A/N: I wanted to call the chapter "Children are the Future, and Parents are their Backstory" but it was over the character limit.
Zuko drops Mai off at her room with so much as a goodbye hug. His head is spinning. He hadn't even considered that the Fire Nation would opt to execute Azula. "Azula" had always been almost synonymous with Fire Nation for as long as can remember. They both embodied a mold he'd never fit into a, a father he couldn't impress, and a duty he couldn't fulfill. The have one stamp out the other was unthinkable.
But now, it's possible.
Or maybe it isn't? He doesn't know how the Fire Nation feels about Azula. They'd been beaten over the head with Fire Nation propaganda for as long as he can remember, and believed for year in the glory of the Fire Nation. Azula had been merely an agent of that glory, setting out to prove it wasn't just legend.
But she'd failed.
And it's good that she failed. Their father would have taken over the four kingdoms, and she would've ruled with an iron fist. But did the Fire Nation realize that? It wasn't their homeland at risk. Their homeland would've been exalted, not extinguished. Aang stopped that. Zuko helped stop that.
Would the Fire Nation hate Zuko instead of Azula? Zuko had shirked Fire Nation glory to sympathize with the enemy.
He doesn't know. He can't know.
But he'd elected to find out. Tomorrow at sundown. And submit to whatever the truth may be.
Maybe he'd made a terrible mistake.
He clambers down the corridor, finds an empty lounge, and collapses onto one of his couches, lost in his thoughts.
Katara and Aang walk to palace in almost complete silence. When Aang opens his mouth to say something, Katara cuts in.
"It was nice to see Zuko's Uncle tonight," she says. "I've always liked him."
"Yeah, me too," Aang agrees, abandoning whatever he was about to say.
"It's good that Mai and Ty Lee still hang out," Katara continues, not letting the conversation drift. "Since she has the Kyoshi warriors now, I didn't know if they'd keep being friends since they're so different. But Mai doesn't seem to have a lot of other friends."
"Well, she has Zuko," Aang points out.
"Yeah, but I don't know if they're friends exactly. For two people that love each other, they don't seem to like each other very much."
They both chuckle at the sentiment as they reach the palace.
"Well, I better get some shut-eye," Aang decides, stretches his arms over his head in a yawning gesture to further his point. "A lot of vote-related things to do tomorrow."
"We're not from the Fire Nation. We don't get a vote," Katara reminds him.
"Yeah, but I should spread the word about it," he says. "I can fly, after all."
"I know we're not from the Fire Nation, so we don't get a vote," she begins, "but what do you think we should do with Azula?"
Aang thinks for a moment, but when he speaks, he is decisive. "I told you before, forgiveness is an important step to begin healing. But it's not the Fire Nation who needs to forgive her, and it's Azula that needs to heal."
"How could we heal her? She's completely out of her mind."
"My vote," Aang says, "is to figure out how to heal her. She lives, and we rehabilitate her, however that may be."
"Who would figure that out?"
"Gee, if only we knew a really awesome healer."
"I'm not that kind of healer, Aang."
"Yeah, well. Maybe the skill carries over."
Katara smiles at him. While she isn't sure of the specifics of how she feels about him, she's confident that she loves him. He's constantly reminding her. His capacity for forgiveness, even for a woman that tried to kill him on multiple occasions, is astounding.
"You should get to bed," Katara tells him, her motherly side making an appearance. "You have a lot to do tomorrow."
"Yes, ma'am," he replies with smirk. He takes a running leap and snaps his glider open, arching over the roof of the palace.
Katara chuckles.
Honestly, he could've walked.
She makes her way into the palace and traverses the corridors the old-fashioned way. It's only been a few days, but she's growing accustomed to living in this place. The heat is horrendous, but the buildings are architectural feats, and they provide a privacy that the huts in her tribe never afforded her.
However, the architecture is far more complicated than that of the Water Tribe huts, and she's gotten lost in the palace on several occasions. Tonight is no different.
She pushes open several wrong doors trying to find the guest room she's supposed to stay in. She makes her way down several red corridors with artistic renderings of fire trying to find the correct hallway. She opens three wrong doors before she deduces that it would be more productive to choose rooms without a light on.
The Fire Nation architecture and interior design could benefit from being a bit less predictable. She turns into a new corridor that feels correct and stops at a dark room with the door sitting ajar. Thinking she could conceivably have left the door open the morning, she gently pushes the door open.
Nope. Not her room.
At first, through the darkness, she doesn't notice Zuko. Her embarrassment grows as he comes into focus several feet in front of her on one of the lounge couches, head bowed into his hands. She slides her hand off of the door and attempts to make off unnoticed.
"Katara?" she hears as she turns.
She tenses, turns back around. "Heyyy, Zuko. Sorry if I was…"
Just then, she notices the state of him through the darkness, the mournfulness of his expression, and the weariness in his voice. The apology leaves her tone, replaced in excess with concern. "Zuko, what's wrong?"
