Work Text:
Zuko couldn’t sleep. The dash of rain on the roof, the distant thundering made him unable to relax. His thoughts were heavy too. Being Fire Lord was a much more restrictive position than he imagined. He was always in the forefront, if something went wrong, he was responsible for it.
Zuko turned to face the window, looking at the flashes of lightning. The peace negotiations weren’t going so great. The Avatar was the only one from his friends, who could attend these meetings legally, and that was just because he was the last Air Nomad and the Avatar. His other friends were too young in the eyes of the assembled politicians. But they weren’t too young to fight and end a bloody war instead of adults, right?
Of course, this didn’t mean, that Toph wasn’t barging in every other meeting, or that Sokka or Katara never sneaked in with their father, but he was mostly alone with the representatives of the other nations. Uncle Iroh couldn’t participate if they wanted to show, he wasn’t influenced by his family and their old ways.
He could, maybe should, but he didn’t dare to bring with him any other minister or advisor, fearing their reaction. All of them were against these peace negotiations, claiming, that the Fire Nation won, and he wasn’t sure, they wouldn’t try to insult the delegates.
Yes, technically the Fire Nation won, they had more territories occupied, they had the technological advantage, the people were passionate and loyal, but he didn’t want to continue his family’s legacy.
The war hurt everyone. And he didn’t teach the Avatar firebending and fight his sister just to do nothing. He wanted change. He wanted true honor. He wanted a new era of happiness and peace after a hundred years of war.
Aang wanted peace too. He wanted the world to heal and forget and forgive, but he was just a twelve-year-old. He didn’t understand politics, nor that the opposing side always wanted more than just reparation for actual damage.
The Earth Kingdom delegation was full of hate and spite. They didn’t forget and didn’t forgive what happened, and acted accordingly. The quickest way to not have problems with the Fire Nation was to financially ruin them. So they wanted the restitution of lands conquered by the Fire Nation, the soldiers and colonists shipped back to the Fire Islands in a month, and monetary compensation he couldn’t promise, without bankrupting his own nation. And some of those lands were for so long in the hands of the Fire Nation, there was practically a new mixed community living, neither Earth Kingdom nor Fire Nation. If he would give the order to just come back on the islands in the shortest time possible, there would be uprisings, maybe even a civil war would begin because of the overpopulation and unemployment caused by it.
Chief Arnook and his council wanted answers he didn’t have. They wanted justice and examples made of war criminals. But what they really wanted, was revenge for their lost brothers and sisters and sons and daughters, even when the Ocean Spirit took most of the Fire Navy out and sank their ships.
At least the Southern Water Tribe didn’t want to flay him and all of his people alive, they just wanted their imprisoned people back and some help to rebuild their land. They didn’t want to dwell on the past, they wanted to go forward. There was some resentment, but not hate. Not anymore.
Zuko sighed and sat up, lighting a candle. If he couldn’t sleep anyway, then he could pass the time researching the laws for dealing with war criminals. He was really horrified to learn, that Uncle Iroh and even himself were guilty of violating the laws of war, created in the time of Avatar Yangchen and valid even after hundreds of years.
He didn’t think about this before. He knew he didn’t always care about what happened to the towns, to the people in his way to the Avatar. When he was obsessed with capturing him, obsessed with his lost honor, he frequently attacked neutral or defenseless places too.
He was ready to pay for his crimes, to help rebuild the world, to guide his people into a time of peace and harmony, or abdicate the throne to somebody more worthy, but he wasn’t ready to condemn Uncle Iroh, who helped so much to stop the war. With his father being in prison and his sister being locked in an asylum, he didn’t want to lose his only remaining family.
The punishment for war crimes was death or imprisonment for life. Of course, there would be trials, and the unrepentant would have the most severe punishment, but what if the war criminal was reformed and rued his crueler days? Could he not make amends in another form?
Maybe they could do an allotted time in community service, some form of restoration, where the offender made direct amends to the community in which the crime was committed? Maybe they could offer medical help and share their technology? What could be done, that repaid their debt to the other nations, but didn’t end in financial collapse, people torn from their families and homes, and half of their military leaders dead or in prison?
Zuko was too anxious to go back to sleep. He needed to formally apologize to everyone he and his nation wronged and to find a way to remedy the cruelties and ravages the Fire Nation caused. So he took a fresh scroll and a brush, then began to work.
Fire Lord Zuko was late, which irritated Chief Arnook. Initially, he didn’t even want to come to these so-called peace negotiations. Every time he so much as glanced at the new Fire Lord – Ozai’s spawn – he was reminded of his own daughter, Princess Yue.
