013 "Worlds Collide" by Abraxas 2009-12-28
"I am Fire Eye."
My father laughs.
The guards - I hear their hands reach their guns. He waves off the gesture. He is not afraid of the boy he tormented.
It is not that child who faces him.
"The ghost of Iroh revenges through you?" He steps into a slant of light. Wind stirs his jacket. "Where did you go? What of the boy you freed? Is my son a squaw to a brave?"
"I am not your son."
The eagle shrieks - its chain rattles.
"He died," I point at my scar. "Remember? I died to you when you tried to snuff my life with a prod! Animal skinned like a man - what kind of monster are you? Still. I tried to follow your standards and I tried to settle into your world. What a stupid broken dog you must have thought of me - looking for your love - begging for Azula's crumbs! Iroh was my father."
"Iroh. Always Iroh - the great Indian fighter. If only... I won't be enshadowed anymore. I'm turning my name into a weapon these savages will not forget. I'm taming their territory enforcing my civilization."
"I end you like you end me."
He slaps and I fall onto the floor.
"You and what army?"
I stand, shirt torn by violence.
The ground trembles - the crack along the wall widens. The air rumbles - the storm cracks thunder, lightning. It illuminates my chest and I do not resist as he grabs the talisman. I watch, restrained by cattlemen, as the trinket crumbles onto the floor.
"Now, where's your Indian, Fire Eye?"
I feel it, like heat, growing, building, out of my body. As if a life struggling to be birthed. My hands rise forward. The men struggle but cannot fight it. With a shout. My fingers blast lightning.
END