a/n: I swear, the writing muse only strikes when I have finals. It's a curse. And also, I apparently have a thing for nightmares. This is part of my oneshot anniversary celebration! I've spent four years on fanfiction, whoo!
dedication: To the newly formed Mister Monster, my nightmare muse.
disclaimer: I don't own A:tLA.
summary: "I am your loyal son!" - Zuko.
fever dreams
Pain. That's the only thing he knows. Fierce, burning pain, spreading from his left eye to all over his body. He's only conscious of the pain stopping because it lets him slip into the black oblivion that waits.
But the black oblivion isn't so black.
His mother is the first to appear. "My sweet child," she croons, cradling him in her arms, "My sweet, poor child." Zuko is content to lie there forever but he becomes aware of something dripping on his head. He tries to ignore it – he's with his mother – but the drip, drip, drip eventually gets louder and louder until he pulls away just to shut away the sound.
It's red, and it's dribbling from Ursa's lips. She smiles at him, and her teeth are stained with blood. Zuko backpedals and he sees the dainty teacup she's clutching with one hand.
"Everything I did," she says softly, "I did for you." Drip, drip, drip – the sound grows until Zuko covers his ears with his hands.
Silence.
He cautiously looks up – his mother is gone. Another is sitting in her place, legs folded proprietarily and sipping from a steaming tea cup. A face that Zuko's almost forgotten, until a corner of his mouth twitches into a smile. "Hey, little cousin," Lu Ten laughs and the sight of his long-dead cousin is such a relief that Zuko nearly breaks into tears. "You've grown up," Lu Ten notes, taking a sip of tea.
And suddenly the tea is fire – a lamp, floating in front of Lu Ten. Zuko's relief vanishes as suddenly as the tea did, and he's crouching, waiting for the flame to grow into a fire.
But it never does. It floats around Lu Ten in dizzying circles, as Lu Ten's smile becomes more and more forced until what's left is a ghastly caricature of grin.
"There is no war in Be Sing Se," he says robotically, and Zuko screams.
Lu Ten disintegrates even as he starts screaming, but Zuko doesn't stop. He screams himself hoarse until Lu Ten is only a pile of ashes on the ground.
And then the ashes are suddenly a fire and a forbidding man is sitting behind it, staring down at Zuko with cold eyes. Zuko abruptly stops screaming – he remembers the man and the sharp twist to his mouth.
Zuko will always remember that his grandfather wanted him dead.
"Hmph," Azulon says contemptuously, "A grandchild who can't firebend properly." Zuko is silent.
Azulon narrows his eyes but he's not looking at Zuko anymore, he's looking beyond him and Zuko's afraid to turn and see. "You should know the pain of losing a child," he says, his voice getting angrier, "Kill the child that you love, and I will forgive you for this insult!"
Azulon disappears and Zuko turns, already knowing who'll be there. His father sits there calmly, but Zuko can see the white of his fingers.
"You are a disgrace," he hisses at Zuko and the hissing increases until Ozai is a snake, twisting sinuously around Zuko. He tries to scramble away but Ozai blocks him in all directions, twisting around and around until Zuko suffocates.
The scales suddenly turn to rope and Zuko clutches at them, bewildered. He can hear bright laughter and quiet chuckles all around him. The ropes twist until he's sitting in a tree, looking down. There are three girls sitting below him – young girls, not more than five. They're bent down and whispering and every once in a while, they'll throw their heads back and laugh.
Zuko watches them silently – their laughter is tugging a smile to his own face. One of them is rolling around, uncaring of the grass stains on her pink dress. The quiet one is trying to suppress her giggles but they occasionally escape. The other is holding a graceful hand over her mouth to stifle her chuckles, but her eyes are bright and gold.
Zuko's smile drops off his face. Suddenly, the golden eyes are no longer so bright. They're hard and cold, and the graceful hand is just another aspect of a perfect mask. The quiet one is no longer suppressing a giggle, she's just playing along. The one rolling around is purposefully ruining her dress – because she'd seen Azula's eyes flash with jealousy and she knew that no one was allowed to be prettier than Azula.
The girl looks up with a disdainful smile and cocks her head. "Why so glum, Zuzu?" she calls out, and Mai and Ty Lee titter.
"Why so glum?" Her voice grows and grows as Mai and Ty Lee fall silent and disappear, taking the tree with them. Zuko's left on the ground, staring up at his giant of a little sister as she laughs and laughs. Ozai watches on proudly and Zuko's scared, so scared.
And suddenly, the pain returns – he's been blinded, he think, because he can't see out of one eye. Iroh's sitting solemnly next to him and Azula's no longer a giant.
"Father's banished you!" she says, delighted, and reads out a scroll. The information blurs and fades from his mind.
Father's banished you.
She laughs after she finishes reading and skips out the room. Zuko turns to Iroh, half-expecting him to disappear, but his uncle looks at him with pity. "Sleep, Zuko," he says quietly, "We will talk when you wake again."
But I am asleep.
Zuko wants to protest, but he's afraid that a giant tea-monster will show up and devour Iroh and send him back to nightmare land. So he settles back and closes his eyes.
It's not a dream.
fin
a/n: I wanted to show what happened in the aftermath of the infamous Agni Kai, and I remembered Zuko's penchant for having weird, totally prophetic dreams.