Chapter Text
Iroh was entering the palace, to challenge his brother to an Agni Kai, and maybe stop the devastation of Sozin's comet before it begins. He is wearing the armour of a palace guard, that only fits because of the time he had spent working out, on Hakoda's stolen boat. He is trying to find a way to encounter Ozai without a retinue of guards, when he walks straight into someone coming around a corner. She is also wearing guard armour, but Iroh recognizes her.
"Suki?" he asks.
"Hi! We're here to fight Ozai, just trying to find the right time and place. There are soldiers everywhere." she says. Then Prince Zuko walks past. Not beside them, but through a connecting hallway, barely sparing them a glance. And Iroh realizes, they will have to fight him, too. Suki looks at Iroh, then at Zuko, and gasps.
"Oh my Spirits. No one told you?" she says.
"What--" Iroh starts to asks, but then someone yells.
"All guards to the throne room! The traitor Princess is here!"
Iroh realizes he hasn't seen Azula in a while, but he's heard of how she turned to the Avatar's side.
"Come on!" Suki says, and along the way they run into another soldier, his helmet much too big for him. There's a blue ribbon on his shoulder.
"Other. Did you steal Rei's helmet again?" Suki asks.
"What do you mean, again? Wait, Iroh?" Other (whoever that might be) says. Iroh knows he's heard his voice before.
"The Blue Spirit is attacking the Eastern Guardhouse!' an admiral shouts, and the running force is divided, as the soldiers have to deal with two threats, now. Iroh watches Zuko run west to the Eastern Guardhouse (Iroh knew there was a story behind that, but why) as he and Suki continue to the throne room. Prince Zuko is battling Azula before the throne, and Mai, Ty Lee, Aang and Katara are fighting Ozai. Wait, there's something wrong. Iroh turns around, and catches a glimpse of Zuko running to the Guardhouse. "Questions later, fight now," Suki says, and drags him into the room. Iroh stands next to his niece, bending away oddly colored gold fire--there are hints of other colors flickering at the edges--and faces Zuko, whose eyes widen in surprise at seeing him. Then, the Blue Spirit crashes through the roof, firebending at Ozai, though he moves strangely, without using katas, wielding one sword instead of two, and a war fan in the other hand. Iroh knows the sword--it's Sokka's. One Blue Spirit here, one at the Guardhouse. Well, the mask was hardly unique. Other slides into the battle, his sword crashing with a guard's, as he spins his way through enemies. His sword is also space-metal black, with the symbol of the White Lotus on the pommel.
Ozai is winning the fight. He has four elements where Aang has none, and has much more combat experience than those fighting him. So it's a blessing when Toph, Jet and the other Blue Spirit crash through the door. Earthbending wrecks the floor as do waves of ice--which the Blue Spirit is bending as though they were fire.
"All of you, here to stop me. You have no chance, you realize?" Ozai asks.
"You're all dead. You sealed your fates the moment you entered the room; you will not be leaving. Uncle, Azula, I am sorry it came to this." Zuko snarls.
"No; you're not." Azula says, and Zuko's hands move, and lightning dashes from his fingers. Iroh leaps, but he is too late, and Azula slides across the floor, armour smoking.
"Katara!" she screams, before falling silent, unmoving. There's no way she could have survived, not from such a close range.
"Did she just--" Ty Lee asks, and Jet says: "Yes."
Iroh turns to Zuko, feeling fury roar about him.
"Azula loved you, once. Ozai never has, and yet you chose him." he says to his nephew, who grimaces, the right side of his face scrunching strangely. Iroh notices the eye on that side is half-closed.
"If you only knew," Zuko says, and sends fire soaring through the hall, gold with flickering edges. What does that mean, that it is no longer solid? As the two battle, Iroh gets a closer look at Zuko; he is grinning madly, moving jerkily and destructively. There's something off about him, even more than usual. Toph slams the ground, and suddenly she and Zuko are encased in a sphere of rock. Iroh shoots lightning at Ozai, but he blocks it with a wall of ice, simultaneously sending a wave of air rippling across the room.
The massive stone sphere explodes in a burst of the strangest fire Iroh has seen in a while. It curls and twists like water, and appears to reflect the light; and most oddly, it has returned to solid gold. Zuko radiates anger, menace etched into every line of his face, which is no longer asymmetrical. He no longer seems demented, though he is still trying to kill them all. Iroh cannot help but analyze people, and he wonders, what could possibly have happened inside the sphere to cause such a distinct change?
Zuko's fire curls around Iroh's; the two are one on one, all the others are battling Ozai. Iroh stares as Zuko's fire extinguishes his own, smoke hissing, before slamming into a massive wall of flames. Since when was he able to make this much fire, and have it moving, leaping and crashing, like the waves of the ocean? Iroh wonders if he is outmatched, when a flaming rope, so hot it is cold, winds its way around his leg, almost solid as it pulls him to the ground. There is something terribly wrong with his fire; if Iroh hadn't known better, he would have said Zuko was waterbending with golden liquid as opposed to firebending. But that would be impossible.
