Work Text:
Zuko jumps.
Zuko jumps and his face hits concrete. His nose is broken, he finds out later.
The hand on his ankle releases, and he sees Ty Lee's face looking at him guilty as she jumps onto the ropes pulling the gondola to safety. Circus, he remembers dazedly.
The gondola gets smaller and smaller as it moves away, and the outstretched hand Sokka had stuck out to catch him disappears.
Azula is here too.
Zuko feels the blast of fire she sends his way before he sees her, and he's up to his feet in an instant.
She doesn't spare Zuko much attention, grabbing a cuff from a guard and propelling herself through the air. Zuko doesn't have that amount of control over his fire to safely attempt that. It's no wonder Azula didn't even bother with him before going straight for the others. He has no way out.
Agni, how could he have been so stupid?
Guards swarm him.
The warden shouts and guards pull out a saw and Zuko knows he has to make a move.
The saw clatters to the ground. The gondola starts moving again. Guards are incapacitated, momentarily.
Zuko watches the gondola arrive into the station on the other side of the lake. He breathes out a sigh of relief. They're safe, even if he's not.
No one comes back for him. He doesn't expect them to.
Then he's on his knees again, way too many guards holding him down, their fingers digging into his shoulders. He supposed they wouldn't want to embarrass themselves again in front of the princess.
"Three prisoners and a non bender for the prince of the Fire Nation." Azula's face looms over him. She smirks. "A pretty good trade, don't you think?"
Azula would want to go back to Caldera immediately, and his father would want to see him.
The screams of rage when his sister finds out her ride back has disappeared make him smirk. He gets punched for it.
Repeatedly.
It's worth it.
The next airship is to arrive the following morning. They throw him into a cell in the meantime. Better than letting the inmates beat him up, he supposes. He'll get enough of that once he sees his father.
His cell opens in the middle of the night and his cuffs are unlocked.
"Don't make me regret this." Mai hisses at him.
They get caught.
As does Ty Lee, who'd aided the failed escape attempt. Zuko thinks he should feel touched that they tried to break him out. He doesn't really feel anything.
He's failed.
Who is going to teach Aang firebending now? They'd learned from the dragons, sure, but not nearly enough to face his father. Zuko had come here, in the most secure of fire nation prisons, in an attempt to rescue two fundamentally useless people. And for what? To earn Sokka's trust?
Zuko slams his head into the wall.
He wonders if Katara's happy now.
Azula doesn't gloat as much as he thought she would on the way back. He thinks she's still shaken by Mai and Ty Lee's betrayal. They're not on the ship, as far as he knows. Azula must've left them back in the boiling rock, or had them shipped away to some distant prison.
Horns announce their arrival to Caldera. An Agni damned procession has come to greet the princess and her captive. A shove catches him by surprise and he nearly falls off the airship and into the filthy port waters. There's a smattering of laughter around him, led by Azula.
It's not his first return to the capital. This time though, he's in chains.
Zuko braces himself.
His father is in a war meeting, so Zuko is forced to wait, and the writhing pit of anxiety in his stomach grows larger and larger at every passing second.
The guards hold him in front of the Firelord's room. Servants pass every now and then. They scuttle quickly past them, eyes nervously fixed on the red carpeted floor.
He wonders if they're the same servantsThat took care of him as a child. What did they think of him now, a disgraced traitor?
Zuko stares at the ornate doors in front of him and tries to steady his breathing. He wonders what his chances of getting out are if he tries to break loose now.
Better than once they throw him in prison, that's for sure.
If Ozai doesn't kill him on the spot, that is.
Zuko clenches his arms and braces them against the cuffs.
He gets caught before he even makes it out of the palace.
Ozai circles him like a bearshark with its prey. Zuko has a cut on his forehead that keeps dripping blood into one eye. The guards didn't go easy on him. He doesn't dare look up.
"What were you planning on doing? Escaping? From the heart of the fire kingdom?"
Ozai's laugh echoes off the walls of the empty room.
"Were you afraid to see me, Prince Zuko?"
His name and title drip with mockery.
