A/N: Better late than never, right? I saw a LOT of people wrote up TSR-esque scenes, and I only saw one or two like this, so here you go (and yes, I HAVE to defy conventional wisdom with these. Don't be silly). Turned out a LOT darker (And WAY longer) than I thought it would, so this baby is pumping up the rating.

ZUTARA WEEK 2010.
DAY VII PROMPT: STORM

(Takes place 18 months post-series)

In the midst of the deadliest storm of the year, a figure stood upon the cliff, face raised to the heavens as he cried.

"Why?" Shaking his fists in fury, the man yelled at the embodiment of Mother Nature's wrath. "Why did you take her? You could have taken anybody else! Agni, you should have taken me rather than letting her die! Why do you always take what means the most to me?" Ripping off his shirt in fury, the young man let it fall as the rain fell down his muscled and scarred torso as he glared off into the nebulous clouds.

Flashes of days past burn their way through his mind: Smiling golden eyes, a soft touch, and a scent of fire lilies and the barest hint of lavender. Hours spent feeding turtleducks, watching sunsets and days on the beach. All shattered.

"Have it your way, then. Strike me down! It's not as if you're afraid, you've been doing it my whole life!" When the storm refused to cede to his demands, the young man walked to the very edge of the sheer cliff and simply let himself drop over the edge, falling towards sharp rocks and oblivion. Just as he disappeared over the edge of the precipice, he heard a feminine voice shriek out his name. Smiling bitterly, he managed to force out an apology to the woman before darkness enveloped him.

I'm sorry, Katara.

- - - oOo - - -

It had all began nearly a month beforehand. Zuko had finally managed to make Ozai crack and begin releasing information on his mother. And when he had found out where she was being held, Katara had insisted on coming along. So they had set out for Dragon's Tail island, nearly one hundred kilometres due west of Whale Tail Island. What they found there, however, was not what they had expected.

- - - oOo - - -

"Zuko, this is crazy. You can't go in there like this. Not like you are now" Katara planted herself in front of the determined firebender, hands on her hips. They had arrived on the island moments ago, and, after changing into their "ninja" outfits, had scouted out the island on Appa. It was a basically deserted island except for the fort standing on the western edge of it, surround on all sides by sheer cliff sides.

"I don't care what you think, Katara, this is something that I have to do. If you don't want to see, then I suggest that you leave." He almost hoped that she did leave. He didn't want her to know the monster that he kept caged inside.

Zuko like... this frightened her. She hadn't seen him like this since the days before the Siege of the North Pole while hunting the Avatar. As she finally managed to catch his eyes, she was astonished at the intensity of the flames that seemed to emanate from them. She was forced to revise her earlier opinion: 'He had never been this ruthlessly determined to catch Aang.' Before, whenever he had chased them, they could always see at least a small portion of denial, or hurt. Something other than the sheer rage that had always seemed to consume him. But this... there was no room left for anything like mercy. There was murder in his eyes. And it frightened her to the core. She knew that if anybody got in the way, she would not be able to stop him from killing them.

At the same time, it somehow managed to attract her. She had always had an attraction to boys with strong convictions; Jet, Haru, even Aang. Of these, Zuko was the most similar to Jet. But even though she knew that they were both capable of killing, Zuko didn't frighten her to nearly the same degree. What Jet delivered was revenge for his slain family and stolen childhood, and he would lash out at anyone who hurt him or disagreed with him. But Zuko... he promised justice to those deserving of it.

Zuko had learned from Ozai a few meagre details of Ursa's captivity: Only the fact that she was on the island, and that she was protected by a group of guards handpicked by Ozai himself. She hadn't been there when Zuko had interrogated the man he used to call 'Father', but she had heard that the burn ward doctors and nurses had to be rushed down after he was through.

