Disclaimer: I don't own the Avatar: The Last Airbender or any of its characters.

The Shadow of the Past

Chapter 15 – Twist of Fate

Story by Last Butterfly

Summary: Modern AU, no bending. The first chapter is the background of the two characters, and it is the base of the story. How did Zuko gain his scar? What happened to Katara's and Sokka's mother? Read it to find out! - Zutara, Zuko x Katara

Zuko heard Katara screaming his name as if she had not been on the other side of the room but rather the other end of the world. He felt the wall scratch the length of his back as his legs could no longer hold up his and his father's united weight. His body went numb, the cut on the back of his right shoulder started throbbing, while the knife was still buried within his left one with his father's grasp upon it. His pale yellow eyes locked with his in one last intense gaze.

Then Ozai's mouth slightly opened while dark blood colored his lower lip and slowly his chin. As if the world had slowed down, Zuko watched how his father's body leaned to the side in slow motion, falling to the ground. The look on his face did not change from that very moment and the man stared into seemingly nothing with unspoken surprise on his features forever.

The man's hands slipped off of both weapons, leaving the scarred teen holding the still steaming gun in his shaking hand. Feminine sobs reached his ears but he could not move. His gaze locked with his father's opened eyes, his limbs trembling while the feeling of burning in his lungs urged him to breathe. But the rise and fall of his chest felt so painful that it made the whole process difficult…

Sirens sounded in the distance, breaking the complete silence which made Katara dare to move. She ran to Zuko's side, dropping to her knees with tears in her eyes. She called out to him but he did not even blink. He was staring down at the lying man whose chest was dyed red where the bullet hit him. It moved in right through his heart. This had indeed been the twist of fate. Luck was after all on their side. Because there was no way Ozai could have survived that.

She torn her gaze away from the shot man then reached out to her boyfriend's scarred cheek. Her lover. Her saviour. "Zuko," She spoke softly and when she realized how his skin had been especially pale, she turned his chin but his eyes barely focused. "Zuko!" That was when his breathing suddenly turning louder then his hand suddenly grabbed her wrist, clinging to her almost painfully. His lips moved but not a sound escaped his lips. The air left him in a mix of gasps and a rusty whistle.

I should have warned you about him… you would have deserved to know who my father was.

His vision filled with red dots and he saw Katara's face shift from the left to the right in front of him. She was calling out to him but her voice sounded distorted. He did not feel alright…

A cold shiver ran through his body and when he tried to speak his lungs did not fully cooperate. He tried to inhale deeply but the air hunger did not fade away. He saw her eyes fill with tears, she was yelling by then but no matter how hard he tried, he could not answer her. Then he felt how her arms fell around his neck, carefully avoiding his wounds not to hurt him further.

He did not know whether only moments or an hour passed by, but out of nowhere people suddenly filled the room. From the corner of his eyes he saw uniformed men and women. They seemed to be everywhere. They appeared by Ursa's side, some of them by Ozai. Zuko stared at one of the men who knelt down by his father's side, while his panting became louder. The man turned his gaze at his colleagues while shaking his head then after one long look at him, he moved to cover up the upper body of the dead man. Only then did the scarred teen close his eyes with relief.

His father, the worst nightmare of his life, had passed away.

When he heard a shout he turned his head just in time to see his uncle with one of the angriest expressions he had ever seen on him. Then the old man punched one of the policemen who stood in his way. Between two gasps Zuko let his mouth form a smile. His right hand finally let go of the gun that someone tried to pry out of his fingers in the last minutes. He did not even realize that…

Iroh's eyes turned round when he eventually saw him, and not much later Sokka's and Azula's figures appeared by the old tea-maker's side too. But as they were looking at him like they had seen a ghost, it eventually made his smile fade. When his glance moved to meet Katara's again, he saw her crying when she reluctantly pulled away from him. He slowly raised his left hand, reaching towards her cheek, wiping away her tears with his thumb but only more seemed to follow. Maybe it happened because of his gesture. He saw how she placed her hand above his upon her cheek, but his arm felt so numb from his shoulder that he could barely feel her touch…

He was already feeling dizzy but then someone lit in his eyes, making him blink which caused the black and red dots to completely wash away his vision. There is not enough air, there is just too many people. Can't they feel that? And…

Who turned off the lights?

His head bowed down to Katara's shoulder before his eyes slowly closed. "You're gonna be all right…" He heard her shaky voice like a mantra before darkness slowly overtook him, welcoming him like an old friend, finally closing out his worries. "P-please, Zuko," Closing out the pain… "Don't give up now!"

