Hello! Thanks for the reviews and favorites, means a lot! Credit to 'needanewname' on deviantart for this stock picture I have on the cover now!

Chapter Thirty-One

The Waiting Ends

Katara woke to flitting shadows, a circling light, and an intense spike of pain in her head. She could feel the sudden swell and pressure at the cross-section of her right eye and ear, deep in the center of her mind where she knew memories dwelled. The room pressed in on her, sitting upright and straight, staring straight ahead and she knew that she couldn't move, or react, or anything to show that she'd woken. This is how they do it, she thought over the sudden adrenaline, and as the light zoomed in front of her, she felt it snag a tiny wisp of her focus, just enough to blur her eyes.

"Everything's going to be alright," a soothing voice murmured. Katara blinked, and that light swung around the circle and back again with a soft whoooosh, dragging her along. The pain in her head spiked, and she shivered as ice settled beneath her skin. Oh, she remembered, and the man said, "Don't remember today. It will be better to just forget it all."

Forget it all, she thought hazily, and the pain spiked right along with the light this time, a blinding flash and then gone. This time, Katara felt it. She was pulled out of the haze by a quiet sad voice that whispered, No, remember it all. He did it for you- do it for him.

"It's alright, Katara. You can let go." No, I can't, she frantically thought, bracing herself as much as she could against the light whirling by again, the soothing voices, the darkness. Every spin was a struggle against the basic human need to sleep and let go, against that pain, against the need to remember and know Jin when he came for her and fool Azula and love Zuko, be with him, stop fighting- keep fighting- every pass of light came quicker now, the voices softer, the whirring louder and melodious and calming, like wind across the ice fields, her mother's voice… Like Zuko's scar under her fingers, whispering skin and shameful eyes, eyes that could light up mischievously or darken angrily or hold secrets, secrets that no one could tell her-

Eyes that could find her wherever she went. Katara saw them now, through the bleariness of her tears, in the long, slow blinks of someone who is about to go under, waiting out in the darkness. He waited. A million Zukos, the little boy in the family portrait, Zuko scarless and Zuko masked, a prince scarred and angry and bald, that ponytail, that ridiculous armor, all beloved to her. She held on to him, and that light came rolling by again, slowed down, dimmed, dragged her along, and stopped.

Katara went under along with it.

Katara woke to a pain in her shoulders and a deep, wrenching heave of nausea. Her head pounded and her breathing was ragged. Her eyeslashed, thick with mucus, stuck together, and she tugged them apart in panic, knowing she had to see where she was, if it had worked and they were all that much closer to being safer-

The room came into focus just as a heavy door creaked and groaned open, a handful of guards preceding Azula's small figure in full armor, followed by more guards who's features were still blurry.

Glad to see someone's dressed you correctly today, she thought, and opened her mouth to say it. Instead, she coughed and felt her chest contract painfully in something akin to wild joy- triumph? But- Katara stopped and got her breath back as her stomach dropped and her head throbbed. As soon as she realized though, that yesterday was clear, and she was awake, and she still knew that it was her second day of being awake, she felt a horrible dread.

"You can stay outside gentlemen, she's not going anywhere," Azula said. Katara narrowed her eyes. She'd said it yesterday. The guard with the salt and pepper beard- her secret ally of sorts, Jin, sighed, but this time, he said nothing, and the men filed out.

"I'm not going to talk to you," Katara croaked. She hoped they were going to bring her water soon, because breathing hurt. It was almost worse, knowing the pain of hanging there, maddening because she couldn't move. "I got my brother out and you know the rest, so I'm not going to tell you anything."