Ozai hooks one hand under Zuko's chin, forcing him to look at him. His gold eyes are cold, calculated and cunning. God, how had it taken him so long to see how unhinged Ozai is?
"Or maybe you're afraid of the room," Ozai continues. His voice is mockingly concerned. "All the flames, could be frightening. You always were a delicate child."
The flames flare up in response, casting long shadows.
His voice takes on a deadly edge. "A coward."
"We could move. I know a place you might enjoy." The false concern in his voice drops as quickly as it had come. "A nice trip down memory lane, wouldn't that be nice?"
Oh.
No.
Ozai stops behind him.
"Get up."
Zuko scowls and doesn't move.
A blast of fire sends him across the room.
"Let's try this again. Get. Up."
Zuko hits cold marble and tries his best to stop shaking.
They're alone in the room, the spectator seats off to the sides empty and everything shroud in semi darkness. Yet, Zuko can still hear the voices and cheers ringing in his ears, feel the stifling heat of the midday sun and see its brightness stinging his eyes as he pleads his father for mercy.
"I used to hope sending you out at sea would've grown you a backbone". Ozai pauses. "That, or kill you."
He'd known it for a long time that his father wanted him dead. It still hurts to hear it.
"I should've seen you for the coward you are the day you begged for mercy here"
"Your uncle insisted on going with you, the old fool."
Zuko tenses.
"If the ocean had taken you both, it would've done the world a favor."
"Uncle Iroh is ten times the man you'll ever be. He's the father you never were." A father Zuko didn't deserve.
Tears sting his cheeks. "You never even tried," Zuko spits.
Then his father is in front of him and he's grabbing him by the neck and holding him against the wall and Zuko feels thirteen and helpless all over again, and by Agni he can't breathe.
"I should kill you where you stand," Ozai hisses.
Zuko's vision is swimming. "Do it, then." he chokes out.
"No."
Ozai lets Zuko drop to the ground.
"I want you to see the world burn first."
Prison is cold, Zuko finds out. So very, very cold.
The burns on his back and chest are not. Somehow, they make the place feel even colder.
Zuko curls in on himself and tries to sleep.
Ozai comes in every now and then.
Taunting him.
Trying to get him to fight him back. Zuko learns early on that the best way to get his father to leave is to not do anything. Stay there, listless, not saying a word, until he gets bored and goes away. It's not easy. But Zuko knows he might not survive if he answers Ozai's provocations.
He knows his father. There's no taste in killing a man who's already down.
It takes fifteen escape attempts for Zuko to lose his window privileges.
He has broken ribs, bruised fingers, a possibly dislocated shoulder and a certainly dislocated foot to show for it.
Actually, some of that may be from his father. He can't remember.
The new room they thrust him in is so dark he can't tell when his eyes are open or closed. There's only so long he can keep a flame going without tiring himself or suffocating.
Zuko scratches down the days to Sozin's comet on the wall and prays.
He doesn't know why he even bothers. It's too late for him to do anything for Aang. If Aang defeats Ozai, Zuko might be saved. If he doesn't, Zuko will die one way or another.
He keeps trying anyway.
One day, Zuko snaps.
Blinding light and heat shine under the door to his cell, visible all the way down the hallway.
Zuko's never been a fan of lightning.
He's unconscious when Ozai leaves. He wakes up two days later.
Or so he thinks.
He loses track of time completely after that.
Zuko lies in his cell and wonders if there's even a point in trying to stay alive.
Zuko knew Sozin's comet had arrived even before the guards came to get him. He could feel the power it gave his firebending coursing through him. It was terrifying, its potential for destruction.
He's hauled onto an airship, his father's one. It stands amongst the dozen airships ready to take off from Caldera towards the Earth kingdom, the Fire Nation insignia splayed proudly over each and every one of them. As if they had anything left to be proud of.
Zuko feels sick.
A metal platform, shaped like a half moon, juts out of the front of each airship, giving a clear view of the fast moving ocean below. It's not nearly wide enough for two people to stand on it safely, yet Ozai forces Zuko to join him on it.
He wonders if his father plans on dropping him.
He doesn't.
