Katara ducks down and hides behind a large pillar. She feels her heart beating rapidly. She closes her eyes for a moment trying to think of a way to stop her lover without harming her. She hears foots steps and eyes widen of what she's hearing.
"Is-Is Azula singing?" she listened carefully and she was right. Azula was singing in a somewhat quiet tone.
Azula grins taking her time walking around each pillar looking for the little waterbender while singing a quiet tune.
"Total slaughter, Total slaughter" She sings checking two pillars then keeps walking
The young woman starts to shake a bit in fear hearing the disturbing melody not only that but she could hear the footsteps getting closer.
The prodigy smoothly sings "I won't leave a single man alive" passing up a couple of pillars "La de da de die, Genocide, La de da de duh" she smirks evilly seeing movement behind a pillar "An ocean of blood"
Katara hears the footsteps stop "Lets being the killing time". Her heart stops and fear sinks in, she knows. Katara knows Azula is right behind that pillar.
"Start running if I were you" and with that the waterbender quickly turns around blasting Azula with water then quickly runs off.
Azula coughs up some water and quickly stands up looking around for the young woman. She spots her and charges after her with jets of blue fire trailing right behind her.
Katara glances over her shoulder and surrounds herself in water doing the octopus method "Azula you don't have to do this!" she jumps to the side dodging a powerful fire blast "This isn't you!"
The prodigy grits her teeth looking at the young woman "Shut up, you already ruined me enough as it is!" she said sending blast of fire from her kicks
"That's not true it's your fathers fault!" she blocks a fire blast that was heading her way "He did this to you with the help of the Dai Li!" then sends a wall of water her way
"That's a lie!" Azula stated blasting the water away easily with her flames "Father would never do that to me" looking around for Katara noticing she was gone
"Yes he would and he did" Azula turns her head only hearing the waterbenders voice "You even told me yourself that he left scars on your feet. What does that prove Azula? He doesn't love you; he just wants to control you" she said hiding behind another pillar
Azula shuts her eyes tightly then snaps "SHUT UP YOU LITTLE BITCH!" blasting the pillar where Katara was at.
She quickly leaps out of the way and blasts a powerful amount of water at her lover "AZULA REMEMBER WHO YOU TRULY ARE!"
The firebender shoots two fire blasts at the water evaporating it "I KNOW WHO I AM! I AM WHAT MY FATHER WANTS! I AM PERFECT!" she sees a perfect opening and was about to strike her lover with a fire blast till small memories flash inside her head "N-No" she kneels on the ground holding her head "LEAVE ME ALONE!" she shouted letting large amounts of flames shot out of her mouth.
Zuko lies on the floor struggling to get up. Katara hears a noise and turns around, she gasps realizing he could be badly hurt. She runs with her arms moving about in front of her body towards Zuko and starts to bend a water glove around her hand. But blue flames hits between them.
The fire clears to reveals Azula laughing hysterically and charging up with lightning. Katara runs off quickly. Zuko attempts to get up and stretches his arms out helplessly. Katara runs around the perimeter of the plaza, narrowly missing Azula's lighting. She somersaults away from the impact then turns back as Azula firebends herself onto the roof.
"I'd really rather our family physician look after little Zuzu if you don't mind!" she said shooting her lightening at the waterbender
A stream of water appears to block the lightning. Azula stands up on the roof and sends two blasts of fire from her hands. Katara runs and hides behind a pillar, narrowly missing Azula's attacks again. Another fire blast hits the pillar and Katara cringes with her hands over her head. She opens her eyes and stands up peering behind the pillar.
"Zuzu, you don't look so good!" Azula shouted trying to get the waterbenders attention
Katara stands there for a moment thinking "I can't let her do this; I don't want her marked as a killer. I got to get her away from Zuko." She looks up noticing Azula was charging up again.
The prodigy quickly shots off a large bolt at the pillar but Katara runs and hides behind another pillar as the lightning makes contact with the previous pillar. With a look of determination Katara stretches her arms out bending a stream of water from a nearby fountain and sends it towards the roof.