Azula frowned, her skin sallow. She hadn't slept last night. "The rest of what?" she asked. Katara felt her hair tickling her face, her cheeks warming with a blush, and said nothing. "Are you referring to the plans you've been making ever since this started? Your little revolution? You'd be right. I know everything." Katara felt a pang of fear and swallowed it. She didn't have a revolution. Something had to be happening beyond the walls of the palace, and she was dying to know about it. She knew by Azula mocking her yesterday that she repeated herself every day, but she didn't know how much, or what exactly she said most days. Katara barely remembered what she even said yesterday. Azula watched her thinking, waiting for a reaction, and when she didn't get it, bared her teeth. "I have ways of making you talk. It takes some energy, which I was rather hoping to avoid, but if it's necessary-"

Katara snorted. "What?" Azula snapped, folding her arms across her chest. "What's so funny? Nothing about your situation seems very humorous." Silence. It couldn't last because it was bugging Azula, Katara knew, and because most likely she was usually talking by now. But she couldn't. She had no idea how to not contradict herself without staying silent, and the only difference between today and the other days was that this time, she knew what was going on, and could possibly prevent it. She had to win this. "You're not usually quiet for this long… you almost always yell at me the second that door closes behind me," Azula said smugly, and Katara saw her opportunity. If she could wrong foot Azula, maybe Jin would have something useful to carry back to Lady Ursa.

"What do you mean?" she asked weakly, feigning confusion. Azula took the bait, and her grin widened. She relished telling her, the waterbender could tell.

"What, don't tell me you can't feel it. Aren't you rather sore for only being here one night? Your injuries are in different places on your body, you feel like you haven't eaten in days- well, maybe that's because you haven't."

Katara thought about her reaction the day before and couldn't remember it exactly- just the outrage. She paused, feigning confusion. "What do you mean? How long have I been here?" she shouted, swiveling her head around as if she was looking for a way out.

"Long enough to give me some ammunition to use against your little task-force," she replied, "See, the wonderful thing about my Dai Li wiping your memory clean is that I know what I'm going to ask you, and what the true or false responses are, and you have no idea that you're trapping yourself… do you understand? You're slower than usual today." Katara hissed between her teeth. She felt too confused, so caught up in trying to remember the day before that it was hard to concentrate on what she should be saying.

"I don't have a task force, I don't know what you're talking about, and let's just say I don't believe you," Katara said, catching up one accusation at a time, "where's your proof I gave up any information whatsoever?" Azula cocked her head to one side, scratched her neck idly.

"Well, thanks to you," Azula said, "and your heartfelt, often misguided tirades about love and world peace, we've now pieced together little bits of information. Where you were hiding, who was with you for example- every little word you say helps." Katara rolled her eyes.

"Seems like an awful lot of energy for a little information," she stated. Azula nodded, eyes glimmering.

"Oh, it is, but it's necessary. My soldiers are sweeping the mountains beyond the Third Ring and the commoners' filthy hovels now, and taking in anyone who fits Zuko's description." Azula misunderstood the flicker in Katara's eyes and grinned, flexing her hand until sparks shot out. "Don't look so surprised, peasant- scars like his have become quite common since I gave my guards a bit more authority. You might be able to hear the newcomers in a bit- anyone with the same build, scars on their faces, regal eyes… they'll all be processed as I see fit." Katara couldn't help it, at Azula's words a dizzying sense of relief cascaded over her and she laughed weakly. "What's so funny? It's your fault those men are on their way here because you indicated the location of my brother. You told me rumors of a scarred man and I found out the rest!" Azula's triumphant tone only made Katara laugh louder, right in the princess's face, with all the energy she had left. Zuko's voice echoed in her head- Azula always lies. Katara hadn't given anything any then, after all, so all this time Azula had been looking for a boy with a scar- she'd never even gotten close. "I'm looking exactly where you told me to!"

"By all means, continue! Looks like I haven't given you anything useful anyways- you'll never find him like that," Katara spat, "he's…" Her words died on her lips as soon as that feline smile stretched over Azula's features, as soon as the princess leaned back and sighed, giggling and clapping like a child. The watrbender's eyes widened, and she gasped as she realized why Azula was so happy. Katara found it to be the most horrible thing she'd seen in the prison yet, that smile, because Azula only wore it when she won. Azula always lies- a warning, not a strategy.

