Chap. 15

Reconciliation Part 1: Of Light and Dark

"Are we there yet?" Toph grumbled as the group walked down the block. After lunch, the group had decided to take a little tour of the city, with Tierra mapping out the best spots to visit. He had immediately suggested a place that he said would seem very familiar to the group. However, he had not mentioned that it was quite a few blocks away, and certain group members were getting tired.

"Didn't you walk across a desert a while back?" the dog answered dryly. Toph merely muttered in response as they crossed over to the next block.

"Truthfully, this is a rather long walk." Iroh said, as he wiped sweat from his brow. "Are we getting close?"

"Actually, we're there." Tierra said, as the group finished crossing. "Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Central Park." The dog said, with a flourish as he gestured behind him. Almost instantly, the Avatar Gang gasped in amazement at the huge, green park that lay in the middle of this huge concrete metropolis. As they walked into it slowly, they looked around, as if they couldn't believe it was real.

"How can this sort of place exist here?" Katara asked, as she ran her fingers down the bark of a tree.

"The city built it nearly a century ago to give the city some connection with nature." Tierra replied, neatly switching into his tour guide mode. "Other cities do it to."

"Hmm. In the Fire Nation, we simply have cities and jungles." Iroh said thoughtfully. "Truthfully, I never liked the idea of total division. So much beauty could be gained from a park like this."

"They have the same thing back home." Jin added. "But at least you guys have some vegetation. All we have is desert and rocky plains. It must be amazing to have a jungle nearby."

"It is a sight." Iroh added. "I remember Zuko used to play there all the time when he was a boy. I'm sure he could describe them far better then I could."

Indeed, Zuko seemed quite eager to speak (especially to Jin) as he started to speak. But before he could get even two words out, Jin said, "Hey, what's that?" and ran over to something in the distance. Zuko's face fell, as Iroh said, "Sorry nephew. I tried."

"It's all right." Zuko muttered, as he walked off to follow Jin.

"Man, he's taking this hard." Sokka said.

"I know. I didn't think I'd ever see Zuko being lovesick." Aang said.

"I wish we could help him, but I don't know what we can say." Katara added.

"Maybe there's something we can say." Oscuridad said suddenly.

"To both of them." Added Luz. "After all, things can't get any worse."

It turned out that the thing Jin had spotted was a playground, filled with laughing children. Despite her age, the earth Kingdom girl was happily moving through like a child herself, her joy evident at all the new toys this world had to offer. But Zuko merely sat on a nearby bench and watched, his expression pained and tense. As the others approached, Oscuridad and Luz whispered out a quick plan. Everyone else nodded, and moved off to another section of the park, as the bat and fox moved to their respective targets.

"So, how's it going?" Oscuridad asked, as he sat down on the bench next Zuko. The former prince said nothing, as he looked across the way to where Jin sat, smiling as she watched the kids play on the swings.

"You know, you can go over and talk to her." The bat said gently.

"There's nothing I can say that she will listen to." Zuko replied bitterly, as he looked down on his feet, just as Luz walked over to Jin.

"Maybe you can change that." Oscuridad said. "I know things look bad now, but…"

"But what?" Zuko snapped, his frustration and anger coming out. "Don't you understand? She hates me now! I lied to her and I can never get her trust back just like…"

"Just like you were afraid of." The bat finished. "Because you knew that what you were was nothing compared to what she was, and the only way you were even good enough to stand in her presence was to wrap yourself in a lie. And now, it's all gone, and she's seen the pathetic little freak you were underneath."

Zuko stared at the bat wide-eyed. Every word that he had spoken was what he had felt raging in his heart ever since the village. But how could this be?

"Did you read my heart again?" Zuko asked.

"I didn't need to." Oscuridad replied. "I felt the same way a long time ago."

"What do you mean?" Jin asked, as Luz finished echoing the statement her husband had made from across the park.

"Believe me Jin, you aren't the first person to experience something like this." The fox replied. "I had the same thing happen to me when I first Oscuridad."

"But you always knew about him." Jin argued. "You were….."

