling said crisply. "There are too many of them. We need a different strategy. Soon."

Zuko looked at the battlefield. Ling's assessment was cruelly accurate. Their enemies crawled like spiders among the trees and along the lava. Wind gusted and Zuko felt rain in it. He looked up and the clouds had thickened. He looked down and his family stared hollowly at him, his nieces and nephew cowered, his son and his son's nurse-mate roared their infant fear from Suki's arms. Sokka's breath heaved. Katara spun her cloud of blood tiredly.

"Toph," he said. "Get them underground."

"Don't order me, Sparky-"

"I'm not ordering you." He brushed a length of black hair from her sightless eyes -- she'd never know how much she looked like Azula, with her hair like that -- and said: "I'm asking you. Please. Take care of them."

She blinked, caught his wrist. "If you die, I'll kill you."

"I know." He reached into his belt, withdrew the dagger and the relic crown. He handed them to Tom-Tom. "See that my son gets these."

"Whatever you're about to do is appallingly stupid, isn't it?" Tom-Tom asked.

He didn't answer. Toph opened a hole in the center of the tower. Suki and Ling shepherded the children down. Tom-Tom followed. Toph jumped down. Sokka stared as Katara moved closer to Zuko and Zuko braced his feet, started stirring the air with his hands: "You'll do better with water to direct it."

Zuko smiled ruefully. "Just this once, can't I save you from the pirates?"

Katara was moving, spinning the cloud of blood above their heads. "Nope."

He sighed and assumed his stance. His arms moved in opposing circles. He leaned in, leaned out. Circles. Push. Pull. Faster. He thought of two fish, one black, one white, in the most beautiful oasis he'd ever visited. Katara followed him, mirrored him, complemented him. She leaned and he leaned, their bodies twisting and arcing.

"Ling's wires," he said, teeth chattering. Fiery rocks landed nearby; they shook on their feet.

She bent their shared sweat into the water. His hair began to stand on end. "I know."

"Don't touch-"

"I know-"

The rope of water and blood between them spiraled upward. It stirred the clouds. Push. Pull. Faster. Faster. Faster. FASTER. The first blue sparks skittered across his fingers. Aang, if you're watching... The vortex in the clouds became the vortex in his hands:

The first bolt bolt crackled down brightly through blood and steam to the dancing, tentacled thing above their heads. Zuko felt it fizz across the water and the spin made thin blades of blue light in red blood, each reaching inside the hearts of their enemies and leaving behind only smoke. Katara kept it spinning. Men and women kept falling, their bodies twitching and sparking. Zuko pulled and the lightning was there, it sizzled down and he directed it along crab-like legs of water. Katara's gaze was his and she moved the water and he moved the light as thunder shattered the air over and over, the battlefield dark now save for the flashes, he heard shouts and the call for retreat but he didn't stop, he would never stop because it would never be over -- I've decided banishment is too lenient for traitors-

"Too fast," she said, panting. But his hands were full of cold fire. He was the lightning, the lightning was him. He had a thousand arms of water and light, and they all meant death. If you're lucky, you'll never have to use this technique.

He looked and he saw their bitter work, saw charred shells of human beings, saw himself losing control and a white orb of light and Katara's eyes. Katara's eyes. Blue. A hum filling his teeth. My heart.

He fell.

≅

"Sometimes, you forget. He's a really powerful bender."

He sits up and they're in the sky and Appa needs a wash in the worst way. Clouds float past them. He does a headcount: Katara, Iroh, Sokka, Suki, Toph, everyone, the saddle expands and all their allies are soaring through a warm blue summer but something's wrong... "My son," he says, in a voice that's twelve years too young. "Where's my son? Kurzu! Kurzu!"

He looks and there are so many people, fighters whose names he can't remember, men like giants, and him in his dirty traveling clothes and his shaggy hair and his hatred of flying on unpredictable animals. There's a song and a pot of tea and Katara is laughing. When he shouts she doesn't hear him. She wears her blue dress and tosses her braid. "Where did you put him? Where is he?" The wind carries his words away.

