Characters: Zuko and Sokka (Characters B&C / Part 2)
Prompts/Bonuses: (object) an old map, inclusion of element (fire)
Word Count: 1008
This is the second part in a four-part collection/loose series written for the AtLA/LOK 2017 Pro-Bending Circuit writing competition (our team had to each contribute one part in a four-part series), but because ffnet doesn't seem to have a series/collaboration feature, I am listing them here in order, for anyone interested in the other parts. Alternatively, due to the canon context, this can also be read as a standalone missing scene.
The Fall of the Blue Dragon: Display (Raggazzed12)
The Fall of the Blue Dragon: Solidarity (tonberrys)
The Fall of the Blue Dragon: Solace (Writer1001)
The Fall of the Blue Dragon: Victory (DragonMaster65)
The Fall of the Blue Dragon: Solidarity
The campfire crackled, flicking out embers like tiny shooting stars. Sokka was pouring over an old map and mumbling to himself - most likely about strategies exchanged with his newly rescued father - and Zuko had already perched on the log beside him before the other boy took jolting notice.
"Uagh, since when did you get so good at sneaking?" Sokka said as he settled from the startle.
"I just helped break your dad out of the Fire Nation's most secure prison," Zuko said in a tone that suggestion this fact alone was sufficient evidence of his sneaking prowess.
Sokka granted an exaggerated shrug but didn't seem intent to argue it, lowering the map again to spread it over his lap. "I guess I just still half-expect you to come waltzing in with fireballs blasting. Maybe more figuratively, now," he said, even as his mouth lifted to a joking slant. "Though I have to admit, that sister of yours almost makes you look subtle, sometimes."
Huffing softly, Zuko let his head drop with a slow, measured shake. "She's...something else." A sibling out of reach, scorching with blazing azure flame too hot to approach, but he had made his choice when he walked away from the Fire Nation, ducking out beneath the shadow of the Black Sun.
"Sometimes I think Katara's a little bit crazy, but I have to admit, your sister kind of takes the cake on that one," Sokka continued in a sympathetic (if bluntly matter-of-fact) tone as he slapped a hand on Zuko's shoulder. "No offense."
Zuko's expression crinkled, disquiet rising like billowing smoke as he recalled his sister's boasting, her intentions to destroy them all… Azula had always been bold, confident, ruthless, ambitious. She would as soon crush him as look at him, when they were children, and when she did look at him, her face twisted with a smirking self-confidence as blinding flames roared from her fists.
'You have nothing to fear,' she had said to him on the sands of Ember Island, not so long ago. Her enemies were the ones she intended to crush. Standing outside the path of her dragonfire wrath could be considered safe, but even when he had been trying to fit himself into the mold of the perfect prince, Zuko had known his own comeuppance was only a matter of time under that roof. Every moment had felt like borrowed time, and the glint in her eyes had led him to think she knew it, too. The moment it suited her, she would betray him in a heartbeat, would tell their father the Avatar had not truly died, would bring that shame crumbling down on top of him without a hint of remorse.
Escaping from the Boiling Rock had nearly killed them, and he could still remember the scalding kiss of steam on their skin, rising hotter than ever the moment they realized what was happening above them on that gondola. Azula, Mai, Ty Lee - stringing Zuko and the other escapees out over a boiling lake with every intention of severing the cords…
Azula had intended for him and Sokka and the others to die, and as unsettling as it was, Zuko could not deny the gut-wrenching certainty that she would do it again without hesitation, if the situation arose.
"-ko! Come in, buddy," Sokka was saying as he flung a hand out in front of Zuko's face in a flailing wave.
"Sorry, lost in thought," Zuko muttered.
"Of your sister's crazy? That sounds fun," Sokka snarked with a snort.
Shaking his head, Zuko let out a heavy huff of air. "Azula is pretty intense. She's confident, powerful, and she's going to be merciless with whoever crosses her path." Again, Sokka snorted, but Zuko kept talking, "You know she fights dirty. Confidence is definitely on her side, and she believes with everything inside of her that she is going to destroy us." (In truth, sometimes Zuko wondered if she would succeed, but he knew he could not let himself dwell in fears like that- Not with so much at stake.)
"I can definitely feel that vibe, yes," Sokka said dryly, crossing his arms across his chest with a huff. "Are you planning to fight her? To take back your crown, restore the Fire Nation to something resembling decency?"
Zuko nodded, face contorting once again. In his mind's eye, Azula's lip curled into a nasty smile. "I have to… but I know I can't do it alone. She's too powerful, too smart… I need someone, I need-" An awkward rush of shame heated his insides, brushing his mind with shades of self-hatred and loneliness, but he swatted them away, "-I just wish my uncle was here. He always seems to know what to do. Together, we could probably stop her." Sokka was looking at him more intently now, the sarcasm having fallen from his face. "And I think that will be our greatest strength, when the time comes."
With conviction blazing in his eyes, Sokka nodded and lowered his head again to look at the map. Immediately, Zuko could tell the wheeling strategy carts were rushing through his friend's mind at breakneck speed. Zuko looked around at the camp, to Katara as she (re)arranged the mess scattered at the outskirts of Aang and Toph's training exercise, then to Suki's knowing smile as she moved to help. It was so small, so simple, yet the little things compounded more and more by the day. Small extensions of support, given without thought.
Azula was grandiose. Azula was strong. Azula believed in her own strength, yet she rejected the support of companionship, scoffed at the strength of teamwork, belittled the benefits of collaboration. Those truths had been hard-won, for Zuko, on his own arduous journey of self-discovery-
-and hard-won, that battle would be, when at last they launched their assault on his home. Azula loved to boast, especially to him - but he had learned all to well that the higher you rose, the further you had to fall.