"Oh, Katara." Azula stepped forward, her voice soft, her eyes almost gentle. Katara shuddered. "Finally. So interesting, that people tell you everything you need to know when they're telling you you're wrong. You know I shouldn't be looking for Zuko among the scarred men, because you-"

"No," Katara started, "I didn't-"

"You didn't what- didn't think I knew about Zuko's miraculous recovery, his new face?" Katara stopped breathing. No, her mind was screaming, no, take it back, but she knew it was too late. Azula got closer to her and Katara shrank back as blue flames erupted from her fingertips. Azula watched the flickering, eerie light as it lit up her demonic smile. "How could I not, Katara? How could I let him keep it? What was supposed to remind him forever of Ozai's disappointment in him, he turned into a badge of honor. Disgusting," she purred, and the flames flared, searing little spikes into Katara's eyesight that faded and reappeared every time she blinked.

"What did you do?" Katara asked in agony. She knew how Zuko really felt about his scar, his strength in overcoming its original meaning to him. To find he didn't even have a say in its removal was like if someone taking her mother's necklace from her, which as it happened, now hung around Lani's small neck for safekeeping. Azula shrugged carelessly.

"A badge, if misrepresented, must be taken away. All it took was an errant waterbending healer, killed immediately after of course, and the unwilling cooperation of my mother." Katara's head snapped up at the mention of Ursa. "Thus, Zuzu's beloved little badge of honor was erased, and I gave him something else to wear in shame." His back, Katara thought, the scars. "Mother was furious, of course, but at the time, I'd already agreed not to kill him and I had to find another way to vent, so-"

"Why?" Katara screamed, then yelled in pain as blue flames shot through the bars and licked across her left side, leaving her hanging and gasping as tears streamed down her face. She was losing it, everything. "Stop!" she yelled hoarsely. Azula growled at her ferally, twisting her wrist and pulling the fire into a whip that snapped and crackled as she swung it behind her.

" So now, I have proof that you've seen him since he got away from me. It's been almost two years since he found his way out and you know where he is, don't you?" Katara shook her head blindly. Another scream was wrought from her lips as this time, Azula's whip of fire hit her shoulder, stinging for just a moment before the deeper pain, aching, sickening, pulled Katara away.

Through the haze, she heard the door open. Azula kept talking as a few guards walked in hesitantly, her voice floating and dipping with feverish delight. "Stop lying. You've been lying for weeks, and it has gotten nowhere."

"Then stop trying," Katara coughed, the scent of scorched skin making her want to retch. She couldn't look. She couldn't. She gagged at the thought, the smell, but there was nothing to throw up. "What did you think would happen?" she asked, and Azula snorted. "No, really. Let's stop playing around and…" Katara felt her stomach heave and twitched in pain, trying to stay awake, "and tell me. Why, and when will you stop?"

"I offered to stop yesterday Katara, and the day before it as well."

"No you didn't," Katara spat.

Silence, as her eyes were drawn to the man standing behind Azula, his salt and pepper beard shining dimly in the light as his body tensed and snapped to attention. Azula herself was completely still, ashen and exuding triumph even as all expression left her features.

"I see," she said quietly. The waterbender closed her eyes, failure weighing down every inch of her body. Again, she thought, I did it again. "Well, well, today has been interesting. You know, I suspected yesterday, when you broke through the seal on your bending, that you might be able to resist. And now, you've proven it, along with giving me some very valuable insight as to your position. I see now. You didn't have any information, Katara- you had access, but you don't know." Azula smiled widely, like a child, but her eyes were troubled.

"Fire Lord Azula, you don't look well. You've made a breakthrough, don't you think it's time you rested u-" Jin started, but Azula let out another high-pitched giggle and cut him off.

"No, I feel rather exhilarated actually," she said, never looking away from Katara. "Don't you see? It's the end of it. Finally, it's the end. I understand now, the questions you asked, the confusion- you don't know the secret." Katara's mind backtracked, hurried words with Ursa- 'can't tell… not my secret anymore…"

"This changes everything," Azula was muttering. "Yes- well Katara, now that you've answered my biggest question, I suppose I can finally give you what you want, right?" Without waiting, Azula went on. "You have been here for five weeks and six days. Mother insisted on coming to see you, but I couldn't risk that- I thought you knew, you see, if I'd have known you didn't, things would have been different. She knew I would keep you alive, if you had the one piece of the puzzle I didn't, but you didn't even know there was a puzzle!" She laughed again and clapped her hands excitedly. Katara stared.

