Chapter Text
Banished. The word kept clanging through Zuko’s mind, a perverted echo that only grew stronger the closer the Wani drew to the Earth Kingdom.
Banished. He wouldn’t be allowed to keep even his mutilated mockery of a phoenix tail.
Banished. As if his face wasn’t reminder enough of his shame.
Banished. As if he could ever forget the words that were so painfully seared into his heart. You will learn respect, and suffering will be your teacher.
Banished. For the first time, he was glad that Uncle hadn’t come back to the Fire Nation. At least one member of his family didn’t have to see his disgrace.
Banished. Would he ever see Uncle again? Azula? Ty Lee? Mai? Piandao? Anyone from home?
Banished. But it wasn’t home, was it? And it never would be again. Nowhere was home now.
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Captain Jee had learned a lot of things during his time in the navy – the joy of the open ocean; the rhythm of the waves, the scent of salt lingering in the air, the freedom of the rushing breeze on his face. He had made his dearest friends on his ships; bonds that could only be forged through blood and fire. He knew what it was to serve a purpose higher than yourself; the glory of victory and the honor of sacrifice.
But Jee had also learned things that you wouldn’t see in the bright, glossy posters plastered in every town; things that the local recruiters would never tell a piece of potential kindling. The captain had learned, and could never forget, the wrath of a storm – the feel of freezing rain pooling under his armor, the bite of howling wind on his face, the thunderous crash of angry waves upon the deck of a heaving ship. He had heard the ferocious cries of men in wolf’s clothing, and had seen bodies, dear friends and bitter enemies alike, drifting on the sea. He knew the stench of acrid smoke that rose above a battle, regardless of who won the fight.
He had learned the smell of fire on flesh; had seen burns on enemy soldiers; had heard their screams. He had seen death come to the guilty and the innocent alike. And as he read the official banishment of the bandaged and trembling twelve-year-old child kneeling before him, as he lifted his blade to shear what was left of the boy’s hair, the captain learned yet another thing: the cost of courage.
The rest of the crew, it seemed, learned that lesson too, and weighed the cost accordingly: not a single soul dared break the silence as their prince rose and stumbled into the darkening forest.