She quickly notices that the firebender was not there anymore; she turns around just in time seeing Azula flying in behind her. She runs off and bends a wave of water into ice surfing away from her lover. Azula continues to levitate behind her closely with her firebending jets. A fire blast evaporates the water but Katara still has enough to continue surfing. Azula drops to the ground in a roll and firebends wildly towards Katara.
Luckly the waterbender manages to escape but stumbles over something. She opens her eyes seeing large amounts of water, she then looks up seeing a large chain hanging. "Perfect, if I can just get her to sit still I can fix all this" she quickly got up grabbing the chain just in time as Azula approaches her.
"There you are, filthy peasant!" she said walking towards the waterbender
Azula walks towards the waterbender ready to take her life. Katara narrows her eyes with determination looking back at Azula's eyes narrowing with hatred. Then she sends streams of water towards Azula. Azula dodges them and rolls across the drain then she thrusts her fingers out ready to strike her.
But Katara jumps back and quickly bends water from the drain, freezing their movements. Azula's eyes darted around looking surprised and also upset that she couldn't move. The young woman looks at the firebender for a moment then exhales making the ice around her body melt into water.
She floats around the frozen water and starts to chain her lover's arms then pulls her down to her knees. Then she wraps the chains around the drain gratings once she was done she brings her hands down unfreezing all the water that was around them. They both cough and gasp for air. Katara quickly gets up and tightens the chains making sure they were secure.
Then she quickly runs over to Zuko carefully flipping him over onto his back. She brings up a water gloved hand and presses the water glove on the wound and it spreads out. She closes her eyes and prays hoping that he was ok. Zuko grimaces at the pain then relaxes. He opens his eyes looking at Katara as she smiles with relief.
"Thank you, Katara." He whispers weakly
"I think I'm the one who should be thanking you." She said tearing up "You saved Azula life without even knowing it" then helps him sit up.
Azula looks on angrily and exhales uncontrollably then firebends out from her mouth. She struggles and continues to firebend at the drain. Then she falls onto her back and breaks down into tears. Katara is in shock at how her lover acts and looks away for a moment. She looks up at Zuko who looks at his sister expressionlessly. Katara looks back at her lover hearing her whimper and flail around.
She slowly steps away from Zuko noticing her firebender was calming down. The prince looks at her worried and gently places a hand on her shoulder.
"Katara what are you doing?" he asked
She gently removes his hand "Its ok Zuko" she takes careful steps towards her lover
"Katara stay away from her" he said taking a step forward
She looks back at him then looks back at Azula "No its ok, I know she won't hurt me" then carefully walks in front of Azula
"You don't know that" Zuko stated
"Yes I do" she kneels down in front of her lover and softly speaks "because I love her and I know she loves me"
Zuko's eyes widen in shock by this "Katara"
The young waterbend carefully picks up her lovers head with both hands. She could feel her lover resist against her to look up at her. Katara carefully leans forward resting her head against her lover and starts to softly whisper.
"Azula please open your eyes and look at me" she asked
The prodigy grits her teeth and speaks a bit roughly "Why?" Katara was about to answer but was cut off "Why do you love me still? After all I have done to you"
"Because I love you Azula and I will always forgive you." She said calmly
The firebender lightly shakes her head "How can I love you if I barely remember you."
Katara sits up and lightly smiles "I think I can help with that" she takes her hand away from Azula then bends the water over her hands.
Zuko watches quietly wondering what was going on. He was confused at what he was seeing. Was Azula playing an act or was she under some type of control this whole time without him even noticing it.
Azula carefully picks up her head and lightly blushes feeling fingers comb through her hair then seeing Katara so close to her.
"Remember Azula" and with that Katara leans forward kissing her deeply filled with passion. While doing that she uses her healing abilities freeing Azula from the brainwashing effect.
Azula's eyes widen remembering everything that had happen to her. Then she closes her eyes kissing her waterbender back deeply and full of passion as well. Katara smiled into the kiss knowing that her lover was back. They slowly pulled apart from the kiss and Azula leaned her head against her lovers shoulder letting tears stream down her cheeks.
