The firebending peasant had put up an admirable fight to keep him from the Avatar, but Prince Zuko of the Northern Water Tribe had not come all this way just to lose to her.

She may have succeeded in knocking him out with a blast of fire that had burned through his water whips, and in binding his hands while he was unconscious, but as soon as the sky turned dark he knew her advantage was gone. A slow exhale, and frost covered the ropes around his wrists, turning them brittle enough to break. A wave of water summoned from the temple's reflecting pool caught the firebender off guard, extinguishing the weak flames she conjured in her defense and sweeping her off her feet. The Avatar was his.

He allowed himself one moment to stand triumphant over his defeated opponent. "You rise with the sun," he taunted her. "I rise with the moon."

"I'm sorry I yelled at you before." Katara could hardly believe what she was hearing herself say, much less that she meant the words. "It's just, for so long now, whenever I would imagine the face of the enemy, it was your face." Her voice echoed eerily in the cavernous vault of the air temple.

"My face," the Water Tribe prince said, adding his own voice to the echo. He put one hand to the frostbite scar that covered his left eye. "I see."

"No, that's not what I meant," Katara hastily clarified, but Zuko didn't seem upset.

"It's okay," he said, looking away from her. "I used to think this scar marked me. The mark of the banished prince, cursed to chase the Avatar forever. But lately, I've realized I'm free to determine my own destiny, even if I'll never be free of my mark."

Katara put one hand to her neck, fingering the leather cord that hung there. "Maybe you could be free of it," she said tentatively. Zuko looked back at her in confusion, and she pulled the object at the end of the cord out from under her tunic, holding it up for him to see.

"This is a dragon scale," she explained. "The Sun Warriors gave it to me. I don't know if it would work, but it's supposed to have the power to grant one wish." She looked up at the prince through her eyelashes, feeling almost shy. "I've been saving it for something important."

Zuko studied the dragon scale, glittering softly in the faint light. What she was doing was crazy, Katara realized. A waterbender like Zuko would have no idea how precious what she offered him was, how sacred. But instead of mocking her for her primitive Fire Nation superstitions, he closed his eyes, and silently bowed his head, almost reverent in his acquiescence. Katara carefully pressed her fingertips to the rough skin of his scar, and took a deep breath.

But she never got a chance to invoke the dragon's power, for at that moment the airbending mechanism on the vault's only entrance whirred and clicked, and the doors swung open to reveal that Aang had found them.

Azula screamed and struggled against the chains that bound her, but even with her powers augmented by the supermoon, she could accomplish no more than making the spilled water around her slosh harmlessly. Katara ran across the courtyard towards where Zuko lay motionless on the ice. She felt his wrist, pressed her ear to his chest, praying to Agni - but there was only the faintest trace of a pulse. His sister had used her bloodbending to stop his heart, and it was struggling to start again.

It was her fault, Katara berated herself. If Zuko hadn't been distracted by Azula trying to bloodbend her, he could have broken his sister's hold on him. She knew his uncle had taught him the trick, based on firebending breathing techniques, even though Zuko had never mastered bloodbending itself. But he had used it to free Katara instead, leaving himself open to his sister's manipulation.

She looked around in desperation for anyone who might be a waterbending healer, but aside from Azula, they were quite alone in the courtyard. She needed to do something to get his heart beating steadily again, and soon.

The lightning sparked to life at her fingertips faster than she had ever summoned it - but at the same time, she knew she needed to maintain precise control. Too much, and she would only kill him faster. Instead of letting the blue energy discharge into the air, she finished the bending form by pressing her hand to Zuko's chest. His body jolted, back arcing, and she felt his heartbeat begin to race wildly, then gradually stabilize.

He gasped for breath, and his blue eyes fluttered open. "Thank you, Katara," he whispered.

Tears of relief spilled from her own eyes of gold. "I think I'm the one who should be thanking you."