Now it's all falling down
Don't die on me now
Not tonight, not this town
Don't die on me now.
-Hostage Calm, 'Don't Die on me Now'
Sokka couldn't see. He could hear the voice of the Avatar, the voice that had fallen from Aang's mouth long ago. The Avatar had returned! He needed to see. He ripped his mask off and tossed it on the ground, starting a hail of shed masks that rippled through the watching crowd of black; baring faces pale and dark, eyes blue, green, gold, and brown; eyes that were scared, enraptured, fascinated, fierce in their anger. He stood among the water tribe with his father, a scattered handful of Sokka's People, and alongside the old masters who had found and freed his father. Toph had sent them, along with her tall Minky, to the prison in the mountain that she had sensed. The old masters had made short work of it, freeing the imprisoned water tribe by barely flexing. Iroh had personally escorted Hakoda through the fighting in the streets to his son, fire benders being immobilized right and left. The look on his father's face had made Sokka freeze in his attack. Iroh had caught the blow his opponent aimed at him, shoving the man back down and bellowing at him. Hakoda had given his son a fast hug as the eclipse reached its peak and the fighting came to a quick end. They had joined the rushing crowd, once Hakoda had his own mask, and come to stand together as Zuko fought for his birthright. Katara was supposed to have taken down Ozai. Where was she?
Sokka didn't look back as he stepped forward, coming nearer to Zuko than any other. He could see Ozai on his knees in front of the hovering figure, a girl. Her long black hair and tan skin reminded him of someone he couldn't place. Her glowing eyes made him shudder, remembering the times Aang was forced into the Avatar state by grief and rage. Where had she been hiding?
He squinted up at her, thinking. It had only been seven years. This Avatar looked almost his own age. Sokka didn't have time to puzzle it out as he ducked through the assembled warriors to make his way into the palace in search of his sister.
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Ozai tilted his head back and shot a mouthful of fire at the Avatar. She waved it aside with a casual sweep of her hand. Her face lay serious as she looked down at him, twirling her elements through her fingers. Something flickered in her eyes and she cocked her head abruptly down, as if she was listening attentively to someone much shorter than herself that only she could hear. Ozai sneered, shouting insults at her. She ignored him, her head tilting the side as if trying to understand.
As the world held its breath below her, finally she gave a sharp nod and turned back to Ozai, sending the congealed elements back into orbit around her. "Phoenix King Ozai, descendant of Fire Lord Sozin, initiator of the hundred years war and murderer of Avatar Roku, your life has been requested spared."
Ozai relaxed the smallest inch, still glaring sneering defiance up at her. "Even with all the power in the world, you're still weak." He tried to struggle out of his bonds to no avail and let loose a flaming roar of fury. The Avatar deflected it, floating down from her airy perch to stand before him. She seemed to regard him for a moment before snaking her arms in, pressing one hand to his forehead and one over his heart. She closed her eyes for a moment before they shot back open, brilliant blue beams of light erupting from her sockets, shooting towards the sunny sky. Ozai stared blankly for a breath before red beams poured from his own eyes to join hers in a skyward rocket. The crowd below did not dare utter a sound, hearing the metallic tinning of the power in the air.
Deep in the palace, Sokka felt a shiver run up his spine but pressed on, heading steadily upwards.
In the Lower Ring, where small fights had once more broken out with the return of the sun and Suki struck down yet another firebender, soldiers from both sides halted their attacks to gaze in mesmerized fear at the beams of light, the metallic chiming reaching their ears from across the city.
Outside the Outer Wall, where the Earth Kingdom soldiers were shifting clumps of rock from the chasmed divide of the ruined structure, Min Ki lifted his head and shaded his eyes against the sun, wondering if Toph could see what was happening.
In the Middle Ring, Chi Lin stopped his mad dash across the city, slamming into a fire bender and decapitating him swiftly with twin pointed daggers as he looked up, panicked at the thought of what could happen to Kaya, and the possibilities of what could have happened to Katara. He flicked the blood from his blades and charged on, determined to be the one to slay Ozai if any harm came to either of them.
