The Right Turn
Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar. That delight belongs to the extraordinarily talented creators of the show, who have my eternal gratitude for bringing such a wonderful universe to life.
Author's Note: I love very much the way Avatar has been done; the incredible plot, the awe-inspiring fight scenes, and most of all, the extraordinary characters. I particularly love the way that Zuko's transformation has occurred in canon. However, sometimes I can't help wondering what might have happened if he woke up just a little earlier.
So this is my first Avatar fanfic. I hope you do enjoy, and please review to tell me what you think!
O o O o O o O
Zuko turned his back on his uncle, still entrapped amongst the glittering crystal. There was a strange silence in the caverns now, with Azula's offer still ringing in his ears. A strange silence only broken by the solid footfalls of Dai Li agents in the next cavern and a harsh, rasping sound that rose inhuman in the air.
The Prince looked down at his shaking fingertips and wondered. "Agni… is that noise really coming from me?"
It did not require the wisdom of god to realise that yes, that was indeed the case. His breath sucked in and whistled out Fire comes from the breath and it was as if a giant inner bellows was stoking both the flame and the confusion raging inside him. He had never felt so powerful and yet so weak at the same time.
A rustle of cloth stirred behind him. "Zuko…"
Iroh's voice was an entreaty and a prayer, but it ended on the word like he couldn't bear to say anything else. And with a sudden tense of his muscles, Zuko knew he couldn't bear to hear it. The locks of hair that spilled over his scarred face shifted as he strode from the room. But the unsaid words hanging in the air stayed in his mind as he emerged into the next cavern, mixing with Azula's silver-tongued voice.
"Zuko, now is the time for you to choose good!"
"You will have your honour back. You will have your father's love. You will have everything you want."
It was on that note that he stopped, both eyes sweeping the soon to be battlefield and its occupants. Faint reverberations still echoed in the air of the massive cavern, ones that he recognised as his sister's mocking threats, but she was silent now; her deadly, beautiful face cocked towards his.
She was watching him. Like everyone else. Zuko tightened his jaw and wrenched his gaze away from those unblinking golden eyes for a moment to scan the rest of the cavern. The sight did nothing to clear the commotion swirling thick in his head, a summer storm of emotions and confusion. The Avatar and the Waterbender stood dwarfed by the stone and the Dai Li to his right, but he had long ago learned not to underestimate them, and his eyes were drawn back to Azula's to find the answer written there. It had been an even match, until he had walked in wit the power to tip the scales balanced precariously in his hands… and hadn't he learnt he sucked at juggling? And of course, now, he was at a crossroads.
"Zuko, now is the time for you to choose…"
The Fire Prince couldn't help but smile bitterly at the irony. It had been a second since he'd entered, and he was hesitating. He hadn't even moved. Why hadn't he moved? Why hadn't he taken up a firebending stance and attacked the Avatar yet? The boy's familiar and hated face shone pale at the corner of his vision, and he clenched his teeth. It should be instinct to attack after all these months, to fight the greatest threat to the Fire Nation's victory in this war, and yet the only thing his body seemed to be responding to was the resolute decision it had made of its own accord to stay rooted, to almost become a part of the stone as he looked at the sister he had also learned to hate.
Three seconds passed. The promise she had made was written on her face, he realised dumbly. If he chose her, he could almost see those golden eyes telling him, then he would stand like her again; tall, proud, the bearing and the confidence that could only be shouldered by one completely and utterly sure of themselves. And he would have the pride sharpening her jaw and cheekbones, the unquestionable assurance of a person who had both their father's approval, their country's acceptance…
Their honour.
A second passed, a delayed reaction, and then a sudden fierce longing crashed through Zuko's wiry form like a wave and the Fire Prince shifted to accommodate it, feet spreading out and balancing his weight, two fingers cocked towards his cheek and the other hand extended out to aim at the Avatar's face. And there seemed to be almost a collective sigh, a ripple that spread amongst the people in the cavern like an exhaled breath. The choice had been made. Azula's face turned predatory in victory, and the Avatar's…
The Avatar's fell.
Zuko blinked, hands wavering as he drew the shards of blazing flame out from his centre. The energy, the fire, built up in his wrists as his body froze. Where had he seen that expression before? That look of shock, of disappointment? It had been on a different, browner face… a face covered by a shock of unruly black hair and punctuated by a bucktooth and a cheeky smile, and suddenly a floodgate of voices opened up in Zuko's mind to join Azula's and the almost silenced tones of Uncle Iroh, and he reeled.
