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"His own father shot him with lightning."
"Well, did you expect the Fire Lord to be a nice guy?"
"No, but...I guess I thought blood counted for something."
"I don't think these people have any loyalty, Sokka. When I was imprisoned with him under Ba Sing Se…"
Maybe you could be free of it.
The voices swam in his head and Zuko couldn't understand what they were saying anymore. He wasn't even sure what was the present and what was the past. His father...his father shot lightning at him? Yes, he remembered. That explained the pain. It was better not to move or open his eyes, for fear of the brightness behind his eyelids. He thought he recognized the voices, though.
-
All the way down the end of the hall, then down a secret stairway and to the left. It was just as Azula had said. But when they got there, the door had been open.
Aang froze as he heard voices, and gestured to the others. Toph's brow was wrinkled as though she were deep in thought, or listening very hard. One of the voices was low and menacing, and sent a chill up Aang's spine. That had to be the Fire Lord.
The other was...familiar.
Of course they would run into Zuko. The voice was shouting angrily, not unusual for the prince of the Fire Nation, but there was something that seemed off about it, although Aang couldn't quite figure out what it was.
"It was cruel! And it was wrong!"
He looked at Toph again, and so did Sokka on her other side. She didn't turn to look at either, her attention equally divided between them and the conversation up ahead, as she slowly mouthed words, barely loud enough for him to hear.
We need to help him.
" What ?" Sokka was looking at Toph as if she had suddenly miraculously flown like an airbender.
Aang's ears caught the echo in the metallic air of the bunker of Zuko's voice saying "the Avatar," and "defeat you." It didn't make sense, but suddenly he found himself thinking about something else that hadn't made sense. Something Katara had said at Ba Sing Se.
" I thought you had changed ." She had said that as Zuko was attacking them. Now Toph seemed to think that they should help Zuko. Aang looked to his friends in confusion.
Toph grabbed Sokka's arm quickly, and he hissed, although the next time he spoke it was in a whisper. " Ow . What?"
Toph spoke quietly and quickly, still grasping Sokka's arm tightly. "The eclipse is going to be over in a minute, dummy, and the Fire Lord's waiting for it. I can feel him biding his time. He's going to attack."
"He's going to attack Zuko ?"
"Yeah."
Toph's expression changed abruptly to one of horror.
Aang made his decision. He ran forward into the bunker, and several things happened at once.
He saw Zuko turn, his face shadowed by a shaggy mop of dark hair that had grown longer since that day in Ba Sing Se, but the distinctive scar made him easily recognizable. The left side of his face was wet with...tears?
Behind him, the Fire Lord stood. Aang felt cold as he faced the man, looking into hard, golden eyes, twin flames that burned with an absolute hatred more terrifying than anything Aang had ever imagined. In those eyes he saw the fury of fire, he saw Gyatso's skeleton in the snow, with the bodies of Fire Nation soldiers scattered around it. He saw snow darkened with ash, a fire that burned ever brighter with the desire to consume . But the Fire Lord was not looking at him. Blue static arced from the man’s fingertips…
Zuko, half turned towards Aang in surprise, didn't see the lightning until it was too late, arm outstretched as if to catch it mid-air. Aang watched as it struck his fingers and traveled along his arm, feeling the electricity crackling in the air around him. For a moment the lightning seemed to engulf Zuko, then the Fire prince screamed as he crumpled to the ground, blue fire escaping from his fingers. Aang shot a blast of air forward, past the fallen prince. The Fire Lord's eyes widened as he saw Aang, but it was too late, and a moment later he was knocked backward.
Aang rushed forward and slung one of Zuko's arms over his shoulder as the prince struggled to his feet. "Can you walk?"
Zuko looked dazed, and Aang had a feeling that he was more hurt than he looked. "I...maybe."
Sokka was at Zuko's other side, helping him regain his feet. "We need to RUN!"
Sokka was right. The Fire Lord had only been momentarily stunned, and Aang could once again feel the telltale crackle of static building in the air.
They managed to half-drag Zuko outside the entrance to the chamber, and the metal door lurched as Toph bent it shut, just before the Fire Lord's lightning reached them. Then she joined Aang on Zuko's side and the four of them ran together, Zuko stumbling as he leaned on the other three, and Aang realized he seemed to get heavier as they went. By the time they reached Appa, he had fallen unconscious.
-
"Just because he attacked his father doesn't mean he's suddenly good now. All it means is that violence runs in the family, and we already knew that."
"He was saying he wanted to join us,” Aang said. The memory of Zuko's tear-stained face appeared in Aang's mind, Zuko screaming as his body contorted and curled in on itself.
Zuko was currently stretched out on a cot in one of the temple rooms, the one Katara had claimed as an infirmary, and all of them were sitting on the floor, discussing the prince who was currently asleep. They all glanced over as they heard Zuko shift and whimper something, but he didn’t wake up.
"...free Uncle…"
Katara rose and moved to the bed, taking Zuko’s limp hand. She looked back at her companions, a frown crossing her features. "All of you get out."
"I thought you said we shouldn't make assumptions," said Sokka.
