Warning: There are some graphic references to the genocide of the Airbenders in this chapter.
Oh where do we begin?
The rubble or our sins?
Pompeii, Bastille
The ship rocks steadily, making his stomach churn. The constant noise from the top deck has his head aching, and the few glimpses of sunlight forces him back into bed. The puckered skin around his eyes makes it hard to see. Everything is duller, blurry around the edges. He has to make do with the defect, adjusting his actions to make sure that he is not at a disadvantage.
The mirrors that might have been in his room are removed before he gets on the ship. He pretends to not notice the way people look at him. He hasn't seen it yet but, he can feel with every movement of his face that it's bad. The scar tissue tugs at the bright pink skin that has yet to heal.
What's worse, what hurts Zuko the most is the reminder that his father had done this.
Every ache he feels is a punishment he bears for dishonoring his family. Iroh won't say a word to him about the scar but, Zuko sees the way his eyes linger on the edge of the bandage. Has he dishonored him too? There are moments when he lays in bed, in a haze of sleep and dreams, and remembers Iroh's face in the moments before the fire had struck. He remembers the deep seeded lines pressing against the corners of his uncle's mouth.
There's nothing in the memory to prove that Zuko isn't a monster.
His father had given him more than a scar.
He had given him a warning, burning away whatever was left of his mother.
Zuko doesn't know where he ends, and his father begins.
When he first leaves the ship, they spend a week walking through forgotten fields, past small peasant villages into the cliffside that makes up the Western Air Temples. Zuko's breath is stolen away at the sight of the Temple. Squared buildings carved into the cliffs miles high, hang upside down over large statues. There are bridges with delicate arches connecting the buildings and structures underneath.
In the back of his mind, he cannot help but wonder how the firebenders had made the trip up the cliffs. He knows that the Southern Air Temple was the main source of conflict but, they had fought the Westerners first. They must have drawn them down from the cliffs and fought them on the ground.
But, there are no bodies on the ground when they cross the river. There is nothing for miles but green fields, covered in wild grass and wild flowers. A light mist hangs in the air, painting the sky, a cold, grey blue. It is a place so beautiful that his heart aches. Anna would have liked it.
It's a long climb, deep into the cliffside, a heavy fog covering the ground at their feet. The path gets narrower, bushes of wild vegetation covering it for several hundred feet. They stop the first night, setting up camp among the sparse trees. One of the men, a hunter from the colonies, volunteers to catch some of the rabbit-geese they spotted earlier in the day. The smell of grilled meat brings a sense of somberness over the camp. It's too close a reminder of home, this early on.
In the morning, they push harder, taking a path that leads into the back of the temple. Many of the structures are brunt and fallen stone. There is nothing but chaos here. He can't rectify the image melted stone, with the buildings he has seen carved into the cliffside. He can't imagine what kind of force it had taken to topple that.
The first bones they see are scattered apart. The knobby joint of an elbow, polished a smooth white, cracks underneath his foot. Farther ahead, a femur cracked in half. Zuko thinks nothing of it. They are close, he can feel it. His heart hammers in his chest at the thought of finding the avatar. Is it possible that the old man, hide himself here for a century? He hopes so. He hopes that the man he meets is too tired to fight, too old to pose a threat to him.
The sounds of crunching, echoes in his head the closer they get to the temple. There are too many bones scattered the higher they go. It's impossible to avoid stepping on them.
The path they take does not lead them directly to the temple but, to a secret escape route that had been used by the Fire Nation to launch an attack. It is where the heaviest damage had been done and he doubts that the Avatar would know about it.
The courtyard is piles of bodies. Some still wearing faded orange robes. His stomach lurches at the sight of a wooden horse tossed near a pile of scorched clothes, too small to belong to an adult. Iroh picks up a pair of shoes, tossed into the grass, small enough to fit in his hands.
"Where's the army?" Zuko asks.
"This was it," Uncle Iroh says, harshly.
