((Disclaimer: I do not own A:TLA, but merley my intellect, regardless of the margin or lack thereof...)) Written after seeing this particular scene and analyzing it. I realize we are far past this what with the finale, but since we're all sitting around on our asses waiting for season 3, why don't we dabble into the past?
Familiarly Foreign
Pain rocked his core as consciousness tugged from his weakening grasp. But before blackness, sweet escape from chaos, settled in, the old man heard one last thing.
"LEAVE!"
The single syllable rang out, slicing through the tension Iroh knew filled the atmosphere all around him as he lay fallen in the dirt.
The scream seemed foreign, inhuman, anguish at it's peak. For Zuko, watching the only companion he had left in this miserable world ruthlessly struck down in cold blood was too much. The retired general had to admit, it touched his heart to know that his troubled nephew, an understatement of the extremities, felt such heartache over his prone form. The inconsolable hopeless cry surely sounded odd.
But the scream was half effectively masked by the harsh demand for solitude, for Zuko fought fiercely to maintain his plaguing pride. Lonesome singularity and disguises (even of the metaphysical)- some things never changed.
No matter the disparity of the situation, "Lee" would always be stubborn, prideful Prince Zuko, accepting no help even from the lone young woman who could help the most.
Yes, Iroh heard the bellow of innumerable emotions colliding with harsh brutality.
Before everything
went black.