Title: One Moment
Word Count: 246
Years later, Zuko will think back on that one moment and wonder. /p p
If the waterbender girl (Katara, his mind whispers, her name was Katara) had healed his scar, restored his face, would he have chosen differently?
He remembers watching her leave with the Avatar, looking back at him with - regret? pity? He doesn't know what - something written in her eyes. Sometimes he thinks it was hope - hope that he would do the right thing, would leave them alone, perhaps even fight with them, instead of against them.
His uncle spoke of changes, of destiny - how he was at a crossroads, how he had to make a choice. Azula said the same thing - but she expected him to choose the wrong side, he thinks now; expected him to choose Uncles's side; choose the Avatars' side over hers.
"You are free to choose your own destiny," she told him, and walked away.
"Your destiny is what you make it," his uncle said to him, when Zuko was feverish, covered by a blanket and still cold, in one of his few moments of lucidity.
"Uncle betrayed us," his sister said, sitting on the Earth King's throne. She sounded so sure of herself, so sure she was right - he remembers that feeling, and wished he had felt the same.
"You restored your own honor," Azula said, grasping his shoulder as she stood.
He turned his face away, because he knew she was both wrong i and /i right: Wrong, because he threw his honor away for meaningless platitudes.
And right, in the end, because he chose the wrong side.