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Rises with the Heart	By : AngelaBlythe Category: Avatar - The Last Airbender > Het - Male/Female > Katara/Zuko Views: 11670 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 1-PART I
- 2-PART II
- 3-PART III
- 4-PART IV
- 5-PART V
- 6-PART VI
- 7-PART VII
- 8-PART VIII
- 9-PART IX
- 10-PART X
- 11-PART XI
- 12-PART XII
- 13-PART XIII
- 14-PART XIV
- 15-PART XV
- 11
- 12
- 13
A/N: I’ve got about seven more chapters
planned – IT’S NOT OVER!!!
RISES WITH THE HEART
XII.I
“UNCLE!”
At first his head was swimming. The smell of burnt skin and hair perforated his senses. Seared clothes were melted into Uncle Iroh’s skin, and even his boots were now one with flesh. Zuko was at first nauseated. He could hear the sounds of battle in the background, dull and low. How could he fight…when his uncle was dead…? The only one to ever love him…charred and dead on the ground.
When Zuko howled it seemed that time stopped. Anyone who heard this pitiful, horrific scream would never forget it. Jeong Jeong and the firebenders stopped fighting. Aang and his father paused in their battle of many elements. Zuko turned around with angry, hard tears in his eyes. Had he been paying attention more he would have seen the look of terror on their faces. Had he cared at all he would have listened to Jeong Jeong try to calm him.
But Zuko razed the warriors that separated him from his father. A wave of fire knocked them aside like flammable rag dolls.
“Destroy the comet, Aang,” Zuko growled, his hand clenching into a fist as he stared in the hard, dead eyes of his father. They were his eyes, too. “Agni Kai, Father,” Zuko whispered. “No ceremony, no audience. Just Agni Kai. Like our ancestors.”
“Zuko…” he heard Aang plead.
“Destroy the comet, Avatar Aang,” Zuko continued in a hallow voice. “Father and I have business.”
For some reason Aang obeyed. Zuko’s father, the Fire Lord Ozai, smiled a haunted smile, and threw off his half open robes. Zuko divested as well, and the two stood bare-chested in the burning room.
“You can’t defeat me, Zuko,” his father taunted, standing ten paces away.
“I don’t want to defeat you, Father,” Zuko replied. “I want to kill you.”
“You’ll never be Fire Lord,” his father continued. “You’re a traitor, and a coward, and a weakling. They will never follow you.”
Just then, as though it had been locked long ago, a gateway opened. It was a familiar gateway, for Zuko had seen it many, many times. He had cracked it open once. But through hours and hours of meditation he had come to see it, and now he finally had the key. It had always been there, he just hadn’t known how to use it.
“You killed Uncle and you killed Mother!” Zuko accused, feeding the rage inside. “You banished me and you sent me on a fool’s errand!”
“You were never worthy of the title Fire Lord,” his father replied menacingly to the tirade.
“That’s where you’re wrong!” Zuko growled. “You took the title with deceit and backstabbing – with murder! I will take the title with honor – by killing you in front of your own subjects!”
With that, Zuko turned the key and opened the gates so few had walked in the past. Blue fire erupted from his hands as he blew away the wall between the antechamber and the public address dais.
“AGNI KAI!” Zuko bellowed.
And before the frightened, huddling masses, Zuko made the first attack. Breathe, Zuko told himself. Rhythm. Break the root. Fire Lord Ozai blocked the blue flame, and was pushed back by the force of it. Zuko followed him swiftly into the open air of the ceremonial dais.
There was a brief standoff, where Zuko felt a thrill of fear at fighting his father. The comet had stained the sky red, and fire fell from clouds and lightning crashed loudly. The comet was a huge tear on the sky, red and bloody, with flecks of golden fire falling from its tail. His father seemed to have a reddish kind of glow to him, one that burnt like the comet. Zuko knew his father was tapping into the great force of Sozin’s Comet.
Zuko fisted his hand, the fire blue as Katara’s eyes, and just as fierce. He thought briefly on that savage kiss they had shared, and the fire inside of him roared. Zuko’s lips formed a slow smirk as his father absorbed the powers of the comet. It struck him then that his father had only limited powers compared to Zuko. His father’s power rose with the comet, just as Katara’s rose with the moon. But Zuko’s powers were more similar to Aang’s. Their powers rose with the heart.
Zuko was ready when his father pressed for an attack. Zuko knew that Ozai was a skilled firebender, and was confused that he chose hand-to-hand combat to begin the battle. Was this a trick to tire Zuko so his firebending would be weak? Zuko had the height of his father, but was less developed. He knew to rely on speed and agility, as Jeong Jeong taught. His father would rely on strength.
