Behind Golden Eyes
"I betrayed Uncle." Zuko said, more to himself then to his sister beside him.
"No, he betrayed you." Azula replied smoothly, as always, the manipulator. Even in the aftermath of her actions, she twisted her brother's already confused thoughts around. It was just too easy.
"Zuko, when you return home, Father will welcome you as a war hero." Azula continued with her carefully picked words, each one serving their purpose, gradually assuaging her brother's doubt.
But the doubt she had tried to eliminate was still too strong in Zuko's mind.
"But I don't have the Avatar. What if father doesn't restore my honor?" Azula placed a hand on her brother's shoulder, knowing exactly what to say in order to push Zuko's thoughts in the direction she wanted them to go, she had been an expert in this practice ever since she was very young.
"He doesn't need to Zuko. Today, you restored your own honor."
Despite his sister's words, Zuko turned his face away, unwilling to show the confusion and doubt that still rested in his features.
Azula felt a twinge of uncertainty as well; her normally solid methods of manipulation were working, but not as soundly as they had in the past. Had her brother really changed that much?
"Of course not." she reassured herself. Her plan was working perfectly and Zuko would soon accept all that she had told him—making him the perfect pawn in what she planned to do once they returned home to the Fire Nation.
As Azula turned away, Zuko closed his eyes and could no longer suppress the images that slowly started to surface in his mind.
A peaceful earth kingdom girl named Song, Scars traveled up her entire leg: the result of a brutal, Fire Nation attack,
Li, a small boy who had lost both his brother and father to the war, a boy who Zuko could have almost befriended. But the boy's painful words rang in his mind…
"I hate you."
Jin's eyes looked upon his face with kindness, but she didn't know who he really was, surely she would hate him too if she knew.
The next images were the most painful of all. Blue eyes looked upon his face, and accepted all that he was, accepted that he was Zuko, and a prince of the Fire Nation.
And his Uncle, who had always loved him, always been there for him, turned away from his nephew for the first time.
Zuko shut his eyes tighter and tried to will the images away. He was sure he had made the right decision, hadn't he? Even as he tried to convince himself his actions had brought him down the right path, another image drifted into his thoughts,
A blue dragon whispered to him in an unsettlingly familiar voice,
"Just give into it." An image of the Fire Nation throne room had appeared before him, filled with soldiers—citizens of his country. And he was sitting upon the throne, as Fire Lord. He gazed proudly upon all that his country had ever been to him—a home, a place of honor. The blue dragon leaned in again to whisper something else,
"Sleep now Fire Lord Zuko. Sleep…" The image of the blue dragon faded, but the smoothness of it's words eased Zuko's painful thoughts.
After only a few moments though, Zuko's image of the Fire Nation crumbled, as if it had been nothing more than a façade. All of it was pulled into the blackness of an abyss. His eyes filled with fear as an invisible force pulled him down as well, into a pit of nothingness, where he had nothing to comfort him, nothing for companionship besides his own confusion, doubt, and despair.