"I'm so sorry Katara please forgive me" she said trying not to cry
Katara wraps her arms around her lover "Its ok I knew it wasn't the real you"
Azula lightly smiles but grimaces finally feeling all the pain caused on her back. She closes her eyes and passes out falling over to the side. Katara feels her lover's weight shift then gets a bit scared as her lover falls over.
"Azula?" she said lightly touching her cheek "Azula please wake up" lightly shaking her shoulder then she quickly gets up and takes the chains off her lover.
Once the chains were off she quickly crawls back around in front of her lover once more. Then with all her strength she makes the firebender sit up and lean against her. She huffs feeling the weight of her lovers body against hers. She places her hands on her lovers back then feels something that didn't feel like water. She lifts her right hand up and gasps. It was blood coming out from her lovers back.
"Zuko call for help please. She badly hurt." She said looking over at him
He stood there frozen still shocked at what he just witnessed. Katara knew there was going to be a lot of questions to be asked soon. But none of that mattered right now. Her lover needed help and she needed help now.
"ZUKO! Snap out of it" she yelled
The prince jumps a bit and looks at Katara "Sorry, what?"
"Get help, Azula's bleeding badly from her back"
"Right, hang in there I'll be right back" he runs off finding his servants
Katara sits quietly holding onto her lover trying not to cry. She knew Azula was going to be ok once they got help. A couple of minutes have passed before Zuko and his servants came back with a small stretcher. Once they placed the fire princess on the stretcher they carried her into the medical room.
They carefully laid Azula on her stomach. Then Katara quickly went to work removing the armor carefully. She feels eyes on her; she turns around seeing Zuko and his male servants standing by. She blushes and stands up crossing her arms.
"Um do you mind? I'm kind of removing armor and clothing from my girlfriend." The servants blush and walk out. "Zuko that means you too, I mean I know she's your sister and all"
"No, No it's not that. It's just" he rubs the back of his neck "I don't think it's best to leave her here alone with you"
"Zuko I'll be fine" she said, he was about to object but she spoke up "Trust me there's a lot you don't know about. I'll explain it to you later after I heal Azula ok"
He sighs and nods in head then starts to walk out "I'll be right out the door in case you need me then"
She smiles at him "Thank you Zuko"
He walks out of the room and Katara turns back around attending to her lover. Carefully removing the top part of her lovers armor. Once that was done she started removing the top portion of Azula's normal clothing. Once she removed the shirt she looks at her lovers back and gasps stepping back knocking over some things off the table near her.
Zuko runs in "Katara what…is" he stands there in shock looking at his sisters back.
There on Azula back was a large Phoenix King symbol branded on her back. The tips of its wings touched her shoulder blades and went down a couple of inches above her tail bone. Zuko noticed it wasn't taken care of properly and sees the blood coming out of the branded mark.
Something snaps inside him and grabs a servant near him "WHO DID THIS TO HER?" he shouted
"I-I don't know anything master I swear" his servant said frightened
He grits his teeth and throws him out the room then steps out of the room looking at his servants. Then a gentle hand is placed on his shoulder.
He turns and sees Katara "Zuko, please calm down. I know who did it" she said
He turns around looking at her "Who?"
"It was your father" she said seeing a shocked look on his face "He marked her just like he marked you"
"But….why?" he asked still struggling of what he just learned
"I don't really know, all I know is that he hurt her because she was imperfect" She said slowly walking back into the room
Zuko looks at her a bit confused "What?"
"Zuko, your sister was forced to be like this. It wasn't her chose." She said standing by the door way
"But I thought" he sees Katara lightly shake her head
"No Zuko, you thought wrong. And as you can see" she looks at her lovers branded back "She's suffered a lot more than what you had to go through"
Zuko stands by the door for a couple of seconds then slowly walks into the room. He stands above his little sisters body for a moment then kneels down beside her, carefully looking over her features. He closes his eyes remembering when they were younger; he remembered how their father would usually take Azula away from him.
He remembered times when Azula wouldn't come out of her room for long periods of time. Tears start to show in his eyes as he started to remember all the small details of his sister. He opens his eyes looking at the brand on her back.
