Pain, deep and cold and fathomless. Zuko bobbed helplessly at the surface of consciousness, the pain dragging him back under. Engulfing darkness. He struggled, like clawing his way to the top of an endless abyss. A futile tug of war.

A face, soft yet strong, blue eyes smiling. It flickered at the edge of his mind and he gasped, clawing a handful of cold, moist earth. He tried to cry out but all he could muster was a strangled groan.

Katara.

Zuko rolled onto his stomach, his breaths sharp and ragged, and forced himself up onto his forearms. Moisture mixed with old blood dripped from the matted hair on his forehead, down the bridge of his nose. He tasted sweat and dirt on his lip as he tried to sit up, groaning. The world started spinning uncontrollably and he retched. Several minutes passed as Zuko sat there, dragging in air, before things seemed to steady enough for him to get his bearings. As quickly as he could, he staggered his way to his feet, swaying.

He squinted as his eyes focused. Forest surrounded him on all sides, disorienting. But the night glowed a red so bright – was it brighter than before? – that it didn't take him long to spot the two sets of footprints leading off into the woods from where he stood. And, stumbling at first, he took off after them.

.:. .:. .:. .:. .:. .:. .:.

"Avatar," Ozai smirked, looking into the stag spirit's six unblinking eyes. "I rather like the sound of that. I suppose I have you to thank for getting me this far. And somehow I doubt you did it of your own goodwill."

"Ah, your brains do match your brawn," Jaaku droned, his tone ripe with sarcasm.

"So what is it you want?" Ozai said sharply, cutting to the chase. He was in no mood to play games.

"And here I thought it would be quite obvious."

Ozai leveled a hard frown on Jaaku but held his tongue, waiting for an explanation.

"Nothing in this world comes free, you know. I plan to take a share of that power you possess. Oh, the havoc I could wreak with even a drop of such power. It makes me giddy at the very thought. It will go so much easier if you give it, of course, but I'll have it either way. So tell me, shall we do this the easy way?"

"If you think you'll get so much as a drop from me, you are gravely mistaken," Ozai growled through clenched teeth.

Jaaku sighed heavily. "It would seem you're not as smart as I took you for. Pity."

Before Ozai could blink, Jaaku lunged and was on him. In an instant his body enlarged to three times his size and his hooved feet transformed into enormous wolf-like paws. A pair of powerful clawed arms burst from either side of his chest. His faintly smiling mask-face split open to reveal a gaping mouth full of razor sharp teeth, dripping with noxious frothy sputum.

Ozai choked on the fumes and shoved him back, rolling out from under him only to be tackled again, the spirit's jagged claws digging into his skin. Jaaku's six red eyes rolled back in his head as he stabbed with his antlers. Ozai dodged but his weakness was palpable next to Jaaku. In the spirit world, he was still shaky and lacked control. His mind and body were separate and it took more focus than he had realized to maneuver in such a state.

They wrestled, and Ozai's stomach lurched as he felt something pressing into his core. The spirit was trying to reach inside him. If he could possess him he could take his power and Ozai would be helpless to stop him. His heart started racing and Ozai struggled against Jaaku's grasp, crying out at the sickening pain. He had worked too hard to become the vessel for this monster. The prize was his alone, he couldn't let this thing steal what he had achieved with his own sweat and blood.

Ozai pushed back against the spirit's probing essence and brought his feet up under him. He summoned all the power he could muster in one blow and kicked Jaaku off so hard that he felt the nauseating snap of the spirit's life force being plucked out of him like a severed line. And before Jaaku could lunge at him again, Ozai closed his eyes, focusing on his body where it laid in the physical world and propelled himself forward. He gave a sharp cry as he burst from the spirit world with a searing pain. His spirit and body collided with a jolt and for a moment there was only darkness.

.:. .:. .:. .:. .:. .:. .:.