"Created with him? Sorry." Luz said with a laugh. "If that was the case, I'd be his sister, and things would be really kinky."

"Eww." Jin muttered in disgust. "But then, how did you guys end up like this?"

"Well, it's a long story." Luz replied. "But before it starts, you need to know one thing about me. I wasn't always like this; I used to be…"

"Human?" Zuko gasped in amazement.

"Yep." Oscuridad replied. "All the Knights were originally. We're a combination of Elemental magic, an animal body, and a human soul. But the Architects blocked out our memories of who we were, because we had died without fulfilling our lives' great purpose and hung in limbo. But anyway, we were selected, and after some time and training, we were separated and sent to Earth to learn about the ways of man. We were given money, basic information about human customs, and not much else.

I was sent to a city called Hoboken in New Jersey, which is the next state down from here. Anyway, I got a life going after a while, but it wasn't easy being along all the time. Then one night, I was walking home from work, when I heard a shout. I looked in front of me, and I saw a woman fighting with somebody under a street light."

"What did you do?" Jin asked with baited breath.

"I struggled as best I could, but he was much stronger then I was. But I had one thing going for me; I was pissed! It was my first night in Jersey after moving from Denver and I had just spent the day walking around the city, getting to know things while I figured out what I was going to do with my degree. This was the last thing I needed. But I just couldn't get away from him. But then I heard a yell from up the street and heard somebody running towards me."

"Oscuridad?"

"Who else?" Luz answered. "Of course I didn't know that then; he had his illusion on, and it was dark. But he pulled the guy off me and they started to fight. Osc was far more skilled and took him down pretty fast. Of course, the kick in the balls I gave helped. Finally the guy ran off, and Osc checked on me. He was pretty cute then; his illusion was this lean looking guy, with dark eyes and long black hair. I said I was fine though, and played it cool. He insisted on walking me home though and we talked on the way. He was so funny and sarcastic, mocking himself and everything around him. I thought it was so cute. I even decided to give him my number, and suggest that I should treat him to dinner as a reward for saving me."

"Wow. So how did the dinner go?" Zuko asked.

"Pretty good, even though I was absolutely terrified." The bat answered with a laugh. "I'd never even thought about a relationship before, and there I was on a date with a beautiful woman. And Zuko, part of me thought I was making a mistake. I was an immortal, a non-human immortal, with no real life outside of the Architects. What did I have to offer this woman? But another part of me kept looking at her green eyes, at her red hair, and I knew that I would have to get all those things for her. I would be the best man I could be for her, and I would make her mine. If it took me the rest of my life, I would make this woman my wife, and give her everything she ever wanted."

"He had such a case of puppy love." Luz said fondly. "He was like a teenager out on his first date, all confused and awkward, which was weird because he looked like he was in his mid-twenties."

"I know what that's like." Jin added.

"But he tried so hard, I couldn't help but like him. We started dating after a while, and things got close, but….."

"But you knew something was up." Jin said.

Luz nodded. "He would disappear a lot of the time, or call off dates. At first, I could accept it, but after a while it was like living with a superhero or something, and I started to really press him for answers.

"What could I tell her?" Oscuridad continued. "That I wasn't human? That I was fighting demons in my spare time with all the powers of darkness at my beck and call? She'd think I was crazy. And even though I could prove it, doing so was definitely going to ruin our relationship. So I made things up, even it hurt and I could tell she didn't buy it. Eventually, I had to keep wrestling with keeping her in the dark, or believe that she could love me enough to accept me."

"So what did you do?" Zuko asked.

"One night, he came over to my apartment for a date. I was ready to go, but he wasn't. He said that he had something that he needed to get off his chest, and that he was tired of lying to me. I told him I was too, but that as long as his secret wasn't drug-dealing, murder, or being married, I could accept it."

"Then he showed you what he looked like." Jin said.

"Right. There was this weird shimmer over him, almost a veil that was fading away before my eyes. Then it vanished completely and I saw him for what he really was."

"She didn't take it well at first. She screamed in terror, backed away, and grabbed a knife. She kept asking who I was, and what I had done with 'Brett', the name I had at the time. Part of me was glad she cared about the human me, but a bigger part was waiting for her to put two and two together and kick me out. Then she threw the knife at me."