Like Azula, Zuko’s father kept his nails sharp and deadly. He tipped them with little flames, so that when a strike landed it was twice as painful. There was already a mark on his shoulder by the time Zuko could dodge and swipe at his father’s feet. Zuko caught Ozai’s foot, breaking the older man’s attack. Zuko pressed on with a series of sharp jabs. Ozai regained control, blocking Zuko’s arching kick and sending a blast of fire at Zuko’s chest. Zuko cut the fire, then sidestepped swiftly and redirected his father’s fiery fists.
There was a brief separation where Zuko faced his father, and his father faced him. It was silent and tense, with heavy breathing and sharp eyes.
“You have improved, Zuko,” Fire Lord Ozai said in a deep, panting breath.
“I’ve had good teachers,” Zuko replied, breathing deeply as well.
With a spinning leap, Zuko whipped a lash of fire towards his father, punching a series of fire balls at the older man. These were blocked easily. His father breathed deep, then sent a swirling, huge wave of fire that Zuko could not block nor avoid. Zuko slammed into the rubble, and before he hand a chance to attack again, his father was above him. The fire that erupted from Zuko’s mouth was blue as a sapphire, the first thing he could think to do. His father stumbled back, and Zuko pressed on ruthlessly.
Break the root, he repeated to himself. His father was clumsy in his footing and blocking of attacks. Zuko was focused and in perfect form. His breathing was even and harsh. Blue flames, sharp and vicious, erupted from his feet and hands. As a crowning gesture, the sky became an explosion of red and gold, as the comet became thousands and thousands of little comets, all shimmering with fire and dying on their descent to the earth.
Zuko paused in a moment of awe and weakness, gasping. It was then that his father’s hand shot out and grasped his throat. Zuko could hardly believe the unimaginable power of his father’s hands as they tightened over his airway. He struggled to find breath. He struggled against the iron will of his father’s anger. His throat was hot. His eyes were tearing. There was a smell that was too familiar…burning flesh… Zuko cried out lamely, struggling with his last breaths.
“You are unworthy,” his father growled. “But I need an heir.” His father’s eyes were hard and ruthless. Zuko felt himself going black. “You will burn…to teach you your place…son…”
The hand around his throat heated until Zuko could no longer think straight.
No! he screamed.
Stop! he cried.
Please…he begged.
In a final, unanticipated, desperate gesture, Zuko swept at his father’s face with a measly fire whip. His father cried out, releasing Zuko’s neck and covering his face. There were blisters already forming over his nose and brow when he removed his hand. Zuko struggled to stand, catching his breath. Zuko forgot the power of blue fire…
Zuko was allowed a moment’s respite before his father attacked again. But this time there was no control. There was no focus. His father was fighting purely on rage. Zuko blocked attack after attack, breathing heavily. Finally an opening came, and Zuko wondered if his father realized his eminent death.
The force of Zuko’s attack blew a portion of the dais away. But he was not aiming at his father – not directly. The attack made the dais rubble, and Ozai stumbled over it as Zuko proceeded with lightning speed. The root was breaking. Zuko could feel it. He swiped at his father’s feet and the older man backed away unbalanced. Zuko lashed out with whips of fire, each one searing skin and hair. The last whip was so strong it forced the Fire Lord on his back.
Fire Lord Ozai made no attempt to move as Zuko encircled him with a long lash of fire.
“The king is dead,” Zuko whispered harshly.
Ozai’s eyes went wide, and then finally cold.
“LONG LIVE THE KING!”
XII.II
Katara was about a hundred feet away from her father’s ship when she saw it explode. A rogue fireball split the fragile wood and sent men flying in all directions. Family loyalty, it seemed, outweighed the battle, for Katara rode on a swift wave to her father’s ship. She formed an iceberg immediately, and dumped men on it from the turbid waters of the Eastern Islands of the Fire Nation.
“FATHER!” she heard Sokka cry.
Her father and brother were on the same ship. Toph and Appa had been hovering above, Appa deflecting as many fireballs as possible from the air.
Men gasped for air on the makeshift iceberg. “We’ve got to get him out of the battle!” Katara shouted to her brother. Their father was unconscious and burned, but otherwise well. “He’ll survive, but he needs medical attention.”
Katara watched Sokka’s face harden with determination. “Toph!” he shouted up to the blind girl and the sky bison. “Get him out of here!”
Katara was quick to deflect another fireball as Sokka and another tribesman moved Hakoda from Katara’s iceberg to Appa. “The Earth Kingdom ships form our flank,” Sokka explained to Katara, who watched Appa disappear to the east. She met his eyes. “I have an idea,” Sokka told her. “But I need you.”
Katara swallowed. “I’m listening.”
XII.III
Zuko inhaled deeply, the fire of battle still humming in his veins. He first looked around at the destroyed dais, then around to the fearful faces. He had killed the Fire Lord. He had killed his father. Who would challenge him now that Azula was dead?