Iroh sees one Blue Spirit create ice through a firebending kata, sees the man known only as Other knock Ozai's lightning off course with a boomerang, and sees Jet hook his sword around a tapestry, sending it and others flopping across the warriors. Suki is fighting back to back with the other Blue Spirit, who is holding Sokka's sword in one hand and firebending with the other. Mai and Ty Lee, knives and air flying, are leaping, cutting, but never touching the man who wields all four elements, the new Avatar. It has been said, remembers Iroh, that the Blue Spirit--or perhaps simply a Fire Nation deserter named Rei--is the second Avatar, of Vaatu, of Chaos. There is certainly plenty of chaos at the moment, thinks Iroh, as he notices though one Blue Spirit is a young man, the other is a woman who fights with the same techniques as the Nation's many--far too many--soldiers.
Ozai stomps the ground, sending it rippling, knocking everyone off their stride before trapping them all in stone--except for Toph, who is in ice. Iroh sees his brother grinning evilly, Zuko doing the same beside him, and wonders where he went wrong.
Ozai raises his arms, and the ice spread about the room rises and turns to water, before shifting to a hundred frozen spikes.
"Anything to say? You were never going to win. There was no reason to try." Ozai says. The room is full of sharpened death. Even if they somehow escape it, the air and floor are their enemy. With Ozai as the Avatar, the war is already over. Iroh does a doubletake as Toph suddenly grins.
"But there was. See, we have an ally you don't know about." she says.
"One more person will make no difference." Zuko sneers. Toph snorts.
"That's funny. That's actually funny." she laughs. The air, the rocks, the water, and streams of fire all swirl higher.
"There are none who can stand before the Pheonix Avatar King." Ozai says.
Zuko bashes him over the head with a knife hilt.
A smile flickers across Zuko's face. As Ozai stumbles, Azula's deep blue flame soars from her fingertips in a great wave, which curls around and melts Toph's ice prison before throwing Ozai to the floor. Toph moves, and the earth encases him, as well as releasing everyone from their prisons. Zuko grabs his forehead, and bends something that is no element Iroh recognizes, power flowing from Ozai to Aang.
"It's back! I'm the Avatar again!" he shouts. And before Iroh can process at all what the frick is going on (because he cannot), someone steps out from behind the throne. It's Zuko--also Zuko, and half his face is scrunched strangely, as before.
"Yay! We won!" Other shouts, pulling off his helmet, and it's Sokka. So is one of the Blue Spirits; the other is a young woman.
"Wow, Sokka, your plan actually worked." Jet says.
"Course it did. I had twice the brainpower," Sokka says, slinging his arm around himself.
"Iroh's heart is going real fast." Toph says. There's a beat of silence.
"No one told him!" Suki groans.
Zuko and Azula are holding hands, as though there isn't a smoking hole in her chestplate. The second Zuko is hugging Sokka, as though Iroh hadn't seen one push the other to a cavern floor.
"So...explanations. Yay!" Sokka, the one with white hair, says.
"Zuko's the Blue Spirit!" Sokka tells him.
"I thought the Blue Spirit was your boyfriend." Iroh says the first thing that comes to mind.
"Uncle. I'm sorry. I'm sorry for the three years of deception--I should have just told you, but I was so afraid--and for everything I've said, and done, those years." Zuko says, and Iroh makes the connection. All the times the Blue Spirit's exploits destroyed Zuko's improvements, the corresponding time frame, the gold fire for acceptance of what he had to do. Speaking of which... "I'm a waterbender now. It, uh, was a part of bringing Sokka back to life. I didn't actually kill him, though. Also, meet Zuko and Sokka from another reality. They found a portal." Zuko says, rambling, and Iroh, seeing what he should have seen years earlier, hugs him.
"It is I who should be sorry, for having failed to see the truth you hid, for not realizing that the boy who fought beside me was also the one I turned away." Iroh says.
"And they're both crying." Mai notes.
Footsteps thunder at the door, and one Sokka slips on a Blue Spirit mask while Rei tosses the other to the other Zuko (from another reality?), half of whose face appears to be melting. The guards break open the door.
"Rei?" Hide asks, because he hasn't seen his friend in ages and--the Prince is hugging his traitorous Uncle, next to his sister, whose armor is burnt and broken, next to two Blue Spirits, and Red and Death, and the Water Tribe boy who'd died--next to Ozai, who's trapped in stone.
"Good news! Zuko's the Firelord now!" says the Water Tribe boy, who has white hair. That means he's been returned to life by the Spirits, Hide remembers.
"You need your crown, then." the small green child says (wow, that play was inaccurate), and she moves her hand, and the crown lifts from the floor and to Zuko's hand.
The ceiling of the dais, already unstable, could not take that small distribution of weight, and it falls.
