A/N: Whew, sorry for the long wait on this chapter. My muse went on vacation and never came back so I was struggling. But I was kinda blown away by the number of lovely reviews for the last chapter. Thank you everyone for taking the time to show some love :) Because there were so many, I won't respond to them individually but just know how dorkishly happy you all made me. You really do give me the drive to keep going.
Jiao crushed the piece of paper in his hand and choked back the stinging tears. He watched the messenger hawk shrink to a dot in the ginger sky and tried to breathe past the pain. He hadn't been there for her. Star of his life, beloved – she had graced the earth with her last sweet breath and he hadn't been at her side. What must she have thought in those last moments? That he had abandoned her? Surely with all his letters, she would have known that wasn't true. She would have known that what he was doing was all for her. Right?
It didn't matter. None of that changed his absence when she had needed him most. He had failed her.
Thoughts trickled up from the reservoir of bitterness churning and sputtering inside him.
Ozai.
If it weren't for him, he could have been there to hold her hand and calm her fears in her last days. The money seemed like such a trivial matter now. Money couldn't have bought her happiness any more than it could have bought her health. He had withheld the only thing of true happiness she'd had: his love. And for what? To watch some power-hungry narcissist swindle a naïve girl into believing he'd fallen for her so he could fulfill some heinous self-ordained prophecy? Balled fists trembled at his sides. He was a fool beyond compare.
Jiao took in a sharp breath and let it out slowly, a shuddering sigh. The man was a monster. Why had it taken him so long to see? The girl's face flashed through his mind. The face of a beautiful world teetering on the brink of a catastrophe like it had never seen. And he had been the oil to its spinning gears. What had he done? His eyes darted down to the whitecaps leaping at the shoreline, to the boat he had tied up in the inlet there. It pitched and swayed in the flogging waves. There wasn't much time, but if he hurried…
He stooped down to sling his pack over his shoulder and placed a hand alongside his boot. It was reassuring, those familiar knobs of the hilt of his blade. Its twin was nestled snugly in his other boot. They had never failed him before. He rose again and squared his shoulders. There was no going back.
Katara rested her arms for a moment as the current beneath the ship slowed. Propelling it through the crashing waves was a lot more work than she had thought. Her arms were burning and she tried to shake out the knots that tightened themselves there. She took a moment to catch her breath and glanced up at the sky. The sun had slipped beneath the earth, only a few licks of gold left on the horizon in its wake, and the moon was riding high. The blood moon.
She shuddered, watching its slow ascent in the darkening sky. The swells and crests of the ocean's waves winked a deep red, and the higher the moon climbed the thicker it cast its veil of blood over the earth.
The soft thud of boots pulled her from her thoughts. Ozai stepped toward her and nodded at the sky.
"Now there's a sight you don't see every day." His irises looked almost orange in the light of the moon, burning like two orbs of fire. It stirred a familiar heat in the pit of her stomach and she tore her gaze away despite the ache.
"Yeah," she breathed, looking up again. "So eerie."
A wave lapped against the side of the ship as a gust of wind whipped the hair across her face. On the other side of the wind was a quiet so heavy, it sent her hair standing on end. Only the slap of water on wood punctured the vacuum of silence over the blood-stained earth. A chill prickled up her spine.
"It isn't much farther now." Ozai pointed to a dark smear on the horizon that she could now see was the island. "Think you can manage?"
She gazed at the spot for a moment before turning back to him. "Please, Ozai. There's still time to change your mind. Whatever this is won't change the way I feel about you. You don't have to prove anything to anyone, least of all me. I'm already yours. Why can't you just be happy with that and move on?"
"This isn't about us. This about justice. I can't say any more than that."
She cocked an eyebrow. "What does that mean?" Katara waited for an answer she knew would not come. Frowning, she turned away with a sigh. Her heart felt like it was shrinking. He didn't trust her. Not completely. Silence hung between them for a long moment before she finally spoke again. "Alright, listen. Maybe this is something you have to do. Something personal that you'd rather keep hidden, and I can understand that. But I'm asking you one more time, as the woman who l–"
The words cut off in her throat, her eyes wide at the weight of them hanging in the balance. Katara choked on a gasp and broke eye contact, working her gaze back to his meekly. His eyes were glued to her with an intensity that told her he already knew.
"The woman who what, exactly?" His eyes were creased with the shadow of a smile. "Go on, finish the sentence."
She blinked, hesitating, looking for an out. Her brows pinched together. "Don't embarrass me, Ozai. You already know –"
"Do I?" The words came smoky and hushed, sending a prickling heat down her belly. The corners of his mouth tugged up gently. "Say it, Katara."
