The first thing he noticed, as consciousness slowly trickled back into his head, like water dripping from a roof after a storm, was that it was dark, very dark. The second thing he noticed, almost as quickly, was that his head hurt. He couldn't remember being brought to this particular room, and guessed in no short order that the throbbing pain in the side of his head had something to do with that. He figured that he likely wasn't at the Boiling Rock anymore, but he couldn't be sure. Groaning involuntarily as lucidity returned in full, Zuko attempted to stand up, to move in any way at all really, only to find that he was secured firmly to his chair. He could do little more than rattle his metal bonds, a sound that seemed to amplify as it reverberated throughout his blacked-out cell, causing his very bones to shake as the unnerving silence settled in once more.
His slight commotion did not go unnoticed, however, and almost immediately the guard that had been standing vigilantly on the opposite side of the door took off down the corridor. The traitor prince was awake, and the Fire Lord would be very eager indeed to ask him a few choice questions.
After a span of time that Zuko could not accurately keep track of, there came the telltale thunk of a metal bolt being thrown and the teeth-gritting grind of steel hinges were his only warning before light flooded into the cell and blinded him momentarily. Only one person entered the cell.
The door closed behind him, and Ozai lit a fire in his palm to illuminate the otherwise light-less room. He did not hold it for long, however, instead sending it to a nearby unlit torch sitting securely in its sconce and refolding his arms within his long, flowing sleeves. Ozai glared down at his son with a look that would have sent the most veteran general scurrying away, only to have it returned without fear. The boy had grown defiant indeed, though he still seemed to lack a certain degree of intelligence.
At last, the Fire Lord spoke, the intimidating rumble of his voice being held in a deceptively "calm" tone. "Welcome home, my son." The words were every bit the mimic of the greeting he had given his son when the boy had actually returned with honors, and they held the distinct promise of pain yet to come.
Zuko was still unfazed as he held up his part of the charade, "To what do I owe this honor, Ozai." He all but spat his father's name like a curse, already knowing his end would be slow and painful. He couldn't make things much worse for himself.
Seeing that formalities were forsaken from the start, and not particularly caring for them one way or the other at this point, Ozai skipped straight to the only part that mattered. "I know you're probably thinking that I'm going to grill you for information on the Avatar's whereabouts, or how much he's learned of Firebending, or even what their current plans are, but I assure you, Zuko, none of that matters to me at this moment. I'm only interested in one thing…"
Zuko glared intently at his father, unsure what he was playing at, but willing to let him continue. Being who he was, it couldn't be anything good.
Bending down so he was at eye level, Ozai stared straight into his good eye as he enunciated every syllable, "Where. Is. My daughter."
Zuko knew it had to be coming, but for it to be his sole concern? Well, when you invest that much time and energy into crafting a weapon, you're bound to be concerned when it disappears. He had to think on his toes, but coming up with on the spot lies had always been Azula's thing, not his. What would Azula do… The answer was pretty obvious; lie. Lie through your spirits-loving teeth, while sprinkling just enough truth in to keep it relevant.
"I kidnapped her and took her with me, used her as a bargaining chip to gain the Avatar's trust-"
His lie was cut short by a swift back-handed smack to his good cheek. "Don't lie to me, boy! We both know she would mop the palace halls using your scalp for a rag if you so much as lifted a hand against her. Where is my daughter!?"
If there was one thing Zuko knew about lying, and admittedly he didn't know much, it was to stick to your story. With an oh-so-Azula smirk on his lips, he shot back tauntingly, "Maybe if she knew it was coming, but I caught her in the tunnel right after escaping you. She didn't have time to ask me where I was running off to, before I knocked her out with the pommel of my sword. I tied her up and presented her to the Avatar like a prize."
Ozai struck his son once more, this time drawing blood from his lip, and snarled, "Stop lying to me, boy! We both know you don't have the guts to do anything of the sort. Now I'm going to ask you one last time, and you will answer me truthfully. Where is Azula!" Anger was quickly clouding the Fire Lord's features, and a thought suddenly struck Zuko.
He remembered reading in some old book on strategy, If your opponent is of choleric temper, seek then to anger him. Zuko smirked once again, deciding that the truth would probably infuriate his father more than any lie ever could. "She went with me."
