Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar: the Last Airbender. If I did, I wouldn't have to work for a living.
Thank you for reading this far! I hope you enjoyed the story. Here is the last installment of the first story arc. Next up: the sequel!
Just remember
In the winter
Far beneath
The bitter snows
Lies
the seed
That
with the sun's love
In
the spring
Becomes
the Rose
Firewater Rose, Arc 1, Chapter 8
If anyone had asked him three years ago, at the start of his exile, how he would be returning home, this would be at the bottom of his list, Zuko decided. From the back of Aang's flying bison, Zuko could see the sun rising over the Fire Nation capital. It would be many, many hours before the sun set, and what would the city look like when it was all over? When it was, would he be a traitor for leading the Avatar against the Fire Nation, or an honored son for ending the war?
Even now, Zuko could feel the fire inside him, roaring like a chained tiger. Sozin's Comet would be upon them today. Even Aang was noticing an increase in his firebending prowess.
Down below them, so far that Zuko could only make out dark splotches dotting the Earth, Earth Kingdom armies and the handful of troops that the Northern Water Tribe could offer were advancing on the city. Fire Nation soldiers were pouring out to meet them. Though he couldn't see them, Zuko was certain that the Fire Lord would put Yuu Yuan archers in the towers to pick-off Earth Kingdom and Water Tribe officers.
A low rumbling noise made its way to the ears of Appa's charges, and Zuko looked down to the source. A giant wall of earth had risen up out of the ground and was falling on one of the Fire Nation divisions. All Zuko could see was streaks of red uniforms scrambling to get out of the way of the toppling terror.
As Appa banked around the city to the harbor, the Fire Navy came into view. Half of the fleet had been docked when the attack began. The ships were now releasing their moorings and providing supporting fire for the city's defenders. For their part, the Water Tribe's benders were working in concert, pushing and pulling the waves, tossing a handful of the larger warships about.
One of the ships fired, and Zuko watched in horror as the fireblast rained down on a cluster of blue-clad warriors. In panic, the Water Tribe benders broke formation, and the waters of the harbor went still.
Aang stood up on Appa's head. With slow motions that looked more like a dance than an attack, he pulled a column of water easily two hundred feet tall out of the harbor, and dashed it against the flagship. The flagship was smashed against the cliffs that bordered the beach. When the water receded, it lay like a dead fish on the sands.
Aang sank back down on Appa's head as the surviving waterbenders resumed their assault on the remaining ships. For the third time that day, Zuko wished Katara was with them. She, he had no doubt, could keep the Navy busy and spare Aang's strength for the comet. He hoped, wherever she was, she was recovering from her illness. The banished Prince leaned back and closed his eyes.
Another town, another inn... Another place to turn me away when they figure out who I am, he thought. Why should I hide who I am? I dunno, maybe because I'll starve to death if I don't? His practical side won the argument.
There wasn't anywhere in the Earth Kingdom that hadn't been touched by his great-grandfather's war. If the Fire Nation hadn't already marched over the area, then their spouses and children had been thrown in the Fire Nation's path. Everywhere he went, he was met with distrust at first, then outright hostility when his scar was recognized.
When he reached the outskirts of town, he pulled back on his reins. The town was a smoking ruin. No matter how many times he saw scenes like this, it made him cringe inside. He squeezed his ostrich-horse's sides, and his mount set off down the main road. Well, I won't have to worry about pitchforks, he thought.
As he glanced around, something was out-of-place. A corpse in the road caught his attention. Again, he stopped his mount. This time, he slid out of his saddle to examine the body. With one hand, he shoved the corpse onto its side. Dark hair, pale skin, extended sideburns, topknot... but no armor or weapons... This was a Fire Nation settlement!
Something caught his attention under the dead man, and he shoved the body fully onto its back. Raven locks wrapped-up in the man's hands grabbed his attention. Reverently, he peeled the hands apart, and the body of a child - a boy, no more than ten years old - rolled to the side.
Zuko leapt to his feet and staggered back against his mount. The voice of a boy echoed through the streets, and for a moment, Zuko thought the dead were speaking to him.
"I don't know, Sokka. Are you sure this is the place Aunt Wu was talking about?"
"You're the one who believes in that mumbo-jumbo, why are you asking me?" Zuko recognized Katara's brother's voice. That must mean that the other was the Avatar!
The two youths rounded a corner behind Zuko and stopped in their tracks. Sokka's hand flew to his boomerang.
"What are you doing here?" he glared at Zuko.
"I'm just passing through," Zuko said.
"Wait a minute, Sokka... Aunt Wu said," Aang started.
"I don't care what that old bat said! She was wrong!" Sokka insisted, "This isn't the place, and he certainly isn't the teacher! Don't you remember what he did to Katara?"