He couldn't stop them. He couldn't control them. One by one they punched him, kicked him, burned him, and it was enough to hold him back from unleashing a blaze of fury at the Avatar's head for one more second as his eyelids fell across his vision.
"I hate you, I hate you!"
"Now is the time, Prince Zuko."
"You will learn respect… and suffering will be your teacher."
"Zuko, you're a lot of things, but you're not a traitor, are you?"
"It's just, for so long, I saw your face as the face of the Fire Nation."
"You know, Father considers you a miserable failure!"
"Zuko, I am begging you, look into your heart and see what it is you truly want."
His mind cleared. I know what I want, Zuko thought to himself, and the image of Azula hit his mind's eye while he looked at her for reassurance of his destiny. "At the end of this day… you will have everything you want." Pride. Strength. Love. Honour…
And then two more voices echoed simultaneously in his memory. One, anguished and twisted and wearing his own face.
"Azula always lies!"
The other, gentle, that wrapped him in its arms and held him against a heart warm with love.
"Remember who you are…"
Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation snapped his eyes open. And then, before the astonished gaze of everyone in the cavern, he turned and ran.
O o O o O o O
Princess Azula knew her brother to be many things, but 'coward' was certainly not one of them. 'Traitor', however, was now questionable. Resisting the urge to sprint after his retreating form, drag him back, and demand what on earth was happening, the firebending prodigy clenched her jaw into a tight-lipped smile.
"Well, Avatar," Azula heard her voice say sweetly. "Looks like it's only us now."
She paused, saw him swing around from the empty cavern mouth to face her, and her eyes hardened and glittered like crystal. "So why don't we just get started?"
The blue fire devoured the distance between them with a muted roar, and the boy leapt out of its path, somersaulted behind her, and kicked a column of stone up beneath her feet.
"Gladly," Aang said, his voice as hard as Azula's eyes.
And with that, everything descended. Literally.
The Dai Li jumped as one, and when they landed an earthquake of rock shot up from the floor, separating Katara from Aang. The two of them looked at the divide, looked at the enemies rushing towards them, and then hardened themselves.
There was a pool, waves splashing against its edge from the movement of the ground in the cavern. Katara smiled grimly, and with a swift turn of her hands the water was pouring through the air, slapping the skin of the Dai Li and twisting around her in a protective shield. The earthbenders tightened their jaws and slammed downwards with their hands, and sharp slices of crystal rose up to meet her.
Katara didn't even blink. She'd sparred enough with Toph now to expect an attack like that, and she hardened the water under her feet into ice and smoothed out the floor once more. In the same movement, a single breath froze the wall of liquid around her.
The Dai Li had three seconds to watch the mesmerising creep of ice to the top of the wave, blurring the Master Waterbender from their view, before the entire structure exploded outwards in a rain of sharp-edged daggers. The unlucky and the slow fell with screams, feeling the cold eat away into their flesh. The lucky and the quick broke the earth again to deflect the deadly shards, but they were snatched out the air before they smashed, flowing back to Katara at the centre and then lashing out in a wave.
This could not go on. Three of the Dai Li joined together, their inscrutable faces hard in the shadows cast by their hats, and the closest wall of the cavern suddenly broke around her. Katara dove forwards, away from the crushing rock as the ground sloughed up uncontrollably beneath her. The tremors and the falling stones knocked her to her feet, and with a snarl, the waterbender brought a swirl of water to lift her upwards again before lashing the same wave out to sting her enemies.
"Aang!" Katara shouted across the divide. "There's too many of them."
The Avatar's frustrated glance fell on his friend, but then it flicked back to Azula just in time to dodge the incoming fireball. The remnants of lightning sizzled through the air around him, and the cavern wall behind was littered with jagged black marks. "I know!" he yelled back. "Hang on Katara, I've got to…"
He didn't need to finish the sentence. She extended her arm and pulled, and the entire pool in the centre of the cavern swelled up around her, coalescing into an octopus. One long arm lashed out and caught the running princess in the gut, sweeping her away from the airbender and crashing her into the ranks of her Dai Li cronies. Aang didn't stop to marvel at his friend's mastery as he kicked up a tent of stone and crossed his legs inside.
I'm sorry, Katara.
Slowly, in his mind, a pool of stars whirled into a cosmic staircase, and the Avatar began to ascend.
O o O o O o O
Uncle Iroh's face had always been expressive. Zuko had seen pain sweep across it, disapproval, hurt, even anger in some of his darker moments. But he had never seen such a shining joy, and for some reason, that made his own heart leap inside his chest.
"Zuko!"