If Zuko were to die within the next week or so after hours of torture, he would consider it fully worth it, if only for the look his father gave him at that very moment. All of that anger, all that fury in a bottle waiting to explode, all in a matter of seconds collapsed into something dangerously close to fear, to shock, to utter and absolute disbelief. Even with all the years of being Fire Lord, he couldn't school his features, not here, not now, not in the face of such a blatant truth. If there was anything Zuko was terrible at, it was lying, and there wasn't the faintest hint of a lie in his words now.
Pressing his advantage in the face of his dumbstruck father, Zuko went on, "She chose to go with me, to join the Avatar, and to help teach him Firebending. She isn't his prisoner right now, she's his teacher, and she's teaching him everything she knows."
"SHUT UP!" Roared the Fire Lord, the nearby torch exploding to life at his sudden fury. "Shut up this instant, you coward! What did I tell you about lying to me!"
"But I'm not lying." Zuko replied, inwardly proud of himself for keeping his voice so level despite the very real fear he was feeling. He knew his father wanted to torture him for days, but it was entirely possible he could simply immolate him on the spot if he became too enraged. Ozai could see in his son's face the truth for what it was, knew what he was saying to be true despite every ounce of him trying to refute him. "She loves me more than she fears you."
If Ozai had been angry before, he was nothing short of furious now. Zuko was none the safer for it, but he held out his stoicism despite the fear clutching his chest. Glaring at his son and contemplating incinerating his head from his shoulders on the spot, Ozai's outraged expression slowly, terrifyingly transformed into one of devious superiority. It was an only too familiar sneer that Zuko was now staring at, and he could tell there was a plan forming, but he could only guess as to what it was. One thing he knew for certain, it was likely to be as sadistic as it was ingenious.
"Far be it for me to deny my beloved daughter what she wants." With that, Ozai promptly turned and exited the cell, leaving only confusion and dread to fill the void of his presence. After a brief pause outside the door and a bow from the two guards, the Fire Lord disappeared down the hall in the same direction he had come from, and the guards promptly entered the cell. Zuko wasn't sure what he had ordered of them, but he was quite certain it did not bode well for his safety.
"So, we're really going through with it?" One man asked to another, who wore exactly identical clothing. The dark green robes and wide brimmed, conical helmets of the Dai Li marked the two men for what they were, and the one on the right grimaced as he considered his options.
"We have no choice, we've been left at the mercy of the Fire Lord without so much as a moment's notice."
The first agent looked askance at his fellow, his eyes the only things to move and not a muscle more. His tone betrayed none of the seriousness of his words, "That sounds almost accusing. Are you suggesting the princess has abandoned us?"
"I am suggesting nothing, I am merely explaining how our situation leaves little room for us to disagree with the terms." They opened a door as they came to a stop at the end of a hall, a brand new hall, in fact, devoted to an entirely new field of torture, just for them.
Black, Zuko thought, then chastised himself immediately. Black was so much more hopelessly accurate. He couldn't see a thing if it hit him in the eye, the only sound coming from anywhere was his own heartbeat inside his head.
Clack.
What was that? he wondered, head twisting in what sounded like the direction of the source, but it was just as black as anywhere else he looked, and he couldn't be sure exactly what he was staring at. How big was the thing that made that sound?… How close was it?
The sound of an object being scuffed across the metal floor came from somewhere close, somewhere behind him.
Zuko failed to fight a cough that tore its way into his throat before he could realize it, and the sound bounced back at him from every angle in the dark. Wherever it was, it was sealed against sound, and the prince couldn't help the creeping tingle that crawled its way up his spine in the darkest dark he could ever imagine.
He felt something crawl over his foot, something snakelike, but smaller, and with many legs. He tried to kick his feet but found them held fast to the legs of the chair. He could do little more than wiggle his foot, and that would only agitate… whatever it was.
Zuko couldn't prevent his mind from racing with all sorts of horrors as to what that thing was, and what else could be crawling around on a floor that he could just as soon put a hole through as see. His heart raced in his chest, beating like a drum and pumping blood through his veins so hard he swore they would burst. He couldn't see, he couldn't see, he couldn't see… Almost as worse, he couldn't move. He never would have imagined the horrors one's mind could fabricate in a perfect, uncompromising darkness.
