Zuko wakes up screaming and waves away the guards who burst through the door to check on him. The nightmares have become a regular occurrence, though he never remembers them in the morning. He abandons the notion of sleep, as per usual, and pulls a robe on over his night clothes. The prince isn't sure where he's going when he leaves the room, letting his legs carry him as his mind wanders.
He ends up in front of Uncle's door, hand half raised to knock. He pauses. He isn't a child anymore, just a week from his thirteenth birthday. He shouldn't go running to Uncle because of a mere nightmare. But… something in him is screaming that Uncle will be able to help.
Go on, sounds a voice in his head that isn't his own, and Zuko wonders if the weeks of sleeping only half the night have finally started affecting his sanity. He knocks and waits for an answer. There's shuffling behind the door, a quiet thud followed by a string of poorly muffled curses, and Zuko can't help it. He claps his hands over his mouth and giggles.
The guards are staring, he notes distantly, and somewhere he's worried about himself, but that part is being squashed down by the other voice that isn't so much a voice anymore as a presence. Just now, it's telling him to shut up. Then the door swings inward, revealing a very disgruntled Uncle, and Zuko is barreling into his arms.
Uncle is concerned, it's obvious in the way he pulls away for just a moment before returning the hug. He pulls Zuko inside and shuts the door against the prying eyes of the guards. Zuko sits on the bed, watching silently while his Uncle boils water for tea. Finally, the silence is broken.
"What brings you here in the middle of the night, Prince Zuko?" Uncle asks.
Zuko hesitates before answering, and the presence speaks up again. Tell him about the dreams, it says.
"I've been having nightmares." The words fall out before he can try to stop them.
"Oh?"
"I never remember them when I wake up, but it feels really important, like a warning or something," he explains, accepting the cup of tea Uncle offers. Uncle looks thoughtful when he sips from his own cup.
"May I suggest," he starts after several minutes, "that you go back to sleep?"
Zuko looks at him like he's suddenly grown a second head. "What?"
Listen to him, the presence says. Sleep.
He exhales slowly. It's very disconcerting to have something in his head—because he's sure by now that it isn't his imagination—agreeing with Uncle, but it's very difficult to argue with the presence. "Okay. I'll sleep when we finish our tea."
Uncle smiles at him before his face regains the thoughtful expression. They drink their tea in silence, Zuko not-quite-squirming under Uncle's distracted scrutiny. When the silence becomes uncomfortable, Zuko stands to go back to his room, swallowing the last of the tea as he does.
He starts to hand the empty cup back to Uncle, but the presence seems to have other ideas because his fingers go slack and he feels his body sway even as his eyelids turn to lead. He's vaguely aware of the fact that he's falling, and that Uncle is calling his name, but he can't make himself respond.
Hello Zuko, the presence says. Zuko jumps, looking for the source of the voice. A grinning blue and white face emerges from a patch of shadow. But that's wrong, he realizes, the shadow isn't from a lack of light, it's the thing's body. Thing, because it has to be, because people can't move like that and Zuko feels a little sick just watching. The thing has a curved sword strapped across what's maybe it's back, but he isn't sure because it's twisting and bending unnaturally toward him and he can't tell what's what except the face.
I have to show you something. Zuko feels dread settle in the pit of his stomach when the thing presses a bit of shadow to his brow. He guesses it's supposed to be a hand, but it's not. It's cold and dark and dry and it's just a ghost of air that somehow pushes him back a step so that he's falling—or maybe he isn't, because he reaches out to grab something, anything, and his fingers latch onto icy cold grass.
He swears the thing is laughing at his panic, but he ignores it because he still can't orient himself and the world is starting to shift. And then he's somewhere that definitely isn't the Fire Nation, watching as a girl yells at a boy. She must be a Waterbender, because the water sloshes with each sharp gesture, and an iceberg is rising from the waves. The scene shifts and a boy with arrow tattoos and monk's robes is falling out of the iceberg into the Waterbender's arms. Another shift and the little monk is admitting to being the Avatar.
Zuko looks for the thing that brought him here, but it's nowhere to be found and the scene changes again so he doesn't have much chance to look. Now Zuko sees himself, with a large scar and an awful haircut, burning a village in search of the Avatar. Another shift, the moon gone dark and the Avatar laying waste to a Fire Nation fleet in front of a snowy wall marked with a Water Tribe emblem.