"That doesn't mean I don't have a duty to my patient. Now. Out."
Aang followed the others out, sparing a last glance at Katara bent over the figure on the bed.
-
Katara pushed back the bedsheets to examine the reddened scars that snaked down Zuko's right arm and across his chest, down to his solar plexus, arcing across his skin like lightning. Well. Not just like lightning. Aang had been frantic as he had explained to her, although she had not needed to be told how exactly Zuko had been injured. She had seen an injury like this before, after all.
The fact that it was Zuko , had, of course, raised some questions, but Sokka’s own look, which said I know, just go with it , and the immediate need, had driven such thoughts from her mind. Now that he was mostly stable, if not yet conscious, those thoughts returned. Thoughts of Ba Sing Se.
He looked much younger now, like this, than the person she remembered who had hunted them mercilessly and tracked them to the city. He probably wasn't that much older than Sokka. He'd looked that way in Ba Sing Se, too, his eyes full of uncertainty and fear as she'd held up the vial of spirit water. But there had been a little bit of hope, too, that he'd been trying to hide because it shamed him, for some reason. She had a feeling she knew why.
She found her eyes drifting to the scar that marred the left side of his face. When she'd touched it, before, she'd felt how deep the wound had been, and she'd known in that moment that it couldn't be healed. Even her spirit healing of Aang had left a scar. A part of her had been relieved when Aang and the old man, Zuko's uncle, had interrupted them. Relieved because it meant that she didn't have to tell him. Not after seeing the hope in his eyes. She knew what it was like to hope, and hope, in something impossible.
And then he had betrayed her. Betrayed all of them.
As she looked at it, she realized that she'd never thought about the scar that much before, even when her fingers told her the story of it, the energy around the ruined flesh all tangled up and painful, but as she looked at it now, the realization hit her so clearly. She wasn't sure why she hadn't realized it before, or why the thought seemed so startling to her now.
It was a burn scar.
Maybe he'd had an accident, she thought. A fight with another firebender. But his own father had shot him with lightning, and suddenly something clicked into place.
I used to think that this scar marked me .
There wasn't a lot that she couldn't stomach. Even before she had known that she could heal using waterbending, Katara had delivered babies and tended wounds since she'd been old enough to help the women of the village. She'd seen men gored by walrus-lions. But this…
"Uncle," the boy laying in the bed whined, eyes still shut tight. "Uncle, I'm sorry… "
"Hey, it's okay," she said gently. She bent water from a bowl on the bedside table and used it to soothe the inflamed wound on his chest, and that seemed to calm him down some. His pleading apology reminded her of when he'd apologized to her in the cave, when she'd spoken about her mother. He’d betrayed his own uncle, too, and the old man probably had more of a right to feel betrayed than she did. She certainly had no reason to expect anything less from the prince of the Fire Nation. Maybe treachery was just in his blood, and maybe he regretted it now, but maybe that just meant he would still willingly sell them all out if he could. She didn't know, and she hated having to wait around to find out.
-
He was on fire.
He screamed, and cried, and begged for mercy, but a cold, dark shadow blocked out the sun. There was a bright burning behind his eyes, and he couldn’t see, he couldn’t see -
Hands were holding him down, and Zuko recoiled and tried to push the hands away, but when he opened his eyes, it was only the Water Tribe boy staring at him. That meant -
“Are you gonna stop yelling and flinging your arms around now? You already fell off the bed once, and hit me in the face twice.”
“I...oh. Sorry.”
The boy looked surprised and a little skeptical. Then, after a moment, seemed satisfied and eased off the bed, freeing Zuko’s arms.
“You okay there, buddy?” He said, his expression softening as he stood back.
Zuko had not expected the question, especially after the boy’s earlier suspicion.
“No,” he said, after a moment, because it seemed to be the only thing to say. How long had he been unconscious? “My father...I mean, the Fire Lord…”
“Yeah, he shot you with lightning.” The boy’s eyes widened. “ Sca-ry . We thought you were dead.”
Zuko frowned, indignant. “Well, I’m not.”
“Yeah, tell me about it.” The boy rubbed his cheek where there seemed to be a purplish bruise forming. Zuko didn’t know whether he should apologize again. What did you say in this type of situation? Sorry, but I didn’t actually mean to fight you this time. I thought you were my dad. Even he could tell that that sounded stupid.
“Sokka! He’s awake?”
-
As soon as Aang and Katara entered, Momo leapt off of Aang's shoulder and scampered across the room, jumped onto the sickbed in one fluid motion, then crawled into the lap of the very startled patient on the bed.
Zuko, who had moments before announced to Sokka that he was not, in fact, dead, with all the haughtiness of a teenager who had been raised in a palace, startled and stiffened as the lemur began to knead the blankets. " Oww ."
"Momo…!" Katara took a step forward, but Aang grabbed her hand.
"Wait. Look."
Zuko winced and grumbled and made several more pained noises as Momo dug his claws in, circled, then settled into his lap. As the lemur nestled against him, chin resting on Zuko's knee, his complaints became something softer, something that sounded strangely like laughter .
Katara looked at Aang, wide-eyed, but said nothing. Aang shrugged his shoulders.
