Title: Broken Devotion
Author: darkling59
Rating: T
Date: 11/23/2014
Disclaimer: Avatar: the Last Airbender and all related characters, plots, etc. do not belong to me.
Warnings: AU/'For Want of a Nail' story, angst, Zuko whump, shaky knowledge of canon, blood and (potentially) gore
Summary: Disillusionment comes in many forms. In a world where Zhao decided to take a more personal involvement in the young prince's murder, and Zuko receives proof that such an assassination attempt could not happen without the Fire Lord's approval, his journey to capture the avatar comes to a painful, premature end.

Broken

In the end, it isn't Zuko's opponent that is his undoing. Nor is it the avatar and his friends, the surprise attack, the internal injuries, or even his own subpar firebending. It is a small scroll bearing a simple message, one which he probably should have expected, if he hadn't been so blind in his desperation to regain his honor and make his father proud.

The message held him spellbound and frozen as Zhao made his move, and kept him from responding with the anger that had become instinct for far too long.

And as soon as was pinned, he was in no position to fight back.

He lay limp on the deck of the wooden earth kingdom fishing boat with a harpoon jutting from his lower abdomen, impaling him from back to front. The point of the spear was embedded in the deck beneath him, while the bulk of the weapon protruded from his back, with a sneering Zhao holding the handle and bracing one heavy, painful boot on Zuko's back. However, it wasn't the pain or the weapon that kept him on the deck like a landed fish; even Zhao's finishing move of a sharp kick to the side of Zuko's head, and the accompanying sharp crack as it impacted the side of the ship painfully and made his vision swim and consciousness waver alarmingly, normally would not have been enough to keep him down or silent.

However, that small note had removed any and all reason for him to get back up.

His father did not want him. Had never wanted him. Had no intention of loving or accepting him with or without the avatar. The orders outlined in the note – some of them implied rather than explicitly worded, but with the intent obvious – made it clear that Ozai intended for the admiral to have the glory of capturing the avatar, and that even if Zuko got him first, Zhao was well within his rights to retrieve Aang to his own ship; in fact, he was encouraged to do so because the fleet was considered 'more reliable' than Zuko's small ship. (Never mind that Zuko was the one who had successfully found, chased, and pinned down the target on multiple occasions and that Zhao followed him for a direction. Never mind that if Zhao got the avatar, Zuko would be doomed to permanent exile.) Most damning, however, was the clear permission given to be rid of all obstacles in any way Zhao chose, up to and including lethal measures. In fact, they were both expected and encouraged, especially in the case of Zhao's most common obstacle: Zuko. Ozai had essentially ordered his son's death, and the deaths of all who stood beside him, even those who were Fire Nation.

Zuko didn't notice as Zhao's victorious sneer turned viciously amused as he peered over the railing and back at his teenaged foe, but he sure felt it when the harpoon twisted in his body. The fire prince (ex-fire prince?) gurgled in pain, bloody froth dripping from his mouth as he tried to cough and breath around the horrible ripping pressure and hands curling ineffectually into claws that slipped in the pool of blood forming beneath his body. Distantly, through the roaring in his ears, he heard the avatar screaming at Zhao, but he didn't get a chance to register the words before he found himself hefted sideways with the harpoon, just like a speared fish. There was a moment of sickening weightlessness and then a shattering full-body pain as he struck the surface of the water far below.

It took him a long, painful moment to realize Zhao had thrown him off the boat. And that he was sinking.

There were streams of blood slowly seeping out of his body around the spear to form a gruesome red cloud, the size inversely related to how much time he had left to live. Through the murk, he could see large finned shapes turning towards him, the sharp teeth of sharkotters visible even at this distance, and knew his time had just run out.

.X.X.

For Team Avatar, the day went from normal to that special brand of annoying that was 'Zuko again?' to absolutely horrifying in the space of less than an hour.

It started with a typical day of traveling (which was interesting for the first oh, hour, of riding Appa, but got monotonous pretty fast after that), interrupted by the discovery of a small Earth Kingdom fishing town. Glad for the distraction, they'd immediately landed and entered the village, ostensibly to resupply but mostly just to take a break. Unfortunately, it seemed this was the only resupply port in the area and Zuko was also present bartering for goods; they'd literally banged straight into him in the middle of the street. He'd been caught off guard, but recovered quickly enough to grab Aang. At which point they learned that the village depended on the Fire Nation for a good ninety percent of its revenue and that the inhabitants really weren't all that friendly to the avatar, especially when he accidentally crashed three of their ships with a rogue gust of wind (incidentally, this happened before they ran into Zuko, because Aang had been showing off for Katara). While Team Avatar had gotten pretty good at evading Zuko, especially when he was alone, they weren't so good at escaping an entire town full of angry fishermen.

They wound up tied together on the back deck of a small hired fishing trawler, more of a boat than a ship, with Zuko standing smug and satisfied nearby, watching them like a hawkeagle as the boat set sail, destined for a spot further up the coast where his ship was actually moored (it was too large to fit into the bay alongside the fishing fleet). Sokka and Zuko were exchanging increasingly personal barbs and just getting into the thick of really insulting each other (as Aang and Katara quietly worked on their bindings in the background), when Zuko abruptly stopped with a strange look on his face and all of them turned to see a gigantic Fire Nation vessel bearing down on them.

Zhao's ship, not Zuko's.

That's when everything went to hell.

Zhao stopped the fishing trawler by the simple expedient of getting in the way, and came over alone to order all of its crew below deck. Zuko was absolutely livid, but all Zhao did was hand him a tightly bound scroll with an elaborate (broken) seal. At the sight of the emblem, the teenaged prince's eyes lit up and he snatched it away, turning away from Zhao for privacy as he unrolled the message, ignoring the admiral's orders to the earth crew. He was still looking at the note with something like bewildered horror when the last earth citizen vanished below deck and Zhao snatched the nearest harpoon off its rail moorings.

