At the End of Fate
For #61: "Fall (Hard Surface)
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There was a time, almost too long ago it seemed, that he was the beloved child, too. Not that it meant he was any more special than his sister. No, once they were equals. Once, too long ago to remember properly, they were something one might call a family.
Zuko could almost remember that time, although it seemed so long passed. He could almost see Azula, the cold witch with a taste for blood, smile at him sincerely. In the dark recesses of his mind, he heard the sounds of a life before the life he was forced into. There was laughter, like fairy tinkling in the sweet dreams of a child, and shrieks of joyful innocence. There were tickle fights in the garden where cousin Lu Ten became the referee and Uncle Iroh the announcer. There were smiles, tears of laughter, and "I'm gonna get 'oo Big Brother!" There was even Ozai's deep, fatherly laugh as he joined his family in their games.
There was happiness that seemed eternal.
Then, masked behind the symptoms of an illness, there was naught but fire. Flames shooting from the tips of Azula's fingers, and smoke from her nostrils. In the feverish night of a Fire Nation Summer, his baby sister became a firebender, and Father's favorite. Zuko's whole life changed within an instant, and foolishly he thought he'd turn it back. But one cannot undo what Fate has written.
So with his back to the hard ground, Zuko begged forgiveness from unforgiving marble for trying to return to what Fate tore him from as the lightning blinded him.
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Solitary Guard suggested a piece on whether or not Azula was always the frozen witch we are shown she is. My theory is she wasn't, but getting a taste for power through bending, she became that way. I also believe that one of the two is going to be dead by the end of Season 3, if not both. I know a morbid thought. :D
Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.
-Lord Acton
mcl