Katara ducked as a huge wedge of earth zoomed past her head. Toph didn't waste a second and sent another massive slab flying that Katara almost couldn't dodge. It skimmed through her wind-blown hair, nicking her skin before it crashed into a tree behind her. She lashed out a double waterwhip and then a rain of ice spikes, breaking the earthbender's next attack, but the younger girl quickly bounced back. With a quick thrust of her arm she shot a pillar of earth up under Katara's feet and sent her flying through the air. Her back collided with the ground, the air sucked from her lungs as she wheezed and gasped for air.

"It's called tough love, Sugar Queen. I'm not gonna hold your hand anymore and try to talk sense into you while you act like a little brat. No, I'm gonna beat you into the ground till you come to your senses."

Katara rolled to her side, clawing the earth as she coughed and caught her breath. It was only then in that lingering moment that she noticed the forms of her loved ones sprawled across the ground.

"I don't think you really wanna fight me," Toph gloated, hands on her hips. "You know you don't stand a chance. So just give it up and let us deal with the loser lord like he deserves."

"Were you too busy picking your toenails, Mudslug?" she rasped, staggering to her feet. "I just bloodbended an avatar. I can take you."

"Yeah… and you almost lost." Toph paused and shook her head, a deep scowl cutting across her face, uncharacteristically serious. "Look at your friends! Your family! Look what you've done to them! Is this really what you want?"

Katara ground her teeth and felt something inside her snap. "Shut up!" In an instant, she swept her arms in a wide arc and a surge of icy water tore from the foliage toward the earthbender. With a grunt, Toph struck a pose but before she could block the attack, the water encircled her from the neck down, freezing on contact. Katara stood there, breathing hard in the moment that followed. An avalanche of curses were spewing from the younger girl but Katara couldn't make sense of the words. Her body suddenly felt so heavy and the world was blurring, smears of greens and browns and that ominous red. Only then did she finally notice the deep throbbing in her shoulder, the raw pain. And then she remembered. Swaying, she looked down to see a gaping wound through torn fabric, the entire left half of her tunic stained red. She could see bone. Blood was still trickling generously from the gash. White spots floated in her vision as she sank to her knees, holding herself up with her hands to keep from collapsing completely.

"Katara, you need help. That's all we came here to do." Toph's voice echoed from somewhere far away. "But I can't do that when I'm neck deep in ice." She was speaking in a strangely gentle tone. "Back off with the ice and we'll call a truce. I'll help you pack the wound and stop the bleeding and you'll come away with us. Deal?"

It was getting harder to breathe. Her arms trembled and then gave out and she crumpled to the ground. Katara closed her eyes, trying to fight the darkness. She did need help and she was too weak to heal herself. But if she withdrew the attack, Toph would force her from Ozai against her will. On the other hand, if she didn't call off the attack, she would most likely die and none of that would matter anyway. She didn't really have a choice.

Tears pooled in her eyes as Katara gave a weak flick of her wrist and the ice liquefied to a puddle at the earthbender's feet. Not a moment later, there came a deep groan from somewhere behind her. Katara turned her head and her heart jumped. Ozai was rolling onto his side, pulling himself to his feet. He staggered at first before catching his balance and his eyes widened as he studied her lying on the ground.

"Ozai," Katara managed in a breath. "You're okay."

His eyes flicked to Toph, fury drawing his brows low over his eyes, and then back to Katara. "What did they do to you?" He knelt down next to her, quickly assessing her cuts and bruises and the gaping wound on her shoulder before carefully dragging her into his arms. She cried out in pain as he applied firm pressure to slow the bleeding. "I got what I came for. Now I'm getting you out of here."

"Think again!" Before Ozai could lift Katara, Toph stomped and sent a boulder flying. Ozai managed to dodge it, barely. He sprung lithely onto his hands as he dove out of range and, with a spinning kick, shot a wall of flames at her in return.

"What the–?" Toph ducked as fire roared over her head and singed several strands of hair.

Katara gasped. He was firebending! It had actually worked. She wasn't sure if it was the fire he'd reclaimed, or something else entirely, but there was something different about him. A change in his energy. He was more terrifying somehow, more powerful. She could sense it as he stood over her, glaring fiercely at Toph with a sharp smile upon his lips. Katara glanced sidelong at Aang still crumpled unmoving on the ground. What had Ozai done to him?

