037. Chink in the Armor: 'Father always said the chinks in the armor made it weak. And weak armor was to be disposed of.'
-oOo-
Father always said that chinks in the armor made it weak. And weak armor was to be disposed of. For the longest time, Azula had assumed her brother to be the chink in the armor. The weak spot that was to be replaced. She had always assumed her brother to be the weak one. She was beginning to question that.
He had gained a new confidence coming home that he hadn't had as a kid. He no longer bowed to her torments, and she had even watched him keep his back straight when facing their father; the man who had burnt him for simply speaking back. Zuko had come back from banishment stronger than she had ever seen him.
However, there were still cracks in him that Azula could easily see. She watched him change constantly over the short couple of months he had been home. The hardened young man would soften when he thought no one was watching. She was always watching. Watching as the detachment in his gaze was replaced by tiredness. When his shoulders sagged under great weight. When he curled himself tight into a corner of his room and simply held himself. She watched every time as he allowed his weakness to overtake him.
Azula found herself unable to call it weakness though. Her brother was now anything but weak.
She had seen the level of bending he had achieved – a level that was on par with her, if not exceeding in a few areas. She had watched him stand with a straight back as their father talked to them. She had watched him hold his head high and carry himself with a grace and dignity that was befitting a crown prince. The struggle he was having with himself wasn't seen to the world. The Zuko he showed to the world scared her if she was being honest.
She often found herself remembering incidence from their childhood. It amazed her how easily Zuko had slipped under all their radar. Nearly every one, including her and their father, had brushed Zuko off as spineless and a failure. But the more she thought about it, the more she realized that wasn't true.
For as long as she could remember, Zuko had the perseverance of a kimono rhino. There was nothing he couldn't achieve if he fought for it. He had mastered those swords of his in secret from their father. And he had in the end achieved a high level of bending – that was evident in the amount of times he had beaten her while she had been tracking him.
He had spoken against their father. That was something Azula had never been brave enough to do. Despite the fact that she knew he father loved her, she was still scared to go against him. Zuko had though. With no reason to believe he would be protected, he stood up.
Despite the negativity the world had tried to drown him in, Zuko's back had never broken. He had never given in. And they had all thought him useless.
When he left the day of the eclipse, she finally realized that her brother wasn't as weak as they had all assumed. Her father was ranting and raving about the betrayal. He had let it slip about Zuko's ability to thrown Ozai's own lightening back in his face. It was a feat she had never heard of.
Zuko could have killed him with that lightening. But he hadn't. Her father assumed it was because the boy was too weak to do so. Azula knew otherwise.
She had begun to realize it when he came back, and now there was no denying it. As much as they had believed it, Zuko wasn't weak. He was anything but.
She had hoped that strength would be used to assist them in this war. With it turned against them, she found herself worrying, not for the first time, that maybe Zuko would be the chink in the armor that destroyed them. Just not in the way they had always assumed.