Katara, from ten feet behind the balcony, watched with widening eyes as the glow coming from her future daughter was slowly eaten up by the red glow of the kneeling man. She didn't know what it meant, but the creeping bloody crimson terrified her.
"No!" She screamed, starting forward. The scarlet was encroaching on her daughter's face, threatening to consume her fully. As it advanced further, leaving only her one eye free, her head snapped forward and the sapphire glow surged forward, overtaking Ozai and painting him blue. The beam of light from their combined glows burst into the sky, the chiming growing louder as it speared upwards, brighter than even the brilliance of the sky.
It faded slowly, the pealing dying before the light. Ozai keeled over in his bonds as the Avatar, eyes still a vivid cerulean, straightened and withdrew her hands. Her chest heaved as she turned from him to face the assembled warriors.
"What…what did you do to me?" Ozai gasped, his bonds melting back into the balcony. He tried to stand but collapsed to the side, his eyes rolling in his head.
The Avatar slipped on the mask Kaya had had in her hand, painted with the four representative colors of the nations, and addressed the world before her, her many voices reaching even the Outer Wall. "I have removed Phoenix King Ozai's fire bending." A shocked murmur went through the crowd, black-clothed and fire nation citizens alike. "He has no claim present or future to any position of power. In his place will rise the true Fire Lord." She inclined her head towards Zuko and turned from the balcony, shouts and cheers at her back.
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With every step she took towards her mother, she diminished in size and age until she stood before Katara as her true self, the blue glow fading from behind her mask. She swayed on her feet, falling forwards into Katara's outstretched arms. She hurriedly removed the colorful mask, revealing Kaya's snoring face, her mouth slack, sounding exactly like her Uncle Iroh. Katara let out a sob of relief, clutching her daughter tight.
"You little bitch." Ozai was on his feet, staggering towards her. "You took my bending." He stumbled to his knees, rising painfully. "I don't need fire to end your life."
Katara could only watch as he came closer, staggering like a drunkard. She clutched Kaya to her, ready to rip his throat from beneath his head. A black blur shot out from behind her, striking Ozai over the head with a heavy pommel. He dropped with a grunt, eyes closing as he sprawled across the floor. Katara sat stunned.
"Are you unharmed?" Chi Lin's whispering voice was anxious as he looked down at them, offering a hand to help her up. She took it, slinging Kaya's body across her shoulder.
"How-" They both turned at the indignant squawk from behind them. Sokka stood panting, his sword naked in his hand, glaring at Chi Lin. "How did you get here before me?"
"I knew where to go." Chi Lin gave him a half smile.
Sokka's eyes turned to the snoring girl on Katara's shoulder. "She's the Avatar, isn't she."
"Yes." Katara breathed. She remembered how she had felt when no one had told her, and felt a twinge of guilt.
"Why didn't you tell me?" Sokka's voice was sad, hurt. "Don't you trust me?"
"I didn't know until we were in Ba Sing Se already." Katara murmured, casting her eyes down. "I'm sorry. I didn't want to send it by hawk."
"No. No, that's right." Sokka conceded, relaxing slightly. His face lit up and he glanced excitedly at Katara. "We found dad!"
Katara beamed, about to exclaim her joy when Kaya went rigid in her arms. Katara leaned her back, cradling her like an infant to see her face. She looked up at her mother with confused, sleepy eyes before they flashed blue. "He needs you." And it was gone, leaving only Kaya.
Katara sat frozen for a moment, then handed Kaya to Chi Lin, the man dropping his knife to the ground to take her. Sokka picked up the knife as Katara ran from the room, her soft boots making no sound on the hard tile.
"Where are you going?" Sokka called after her.
"Do not leave her alone, Sokka! Protect her!" She yelled over her shoulder as she disappeared from view.
Sokka turned to Chi Lin who shrugged, offering Kaya to Sokka. The water tribe man shook his head. "She knows you better." He said ruefully. "Let's find somewhere safe." He looked down at his sleeping niece and his face softened. "This war isn't over yet."