The sound of metal grinding on metal split through the blackness with a wailing shriek, followed immediately by a flood of light and two dark figures entering the room quickly. The room was bare except for a monorail that went in a perfect circle around a chair, a chair that currently held a new occupant, though not its first. There was a candle holder fixed to the stone rail, and one of the men produced a lit candle to set in it. The candlelight was magnificent, the most reassuring thing Zuko had ever seen. It was the only source of light in what had recently become a very dark hell. He never knew how bad true darkness could really be, and for now he simply appreciated that there was a light, a small fire in the dark. Both men looked down with looks of discomfort and sorrow on their faces, though only in the shadows of the fire could it be construed as such.
The second one turned to his companion, "Look, Lee, we're doing what we've been ordered to by our new master. When we brought about Ba Sing Se's defection to the Fire Nation, we bowed our heads to a new man. Now, we do whatever he says, and that's all there is to it. We have no idea where the princess could be, or even how we could convince her we aren't enemies. We've already sent two of her friends to attack her, we have no way to get a message directly to her word for word without actually risking one of our own."
The man's words echoed about into the shadows of the small chamber, as Lee gazed into the small candle flame, the light in the dark, like the answer to his prayers sitting right in front of him…
His eyes snapped open, almost as if the weight of the epiphany were a physical blow, and with a nod, the first agent replied evenly, "Of course, Lee, I understand completely."
With a nod, the two set to work, the first Lee standing directly outside of the circular monorail, facing Zuko as he sat helplessly. The candle then started very slowly to move around the track, as the second Lee Earthbended it from the side, only just out of Zuko's vision. Once the candle began circling with steady, even rotations, the Dai Li agent bent forward, and began very calmly, very soothingly, to explain, "Listen to my voice, Prince Zuko, listen very, very, carefully…"
Zuko's eyes continued to stare despite his every desire to look away. His head and eyes were being forced into position by rock gloves that the second Dai Li maintained very steadily with his second hand, and the prince's eyes couldn't help but track that candle every time it passed in front of him, still the only comforting thing in this entire situation, its glow so bright and warm. He heard words, couldn't understand them but couldn't un-hear them. They echoed around and bounced inside his head relentlessly as he continued to stare at the green robed man and the candle that circled around himself.
Loud, unmistakable footsteps were the only brief warning before the cell door was slammed open, the very unique silhouette of the Fire Lord himself eclipsing the light as it poured in on the room's otherwise sole occupant. Zuko squinted up at the figure, if only because the light was something new beyond this black hell he had awoken to some countless hours ago after... He couldn't remember what.
"Is it done?" Ozai rumbled as he gazed warily down at his son, now some feral, pale shell of the prince he once was. Clearly he was addressing somebody behind him, and almost immediately he was answered.
"Yes, Fire Lord, we have done exactly as you instructed. He awaits your approval."
"Good, good." He turned his head only enough so he could eye the Dai Li agents with his peripheral vision before barking, "Enter the room, and seal the door." The men did exactly as commanded, sealing the steel door shut behind them with a crash, before entering the room and standing on either side of the prisoner, facing the Fire Lord. "Release him."
The men paused only a second to ensure they had heard properly, before bringing their hands to the shackles and unlocking them with keys once hidden up their sleeves. Once Zuko was completely unshackled, they helped him to rise to his feet, which he do so wobbly at first, but eventually he found the presence to stand on his own, if a bit shaky. Ozai studied him like a piece of meat for all it was worth, then said in an eerily smooth, level tone, "Prince Zuko, the time to assume your rightful place has come."
Zuko flinched bodily, a dead monotone rising from his throat that replied mechanically, "I am your loyal son." A sort of invisible tremor shot through his body, and in the space of a heartbeat, his pupils dilated until they encompassed the entirety of his golden irises. The next moment, he was standing tall, firm and still, as if simply awaiting with his every fiber the next words out of his father's mouth.
With the single most devilish joy in the world, Ozai told him, "Destroy them."
The Dai Li blinked at the command, unsure of what it meant initially, given his wording, which was always absolutely precise, but it became instantly clear what he meant when Zuko lashed out with fire in each direction, his fists raising to punch out before the hapless men could call any sort of proper defense. Zuko wasted not an instant of their recoiling in pain to spin and deliver a ruthless back heel engulfed in fire that sent one agent hurtling towards the wall, slamming into it with a teeth-shattering, painful crack as skull simply caved in on itself to a fatal degree.