She was dead because of this young man, who broke into the Spirit Oasis and kidnapped the Avatar. If he didn’t do it, then she would be alive even now. When Admiral Zhao attacked the Moon Spirit, there would have been somebody to oppose him, to defeat him before tragedy struck.
So no, he wasn’t backing down and demanded justice and punishment for all war criminals, even the ones conducting these meetings. Because Fire Lord or not, he was just that, a war criminal. Anyway, with Ozai’s firstborn ruling, it would be just a matter of time, when the next war would begin.
He just needed to look at his family’s legacy. Sozin killed his best friend, obliterated the Air Nomads, and began a war, what his son, Azulon gleefully continued.
Azulon’s two sons were war criminals too. One was a former general, who rampaged through the Earth Kingdom, and led a siege on Ba Sing Se, and the other was the former Fire Lord, somebody who truly enjoyed the war, ordered the siege of the Northern Water Tribe’s capital city and the killing of the Moon Spirit – and his daughter with it, why her –, and not much later the scorching of the Earth Kingdom, preparing for another genocide. At least he was bereft of his bending and rotting in prison.
Then there was Fire Lord Zuko’s sister, Princess Azula. She tried to kill the Avatar and occupied Ba Sing Se, taking King Kuei hostage. She was dangerous, and purportedly crazy, locked up somewhere.
And if just half of it was true, what he saw and learned about the new Fire Lord, his obsession with capturing the Avatar, attacking helpless civilians, burning neutral towns down, and kidnapping people, then he too wasn’t an acceptable alternative to Ozai. They needed to somehow replace or rein him in.
Ten minutes later Arnook began to lose his patience. They had better things to do than sitting in a too-warm room, waiting for a disrespectful, arrogant, self-important Fire Lord, who couldn’t even be on time. The Earth Kingdom representatives were grumbling too. He was prepared to just leave with his men when Fire Lord Zuko wandered in.
Chief Arnook felt his jaw hit the floor. What joke was this? Fire Lord Zuko arrived barefoot, hair disheveled, strands falling out, the crown barely hanging in, robes creased and spotted with ink, with his arms full of so many scrolls, that it was a miracle, he saw out from behind.
He was accompanied by two pale guards and a sweating servant, who asked him desperately to take a wet towel. Of course, he was too arrogant to notice them. Then he put down the scrolls and seemed to catch sight of them. Arnook faintly picked up his stammered apologies, but he couldn’t focus on it.
He couldn’t take his eyes off the young Fire Lord’s face. Ozai’s son was beet red, some of the ink smudged on his fingers and face too, with dark circles around his eyes, clear signs of insomnia or a night worked through. Arnook saw them every morning looking in the mirror.
It was a well-known fact, that Fire Nation people were passionate, proud, and arrogant. Nobody would humiliate themselves so much in front of them, just to seem harmless. They caught him unaware, and they saw the boy for once without his Fire Lord mask on. The new Fire Lord was just an awkward teenager.
He saw that the leaden silence and the scrutiny made the young man – that ridiculous sixteen-year-old boy – defensive, shoulders hunched up, ink-stained hands wringing, then he relaxed his posture almost immediately, but Chief Arnook wasn’t fooled by his act anymore.
The Earth Kingdom representatives were the first to recover. One of them began to shout about propriety and whatnot, but he was promptly silenced by a mighty slap on his back by a grinning Bato, who invented some excuses about seeing a fly-wasp on the man. (You’re welcome, by the way.)
Then Chief Hakoda asked the teen if it was permitted to take off their boots and overcoat, because of the heat. (Of course, sorry, I should have thought of it.)
Even the Avatar chimed in, who wanted wet towels and some snacks distributed to the negotiators, to refresh themselves. That took care of the ink smudges on the boy’s face and hands and made him eat a few bites too. (It isn’t poisonous. It wouldn’t be honorable to kill you this way.)
Chief Arnook looked and observed and saw enough. Ozai’s son could reignite the war, the Fire Nation had the resources, the drive, and the force, but despite his past transgressions he was, for some unknown reason, protected by the Southern Water Tribe and friends with the Avatar.
He was a war criminal, but he appeared awkward and repentant, nothing like his father at all. Maybe he truly wanted peace. Maybe it was worth hearing his ideas. Arnook made his decision. Fire Lord Zuko was at least partially responsible for his daughter’s death – just a sixteen-year-old girl, she should have lived –, but Yue would want peace. She would want all conflicts resolved. For her, he would give this other teenager a chance to prove himself.
„Fire Lord Zuko. I would like to hear your thoughts about yesterday’s topic on justice and retribution. I think it’s important to hear your viewpoint too. We didn’t give you much time to speak, and you could have reasonable concerns too. Our intention is the same. We want peace. And I’m open to hearing your suggestions.”