AN: Sad and angst coming up. Warning: character death.

DISCLAIMER:

I do not own "Avatar: the Last Airbender."

DAY SEVEN: STORM

Katara stood on the rocky ledge and screamed towards the heavens. "Why did you take him away? Why?" Thunder boomed and rain pelted her body. Even though she was soaking wet, her posture was stiff and almost proud, with fierce eyes glittering.

"Why did you have to take away him? It wasn't his time!" Katara shouted angrily to the heavens. "If it's his time, it's mine! Strike me!" The lightning did not obey her. She screamed and dropped to her knees.

Her husband of thirty years had been killed in a rebel attack in the Earth Kingdom. They were defeated, so they could harm no one no longer, but Zuko's final fire blast, his sacrifice, had been the end of his life. He had collapsed, exhausted, and one of the remaining rebels had killed him like a coward.

What killed Katara was that she wasn't there to heal or protect him. She had stayed home. She remembered Zuko kissing her cheek, telling her he'd be home in three days, and bringing her and the children victory gifts. She should have come. She blamed herself.

Her child of fifteen years, Iroh, took the throne with his mother advising him. Iroh was scared of the responsibility suddenly dropped on his shoulders and sad about his father's death. They had brought Zuko's body wrapped in a shroud, and Iroh had wept as he cremated his loving father into ashes.

Iroh and her four children mourned. Ursa had wept, but soon took on the responsibility of Fire Lady, as Katara had started to neglect her duties. In title, she was Fire Lady Katara, but she was really just Katara, broken and mourning over her husband's death.

Without the knowledge of her children or Ursa, Katara had snuck out during a raging storm and decided to end everything. She couldn't stand to be Fire Lady without Zuko by her side, kissing her, waking her up in the morning, making love, and-oh, spirits! She missed him so much it had her keeling over.

In the storm, she wailed and screamed for the spirits to take her now. But no lightning blast came. Katara roared in rage, with tears streaming down her raw cheeks.

"Katara. Tara." a voice whispered near her ear. No...he was dead...it wasn't him!

"Sweetheart." Arms wrapped around her and pulled her close. Katara squeezed her eyes shut and tried to ignore it. Why must her mind play tricks on her?

"Katara..." Lips kissed her on the side of her ear. "Agni, you're so stubborn. Look at me, love." Katara reluctantly turned her head and gasped. "Zuko!"

He looked as he normally did-in simple Fire Nation clothes and shaggy hair. Katara drank in the sight of him-from his beautiful, smoldering eyes; to his bold scar; his pale lips; his strong, calloused hands; his broad, firm chest; even down to his feet. Katara wept and threw her arms around Zuko. He hugged her back.

"Thank Tui and La you're here! We should tell our children, Ursa...you're alive! It was a huge misunder-" Zuko gently placed a pale finger to her quivering lips.

"Katara, I'm here, that's true. But I'm a ghost. My purpose wasn't fuffiled for me to pass to the other side." Zuko paused and stroked her hair. "I'm dead, Katara, you must understand that."

"Zuko, please..." Katara begged. "Let me join you. Kill me!"

"No." Zuko shook his head. "Your time is not up. You will never find peace if you kill yourself. That is why I'm trying to stop you."

"Zuko! Stay with me!" Katara hugged him so tightly that he would have gasped for breath if he were alive. "Don't go to the other side."

"You will be driven mad by it Katara. You'll rely on a ghost to get you through life. If I disappear suddenly, you'll go mad. It's happened." Zuko sounded wise, like his Uncle Iroh, who had passed away right after Zuko and Katara's marriage. "I need to tell you to know I love you. And I know you love me too-" he cut off Katara. "but you must move on."

"No. I can't live without you!" Katara sobbed as Zuko peppered her face with kisses. "You were my other half. How can I live with a part of me missing?"

"You can, my love." Zuko encouraged her. "Be strong. When your mother died, you mourned, but you moved on. You took up your responsiblities, and you still love and miss her, but you don't dwell on the past. Sometimes...you can clutch your past to your chest so hard that you cannot open them to embrace the present." Katara wiped her eyes as Zuko placed one last kiss on her lips.

"I have to go, Katara. You realized that you have to move on, so I'm leaving to go find peace..." Katara kissed him one last time. "I love you always, Katara."

"I love you, Zuko." With the last of her tears drying on her cheeks, she watched as Zuko vanished into the air.

AN: Ahhh...so Zutara Week is coming to a close. That was one hectic week...!