"Relax, Zu-Zu," someone says. Zuko turns. Aang wears his arrow proudly. He beams. "You need to learn to take it easy."

"I need to find my son."

"You already have." Aang shrugs. "Don't worry. He's here. Katara wouldn't let him get very far."

"You don't understand. He's my child. I'm responsible. I can't let anything happen. I can't fail."

Aang brings out his recorder. His little fingers drift across each opening. "It's nice having the family together again."

"You're not listening-"

"Take a look around," Aang says. "What do you see?"

Zuko looks and Aang's face is blurring at the edges, now young, now old, now smiling, now glowing, and there are a thousand voices inside his one, and he is ancient and childish and he smiles and it's like a bridge and suddenly Zuko feels something unfold inside himself, light and delicate and important as a white lotus. He looks down -- hates looking down -- and there's the tower, broken and surrounded by scorched earth.

"See how small it is?"

He nods.

"When you're up here -- when you're with the people who matter -- that's how small everything else is."

Zuko turns and Aang is a child now, but a moment ago he was Katara's husband and the moment before that he was the end of an era. "I'm sor-"

Aang whaps him over the head with the recorder. "Don't you remember what you said, Zuko?" The boy -- the man, the legend, the last airbender -- smiles. "Strength never lies with just one person. It's shared among many people." He gestures and the saddle is like a field of stars, glittering, singing. "Look how strong we are."

And then he's falling but he's also swimming and he's cold but he can break through if he just tries, he can shatter any wall and he can find his destiny and he will never, ever give up without a fight.

≅

When he awoke the first time, Zuko almost shouted against the pain. His muscles felt as though someone had scraped them with a garden rake. His jaw ached. Tears welled up in his good eye. When he opened it, he saw his son resting, thumb firmly planted in mouth, against his right side. By smell and texture and the sound of her breathing, he identified Katara to his left. Her fingers circled his left hand. And when he flexed the wrist, he found it wrapped in leather, felt the old Water Tribe pendant there in his palm like cool, smooth comfort, like it was always supposed to be.

≅

The second time, Toph was there, and she held his right wrist in her hands with two fingers pressed to his vein. Sunlight showed up the streaks of dirt across her face, the odd spatter of blood in her hair. He gripped her hand.

"Hey, Sparky," she said. Her voice was tiny.

"W…Water."

"Oh, right." Her blind fingers reached for a cup. "Uh, you'll have to do it yourself…"

Zuko worked to grip the cup and bring it to his lips. Some of it sloshed down his chin, but enough went past his throat to make talking less like chewing nails. It soaked down into a bandage stretching across his chest. He coughed and tasted blood. "That's gotta hurt," Toph said.

"I've felt better."

"You don't say."

He lay back against the pillows. "What happened?"

"Your heart stopped. Katara re-started it. Got the blood flowing again."

His eyes were already closing. "She's a master…"

"She says the wound should heal up pretty nice, since she got to it so fast."

"Wound?"

Two grubby fingers found the bandage. Pain rippled up under the pressure. "Now you and Twinkletoes have even more in common."

≅

The third day, Iroh came. He arrived via war balloon. Zuko heard him on the stairs before the doors slammed open and the old man stood there panting, white hair askew, spotted hands streaked with ash from his own bending. They stared at one another for a moment before Iroh said: "Zuko. You're all right."

Zuko tried to laugh, but it hurt terribly. "You don't look so bad yourself."

Iroh crossed the room in two steps. He gripped Zuko's right hand in his two dry, stiff ones. They trembled. "Katara says there's a hole in you."

Zuko's good eye stung suddenly. "Uncle… I did something… I'm not proud of it…" He swallowed. "The lightning… My own people…"

Iroh was weeping. One of his hands smoothed Zuko's hair down. "Oh, my son," he said in his roughest voice. "Oh, my precious, precious boy."