General Shu answered for him. Zuko wasn’t sure where the general had gone after Toph and Aang had teamed up on him, right before Zuko had helped Katara and the blind girl escape. There were a few other military figures seeping out of the cracks. They had been waiting like shadows for the outcome. Zuko could tell several of them were not happy.
“Fire Lord Zuko,” General Shu said in a soft voice, a voice that carried none the less. “What is your will?”
Zuko fought the smirk growing on his face. He picked up his tunic, the one he’d thrown off before the Agni Kai, and ripped a long strip off of it. He tied his meager hair back and knelt next to his deceased father to pluck out the three-pronged, golden crown.
“A proper funeral,” Zuko said finally, placing the crown in his hair. “He was my father after all...”
No one moved towards the former Fire Lord. Zuko made a clipped order to Lieutenant Lee. “Captain Lee!” he barked. “Your regiment shall have the honor.”
The former lieutenant’s eyes widened and then he nodded sharply. That was a man that would be loyal to Zuko until death, and Zuko knew it. Zuko had made Lieutenant Lazy into Captain Lee, a dependable leader, and now an honored soldier.
“General Shu!” Zuko said sharply. “I wish for a Fire Council. You have one hour.”
With that Zuko wheeled about and entered the destroyed and smoldering antechamber. His eyes went to the empty space where his uncle had been laying not too long ago. His face was hard when he saw no sight of his fallen uncle. Iroh could not have survived something like that. Where was Jeong Jeong? Zuko frowned deeply. He had too much to worry about now. Jeong Jeong could take care of himself. But what of his uncle?
Zuko marched back to his rooms, Minister Rakun slithering out of some shadow to follow him. “Minister Rakun,” Zuko ordered harshly, his pace quick and controlled.
“Yes, my lord,” the simpering minister murmured. Zuko nearly smirked at the immediate use of his new title. Of course Minister Rakun would not make such a trivial mistake as calling him Prince Zuko. Minster Rakun was ambitious.
“You shall take care of the pleasantries of my transition. Ozai’s funeral, the feast, my public ascension, transporting my things to the Fire Lord’s chambers, et cetera.”
“Yes, my lord.”
“And,” Zuko added, opening his doors and then shutting them swiftly, his breathing automatically fast. Minister Rakun looked curiously at him, his quill poised over a piece of parchment. He was already recording Zuko’s every word. Zuko had forgotten about this. “All statues of Ozai will be destroyed. Not put away. Destroyed.” He exhaled softly. “He is no longer the Fire Lord.”
Rakun nodded.
“Leave me,” Zuko snapped at Rakun’s scurrying feet.
Zuko slipped into his room softly. This would only work because of all the chaos going on. “Aang,” Zuko whispered harshly.
Aang was huddle in a corner, looking half-asleep, half-dead. His eyes shot open when Zuko approached, however. “You did it,” the boy whispered when he saw the crown in Zuko’s hair.
“You have to leave,” Zuko hissed. “I can’t protect you from these people. Not you, Aang.”
“My staff was destroyed,” Aang replied in a sad voice. “I don’t know how to get out of here...”
Zuko closed his eyes. “Okay.” He pulled out two, long, dark cloaks and threw one at Aang. “There’s a secret exit that goes under the palace and leads out to sea.” Zuko pulled the younger boy up and Aang shrugged on the cloak. “We must be fast. I have people that will watch me even now.”
Aang headed for the door but Zuko pulled him to the window. “Not like that,” he said softly.
The two scaled the side of the palace hastily, and then ran to where Zuko had tried to lead Katara and Toph earlier that day. They reached their destination relatively unmolested, and Zuko moved aside a tapestry to reveal a small hole in the wall. He inhaled and then shot his blue flame into the hole, hearing the creaking as the hinges moved and rotated.
“Blue...”Aang said softly, eyes wide.
“Go,” Zuko said harshly, pushing Aang into the secret passage.
Aang paused at the entrance. “I’m coming back, Zuko. We’ll fix this,” Aang told him.
Zuko’s face went hard. “Keep Katara safe,” he said stonily, pushing Aang in the passageway and closing it swiftly behind him. He shook his head as he flipped the hood over his cloak and started towards his rooms.
For some reason he had a foreboding feeling that it was only going to get worse.
XII.IV
The red sky burned with the fire of the comet, and it was nearly as bloody as the battle at sea. Katara felt beads of sweat rolling down her brow. Well, admittedly it could have been water. But she was concentrating so hard that she couldn’t give it time for thought. She was sitting on the prow of an empty Water Tribe ship, legs crossed and mind blank. She had never done something like this before, and wasn’t quite sure if she could at all. There were waterbenders moving her ship into the middle of the battle, but there were from a great distance away. She could not be bothered with protecting herself right now. She would have to depend on Master Pakku and his other waterbenders to do that for her.