None of Zuko's momentum was lost as he twisted on the spot, leaping into the air and executing a flawless barrel roll that sent him sailing over a flying stone fist, before hitting the ground in a crouch and rising up with a palm full of fire that sent the second Dai Li agent hurling back against the wall immediately behind him, falling on his face and stomach but ultimately still alive and lucid. Desperation more than any innate initiative to strike back cause the man to launch his second attack, just as poorly aimed as the first.
With a simple punch, the brainwashed prince blasted the rock into oblivion with flames that died just shy of licking the man's skin, a clear and obvious showing of how utterly screwed he was. When the young man didn't make a move to finish the agent off, Ozai ordered from behind him, "Finish him, Prince Zuko."
Striding forward with a confidence born from pure and utter single-mindedness and a look of absolute uncaring on his face, Zuko came to a halt just a half-boot's length from Lee, still cowering in submissive acceptance of his fate. When nothing immediately happened, the man relaxed, if ever so slightly, to peer at his executioner, and it was that moment that the knife blade of fire flashed to life in his hand. In the moment it took the hapless Dai Li agent to realize how he would meet his end, Zuko had fallen upon him and sunk the fire into his neck, then, utilizing his bending, he added more of his chi to fuel a back draft type explosion that simply obliterated all flesh bonds between the head and the body.
Standing up, Zuko turned to look at his father, specks of blood and bits of flesh adorning his chest and face as he waited with perfect obedience for further orders. Ozai nodded towards the first Dai Li agent, assumed dead after his high speed collision with the steel wall, but it was clear the Fire Lord didn't deal in chances, and so the scarred young man took a few quick, precise steps towards the body, lifted him up by grabbing a fistful of hair, then placed his palm against the man's crumbled forehead. With a rapid inhalation, fire burst from Zuko's palm in a concentrated explosion, blasting out any contents of the man's skull cavity, before releasing the remainder of the head unceremoniously.
As he returned to face the Fire Lord, Ozai had on his lips the most malevolent smirk that he had ever known as he weighed his options for how to best use his newest and most dangerous weapon. "Prince Zuko, I have a very special task for you…"
Zuko's unfocused eyes hardened as he listened intently to the next words.
He woke up, and it was dark. Dark, yet not dark enough. This wasn't the black of yesterday… yes, he was sure it was yesterday… No! This was simply nighttime. Ambient light wafted in from a small slit at the top of the wall to his left. The moon must be practically full, he told himself, which aided him in getting his bearings. He thought about it for a long, hard time, before coming to the conclusion that it had only been a few days.
He ceased looking about to instead feel about, or more specifically, feel what he could throughout his own body. There was some pain, yes, but nothing significant, he was certain of it. They hadn't broken him yet, he knew that much if he knew his name was Zuko. Last night was… fuzzy, but he was sure they hadn't hurt him nearly enough.
He knew exactly who he was, and exactly what he was capable of. Focusing, he began to heat the metal cuffs that held his wrists in place. It was difficult to maneuver more than a finger, so the going was slow. Almost…
Without warning the door flew open, and in marched two Dai Li agents. The ones from last night…? He tried to figure it out, but he couldn't be sure. They all just looked the same to him. "His orders were very clear," one said to the other, as they came to a stop before the young man who was feigning unconsciousness. "We got all we needed out of him last night, it's time to dispose of the Prince."
Zuko had to fight the urge to gasp upon hearing this, and when the men stepped towards him, he took a breath, and opened his eyes.
Fire exploded into existence around his hands and Zuko shot out of the chair, launching the small balls of fire at the chests of the agents. With his arms free, he made short work of slicing the metal cuffs around his feet, and before the agents could push themselves off the wall, he was completely free. And he was pissed.
