A/N: Thanks to Sharpe, Black Dragon Master, caandleknight, AsahixMe, Tertius11, IrishDreamer4, BrightWatcher, devilfiredog18, and Aquamirra for leaving reviews!

Time check: Late summer, 175 AG (13 months post-Book 4 finale).

20. I'm done waiting for lightning in the dark; I've found the light inside my heart

There is something in the air.

He stands on the roof of his apartment building, breathing in the night. It's dry here, but it's raining somewhere; he scents sulphur and petrichor carried on the breeze that ruffles his hair and clothes and caresses his skin. He casts his gaze westward and sees the summer storm swirling above Avatar Aang Memorial Island: dark, billowy clouds shot through with brilliant streaks of white lightning.

Even from this far, he feels his chi tingling in response. His fingers twitch with the muscle memory of generating the cold fire, and he's subconsciously preparing to separate the pools of energy within him before he remembers what lightning did to him.

The familiar phantom burn courses through his left arm. He clenches his fist, half-expecting to feel pain, numbness, weakness — though it's been many weeks since any of that bothered him.

"Our experiences leave scars."

His scars stand out in stark relief against the paleness of his skin — feathered redness, branching lines that could be artistic if they hadn't been branded with agony. But his grip is sure and strong, his muscles steady. He trusts his arm.

The smell of rain intensifies; the storm is moving, the winds blowing towards him. The lightning flashes closer. He flinches as a bolt strikes an antenna.

"Those scars stay with us for life."

He remembers what he has done with lightning.

Scorched earth, broken ruins, scattered fires. Panicked pedestrians cowering, fleeing. A cruel smile on a satisfied face. "That," says Lightning Bolt Zolt, "is how it's done."

Frozen shock behind a chalk-white mask. Brief terror, perhaps for the first time. "No one has ever gotten the better of me like that," says Amon.

Electricity travelling fatally through water to flesh. He's never taken a life before. Ming-Hua screams in his nightmares.

Endless current, pulsing, searing, exploding. "I can handle it," he says, but he's not sure he can.

He remembers, but he refuses to be dragged under.

"You can't ever go back to the way you were before you had those experiences."

Lightning broke him, but lightning has saved him, too.

A cable snaps around his body. Voltage burns through him. He reaches within; grasps the current, redirects.

Blood that doesn't obey him, the Avatar without her bending. Agony in his veins, but the pretender draws near. His chi erupts in white flame.

One last light at the end of the world, dark hordes rush to snuff it out. Fire is ineffective, but lightning holds them at bay.

The waterbender has malice in her voice, murder in her eyes. He strikes first.

A dead switch and lives on the line. One choice only he can make. He goes for the sacrifice because it's the right thing to do.

Lightning has changed him.

"You learn to cope, you learn to live with them."

Lightning is part of him.

The rain reaches him. The storm's lightning has faded.

He sets his stance, inhales deeply, and gathers his chi. The energy separates, stretches, and then crashes.

Lightning bursts from his fingers for the first time in over a year.

A/N: Lyric from 'Waiting for Lightning' by Cheryl Cole.

Today's chapter was short but significant. Next chapter, though, is one of the longest in the story to date...featuring a character from TLOK who hasn't appeared in this fic yet. Feel free to guess, and get excited for Wednesday!