"Azula" he touches her hand "I'm sorry I wasn't there for you." He speaks quietly "I was supposed to be your big brother and protect you" he puts his head down "But I didn't"
Katara walks beside him and carefully helps him up "Zuko its ok you didn't know. Nobody knew."
The prince looks back at her with sad eyes "How long have you known?"
"Not too long ago. It was back at the western air temple when I found out." She said and stepped forward and starts to heal her lover
The firebender watches for a moment then speaks "How long will it take to heal?" he asked quietly
She closes her eyes for a moment and continues to heal her lover "I don't know this wound hasn't been taken care of properly."
"Do you know how long she's had it?" he asked
Katara sighs and thinks for a moment "From how it looks I'd say up to three or four days since she had this mark" she said and continues to heal her firebender
He nods looking at his sister. Then turns walking out the room "I'll be back, I'm going to dress up my wound"
Katara nods and keeps attending to her lover. While she heals Azula's back tears form in her eyes and lets of a shaky sigh "I can't believe he marked her like this. I shouldn't have let her come back here the day she got the letter" a tear streams down her cheek "This is my fault I should have not let her go" she thought looking at her lover.
As the comet passes over the skies, Sokka, Suki and Toph walk off the airship towards Aang and the ex-Fire Lord.
"You did it! You should have seen yourself, it was amazing!" he said standing on one leg "You were all like "pshoom, pfoom, pfoom, phish, whoom", and then the Fire Lord was all like,"eugh, eh, eh, eh, eugh, aye" he said acting out the scenes
Suki looks at Ozai carfully then looks at Aang "So, did you?" points at Ozai "you know finish the job?"
"I'm still alive." He said annoyed
Aang watches Suki back up a bit then speaks "I learned there was another way to defeat him and restore balance. I took his bending away."
"Wow, who taught you that?" Toph asked surprised
"A giant Lion Turtle." He said smiling happily
"You have the craziest adventures when you disappear." She said smiling with her arms crossed
Sokka hops over next to Suki "Well, look at you buster. Now that your firebending is gone, I guess we should call you the "Loser Lord"
"I am the Phoenix King!" Ozai said pointing at Sokka then drops to the floor landing on the side of his face.
"Oh sorry, didn't mean to offend you "Phoenix King of Getting His Butt Whupped." The earthbender said smiling at the fallen king
Suki joins in "Yeah, or how about "King of the Guys Who…Don't Win" getting looks from Sokka and Toph
"Leave the nicknames to us honey." Toph said quickly
When the comet disappears everyone makes their way to the Fire Nation palace. Aang and everyone else were surprised to see Zuko standing out there waiting for them and quickly took the ex-Fire Lord into custody. They didn't ask why because he seemed very upset by something.
Then Zuko lead them to where Katara was at. He warned them to keep quiet about something apparently. So they did. Zuko walked into the room seeing the waterbender still healing his sister's back. He carefully sat himself near them and looks up at Katara.
"How's she doing Katara?" he asked worried for his sister
"Her back is slowly healing, but it's going to take time and a lot of work." Slowly puts her hands down looking at her lover "All I can do is heal her back but she'll still have the large scar." Then starts use her healing abilities again.
Zuko looks at the large mark "I understand" he clinches his fist "Father always made sure he left his mark"
Aang walks in and is surprised at what he sees "Katara what are you doing?"
She looks up and slowly stops what she was doing "I'm healing"
"But. But that's Azula" he pointed out
Katara gets a bit annoyed "Yes I know Aang"
He slowly walks over to her and looks at Azula's back "What happened to her?"
Zuko speaks up "My father decided to teach her a lesson all because she was imperfect for him"
The young monk looks at him surprised "What?"
"It's true" Aang looks at Katara who started healing again "Azula was forced into acting like this. For so long she wanted to be prefect in her father's eyes and in exchange all she wanted was his love after he separated everyone from her."
He looks at her skeptically "How do you know?"
