Zuko had been tending to his uncle for an entire night and day, making sure that he was safe from Azula's attack before finally, his uncle woke up. "Uncle!" Iroh opened his eyes slowly, squinting as the blurry shapes slowly formed the face of his nephew. "You were unconscious. Azula did this to you." He explained as Iroh tried to sit up but flinched in pain. "It was a surprise attack."
"Somehow that's not so surprising." He answered bitterly, managing to sit upright despite his bandaged arm. "What else happened?" He asked in a serious tone, still feeling weary from his unconsciousness. "I heard screaming and shouting. What else did Azula do?" Zuko looked away, unable to meet his uncle's gaze.
"She…struck the Avatar's sister with lightning, which blasted her into a burning building which then collapsed on top of her." He revealed and Iroh's eyes instantly widened in shock.
"No!" He gasped softly, looking out of the open wall to see that they were still in the abandoned outpost, surrounded by buildings that had burnt almost to cinders. "Did she survive? Was she alright?" Zuko did not answer and Iroh lowered his head. "I see. She is still trapped."
"There's no way she could have survived. The Avatar escaped and left his own sister to burn in that building." Zuko said with slight anger, clenching his fist as he pressed his eyes shut. "She was right. Azula has no control." Iroh lowered his head, remembering the girl from when they had first met.
"Zuko…even if you are right and the Avatar's sister is dead, we should at least try to find her body to bury. It is the honourable thing to do." Zuko looked at his uncle with slight disgust, sharply narrowing his eyes.
"It'd be lucky if there was even a bone left of her. There's no way I'm going to dig out some charred up skeleton just to shove it into the earth." His uncle gave him a hard look, signalling that he had better watch his tongue so Zuko sighed. "I made you some tea. I hope I made it the way you like it." Iroh accepted the tea, not even pausing to sniff it however the moment he took a sip, his face contorted at the bitter and tangy taste that made him want to retch. Quickly hiding his reaction, Iroh flung the rest of it down his throat swiftly.
"It was…very bracing." He smiled at his nephew who filled his cup again.
"Uncle, I was thinking. It won't be long before I face Azula again, and I'm going to need to know more advanced firebending if I'm going to stand a chance against her." He said as he turned away to fill his own cup and whilst he was distracted, Iroh quickly tossed his tea over his shoulder and out the window. "Now I know what you're going to say, she's my sister and I should try to get along with her, but…"
"No." Iroh said with a wave of his hand. "She's crazy and needs to go down." Zuko cracked a small smile as his uncle began to rise to his feet, grunting in pain as he clutched his shoulder but once he was standing strongly on his own two feet, he looked down at his nephew. "It is time to resume your training."
Not far from where they rested, something shifted among the rubble of a building. Groaning softly, the girl tried to move but found her body trapped under several beams of wood and a considerable amount of rubble. She coughed and tried to call out, but her voice was weak and she was in too much pain to call out any louder than a hoarse whisper.
After a few moments, she opened her eyes to be surrounded by darkness, however her eyes gave a bright gleam of striking electric blue.