Fire razes the Earth kingdom and Zuko screams at his father, struggling against his grip. Ozai laughs, eyes wild.
"Watch your precious world burn, Prince Zuko. Isn't it beautiful?"
Zuko can barely hear him over the pounding in his chest and the wind howling in his ears.
He spits blood and fire at him in response.
Ozai's eyes narrow in anger and Zuko is thrown off the platform and across the deck, dangerously close to the edge. He thinks his shirt may be on fire.
He scrambles to his feet, bracing himself for a second blow. It never comes.
The Avatar has arrived.
The world is red. Everything is ablaze, the ship, the sky, the ground. The deck lurches sickeningly.
Zuko laughs.
And the ship goes down.
There's a pot of tea on his bedside table when he wakes up. White ceramic, with red flowers painted on the side and a matching cup. Zuko had broken a similar teapot when he worked in Ba Sing Se.
He pours himself a cup. The tea must've been sitting there for a while, it's lukewarm, so Zuko quickly heats it up to nearly scalding, the way he likes it.
It's delicious. It's jasmine tea.
There's only one person who makes jasmine tea Zuko likes.
His uncle is here and Zuko's crying and he's apologizing and he doesn't even care how much his ribs hurt because his uncle is hugging him and smoothing his hair and he forgives him.
"Where are my father and Azula?"
"Defeated" Iroh answers. "You won't ever have to worry about them again."
Zuko recalls the ship going down.
"How am I here?"
"Aang saw you on the airship before it went down."
He has so many more questions, but his uncle stops him. "You need rest, Prince Zuko. Everything else can come later."
Aang stands in front of him. He studies Zuko, hesitating. Then he runs forward and hugs him. "I'm glad you're okay."
Toph punches him on the shoulder and congratulates him on staying alive. Zuko winces. He's still pretty sore.
"Sorry" Toph mutters. "That's just how I show affection."
Zuko finds he doesn't mind the punch that much after all.
He sees Sokka, Katara, and their father, Hakoda, not long after.
Sokka avoids looking him in the eyes, preferring to study the gold trim on the blankets covering his bed.
"What happened at the Boiling Rock is not your fault." Zuko tells him.
"We couldn't go back. I'm sorry."
"I know. I don't blame you."
And he didn't, really.
Sokka smiles at him.
Katara doesn't even seem to hate him. Her eyes are worried, and she reaches towards the flask at her side almost instinctively. This time, Zuko knows it's not to pull out water whips.
Hakoda appraises him warmly.
"Your uncle has told us a lot about you. You may have made mistakes in the past, but you're a fine young man, Prince Zuko."
There's a lump in his throat, and Zuko just nods.
Katara stays behind to help heal him with water. Sokka stays by for company.
They talk.
Tentatively.
A bit awkwardly at first.
But they make it work. Sokka fills him in on what happened after the Boiling Rock.
"We found your uncle. Or well, he found us. Completed Aang's firebending training, and warned us Ozai was probably going to attempt something horrific on the day of Sozin's comet, and urged us to act beforehand."
"Thank god for that." Katara chimes in.
Toph joins them later.
She frowns, one hand on Zuko's arm. "You're really warm. Do you have a fever?"
Possibly. He didn't feel feverish, though. "Firebenders are naturally warm."
He concentrates, exhaling hot air.
Toph gasps. "You just got even warmer. This is amazing." She clambers onto the bed and wraps her arms around him, sighing contentedly.
Zuko's frozen in shock.
Katara and Sokka decide they need to see it for themselves.
Aang comes in and sees everyone hugging Zuko and makes a beeline for him.
Zuko wonders if this is what having friends feels like.
"You need to be the new Firelord, Prince Zuko"
"They'll never accept me."
He doesn't even know who "they" are. His own people, the other nations, it doesn't matter.
His uncle smiles. “Yes, they will."
Zuko stands before the crowd, the crown gleaming in his hair.
"All hail Firelord Zuko!"
And the people cheer.
Zuko sees his uncle smiling, tears streaming down his face, his friends, grinning and waving, and people's gazes, tired and weary but hopeful.
And he thinks maybe, maybe he can do this.