Toph stood up slowly, hands cocked on her hips, and flashed Ozai a brassy smirk. "Loser Lord's got his firebending back. Not sure how you swung that, but I guess it'll make it all the more humiliating when you get crushed by a little girl!"

There was a heaviness in the pit of Katara's stomach. Something warned her that this would be a losing battle.

"Toph," she coughed weakly, "you don't know what you're doing."

"Stay outta this, Katara. It's time your sugar daddy found out what happens when he messes with my friends!" She punched her fist into her palm and stomped the ground. Earth came up to swallow Ozai's feet, locking him in place and with another stomp, a chunk of earth levitated before her. With a nod of her head it shattered into countless shards, firing a barrage of tiny deadly bullets at Ozai.

In an instant, he broke out of the attack and raised a wall of rock with a sharp bend of his arms, the shards raining against it with a powerful clattering. In the stunned silence that followed, he let it fall back to the ground as he tore water up from the earth at her feet, snaking it around her legs and freezing it before she knew what had happened.

"Quite a big mouth for such a tiny little whelp. Unfortunately, words won't save you and those pitiful attacks won't go far. Not against a powerful avatar."

Ozai met Toph's wide-eyed shock with a wry smirk. She looked sidelong at Aang, a rare hint of fear in the hard line of her brows. Toph opened her mouth to speak but a sudden blast of air caught her without warning and sent her flying back against a tree. Wheezing, she rolled out of the way just as a ball of fire exploded in her place, sending shards of bark flying. The blast flattened her against the ground and Ozai was already rushing at her. Toph scrambled to her feet just in time to counter another attack and in the instant that followed, drove sharp spikes of earth up around him with violent force.

Almost effortlessly he sprung up, levitating on an air current high above the ground. His mouth twisted into a grin and, to Katara's horror, his eyes began to glow a terrifying red. A sudden wind whipped through the clearing, thrashing the trees together. There was a terrible groaning and snapping as the trees began to bow, the roots breaking free from the ground like long, knobby fingers.

Toph rose a column of earth up under her feet to Ozai's level and shot off three disks of earth, one after another. But Ozai deflected them with unnatural ease and sent them flying back at Toph with deadly speed. Toph barely dodged the first, but the second caught her square in the chest and she cried out as she fell from the column to the ground far below. She struggled weakly and then her body slumped back on the ground.

"Ozai! Please, stop!" Katara croaked but she was too weak and her voice was captured by the wind. What energy she'd had left was spent and she closed her eyes as her cheek rested on the dank earth. A tear trickled over the bridge of her nose.

What felt like a pair of hands rested down on her shoulders and turned her carefully onto her back. Katara's eyes fluttered open. She must be hallucinating. She'd lost too much blood and she knew her life was draining away. So she let herself sink deeper into the dream as a hand came up to caress her face.

"It's okay," Zuko whispered. "I'm here. You're going to be okay." He rested her back down softly as the world faded to black.

.:. .:. .:. .:. .:. .:. .:.

Zuko choked back tears as he placed Katara gently back on the soft earth and stood, looking up in horror at Ozai levitating in the air, that evil grin and his red glowing eyes slicing him through. How was this possible? Was he… an avatar?!

"I honestly didn't think I'd see you again." Ozai's voiced boomed across the clearing. Different somehow, alien, like it wasn't his own. And it wasn't. There was a long line of Avatars bonded to his soul now. "I guess I get to have the pleasure of destroying you twice."

"I don't think so," Zuko yelled back. "This ends now. I'll make sure of that." He glared with unbridled rage at the man he once called father.

Ozai chuckled. "This should be interesting." A wicked grin splayed ear to ear as Ozai spread his arms with such ironic grace and then water was bursting from the tree tops around them, the shrubbery at their feet, the leaves and branches shriveling to nothing in an instant. The powerful wave of water shot forward and Zuko was knocked back hard, tumbling, suffocating as the impact filched the air from his lungs. But crushing as the blow was, the fight in him was stronger. It burned fiercer as he found his footing and in an instant launched an enormous cyclone of fire.