Sent to do away with me, eh? Well he had a surprise for them. He wasn't going to go quietly. He was upon them once more, refusing to yield the offensive as he bent down on one leg only to spring up a moment later into a high-flying axe kick. The torrent of fire washed over the hapless Dai Li agent, who only just managed to get his rock covered hands up to his face. His robes were fairly thick, but the sheer volume and intensity of fire lit him up like a torch. The second man tried to restrain the prince's wrists with one of his gloves, but Zuko easily ducked and rolled under it, coming up quickly enough to grab the man's still outstretched hand and flip him over his back. The wind was knocked out of him with such force that it caused him to gasp for air, just a moment before Zuko spun and raised his heel, only to bring it crashing down on his sternum.
Satisfied that neither man was a threat to him anymore, he took off at a sprint down the metal corridor. He had no idea where he was going or what to do even if he did manage to get out, all he knew was that he simply had to escape. He seemed to have gone hardly very far at all before he noticed a rather large door with a desk before it. Since it appeared to be as good a door as any, he opened it up, albeit slowly, until he saw the very familiar decorations of the palace halls. It was apparently the official entrance to the royal prisons, which were no real secret, though he had never personally been down this way before. It didn't matter, it couldn't possibly take him that long to figure out where he was in the palace, he'd lived there (almost) his entire life. The very notion was absurd.
Glancing down the hallway to ensure the coast was clear, he scampered down the corridor like a mouse. A mouse that could taste freedom. An unsettling quietness seemed to permeate and echo down the halls. Zuko came to the end of a passage, and he had to choose between going left or right. He didn't have the time to contemplate, so he closed his eyes and picked a direction to turn.
Heading left, Zuko found himself heading for what appeared to be another dead end, but upon closer inspection, it clearly wasn't. It may have appeared to anybody else to be just an intricate design on the wall, but he knew better. It was a fire seal, carved in the ancient symbol of fire. With a concentrated blast, Zuko activated the seal, and a door cracked open from the center of the false wall. He stepped through to immediately familiar surroundings, and when he glanced back, sure enough as the door slid back shut, the tapestry of Fire Lord Sozin moved back into place, concealing the innocuous wall behind his magnificent visage.
Not wasting any time to bask in the radiance of comfort and familiarity, Zuko began to head for the main doors to the outside, just a dead sprint ahead of him now, but something gave him pause. He stopped for a moment, then heard Azula chastising him, There's guards right outside the door, dum-dum.
His feet picked a direction before his head could think about where he wanted to escape to, but soon the two met up as he rounded two corners out of instinct and found himself pushing Azula's doors open and disappearing inside.
After taking a moment to catch his breath, Zuko gazed around the room. It was clearly being maintained by the servants, as if everybody were anticipating her return at any moment. He would have chuckled at the idiocy of people believing such a foolish lie, but it was eclipsed by a much greater sense of melancholy, and, for the first time since he had abandoned his uncle in the Earth Kingdom, lonely. Looking around her room, despite it's perfect appearance, it couldn't mask the emptiness inside. The stale smell of a room nobody lived in told it all. He walked over to the bed, and looking down as he touched the sheets, remembered the last night she had been in her own room.
"Zuko," she asked from where she lay snuggled against his chest, arms wrapped around his middle, "where are we going tomorrow?" Azula's voice was so uncharacteristically quiet and small as she allowed herself to open up, but only enough so the two of them right next to one another could hear.
He didn't want to lie to her, couldn't bring himself to, but he also knew it wasn't quite time for the truth. "We're going far away, Azula. Far enough away that Dad can't tell us what to do anymore." He ran his hand through her hair as he spoke, slowly and gently gliding his fingers through hair of silk.
Her eyelash brushed against his skin as she blinked in confusion. "Are we… running away?" she asked, in a way that told him she didn't exactly want to, but wouldn't refuse if he asked.
Zuko kissed the top of her head and whispered, "Not forever."
Azula held her breath as if exhaling would shatter the world, then breathed, "Okay."
"And when we come back, you'll get to be in charge, even if I have to wear the stupid crown."
The comment didn't provoke the response he had expected when she replied with a sobering amount of honesty, "I don't want to be in charge, Zuko. I just… want somebody to love me."
"Azula-"
"Nobody's ever loved me before, Zuko. Not mom… not dad."
The confession stung at his chest, but it didn't stop him from saying, "I love you, Azula."
She seemed almost afraid of the answer as she asked after some hesitation, "Really?" He could feel her arms tighten just barely around him, an almost childlike fear tensing every muscle. Though he couldn't see them, her eyes shimmered in the darkness, as if his answer would determine whether the monster in the shadows could come out or not.
