In the Agni Kai arena…
The shadow advanced, darkness bleeding from its feet and washing over all. The eyes in the walls blinked away, and he was alone against the shadow.
You will fight for your honor…
He tried to speak, to plead for mercy, but the shadow suffocated all. Its voice filled the air, a storm cloud hovering in wait.
...Suffering will be your teacher.
And the darkness parted, but from within emerged a great and terrible creature, a flaming serpent with an endless maw, bearing down upon him, no one to save him as he screamed—
The flames threw the shadow's face into fiery relief. It was his father… the serpent's master and creator.
Perhaps he didn't deserve to be saved, he thought, and as the serpent took him Zuko fell into darkness once again.
Thoughts echoed fuzzily in the absence of light.
… You will learn respect…
… I am your loyal son…
...Fight for your honor…
...My honor…
Rise and fight, Prince Zuko!
Zuko pulled his eyes open — his eye. The left had a bandage bound tightly to it, trapping the burning sensation in, leaving it to smolder under his skin. The right found itself staring at the ceiling of a dimly-lit room. He turned — slowly — and there was Uncle Iroh, holding him in a concerned, sleepless gaze. His voice came grating out.
"Oh, my nephew… I'm sorry."
Uncle helped him to sit up in bed, and Zuko got a better look at the room. It was not anywhere he recognized… perhaps one of the lesser-used of the palace's many suites?
"Where are we?" he asked as Uncle handed him a cup of tea.
"An infirmary in the Capital," Uncle answered slowly. "We've been here a few days. After your Agni Kai with your father, the physicians wanted to clean you up there at the palace." He continued gently. "Ozai refused them. He said to take you outside of the palace… until you were well enough to leave the Fire Nation."
"I… don't understand." Zuko could feel his head pounding — he reached up, only to pull sharply away after accidentally touching the bandage. A burst of pain exploded around his left eye, tears welling in the right. He cried out, and the tea he had been holding in the other hand splashed to the floor. Uncle left it there and placed a large hand on Zuko's back, steadying him as he tried to breathe.
Once the pain had flickered down, Uncle carefully touched the right side of his nephew's face. Their eyes met each other — two a tired shade of amber, one a wet gold. Confusion twisted in him as Zuko watched the sadness lining his uncle's face.
"It will take several weeks for that to heal," Uncle said quietly. "There may be scarring, and we don't know how much your eyesight will be damaged."
When I take off this bandage…
How much of me will be left?
"What did I do?" he whispered, pulling away from Uncle's touch and his gaze.
"I know this is a very upsetting experience for you. Your father never should have challenged you, especially when you are still so young. But I want you to underst—"
"He was right," Zuko interrupted, panic running through his voice. Uncle seemed caught off guard. "I disrespected Father in the war meeting… It's my fault. What have I done?"
"Zuko, you mustn't—"
"You said that I have to leave the Fire Nation. What's happened? Why can't I go home?"
Uncle sighed, and after a beat, answered. "When you refused to fight him, Ozai considered it not to be respect, but weakness. I have tried to convince him to change his mind, but my brother is a stubborn man. You have been banished from the Fire Nation… and your father will allow you to return and reclaim your throne on one condition."
"What is it? Uncle, please!"
"That you capture the Avatar… and bring him back to the palace alive."
The Avatar?
The one that's been missing for over a century?
Even Sozin couldn't find him…
But desperate people do desperate things. To them, there's no other choice.
Zuko tried to get out of bed, but Uncle pushed him back.
"No, Prince Zuko. You need to rest. I'll arrange things with your father so we'll at least have a ship."
"What—"
"I'm coming with you. You've never been outside the Fire Nation before. You'll need help."
Feeling dazed, Zuko had no argument against this. A thick darkness ate away at him from the inside… and the only speck of light, the only grain of hope—
The Avatar.
He could not fail.
After Uncle left, Zuko dozed uneasily. Thoughts kept tumbling over each other, about the Avatar, about his father, about his mistake in the war chamber…
Until these thoughts were interrupted by fresh pain spiking from beneath the bandage, and he laid there waiting for it to subside, wondering if it ever would.
You brought this on yourself, said the ghost of the serpent, coiling under his skin. You've lost your honor. And with no other voice to dispute it, Zuko believed.
And he was furious.
A/N: I'm thinking of adding a short scene from Uncle Iroh's perspective here… I don't know.