"He just put up his hand and the knife lodged into his palm. He looked at it a minute, then he pulled it out with a grunt. I remember watching his powers come on and heal the wound in seconds. I thought he was going to come after me then, but instead, he put the knife down, and starting talking to me in Brett's voice."

"I begged her to listen me, to give me chance to explain myself. She kept backing away, and I started to babble, blurting things out faster and faster. I said that I may not have been human, but being with her made me a better man then I could ever be by myself. I said that I had never felt more whole in all my time on this Earth then when she was with me."

"Then he said some horribly cheesy line from this…… well, I guess you'd call it a play, named She's All That. I just stared at him, and then I started to laugh. It was such a stupid, corny, line, and he actually thought that it would work. But it was something that I knew Brett would say. I knew that it was still him then, but I just couldn't stop laughing.

"I thought maybe I'd driven her to insanity, but then I realized what a horrible line it was. I started laughing too, and we just stood there, laughing like madmen for I don't know how long. But finally, we stopped and I think she finally realized that I was still the same person under the fur. She walked over slowly, and ran her fingers over my face, tracing the lines of bone and fur. Then she looked into my eyes for the longest time, and then asked me a question."

"I asked him, "What are you, Brett?" He spent the next two hours telling me about everything; the Architects, how they made him and his brothers, what they did, all of it. It was so huge, so unbelievable, but after looking at him and seeing what he could do, I had to believe it. But then the question remained of what we were going to do with each other.:

"I asked her, "Do you still want me here? If you want, I can leave; I can even make it so you don't remember me." She asked me if I could do that to myself, and forget her. I said that there was no magic strong enough for that, and that I would rather spend the rest of my days remembering her in pain then to forget her completely."

"I said if that was the case, why did he think that he needed to do either of those things? His eyes went wide, but he was too afraid to say anything, so I kept talking. I said that I fell in love with a man, and that he was still here, underneath all the fur and darkness. As long as that man stayed with me, then nothing else mattered. He started to cry then, and I just hugged him and drew him close.

"But what happened then?" Zuko asked, as the bat fell silent. "How did she get changed? When did you get married? When did…."

"Stories for another time, my boy." Oscuridad said. "You've heard all you needed to hear. After all that, Luz and I are still together and it has been the best and happiest decision we ever made."

"But we're not like that." Zuko said. "I'm not something noble. My country has been trying to rule the world for decades. And I was going to take the throne and keep it all going. How is she supposed to accept me?"

"How was I supposed to accept a man-bat with all the powers of shadow at his command?" Luz answered. "I looked past that and I saw the person he was inside. Do you know why Zuko was banished Jin? He argued against sending a newly trained squadron against the Earth Kingdom army as cannon fodder. Isn't that noble?"

"Yeah, I guess it is." Jin said thoughtfully. "And he talked so much about honor when we discussed the war. He said that the worst thing the Fire Nation had done was lose their sense of honor for a mindless drive for power. He said it with such vehemence in his voice. I thought it was so profound, but now I know he was speaking from his personal experience."

"People can surprise you Jin." Luz said. "Zuko may be Fire Nation, he may have lied to you, but it doesn't mean that he's a bad person. He said a hundred times that he hated lying to you, but ask yourself, what would you have done in his place? And even if he is Fire Nation, you said yourself that they can't all be evil. Are you going to throw him away for it anyway?"

Jin was quiet then, as she absorbed the fox's words. Finally, she said, "I need to think about all this."

"Of course." Luz said gently, as Jin got to her feet. "Just think carefully Jin."

Zuko watched as Jin got up from the bench and walked off. He looked over at Oscuridad, his face saying the question on his lips.

"Go to her." The bat replied. "Tell her how you feel. Maybe she won't accept you, but you will never forgive yourself if you don't try."

Zuko nodded, and got to his feet. He began to slowly walk after Jin, being careful to leave some distance between them. Once they were out of range, the two Elementals looked at each from across the bench, and nodded at each other, the simple gestures saying volumes.