Chi Lin nodded, shifting the child in his arms so he could recover his knife from Sokka's hand. He slid it into his sheath as the crowd roared below them. "Not yet."
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Azula could feel her world crumbling around her as the Avatar turned her back. Her father: stripped of his power and humiliated in front of the world. She, the rightful Fire Lord, snubbed by the ultimate power while her pathetic brother was held up as an honorable hero. No, no. It was all wrong. They were traitors, all of them. They had all turned against her. Her eyes narrowed, scanning the crowd for her two allies, her only true friends. Where were they? There. They looked back at her from behind their bonds, their limbs strapped down by tight ropes, mouths covered by strips of cloth. But they weren't fighting. They weren't struggling, trying to escape. They merely looked at her. Traitors. They should be giving their lives to stand at her side. Treason. They would be banished as soon as she struck her brother down.
Her brother. Her eyes went to him. The idiot was standing with his fists open at his side, gaping up at the balcony. He lowered his head and she could see the relief, the triumph on his face. Their father had been devastatingly disgraced, their nation had been disgraced, and he was smiling?
Her fury burst forth in a storm of blue fire, forcing the black-clad traitors backwards, catching her brother unawares. He leapt away, crying out as his black clothing caught fire and he shrugged out of it hurriedly, discarding the smoking shreds.
"Agni Kai, brother!" She screamed, sending another burst of fire towards him. He spun out of the way gracefully, sending bursts of fire balls towards her. She skipped out of the way. "Or had you forgotten?"
"Give up, Azula!" He yelled, but he didn't fire back at her, just stood waiting like a moronic cow.
"Never!" She screeched, her fire bursting erratically from her fingers. "It is my throne!"
"No." His voice was calm and it infuriated her. There was even a hint of sympathy; for what? For her? "It's not."
She saw an opening, a hole, a flaw in his stance and she shot a controlled burst of flame to him, striking him in his knee. He would never be as good as her. He cried out and went down, his injured leg crumbling beneath him. The black clad crowd cried out but she ignored them. She saw her Uncle striding toward Zuko and shot at him too, knocking the old man off his feet into the crowd. Now even the fire nation citizens began to murmur; traitors all of them. She sent a breadth of fire twelve feet across at them, sending them scattering like the treasonous little swine they were. Her mad eyes took in her brother, struggling to stand, blood pouring down his shin. Now, now strike, she thought.
She summoned the power inside her, the lightening crackling all around her, its sparks sending the black clad vermin further back, their cries delightful music to her ears. He wouldn't even see it coming. She focused what was left of her coherent thought into sending the lightening in a jagged arc towards his struggling body.
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Time seemed to slow for Zuko. He could see the lightening leave his sister's fingertips in a jagging, bending arch, coming straight for him. He could feel that he would be too slow to dodge. He saw the warriors jump back, their faces screwed up with fear. He saw Katara's father looking the other direction, not at him or Azula, but somewhere in the middle, his face a mask of terror above the rest. He didn't have time to turn his head, only his eyes, to meet the blue eyes of the girl running, her dark braided hair flying behind her as she looked at him for less than a blink, then back towards the oncoming lightening, her hand stretching out as if to touch the dazzling pretty light. He couldn't stop her, couldn't even exchange his life for hers, couldn't move fast enough even without an injured leg to keep her from doing what she was about to do.
The lightening jolted through her outstretched hand, pumping through her body. She was spun around from its force, knocked backwards. Her eyes connected one last time with his, lit from within by the electricity.
The cry tore ragged from his throat. A guttural, primal scream of denial. The pain vanished from his leg, replaced by a dragging force, leading him to her side. She crackled and fizzed with the voltage, her body convulsing violently. He didn't want to see the burns, the blankness of her blue eyes. He could hear Azula's mad laughter and knew he wouldn't have much time, but the rest of his mind screamed that he couldn't leave her, wouldn't leave her. Not like this. It couldn't end like this. Not with her broken and bloody on the ground.