"...I'm not leaving you." Katara's simple statement almost floored Zuko. He knew that she could read his eyes, and he knew that his were screaming bloody murder. How could she stand to be near him? "I know that this isn't going to be pretty, but if it was my mother... well, you saw what I almost did"

Zuko shoved her aside. "That's exactly my point. What you almost did. You and me, we're different. You could stand there and tell him that he wasn't worth your time. I can't. The fire within me demands that I do something, and I'm not going to be able to let them walk away, Katara. You don't want to darken your soul like mine already has been, Katara. Just... walk away." Pushing past her, he started walking up the pathway towards the low stone building where Ozai had said she was being kept.

Ignoring the fact that Zuko had just revealed that he had killed before, Katara grabbed a tendril of water from the humid, soon-to-storm air and whipped it around Zuko's arm, spinning him around. Stalking up to him, she prepared to give him the lecture of his lifetime when she saw the look of regret in his eyes. Before she could ask, Zuko's hand slammed into the juncture of her throat and shoulder and as her world faded away, she heard Zuko's whispered apology.

"It's for your own good, Katara. I'm sorry..."

- - - oOo - - -

After placing Katara's unconscious body back onto Appa's saddle, Zuko tugged up his turtleneck, concealing the lower half of his face. Although there was no disguising his identity, it should alter his voice enough as to bring his victims in close.

Zuko studied the structure as he came closer to it. It was a single story fortress made up of thick grey stone, with a single large, heavy oaken door. He could see the seam in between the slabs of rock, so he knew that it wasn't bent by earthbenders. He smiled. That just makes my job easier. Walking around to the east side of the building, Zuko easily scaled the building's exterior wall, his strong fingers expertly finding minute gaps in the stonework. Dropping down over the other side, he quickly darted into the nearest bank of shadows. He had started scaling the wall less than twenty seconds ago. Sparing a glance at the moon to judge the time, he was unsurprised to note the brewing storm clouds. He had been feeling latent electrical energy buzzing around for the past hour.

As the first pair of patrol guards walked by, he unsheathed his dao and snuck up behind them. With nary a scuff of a foot or a sound from his weapons, he plunged them into the guards' necks, instantly severing their carotid arteries. Dragging the bodies into the shadows, he didn't take too much care to hide them. Soon, a pair of dead guards would be the least of their concerns. He dispatched the other two patrols in a similar fashion, always dragging the bodies off to a different spot. He soon penetrated the core of the structure. Leaving the sleeping soldiers, he went straight to the prison area. As soon as he arrived, his gradually growing happiness was destroyed and was replaced by a cold rage. He saw what remained of his mother on a hard bench in a medium sized cell. The only part of her that was not burnt was her face. For a second, he couldn't take his eyes off of her, but then he heard a man's voice talking.

"Heh, I shouldn't have waited this long to grab me a piece of that. Too bad that she only lasted the one session... they can usually live long enough for me to pass her on to the next guy." Zuko's fury mounted when he realised what the man was talking about. Not giving him a chance to defend himself, he burst out of his hiding spot and threw a mass of nearly white hot flame at the guard. Judging by the rank insignia on his uniform, this was the head gaoler himself, the infamous Corporal Li Fao, the "Burner of Virgins" He had gotten his nickname through his long-time practice of raping female prisoners. The man managed to deflect away a significant portion of the blast, but some slipped through his defences.

As the man screamed in pain at the burns appearing on his hands and face, Zuko harnessed another gout of flame and blasted it at the man. This time, the man intercepted it with a blast of his own, though it's only effect was to weaken the blow that launched him off his feet.

"Okay, who in the nine hells are you, punk? One of the guards? If so, I'm sorry that you can't have a go at the Fire Princess, but come on: I've been here longer than anyone. If anyone deserved a piece of her..." his voice faded as his vision returned and he caught a good look at his attacker for the first time. "You... you can't be here. You can't possibly be here."

A sick and brutal grin appeared on Zuko's face. "You say that, yet here I am. And you're going to pay for what did. To. My. MOTHER!" With a furious roar, he blasted a plume of fire worthy of the Dragon of the West at Li Fao. The Corporal managed to get out of the way as he ran out into the courtyard. As he entered the centre, he spun around and slowly continued walking backwards, keeping his eye on the door, waiting for the scarred firebender to exit. He was taken completely by shock when he ran into a solid object and heard that distinctive raspy voice whisper into his ear: "Looking for me?"