"Spread out and look for any signs of the avatar. He'd be an old man by now," Zuko orders. He flinches at the heavy footsteps and rattling that fills the air as the soldiers move bodies from the back entrance.
"There's nothing here," Uncle says, softly. "They were all women, Prince Zuko. The avatar wouldn't have been here."
Zuko shakes his head, fist tightening. He has to look, he can't be merciful if he's going to catch the Avatar. The men move forward, pushing their way into the deepest parts of the temple. The men his father has given him are careless, pushing past rotting wood and breaking nearly everything, they find.
Zuko follows them in a haze. It's too much. His stomach lurches and all warmth escapes. How could they have done this? How? How? How?
"Stop. Stop," Uncle orders the men. Zuko shakes his head, thinking about Azula's words.
The room the men are searching is filled with cribs. Carved from a single slab of wood, each are different from the others. Small animals embedded into the foot and headboards, a twisting, angular script carved onto the sides.
A tutor of his had once claimed that the airbenders had their own script and language once. They had adopted the common tongue but, still kept to their own among masters and scholars. He has a hard time believing that they were that sophisticated
The overturn one of the cribs, a rotting bundle of blankets falling to the floor.
"Stop," Zuko orders, "there's nothing in this room. Move on and don't touch anything. The avatar wouldn't hide under a child's bed."
"Yes, sir," one of the men mutters solemnly. It's quiet as they move from room to room, a shadow hanging over them. Whatever this had been once, it was a tomb now. Bile rises to his mouth, acid lining his throat. His father had damned him to this. What honor would he find among the bones and bodies of children?
They never reach the front of the temple, a mountain of fallen stone cutting, off the main courtyards and some of the other rooms.
There is nothing here.
His body is cold as ice when they leave.
The fire known more to him than his own heartbeat is finally burnt out.
Aiko's back is pressed against her chest as they huddle together in the hull of the ship. They are somewhere deep in the Earth Kingdom, closer to the Water Tribes than Anna had ever imagined herself to be.
A part of her is excited, full of giddy anxiousness as if she had swallowed a can of worms. Anna tenses, shifting from beneath Aiko's hold. She misses her morning baths and the scented oils that servants would run through her hair. She misses the noise. In Caldara, the night had thrived, the soft hum of the lights, the sound of engines and smell of metal from the soldiers' quarters. It is too quiet here, the world too big.
"Stop thinking so much," Aiko mutters, warm eyes gazing up at her behind half-lidded eyes. Anna shifts, leaning up on her elbows to look down at Aiko. Her skin has gotten even darker from the sun, smoothing out the small blemishes that arose from the smoky air in the Capital. She's lined her eyes with day-old kohl, making the brown look lighter, more gold than Anna had ever noticed before.
"I can't help it."
"You have these pirates eating out of your palm, Anna" she says, rolling her eyes. She says her name slowly, each syllable falling from the edge of her tongue, An-na. She doesn't know what Death was thinking, keeping a name so Western, that despite her appearance, she's a foreigner everywhere she goes.
"They're just sad. They think we're refugees, victims of the Fire Nation."
"Aren't we though? Ozai would have killed us both."
"If only…" Anna says, with no real bite to her words. Aiko scoffs, giving Anna a quick shove. Anna shifts away, cracking her back and standing up. The green dress Aiko had bought from a peasant family is slightly long on her. Anna bunches up the corner and ties it into a knot. Her hair is shorter now because what commoner could afford to wash their hair as often as she used to.
"Where are you going?" Aiko asks, lounging on the wooden floor as if she were modelling for a painting.
"They said we would dock today," Anna replies. She laughs as Aiko quickly stands, nearly tripping over the thin sheet. The girl rushes up the stairs onto the deck, leaving Anna to fold the tidy their bags and makeshift bed.
A/N: Zuko makes my heart hurt and a small glimpse into Anna's journey. We'll get more from her next chapter and a little more insight into why she was sent here and a bit more about Anna Potter.
P.S. Sorry about the spotty updates, real life and a lack of motivation is a nightmare combination. Also, let me know about any typos or if I'm stepping on any toes.