"That must be dealt with accordingly, of course," the princess continued, half to herself, "yes, Mother has gotten a bit out of hand. I needed that spirit water to punish Zuko, and I needed the information she had, but she's like you now- spent and dangerous." The woman shuddered, her black hair waving in front of her eyes, and her color worsened. "Must be dealt with," she said again faintly.

"Fire Lord, please, you're not well," Jin said again, and this time, Azula looked back at him, blinking slowly.

"I am very well," she countered softly. "It's all clear to me now. The rumors of an uprising are true, but it's not Katara who started it. She didn't have information, just access to the information- and she obviously had no idea, because she doesn't know the secret- why this all happened, why her great love couldn't ascend the throne, why I had to do this. She doesn't really know anything." Azula lowered her head. "It's not Katara leading them. My mother… somehow, she…" Azula trailed off. "She must be punished."

Jin glanced at Katara through the bars, and she saw plainly into his mind. He had taken a gamble, and he had lost. She'd failed. Azula turned and started to leave, and Katara called after her, "Wait! You can't just walk away from me!" but Azula spoke over her anguished yells.

"Guard, get my mother and bring her down to the neighboring cell. Clear the courtyard." Jin nodded his head in agreement, but Katara could see his uneasiness even though Azula was too wrapped in thought to notice.

"Of course, Lord Azula. What- what should I tell her?" Azula stopped walking and stared at him coldly. Katara could see how tense her shoulders were, her back poker straight.

"The truth. Tell her she has betrayed me and ceased to bring me any benefit, so she and the other prisoner will be executed at sunrise." Katara's mouth dropped open, but Azula was indifferent, her expression desperate with a hopeful, anxious crease in her brow as she stared up at Jin. "It can all be over with this. I know now, I know how to end it." She turned back to Katara, and Katara felt nothing but trepidation and despair. She wouldn't beg, she knew that. "I never thanked you, Katara, but you've made all this possible. You gave me back my mind, and then you got yourself captured and spilled all your little secrets. I truly couldn't have done this without you- gratitude is warranted, so to show my thanks, I'll finally let you die." Katara breathed raggedly, saying nothing, memorizing the girl's face, hating every inch of her. "No doubt it'll stir things up- the rebels will show themselves as soon as the breath leaves your body, and I'll be waiting, anxious and ready to cut down every last one of them. Anxious in particular," she finished softly, an insane gleam in her eyes, "for our little… family reunion," she said delicately.

As Azula walked out, followed by the guards and led by Jin, a thought occurred to Katara. "You can kill me, but you can't kill the things I've done! It will spread, Azula, and it will outgrow you. I'll-"

The door slammed shut. "-still find a way to kill you!" she yelled. Her words echoed back at her, condemning her, and then there was nothing but the silence, the pain, the blood pounding in her ears.

Katara realized she didn't even know how much time she had left. In the darkness, she waited for sunrise.

There was no getting around it. Jin knocked on the door and told the guards behind him, "Do not attack her, but block the entrance so she can't get past," and then turned when Lady Ursa's calm voice told him to enter. He did, pushing into the room and bowing respectfully. The woman seated at the window was watching the mid-afternoon sun drift down towards the horizon, but she turned and smiled in greeting, before seeing the guards file in behind him.

"Lady Ursa… you have been charged, with treason," he started roughly, his voice wrought with emotion, "against your daughter, Fire Lord Azula through known collaboration with the prisoner Lady Katara. I hereby sentence by proxy the Lady Katara and the Lady Ursa to death at sunrise, as commanded by the Fire Lord," Jin said as formally as he could, his voice breaking. Even when he hadn't believed a word she said, the regal woman had always been kind to him, and now here they stood, and he was betraying her. Her eyebrows came together, and for just a moment, wild panic erupted behind those golden orbs. Then, she masked herself and stood up, lifting her chin aristocratically.

"Of course. I'll follow you peacefully, but… Jin?" she asked, as the guards moved to surround her. He looked into her eyes, praying she wouldn't say the words, praying she'd make a different decision.

"Yes?" he asked throatily. She smiled sadly.

