You cannot help but stare in disbelief as Azula (you refuse to call her your sister) enters the mental ward. She was the prodigy, daddy's favorite and you were simply the failure, the unwanted son that father took the first opportunity he saw to get rid of. You believe that if it weren't for your mother you would be dead by now.
When she was born you both started at the same place, the top of the world. As you grew up, for every step forward, you took twenty one steps back and for every step forward she took, somehow she managed to connive her way into taking nineteen more, until soon you can simply watch her back, trying desperately to catch up.
Then the Agni Kai happens and father banishes you to a fruitless search for a legend that should not exist, and even the silhouette of her back fades from your view. In that time you have no reason to go on. You have no honor, you have no status and your only friend is your uncle. All you really have left is a loyal but discontent crew who cannot understand your obsession with hunting the Avatar, shame, a childish uncle who hinders your search as much as he helps it and pride. This pride isn't one that stems from a sense of self worth. If you had any worth you'd still be at the palace. No, it is a perverse kind of pride that believes that if nothing will ever go as you want then you will never go as others would want.
All this search does is lead you to failure after failure but each time you just grit your teeth and get back up, because what other choice do you have, really? Then Azula helps you kill the Avatar and you realize that the earth isn't linear, though its vast expanse makes it seem so; and that even though the two of you took different paths, you have met here because in the end the world is round and you are finally once again at the top with Azula.
But has anything really changed? Your position is tenuous, dependent on a boy's death, and you still feel alone, oh so alone. You think you love Mai, but she will never understand. She has remained relatively stable in the same position in the world for her life and will never know what it's like to have your position rest precariously on the edge of a bottomless chasm.
The day of the eclipse comes and goes and you leave to join the Avatar. You don't have time to write Mai much more than a curt note before you are off. For the first time in your life you no longer feel angry and dissatisfied. Your trials and tribulations lead you here.
You still have failures of course. You cannot teach Aang fire bending at first, but this leads to the sun warriors and the discovery of dragons so it is all good. You learn to accept the fact that you will never achieve what you strive for but you also understand that the place you find yourself in is not so bad afterall.
Now you are the fire lord and once again at the top of the world; your sister is at your mercy and you are married to the love of your life. But as you look back you see the haunting image of your sister's total and utter emotional breakdown, you know that this isn't what you wanted. But you have long ago learned to accept the fact that you are Zuko, reigning Fire Lord, son of Ursa, and heir to Avatar Roku's vision of harmony and it is written in your destiny that things will not go as you would like. You stumble on clumsily into the future, more often that taking steps back rather than forward but that is okay, the world is round and whether you choose to move on doggedly forward or clumsily fall back, in the end you will reach the top.
A/N: Regret Nothing was suppose to be an experiment into second person but I loved it so much I had to write this. My only real problem with this is there might be too much repetition. Read and review, as always.