Shift. The Waterbender sinking into the ground and the Avatar retaliating by destroying the whole compound. Shift. There's another girl with them now, a little Earthbender, and they're breaking something of Azula's, and they're going to pay for that, he knows. Shift. Fighting their way into the Earth King's palace. Shift. Azula firing a bolt of lightning at the Avatar, and there's the payback he knew was coming.
Shift. The Avatar waking up on a taken Fire Nation ship. Shift. The Waterbender taking a spirit's name, and if there aren't consequences for that the the spirit world must be broken. Shift. The boy being trained by Piandao; impressive. Shift. The Waterbender learning to bend blood against her will. Shift. The boy leading an invasion on the Day of Black Sun after his father is injured. Shift. Himself, turning his father's lightning against him. Shift. The Waterbender threatening him with death. Shift. Himself and the boy breaking three prisoners out of the Boiling Rock.
Shift. The boy and the little Earthbender and another girl he doesn't recognize destroying a fleet of airships. Shift. A group of men in blue robes ravaging the streets of Ba Sing Se in the name of the Earth King. Shift. The Avatar fighting his father, taking away his bending in what is supposed to be mercy, but Zuko wonders if killing him would have been kinder. Shift. Himself fighting an Agni Kai against Azula and holding his own until she cheats. Shift. Azula chained to a grate, dripping wet, kicking and screaming with blue fire catching each time she opens her mouth. Shift. Himself being crowned Firelord, standing side by side with the Avatar.
Then he's back to where he first met the thing, the presence in his head. The thing is sitting in the unnaturally cold grass. Zuko tries to speak, but nothing comes out. He wets his lips, this time managing a whisper. "What was that?"
The thing's voice is grim. That is what will happen if the Avatar wakes.
Something about the phrasing bothers Zuko. "What if- what if he doesn't?"
The thing makes a whoosh of air like it's trying to imitate a sigh and the world shifts in a now familiar fashion.
Zuko sees himself on board a ship, closing a spyglass and ordering the helmsman to turn around. Shift. Captain-now-Admiral Zhao laying siege to the North Pole and winning. The moon turning dark, Waterbending gone and Firebending more powerful than ever. Shift. Azula breaking through the walls of Ba Sing Se, and him helping. Shift. Himself defying his father during the eclipse, escaping the Fire Nation but having nowhere to go. Shift. The day of Sozin's Comet. The men in blue take back Ba Sing Se, but it's burned to the ground with the rest of the Earth Kingdom only hours later. Shift. Azula being crowned Firelord. Shift. His father blowing the whole South Pole to pieces because they're the only ones still defiant of the Fire Nation, catching the Avatar's iceberg in the process and putting the boy to death. Shift. Himself, executed by Azula because he's banished and the whole world is Fire Nation soil now.
Zuko is back to the thing again, and he's shivering, though he isn't sure if it's from cold or fear. He remembers the very first thing he saw in the first round of visions. "And all of this—the Avatar's return—depends on whether or not a Waterbender gets angry at her brother?"
The thing tilts it's blue and white face in a manner that Zuko takes as affirmative. You can use this information as you wish, but I hope you use it well.
The thing starts to fade away. "Wait!" The thing stops. "Can you… show me how I get banished?" It turns away for a moment and when it looks back the tusked grin manages to seem almost sympathetic.
I can. But you will not enjoy it.
"Show me."
The thing inclines it's head and the world shifts one last time. This time, Zuko is in his body, but has no control over what he is doing, like he's a spectator to his own life. He convinces Uncle to take him to a war meeting. He is warned to be silent but speaks out against a cruel plan. The general challenges him to an Agni Kai and he accepts. When he turns to face his opponent, it is his father. In the face of newfound knowledge, Zuko tries to make the not-his-body stand and fight, but he can't. He fights as the body throws itself prostrate at the Firelord's feet and begs for mercy. He knows now that the Firelord is not merciful. He can't hear the words spoken until his fa—no, the Firelord reaches out. The words chill him to his core and he screams his anguish as fire ignites over his left eye. "You will learn respect, and suffering will be your teacher."
Zuko screams louder still when the thing brings him back, icy shadow hands skating over burning skin before it disappears altogether.