Ozai spun a blast of air into the tempest and flames erupted and scattered like confetti through the clearing, but Zuko was already attacking again. His rage burned hotter and carried him forward as he lunged and kicked again and again, powerful bursts of flame exploding on impact. Ozai moved unnaturally fast, dodging and snaking through the attacks with ease. He hardly even flinched and there was no sign of duress or weakening as he countered with an arcing surge of lightning so quickly that Zuko felt the sparks of electricity at his heels as he barely managed to jump away. The blast at his feet slammed him to the ground and by the time Zuko flipped onto his back, the earth came up around him to swallow his wrists and feet. He couldn't move and the throbbing ache in his head had returned with a vengeance.

Zuko blinked, the landscape going in and out of focus. Ozai towered over him, hovering on a powerful air current.

"Once a failure, always a failure," he growled, his lips curling over his teeth. "Even the woman you've risked your life to save has rejected you. She's mine now. She chose me. And as for you…" His eyes were hard, flinty, as a malicious grin split his face. "I will relish every moment as I slowly suck your life away, erasing your miserable existence. I will watch you suffer and then I will throw you away like a disease-infested rag and never think of you again."

Ozai held his elbows wide, chest thrust out, as he trained a powerful hand on him. Zuko could feel the energy at Ozai's fingertips tugging at his life force. He could feel his own essence leaking out of his body, slowly, agonizing, like air through a tiny hole in a balloon, and he clenched his teeth against the scream that was building. He wouldn't give his father the satisfaction. His head was pounding with excruciating pressure and his stomach roiled, nauseous. He turned his head and vomited. And then through his blurring vision he could see Katara lying unconscious only a few strides away. And he couldn't save her. He couldn't save her.

He couldn't save her…

Sweat mixed with tears as it dripped down his face. He squeezed his eyes shut, his muscles trembling from the agony, the weakness as his energy was sucked away. And then suddenly there was a jolt and a shudder, like a tightly pulled string being severed. A horrifying scream cut across the clearing and Zuko opened his eyes to see his father contorted in the air above him, pain carved into his face. His red eyes blazed and Zuko blinked rapidly, trying to make sense of it all. And then he saw it. The tip of a blade protruding from Ozai's chest, blood starting to trickle freely from the wound.

His eyes darted, looking for the assailant, and he found him standing at the edge of the clearing. A man, not much older than himself, fists trembling as he scowled at Ozai who shrieked like a chorus of banshees as he came plummeting to the ground. The blazing red was extinguished like a blown-out candle and his father was finally still. The tyrant, the world's most dangerous threat to date, was finally gone.

The shackles on his limbs crumbled into earth and Zuko sat up slowly, cringing at the pain. The man turned his gaze on Zuko. His bronze eyes were cold and hard but softened briefly with a nod of his head. And then he turned and was gone through the wall of decimated trees.

Zuko blinked at the sudden stillness, the quiet so deafening it rang in his ears. Wincing, he forced himself up and limped over to wear Katara lay motionless. He knelt at her side and his stomach turned to lead. The ground around her was black and slick with blood. She looked so pale and cold and…

Oh gods, no.

Frantically, he tore a strip of cloth from her tattered tunic and wrapped it around the wound tightly, and then placed his hands on her wrists, her neck, looking for a pulse, any sign that there was still life in her. Her skin felt cold and clammy. He waited for that flutter beneath his fingertips. Waited, begging her heart to beat. There was nothing.

His throat tightened and he was suffocating. "No, Katara. No." The ragged words choked out as he placed his hands on her icy chest, willing the heat from his hands into her heart. An eternity passed as he held his breath and still there was nothing. Zuko clenched his teeth as he gave into the tears strangling him and rested his forehead on hers with a sob. "Don't do this. Please. Don't leave me when I finally have you back." He choked on the tears as he ran his fingertips up to her neck one last time.

Something trembled beneath his touch, so faintly he almost missed it. Zuko's breath hitched in his throat as he blinked, waiting. Had he imagined it? And then it came again, stronger this time. Her heart was weak but it was beating. A strangled laugh-cry resonated in his chest and he cupped her cheeks as her eyes fluttered open to slits. She took in a breath and his name came in a shaky whisper.