"Do whatever you have to do. I don't blame you one bit." He closed his eyes, knowing the true meaning of the words, knowing he'd have to carry out her contingency plan, and hating it. The old woman reached up and took the pick out of her top-knot, letting the gathered hair flow around her shoulders. She set it on a stack of letters on her desk and smiled bravely. "Lead the way, gentlemen. I surrender myself into your capable hands and hold no ill will to any of you." The guards looked at each other in shock, being addressed with such respect as they bore a woman to her death.

A guard on her left dropped to one knee. "Beg pardon, Lady Ursa," he murmured as all his fellow guards, including Jin, dropped and paid their final respects to the kind woman. As the low voices muttered her name, she cast an anxious glance towards the hillside beyond the palace walls, the setting sun, and back at Jin as he rose from his bow. He understood her silent reaffirmation, and she could tell he didn't like it. But Azula couldn't be killed- she was still her daughter, just lost. Not lost forever. He just had to keep her subdued after he sent the signal. She sighed and tears choked her throat. He promised no permanent harm would come to her daughter, but she feared that Azula could never be considered undamaged.

"You've all been very kind. Please, show me out then, and look after my things please, until my son arrives, or until his uncle Iroh arrives." A couple of the guards exchanged glances of confusion this time, but they all filed out of the room, and brought Ursa silently with them, closing the door behind her. The door notched quietly and stayed that way as the sun went down, as the warmth left the wood and the shadows passed over it and into the obscurity of darkness. People passed, rumors whispered through the walls, but the door remained closed.

But later that night, that door opened with nothing more than a quiet groan, and a tall figure stole into the room. He looked at the hairpiece and the letters underneath it, and carefully sifted through them until he found the one he wanted. He turned it over and found the hastily scrawled directions she'd written after he got back from Katara's cell the previous night. Jin took the paper with him to the window, and with shaking hands, he lit the lamp near the window and found the panel that would darken the light from outside view. He put the lamp on the table and kept the panel at his side, carefully counting the grains in the hourglass on the table. As soon as they ran out, he put the panel between the lamp and the small window, took it away, then put it back and again removed it so that the people on the hillside would see two blips and know he was there. Normally, that was all. Just a check-in of sorts, to say all is well, it's not time yet. Tonight was the first night he hesitated three seconds, counting them aloud in a hushed whisper, then put the panel back and blipped three more times. He glanced down at Ursa's directions- three for when it's time, then alphabet, after which she listed letters and their varying blips. He took another letter and flipped it over as he waited for a response from the hillside, counting off thirty seconds before he should repeat the code. Jin glanced behind him, but he was alone.

Suddenly, a small spot of light blinked twice on the hillside, and he groaned in fear. He wrote as he watched, his hands shaking. The Lady Ursa hadn't expected to be arrested too, but she had been prepared nevertheless.

On the hillside, his breath caught as soon as those three short dashes of light came through the distance, in his mother's bedroom. Three for danger, then the alphabet. She had taught him that one summer at the beach, after he'd nearly drowned from trying to save that stupid little turtle-crab. It was the old-fashioned military code during the Burning Coal Revolution that soldiers used. They used it still, but tonight was different.

"Light," he said, his voice cracked still from disuse. He flashed for just a split-second, his head whirling inside the waves as water filled his lungs, and then was back, crouched by the lantern, using his cloak to cut the light off from view. He was breathing hard, so he closed his mouth and shuddered, shaking his head doggedly to remove the last tendrils of memory.

"It's happening, isn't it?" someone said from behind him. He didn't reply, because he had to focus- this wasn't his mother, he could tell. She was never this sloppy, and as the lights came through, the guard introduced himself slowly and haltingly sent, "mother Katara both die sunrise tomorrow save us… most guards will join"

"tunnel cleared" asked the man on the hillside, muttering to the small woman beside him, "Tell them that it's happening. Get the earthbenders." She moved off through the lines of people staggered down the slope, all sitting or kneeling as they did every night when they arrived. Yet every night drew more people- no strangers among them, all verified by friends and neighbors, from shepherds wielding bows and arrows to butchers and their newly outfitted long-swords, every commoner or kinsman was ready. They all perked up as Toph jogged down the rows, calling out in a low voice. Some of them stood and went with her back up to the top of the hill that gazed out on the wall between the palace and the valley, and the gleaming structure beyond the walls. Some in the crowd sent sidelong glances at the resurrected man who stood before them, in fear and relief and a strange sort of pride in him. Their true Fire Lord had returned.