"Uncle," he came to a stop in front of the trapped man, but his keen eyes saw that cracks in the crystal were already forming. "We've got to get you out of here and help the Avatar."
And then he halted in the midst of reaching out to help, and reached a hand out to touch his mouth. Across from him, he saw a mirrored surprise blossom across Iroh's face, and a strange feeling of unreality swept across his body. I did not just say that.
"Nephew… did I just hear..?"
Zuko sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Yes, uncle, you did," he affirmed quietly, and the Dragon of the West instantly began to struggle harder, breaking the prison that stopped him from leaping forwards with his arms outstretched. Quickly, the Fire Prince stepped in to help, and the thick crystal fell underneath their shared onslaughts until Iroh was free.
Before he breathed, before he even took a moment to shake out the shoulders aching from the cruel hold of the rock, he swept Zuko up into a fierce hug.
Zuko blinked. He felt an incredible warmth touch him, and to his own surprise, he hugged his Uncle tightly back. And then it was Iroh who broke the embrace, stepping gently backwards to regard his nephew with a tremulous, hopeful pride in his expressive eyes.
"Why?"
Zuko turned his face to the cavern entrance, and the flesh livid with his scar turned towards the shadows. "You would be proud, uncle," there was a hint of self-deprecation in his voice that made him smile unwillingly. "I thought it through."
"Well, I cannot deny I am happy to hear that!" Iroh laughed, hope and wonder still overwhelming him. "What did you think?"
A shadow fell across Zuko's features at that, and he shifted to face his uncle fully. Iroh saw the marked and the unmarked skin as one, and he waited as the prince groped for words.
"Growing up, Father always taught me, we were always taught that the Fire Nation was the greatest civilization in history and somehow, the war was our way of sharing our greatness with the rest of the world..."
Zuko's laugh was bitter. "What an amazing lie that was. The people of the world are terrified by the Fire Nation! They don't see our greatness, they hate us! And we deserve it. We've created an era of fear in the world. And if we don't want the world to destroy itself, we need to replace it with an era of peace and kindness…"
He looked up, and saw Uncle Iroh's eyes shining, and couldn't help but smile.
"You've gotten to me, Uncle. Because I understand now. I understand what you were trying to tell me all this time. I thought it was my honour that I wanted, but I just wanted Father to respect me…"
Iroh's voice was gentle. "Only you can give yourself honour, Prince Zuko, by doing what is right."
Golden eyes that had dimmed suddenly sharpened again. "I know. And that's why I'm doing this now," his voice hardened. "Because Azula always lies. You were right, Uncle. She wasn't offering me a redemption. She can't, she's not the one to offer me…"
Iroh's smile waned as he saw pain cross over his nephew's face; an ancient, haunting hurt that shivered out of the scar emblazoned on his face. That was a pain that he couldn't touch, that he couldn't soothe. It was a pain that could only be addressed when a cold-blooded man brooding on a faraway throne was present, and at the moment, Iroh had never hated his younger brother so much.
Zuko's voice returned. "And you were right about my destiny. Chasing the Avatar made me see… it made me see that he brings people hope. And hope is what we need in our new era."
The ice inside the Dragon of the West waned, slightly, melted by a fresh wave of amazement and love. His boy. His nephew. His son. How far indeed he had come. "Destiny is indeed a funny thing, Prince Zuko," Iroh said warmly, and Zuko closed his eyes as he remembered a Temple, a mutilated youth, and an old general.
He dropped to his knees and his head turned to the ground.
"I'm sorry, Uncle," his voice came out hoarse and he wanted to kick himself. "I'm sorry for all the things I said that hurt you, and I'm sorry that I came so close to betraying you, and…"
He felt a hand on his sleeve, and he was thirteen again as he looked upwards to see a familiar face from the ground. But this was not the Agni Kai arena, and the man was not his heartless father, but someone who had love in his eyes as he looked back.
"It is enough to know that you understand now, Prince Zuko," Iroh said, his voice rough with unshed emotions. "It is more than enough, and it will last us until later, when we are safe. Because don't we have an Avatar to save?"
Fire flared in Zuko's centre again. He felt his uncle pull him up, onto his feet, and he had time to say a simple "Thank you", be rewarded with Iroh's broad smile, and then they were running towards the cavern mouth…
And into an unrecognisable hell.
Stone lay shattered across the once peaceful cavern. A veritable horde of brown-robed figures marched inexorably towards a small, slight, blue one…
And there was a yellow and orange shape lying still on the ground.
Zuko took in the scene with one sweep of his eyes and turned his horrified gaze to his uncle. But Iroh was already moving, and Zuko ran behind him as the waterbender sent one more despairing wave crashing into the oncoming Dai Li.
