Brave Soldier Boy
Word Count: 289
Pairings: None.
Warning: Spoilers for somewhere in the middle of Season 2.
Notes: Set early on in the chronological canon of the show.
x x x
You cannot fight wars with numbers.
Iroh used to be a lot of things to the Fire Nation- the Dragon of the West, the Conqueror of Ba Sing Se, the future Fire Lord. Now he only retains one of those titles. It's the one he hates the most, and they haven't stripped him of it only because nobody has bothered to suggest it to Ozai yet.
Ozai! Once that was the name of his snotty little brother who lit turtle-ducks on fire for entertainment and trampled beetle-ants when he tired of causing suffering to the living. His attentions nowadays were far from turtle-ducks, but the men of the world were still only insects to be crushed underfoot. And crush them he did, crush and torture and destroy-
He, too, was once a monster created by the Fire Nation for the sole purpose of destruction. People were only figures; war was waged not with broken hearts and empty hands but with numbers balancing an equation. Ozai has yet to understand what has weighed heavy on Iroh's chest for a decade- that x sometimes equals Lu Ten, and y may one day be Prince Zuko.
And so Prince Zuko, his cherished nephew, has hastily grown out of his cherubic form and found ill-fitting lines and angles to replace what little child there once was in him. Beggars can't be choosers, of course. Iroh used to be a lot of things and he doesn't have much left; he must protect with every beat of his heart what small pieces he can. So that one day, when all this madness is over, Ozai's son and his beloved nephew can return home.
It took one death to make Iroh see the truth.
One death may not be enough to save Ozai.