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The lightning speared through the air, perfectly aimed, perfectly timed. To his right.
“No!” He jumped. Her eyes widened. The lightning heated his skin as it passed.
His heart stopped. No.
The smell of singed hair and skin passed on the air as it tore at his clothes, pressing them against his frame. She crumpled. A laugh echoed behind him against the stone walls. He hit the ground hard.
No no no no no!
He wheezed. He could barely move, but he had to get to her. He had to know.
“Oh, poor Zuzu. Slow reactions as always.” A loud sigh, “Oh well, just us again. I guess that’s what happens when you invite peasants.” She spit the last word. Azula’s voice was high and off-key. Her hair was falling from its usual perfect updo, and Zuko could see the shadows in her eyes. He ignored it all, instead crawling towards her. It took all of his energy and willpower to keep going; pain radiated through every muscle as he moved.
His fingers brushed her clothes, then her elbow. She had curled inward, away from him. He needed to see. An entry point. An exit. Something to tell him. Pulling himself up with a groan, he hovered over her still figure, eyes scanning.
He had watched through slitted lids as she had pulled the water in front of herself in an attempt to shield. She wasn’t prepared. This wasn’t supposed to happen. He had trained for this; he knew how to deflect lightning. He never thought he would have to teach the others.
It was supposed to be me.
Rage flooded his system. At his sister, his father, the entire Fire Nation for their greed and their callous ways. He had to put an end to it. Right now.
Water leaked from the pouches at her hips, no longer under her control. As it pooled around his knees, something in him snapped. Desperation or something else, he didn’t know. Didn’t care. He swore to protect her.
I failed. Again.
“Come on Zuzu, I’m bored. She’s dead. You’re not. Now fight me!” Azula sent a blast of heat towards his back. But time seemed to slow in that moment. His eyes caught two things; her blackened fingers - the entrance, and the sole of her foot - the exit. Without turning, Zuko’s hand shot back and blasted his own flame to counter Azula’s, ending in an ark that lit up the whole arena. He could see clearly then. It was time to end this.
Adrenaline poured through him and he found no difficulty standing. Turning to Azula, silently he sank into his dueling stance. Azula grinned maliciously.
“Finally! Fight me brother.” With that she struck, again and again. But Zuko merely blocked and parried the blows, allowing Azula to wear herself down on her own. As she began panting, she tried taunting him again for a reaction. He gave nothing.
He did not move from his position. He did not rise to Azula’s cruel taunts. He kept himself between Azula and her. He had failed once to protect her. He would not fail twice. As if a tether connected him to her body as it lay still on the ground, he pivoted with Azula’s movements but never stepped forwards.
“Ugh! Zuko I said fight me!” Azula increased her tempo; spraying almost a constant blue flame from her feet or her fists. Zuko did not budge. Channeling Toph’s stubbornness, Zuko kept himself rooted to the spot.
But he was distracted.
His mind screamed for him to finish Azula, to disarm her and turn around. Go to her! Save her! It was impossible to ignore when every ounce of his being wanted to do exactly that. But he wouldn’t be able to save anyone with Azula unhinged in this way. He needed to put her out.
He didn’t know if he could do it. She was his sister. They grew up together. In a twisted way, he did love her. But he had come to recognize real love. His Uncle’s face floated in his mind’s eye and a serene feeling settled over him.
He would take Azula down and save them all.
At her next blast, Zuko changed his stance. He was unmoveable. He had to be. For her. Azula’s fire danced with his own, heat licking his skin at the sheer mass of the flames lighting up the arena. Azula screamed with her blasts, a guttural, desperate sound emptying from her chest as her energy began to wane. Zuko could feel it. Her fire was just as big, just as fast, but not as hot. His skin no longer tingled from the heat, his eyes no longer squinted at the intensity. It wasn’t by much but it was enough for him.
Zuko took one step forward.
His stance wide and deep now, not like a firebender, but like Toph. Be like a rock, you have to force it to move. Toph’s voice rang in his mind clear from one of the many lessons he watched her teach the Avatar. Zuko would force Azula to move.
At a pause in her attacks Azula huffed, calling across the space “Zuzu, you’re not making this very fun. Do you even want to beat me? Do you want to avenge your peasant girl? I shot her down, you know, she won’t live from this.” Azula’s sing-song voice carried past Zuko’s ears and bounced off the arena pillars. Zuko fists curled as his whole body shook with tension. Azula always lies. Azula always lies.
