Epilogue 37: Great Granfather?.

You need to know the story

Of your Great Grandfather's demise

It will reveal your own destiny

Zuko struggled for two days trying to understand this message. He debated going to his uncle. He debated abandoning it. He grew moody as the fire within him fought his will to control it. The Summer Solstice had arrived. At dawn, he walked out to the royal wing where the paintings of the Fire Lords and their families stood tall on the walls. He stared at one of Sozin standing with small fire soldiers at his feet and the great comet streaking overhead.

Azula walked by like a hawk-cat ready to toy with a sparrow-mouse. "It's never too early to sit with the court painter, Zuko." She spoke lightly. "Make sure he gets your good side."

Zuko did not miss her meaning to either statement. One was a jab at his likelihood to survive and rule. She should have said that it was never too late, but it really could be. It was a veiled threat that he should get painted soon for he was not going to live long. The other jab was about his scar. Although, that jab bothered him less. He no longer was upset by the idea of the scar. It marked a horror in his life and a reminder of his courage to endure it. It told him of what men should never do to their children. It served as a permanent reminder to always keep a level head and never take out his anger with fire, especially on a child of his. Faelin… She instantly came to mind. She was carrying his child, his heir, his secret. He had almost told Mai about the child when he told her about his love for the other woman, but he didn't. Mai was a dangerous woman when she made deadly decisions… like killing a rival. Zuko almost managed to ignore Azula when he suddenly recalled how good she was at history. "Wait. I need to ask you something." He spoke gently and carefully. "What do you know about our great-grandfather's history?"

"Oh Zuko," she roller her eyes before turning to face him. "It's so strange how your mind works." She walked back to him. "Fire Lord Sozin began the war, of course. He spent his early years secretly preparing for it, but he was as patient as he was clever. He famously waited for the comet, later renamed Sozin's comet, and used its power to launch his full-scale invasion of the world. In the end, he died a very old and successful man."

You need to know the story

Of your Great Grandfather's demise

It will reveal your own destiny

"But HOW did he die?" Zuko needed to know what demise befell his great-grandfather.

Azula groaned in her mind thinking her brother a simpleton. "Didn't you pay any attention in school, Zuko‌." She walked away from her brother and spoke into the air casually and with bored indifference, "He died peacefully, in his sleep. He was ancient."

Zuko glared at the painting further. Something about her story did not add up. There was no demise. Someone was lying. Although, from experience, history books often lied as they taught propaganda to children and brainwashed them into a certain way of ignorant thinking.

Later that night in the futility of his efforts to discover the fictional demise of his great grandfather, he tossed the damnable note after rereading it for the millionth time. It landed on his night lantern by his bedside. The heat of the lantern reacting with the lemon juice script that was invisible earlier but now was turning a visible light brown on the scroll. Zuko snatched the scroll back and read it eagerly.

The Fire Sages keep the secret history in the Dragon Bone Catacombs.

Before he could change his mind, Zuko grabbed the dark cloak and a small lantern. He stuffed the note scroll into his belt and left his bed chamber. With all the spying skills he learned as the Blue Spirit and all the assassin skills he learn with Mu-Tan, he vanished through the temple partially considering abandoning this quest entirely and making his way back to Faelin in Ba Sing Se. But his uncle was still here. Also, he needed to find a way to know what was going on and if he could help end this war somehow from the inside. He had almost forgotten his mission here…. Forgotten his destiny. What is my destiny?

You need to know the story

Of your Great Grandfather's demise

It will reveal your own destiny

He hurried out and down the volcanic mountain side to the catacombs of the royal family. The temple was among the few left in the Islands. Today's decree from his father, the Fire Lord, had been to dismantle all the local temples and turn them into military training bases. His father was still angry with the Fire Sages who helped the avatar last year. They were banned from the Crescent Isle and the Fire Sages Temple. Now they were permitted only to maintain the ancestral temple and catacomb. Fire Lord Ozai had even hand picked the sages he was permitting to hand the catacombs and imprisoned or executed the rest. It made Zuko's blood boil then run cold. He touched the little pouch under his belt that held the lock of hair of a child that died for these reasons. The child was one of several orphans training in a local temple long ago when Zuko had first lost contact with Faelin. He fondled the silver band at his wrist while leaning in a dark corner near the back entry to the temple. Mai was right, it was a risk. He slipped it off his wrist and into the small pouch with the lock of hair.