Zuko rested his forehead on hers again. "It's okay. It's over. I'm here now."

Something rustled at the tree line and Zuko looked to see Appa emerge, limping, spots of his fur scorched, the skin beneath bubbled and blistering. The bison stopped beside them and knelt down, offering his saddle. Carefully, Zuko cradled Katara in his arms and transferred her to the saddle. When she was situated and he had a moment to breathe again, he rubbed Appa's snout and quickly looked around for the others. He found Toph between the roots of an enormous tree, badly bruised but breathing. He patted her cheeks and she opened her eyes, looking around dazed as Zuko helped her into the saddle.

He went to Sokka and Hakoda next, grateful to find them alive, though badly injured. He found the conjurer, Genshi, a short distance from them, unconscious but breathing.

Appa spotted Aang before he did. Hobbling over, the bison nudged the boy with his muzzle, whimpering. When he didn't move, Appa nudged him harder, rolling him to his side. Zuko rushed over, half braced for an attack as Aang groaned awake. But the boy only blinked weakly through heavy-lidded eyes. He didn't even try to sit up.

"What happened?" he croaked out. "My whole body feels like it's on fire." There was no sign of the rage that had possessed him before. He was simply Aang again and Zuko knew then that everything would be okay.

"Let's just get us out of here," Zuko said as he helped him to his feet. The two of them climbed into the saddle and after a bumpy start Appa managed to carry them into the air. Zuko sat back with a ragged sigh and stroked Katara's brow as the island shrank to a black speck on the scarlet-crested waves below.

.:. .:. .:. .:. .:. .:. .:.

"How is he?" Zuko stood in the doorway, watching the healers bend over Aang's motionless body. His chest moved with slow, shallow breaths.

The healers – three middle-aged women – stood and bowed as Zuko entered the room. One of them, a woman named Yunbo, clasped her hands before her and spoke. "The Avatar is in critical condition, but he is stabilizing. We expect him to pull through. We feared the avatar cycle had been broken, but –" she shook her head, her forehead puckering, "I can't explain it, it's unfathomable – we can feel his avatar spirit radiating weakly inside him even after having been severed from him. The cycle isn't broken. The Avatar lives."

Zuko pinched the bridge of his nose and exhaled sharply. "Thank the spirits."

"It's impossible really. The only explanation is that it must have returned to him when Ozai was killed in the Avatar state. Having come to possess the Avatar spirit unnaturally, part of it was still technically bound to Aang's soul. And there it returned."

Zuko placed his hand on the woman's shoulder and smiled warmly at the healers. "Thank you all. Aang would never have made it without you."

The healers bowed as Zuko closed the door behind him with a soft click. Everyone was expected to make a full recovery. Hakoda and Sokka were already up walking around, helping tend to the others in the infirmary. Toph was still bed-ridden, though much to her disgruntlement. The healers complained of her stubbornness and on more than one occasion he had overheard her bossing them around. He was far too grateful that his friend was alive to care about her manners.

Zuko looked across the hall from where he stood, the pale morning sunlight filtering through the crack under the opposite door. Katara hadn't woken since he brought her here four days ago. A stress-induced coma, the healers said. One of them called it broken-heart syndrome. The idea that she could be brokenhearted at the loss of his evil, manipulative father sickened him, crushed him.

Zuko hadn't left her side except for political obligations and to check on Aang. He had been up since before sunrise attending early morning meetings to brief his commanders on Ozai, avatars, and the almost end of the world. The Battle of the Blood Moon people were calling it. Already they were singing songs and writing tales about it. Romanticizing it. They could never imagine how close they had truly come to the end of everything.

It had been several hours since he had checked on Katara. He rested his hand on the doorknob for a moment before he finally opened it quietly and slipped in. Zuko had given her the best room in the infirmary. The room was bright and lined with windows, a stunning view of Caldera City far below. As he closed the door behind him, a lump formed in his throat. Two shimmering sapphire eyes gazed back at him. They looked different somehow – older, sadder – but they were still Katara's eyes.