≅

At the end of the week, Katara let him move. Iroh had lingered for only a night, then quickly spirited himself back to the palace before what remained of the Funshutsu -- what portion Zuko and Katara had not rendered to ash and soot -- tried to make another move. But by then, Zuko already had his idea in mind, and he had already practiced how to pitch it. Katara had helped during their nights alone, had asked the right questions and offered the right suggestions.

He came down the stairs with Bao Juu's help. The old man gave him the use of a crutch. Zuko entered the kitchen just as the family was sitting down to dinner at the long table. Candles flickered and he smelled meat -- Sokka had been busy.

"Hey there, Sparky," Toph said, having noticed his footsteps first.

The room stopped. Katara stared at him, keen-eyed from the other end of the table. Senzo froze mid-bite. Ling folded her hands in her lap and smiled. Sokka merely raised his mug. And Tom-Tom raised his. And then Suki, then Katara, then Ling, Cho Ahn and Bao Juu, the big kids and even little Sora until she asked: "Um, what's happening?"

"We're toasting your uncle," Suki said.

"Yeah, because he saved us," Senzo said. He raised a single finger and spoke in his best Iroh voice: "Because that, my great-nephew, is what uncles do."

Zuko laughed and a single tear leaked from his good eye. "That's right, nephew," he said. "That is what uncles do."

"Hear, hear," Sokka said.

"Down the hatch," Toph said. When she brought her mug away from her mouth, muk-ju froth ringed her upper lip. She belched.

"That was awesome, Aunt Toph!" Senzo said. Tom-Tom and Saya promptly slapped their foreheads.

"Can we eat, now?" Sora asked.

"In a minute, honey, Uncle Zuko wants to say something." Katara smiled encouragingly.

"Uh, right," Zuko said. His good ear pinked. Hi. Zuko here. "First…" He tried to stand straight but it hurt too much. "First, I'd like to thank you all. I've given you plenty of reason to kill me in my sleep, and you haven't done it. So thank you."

They laughed. Good. Open with a joke. Always works.

"And second…" He licked his lips. "Second…" He raised his head. Katara was watching him. And suddenly he knew what to say. "I've been thinking. A lot."

"Don't strain anything," Tom-Tom said. Saya punched him in the arm. He pulled her braid. Zuko watched them, made eye contact with Katara. She raised one eyebrow. Sokka buried his head in his hands.

"The Funshutsu wouldn't have been able to gain this much support if there weren't a crisis in this country," Zuko said. "The Fire Nation was at war for a hundred years. We're still learning how to live without it. Our industries and our identity were founded on conflict and aggression. I've tried to usher in an era of peace. But it's hard. And along the way I've forgotten some things.

"I forgot what a great team we make. I forgot that we could conquer any enemy if we just work together. I forgot that the children of this nation -- the children of all nations -- need teachers. And I forgot that I could ask for help.

"We could pursue armed conflict against the Funshutsu. We'll probably have to. But war is costly, and there are other things I'd rather spend our resources on." He cleared his throat. "I love this house. It was my mother's. It's the last thing I have left. And I don't want to give it up. But I think I want to share it."

"What are you saying?" Suki asked.

"We bring Katara's orphans here," Zuko said. "And we other invite children here to learn. All nations. All benders. And non-benders, too. Every child, everywhere, has the right to an education."

Toph's jaw dropped. "You're opening a school?"

"I'd like to," Zuko said. "And I'd like the greatest earthbender in the world to teach earthbending." To her credit, Toph blushed. Zuko turned to Sokka. "And I'd like a master swordsman and his best engineers to come with her." He looked at Katara. "And naturally, we'll need a master waterbender." Katara bit her lip. She brushed something from her eye.

"Two years ago," Zuko said, "I told you that Aang's greatest strength was his ability to rely on his companions and their gifts. But I didn't listen to my own advice." He found Katara's eyes again. "I can't do this on my own. I need you, and I want us to be together. Always."

"The whole family living together in one house again?" Sokka asked.

"It's worked well the past few days," Suki said. "And aren't you tired of never seeing your sister?"

Toph plunked her mug down. "Well, Sparky," she said, "I'm in."

Ling smiled. "Me too."