Wrapping his arms around her in a hug, he answered with no amount of dishonesty, "Yes, Azula, I really do."
She relaxed in his arms, but a second later asked, "Do you promise?" It was as if the very notion of being loved in and of itself was so incomprehensible, but Zuko remained resolute.
"I promise."
She drifted off to sleep with his heartbeat and his promise echoing in her ears, and after a few minutes Zuko could feel the steady, gentle exhalations of her breath against his skin.
It was one of the rarest moments of serenity and tranquility that Zuko could remember seeing for his sister, but even more profound was the realization of how truly, truly fragile she felt in his arms. So he squeezed and held her tighter, as if she was the most precious thing in the entire world.
A tear dripping off the tip of his nose broke him out of the memory, and he gave a silent plea to the darkness, I'm so sorry, Azula. I'm coming.
Gathering his resolve, Zuko refocused himself on the task at hand, and in the next instant he was ready. Bounding over to her balcony, he hopped over the side and landed in a silent roll on the grass below. He covered the distance from the palace to the medium-sized wall that separated it from the public street in a matter of seconds, and with the help of a nearby tree, along with one hell of a jump, he was over the wall. He soon found himself missing his swords, as any amount of Firebending right now was out of the question, but it was no time to bother lamenting their absence. He had to get out of the caldera as fast as possible, it was only a matter of time before those guards raised an alarm.
He padded over the cool stone of the streets, the almost inaudible sound of his footsteps echoing off the silent buildings around him. Soon he came to a seldom used, rather well hidden footpath that he had learned of as a kid unwillingly exploring the streets with his sister. It was perfect for sneaking out of the city, and he had used it plenty of times before in fact. Soon enough he found himself climbing down the outside slope of the massive, dormant volcano, and the lights of the harbor grew brighter in the darkness.
He hadn't thought his entire escape plan through, admittedly, though if he was being honest, he hadn't expected to get this far anyways. Fortune seemed to be smiling upon him though, as a supply cart of some kind rolled down the treacherous, zigzagging road. Zuko carefully picked his way over the jagged stone formations until he came to one of the turns on the road. He ducked behind a boulder that seemed to still be leftover from the invasion, though it was on the side of the road and essentially harmless. When the cart slowed to make the turn, he made his move, sprinting up from behind and lifting the tarp that covered the goods. Cabbages.
My lucky day, Zuko told himself with a dry smile. Still, it was worth a shot, so he dove in. After some finagling, he managed to get himself (mostly) buried in the green produce. He could only hope these cabbages were going to be loaded onto a boat, and not simply fed to the soldiers stationed at the harbor.
After some ten-fifteen minutes of bumping, bouncing, and all other manner of annoyances involved with traveling as a head of cabbage, the cart came to a halt, and Zuko could hear the telltale clunk of steel boots moving around to the side of the cart. It was all he could do to pray that they didn't inspect his section of the cargo.
The flap was lifted up, and a single head of cabbage removed. That was all it took to reveal a young man with a scarred face looking up desperately at the soldier who had discovered him. The man's eyebrow was the only thing to move, rising up his forehead as his scowl remained as resolute as ever. A goatee framed his mouth almost completely, and his hair stood straighter on end than most.
Jee looked down at the only-too familiar face of the banished prince, now traitor prince, as if he were just another head of cabbage, and held the look for a few breathless, achingly tense moments, before calling out, "All's clear, load it up!" He lowered the flap without so much as a final look at Zuko, and he felt himself deflate as the terror was replaced by gratitude.
He felt the crate lifted up and carried down some stairs, until it was eventually hefted to the ground and the footsteps that brought it faded away in the same direction. Zuko was out of the cabbages as quickly as if they had been on fire, and found himself just outside the ship's kitchen. He peeked inside, only to instantly regret it as he locked eyes with a young woman, perhaps in her early twenties, who was busy storing various cooking implements in their places. She froze when she saw Zuko standing in the door, but was the first of the two to find her voice.
"Oh, I'm sorry, you must be a… special guest on the boat." She did her best to hide the fear in her voice at seeing a strange man standing in the doorway, but it soon became clear that he was the one much more horrified with having ran into her. Legs frozen solid, hands shaking, eyes wide, lips trembling in an attempt to stutter something of coherence… she knew the look, fairly well in fact. It was the look of somebody running in fear for their life from the long, twisted arm of the law.