"Because Aang" she stops and looks at him in eye "She told me back at the Western Air temple"
"What!" he asked
"The reason why she was there was to see me" Aang was about to ask why but she spoke up quickly "And the reason why she was there to see me is because she loves me and" she turns and looks at Azula smiling "I love her too"
Sokka walks in hearing his sister admit her love to Azula "WHAT!"
"Sokka please keep your voice down" she scolded
"Katara how could you?" her brother asked dramatically
"How could I what?" feeling herself get upset "Love another woman? Is that it?" she asked angrily
"No how could you love Azula" he asked pointing at the fallen firebender
"It's a long story; I'll tell you some other time" she turns away from Aang and Sokka "Right now I need to get back to healing her"
Suki and Toph walk in and Suki is surprised seeing Azula's back "Whoa what happened to her?" she asked walking over to the couple
"Our so called loving father marked her like he marked me" the prince said sitting near the bed
Suki looks over at Zuko "Why?"
"Because he's a bastard that would do anything to get what he wants" Katara said coldly as she continued to heal her back
Suki watches the couple for a moment then lightly smiles. She walks over to Katara and gently places a hand on her shoulder. Katara stops for a moment and looks at Suki. The Kyoshi warrior smiled at her; she was used to seeing same sex couples on Kyoshi Island. It didn't bother her about Katara's relationship. But she was a bit worried because her lover was Azula out of all people.
"Do you need any help with her?" she asked
The waterbender lightly smiles at her "Yea I need more water, a bit of burning ointments, and lots of bandage wraps"
The female warrior nods then looks over at Zuko "Hey do you think you can help me since this is a different place and all"
The prince lightly smiles and stands up "Yea I'll help"
As they were about to walk away Sokka grabs a hold of Suki's arm "Why are you helping?"
She looks at him a bit annoyed "Because Sokka I'm her friend and I will always support her in her decisions. Even if they do seem a bit strange" she said looking over at the couple for a moment then back at him "And you should be supportive too, she's your only sister. Not only that your little sister. So do what families are meant to do. Support and Love" she said poking him a bit hard in the shoulder.
Sokka watches her leave with Zuko a bit shocked of what his girlfriend told him what he need to be doing. He looks back at his little sister and Azula then sighs. He knew she was right, Katara was his family. And he was not going to end up being the bad guy. He carefully hops over to Katara and stands next to her seeing the large marking on Azula's back.
"Is she going to be ok?" he asked quietly
She nods "Yes, I stopped the bleed in time." She looks over at him and stops her healing "Let's sit down for a moment so I can heal your leg"
The water tribe siblings walk over to a chair and get everything situated. Minutes pass before Zuko and Suki came back with the things Katara asked for. Toph didn't say anything she just sat around with her feet planted on the ground feeling the vibrations coming from her friends.
After Katara admitted to Aang that she loved Azula, he walked out of the room quietly and went out somewhere to find a place to think to himself for a moment. He was angry and sad at the same time. There was only one thing to do and that was to meditate things over.
As time went on everyone stayed in the room with Katara while she was healing Azula's back. She managed to stop all the bleeding and she also managed to fix most of the skin damage that was done to her during the time she was not taken care of.
"Out of the way and let us in!" a voice said
Zuko and everyone else wakes up hearing the voice
"I'm sorry ma'am but Prince Zuko said- Hey what are you" the servant was pinned to the wall and Ty Lee and Mai come running in.
"Mai, Ty Lee how did y'all get here?" Zuko asked slowly walking up to them
"Mai's uncle bought us back here. We heard that your father was defeated. We came here seeing if Azula" Ty Lee looks over at Azula and is shocked at what she sees
She walks over carefully to her friend and kneels down looking at the large marking. She starts to tear up and cry quietly. Mai walks over and quietly gasp placing a hand over her mouth as her eyes being to water.
"I knew this would happen" Ty Lee said putting her head down "I'm so sorry Azula, I'm so sorry" she said covering her face
Zuko carefully walks over them "Mai, what is she talking about?"
