Chapter 5: in the claws of darkness


Zuko is running. He doesn't know where, he's just running away. He can't see, it's too dark, and it scares him even more. He runs like he has never run before, his legs hurt, but he knows he can't stop. He can't turn around because danger awaits behind his back and he has to think only about his life. But what about Uncle? He can't see him, he can't see anything anymore, only an absolute darkness swallowing up everything around. Zuko feels that he is slowly succumbing to the darkness, that it will swallow him the same way it swallowed his light, but tries not to give up.

But suddenly he feels the ground slipping under his feet. For a moment, his toes touch the rocks falling off the mount from which he slipped, and the next moment he is soaring in an airless space, desperately seeking for ground. Zuko screams, but in the limitless space his voice is no longer hearable. He wants to rip out whatever voice he can from his throat, to cry all his pain, but his lungs run out of air. At that moment, he feels lying on something soft. It's his bed. The soft crimson coverlet, the same walls he was used to seeing since his childhood, the ceiling...

Fingers tightly grip the coverlet. He is still unable to breathe, his chest hurts like it's about to burst out. Zuko can't move, only feel the terrible burning pain that engulfs his body, and he sees only the golden eyes in front of him.

"Come to me..."

The pain...

"I've been waiting for you for so long..."

Welcoming hands...

The pain...

"You need me. Only I can help you..."

The pain...

"You belong to me..."

Golden eyes...

He can't hear anything anymore, because everything is withhold by groaning and shouting behind his back. He is no longer in his bed. Somebody is trying to fold him into his mind again. He and his golden eyes... Ozai, he knows that Zuko now is more vulnerable than before. The boy doesn't have the strength to resist him.

He screams compellingly and collapses.

"Come in... I'm waiting for you..."

Terrible heat floods his whole body.

"You know you can't run anymore..."

At the same time, the cold plucks him out of the grip of a burning flame.


Zuko opens his eyes. He can't see the face accurately, but he can still feel the power that terrifies him.

"It's all right, we are almost there." A gentle voice tries to calm him down.

Zuko's dry lips mumbles a word. "Uncle?"

"I'm not your Uncle. But I can be anyone you want me to be."

The Prince can't say anything anymore. He wants to ask Toph a lot of questions, but when his lips open for another word, only a quiet, unclear sound comes out of him.

"You'll have plenty of time to talk later." She says. "Save your strength by now, you'll need it. I know it should be hard, my friends once said some details about you. They're not your fans after everything you've done to them and I don't know if Katara will want to heal you, but believe me, she'll have to. Although she is stubborn sometimes, she is not a heartless monster and she will never let you die. She's a healer, you know? Her instinct is to heal, not to kill–probably the best thing about her."

Toph's voice strangely calms him down a bit and he doesn't utter a word. He wants to hear her voice, wants to know that she still hasn't left him in this immense forest, wants to feel the moment she will finally do so when she gets tired of carrying his weak and heavy body. But she doesn't. She continues to carry him. And she will carry him all the way until they reach her camp. But he doesn't know it and doubts it.

And then what? Zuko is well aware that Aang and his friends will not be glad to see him and all that Toph is doing for him is in vain. But it's too hard for him to do something now, no matter what happens, sooner or later he'll end up in the woods where it all started, alone, it doesn't matter Toph leaves him here or not, her friends will definitely throw him away. Toph doesn't know Zuko. She doesn't know how much he hurt her friends, she wasn't there. If she knew, she would probably leave him immediately. How couldn't everyone he hurt? Even Katara, who she says leaves no one to die? She would be glad if he died, why shouldn't she throw him away? It's impossible, she can't help her enemy, she'll never heal him. He'll never let her...

"Hey Zuko, we're finally here!" The girl says in a joyful voice. "Don't get tense, I'll make them to heal you, I promise."

"Why?" He is amazed at how clearly and firmly he asks that question even if he feels completely emaciated.

Toph seems a bit delaying in answering, as if trying to understand what he was asking. "I told you, I see good in you. I'm not saying that's all, I just feel you need a second chance to rethink your choices. My friends might not understand, but I know more than they think. I recently met your Uncle, we had a long conversation about you..."

She goes a little further and stops. Zuko wants to ask her what exactly they were talking about him, but his hand that held over her shoulder slides down and he feels himself falling to the ground. His head touches something uneven, like a tree or a wooden wall, he can't tell.

"Don't worry, I'll call my friends to help me lift you up and get you to a better place. Wait a minute, I'll be back."

