Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender. But maybe with a little Blue Spirit action I could steal it…

A/N: Thank you for all the reading and reviewing and what not! So in this chapter, "things are happening!" Internet cookies to whoever knows what that is from. I hate Zhao (and so do a lot of people), so I decided it was time for him to get his just desserts (is that right?). Please read and review!

Once Lu Ten had emerged from the Oracle, Shu ushered them from the building and towards the small but homey house across the way. Shu led them to a sitting room with a tiny bedroom leading off of it.

"Why don't you both take a rest?" Shu suggested. "You may stay in these guest rooms, if you like."

Lu Ten nodded gratefully, and Shu left them with a short bow. The boys sat in silence for what may have been seconds or minutes, or even longer, each of them lost in their memories of what they had just experienced. Finally, the prince broke the silence.

"It takes a little while to come back after seeing the Oracle." Jet looked over at him and nodded slowly. The other continued, "The first time I came here I was terribly afraid of the whole thing. I mean, I wanted to see my father, but I was scared of what I'd find."

"What do you mean?" Jet asked, genuinely confused.

"I didn't want to see what the grief would do to him. It was hard at first. But the next time I came back it was better. My father was always spiritual, I guess. But after I died…well, I guess he tried to come to the Spirit World after me." Jet gasped, and Lu Ten chuckled slightly at the look on his face. "It was pretty funny, actually. Not at the time, of course. The spirits turned him away, said it wasn't his time. That must have been hard on him." The prince said, sadly.

"But we laughed about it later. Apparently, he was a little rude to the monkey spirit at the gate. Anyway, my father learned that when he dreamed about me it was really me visiting him. Now we can talk and be together just like when we were alive…even if only for a few minutes." He finished.

Jet seemed did not answer for a moment. Then he asked, hesitantly,

"If spirits can visit the living here…then why isn't there more people here? Couldn't I come whenever I wanted? I could practically live here and visit whoever I wanted when I felt like it, right?"

Lu ten shook his head and replied,

"No. It doesn't work that way. The Oracle only opens itself to a spirit when they really need it. It will deem whether you need contact with the other side. It almost always allows it if it's your first visit."

Jet yawned. Lu Ten smirked.

"Am I boring you?" Jet quickly shook his head.

"No, I'm just-" He yawned again. "I'm a little tired."

"Get some rest. I'm going to go talk to Oma." It was Jet's turn to smirk as he lay down on one of the sleeping mats.

"Ooh…Oma…" He teased. Lu ten gave him a half-hearted dirty look and muttered something that sounded like "Oh please…" before leaving the room.

***Meanwhile***

Zhao crept silently through the curtain and into the Oracle. The kneeled at the side of the pool and said aloud,

"All right, spirits. Show me the boy. Show me Prince Zuko."

The pool swirled to show the sleeping figure of Zuko, and the water rose upwards into the form of the ex-prince, his dream-self.

"Hello, Prince Zuko. How long I have waited to see you again." In his sleep Zuko twisted and turned. The dream Zuko looked at him bland-faced.

"Are you as pathetic in your dreams as you are in the real world?" He asked, cruelly. Zhao smirked. He had the power here. Whatever he wanted to happen in Zuko's dream would happen. It was his chance to get revenge on the boy. He thought to the oracle 'put us in the Firelord's hall'. That would hit Zuko hard; he would take him back to the center of his pain, where it all started.

Just as he had asked, the oracle surrounded them with a seemingly perfect imitation of the Firelord's war chamber. Zhao pushed the dream Zuko to his knees in front of the throne: the throne that held his father, wreathed in flame. From the pool, Zhao could hear the real Zuko tossing and whimpering in his sleep. Zhao chuckled darkly and thought to the oracle 'bring his father to him'. Then the Firelord appeared before his son, looking down menacingly.

"You're a traitor, Zuko. You've betrayed the Firenation and you will suffer for it!" Zhao cried.

"No! No, I'm not!" The dream Zuko cried. The real Zuko echoed the words in his sleep.

"Yes you are!" Only this time, it was the Firelord who had spoken. Zhao was speaking from Ozai's own mouth.

"Father, please!" Both Zukos cried. Ozai was unforgiving. He pulled a knife from his robes and cut the topknot from Zuko's head. Zhao grinned as he watched the pain on his enemy's face. 'put us in the arena'. Then they were surrounded by the agni kai arena. All of the people from the fateful day of banishment were there. 'Make them chant'. Zhao thought. A chant of "Traitor! Traitor! Traitor!" spread through the arena. The dream Zuko cowered before his father. 'His sister, too.' Zhao thought. Then Azula stood over dream Zuko. 'And his mother, and his uncle,' Zhao thought, with increasing excitement. Now that his family surrounded him, the dream Zuko looked around with hope.

"Mom? You're alive!" He cried.

"No, you killed me Zuko!" Zhao spoke through the Firelady. The dream Zuko began to sob.

"No! No, I didn't!" The real Zuko sobbed in his sleep.

"Yes you did! And you've ruined me, Zuko!" Cried Zhao through the mouth of Iroh. "You took my life from me! I hate you!"

"Please don't hate me, Uncle! Please!"

"You betrayed us Zuko!" They all chanted at him.

"We hope we never see you again. You're a failure!" Azula said maliciously, again under the direction of Zhao.

The real Zuko sobbed hard and thrashed on his mat, the sweat pouring off him.

"Time to teach you a lesson!" Zhao cried triumphantly. 'Now we burn him', he thought. The entire family of royals closed in on Zuko, and Zhao joined them. He raised a hand, and the others followed. 'Give us fire' he commanded the oracle. Flames sprung from all of their hands, and Zhao thrust his fist towards dream Zuko's face. Both of the Zukos screamed in pain as they were burned.

"What in Agni is going on here?"

The dream images swirled away, leaving a panting Zhao to look around for the source of the disruption. Then he saw. Lu Ten stood at the entrance, all of Hell's fury painted on his face.