Zuko stopped in the middle of mounting his ostrich-horse with one boot in the stirrup. Calmly, he pulled his foot back to the ground and strode around behind his mount to face the water boy.
"What, exactly, did I do to Katara?" his eyes narrowed. Where is she?
Sokka's eyes narrowed right back at Zuko. "Don't pretend you don't know, dirtbag."
"Where's your sister?" Zuko asked, keeping his voice and temper even.
"She... she got sick, so we sent her home," Aang answered. Sokka snorted.
Zuko was taken aback. Sick? The girl who had endured Zhao's barbaric assaults, walked a hundred miles barefoot through dense forest, and jumped off the back of a flying bison into a raging river to save him? Sick? Maybe it had all been too much for her. Was her daredevil dive to save his life the final straw?
"Her illness... is it because of me?" he asked.
Sokka's nostrils flared. "You might say that!"
"Sokka, cut it out!" Aang was getting annoyed, "We don't know that! No one knows that! It's not like Katara ever said, 'Zuko did this to me!'"
Zuko didn't hear Aang's words. Somehow, Katara was ill and it was his doing. He looked down at the body of the child laying in his father's arms.
"Avatar, what kind of teacher were you looking for?" he asked.
"I was looking... I mean, Aunt Wu said I'd find... a firebender to teach me... here."
Zuko nodded. "Can you look me in the eye, Avatar, and promise me you'll put an end to this war? That you'll stop the killing, and let my people live in peace?"
Aang clearly had not been expecting that question. He gulped before he answered.
"I can't promise that, but I promise that I'll die trying. I don't have a chance unless I learn to firebend first, though."
"That's good enough for me, Avatar," Zuko responded quietly.
For the next month, Zuko drilled against Aang, teaching the boy the basics of firebending. He drilled against their third party member, the blind earthbender named Toph. He even drilled against Sokka, earning a grudging acceptance from the water tribe boy in exchange for showing the boy how to better wield a blade, and learning a few things about combat, himself.
The Fire Palace was in flames all around him, but he did not notice. His world was constricted to two things: him, and his target. He stood still, waiting for his prey to come to him. Come for him, his prey did. Rushing forward, streaming lightning in its wake. He breathed in, and out. In, and out. His target was two steps away.
Prince Zuko ducked to the left, sidestepping around his opponent. As his opponent reached out for him, the Fire Prince grabbed a wrist, using his target's own momentum to twist the hand around behind him so that the bolts of electricity struck his opponent in the back with their full intensity.
Fire Lord Ozai fell dead at Zuko's feet. Clapping echoed throughout the Agni Kai arena.
"Well done, Zuzu," a sultry, poisonous voice said, "and welcome home."
"Don't make me kill you, Azula," he warned.
"Like you killed Father? He would be so proud of you, you know. I guess the apple really doesn't fall far from the tree," she said with feigned disinterest. "Oh, don't be so upset, brother dear. He was getting weak."
"Shut up," he demanded.
"Make me," she narrowed her gaze and assumed a fighting stance.
Around the arena she drove him. Every fireblast, every bolt of lightning she sent at him, he evaded with moves he'd learned from Sokka, but they weren't enough. They were keeping him from dying, but he never got a clear shot at her. Finally, she let out a frustrated scream.
"You've gotten better, Zuzu. Now, let's see you dodge this!" and she drew a blade.
"There are no weapons in an Agni Kai, Azula!" he yelled.
"Who said this was an Agni Kai? I don't remember challenging you, or you challenging me. Oh, no, Zuzu, dearest. This is war. There are no rules."
Proud, not stupid, he reminded himself. She must've been waiting for me to challenge Father to an Agni Kai, so she could catch me without armor or weapons....
She came at him in a whirling, chaotic mass of steel and flame. She was unrelenting, driven. He ducked out of the way of one bolt of lightning, and before he could move again, something struck him on the back of the head, then a boot shoved the small of his back to the ground. He twisted around in time to find her standing over him, a mad gleam in her eye.
He saw her blade flash red, reflecting the flames that were consuming the arena, as it fell. Her eyes went cold and black as she leaned forward.
"That's for the Water Tribe!" he heard someone yell on the far side of the arena.
Azula's body twisted to the side and collapsed harmlessly beside him. Zuko rolled her over to get her legs off of his. Sokka's boomerang was embedded in her back. His... friend? Yes, his friend, strode non-chalantly up to Zuko and put his hand out.
"Man, I thought Katara was a pain in the neck for a sister..." was all Sokka said.
Zuko took Sokka's hand and stood up. "This way!" he yelled, pointing toward one of the exits.
The two young men stumbled out into a courtyard, Sokka was coughing and wheezing from the smoke. The water boy took two steps and collapsed against Zuko. Zuko hoisted him up onto his shoulders and carried him to the center of the stone courtyard and away from the burning palace walls.