Mai looks at him with sad eyes "Your father made a new rule after you left the fire nation to help the Avatar. All traitors were to be turned in to the fire lord so they could be put to death" everyone stands up in shock "At the boiling rock me and Ty Lee betrayed her helping you escape. She didn't want us to be put to death so she placed us under her protection"
"She did?" he asked speechless by this
Ty Lee slowly stands up "Yes and now look at her, she paid the price for us. She was trying to protect us and look at what her father did." She said carefully combing her friend's hair out of her face.
Katara steps up and places a hand on her shoulder "Ty Lee she's going to be ok. I'm doing all I can to heal her"
"Really?" she asked receiving a nod "Thank you"
Mai slowly walks up pulling out the small combat knife Azula gave her "She kept her promise and now we'll keep ours" she said placing it on the small table near the bed
"She protected us now it's our turn." The acrobat said standing next to Mai.
Everyone stayed in the medical room that night. Mai and Ty Lee explained how Azula managed to protect them and also explained that Ozai was looking for them as well. During the time of the conversation the fire sages walked in and told Zuko that his coronation would be held later on the next day.
Katara stopped the healing session and wrapped her lover's wounds. Nobody really knew how long she was going to stay sleeping. She worried about leaving her alone for a while but Zuko had persuaded her to let his servants watch over her.
Morning came and large groups formed at the coronation ceremony. Once everyone was there Zuko walked out of him room dressed in the new Fire Lord outfit, as he walked towards to ceremony he found Aang in his Air nomad clothing sitting down meditating.
"I can't believe a year ago my purpose in life was hunting you down" he said "and now"
"And now we're friends." Aang said with a gentle smile
"Yeah we are friends." Zuko said smiling at him
The young monk stands up "I can't believe a year ago I was still frozen in a block of ice. The World's so different now." He said
Zuko places a hand on his shoulder "And it's gonna be even more different, when we build it together." Then hugs him
As the walk out, Zuko appears first and the sages bow their heads. Once he appears in front of the crowds they cheer for him happily. Zuko looks at the people and puts his hand out.
"Please, the real hero is the Avatar." He said moving to the side as Aang showed himself
Everyone cheers more loudly as Aang appears in front of everyone. Katara looks at him with a gentle smile, happy to finally see that he was ok.
Zuko spoke up "Today, this war is finally over." He pauses for a moment as everyone cheers "I promised my Uncle that I would restore the honor of the Fire Nation, and I will. The road ahead of us is challenging. A hundred years of fighting has left the world scarred and divided. But with the Avatar's help, we can get it back on the right path, and begin a new era of love and peace."
After saying that the Fire Sage holding the Fire Lord diadem in his hand walks over to Zuko as he kneels down then he shows the diadem to everyone.
"All hail Fire Lord Zuko!" he said placing it on Zuko
The crowd cheers and Zuko lifts his head up stands up and walks towards the crowd then gestures Aang to join him. The Avatar walks over and stands beside his friend. They pose at the top of the steps. They look at each other briefly before looking back at the crowd.
After the ceremony things calmed down. Zuko, Mai and Ty Lee stood by Azula watching her sleep. Katara was off talking with Aang after he asked to talk to her for a moment. She agreed to talk in private with him.
Mai quietly spoke up "What are you going to do now Zuko now that you have everything"
The new Fire Lord stays quiet for a moment and shakes his head "No not everything. I may have my sister back. But there's one more person to complete this family"
"Who?" Ty Lee asked
"Our Mother" he stands there for a moment "I'm going to ask Ozai where she's at. I'll be back soon."
Zuko walks alone on the rocky path leading to the crater in the Fire Nation capital then heads towards the Fire Nation prison. Once there he reaches the cell door and opens it revealing a disheveled Ozai in rags leaning against the wall of his cell.
He glances over at Zuko "I should count myself lucky. The new Fire Lord has graced me with his presence in my lonely prison cell"
"You should count yourself lucky that the Avatar spared your life. And you should also be lucky I spared your life as well after what you did to my sister." Ozai makes a careless sigh "The things you did to my family will never be forgiven."
Ozai gets a bit annoyed "Why are you really here ?" he simply asked
"Because you are going to tell me something" He kneels down looking at his father "Where is my mother?"