She scrunched her eyes closed and drew a sigh, the words barely a breath as they rose so heavily from her heart. "The woman who loves you."
Ozai stepped forward and cupped her face, locking his lips with hers in a kiss both so tender and passionate her knees almost buckled. He pulled her into him, off her helpless feet and a sound pitched in the back of her throat, a soft moan into his mouth. He kissed her deeper then, his tongue sweeping lightly against hers. Katara clung to him like life itself, his coarse cloak in her small fists as she pressed herself into him. Because he was hers and she was his. She belonged with him.
All too soon he pulled away, leaving Katara's stomach reeling with desire. Breathlessly, he rested his forehead on hers. "The woman who loves me." The smile in his voice was contagious. She let herself melt into his arms. "Your touch, your embrace, everything you are blazes a fire through my soul. What can I do but to love you back? My waterbender…"
She smiled faintly but drew back, meeting his eyes with a soulful pleading. "Then please, let the past go so we can start over. Together."
The glint in Ozai's eyes deepened as he ran a thumb along her cheek. "Just a few loose ends to tie up. And then we will."
A while later, the boat cut through the seaweed and undergrowth, scraping against the gravelly seabed as it made berth on the island's shore. The forest atop the land was dense, darkening with the dusk, a sea of glossy red leaves beneath the moon. There was a nagging pit in her stomach. Something was off about this place. A silence surrounded the island so absolute that the air between the gusts of wind felt thick and stagnant. The lap of the waves on shore was deafening in contrast. Even her own heartbeat sounded too loud.
But it was the wildlife that really sent a shiver down her spine. Something was wrong with them. The fish kept swimming in a slow lull to the water's edge, turning away at the bank only to circle back again and again, endlessly. Like something was calling them landward and they were desperate to answer. There were birds circling the island in a daze-like stupor, perfectly tracing its perimeter as though bound to its margins. Sometimes one would break off to dive down into the dark of the forest, only to reemerge and circle again. They didn't make a sound, just circled and swooped, over and over. No rhyme or reason to the almost chaotic way they moved. It was like the wildlife around the island slipped into an unyielding trance, obsessed with this tiny spit of land.
Ozai extended a hand and helped her over the side of the boat. Her feet splashed gently in the shallow waters, a knife in the driving silence. They trudged onto the sandy soil and stood before the glowering tree line. After a moment, Ozai started forward, waving for her to follow. Katara didn't want to follow.
"Do we have to go in there?"
He stopped and turned to her. "What, afraid of a few trees?" A corner of his mouth turned up.
She huffed, waving a hand toward the black forest. "You don't find this place just a little bit creepy?"
"Creepy?" Ozai's chest pitched with a little chuckle. "Are you letting such childish fears get the best of you?"
Katara crossed her arms but didn't respond. Of course she felt silly, but something just wasn't right here. Ozai retraced his steps, taking her hand. "Alright, fine, why don't you wait for me at the base of the forest? You won't have to come in and I won't be long anyway."
A smirk tugged at the corner of his mouth and Katara smiled a little nod as her muscles relaxed a degree. He brought her hand to his lips in a brush of a kiss. "It'll all be over soon."
No one said anything as they flew over the sea below, now dressed in a mist of red. The silence drilled an opening in the pit of Zuko's stomach and made the lump in his throat burn, penetrated at intervals by the muffled growls of Aang still bound beneath the sleeping bag. Sweat beaded on his brow despite the chill as they cut through the air, his eyes scouring the land for a boat or ship, any sign of his father.
Something glinted in the corner of his eye, so faintly that he would have missed it if hadn't been looking for it. But there it was. A small Earth Kingdom boat bobbing gently on the shore of a tiny island, moonlight winking against the wet wood as it swayed to and fro. The familiar cold grip of dread squeezed his heart until it thudded in his throat. He hoped he wasn't too late.
"Down there," he strained through the thickness in his throat, pointing. Zuko drew the reins hard, circling Appa down toward the island. They crashed through the treetops and weaved down into a small clearing. They hadn't even touched down on the ground when a haunting voice, nauseatingly familiar, made his skin crawl.
"Ah, Avatar, we meet again. It's been too long."
Zuko gritted his teeth and jumped to the ground before the bison's feet had barely touched the earth. "Not long enough," he barked back. Throwing back his hood, he wallowed in the triumph as his father's gloating expression evolved into shock.
"Zuko…?" The words came in a low rasp under his breath, almost inaudible. But Zuko heard.
