Beyond Memory
I can still picture it in my dreams. "Stand and fight, Prince Zuko," came my brother's cold voice. They were the last words my little nephew ever heard. Obedient as ever, he rose to his feet. Before he could take another breath, he was blasted with an inferno of heat. He barely had time to cry out before his spirit joined the one of my beloved Lu Ten. I don't remember much more…I had fainted.
When I awoke, my white-clad neice informed me that Zuko's ashes would not be gathered and kept in the royal tombs. She smiled as if she had been given the world's most wonderful present. I could not even look at her.
I exiled myself from the Fire Nation, saying I had seen too much loss. I waited for the Avatar to return. I waited until a small survivor of genocide showed up, needing to learn fire bending. I happily obliged.
History will remember me as a traitor, as the teacher of the hated enemy Avatar Aang, as the unworthy son of Sozin who failed his people.
Let my line die, my name be a curse. I still had my revenge.