"Akito."
I look up. Aino is standing in the doorway. After that day where we arranged Zuko's marriage, I invited Aino over for tea. She was timid, small, and weak when I first met her. Now she comes almost every day, laughing a strong laugh and tittering on about her daughter. I am glad to see that she no longer wants to die. We giggle about overthrowing our husbands, but we know that it is vainly thought. As she looks at me now, I see fear in her eyes.
"What is it, Aino?" I ask gently. She looks the same way she did when her husband touched her all those years ago. This news cannot bring me tidings of joy.
"Agni Kai."
The words turn my brain to ice. I nod. Agni Kai was created by men, it is for men, and it is a warning to men everywhere in the fire nation. It involves using your God-given ability to harm for honor. When I was a child, I had heard ghastly tales of third-degree burns and scarring, but only the extreme Agni Kai's go that far. Only the extreme Agni Kai's feature in the arena.
As Lady Akito, I have been to many of these events. Lately, I stay underground in the dungeons, visiting the captives and trying to make their lives a little easier. When I did go to the Agni Kai's, I looked down and prayed to whatever god was listening to let the pain end soon.
Before I am aware of it, I am in the evening sun, sitting beside my husband's empty chair. Iroh is below me. He let himself go. Once slim and muscular, he is now a squat zaftig of a man. He conformed to the sideburns and topknot of the Fire Nation—influenced by other generals, I think—and continues to wear them with as much confidence as he did the braid. He stopped visiting Zuko years ago. As much as he misses Zuko, I miss him. Gentler now, he is always a therapeutic shoulder to lean on.
Iroh turns around. The look on his face takes me aback. Grey and solemn, he turns around again. "Lady Akito…I am afraid you will disapprove of this match. More so than all the others."
The chattering crowd blocks out all meaning of those few words. I turn to Aino, who is sitting next to me. She wrings her handkerchief and chews a hair stick. Her eyes are frightened. She looks down at the floor and breathes rapidly. I put a hand on her shoulder. "What is wrong, Aino? You usually enjoy these matches. I send you in my place most of the time."
She looks solemnly at me, eyes shining. "You do not know, then." Her tiara has slipped past her eye. She does not lift a hand to adjust it. "Oh, my poor Akito." She hugs me, shaking. "You will not like this."
"What will I not like?" I am growing irritated. When I am irritated, my palms heat, and sparks fly from my fingers. Luckily, I am wearing leather gloves. I, as much as I hate to admit it, have not mastered control of anger. I can feel my hands stick to the inside of their coverings. "Somebody tell me or I'll start to breathe fire."
The announcer blithers something amplified. I cannot understand it. That fool Ozai is not yet here. I see the two men enter the stadium. My heart stops. Everything is silent, and oddly slowed down. Out on the field, bare-chested and hair put up in a ponytail, is Zuko. Before I can yell at him for getting himself in deeper shit than I can pull him out of, I see the person he is facing.
My tongue has turned into a little dried up plant. It is Ozai. Does he not know that he is Zuko's father? Why is he bare-chested and in a battle stance?
Zuko seems to have just figured this out. He recoils. "Father!" I hear him cry.
I begin to shake. Aino still has me in her arms. Zuko falls down on all fours and bows immensely "I meant no disrespect, father!" Why he disrespected him, I do not know. I fill with rage towards my male scion. I can feel my hair curling. "I am your loyal son!"
Ozai…please do not hurt…"You need to learn some respect. And suffering shall be your teacher."
…My baby.
Flames erupt from Ozai's hand, right into Zuko's pleading face. Fire sears behind my eyes, blacking me out. Multicolored memories pass through my tortured mind ; changing Zuko's diaper while the nurse's watch, he catching my hair on fire, giggling while I try to put it out. Meditation together, the four candles only slightly wavering on Zuko's side. His first steps. His first word, "momma. " Crying when he burned himself, holding out a finger for the placating kiss. Visiting the prisoners with me, pushing meat through the bars.
My little girl, Makoto, toddling away from my arms, in the determined chasing of a butterfly, past the archery ranges. Her little cap, filled with blood.
I feel tears slide down my cheeks. I am rocking back and forth in my seat, Iroh is looking at me, and Aino is hugging me closer. I whimper helplessly. I see the medics take away my unconscious little boy on a stretcher, taking him from my sight. I see my husband clapping his hands together as if he had gotten rid of something nasty. Minako, Zhao's daughter, is smiling ferociously, her tiara shining in the light.
I stand up and leave, tripping over feet, leaving the awestruck population of the Fire Nation wondering why the little Lady is running so fast, fire flowing from her nostrils.