"Here, come quickly, I know a room you can stay in where you won't be bothered." She moved to grab his hand but Zuko was hesitant. Footsteps were echoing towards him, the sailors coming back with another load of supplies. He had to make a decision, and she seemed a lot more understanding and trustworthy than anyone from the military. So he went with her, and she showed him to a small room with barely enough space for a bed and a small table. Before he could even turn to ask her anything, she shut the door and was back to stocking the kitchen, just in time for the sailors to drop whatever they had been hauling and come shambling into the kitchen.
"That's the last of it, Miza." One of them said, his voice far smoother and younger than Zuko had expected.
"Okay boys, thanks, I'll take it from here!" Miza hollered back, sounding a bit preoccupied. "Go get some sleep, we should reach Ember in a few days." The men grumbled their responses as they exited the kitchen, and after their footsteps had died down the hallway, the door opened again, and Miza was looking rather apologetically at Zuko.
"Sorry about that, I'm not sure how any of the others would react to a stowaway. My name's Mizaki, but most people just call me Miza."
"I'm…" Zuko trailed off, suddenly uncertain about being honest with his identity.
She beat him to it though, and said, "You're Prince Zuko, right?" His face went white, but she was quick to assure him, "It's alright, I won't tell anybody. But it's you, isn't it? I've seen you before, that has to be you!" Her voice was so calming and smooth, the voice of a girl who had chosen a life of freedom and embraced it to the fullest.
Zuko found his own voice and finally said something, "You've seen me before?" He was utterly perplexed, but she remembered it well enough.
"Sure, months ago, in the Earth Kingdom. I think you were shopping with… your grandpa?"
"Shopping with my grandpa… Uncle?!" The answer hit him like a lead weight, and he asked with more cohesion, "You saw me when I was with Uncle Iroh back in the Earth Kingdom?"
"Oh, he was your uncle, I'm sorry!" She exclaimed, but Zuko made it clear he wasn't offended, so she answered his question, "Yeah, I saw you two, you were buying half the port almost. You had a really funny ponytail back then."
He blushed as he remembered the hideous look, so Mizaki told him quickly, "I think your hair looks really nice, now."
He gave her a smile, then remembered something she had said. "You said we were heading for Ember, as in Ember Island?"
It was easy to tell by his eyes (at least, the one that could open wide) that he was eager beyond reason to hear her say yes, so it overfilled her with joy to confirm to him, "That's the one!"
He didn't even bother to question why he felt so strongly that that's where he needed to be heading. That's probably where Azula would take them, he told himself, and that was all the attention he paid to that particular question.
"That's great! But, uhm…" his eyes flickered around the room as an almost reflexive bashfulness of pretty girls crept up his face. "Where am I going to stay until then?"
Giggling like it was the cutest thing in the world to see him acting this way, she answered, "You can just stay in here, nobody barges into my room without knocking and I work right on the other side of the door."
"Oh, alright." Zuko answered, but it was clear he had another question nagging at the back of his mind.
Sensing it easily enough, she told him, "I hope you don't mind sleeping on the floor."
Remembering his manners, and the incredible amount of hospitality she was showing him, he bowed his head and thanked her, "It won't be a problem, thank you."
Bowing her own head in return, Miza told him, "I have to go put all the food away now, I'll try and bring you a blanket and pillow as soon as I can. Until then, make yourself at home."
Thinking the scowl that instantly took over his face was in response to how much her room didn't resemble a palace, she quickly amended, "I mean, as much as you can. I know this is a far cry from a palace, but it's kind of cozy, if you let it be."
"It will be fine, thank you, Mizaki. For everything."
She had almost forgotten how nice her full name sounded coming from a boy's lips, a cute boy, and with a smile she quickly turned and slid out of the room before he could notice the slightly pink hue her cheeks had taken.
Zuko took a moment to admire the dwelling, then sighed and told himself beats prison. After a cursory examination, he noticed a few books tucked semi-neatly under the pillow of the cot she called a bed. Curiosity always winning, he took a quick peak over his shoulder to hear for the telltale signs of someone hovering over a door before deftly moving to browse through them.