"What happened?" Zuko yelled.
The girl spun around, exhaustion trembling her limbs, and he felt a strange surge in his chest as he saw her beautiful eyes widen with something other than fear and hatred. It was a good feeling, he decided. Maybe, hopefully, he could get used to it.
"Azula!" she shouted back, her voice high-pitched with strain. He followed her pointing finger and saw a crumpled, unmoving figure at the far corner of the cavern. The shards of crystal in the cave glinted off the shards of ice surrounding the fallen princess, pinning her unconscious form down. He took the time to swallow and stare at the evidence of a waterbender's fury.
"Zuko, now is not the time to day-dream!"
He jerked, and then turned see both his uncle and the waterbender regarding the ceiling. The Avatar twitched, charred and burning at their feet, and he swallowed. "What's wrong?"
Katara stared wildly up at the cavern roof. "The hole's too small, I can't get all of us up now, and… Aang!"
Her words reached him, and Zuko spun, lashed out a hand, and a stream of fire extended from his fingers like a whip. "Uncle, help her!" he ordered, sweeping a blazing snake-like trail and forcing regiments of the Dai Li to slow their advance. "I'll hold them off!"
Behind him, he heard the brief hum of water over flesh, and then he felt reflected heat sear from Iroh's arm to strike at the ceiling. Grimly, he centred himself and lashed the fire around again. The front row of the religious police stumbled back, but behind them, two lines swung their arms up and then down. Zuko felt the ground beneath his feet twitch an instant before he leapt free of the crushing rock and flipped backwards onto the newly formed crag. He landed without a shudder, determination fuelling his tiger-like grace, and he slid into a crouch. The Dai Li had no time to even raise up a shield as his hands spun with motion, and then a semi-circle of fire streamed from his fingertips to push them backwards, to force their retreat.
It lasted for two seconds before five of the Earthbenders joined together and extinguished the flames with a brutal upheaval of rock, just as another three shattered the jagged outcrop he stood on. Zuko tumbled through the air, coiling himself into a dive roll and unleashing a flaming coil of fire with his feet. As one, the Dai Li blocked, but the Fire Prince only smiled. It was one against forty, but he was holding his own…
He chose that moment to look up, and the thought froze in his mind. Through the midst of the Earthbenders, his eyes caught a streak of red, gold and black blur towards him with a cold smile, and before he could think, he stumbled back.
His sister, the firebending prodigy. His sister, Father's favoured. His sister, who had always, always bested him.
"You didn't think you'd get rid of me so easily, did you ZuZu?" she hissed, black locks of hair sweeping serpentine across her face. Even from the distance that separated them, he felt the strands of silky hatred slip through her voice and into his veins like poison. "No, if I don't just kill you now, I'll haunt you in your sleep forever until I find you and purge your pathetic weakness from our royal bloodline…"
How much time did the Waterbender need? Zuko felt the fire faltering at his fingertips at his sister's advance, and Azula smiled cruelly.
"… just like Father did Mother."
The world froze.
For one instance, just one instant, the cavern blurred and spun like waves. And then his faltering hands hardened and Zuko slammed a step forwards, pushed in and out, and a devastation he had always felt roared through his veins and out of his palm. It poured into existence like molten lava, a fierce gold that matched his anguished eyes, and from across the cavern the remaining Dai Li flung up their arms to shield themselves from the heat.
Zuko lost sight of his sister. He lost sight of himself. All he knew was the fire spreading from his fingertips, blazing into the world…
And then the waterbender grabbed his elbow and he was up and stumbling on a waterspout surging him upwards to the sky. His uncle steadied him while the girl gripped the Avatar, and they were headed towards safety.
The last glimpse he had of the caverns was Azula reaching out her hands to part the wall of fire, and the last he heard was her scream of pain and impotent fury as its force overwhelmed hers and slammed her back against the rock.
O o O o O o O
A/N: I don't think I will continue this one. It stands well enough on its own in my mind… but if you think otherwise, please tell me. Heck, whether you loved this or hated it, I'd be grateful to hear your feedback!
Edit: Apologies to all involved, I have decided that since there's no plot bunnies in my head at the moment that could do a continuation of this fic justice, I'll leave this as is. I will however be trying a few more oneshots with the limited time that University gives me. Thank you to all of my lovely reviewers; Flaming Falcon, Tsurai no Shi, Cra-z4Avatar, and SupportSeverusSnape for commenting on my first Avatar fanfic. I hope to write a few more for you soon. :)
Thank you for reading.