Title: Disgrace
Fandom: Avatar: TLA
Pairing/Characters: Iroh and Ozai
Warning(s): None
Genre: General
Ozai was placed in solitary confinement of the strictest sense. His only visitor was his treacherous son, and the guards that brought him his meals. Zuko was the only one who spoke to, rather, down to him. How dare he? How could such a bleeding heart unworthy of his bloodline hold such power? It was maddening to the point where Ozai would scold the boy, even when Zuko wasn't there. How dare he disgrace his heritage?
"Sozin was the one to disgrace his heritage," said Iroh, sitting with a mug of tea on the other side of the cell. Ozai leapt toward the bars, seething at his older brother, yet unable to formulate coherent words. Where Iroh came from was strange, but of no importance. This man was also a traitor. "Zuko will be the one to set things right."
"Nonsense!" said Ozai, pounding at the bars. "You've always been a soft fool, completely unfit to be Firelord. You've filled my son's head with garbage and now our great nation has become weak. It's... "
"The world will begin the process of healing. Balance has been restored. The Fire Nation is better off for it. It is through the power of love that Zuko and the avatar came together to right our wrongs."
"I'll hear no more of this! Guards! Remove this man at once! I will hear no more of this madness. ARRRGH!"
After a long bout of shouting and slamming his fists into the bars Ozai caught is breath and dared to open his eyes. Iroh was no longer there, though in his place Zuko had come to stare down at him. Always staring down at him. Who did this boy think he was? It was only a matter of time before he buckled under the weight of his own failure. The Fire Nation was unkind to weaklings.
"I could hear you shouting from outside," said Zuko, keeping his tone even and hanging back from the cell by a considerable distance. "The guards think you're losing it."
"The only one whose lost it is you, and that uncle of yours. Tell him he's not to come near me again, or so help me I'll reach through these bars and break his frail neck with my bare hands."
Zuko's brows dropped to a V-shape and he frowned. "Uncle Iroh is not frail. Also, he's not here. He's been in Ba Sing Se since the end of the war."
"But that can't be!" Ozai insisted. "He was right here, babbling nonsense about 'healing' and 'love' at me!"
It took him a minute, but Zuko seemed to understand what this was. Azula was in a similar condition, after all.
"If that's what 'he' was saying the maybe you should listen to 'him'," said Zuko, grinning in a way that Ozai found smug and intolerable. "I listened, and I'm better for it."
END