"I'm just…thinking."
She takes a step into the room, pushing the door aside. "Anything in particular?"
"It's just that…Mai told me she was voting to execute Azula."
"Oh. Wow."
"Yeah. Wow."
"Wasn't she one of Azula's closest friends?"
"I wouldn't call them friends exactly," Zuko replies, "but if that's the level of sympathy one of Azula's most trusted confidants has for her, then what chance does she have at the mercy of the rest of the nation?"
Katara moves closer to him. He hasn't bothered to light any of the lanterns in the room, and she doesn't have the firebending capabilities to do so herself. There's a bit of feeling around before she finds the couch and lowers herself beside him.
"Are you going to cancel the vote?"
"How could I do that now? The people would feel cheated. I would be the dictator my father was."
"You're not your father."
"Sure. That's why I can't cancel the vote."
Zuko tugs the topknot out of his hair and rustles his hand through it, perhaps trying to quell any further resemblance to his father by wearing his hair down. He sets the trivial accessory that marks him as important down beside him. He sighs deeply and leans back against the couch. He's frustrated at the signs of youth and experience that have shown up mightily when he's only been Firelord for a few days.
"I wanted to do what's best for my people," Zuko says softly. "I haven't even done anything, and I already regret it. I guess I'm still pretty bad at being good."
Katara shakes her head slowly. "No, Zuko."
"Huh?"
"You're not…you're not bad at being good," she offers.
"I'm no Aang, Katara. I've literally tried to kill you before."
"Yes. Yes, that's certainly not my favorite thing about you, but…" she turns her body to face him more directly, as if this will make her point clearer. "You know how Aang grew up right? He was raised by people who cared deeply for him, who taught him about love and forgiveness and compassion since he could walk. I'm not saying he isn't right or strong or wonderful for carrying that into his life, but…but almost every force in his life was encouraging him to.
"But you're different. You grew up with a father who used you, a mother who left you, and a sister who…well, Azula. And for a while, you were cruel and mean and selfish. And maybe parts of you still are, but parts of me are too, and even parts of Aang are. If he had to choose between defeating Ozai and never penguin-sledding ever again, maybe it would've taken him a little longer to win."
Zuko chuckles at this.
"Just about every formative force in Aang's life taught him how to be kind and generous. When he grew up, got to make his own choices about what he believed, he had spent years being shown that compassion and positivity were rewarding. You didn't get shown that the way he did. And you…well, you grew up here, nursing a power that was fueled by anger. That doesn't excuse what you did, by any means, but… But one day, something changed for you, and we defeated your father and your sister and everything that you once coveted. And as much as I believe in Aang, I know we couldn't have done that without your help. If I was raised the way you were raised, I don't know what it'd be like today. And I don't think I could've done that."
Zuko fixes on her face, a difficult task in such dim lighting. "I appreciate that, Katara, but I wasn't raised in the wilderness. I had my uncle."
"Your father and Azula had General Iroh around their whole lives. And look how they turned out."
Zuko considers this. A silence blooms between them, and Katara begins to ponder whether that was one of the preachy, emotional hope-speeches she'd been mocked about in the past.
"Sorry. I don't even know if that made sense—"
"No, it did," Zuko assures her. "And thanks. I don't know if I buy it. But…thanks."
Katara's eyes have adjusted to the near-darkness by now. She can barely make out Zuko's face, much closer to hers than she expected. His hair is sloppy from him running his fingers through. She reaches a hand out to fix some of the loose strands, but she stops short and draws her hand away. She's not sure why.
Zuko watches the hand fall away from his face. He guesses Katara would assume he wouldn't see the gesture in the darkness. But he noticed.
"I just don't want you to walk around thinking all your friends are better than you," Katara decides to say.
"Right," Zuko responds doubtfully.
"I'm serious," she chastises.
"What about you?" Zuko says. "You weren't raised by airbenders and you still turned out the way you did."
"Please. I'm no Aang."
"Back before I joined up with you guys, you all fought Azula and my uncle got hurt. You offered to help me. I'd done nothing but hunt you down, and you offered to help me."
"Sure, but—"
"And later, in the catacombs-Do you remember the catacombs back in the Earth Kingdom? You offered to help me again. You offered to heal my scar."
She doesn't find a properly humble and reasonable response to this. She watches him, trying to find the proper words. In the darkness, Katara can barely make out the scar that is normally so prominent on his face in daylight.
"I've also threatened your life," Katara recalls.
"Yeah, well," Zuko shrugs, "we all have our moments. Unless we're Aang."
Katara laughs at this. "Yeah, if we're Aang, we disappear for days of soul-searching to figure out how not to kill our enemies."
Zuko laughs at her addition, and for a moment, in the darkness, despite everything, they're laughing together.
