"My brother is just too easy."
Zuko's hand froze over the door handle. He had been on his way to talk to his sister, but hearing her comment from inside, he thought better of it and instead ducked into the shadows outside the room to listen in on her conversation.
"I'll say!" chirped Ty Lee merrily. "One moment he's ready to beat you up and the next he's helping you take out the Avatar. What did you say to him anyway?"
Azula's wicked grin could be heard as she spoke. "I offered him something I knew he could never refuse…father's love. Like he ever had it to start with." She spat. "But he's too blind and weak to ever know that, which makes it the perfect tool for manipulating him. All I ever have to do is hold out 'love' in front of him and he falls all over himself to get it."
Ty Lee giggled, "Or fall all over Mai."
"Don't remind me," interjected Mai with a bored groan.
Ignoring the remark, Ty Lee continued, "So what are you going to do with him and Iroh now?" Azula smirked evilly.
"I'm going to send them home, of course. Let Zuzu take Uncle back to Father thinking he is a hero. And when he gets there, the Fire Lord will have the pleasure of punishing them both as they deserve, leaving me the sole heir to the throne."
"But what if he captures that Avatar kid on the way? Won't that mean he's next in line for the throne again?" asked Ty Lee. Azula uttered a short cruel bark of laughter.
"Please, the Avatar was just an excuse to send Zuzu away. No one had heard so much as a whispered rumor about the Avatar in a hundred years. Father sent him to wander around chasing legends until he died. How could he have known the brat was actually alive and that Zuko would try and use that to come home? A rather embarrassing situation really, since he has already made me the heir. But with Zuzu and uncle finally out of the way for good, there will be absolutely nothing to challenge my rule when the time comes."
Hearing this from outside the door, Zuko's eyes widened, and his mind raced. No! He thought to himself. She's lying! Azula always lies! A small voice in his head, which sounded strangely like his uncle, countered; yes…she always lies…to YOU. She lied to you in the caverns and you believed her. She never needed your help. She used you to keep you out of her way so that she could take you down in the end…she has always wanted to see you fall. With a sickening feeling, Zuko realized something terrible: he had made the wrong choice.
Slinking silently back to his room, his mind whirled in turmoil as moment after moment flashed across his memory: his uncle's many acts of persistent kindness, the Avatar's comment after they had escaped from Zhao, being pulled half conscious from the snow rather than left to die, the water bender's offer to heal his uncle after that nasty showdown with Azula, her willingness to try and heal his scar the night before, and that look she gave him as she left with the Avatar. He had thrown all of it away at one lie from Azula, and now he was trapped in a prison fashioned by his own selfish actions.
As far as he knew, the Avatar was dead. Azula's blast of lightning to the back was sure to be fatal. He suddenly realized that never in the time he had chased the Avatar had he actually tried to kill the boy. All he ever wanted was to use him as a ticket home. Now he was gone. His one false hope at returning home with honor was gone: ripped from him by his lying sister. The sister that was about to send him to his death.
By now, he had made it back to his room and, closing the door, he sank down on the floor in despair. What have I done? What am I going to do now?
Katara tossed restlessly in her makeshift stone tent, courtesy of Toph, unable to sleep. She'd done the best she could to heal Aang. The burn at least was mended but his spirit, his sweet carefree spirit, was broken, and she knew that that was beyond her ability to heal. Feelings of rage, guilt, and hopelessness washed over her in wave after wave of bitter confusion. To think she had almost wasted that precious healing water on Zuko. ZUKO! What had she been thinking? After all the things he had put them through, how could she have been so easily swayed by his lies? He had sounded so sincere, so hurt, so changed, she thought to herself. But it had all been an act and she fell for it. And the price for that misplaced trust was that Aang almost…NO! She screamed in her mind. I won't even give in to that idea. Aang will be fine. The water was not wasted and he will still make it through this. He has to. He… She dissolved into helpless tears as her despair finally took her into darkness.
Iroh sat in his cell, his brow deeply furrowed with concern, well aware of what awaited him. He knew he would be taken back to the Fire Nation and be judged (killed) by his bloodthirsty younger brother. But it was not his own fate that filled his heart with grief. What troubled him most, even now, was that Zuko would not be getting the homecoming he expected and his punishment this time would not be a scar and banishment. It would be death.
With a heavy sigh, Iroh wondered how it had come to this. He thought of his beloved son killed so many years ago, and how he had latched on to his young nephew as a result. Through all the things Zuko had suffered, Iroh believed that deep down, the boy still carried a seed of love and hope. He believed that somewhere, Zuko had true honor and would do the right thing. Thinking back on the recent incident in the caverns, Iroh realized he had been deceived, but not by Zuko. In a desperate attempt to recapture the son he had lost, Iroh had fooled himself into thinking that Zuko was not like Ozai, that maybe, just maybe, the young prince would be able to see beyond the forced destiny of carrying out his Grandsires insane war.
How could he have deluded himself all these years? Zuko had sided with his sister, possibly killing the last hope for the entire world. The tears fell freely as Iroh bowed his head in despair.