Zuko was looking down at the lemur curled in his lap, his hands poised at his sides as if unsure of what to do with them, saying something softly in tones that sounded very un-Zuko-like.
"You can pet him," Aang said encouragingly.
Zuko looked up as if he hadn't noticed they were there, seemed momentarily distressed, raised a hand uncertainly where it hovered in the air a moment, then lowered it to Momo’s soft head and stroked the lemur's fur, a small smile spreading across his face as he watched Momo squeak contentedly.
“ Weird ,” said Sokka.
At Sokka’s utterance, Zuko seemed to remember again that they were there, and he looked up quickly, eyes narrowing, then becoming wide. “I, um, I guess you guys are, I mean I want to - “
But Zuko didn’t finish. His gold eyes rolled back in his head and his limbs began to jerk beneath the blankets. Momo hopped off the bed anxiously and sat up, staring at Zuko, who was trembling violently, while Katara ran to the bedside. “Sokka, bring the water!”
-
Zuko was asleep once more, his head fallen back against the sagging pillows, Momo nestled in the crook of one arm - also asleep - when they left the room. Every so often, his hands twitched slightly at his sides, but the tremors had passed, it seemed, at least for now.
"We need to talk about this," Katara said.
Aang glanced at her. "What, Momo? I think it's cute, Zuko likes him!"
"No, I mean about Zuko being here ."
Aang turned to her sharply. "What else did you want me to do? Leave him there?"
"No, you did the right thing, I just - "
"You don't understand, Katara. It was my fault he got hurt like that."
"No," Sokka said, "It wasn't."
"I interrupted. He wasn't facing the Fire Lord when…"
"You had no idea that that was going to happen."
"Toph warned us."
"But still, there's no way you could have...there's no one to blame except the Fire Lord." Katara shook her head. There was no one to blame, and perhaps that was the reason for her frustration. War was so much easier when you knew who to blame. The boys left her, Aang to keep an eye on Zuko and give her a break, Sokka mumbling something about “meat.”
Toph was sitting on the edge of the cliff face when Katara found her, feet dangling in thin air. That was unusual, to say the least.
"You okay?" Katara sat down next to Toph, letting her own feet drop over the side. It was almost like the freedom of dipping her legs in water, letting them float. Almost. Somewhere far away, she could feel the moon, waiting in its daytime slumber. Soon it would be full and bright, and would sing whispered promises of power. She thought of Hama, and shivered.
Toph didn't look up, but stared with unseeing eyes into the open air below them. "You know, I met him once. Zuko's uncle. I didn't tell you guys. It was that day you and I argued, and Azula and those Fire Nation girls chased us. He made me tea."
Katara had an image in her mind of how Iroh had looked in the caves, when he and Aang had burst through the earth to free them. He'd looked so worried about his nephew, so relieved to find him there safe. Just as relieved as she had been to see Aang.
"Do you think he's...in danger?" She thought of Zuko, calling for his uncle.
"For some reason, I think he's okay." Toph smiled, just a little. "Zuko misses him though, a lot.” Then, after a moment, “I think Zuko will be okay, too."
Toph could not have sensed Katara's uncertainty with her feet off the ground. That was good, since Katara didn't know what made her more uncertain about the prince of the Fire Nation.
"He really loves Zuko, his uncle does."
Katara couldn't imagine what it would be like if nobody was there to love you. Even when her own father had left them, at least he would come back, at least he hadn't wanted to leave. But missing didn’t change the leaving. She didn’t know if it was her father she thought of now, or Zuko in the infirmary, or Aang’s guilt, or her own, in that dark place where the moon waited.
-
When Aang came back to the infirmary the next morning, Zuko was awake again, and trying (and clearly failing, although making a valiant effort) to eat some of the dried kelp that Katara and Sokka had brought with them from the South Pole.
“It’s not bad once you get used to it.” Aang said, grinning.
Again Zuko looked startled, as if he hadn’t noticed Aang come in. “Uh,” he said. Momo, who had stayed all night with Zuko and was currently perched in his lap, took the opportunity to snatch the gnawed-on piece of dried kelp from his hands.
Zuko growled and tried to wrestle the morsel out of the lemur’s grasp, but Momo scampered away from his reach and landed on Aang’s shoulders.
Aang drew back from Zuko’s angry outburst instinctively, as Momo curled his tail around his neck. This was the Fire Prince that he knew, the one who had been chasing them obsessively for months. But things were different now, he had to remind himself. He couldn’t exactly say what was different, and maybe it was stupid that Aang had been the one to decide to bring Zuko here. But when he looked back at him, Zuko was averting his eyes, as if he'd noticed Aang's reaction.
Momo took the opportunity to leap back into Zuko’s lap. Zuko jumped, then looked relieved. Momo did seem to like him, odd as it was. Maybe he just needs a friend , Aang thought.
“So, are you gonna teach me that thing you did with the lightning?” Aang said, trying for a friendly smile.
Zuko frowned. “I don’t think it worked very well.”
“Better next time, then.”
“Yeah,” Zuko mumbled, as the lemur nestled against his hand and began licking it.