The other Water Tribe ships had been moved away from this place, and she was a lone target in the middle of fifty or so Fire Nation battle cruisers. She swallowed and began the churning. It started slow, like a gentle eddy, and quickly began to pick up speed. Ships were drawn like moths to a flame, sucked in against their own propulsion. And Katara sat in the middle, manipulating the water into a huge whirlpool.
The water was far above her head, as if she was sinking to the ocean floor. She did not dare open her eyes to see the ships flying about her face. It was just so much water... She focused her breathing and on her connection to Tui and La. Then, just about when she could control no more water, Katara felt the attack commence. She formed a shield of ice around her small ship as waterbenders shot pillars of ice at the circling Fire Nation ships.
It was all Katara could do to keep the whirlpool from failing. Ships crashed into ships, ships crashed into ice, and ice struck out of the water. When the water began to move beyond her control she let go. The loss of bending would quit the momentum and slow the whirlpool naturally. She was nearly unconscious when Appa and her brother retrieved her. Sokka was saying something about a major, crippling victory as they surveyed the damage.
Katara stared open eyed and disbelieving at the Fire Nation ships upended and sinking in the warm western waters. Major, crippling victory indeed. “Did we do this?” Katara asked quietly of her brother.
“No,” he said in a proud voice. “That was you, Katara. Mostly you.”
It was several hours later that the Fire Nation War Minister surrendered the battle. Wreckage was littered across the sea, and soldiers clung desperately to debris. Katara and Sokka had rejoined the flank – the Earth Kingdom ships. Katara had taken some time to see to her father, and her first diagnosis was correct. Chief Hakoda would be fine with bed-rest and minimal healing.
As tired as Katara was she still managed to heal several burn victims before she was ready to pass out. The fact that no one had seen Aang, but that the comet had been destroyed, worried Katara greatly. However, just as she was about to collect Toph so the two of them could find a spare cabin to sleep in, a more than welcome sight met her eyes.
“It’s Aang!” she shouted gleefully, pulling Toph to the side of the ship and gesturing wildly. “Aang!” she repeated.
Several Earth Kingdom soldiers helped Aang onto the ship, where he fell into Katara and Toph’s open arms...and fell asleep.
XII.V
Aang had told them the most wondrous stories about what had happened after the three of them had escaped the Fire Nation. Katara, Toph, and Sokka sat in rapt attention as Aang relayed his battle with Fire Lord Ozai, Zuko’s ascension to Fire Lord, Zuko’s ability to wield blue fire, the comet’s destruction at Aang’s hand, and Zuko’s part in Aang’s escape. Katara was silent during the exchange, and looked about her friends for their reactions.
They had agreed to give Zuko a few days to calm down the situation in the Fire Nation before going back in. No one had entered Fire Nation waters for several days – the other nations were tending their own before dealing with the Fire Nation. Aang, Sokka, Toph, and Katara were all on the Water Tribe flagship – Wolf’s Pride. Sokka and Katara’s father was more than healed and had been given the honor of leading the incursion party into the Fire Nation capitol.
However, upon entering Fire Nation waters, the Water Tribe and Earth Kingdom ships were forced to stop, as a small, desperate blockade had been formed around the area. After a few hours of signaling from a distance, Wolf’s Pride was invited to approach the blockade. The Fire Nation captain bowed to Chief Hakoda smartly and invited Katara, Sokka, Aang, and Toph onto the ship, along with a few Earth Kingdom officers.
“I am Captain Jee of the Fire Nation Navy,” the shorter, bearded man said in a tired voice, eyeing Aang warily.
“Chief Hakoda of the Southern Water Tribe,” Sokka and Katara’s father replied.
Katara noticed Captain Jee’s eyes went a little wild at this. “Then it is an honor to meet you, Chief Hakoda,” the captain replied. “What can I do for you?”
“We wish to know the meaning of this blockade, and to make passage into the Fire Nation capitol. Yesterday’s battle was decisive enough, and we have the power to destroy this blockade if need be.”
“I’m afraid I can’t let you pass, Chief Hakoda,” Captain Jee said with a sad kind of frown. “You see,” he explained, “I’ve been given orders to let no ships pass. Fire Lord Zuko says he cannot in good conscience expose any other nation to the plague. The Fire Nation is closed, sir. No one comes in or out until contamination is over. I’m sorry.”
A/N 2: This chapter marks a turning point. I am adding two new perspectives – previously it was just Zuko, Katara, and Toph. You’ll see who they are soon enough. There is also a significant time gap between PART XII and PART XIII – three years, actually. Keep that in mind, and I’ll try to convey the time missed as accurately as possible. Consider it a much needed interlude.
- 11
- 12
- 13
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Rises with the Heart