Just as he started to run, he felt a hand digging into his back right near his kidney as an arm threw itself across his neck. He cringed as he realised that the hand on his kidney was burning hot. "Have... have mercy. "

He could almost hear the Fire Lord's voice harden into sword-steel. "Not tonight, Corporal. Not tonight." These were the last words that he heard before his captor's hand crept up to his face and he felt burning fingertips on his eyelids. A second later, his world erupted into pain and the only sound he could hear was his own screams.

- - - oOo - - -

Katara woke up a few hours later with a fuzzy head to a storm drenching the island. After shaking her head to clear it, everything came back and she remembered where she was. 'Dragon's Tail Island. Ursa. Zuko. Tui and La, Zuko!' Rushing out of Appa's saddle, she ran to the fortress, only to see the faintest trails of smoke coming from it, and the heavy oaken doors were thrown off their hinges, tongues of fire still licking their way across the wooden surface. Zuko... Rushing into the fortress, she saw the horror that he had inflicted. There were dead bodies lying here and there, but the worst by far was a man lying on the ground near the centre of the courtyard. His entire torso was covered with burns and when she looked closer, she saw that he had only two bloody holes where his eyes had been, and his groin was completely burned away, leaving only a blackened mess between his legs. To her horror, she discovered that he was still breathing when she came up to him.

"Help... help me." The man's voice, hoarsened by all the smoke that he had inhaled, called out to her. With a single look, she could tell that his wounds were fatal, and her mind was divided as she automatically drew water from the air and tried to ease his passing. 'How could Zuko do this to another person? Then again, only this man has extensive injuries. Why was he singled out?' As Katara's mind wandered from the healing, the water stopped tingling in her hands. Renewing her efforts, she realised that the man had already passed. Praying his soul onto whatever spirit would take it, she saw the single cherry blossom tree in the courtyard billowing flames. Heading towards it, she could see a figure leaning against the trunk, seemingly oblivious to the fact that the tree was burning. Running, now, she approached the tree and was about to douse the flames when she realised who was underneath it.

'By the spirits... it's Ursa.' She could tell that the Fire Princess was no longer among the living by the extensive burns on her body and the look of her blank eyes and pale skin. 'Wait... its Ursa's here... where is Zuko? He didn't come back to Appa, and there's no other way off this island...'Suddenly, it dawned on her. 'The cliffs! Spirits, I have to stop him!'

She ran to the cliffs, desperately shrieking his name, and she had just crested the hilltop as she saw him plummet down over the edge of the cliff towards certain death. Reaching for the sea water, she made a tendril of water gently grab Zuko and deposit him back on the cliff side beside her. As she turned him onto his back, she saw that his right eye was streaming tears while the left side remained dry of tears. 'The scar must have destroyed his tear ducts on that side...' He was sobbing incoherently as she pulled him to her shoulder. She couldn't make out much of what he was trying to say; all she could catch were the words "Mother", "gone" and "loved her"

She looked up at the stormy skies and silently cursed the Spirits for what they had done to this boy who was so close to her heart. 'How could you? This is the man that lost everything, and when he's finally found the one thing that could make everything worth it; you take that away from him? Where's your heart, Spirits? Have you lost your humanity so quickly, Yue? But I won't let him die. No, I'll be there for him, no matter what. Through rain and shine, and through wind and storm, I will be there for him.'

- - - oOo - - -

...and so I bid farewell to one of the greatest weeks of the year. Thanks for spending your valuable ZW2010 time reading my one-shots.

No, Aang does not know that Appa is going to be an accomplice to murder. He just thinks that Katara and Zuko are going to bust his mother out of a jail. Gaoler is pseudo-UK speak for jailer, for those of you who didn't know. Why can I not write anything happy? I mean seriously, my best work is almost always sad/angry. Why is that?

Anyways, as usual, credit where it's due:

The opening scene was heavily inspired by the first God of War opening sequence

The entire head gaoler begging for mercy? Totally V for Vendetta. 'nuff said.