Chapter 7: Truth
"Sozin, what do you think you're doing?" Roku commanded as he glanced down at the unconscious boy who was supposed to be the Fire Lord's great-grandson.
'How could he do a thing such as trying to kill his own family?' Roku felt angered at the thought.
Sozin glared as he turned to the man he had called his 'best friend' one day. "So, you have decided to show up again," he said, his eyes then turned to the young boy next to him. "And I see you've brought that little kid the futureAvatar with you."
Aang gritted his teeth while fisting his hands, he didn't liked this, he didn't liked this at all. He hadn't fought Fire Lord Ozai and thus didn't knew what kind of person he would be, or how he would be towards his own son. But Ozai must've been a worse father as Sozin was like the worst one in history as he now tried to kill his own great-grandson.
"Get away from Zuko!" Aang hissed and blasted a strong wind to separate the two. Sozin jolted back before turning to Aang, a serious expression covered his face.
"We're here just for the boy," Roku said, still not believing why Sozin attacked the prince. But instead hold himself from asking the question, not wanting to make the situation worse by making him upset. "I'm planning to leave after that, definitive."
Suddenly, Roku noticed something next to his feet and gazed down at a portrait which seemed to have been laid upside down. Next to it laid the bag Sozin had stolen from Zuko. He kneeled down and picked the portrait up slowly, while still examining his surroundings. Aang seemed to be in fighting stance, holding his staff in his hands, but instead glared heavily at the Fire Lord.
Sozin noticed Roku picking up the portrait and waited for him to take the next step. Aang got curious as he watched Roku looking at the picture and took some steps back to see what Roku was looking at. His eyes widened a bit as he noticed it being a family portrait of the Fire Nation Royal family. He had truly never seen the Fire Lord before, and wasn't sure if the man sitting behind the boy was the Fire Lord himself. If it was, then the boy before him was supposed to be Zuko, although Aang couldn't really recognize the boy as Zuko without the scar. And his hair seemed different too. But when glancing over to the little girl next to the boy, he immediately saw her as Azula, it was the same hairstyle, although she was much younger.
Aang realized it was indeed Zuko's family. He then looked at the woman, it must've been their mother. Aang never heard story's of Zuko's mother before, well there was one time when Katara told him about when the two of them got captured in Ba Sing Se. He'd heard from Katara that Zuko and his mother used to be really close, and that he had lost her too. A sad expression made its way to Aang face as he thought about it.
Roku on the other hand didn't knew all of these persons, except for the boy who must've been Zuko.
He didn't know why though, but there was something familiar about that woman, he wasn't sure what though. "Who's that woman?" Roku asked himself.
Aang looked up. "I think it's Zuko's mother," He kneeled down to pick Zuko's bag and opened it, looking if everything was still in there. "He never told me about his mother though, so I'm not sure." Aang said as he reached into the bag.
'I have to get up,' Zuko said to himself, he wasn't sure where he was. It wasn't reality though. 'I have to wake up!' he opened his eyes, to find out he wasn't at the destroyed throne room. The last things he heard before passing out were Roku's words. He was now nowhere as in really nowhere, the place was all black, an endless place, covered with blackness.
"Someone care to explain me where I am!" Zuko cried in annoyance towards nothing.
"Zuko," a voice said."I need to tell you something."
"Who are you?" Zuko said, while looking around him, searching for the source of the soft voice.
"You might have heard about me, I'm Yue."
Aang didn't knew what Zuko brought with him from home. But he hoped Sozin didn't stole anything from him. He sighed in relieve as he felt three objects. One object that was in it felt like robes, well it was quite obvious he did, he needed stuff to survive back when he hadn't joined to group yet. The second object had the shape of a knife. 'Why would Zuko bring that with him if he already had his swords?'Aang asked himself, but then shook his head. It might've been a personal thing.
The last object was wrapped in old sheets of paper. Aang got curios and took it out of Zuko's bag.
"I wonder what this is." Aang said.
Sozin glanced over at the object. He didn't had the time to look through all his great-grandson's things. No matter how much he wanted to look through his things, he was the Fire lord and had to do his Fire Lord duties. Even more after a part of the palace got destroyed by Avatar Roku. He had told the soldiers that they had to bring Zuko to him if he were to wake up, and when he went back to the throne room after his so-called duties, the first thing he saw were two swords laying separated from each other on the ground, and a few meters away from them laid a bag. He had look through his things, but didn't had the time to actually open the wrapped up in paper object.
Both Roku and Aang's eyes glanced over at the object in Aang's hands. He opened it carefully, not wanting to let it fall on the ground as it seemed important to Zuko as it was the only thing in his bag covered in paper. Aang noticed a sharp gold-ish thing as he opened a small part of it.
Both Roku and Sozin's eyes widened in surprise as they saw the object unpacked. It was the ancient royal artifact worn by the Crown Prince of the Fire Nation, but later given to Roku by Sozin. And now there seemed to be two of them.
Roku looked up. "How did," he said but stopped himself in surprise. He picked the artifact from Aang who also looked at it in surprise, he had seen the artifact in a vision worn by Avatar Roku and in this time. Roku gazed at it, then over to Zuko, who still laid on his back. 'How did he get this?'
"I didn't knew Zuko had this," Aang said slowly as he looked at the headpiece.
Sozin took some steps towards Roku and Aang, he too was surprised, but wondered how the boy got his (actually Roku's) headpiece.
Zuko looked up, he had heard that name somewhere before, It was on the tip of his toque, then he remembered the day on which he captured the Avatar (for a short period of time) and the demise of Zhao. "I think I've heard of you before, aren't you the princess of the Northern Water Tribe?"
"I was," The voice said." now, I am the moon spirit."
"What?" Zuko said slowly, not believing what the voice just said. "B-But how?"
"That doesn't matter," The voice said, Zuko noticed a hint of sorrow in her voice. "Zuko, you need to wake up."
"Yes I know, that's what I'm trying to do the whole time!" He complained, no matter what he tried, this place of blackness doesn't seem to change to the destroyed throne room where he had heard Roku and possibly also Aang.
"You've been badly injured, but, I can help you."
"I don't understand," Zuko said as he stared at the ground, though, there wasn't really a ground, it was more a black cloud or air. "Why do you want to help me?"
"Because I'm Moon Spirit. I can feel the inner pain of people, and I know you've been confused and had been suffered in many ways. And now that you have chosen for right, I think you deserve it," she said and paused for a minute, reminding Zuko of the wrong things he did in the past, and now changed his own destiny in helping Aang to defeat his father. "And.. you need to get back to your own time, but many traps will be in your way. I don't think you can stand the trip with all the injuries, so I think this is the last thing I could do."
Zuko nodded. "Thank you Yue," he said as he bowed down in respect, although he was all alone, he felt that Yue's spirit was around. "But how do I get back to the present?" he said hoping that Yue heard it.
"You need to find the dragons." Yue said, her voice then slowly faded and Zuko stepped back in surprise as he noticed his whole body glowing. The blackness started to fade away and changed into that of a hardened ground. He heard voices.. Yes, and he recognized them..
I've never intended to bring Yue in this story when I first started on this chapter. But I needed someone to heal Zuko, and I thought Yue would be the perfect person to do that. So yeah, she had a minor part in this story while even I didn't knew this.I kinda feel bad Aang didn't ran towards Zuko when he was unconscious but I guess he needed to play his role. (Yeah I wanted him to be the one to pull of the paper.)