Zuko slipped in like a shadow. No one would expect him to sneak in here. He peered around a pillar and watched a sage firebend into the floor revealing a hidden stairwell. Zuko waited for hours as the sage came out and left. When he was sure no one was around, he did as the sage did and opened the floor with fire. The stairs wound into darkness below. On fast silent feet he descended into a lit chamber, more like a corridor. Along the walls of the corridor were the skulls of the dragons hunted to extinction. His uncle was the last man to bring back a dragon skull. He touched each wondering what these great beast must have been like. In history, Sozin was said to have had one as a pet, intelligent and fierce. So why hunt them out? Was there such glory? Though he agreed there must have been. To hunt something almost as intelligent as a human would make the hunt much more challenging and dangerous.

At the end of the corridor was a door that looked like a Fire Lord. Zuko bent some fire into the medallion. As the fire raged through the door and lit the eyes and mouth of the Fire Lord fresco, the door unlocked and slip open. The catacombs of the royal family lay beyond. There were sarcophagi of cremated ashes of the dead all around. Dusty, cobweb covered scrolls and texts. Other doors to other chambers abandoned in the neglected chamber. Clearly, Fire Lord Ozai no longer really honored the ancestors here by actually maintaining this catacomb respectfully. Perhaps he was using another corridor or chamber to store secrets. Maybe, he hired the few sages to simply make sure no one tampered with the truths currently hidden here. I had no trouble getting in. My father is a fool.

Then he gasped as he let his hood fall back and the lantern illuminate a large dragon statue that housed both the ashes of Sozin and his dragon, for they had been burned and buried together. Around the base of the dragon statue, almost obscured in dust, were scroll boxes marked, "The final testament of Fire Lord Sozin." Zuko read it aloud and quickly closed the door to read in privacy.

The tale unfolded… Sozin and Roku were once best friends. Sozin teased Roku much about his crush on Ta Min, a girl who barely ever noticed the tall youth. How Sozin learned at their birthday that Roku was the avatar and the shock and sadness that followed as these two dear friends had to be separated for reasons of training. Roku had to learn to master the elements. Sozin had to learn to be a great Fire Lord. Roku could not take any worldly possessions. Sozin gave him his royal artifact to wear in his hair, a symbol of friendship from a crown prince to an avatar.

A thought crept into Zuko's mind, Some friendships are so strong, they can even transcend lifetimes. Zuko pondered this remembers when he escaped with Aang from Admiral Zhao and how Aang had asked that it things were different, if they could have been friends. He sighed and read on. It was twelve years before Sozin and Roku met again, both changed men, both grown up with new goals in their lives. Sozin was Fire Lord and Roku was a fully realized avatar. They were still friends, even when Roku finally did wed Ta Min. The tale soured from their as Sozin's dream was revealed: to share their wealth and prosperity with the world with the Fire Nation to rule it all. This was the propaganda Zuko had grown up with. This was the lie that thinly veiled domination and tyranny. Roku already saw this and here is where the friends split ways. Roku warned Sozin not to do this, but he did anyways. Roku was enjoying a peaceful life on one of the volcanic islands with his wife and children when he got news of the new colonies on the north peninsula of the mainlands. He made his way to the Fire Lord's palace where Roku and Sozin fought fiercely. Sozin confessed his shame… at losing against the avatar.