Repeating the mantra in his head, Zuko inhaled deeply and took another step forward. Something in his chest screamed for him not to go further. The tether tightening. Her body was out of his reach now, but he couldn’t get to Azula by being this far away, he had to bridge some of the distance. Zuko could wait Azula out, he could let her blast and scream and boast and burn. But he didn’t have time for that. She didn’t have time for that.
He needed a new plan. Zuko scanned the room without moving his gaze from his sister. There was nothing he could truly use against her. Unless… Zuko gritted his teeth at the beginning of a plan as he pivoted to keep Azula in his sights. Her hair barely kept from her face now, dangling haphazardly down her face, the ends singed from his own blasts. Something glinted in her eyes, she struck. Zuko parried. Blue flames crashed into his like the ocean on the sand. Azula’s eyes widened at the scene of his flame extinguishing hers, the smoke puff lifted silently into the air.
“Is that the best you’ve got? I’m stronger than you now.” Zuko’s voice rang out clear and confident, betraying none of the fear or tension that ran through his body. Zuko began moving slowly. Azula tossed her head back in maniacal laughter. She pointed her finger at him as she copied his footsteps.
“You Zuzu? Stronger than me? You haven’t even hit me yet!” Azula’ smile painted her face wide and bright before it curdled into a sneer. “You’re a joke. A traitor!” Zuko kept moving. Azula following at a distance. He paused, shooting a half-hearted flame to Azula’s right, maneuvering her to the left. Using her flames, Azula rose to the tilted roof of the arena walkways and began to shoot her blue flames at him from the raised height. Zuko cursed. That was not what he had planned. But trust Azula to get in his way.
Not this time.
Zuko turned and ran. Past Azula on the roof, and the charred dirt around them. But most importantly, away from her. Azula squawked in disbelief but Zuko heard her footsteps on the roof after him. He just had to get there. Azula was gaining, shooting her flames directly at his back. Zuko dodged and swerved. Five more feet. Behind him Zuko could hear the telltale crackling of Azula’s lightning. He gritted his teeth and dropped into a slide. Just as the air crackled with the energy, Zuko reached his destination.
Lightning splintered the earth where Zuko had been a moment ago.
Without hesitation, Zuko inhaled and used his dragon breath to aim his flames directly at the metal beneath his feet. The water below rushed and roared. He could hear Azula’s pounding feet above him. He didn’t stop. A crash came to his left as Azula dropped through the ceiling.
Just as he turned to catch her flaming fist with his own something happened.
Azula froze. Literally.
Zuko’s brain stuttered a moment as he stood waiting for Azula’s fist to hit her mark. But nothing moved. Ice encased Azula’s frame, risen from the water directly beneath their feet. His eyes went directly to her body. Her eyes were open. She was looking directly at him, and her hand was shaking but fisted. His eyes widened at the realization. His brain screamed, his heart howled, his chest reinflated. She’s alive! He was moving. She had given him this opportunity and he was not going to waste it. His mind kept pulling him back to her; what she had done, to look at her, the weight lifting from his chest. She had saved him. But he pulled himself back to the task before Azula could get free. Zuko tore the decorative chains from two of the pillars.
Less than a minute later, he had successfully melted the ice enough to chain Aula through the bars that he had burned through. The water rushing below raising up against her hands, keeping them submerged; wet. Any bending she tried would take much more energy now, energy Zuko was certain she did not have. He backed away. As he did so, the ice melted from Azula’s body, but it hardened in his chest instead.
Zuko whirled around. Her eyes were closed. Her fist uncurled. No! He ran.
Dropping to the ground next to her, his hands hovered uselessly. He wasn’t the healer. She was. He couldn’t fix this.
“Katara, no, please, please, no. Katara stay with me. Please baby, come on. It was supposed to be me. Katara, open your eyes! Give me your eyes. Katara!” She didn’t move. Azula’s screams raged behind him, he ignored her.
Zuko pulled her body closer, putting his head to her chest, listening. Nothing. His own heartbeat thundered in his chest, the panic threatening to take over. Movement on the far side of the arena caught his eye.
The fire sages.
“Get a healer, now!” Zuko’s voice boomed across the space, drowning out even Azula’s noise. The fire sages dispersed immediately. His rage at their cowardice dissolved as he turned back to her. She still lay limp in his arms, if he didn’t look too closely he could almost convince himself that she was sleeping. But her skin was too pale, her muscles too loose.
Zuko looked to the arena entrance again, willing someone to show. The healers were taking too long. Zuko’s entire body throbbed with pain as the adrenaline drained from him; every second counted. He murmured apologies against her skin as he gathered her into his arms and ran towards where the healers would be coming from.
“Please Katara, please baby just hold on.”