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She wanted to tell him it didn't matter, that her life was nothing compared to his. That she would lay her life down every time if it meant he would live forever. But there was no time. He needed her. She shoved her way through the crowd, knocking her comrades aside, hearing their calls and feeling their grasping hands trying to pull her back. But he needed her.
She kept her eyes on him, knowing it would be the last time in this life she saw him, and could only hope the spirits would see fit to reunite them in the next. She saw his golden eyes flick to her as the crack of Azula's lightning shattered the air, saw them widen as he realized what she was about to do. Then all she saw was the lightening as it filled her veins with fire and sent her spinning to the hard ground. The pain was something she had never imagined, like being prodded by a hundred hot needles over and over on every inch of her skin. A dull coolness overtook her body as she lay on the ground, black creeping around the edges of her vision.
She couldn't move her eyes. She needed to blink, she thought. So dry. Through the gathering blackness she could see the blurry face of her father standing over her, but she couldn't hear him. Iroh joined him, and Zuko, Toph. She couldn't tell them goodbye. She hoped they knew she loved them. That her life was nothing compared to keeping theirs safe. Kaya…she wished for Kaya. But she was safe. Better she stay where she was, safe.
His was the last face she saw. She wanted so desperately to lift her hand to cup his cheek but she was so tired, so quickly. Her arm was too heavy. She wanted to tell him…not…to give up…to stand…and…fight….
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He began to shake her as he sat crouched beside her. Maybe if he shook hard enough, her blank, staring eyes would blink and she would smile at him and sit up. He felt like his soul was cracking in half, tearing down the line between him and Katara. She needed to wake up, to look at him. A blast of lightening knocked him back from her body, throwing him into the crowd. Gentle hands propped him back up and he turned to face his sister.
"You gonna cry, Zuzu?" Azula mimed wiping tears. "You're pathetic. A water tribe peasant whore has to save your life."
Zuko roared, his fists igniting with blue flames. "You killed her!"
"Like she's the first." Azula scoffed, her eyes darting around the arena, searching for an escape route. There was no victory for her here. Even if she did win the traitors would eat her. She'd banish them all. Banish them to the desert. To be eaten by wasps. "She's just another girl, Zuko."
"No she isn't." Zuko charged, trying to keep his anger in check, his hurt at bay, trying to focus his scattered, shattered thoughts. His sister skipped around him, laughing. A thought came to him, an insane idea. He sent out a hoard of fire tendrils, drawing inspiration from the mass of water whips Katara had generated under Ba Sing Se. They were controlled, smooth, with only small licks of fire playing around their lengths. They encircled Azula from all sides, herding her away from the onlooking warriors. She spun, snarling, her eyes frantically searching for a hole. Zuko wove a firey net above and around her, drawing it close enough to trap her.
"No!" She screamed, stretching her hand out only to snatch it back as she was burned. "No! No, no! Zuzu, you can't do this!" She began to panic, slumping to the ground to lay her head on the ground , trying to slip under the net. Zuko flicked his eyes to Toph, standing nearby, and jerked his head. She nodded and stomped her feet, creating stone manacles that locked a sobbing Azula to the ground, encasing her hands in a seamless rock prison.
Zuko lifted the net, dissipating it into the air. Azula was defeated, but it felt hollow. All around him the black-clothed warriors broke their silence to let out a cheer: Ozai was stripped of his power, Azula was defeated. Zuko had won the throne of the Fire Nation. The war was over.
Zuko looked back around to see Katara's body gone. Hope sprung through him for a moment until Toph laid her hand on his shoulder.
"They took her to the Avatar." Toph murmured. "Hopefully in time to heal her."
Zuko nodded, knowing he should feel relieved, happy, but he could only think of Katara and how she could be lying in pain or worse.
"Try to at least look happy." Toph said, Min Ki and Denali coming forward to stand beside Zuko as the black masses pushed in, all the fire benders who had stood with Zuko eager to congratulate their new Fire Lord, the thought of Katara's tragedy fading from their minds.
Zuko looked upwards, drinking in the blue sky lit by the golden sun. The war was won. Now what?
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"There you are, my nephew."