A faint sneer blossomed through his fury. "Hello, father."
"What are you doing here?" Ozai growled, angry veins bulging from his temples. "Where is the Avatar?!"
In a few thunderous strides, Zuko was at his father's throat, the searing flames of a fire dagger gnawing at his neck. His other hand dug furiously into his arm, wrenching Ozai so close he could feel the tense little puffs of breath on his face.
"Where is Katara?"
Ozai gave a sharp, guttural laugh. "Is that why you're here? Always such a fool for a pretty face. I was hoping you'd come to see me."
Zuko could see the tightening of Ozai's jaw, the twitch of a muscle to hide a wince, as he clawed his fingers deeper into his arm. "Tell me where she is, or I swear by Agni I will blast you into the next life."
Ozai set his jaw with a crooked smirk. Before Zuko could think, powerful hands gripped his wrist. A thumb found a pressure point and Zuko howled in pain as Ozai shoved him back forcefully, extinguishing the flames from his hand. His father's lip quivered with a silent snarl. "Not until I see the Avatar."
A long moment passed between them. Zuko glared at his father like a rabid wolf, refusing to back down. It was a trap. It was always a trap. But with Katara's life on the line, he couldn't afford not to take the bait.
"How can I know you're not lying?" he rasped through clenched teeth.
Ozai shrugged, too casually. "I guess you can't. Looks like you'll have to trust your old man."
With a flick of his wrist, Zuko ignited a fire ball and stepped inches from his father's face, holding it in striking position. "You think you're in any position to be calling the shots right now? You're outnumbered six to one. In one move, I could end you."
"Go ahead. Let's see if you're finally man enough to do it." The flames licked dangerously close to Ozai's hair, singeing a loose strand. The pungent, sulfurous smell stung his nose and throat. Ozai didn't even flinch. Zuko's lips curled back from clenched teeth, hand trembling with fury, but Ozai only laughed as Zuko stood there, rushed breathing, ears pounding. With every moment he stalled, his father gained another foothold. He was losing the battle. And Katara. Gods, why couldn't he do it? "Bring me the Avatar." Ozai's laugh died to a deep scowl. "Or I promise you will never see your little waterbender again."
His breathing came heavy as Zuko tried to compose himself. He took a step back but kept the fireball in position. "I need to know Katara's okay first. I'm not giving you anything until you can prove that to me."
"I'm afraid my word will have to suffice for now."
"That's not good enough!" The fire exploded into a blaze as he sliced his hand through the air.
"Well, that's a shame." Ozai crossed his arms with mock disappointment. "What will Katara think when she hears you put a higher price on the life of your Avatar than on her?"
"That's not going to work–"
"I doubt she'll be very grieved at all, actually. She and I have grown rather fond of each other."
Zuko's stomach turned to lead as a flood of nauseating images forced its way into his mind. His mouth suddenly went sour and he thought me might gag. Fury boiled up from his heart so hot he couldn't see straight. Without taking his eyes off his father, he sliced an arm back through the air, signaling for his friends to remove the sleeping bag. Aang was raised up, thrashing and growling, barely held back between Sokka and Hakoda's grasp. Zuko watched as Ozai's brow stitched, his mouth a little slack with suppressed shock.
"There! Here's your Avatar! Is this what you'd hoped to see?" His nostrils flared with seething disgust, waiting for his father to say something. "I fulfilled my end of the bargain. Now where is Katara?"
"She's safely waiting on the other side of the island." Ozai's voice had taken on a strangely placid tone that sent a chill down Zuko's spine. "Give me a moment and I'll bring her to you."
"Wrong! If you think I'm letting you out of my sight, you better think again. I'm coming with you."
Ozai shrugged. "Suit yourself."
"Zuko, no. You can't go alone," Sokka shouted, leaping to the ground after him. "This has trap written all over it. Someone's gotta watch your back."
"Just Zuko, if you please," Ozai snapped. "It's been so long since we've had a good father-son chat."
Zuko locked a solemn expression on Sokka and nodded. The warrior grimaced and shook his head but backed down.
"I can manage my father," he assured him. "You guys stay here in case anything crazy happens."
The night air was cold and clammy, its moisture clinging to his skin like a damp film. Zuko shoved his father along, keeping a keen eye on the path he was leading for any sign of deception. Soft earth whispered and branches creaked as their feet shuffled through the detritus. Aside from their footsteps, the island was heavy with an unnerving silence. Zuko tried not to notice.
"So, son…" his father said at length. "Did you miss me?"
"Shut up." Zuko shoved a fist into his father's back. "Just keep walking."
