Chapter Text
“Guys! There’s a cave up ahead!” Katara called. She cupped a hand around her mouth and pointed to the distance through the pouring rain.
The group had set out to find a backup hiding place on Ember Island in case they were discovered in the Firelord’s house. But short of camping at the foot of the beach cliffs and dangerously close to the rising and falling tides, they hadn’t found any good spot. Then rain had started and became a downpour in minutes. The group had abandoned the search and headed back, but they’d traveled a long way before the storm began. It was taking longer than they expected to get back, and everyone was thoroughly soaked and grumpy.
“Oh, finally!” Sokka grumbled. He picked up his pace, slipped, and fell flat in the mud. Suki hurried forward to help him up.
Zuko paused and shifted Toph higher on his back. The muddy ground had gotten so slick that Toph kept slipping and falling with her bare feet. He and Sokka finally decided to take turns carrying her, although Toph had insisted Zuko do it the whole way. “Payback for burning my feet,” she’d said with a wicked grin and then kicked his ribs once she was settled. Honestly, though, Zuko couldn’t fault her with any of it. He clambered up the side of the hill and saw the cave: a low, stone mound sitting right on the crest.
“It doesn’t look big enough to live in,” Katara called again, “But maybe we can wait out this rain.”
“Just make sure it’s not already inhabited!” Suki called as Katara and Sokka ran forward.
Toph lifted her head off Zuko’s shoulder. “If it is, I’ll earthbend everything out!” she announced. “I’m sick of being wet!”
“Don’t kick innocent creatures out of their home, Toph,” Aang said wearily. He brought up the rear, leaning heavily on his staff. “We’ll just find another cave.”
“Yeah, but I’m not seeing another cave anywhere nearby,” Sokka called back. Katara had already disappeared inside, and Suki hurried up the hill. Sokka stood in the mouth of the cave. “Hey, Zuko! Get over here! We need fire!”
Zuko groaned as he trudged forward. Toph snickered. “First pack mule, now lantern.”
“If I’m a pack mule, what does that make you?” Zuko grumbled. He caught up to the others and let Toph slid to the ground before she could retort with snarky remark. He held up his hand and generated an orb of fire. Orange light flung to the corners of the cave, illuminating lumpy stones and deep shadows. The inside of the cave dipped down into the hill like a shallow bowl; the place was deeper inside than it looked outside. He could see straight to the back of the cave. There were no cracks or holes that could lead deeper or let creatures in or out.
But Zuko frowned. He stepped inside, shivering suddenly now that the pouring rain was gone and chill air surrounded him. Nothing looked wrong. He wandered closer to the cave walls, examining them.
“I think we’re good, guys!” Sokka called. Suki came in, shivering and rubbing her wet arms.
“Oh, I’m ready to be dry again,” she remarked.
“I can help with that,” Aang said, ducking inside as well. He quickly bent the water out of Suki’s and Toph’s clothes. He glanced around. “Yeah, we can’t live here. Appa wouldn’t fit. But we can stay the night.”
“Or just until the rain lets up,” Katara said. “Honestly, I’d rather be back at the house.”
“What, the Firelord’s summer house in the middle of the Fire Nation?” Sokka snickered. “Really?”
“Yeah, cause last I checked, nobody expected fugitives to hid there.” Her voice was patiently exasperated.
Zuko jumped as he felt something tug his tunic. He saw Katara, bending the water out of his clothes and Sokka’s (her own were already dry). She paused and looked at him with a frown. “Is something wrong?”
“I…” Zuko glanced around the cave again. Nothing looked abnormal. He extinguished his flame. “I don’t think so.”
Everyone lay down near the back of the cave, away from the splattering dampness at the mouth, and after a few minutes of shuffling and shoving each other’s feet and knees and elbows out of the way, the group settled down. Except Zuko. He lay still, but he couldn’t relax. Which wasn’t unusual, but he couldn’t shake the feeling from earlier. Something just felt…off about this place.
The steady breathing of the others was loud, sounded intrusive in the near-silence. Zuko sat up suddenly and generated a flame from his palm. The orange and golden light flickered over the stones and cast dark shadows into the furthest corners. He could see the still, peaceful forms of his friends. The whisper of steady rain drifted from the cave entrance. Nothing looked unusual, but somehow, his uneasiness grew. After a moment’s mental debate, he scowled and decided he was probably just being paranoid this time. He extinguished the flame and lay down. Slowly, the silence grew a little more peaceful.
“Zuko.”
Father’s voice.
Zuko shot upright, eyes wide, and burst another flame from his palm, breathing hard. No one was there. He glanced to either side and then whirled around—and froze.
His father stood, tall and dark, against the wall of the cave, arrayed in royal robes, his hands folded in his sleeves, his face unseen in the shadows. But there was no mistaking that dark, stern voice. “Afraid of me, are you?”
“I—” Zuko tried to swallow, tried desperately to find an answer that wasn’t a lie and wasn’t the truth either while reeling to understand how his father was even here. “H-how…?”
His father gave a disgusted chuckle. “And now you cower before me like you did at the Agni Kai.”
“That-no-I was trying—was loyal…” Zuko’s face hardened, and he scrambled to his feet. “No, I’m not afraid of you! And I have faced you without fear!”
“Yes.” His father sounded darkly amused. “When you announced your plan to betray me, betray the Fire Nation itself, your birthright, and join the Avatar. Not the most intelligent move, to reveal those intentions.” He paused. “Oh. And you did not kill me, though I was powerless and you had your swords.”
Zuko stood still, the fire still flickering in his hand, though it did not light his father’s face. “I won’t kill you, Father.”
“No, you’ll let someone else do that job.” His father did not move, did not step forward, yet Zuko could sense the dark scowl gathering over his features. One he knew well, though he could not see it through the shadows. “You are still a coward. And a traitor.” Disgust seeped through his father’s voice. “A failure. You don’t deserve to be my son.”
“No!” Zuko hardly knew if he was agreeing or denying; his flame roared into the air, and he flung a swirl of fire toward the form of his father. The flame burned out and vanished, sparks falling and dying. Silence fell. Zuko stood in the dark, panting. He could somehow sense that no one had ever stood in that space before him. It was a dream.
By some miracle, the others had not been wakened by the noise. Zuko slowly sat down, wrapping his arms around his knees. His father’s words—or the illusion—whatever it was—echoed in his head.
You don’t deserve to be my son.
There was a time he had thought that. He had believed it and so been desperate prove himself worthy, to earn his father’s love. Now he knew better. He had stood up to his father, faced him, called him out on his cruelty. He knew now the love and approval he’d sought from the Firelord was nothing more than an illusion.
But the words hurt. The bond he thought he’d had with his father all those years…it was not so easily severed.
You don’t deserve to be my son.
He shook his head slowly, trying to clear the clouds from his mind. “It was a dream,” he muttered as he lay down. “Just a dream.”
Except he hadn’t been to sleep yet.