Zuko raised his head at his Uncle's voice, setting aside a scroll from Kyoshi island. The warriors had offered to temporarily serve as his bodyguards until the tensions between the nations of the world calmed down. He had just dipped his brush in ink to reply.
He sat in a breezy stucco room in the Fire Nation palace medical wing. The windows took up most of the wall space, green leaves and vines creeping in to crawl up the walls. White, luminous curtains blew in the warm breeze. The majority of the room was taken up by a large bed, piled high with pillows.
"I'm always here."
"I know." Iroh sat beside his nephew in the open-sided room at the small table he worked at. "It is not healthy."
"I want to be here." Zuko murmured, his voice raspy. "When she wakes up."
"I see."
He glared at the old man. Iroh looked away from him to the form of Katara lying in the large bed. She looked as if she were asleep, her chest rising and falling steadily.
"What did the healers say, nephew?" Iroh picked up a scroll with an unbroken seal and opened it, skimming over the words inside. He looked up when Zuko remained silent. "Nephew?"
"She's well, in body. The water bender healers got to her in time." Zuko's voice was just above a murmur. "But her spirit…is gone."
"Hmmm." Iroh frowned. "Grievous news, my nephew. What are their thoughts on her future?"
"Uncertain." Zuko rasped, rolling up his reply to Kyoshi, inviting them to join their leader Suki in the Fire Nation. Hakoda, Sokka, Suki, Toph, Min Ki, Chi Lin, and Kaya were all staying with him in the palace and had been for the two weeks since he won the throne. He could tell they were getting restless and were anxious to return to their homes. Kaya had been scampering around the palace, sticking her nose into every room, pursued doggedly, though patiently, by Chi Lin. He refused to let her out of his sight, and they often stopped by to see Katara. Kaya would leap into bed and tell her mother all about her day. Out of all of Katara's friends and family, she was the least concerned, despite Zuko and Sokka's grave words on the matter. She would ask when Katara was coming back as lightheartedly as though she were away on holiday, and Zuko would have no words for her.
Zuko had deployed Jimoz, Motzu, and young Kai to the colonies in the Earth Kingdom a week ago to keep the peace between the fire nation citizens who had been living there for years and the earth villagers who had always lived there. There hadn't been outright fighting yet, but tensions were running high as the Earth Kingdom anticipated the complete removal of all fire nation peoples. Zuko had received their first reports the day before, and read good things: cooperation, understanding, and mutual respect were prevailing, though some had become rowdy.
Denali, sporting a broken arm and a scar across his eye from his encounter with Mai, had taken Sokka's People and the freed men and women of the water tribe across the ocean on one of Zuko's largest ships. They told him they would first stop to rebuild the South Pole before making the journey north. He had given them supplies and provisions for the trip, sad to see Denali go. The man had stood stony face by Katara's bed, and had asked Zuko for a letter when she woke. Zuko had agreed, requesting the same for when the water tribe returned home. Denali had nodded curtly and left. Sokka later told him that Denali planned to return to the Fire Nation after the water kingdoms were rebuilt, feeling that his place was with Zuko. And Katara. Zuko had told Sokka to offer Denali the ambassadorship for the North, as Sokka took the one for the South.
Zuko stood, wincing at the pain that lingered around his knee from Azula's fire. It was tightly bandaged and gave him a funny limp. It was his only major wound. He was lucky. So many had died from all nations. Bae, Romjak, Kamol, Kozan, and Master Piandao were among the fallen. Countless more nameless faces had been laid out before him when the fighting had stopped in Ba Sing Se. The caves where Romjak's people lived had been burned out by Ozai's troops. Romjak had died in the first wave, Bae at his side. They had saved many, their deaths buying time for reinforcements to arrive.
Kamol had died in Sokka's arms, his wounds bleeding too fast for the water benders to heal. He had been cut down by one of the Rough Rhinos, set out from the palace by Ozai. Sokka's People had rallied to drive them back, unseating them and detaining them like the others.