The reply from the guard was slow and still incomprehensible, and Zuko gritted his teeth, sending, "repeat" and wincing as time passed too quickly. The message came again almost ten minutes later, as if the guard had to write down the code and decipher it before he figured out his own response- "land unstable not much cleared." He swore loudly, earning worried glances from the blue eyes standing next to him.

"What are they saying? Zuko, what happened?" He gazed at the man next to him, unable to render this man with the child he'd been seeing, the wolf-face in the snow, that goddamn boomerang. Sokka looked old- not older, but just plain old. He wondered what he must look like to Sokka. Probably worse.

"They're executing my mother and Katara at sunrise, but we won't let them get to sunrise, and most of the guards are with us. We're doing this now. The tunnel is still blocked, so if the earthbenders can't get in, we'll have to go over the wall. Get- hold on." The light was blinking again- "courtyard at sunrise… evacuating dungeon in two hours… preparation made for A

Zuko frowned as the light cut off. He waited, five minutes, then fifteen minutes, but nothing more came, and the exact moment his patience ebbed, he turned and faced his soldiers, earthbenders first. "We're moving in now, through the tunnels. The damage to the tunnel is bad and it isn't cleared, and it's unstable. If you can hold the tunnel long enough to get through, we could make it through there." When they nodded in agreement, he raised his voice to address the entire crowd. "Archers- stand at the wall and attack from where they think we'll all come from. Find cover and fire arrows, but no one head over the wall until you hear us. Everyone who was assigned ground by Toph, come with me. Including you," he said to the earthbenders, and he watched as everyone stood, silently obeying his instructions, preparing themselves for battle. They knew their assigned positions, and he looked at Katara's brother, remembered still only in flashes and moments of blissful coherence, and clapped a hand on his shoulder.

"You'll wait for my signal?" he asked, and Sokka drew a sword from the scabbard at his waist, the moony metal reminding both the young men of the water tribesman's first space sword.

"I don't know how you convinced me to lead the part that isn't directly associated with the kicking-ass part, but yeah. I'll wait for your stupid signal." Zuko felt his mouth twitch up into a smile.

"I'm letting you keep the sword, that's enough convincing and you know it." Both men laughed a little, and then the easy camaraderie hit a sour note as they remembered who they were trying to save, and Zuko didn't know what to say anymore. If they failed… they couldn't. He would die, and everything would need to die with him, to equal the loss of her. For a moment, he flashed, a metal mask between them, her soft body pressed to his cold chest, her lips touching a fanged smile. It hurt, the throb of pain that brought him back, but Sokka was concerned and they didn't have time to waste. He just nodded, his mouth dry, and walked away, back down the hill.

Footsteps padded softly behind him, hundreds swinging through the streets, stealing through the night. He knew that those who followed him considered them their leader, and he wanted to be worthy of it- needed to prove himself. He gritted his teeth against the tide trying to pull him into another flash, stumbling sideways, focusing hard. Everything had changed after that one conversation with his father in his prison cell, after months of questioning and uncertainty. Ozai had finally given him an answer- one he could have never foreseen, couldn't have hoped for in his wildest dreams, nor feared in his worst nightmares. The secret.

It had been the reason Zuko had needed to find his mother, why he'd needed to set certain plans in motion. He thought he'd made sure Azula couldn't find out, but she had, and she'd used it to her advantage. Now, the secret threatened everything he held dear, his love, his life, even his throne. His throne, and along with it his nation, left to his sick little sister.

Because as Ozai had told him that day in the tower, he couldn't be the heir to the throne if he was not the Fire Lord's son.

Pretty sure some of you, if not all of you, saw this coming. Sorry if it's anticlimactic, but I'm not quite done yet, and I've still got some tricks up my sleeve! Please review if you liked it, if it meant anything to you, or if you have any good Zutara fanfic suggestions :) thanks for reading!