"Given that you're actually doing something I like for a change," Tom-Tom said, "I'm in."

Sokka leaned back in his chair. "You'd, uh, need to put in an extension," he said, gesturing around the house. His eyes followed his hands. "All new plumbing. Bigger kitchen. Have to clear some more land, get some livestock, start growing more food, it's a tall order-"

Suki grinned. "We're in."

"We're moving to the Fire Nation?" Senzo asked.

"Great sages, I'm stuck with you," Tom-Tom said, shaking his head.

"Can we please eat?" Sora asked.

"Yes, you can eat," Katara said.

Upstairs, someone began squalling. Sokka jumped out of his chair. "That'll be Sa Ming," he said. "Katara, you said something about frozen hippo-cow milk…"

"Right there," she said, pointing to a block of ice on the lanai. She flicked her wrist and the ice melted; a ribbon of water carried a flask to Sokka's waiting hands. He held it out to Zuko. "Heat this up."

He did so, and watched, bewildered, as Sokka charged up the stairs. "Sa Ming?"

"Shuzi's baby," Katara said. "Looks like you're not the only one interested in adoption."

"More of them," Tom-Tom said. "Fantastic."

≅

Later, after the children were in bed and Sokka had polished off his last pipe and Ling was in the bath, it was just Zuko and Katara and Toph staring at the waning moon and the remnants of the farm. The trees were twisted and dark, charred beyond recognition, the earth ripped apart and pitted. The broken tower still stood; Saya and Toph now used it for earthbending practice.

"This place used to be beautiful," he said.

"Fire can help things grow," Toph said. "Every farmer knows that."

"It'll be beautiful again," Katara said, threading her arm through his. She plucked the pendant on his wrist. "Can I have that back for a second?"

"Sure," Zuko said, and unwrapped the necklace from about his wrist. Maybe it didn't mean what you thought. Maybe she's reconsidered. Maybe-

"Toph," Katara said. "I think I'm ready."

"'Bout time," Toph muttered, and produced a flat gold cuff from her sleeve. It gleamed uninterrupted save for a circular indentation in the center. He watched Katara separate the pendant from its leather band before setting it gently it inside the cuff.

"Okay," she said, voice thick. She pushed the cuff back to Toph. The earthbender held her fingers over it for just a moment, then her hand moved, and the gold swirled tightly around the pendant, setting it in place. Katara took it and held it between her fingers. Then she took hold of Zuko's left wrist. He was suddenly grateful that Toph couldn't see their faces.

"Would you…" Katara blinked hard. "Would you please wear this for me?"

"It's supposed to be me doing this," he said. "I'm supposed to be carving-"

"Oh, just say yes, you moron," Toph said, scrubbing something from her eye. "I worked my tail off on that thing…"

He looped an arm around her. Toph leaned against him. She blushed when he planted a kiss in her hair. He held out his wrist, looked into Katara's face. "Put it on."

Carefully, she slid the gold cuff over his hand. It was tight across his knuckles, but fit his wrist perfectly. She must have measured while he was asleep. When his hand moved, the pendant caught the light and glowed blue inside the gold. The waves were off-center, the gold slightly puckered around the stone. A little rough, but built to last.

"Ozai was right," he said, as his hand tangled in Katara's hair. "I was lucky to be born."

They kissed.

≅

TO BE CONTINUED IN THE EPILOGUE

Notes: Well, there you have it, folks. Ozai's Vengeance is 99 finished. You all have made it a fantastic ride. I couldn't have done it without you. I'd especially like to thank Misora, RacheltheDemon, Renagrrl, Orepookpook, Ouatic7, AKA Vertigo, Manonlechat, and all my friends at LJ who encouraged me. I'd also like to thank Miz Sweet, PhantomZuko, and DragonJadefire at Livevideo, whose videos inspired some of the battle sequences in this story. And I should thank AKAVertigo again, as well as Irrel and Blue Moraine Sedai, for their fan-art. Please leave a review, tell your friends, rec the fic, draw me a picture, gimme some feedback. Flamio, hotmen!