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...And you'll always know that your father's a thief.

He is four, and he is looking at the face of his father for the first time. He doesn't know it, of course: to Aziru, it is only the face of his treacherous uncle, the man he has to kill.

"My worthless older brother," Mother tells him, running one sharp-nailed finger down the side of the portrait. "Traitor Zuko. He does not deserve to be called Fire Lord."

Aziru nods agreement (he has no reason to doubt her) and scrutinizes the dark, finely drawn ink lines of Zuko's face. His uncle looks up at him from the scroll with a forbidding expression. Even without too much detail, the muscles of his face look tensed, he is unsmiling, and his good eye is as narrowed as the one seared shut. It's the scar on the man's right eye that draws Aziru's attention. "Where'd that come from?"

"Ozai." She never says his grandfather's name without a considerable amount of bitterness put into the word. "When Zuko was younger, he disrespected him during a war meeting, and as punishment, Ozai declared that he would fight him in Agni Kai. But for all his bravado, Zuko is a cowardly weakling at his core. He refused to fight, and got on all fours on the ground, crying and begging for mercy. Because he would not fight back, Ozai was able to burn his face to teach him a lesson."

Aziru looks up at her, wide-eyed. That could happen? "But you can't just say no," he protests. "You have to fight it. It's about honor, right? Doesn't he care about that?"

Mother gives a short, mirthless laugh. "Zuko will go on and on like you wouldn't believe about how important honor is to him, but his actions say something else entirely. He disrespected our traditions, betrayed our nation, stole the throne, threw his own sister in an asylum to rot, and offered up our people to the other nations to do with as they please. Honor means nothing to a traitor like him, Aziru."

It makes sense to him, though he wonders what is important to a man like that, who has clearly shown that so many things - honor, justice, the ties of blood - are meaningless to him. He can't understand why his uncle would do all those things. For power, maybe? He voices his guess to Mother, and she shakes her head.

"The very first thing he did after taking the throne was to surrender to the other nations. He knew that they'd take every opportunity to weaken and restrict the Fire Nation, which they did as quickly as possible. No, he wasn't after power; if you intend to use a sword, you don't break it first. It just doesn't make sense. The only logical answers I can think of is that he did all this just to spite us, or out of petty revenge for being punished by our father. He always was an entitled little brat."

Aziru is stunned. That can't be right...but then again, he can't think of an explanation himself, and Mother would know her brother better than most people. At that point, she takes the scroll back. She holds it at arm's length between two fingers, over a waste bin.

"He was always so spoiled and soft," she says almost to herself, narrowing her eyes at her brother's face. The acrid scent of burning ink and paper fills the room as blue flames crawl over it. "The only reason the people still in his territory haven't revolted against him yet is that he's protected by the Avatar. But we'll take care of that in good time."

The scroll burns away completely, and Mother shakes its ashes off her hand and turns to leave the room, signifying that they are done here. But Aziru has one more thing to ask her.

"Mama, wait a second!" She stops and turns her head to look at him. "Your dad challenged Zuko to an Agni Kai, and hurt him...Would you ever do that to me?"

"Would you ever disrespect me, Aziru?"

"No," he says, shaking his head.

"Well, then..." Her lips curve up into a smile. "Why would I ever do a thing like that?"

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