Vengeance and Victories—Dai Li, Joo Dees and Deep State Conspiracies Part 2
"Ugh! Why can't I be rid of you?" Katara groaned in the dimly lit cavern. The green crystals cast eerie emerald shadows on the walls, the floor, and their faces. Zuko sat in silence his back against a rock jutting up from the ground. He didn't have anything to say. He was actually wondering the same question about himself.
"So, what is this, some kind of trick? Some ploy to get me to tell you where the Avatar is? You and your family are sick! Your whole nation is sick!" she spat. Zuko turned his body away from her and put his head on his knees. He knew that. He had always known. Katara was taken aback by his reticence to snark back at her. Where were his usual fire and overall crankiness? She wasn't content to look like the bad guy in this situation. Not when he was the one who chased and tortured them relentlessly. He was the one who harassed them for no reason!
"You have nothing to say for yourself? You lied and said you were trying to live in peace and yet here we are! You ash makers are all the same." She said with all the scorn and disdain she could affect. At that Zuko had had enough. Yes, his people had done a lot of evil in this world and they were not right about their view of the world, but she was dead wrong about him.
"Just shut up, Katara! You don't know a damn thing about me! You don't know what I've been through…" he trailed thinking about the last three years of his life feeling the shame and burn all over again. Katara was livid. Her voice shook with rage.
"What you've been through? Are you kidding me? You spoiled, pampered, prince! You sat by and watched your people destroy whole nations while you rode in your little ship having an adventure and worried about capturing your prize. You know nothing, nothing at all! They took everything from me. The Fire Nation took my mother away from me!" She screamed. Zuko froze. He felt the pang of memory too far away and yet too close to never forget. His voice was barely a whisper.
"That's something we have in common." He said to Katara's shock. Katara had been so angry she didn't realize she had been in a fighting stance the entire time. She sat down with a huff ungracefully on the ground next to Zuko. Katara was struck by the notion that perhaps things really weren't what they appeared to be. She wondered what Zuko meant by that. Had the Fire Nation killed his mother too? She needed to know more.
"Will you tell me about it?" she asked simply. It was the beginning of a long and perhaps much-needed conversation between the two.