I'm sorry, Katara. I'm so sorry…

Hakoda could not calm down on the way to the hospital. Bato forbid him to drive, snatching away his keys and there was nothing he could have said to make him change his mind.

Only once had he felt so useless in his life. And his friend probably felt that too.

Bato already ignored the speed-limit, but it still did not feel fast enough for the restless man. The rain was pelting down tirelessly and the rhythmic noise of the windshield wiper only strengthened his bad feelings. Just as he was late when realizing who Ozai had really been, he felt time was slipping away again. His fingers drummed on the door in a wild rhythm only he had been able to follow.

Sokka called him when they were heading to their house, only that's why they had changed directions. His son could not say much because some nurse told him not to use his cell-phone there but no matter what he said his heart was still racing.

"We're fine dad… Katara is too. It's just that Zuko… he's… in a pretty bad shape. You should be here too. Oh, and though Kat' is fine but… don't freak out when you see her, ok? Just- …y-yes, alright, I'm sorry. – Dad, I gotta go. We'll wait for you."

A part of him did not dare to believe what he was told. Maybe he had been a single parent for too long. He sometimes just had this fear how things could go downhill once again in such a short amount of time no one would believe it could.

Still, Hakoda could not rest until he had seen his children. He remembered when they were young and ill, he had been almost as sick as they were during work, until he went home and found them feeling better. Kya used to laugh at him because of this habit, reminding him how she told him on the phone that they were already playing around the house half of the day. God, how he missed her… maybe she could have been able to chase away his fears.

"But… don't freak out when you see her, ok?"

When his fist slammed against the door Bato had a side-glance at him. He had been so tense throughout this ride that if he went on like this for long he would eventually snap.

"They'll be okay, Hakoda." Bato spoke, but as his boss only answered with a grunt he merely heaved a sigh. The last minutes of their ride went on in seemingly total silence as the other had given up the continuous drumming from before and rested his fist on the car's door.

Hardly had Bato pulled over, the other was already running across the lawn and towards the modern building in the pouring rain.

--

It only took a moment for the man to come to a sudden halt from his run, his blue eyes taking in every face and every detail.

Ursa looked like she had been crying, her face halfway hidden in Iroh's shoulder while his arm rested on her waist. The man whispered calming words into her ear which made her nod but her fingers clenched into his red clothes for seemingly more than just physical support.

Then he saw them, both of his children and Azula too. Katara was embraced by the golden eyed girl, and her brother was holding her hands while crouching before her. Her lower lip was wounded and swollen, and the side of her face was covered with a bluish-purple bruise. There were bandages at the base of neck, and her blue dress had been tainted with deep red stains on several places. Her yet unshed tears made her eyes glisten in the neon's light, and when she finally looked up, her broken gaze made his heart clench. She had been bruised, sad and tired, but she was alive.

And then she was on her feet, meeting him halfway in a run, her arms wrapping around his neck with a half-sigh and half-sob. Words she could not say out before left her lips, one after another while clinging to him, and he was holding her as if she had come back from death itself.

"Dad, he's hurt… Zuko's hurt and it's all because of me! I-I shouldn't have let him in, it's all my fault! And now he's… t-the doctor said his lungs might have…!"

Hakoda brushed his daughter's hair, shushing her softly. He did not know what to say, so he said nothing. It was selfish of him, but knowing that she was alive had been enough for him in that very moment while holding her in his arms. She and her brother meant the world to him. They were his life. And thanks to every God, now they were safe.

Then he slowly understood the things she had said. And what she couldn't tell him, Sokka and Iroh said out for her later.

Zuko, the scarred teen who his son had argued with for so long… and who had completely stolen his daughter's heart, was a hero.

He stopped his father. He saved those who had been the most important to him. And now he was lying between life and death on a hospital bed.

When Zuko was brought in, the doctors came and went while they had been waiting anxiously, and only hours later did they finally bring any news.

After the story the police informed them about, the surgeons thought the boy would not live through another day. But they had to realize that he was amazingly strong. Even though he had two broken ribs and his collarbone had been cracked, his lungs had been unhurt. He had hampered respiration as a symptom of serious blood-loss, and that was what worried them the most.

It took them a while to stop the bleeding but in the end they said that he was going to survive. They said it had been a twist of fate…

-- DAYS LATER --

His eyes opened and closed a couple of times on his way to the hospital; that he could remember. It was sure ironic how history could repeat itself. The last time he was brought to a place like this, it had also been because of Ozai. But the pain he felt back then felt much worse than this… maybe because this time it was truly over?

