Final chapter! Hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own A:TLA or any of its characters. I only have Kala.

When I found Zuko's army, I was met by a wall of foot soldiers that were defending my fiancé's position on his komodo-rhino. Zuko ordered them to allow me passage and I joined him on his steed. A few of the soldiers bowed their head in respect and as if to ask for forgiveness for stopping me. I dismissed them as graciously as time would allow and turned to Zuko.

"This isn't the path we should be taking, and you know it," I informed him sternly.

"I have to do what's best for my people," he answered, his eyes never leaving the road before us. I could see King Kuei's army on the horizon and knew it was only a matter of time before we met them.

"Don't you think I understand that? I want peace between the nations, but what you're engaging in right now isn't going to do that. And King Kuei is a fool for thinking this will help anything. We need to stop with all this useless fighting."

"Until you can come up with something that will work, and that the others will agree to, this is all we have." Unfortunately, I hadn't thought of a compromise that everyone would have agreed to. King Kuei was resistant to any talks with Zuko, which left us with no real option but to use force. It was unfortunate, but necessary. We met King Kuei's army at the city gates of Yu Dao, and it was clear that nothing had been accomplished in the way of the rebels since I'd left. As Aang blew back a number of his fan club, Toph emerged from one of the Fire Nation tanks and I could only stare in surprise. From beneath the hatch, I could see Sokka coming out as well.

"So you decide to hitch a ride with the Fire Nation Army?" Katara demanded of her brother and friends. Apparently Suki had been the one driving the tank.

"For your information, Katara, we weren't 'hitching a ride,' we were trying to slow them down! And what about you two? Since when did defending Fire Nation colonials become a part of the Harmony Restoration Movement?" Toph demanded.

"Fire Lord?! What—What's going on?" our general asked.

"I'm not sure…" Zuko answered honestly.

"We're at a crossroads, is what's going on," I growled as I stepped off of the komodo-rhino.

"An army with no leader is a dragon with no head. You alone have the power to end this quickly," General How instructed Aang as I approached the pair.

"And if you want to reach him, you'll have to go through me," I warned darkly.

"General How, there has to be another way!" Aang insisted.

"You know well the cost of war. I ask you to exchange one life for many," the general answered.

"You're asking me to kill my friend and the other Half!" Toph suddenly leapt off the tank she'd been standing on and created an earthquake that broke the wheels off of every single one of the Fire Nation tanks on the battlefield.

"Quickly, Earth Kingdom troops, while the Fire Nation is in disarray! By royal decree, enter Yu Dao and arrest the colonials!" General How ordered his men.

"Soldiers of the Fire Nation, defend our people in the city of Yu Dao! Your Fire Lord commands you!" And like that, foot soldiers from both sides were charging towards each other. Aang leapt over the gap in a fit of rage and hovered before Zuko. I could feel my own energy draining as I stumbled forward to try and stop him.

"The Harmony Restoration Movement was such a simple plan! Why couldn't you just follow it through?" he demanded as the winds howled around him. I wouldn't make it in time. He would kill Zuko and I would be completely unable to stop him. Aang was suddenly pulled away from Zuko by Katara as she skated by on the ice path she was creating. My strength was returned to me as Aang calmed while Katara dragged him away from the battle. I hurried to Zuko's side.

"Are you alright?" I asked frantically. "He didn't hurt you, right?"

"I'm fine," Zuko answered, though it was clear that the encounter had shaken him greatly.

I turned where I was standing and drew out the water from my canteen. If I was to ensure Zuko's safety, I would have to fight alongside him. In the distance, I would see Katara joining our friends at the top of the wall, but I had no way of getting to them. I was needed on the field. The fighting was growing intense, and it was clear that Aang would be needed if we were to ever end it. The Earth Kingdom wouldn't listen to me, even though I was a Half, because of my ties to the Fire Nation.

In the midst of the fighting, Zuko ran off towards General How, who had ordered his soldiers to arrest Kori and her friends. Before the soldiers had the chance to draw near, Zuko unleashed a blast of fire to hold them off.

"General How! Withdraw your troops immediately!" Zuko ordered, poised to strike again if necessary.

"With all due respect, Fire Lord Zuko, you stand on Earth Kingdom soil! Here your words have no authority!" Suddenly, in the distance, a bright light emerged from the mountains and I knew Aang had entered the True Avatar State. Despite this, he looked furious when he neared us.

"Aang, I know how this looks! But I swear to you, in my heart…" Zuko's words drifted as he stopped pleading his case. He sighed heavily and removed his helmet. "None of that matters, doe sit? I'm doing exactly what my father would have done." Aang created a rift in the ground between Zuko and General How, separating them and keeping them from attacking each other further. But the rocks beneath Zuko's feet gave way, and he fell into the forming chasm.

"Zuko!" I screamed as Sokka held me back from running after my fiancé.