"Aargh!" shouts Aang. Aargh is a good reaction, Zuko thinks, looking at what is left of the man he once called father.
"Earthbender!" Rei turns towards Sokka, and the two proceed to have yet another argument about who just earthbent, and who had been earthbending all the other times, before.
Iroh's rather late vanguard, consisting of the Order of the White Lotus and friends, appears, and Iroh waves them down.
"There has been a misunderstanding." he says.
"I have to agree with Iroh on that one." Hakoda admits.
Bato has many, many, many questions.
Hide and the rest of the guard are extremely confused.
Rei did not sign up for this.
"Hey, so you know the prophecy? It just got fulfilled. Also, Uncle and Azula are pardoned--everyone here's pardoned--and we're ending the war." Zuko says, waving a knife. It's the knife Iroh gave him, many years ago. Never give up without a fight, says the inscription.
Azula takes off what is left of her armor, it was getting uncomfortable, revealing an odd-looking vest. She trusted Zuko to hit the right spot, because there was one thing that remained a constant--Zuko always lies. He had been, for three years, and she had never been happier when she found out. However, it did mean Ba Sing Se had just been one big awful mess.
Things are sorted out, and the majority of the servants don't know what to think about the drastic change of Prince--Firelord--Zuko. Just this morning, he had been swearing to blast his sister's face off, and now they were sitting by the turtleduck pond, with the Avatar? Also, some earthbender had killed Firelord Ozai. As for which earthbender, that was never clear.
"Sokka?" Bato asks, and he waves awkwardly, and Sokka runs to him, dragging Firelord Fricking Zuko behind him.
"Bato! I'm so glad you're okay did Dad not tell you everything yet we won this is amazing!" Sokka says. Bato finds himself less than a foot away from Zuko. Zuko, who had murdered Sokka, and now was holding hands with him. "Oh. Bato, meet my boyfriend the Blue Spirit." Sokka says. Bato looks around. The two Blue Spirits are talking to other people, farther away.
"I promise Zuko didn't kill me. Bato?" Sokka asks, and Bato looks at Zuko, who smiles, embarassed.
"Hello, Zuko here." he says, and then realizes that was probably the worst thing in the world he could have said.
"Did he just--" Other Sokka asks.
"Yes." replies Other Zuko, and facepalms.
By the end of the day, most things are sorted out, and Other Sokka and Zuko return to their universe, courtesy of a Portal Stone in the palace basement. The world is confused, but everyone important's alive, the armies are being pulled back, and Zuko can smile for real, this time. He and Sokka have their first kiss, that night, under the moonlight. Katara and Aang have their fourth, in the sun, after Zuko is crowned.
Azula and Jet have their 145th in a closet, after they laugh a bit about the final battle.
"I can't believe you yelled 'Katara'." Jet grumbles.
"I make terrible jokes, because I know you'll get them, because...you're so sharp." Azula says, and then she treats him to a description of exactly how sharp he is.
Team Avatar restores the broken world, over the years. It takes significantly longer than in canon for the palace servants to warm up to Zuko; sometimes, three years can ingrain you with certain bad habits. Sokka teaches him to smile again. The world moves towards Korra, with one major difference; Zuko, Mai and Ty Lee, as the Spirits, had inadvertently taken down the re-emerging Red Lotus, making for a significantly changed future. Sokka's around to beat Amon's face in, for one.
Ty Lee and Suki become best friends, but your true love is not determined by marks on your arm, and black and pink flowers are strewn as though confetti the day Red and Death are wed.
A man without a scar walks beside one with hair as white as the moon, and for the first time in history, there's a waterbending Firelord. Whoever questions this (and few do, I mean, it's Zuko) gets challenged, rather enthustiastically, to an Agni Kai, by the Firelord's Consort, who may be able to earthbend as well as firebend. This rumor is never confirmed or denied.
Zuko isn't the only one who gets a dragon, and a boy who would otherwise have died in Ba Sing Se flies with his love, royal blue fire trailing in their wake, because their hearts are empty of hate, this time.
Suki is very annoyed at the Ember Island Players for not including her at all, and one thing leads to another and she's a famous actor, improving the world one story at a time, standing beside someone who cannot stand at all. The functions of flight are nothing compared to those of the stage, and the special effects are even better when Suki reboots A Tale of Two Avatars accurately. She plays not-actually-evil-Zuko, to everyone's amusement, and her amazing husband plays himself two times at two air temples. She built weapons into his wings and he gave wings to her weapons; Teo is never prouder of his wife, than the moments she is recognized as the hero she is.
Aang and Katara rebuild the Air Temples, and together bring life to a lost culture, while Toph creates a new one; she is the first metalbender, and as for rumors of a second Avatar, well, do you see Ten Thousand Years of Darkness?
All's well that ends well, and with the added bonus that as Zuko Is Terrifying, there isn't very much trouble during his reign, not this time.
THE END