It was strange though. Zuko believed that once people died they did not dream. Maybe he was wrong after all?

Because he was definitely dreaming. And in his dream he had seen an angel.

An angel with tanned skin, wavy brown hair and the most wonderful cerulean eyes. But those gave her away. He knew who she was because only Katara could have eyes like that.

She had been more mature than her almost eighteen-year-old self, and she looked wonderful. She was wearing white boots which ended just below her knees and a shamelessly short, blue mini-dress. It took him quite a while to realize it had been a uniform of a nurse. (His gaze had to take in many, many details of the whole image before it could have happened.)

Oh, Zuko knew well that in reality uniforms never looked like this, but he thought what the hell, if he was dead anyway at least he got to heaven. Because Katara had been there with him, looking amazing as always.

Only when she tended his wounds did he remember how she wanted to go to medic school in reality too. He frowned when he thought about how she wanted to be a real doctor. And he… he wanted to see it become true, while he had his own dream to achieve. And they had so many plans for the future already… their future.

And then he came to a realization: he could not die now. He had too much to do, too much to see. He couldn't let it happen. No… not yet.

Then in his dream he placed a hand above dream-Katara's, stopping her from redoing his bandages. And her smile faded when he told her he had to leave. That he wanted to wake up.

Her blue eyes showed sorrow but she made a small nod before slowly sitting down by the side of his bed. For a minute his eyes fell on her long legs and when one of his hands fell on her thigh he felt a small smirk come to his lips. It was going to cause him physical pain to leave his dream-Katara. Those eyes, and her oh so soft skin…

But he always headed down the more difficult path, didn't he?

His dream-nurse whispered her farewell into his unscarred ear, and a smile came to his face as one of her soft hair-loopies tickled his forehead. She looked down at him, returning his smile then slowly closed her eyes. And after blowing a feather light kiss on his forehead, his little heaven suddenly turned to dust…

--

He woke with a start and the sudden movement made him wince. The numb warmth he had felt during his dream faded away. He was shivering from both cold and exhaustion, the pain in both of his shoulders started spreading and he groaned louder than his silent dream would have allowed it. His voice sounded harsh after the soft words of his dream girl. Reality just had to ruin things…

When his hand twitched he realized that while in his dream his hand rested on dream-Katara's thigh, in reality someone put a stuffed toy by his side, and now one of his arms was holding a plush turtle-duck. Squeezing more likely. The toy's head was turned towards him and the smile sewn on its soft head brought an unexpected reaction.

Because in the next moment Zuko was smiling, and then he started chuckling. He was in pain, instead of the perfect woman he was hugging a stuffed toy, and it was smiling back at him. And he suddenly couldn't help laughing out aloud.

"By the Gods, Zuzu." When he heard a sigh he slightly turned his head towards the voice. "Everyone's worried sick about you and you giggle like an idiot." Azula was sitting in a chair by his bed's side with crossed arms and a light smirk appeared on her face as she raised one of her eyebrows. "Are you high?"

In truth a rather painful weight finally left his sister's chest when he woke up but old habits did not change, and seeing that half-hidden smirk on her face made the scarred teen pull the turtle-duck closer to him. "No," When in the next moment he involuntarily let out another chuckle, he lifted a hand in front of his mouth. "Maybe?" But when his sister stood up and walked up to him he eventually fell silent, clutching the stuffed toy to his chest as if to protect it. Or to use it as a shield, because these words slipped through his lips next: "Please don't hurt me…"

A/N: "Azula, please don't hurt me… I'm in pain." XD

So, I'm sorry for the long break, but I am a bit addicted to World of Warcraft, and I needed my brain to forget everything about those exams I had too.

Also, :( I was so unhappy because I eventually had to end all this tension I built up. I also wanted Ozai to die. Sorry ppl, he was a bad, bad guy and he deserved it. Honestly. But Zuko is otherwise a too good person to do it unless it happens in self-defense. So there. - I know it's a cliché, but I like this kind. The bad guy goez bye-bye, and the victim saves the day. Yaay :D

:D Oh btw, just a little biology lesson: Zuko had air hunger and his vision blurred because of blood-loss, but no one knew whether his lungs were hurt or not because of his wounds (made by Ozai's knife) until he was in the operating room. O___O Poor Zuko…

Haha, :D but in the end he ended up high due to the painkillers. XD Lulz. So don't be surprised if he unmanly GIGGLES. XD Oh, and he might say out things the way they pop in his head. Hehe, the next chap will be fun to write. XDDD

Leave a review if you liked it, :) we'll soon reach the story's end…