The Prince hears Toph's steps fading away in the distance, but she desn't go far, because he can clearly hear her talking to her friends. But he still can't see them. He still can't see anything, as if the light had disappeared from his eyes, as if he is blind.

"Wait, what?!" Zuko catches an astonishing boyish voice and tries to understand who it belongs to. Probably to Katara's brother, the boy who showed how brave he was, because he tried to attack him without any bending skills on the very first day they met. "You brought Zuko to our camp?! Are you crazy?! He is going to kill us all!"

"Do you hear what I say? He is injured, badly injured. He can't kill us! I thought maybe Katara could help to heal him."

"No way! Don't you think he can attack us after he heals?! Why do you bother to bring him here in the first place?"

"Because he'll die if Katara doesn't heal him."

"It's probably his own fault. It's not our problem."

"It's my problem now."

"And what if it's a trap?" Katara says. "What if he hurt himself intentionally? He probably knew that you would have mercy on him and bring him here. When he has a chance, he'll capture Aang and take him to the Fire Lord, that's for sure."

"A trap, you say?" Toph smirks. "How could anyone do that to themselves and risk their lives? You didn't even see how awful his wounds look."

"Zuko is obsessed with capturing Aang, I'm sure he would do anything even risk his own life. But you don't know it Toph, you weren't with us when Zuko got Aang and traveled through a blizzard risking freezing to death. Isn't that a proof?"

"But it doesn't mean we have to leave him in the woods like that."

"It does. We have already helped him not to freeze in blizzard, and what has he done for us? He continues to try catching Aang! He is not thankful to us for that! In the end, he could at least say thank you, then maybe for a little bit I would believe that this is not a trap. Sokka's right, he's going to kill us if he stays here."

Zuko's muscles sore, arms and legs hurt. He doesn't care about them arguing, he just wants that pain to stop, he wants to fall asleep. Tries to raise his hand to their side, to say something and stop them from shouting. But fails to make clear words, his head slips from the tree into which he is leaning, and touches the ground. For a moment, Toph listens and feels Zuko's weakening heartbeat.

"YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND, KATARA!" She stomps her foot in disbelieve. "CAN'T YOU SEE IT? YOU'RE TORTURING HIM!"

"ME?! HE'S THE ONE WHO'S TORTURING US!" Katara pulls out a pouch attached to her waist and a whip of water rises in front of her. "He won't fool me anymore, I won't lose for him this time, I'll protect Aang at all costs! Believe me, he's just trying to pretend he's your friend!"

"Katara, please." Aang cuts off. "We don't have to fight him. You can just look at him and then judge the situation."

"I don't want to look at him. I can't. He's a monster, an enemy."

"Please do it for me."

Aang's tender and begging voice always affects her. Katara stands stiff for a second with her water whip, then her face starts to soften, her hands slowly lowering. "All right. But I still don't understand why you defend him after everything what happened."

Yes, she doesn't understand. She can't. And Zuko does. Aang knows his secret, knows what lies behind the Blue Spirit mask–a person who saved his life from Zhao, despite that he was also in danger. He was knocked down with an arrow to his mask, so close to death, freeing his enemy...

Katara returns her water whip back into the pouch. Without saying anything, Toph shows her where she left Zuko and goes to him. Katara comes only after Aang and Sokka follows Toph. She still doesn't want to help her enemy, you can see disgust on her face, but when her eyes finally meet him, her expression changes instantly, her eyes widen in surprise, her lips open a little as if she wants to say something, but she can't express her feelings and closes her mouth again. Soon she finds herself leaning over Zuko and placing her palm on his scarred face.

Zuko can feel it clearly, but he doesn't understand whose touch it is. He hates when someone touches his face, every time it happens his instinct is to retreat, he feels like he can get burned if someone touches his face, it makes him remember the pain he felt when his father scarred him. But now he can't retreat, so his body starts to shiver in response to the unpleasant sensation. He tries to redirect his thoughts somewhere else, hates that his body is still traumatized after the event, but he can't change anything, even if he tries to deny it.

"He's blinded." Katara whispers.

"I know, right?" Toph says.

"His eyes are infected, he has dirt in them, we must to clean it immediately. And he is running a fever."

"Don't forget his wounds. He also has some broken bones."

"Don't worry, I'll take care of it. I'm sorry I yelled at you before, Toph."

"No problem. That's what friends are for."

"Do you know what exactly happened to him?" Aang asks.

"No, I already found him like this, and he was all alone. I wonder who hurt him so badly?"

"You can ask him later." Katara says in a serious voice. "Now everyone, help me to lift him."


To be continued...