Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar: The Last Airbender
I was thinking about what Zuko said during the eclipse about Iroh, and how he must have felt after his uncle was imprisoned, and what he really wanted. It didn't come out quite like I expected.
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Who am I? The banished prince, the wanderer, the hunter…or am I everything I always wanted? Banished no longer, beloved son, heir to the throne. I am…redeemed. In the caverns of Ba Sing Se my sister reached out to me, and helped me see all I could be. Bathed in the luminescence of green crystals, garbed in a tunic of a dress of the Earth Kingdom, flanked by the Dai Li, she gave me…a choice.
I could have chosen to side with my uncle. I could have freed him, and fought yet another battle with my sister, perhaps won. But glittering in front of me, there for the taking…how could I resist? Was it even my place to resist what was mine? So I chose my sister, and we fought the Avatar. Even as he rose up in the splendor of all his power, a pillar of light, Azula struck him down. As I watched him fall, I did nothing. I felt nothing.
Perhaps I should have. Lifeless in the arms of the Waterbender, that moment was everything that I needed to reclaim my honour. I should have been overjoyed, satisfied. But instead I felt the stirrings of something…else. Maybe it was the look of utter devastation on her face, that sense of loss which I was so familiar with. Maybe it was how my uncle…my uncle helped them, over me. He betrayed me.
It was on the way home that I remembered the spirit water. Since then, I somehow knew the truth. The Avatar was alive. The very thing which redeemed me was undone. I went to visit uncle, but he refused to even look at me, and it hurt. In that cell he seemed like so much less than he had been. Gone was the infuriating tea-lover, the caring uncle I knew. He tried to guide me, help me grow into what he thought I should be. It felt like he had tried to manipulate me into his vision…but I can't bring myself to believe it.
It aches, now. The joy that I expected is ash, while everything I want is here before me. My father speaks to me. My sister seems to almost support me, sometimes. But compared to that contentment I had in Ba Sing Se, it seems…hollow. I don't understand it. I served tea, catered to the whims of others. But somehow I was happy. Just me, and my uncle. Azula said I would have father's love. But now he just doesn't see me as if I'm a failure anymore. But my uncle never saw me as a failure anyway. He was somebody I could always depend on. My uncle...his love seemed tangible. He cared about me. He was a teacher, a friend, a confidant…
…a father?