Their gaze lingered, the moment stretching on for what felt like an eternity. He didn't know what to say and silence was rushing in to fill the space between them.

"Hi," he said at last in a breath.

A smile ghosted on her lips. "Hi."

He walked over to her bedside and sat down, gently taking her hand in his own. "How are you feeling?"

She searched his eyes and her mouth worked, looking for the words. But no words came. A single tear slipped down her cheek and carved something out of him. Zuko squeezed her hand gently and pulled her into him, holding her head to his chest.

"I'm so sorry, Katara." His heart ached for her and the pain she had been through. If he could turn the hourglass of time, move even a single grain of sand to spare her this anguish, he would. She looked like a withered flower on its last petal of life, her hand resting limply in his. Broken, cast down, yet still alive against all odds.

"Is he–" The words cut off in her throat, strangled with emotion. Zuko's lips pressed together and he could only nod as another tear trailed down her face.

Had she loved him? Zuko's stomach clenched at the thought and part of him wanted to ask but he decided that it didn't matter. Some things were better left unsaid. Whatever had happened, whatever she had felt for Ozai was for her alone to know. He was gone and hopefully so was the spell he had cast on her.

All that mattered now was that she was here again, safe. And if there was one thing he knew, it was that Katara never gave up. She would come out the other side of this, maybe a little bruised and scarred, but stronger for it all. She always did. It was one of the many things he loved about her.

And someday she would be his again, if she would have him. He prayed that she would.

Zuko's eyes brushed over her face, beautiful even in sadness. He rubbed his thumb gently along her hand. "Do you remember the time we saw that play on Ember Island? The one about us?"

Katara huffed weakly and a small smile turned up her lips. "Yeah. It was awful."

"It was," he conceded. "But I loved every minute of it. It was the closest I'd been to you for any length of time. I remember how the closeness between us felt electrified, like the air just before a thunderstorm. And I got to sit there for hours, listening to your intoxicating laugh, accidentally brushing against you once in a while."

She blinked and her mouth went wide in a smile. "You did that on purpose?"

"Aang was so upset when I sat down beside you before he could," Zuko laughed. "But it was my only chance. I was up against a worthy competitor. And I was already falling hard for you by that point. I just didn't know how to tell you. I was afraid part of you still hated me."

"I definitely didn't hate you then," she said, the semblance of a smile melting away.

"And what about now?"

Katara's eyebrows knit together and her gaze flitted away briefly. "Zuko, I–"

He shook his head, squeezing her hand lightly to stop her. "It's okay. You need some time. I can't imagine what you're going through right now." He reached up to graze his fingertips over her cheek. "But know that nothing that's happened could change the way I feel about you. I love you, Katara. I always have and I always will. And if you're ever ready to open your heart again–"

She reached up and held his palm against her cheek, leaning into it. Her stormy eyes met his and tugged at his soul. There was a glint of life in them now where moments ago there was only sadness. Hope plucked at the strings of his heart.

Katara reached her other hand up to cup the scarred side of his face. The space between them grew smaller and Zuko's blood pumped faster. She drew him into her until their noses touched, her lips hovering just out of reach of his. She smelled like snow on the wind. His eyes fluttered closed, feeling her breath, warm and soft, on his face.

Like a spider that keeps spinning in the dark, despite all the times its web is torn apart, so they would rise again, together; braver, stronger versions of who they once were. And when their lips met, it was with all the purity and passion of a butterfly's breath, a fiery tenderness, promises of days past and the future that stretched before them, waiting to be discovered.

A/N: Whew, what a hiatus. Sorry to all my readers for the long break! I am proud to say I've finally managed to finish this story - I wasn't even sure it was possible given how crazy my life has been. Thank you to everyone who has read and reviewed and encouraged me to continue. I really don't think I would have if it weren't for the amazing reviews and private messages, so thank you all. You rock! If you like what you've read, please leave me a review and follow me, I am planning to write more Zutara and Ozatara in the near future :)