Zuko went down with a shocked gurgle, staring at the bloody spear point protruding from his abdomen, and didn't get back up.

Team Avatar recoiled sharply as blood splashed over them; the only reason no one screamed was because they were too stunned. They recovered from the jarring shock, and the realization that this had gone from an annoying and probably-escapable hostage situation to gruesome premeditated murder, just as Zhao was throwing the teen overboard. Their clamoring protests came too late to make a difference.

"Stop!"

"What did-?!"

"How could you?!"

"He's your-!"

"Zuko!"

And finally, just before the prince passed out of sight: "Stop! You monster – He's still alive!"

They had all seen Zuko thrash weakly in pain when Zhao pushed the harpoon in further and claw desperately in a futile attempt to escape being thrown overboard.

"Not for long." Zhao smirked without looking at them, his only acknowledgement of the children thus far. The glance he directed over the railing was scornful and not the least bit guilty. "Maybe he'll give the sharkotters a fight while they're eating him." His smirk twisted into something malicious and actually darkly amused. "Probably not."

And that seemed to be the end of it. Without a second glance, he turned away and summoned his subordinates from his own ship, barking orders to hose down the deck before turning his attention towards arranging for the transfer of prisoners. As if murdering a teenager in a horrific, painful, lingering way was normal.

Aang, Katara, and Sokka huddled together, staring in shocked horror at the last place they'd seen Zuko, and the bloodstain that was slowly being hosed and scrubbed into nonexistence by a crew member – by the time the Fire Nation soldiers left and the earth crew was allowed back on deck, all sign of Zuko's death would be gone completely, save for the missing harpoon. Aang was trembling like a leaf, face pale and eyes wide, clutching his friends with a white-knuckled grip as if he'd float away without support. There was a faint shine of avatar-blue along the edges of his arrow tattoo, but he was still too stunned to access the avatar state, even if he'd wanted to. Katara, on the other hand, had her hands balled into shaking fists and the whites were showing all around her eyes. She couldn't seem to stop whispering 'he's a monster'; she didn't like Zuko (he was an insufferable jerk) and until now, she'd been convinced he was legitimately evil, but she could never imagine him doing anything like that…and it was a lot easier to see him as a person after watching him be a victim.

Sokka tried to provide support for the younger children, even as he was unable to suppress his own shudders of horror at the gruesome spectacle. He'd heard stories of the horrors of drowning at the South Pole, seen men who'd been bitten by tiger sharks and leopard seals and heard what it was like to encounter just one…when he knew the ottersharks in the earth kingdom, while smaller, were just as vicious and traveled in schools, often following fishing boats to feast on discarded bycatch. He didn't want to consider how much agony Zuko must be in, what the sharks would do to him, and how long it would take him to die.

Instead, he focused on what it would mean for them – Team Avatar – to be in Zhao's custody, without the presence of Zuko to get in his way. Zhao, who thought killing – even killing like that – was an acceptable way of dealing with obstacles. Who had always seen the water tribe siblings as nuisances rather than children, and considered Aang nearly as valuable dead as alive. (Alive was preferable, to forestall the birth of a new avatar, but he'd learned his lesson at Pouhai Stronghold – given a choice between free or dead, he'd choose dead.)

…In contrast to Zuko, who never tried to seriously hurt the siblings (even captured, Katara had been safe from physical harm) and would only accept Aang alive – even if the choices were between killing Aang or letting him escape, he allowed Aang to escape so he could try to capture him another day.

Sokka swallowed deeply. This…was bad. Really, really bad.

As the fire soldiers surrounded them and forced the knot of trembling children towards the gangplank to the larger ship, Sokka's eyes lit on a small scroll splattered with blood and hidden in the shadows. The scroll Zhao had handed Zuko, which had held the teen's attention long enough for the admiral to make his move.

In a surge of inspiration, Sokka 'tripped' and fell to his knees with a loud grunt of pain, nearly taking his companions down with him. Before the guards hauled him back upright, he managed to snatch the small piece of parchment, and he slipped it into his boot as he rose. If nothing else, maybe it could tell him why the prince of the Fire Nation had been murdered.

As they crossed the gangplank, he happened to glance down and see a slowly dissipating patch of red where Zuko had gone into the water…and half a dozen sharp triangular fins circling…circling…circling…

Shaken and swallowing back bile as his mind painted a vivid image of what was about to happen (he'd seen what happened when an otter penguin was attacked by a tiger shark…), Sokka ripped his eyes away as one of the sharks broke formation and surged in to attack.

He didn't look down again.

Author's Note:

Poor Zuko. He's just so easy to write into positions of pain. Then again, that's pretty much canon…there's bad luck, and then there's Zuko's luck.

Also, Zhao's a bastard.

…

So…Hello! I'm new to the fandom. I've been writing for a while, but I've never posted anything AtLA on ffnet. However, this piece seemed to be pretty self-contained, so I thought I'd give posting it a shot. (My other Avatar fics are currently incomplete.)

Anyhow, I do have some ideas for more chapters but I'm torn about whether or not to write them. This was what I wrote in the first 'surge of inspiration', and the other parts are just sort of vague plot bunnies which might never go anywhere (hence the 'complete' tag). If they do bite, I hope they'll wait until after I've updated my current WIPs.

(Though I will say, Zuko isn't going to go down without a fight, not even in this situation.)

I hope you liked it!

Please review! Comments and suggestions are always welcome.