Kozan had been pushed to his death by Mai, landing wrong on his neck. No one was sure how Piandao had been slain. His body had been found after the Agni Kai in the Middle Ring. Sokka had wept over his body, while Zuko stood stony-faced above him.
So much heartache. He thought to himself as he walked away from his Uncle that sometimes the overall tragedy was forgotten in the stories, the legends that came from long wars. The deaths of Kamol, Romjak, Bae, and Kozan would not be remembered in fifty years except by those on the battlefield that day and those who were alive because of them. Master Piandao's teachings would live on with his students, but even he would fade from the world's memory with time.
Azula had struggled herself to exhaustion in her bonds and had been removed to the tower dungeon along with her father. While she lingered in a half conscious state, Kaya had visited her and performed the same justice that she had on Ozai. She had worn her World Mask, as she called it, and had stripped Azula's bending from her, leaving her as powerless as her father. When the former princess had awoken fully, she had screamed and lashed at the bars of her cell, demanding to see Zuko. He hadn't visited her yet. He wasn't ready.
Zuko walked out from the walls of the palace, snagging a bread roll from the table on his way, to the small courtyard his mother used to take him to, where the turtleducks still made their nests in the shallow, reedy water. Kaya sat at the edge, dipping her small hand into the water. Chi Lin rested with his back against a narrow tree not far away, one eye closed with the other on Kaya. He started to stand at Zuko's approach but Zuko waved him back down. The poor man must run over twelve miles a day chasing after his small charge. He needed every bit of rest he could manage. Chi Lin nodded to him gratefully and dozed off fully, confident in Zuko's ability to manage Kaya.
As Zuko's presumed daughter, she wore a small golden flame in her hair. The Fire Nation wasn't sure what to make of the mocha skinned, golden eyed little girl. It was assumed Katara was the mother, and she was most certainly not of the Fire Nation. There had been political alliances before, but it was between Princes and Princesses not directly in line for the throne before the Hundred Years War and out of living memory. Zuko's advisors were scrambling to find the records, hoping it would help settle the public's worry. At the worst, Kaya would be declared illegitimate and sent away, and Zuko would need to father heirs with his Fire Lady, whoever she may one day be. The thought rankled him. He only wanted Katara. Kaya would never hold the throne, regardless of what was decided. She was the Avatar. It was known only by Zuko's closest allies, but would one day be known throughout the world.
"Hi father!" Kaya exclaimed, shaking her hands dry before embracing him. He smiled, hugging her back. "Has mom come back yet?"
"Not yet." Zuko said, his voice suddenly raspy. "What are you doing?"
"Meeting the turtleducks." Kaya chimed, breaking away from him to return to the water. Zuko looked, but saw no turtleducks. Kaya noticed him looking. "They were just here."
Zuko snorted. "You have to feed them." He produced the bread from his robes and handed it to her. she looked at it quizzically. He sat beside her, not noticing that his robes dripped into the water and were smudged by grass and dirt. After seven years of living as a beggar, living in one place and maintaining clean clothes was taking getting used to. "Here." He broke the bread down the middle, handing half back to her. He tore little pieces from the soft middle and scattered them across the water. No turtleducks appeared. Kaya looked at him with a pout. "Just wait." A small, downy head poked out of the reeds and quacked. The mother duck swam forward, snapping up the crumbs with her bill. A small line of ducklings followed her, chirping cheerfully as they captured their own crumbs with their bills.
Kaya giggled with delight as the swam close to her, following the trail. She stretched her hand out to run a gentle finger across the head of the smallest duckling. The mother quacked sharply and the duckling swam back to her.
"When will she be back?" Kaya asked.
"I don't know." Zuko murmured.
"Well, I think it's time for her to come back." Kaya said decisively, tossing the rest of the crumbs to the turtleducks and standing. "C'mon, father."
Zuko looked up at her confusedly but allowed her to take his hand and lead him back into the palace.
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A.N.: Hope you all don't hate me too much Q.Q Thank you to all of you who have favorite and followed this story. I hope you review!
To Guest: Thank you so much! I'm glad you liked it :D
To storyoftheunknownfangirl: 3 !