A roaring overhead caused him to look up in time to see a streak of bright light soar through the sky to meet Sozin's Comet.
All my life has been about this moment, Aang thought to himself. Everything I've learned, everything I've done, everyone I've cared about... For the first time in his life, Aang was going to bring all of his bending abilities to bear. Never again. Comet, you've met your match!
He bent the air around him in to a densely-packed orb before stirring up a wind to carry him high into the atmosphere. Higher and higher he bent the wind, never once looking down. He kept his eyes on the Comet. The sky began to turn a darker blue. Points of light appeared all around him. Stars! I can see the stars in broad daylight! he realized.
Something was wrong. It was harder and harder to keep the air bent around him. He was slowing down. The Comet was so close, yet so far away. He couldn't breathe. The air was being pulled away from him. No! and he felt nothing more.
A massive explosion in the sky rocked the courtyard, but Zuko paid it no mind whatsoever. Streamers of fire rained down on the city, and Zuko ignored them. A bright light fell from where the Comet had been, and this had all of Zuko's attention. Slowly, the light descended toward him, and he left Sokka lying on the ground as he raced to catch the Avatar.
Aang's eyes and tattoos glowed with an eerie light. The Avatar State! Zuko realized. Slowly, the light faded, and Aang blinked at Zuko, a thin trickle of blood dripped from the corner of the Avatar's mouth.
"Zuko," Aang said weakly.
"I'm right here, Aang. Don't talk! We'll get you to a doctor!"
"Too late. Zuko, you're a powerful firebender. You must promise me something," Aang struggled to meet Zuko's eyes.
"Anything..."
"Protect Katara," and Aang's brown eyes glazed over, and his breathing ceased.
A door burst open into the courtyard. A wrinkled hand grasped Zuko's shoulder firmly.
"He's dead," was all Zuko could say. "The Avatar State..." Zuko didn't finish the sentence.
"He was in the Avatar State when he fell?" Iroh asked. Zuko simply nodded, too overcome by emotion to say anything else.
Since the Comet had lit up the sky, she spent every day on the newly-repaired wall around her village, waiting. After three weeks, her wait ended when a familiar blot against a noon-time cloud appeared on the horizon. Excitement flowed through her veins. They're home! she wanted to stand up and sing.
The next thirty minutes were excruciating, but the moments after Appa landed would stay with her for the rest of her life. She rushed down off the wall and into Sokka's arms, tears of joy streaming down her face. Gingerly, Sokka returned her hug. She looked up into his face. Somehow, he looked older. Not like a boy of 16 anymore.
She glanced over to where Appa stood.
"Where's Aang?" she looked to Sokka for an answer.
Nooooo! her mind screamed. The pain in her soul echoed through her body. She fell to the ground, clutching her swollen abdomen. Sokka looked up to their grandmother for an answer.
"It's too soon, Katara!" Gran-gran exclaimed. "Quick, Sokka, get your sister into the tent!"
Katara heard her grandmother barking orders to Sokka and two women from their tribe. The pain kept coming. It wouldn't stop. Get it out of me! She panted.
Gran-gran was hovering over her. Someone put something in her mouth. She screamed and bit down on it. It tasted like leather. The pain washed over her again, and she bit down until her teeth came together. A finger hastily dug through her mouth between pains and removed whatever it was they'd given her.
Another pain rocked her body. Gran-gran was saying something to her, but she didn't hear anything. Her pain-filled eyes locked with her grandmother's pale grey eyes for a moment. Flecks of gold appeared in Gran-gran's eyes. Funny, I never noticed those before. Then more flecks, amber this time. The golden colors multiplied until all that was left was a pair of golden, amber-tinged eyes, and she felt peace.
She woke up several hours later. Her entire body felt like one big bruise, and her hair was plastered to her face, neck and back by sweat. Gran-gran and Sokka were sitting next to her bedroll.
"The baby?" she asked.
"It was too soon, my little waterbender. We've already... attended to her," Gran-gran's soothing voice came.
"And Aang? Is he dead, Sokka?" she glanced to her brother.
Sokka nodded, solemnly. "There's more, Katara. He died in the Avatar State."
"No..." Katara breathed.
No one in the tent said anything for a very long time.
Master Pakku stood at the entrance to the Southern Water Temple. He glanced down at the sleeping bundle in his arms. He nudged her quietly, and she opened her burnished copper eyes.
"Kanna. I think I will call you Kanna," he told the infant girl.
End of Firewater Rose, Arc 1
For those who are curious, yes, there is an Arc 2, and most likely an Arc 3 that will pick up where this story leaves off. The questions this chapter leaves you with will be answered, new questions will be raised, but they are another story, for another time.