"Look!" he yelled and I watched as Aang dove into the crevice after Zuko. Seconds later, they were both flying into the air. Aang had saved Zuko's life. As he set Zuko down on the ground, I ran to his side and threw my arms around him. Katara brought King Kuei to our side of the gap to see what he was involving himself with.

"Earth King Kuei, look who you're fighting!" Aang called. "Fire Nation, yes, but also Earth Kingdom, Water Tribe, and now, Air Nomads. This is who stands against your army."

"And against the Fire Nation army, too!" Sneers added.

"You're not fighting a colony, King Kuei," I said as I stood, pulling Zuko up to stand beside me. "You're fighting a whole new kind of world." The Earth King looked perturbed as he realized what he'd been doing in trying to start another war. Smellerbee and her followers called for the Harmony Restoration Movement to be continued as it was, but King Kuei silenced them. Zuko wavered at my side and I could see how weak this ordeal had made him. "You should rest."

"So, I was right then? All along… my decision… was right?" he asked and promptly lost consciousness. I caught him before he could hit the ground.

Once all the fighting and talking was over, Aang and I brought Zuko to Ba Sing Se to see Iroh while the rest of our friends dealt with the aftermath. It wasn't until four days later that Zuko finally woke up. Iroh called Aang inside from where he'd been meditating as I brought Zuko into the kitchen for some tea.

"Thank you for bringing him to me," Iroh said as he prepared more for Aang and myself. "He really should have come earlier, on his own. Sometimes he forgets that he always has a place here. He may be Fire Lord now, but he is still a stubborn boy."

"I feel like I've been asleep for a week," Zuko commented.

"No. Just four days," Aang answered with a smile. "The Earth King's agreed to talk. When you're ready, we'll meet him in Yu Dao. A small group of the city's residents are gonna join us, too. Whatever happens, though, Yu Dao can't stay a Fire Nation colony."

"It can't go back to being an Earth Kingdom city, either."

"That's why it has to be something new," I told him.

"But what?"

"That's why we need to meet with everyone. To decide that."

"On the way to Yu Dao, I had a dream. Aang and I faced off against each other on a mountaintop. Wind and rain and lightning raged all around us. Beside me was Ozai, and behind Aang-"

"-Roku. And Kyoshi was restraining Kala. And below us, the Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation armies battled each other. Kala and I had the same dream!" Aang finished.

"In yours, did you… end me?"

"Yes."

"You know what I felt, just as you did that… right before I woke up?"

"Zuko," I began.

"Relief. I was wrong to ask you for that promise, Aang. I've struggled for so long to do what's right—to even know what's right. Then when the war ended, I thought the struggle had finally ended, too. I thought I'd won for good. A visit with Ozai in prison changed that. I realized the struggle was actually just beginning. I didn't think I could handle it, so I asked for your help. But asking you to end me if I went bad—that was like asking you to figure out right and wrong for me. I didn't just want you as my safety net. I wanted you as my escape hatch. I can't put that on you. I understand now the struggle isn't something a Fire Lord can escape. I'm sorry, Aang. And 'm sorry, Kala, for putting you through all this."

"Zuko, I'm always going to support you and guide you as best as I can. You don't need to think you're a burden to me."

"You don't give yourself enough credit, Zuko. Deep down, you've always known what's right. I mean, you were right about Yu Dao," Aang added brightly.

"Yeah. I guess I was."

"So, when you fell into that chasm I created… did you feel… relief… then, too?"

"No. As soon as my foot slipped, I knew somehow that you wouldn't let me die."

"Because I'm a flawed Half."

"Don't get me wrong! I'm grateful that you-"

"Kyoshi told me that you're Roku's great-grandson."

"That's true."

"Kyoshi and Roku were Halves together, which meant they were very close, and so were their families. Since Roku is Kala's past life, that makes you family. And we're Halves, so you're as close to family as I'm going to have until I start one of my own. And no matter how hard I've tried, I've never been able to detach myself from those sorts of bonds. It's a flaw, I know, but it's one I've decided to accept. For this life, at least."

"You're not flawed, Aang," I responded with a smile. "Loving those around you doesn't make you flawed. It gives us something to fight for. Where would the world be if we hadn't cared for the people in it?"

"You know, in that dream, a woman stood with us on that mountaintop, watching from the shadows. I think it was my mother," Zuko murmured.

"Sometimes dreams are the way a person's spirit reveals the answers to his own problems. But then again, sometimes they are just the result of eating spicy food before going to bed," Iroh commented with a hearty laugh. Zuko decided then that he would begin a search for Lady Ursa's past and learn what he could about her. I'd seen her perish with my own eyes, but I knew there had to be some record of her outside of the palace. I hoped that Zuko would be able to find what he was looking for, and that he would be able to use the past to look forward to the future.

Please R&R.