"As you say, Fire Lord." Zuko could hear the cold sneer on his father's face. He gritted his teeth but said nothing. Moments passed in silence before Ozai spoke again. "Please, indulge my curiosity. Exactly how were you able to track me down? I know you didn't manage it on your wits alone, clever as you may be." The insult hung in the air like a foul odor. Zuko ignored it. It wasn't worth his time.
"Her name's Genshi. She's a conjurer."
"That little mousy woman you have with you?" Ozai scoffed.
Zuko wanted to bark at him not to call her that, but he knew it would only give his father more of what he wanted. Instead he steered the conversation. "Her visions suggested some sickening things, father," he hissed in his ear as he pressed his father forward. "Disturbing things. About you and Katara."
"Disturbing? Oh now, I wouldn't say–"
"It wasn't enough to take her as your hostage? You had to force yourself on her, too, like some monster?"
Ozai smirked over his shoulder, raising an eyebrow. "Who said anything about force?"
His stomach twisted. The nausea slowed his steps to a halt. "You're lying. Katara would never –!"
"What?" Ozai leered, stopping to turn to him. "Give herself to a man like me? It's no fault of mine that she fell in love with me, Zuko. Has it never occurred to you that perhaps the blame lies with you? That she found herself in need of a real man and was heretofore unsatisfied?"
A jolt of white-hot rage pulsed through him and something inside him snapped. "Aarrrgh!" he roared and kicked a blinding burst of flame at his father before charging him. The older man narrowly dodged the attack but met Zuko with a swift, sudden kick to the stomach. Stunned, he staggered back, doubled over as he gulped for air.
Ozai paced around him in slow, intimidating steps as he watched his son struggle to breathe. "The truth is an ugly thing, isn't it? So inconvenient. Unlike the pretty lies we fancy, you can only ignore the truth for so long until it blindsides you with its rawness. Choosing to carry on in ignorance despite it is your own folly."
"I don't believe you," he grated out.
"No? Here. She can tell you herself." Ozai gestured to a clearing about ten feet ahead at the edge of the forest. A sweetly familiar form rose from where she was seated.
"Ozai! You're back already?"
For a moment Zuko couldn't speak. He could only stare as the woman he loved, the woman he wasn't sure he would ever see again, stood mere strides away from him, safe and sound. She didn't see him right away though. She stepped eagerly toward them, extending welcoming hands that he realized with dread were meant for his father. She quickly pulled back as her eyes finally settled on him. "Zuko?!"
Air flooded back to his lungs at his name on her lips. "Katara! Are you alright?" Zuko rushed forward, ignoring the ache in his stomach as he held his arms out to her. Instead, Katara drew back, landing a prickly expression on him that stopped him short.
"What are you doing here?"
Like another blow to the gut, he couldn't draw a breath. "What do you mean? I'm here to rescue you."
"Do I look like I need rescuing?" She gave a callous little laugh. Zuko could only stare at her, dumbfounded. It was so unlike her. "It's been… how many months? And now you decide to show up?"
"How could you say that?! I've been searching night and day since the moment you went missing. I've hardly slept for fear that I'd never see you again. And now that I've found you…" He shook his head with a grimace. "You can't seriously want to stay with him! Don't you see, he's manipulating you, just like he manipulates everyone. He's brainwashed you into seeing and feeling what he wants you to for his own agenda. And I'm putting an end to it now. Come on, I'm getting you out of here."
Reaching out, he had barely caught hold of her hand when her soft skin jerked back through his fingers.
"No!" she snarled. "I'm not going anywhere with you. Why don't you go on your merry little way and find your next little plaything, Zuko. I'm through playing the part."
Zuko blinked, trying to make sense of her words. A cold ball of dread was lodging itself in his chest. "Wait. What?"
"It wasn't real, was it? None of it was real." Her voice came strained but even, almost cold. "Just another pretty face to add to your collection. And I can't believe I fell for it."
"What are you –?" He cut himself off, eyes widening, as the reality of the situation took shape. Zuko spun around and growled at his father through clenched teeth. Veins corded in his neck as he tried to breathe through the rage. "What did you tell her?!" his voice boomed across the clearing.
"Only the truth. As I said, it's an ugly thing, Zuko. You should have known your voracious appetite for women would come back to haunt you."
Lips parting, his brows pulled up over widened eyes. Zuko turned back to Katara, heartbeat sluggish, as he held his hand out to her in a desperate plea. His throat suddenly went dry. "Katara, please," he croaked out. "Come with me. Whatever he's told you, I can explain."