For twenty five years, Roku lived with his family and saw his own son married and ready to have children. It was then that the dormant volcano of Roku's island erupted in devastating fire and fury. It was visibly even from the Palace. Sozin went upon his dragon to help, to see the people off to safety. Volcanic gasses and ash were taking their toll on the old avatar. Then the volcanoes twin erupted as Sozin arrived to the rescue. Together fighting nature itself. Here when Roku was dying from the toxic fumes and begging for help, here Sozin seized his chance.

Without you, all my plans are suddenly possible.

Zuko gasped. This betrayal was… he sighed… apparently in the bloodline. Zuko remembered his father betraying his uncle for the throne. He knows his sister's ruthlessness. She would not hesitate if she had the opportunity to be Fire Lord. Zuko shuddered at the thought of his sister ruling. Zuko read the last lines:

With Roku gone, and the great comet returning, the timing was perfect to change the world. I knew the next avatar would be born an air nomad. So I wiped out the air temples. But somehow, the new avatar eluded me. I wasted the remainder of my life searching in vain. I know he's hiding out there somewhere. The Fire Nation's greatest threat…the last airbender.

Azula was right. Sozin died of old age. He passed on his passion for conquest and world domination to his son Azulon, along with the hunt for the avatar. Azulon in turn inflicted the ambition onto his sons. Zuko wondered what made Iroh have a change in heart. It could not have been simply the death of Lu Ten. He wondered slightly what happened to Roku's family and the artifact that was still seen to have been in Roku's hair according to any and all paintings and statues of Roku he had seen. His great grandfather didn't die of any horrible demise. He died, as Azula said, peacefully in his sleep an old man… having never found the avatar.

There is no demise unless you consider never having found the avatar a demise. I found the avatar. What does that mean? I am not about to kill him.

That one thought made him different but did not at all define his destiny. He searched the room frantically for more clues. This can't be it. Where's the rest!?!

Having been up all night and in a right foul mood with his confusion he stormed over to the prison. The guards all moved out of his way when they saw the look in his eyes. The fire of the Summer Solstice still burning strong in Zuko and a scary thing to see for anyone opposing him. Zuko had a notion. He knew his uncle knew something about all this. And at this time of year, his uncle should be strong enough to break free of the prison himself.

But he hadn't.

He raged at the old man sitting bedraggled in the cell. "You sent this, didn't you‌ I found the secret history. Which, by the way should be renamed "the history most people already know. The note said that I needed to know about my great-grandfather's death, but he was still alive in the end."

Iroh looked up sadly at Zuko, "No… he wasn't."

Zuko was irked and confused, "What are you talking about?"

"You have more than one great-grandfather, Prince Zuko. Sozin was your father's grandfather. Your mother's grandfather was Avatar Roku." Iroh explained.

"Why are you telling me this‌?!" The worlds of shock tumbled from Zuko's lips.

"Because understanding the struggle between your two great-grandfathers, can help you better understand the battle within yourself. Evil and good are always at war inside you, Zuko. It is your nature, your legacy. But there is a bright side. What happened generations ago can be resolved now… by you. Because of your legacy, you alone can cleanse the sins of our family and the fire nation. Born in you, along with all this strife, is the power to restore balance to the world." Iroh removed a brick from the wall that hid the bundle he had Kozue steal for him. He unwrapped the bundle and held it out to his nephew. "This is a royal artifact. It's supposed to be worn by the crown prince."

His uncle's words sank deep as he thought of all he had experienced till now, thought about what honor meant. Honor is the Law, love is the bond. In the belly of a priestess was his heir… his prince… someone he could teach to restore balance if he himself could not achieve it. How he knew it was a boy, he did not know. It was just a strong feeling. He carefully took the artifact from his uncle in an almost shaking hand. The head dress of a proper prince, the very head dress of Avatar Roku. Zuko looked at his uncle as realization showed in his eyes. His fate was indeed tied deeply to Avatar Aang's. Iroh simply nodded.

I need to get out… I need to go. I need to know my father's plans. The day of Black Son is in a few days.

There was a war meeting planned for tomorrow. Time was suddenly so short. Zuko gripped the head piece firmly and ran from the prison back to the palace.