"Forget it! I'm staying with Ozai."
With a smug grin, his father put an arm around her shoulder, weaving his fingers through her hair. "You see, son? She's made her choice. And you're wasting your time."
Zuko shook with a palpable fury. "I never should have let Aang spare your life."
"You know, it's such a shame that I ever had to call you son. You're pathetically weak, Zuko. You've proven it again and again. Letting the avatar spare me is no exception."
"Yeah, well, I won't be making that mistake again." His meaning lingered just long enough, nostrils flaring, before he loosened the reins on his fury. "Rraagghh!" Zuko spun into a kick, shooting a powerful burst of flame at Ozai's head. Landing, he fired a second burst with his other leg. Ozai ducked nimbly beneath the first shot but came up barely in time to skim past the second. With a growl, he jumped out of Zuko's line of fire.
The shrill ring of metal sounded as Ozai drew his blade. In one swift movement, he rolled out of range of another fireball and back again, slashing the dagger against the flesh of Zuko's leg. With a scream, Zuko dropped to the ground. There wasn't even enough time to counter before Ozai was pinning him down, cold, sharp steel biting into his neck. He seized his father's hand, groaning against the effort as he fought to keep the knife at bay.
"It must be so embarrassing," he sneered through a growl. "Even without firebending, I can still put you in your place."
Zuko's arms were growing weaker against his father's superior strength and he knew time was running out. He brought a knee up hard into Ozai's stomach. There was a grunt of pain and a quick slack in his strength. That was all Zuko needed. He jabbed his elbow up and into Ozai's neck. Choking, he rolled to the ground.
Zuko spun to his feet, clenching his teeth at the searing pain in his leg. A gush of warm blood trickled down his leg with the sudden movement. He tried not to think about how deep the gash might be. Or how much blood he was losing. With a sweep of his arms, he sent an arc of fire fanning out at his father. Staggering to his feet, Ozai sliced his blade through it, sending the flames roaring to either side of him. And then he took off, ducking and dodging through the attacks with the speed and agility of a leopard-fox. In between the roars and blasts of firebending, Katara's voice rang out in frantic cries for peace. But Zuko hardly noticed.
With a powerful spin, he shot out a whirling wheel of fire. Ozai cut his dagger through it again, blocking the attack. But the flames caught on the sleeve of his cloak, erupting into a blaze on contact. Zuko wasn't about to give him time to put it out. Instead, he launched another arc of fire which caught on a side of his pants. Ozai was screaming now, the flames eating past the fabric to his skin. It had already devoured his sleeve by the time Ozai flung off his cloak. Even in the dim crimson light of the moon, Zuko could see that his father's arm was badly blistered.
Ozai rolled to the ground, evading another attack while feverishly trying to put out the fire on his leg. His pants below the knee were already eaten away as the fire crept up, the skin sizzling and blistering in its wake. Ozai yowled in pain as he rolled, dead leaves and dirt sticking to his wounded leg. The fight was all but over, Zuko knew. This was it. Taking a deep breath, he readied a last strike – a fire bomb, one that would surely end this fight for good.
As he drew back his arm for the strike, something lashed out and struck him off balance. Stunned, Zuko turned to see Katara leveling a harsh expression on him, reclaiming a water whip. Her brows quaked over icy blue eyes. Part of him felt sorry for her. She looked so conflicted and hurt. But… She'd struck him! To save his father. Her captor.
Or maybe he wasn't her captor anymore.
His rage – and, was it a shade of jealousy? – boiled anew. Zuko took a step toward her, fists balled at his sides, and opened his mouth to say something.
There was a loud, powerful blow as something came down hard on the back of his head. He staggered forward, mouth agape, unable to utter so much as a gasp against the pain. A flash of metal – the hilt of a blade? It was hard to tell through the darkness bleeding into his vision. He saw the blur of his father appear before him, awash in the red glow of the moon, watching him with a hard expression as Zuko's trembling legs buckled. His knees sunk into the soft, damp earth. Somewhere far away there was the sweet melody of Katara's voice. Ozai mumbled something in return and Zuko strained to understand but the darkness was already too thick.
And then he was falling. Cold, wet grass stung his face as his body collided with the ground. Zuko latched onto the last shred of consciousness he had, willing himself to his feet. Katara…
But it was too late. Darkness was complete.
A/N: *Gasp!* A cliffhanger! I was planning to make this and the next chapter all one chapter, but it started to get bigger than I was anticipating and got out of hand. Not to worry, I'm already working on the next one so hopefully it won't be long in coming!