There were three books, and one was clearly a diary, so he left it alone to consider the other two. Fire in the East, a Fire Nation story of it's conquest over the Earth Kingdom, written in the Fire Nation during the height of popularity with the war, and Kingdom, My Burning Kingdom, an opposing account written from around the same time in the Earth Kingdom. They were both written the year his uncle Iroh launched his famous offense of the rising sun*, a tale of practically legend in the Fire Nation, and began a nearly two decade offensive that ended at the walls of Ba Sing Se. Zuko wasn't certain which one would make him feel worse about the place he called home, but he ultimately felt drawn to the plight of the poor, every day people of his enemy nation, and chose to further peruse the latter.
The very first thing he noticed was a note, written on the first page, from the author himself.
To every man, woman, and child burned to ash by unforgiving flame. To every acre of blissful land that did nothing but sustain life, and was reduced to ash for it. To every cheerful home that housed nothing but love and good wishes. To My Kingdom, my beautiful Kingdom, I dedicate thee. May you rise from ash and live once more.
Zuko felt a tear slip down and watched it splatter against the paper. He turned the page. The story itself was no less tragic, and accounted entire villages wiped off the map, people still inside houses when the fire came, and prisoners hauled off at random. That's how Mizaki found him an hour later as she entered the cabin, the screeching groan of a metal ship door announcing her presence and causing Zuko to look up.
"It's an interesting read, isn't it?" She asked quietly, closing the door behind her. All cheer seemed absent now, and it was clear the book meant something very dear to her heart.
"I had no idea," he offered, but it seemed lame in the grand scheme of things.
"My parents were killed during that invasion. I lost everything." Zuko had no words, and it was clear that neither did she.
She sighed, trying to let all her emotions deflate, then said, "It's not your fault, you were a young child at the time, I was hardly any bigger myself. It might have been the only reason they let me live, but to what life, I had no idea. I just kept heading in the direction my parents had been trying to escape towards, and by the next day I found a small port village with a lone ship anchored. I remembered a lot of cooking tips my mom had taught me, so they gave me a job as the cook's apprentice."
"A couple years ago, the cook was killed in a barroom brawl gone bad. It turned out a few drunken fools picked a fight with fugitive Firebenders. They killed everyone to eliminate witnesses. I've been the cook ever since, and this crew is like my new family."
Zuko couldn't help but make the connection, "And their from the Fire Nation."
She nodded, "I grew up on both sides of the same war, and realized that there were the same kind of people, ordinary people, as the Earth Kingdom. These people who I should have thought were my enemies took me in and raised me like one of their own, without a second thought."
"It's not people who wage wars, it's monsters," she concluded.
"I'm sorry for what my uncle did, and I vow to you, he is, too. He is a completely different person now, and I know he regrets that war more than anything. He lost his son to it," Zuko told her, though it seemed an odd way to console someone to mention more death.
"I'm sorry to hear that," replied Mizaki, sounding truly sad to hear the news. Losing very close family members doesn't cause one to grieve less for the loss of others, it causes you to grieve more.
"You were lucky to find a new family that loved you, though. At least you had one thing I didn't," Zuko told her.
It was seamless how the pity she had for herself was transferred to him as she cried, "Oh, you poor thing. You have none who love you?"
For the first time in their conversation, he felt himself smile just a little bit, "There's one. My mother disappeared when I was young, and I've never seen her since, but…"
"Your sister, The Princess?" She knew the answer before he said it because his features instantly softened.
"Yeah," she's a Princess alright, He sighed to himself.
"She always seemed rather… cold, I've been told." She obviously knew Azula's reputation pretty well, if the hesitancy of her reply was any indication.
Zuko couldn't help the small chuckle even as he argued for his absentee sister, "Really, she's not a terrible person. She just had a… different way of adapting to our mother's absence. She closes herself off to others out of instinct. I think she's afraid of being hurt by loss, more than she'll ever admit."
Mizaki returned his pleasant smile as she replied, "It sounds like you two are really close. Does she open up to you?"
Zuko didn't have to think about it, but he did have to fight the lump in his throat to say, "Yes."
"Cherish it," she said, as she placed a warm hand on his shoulder. "Everyone deserves to be loved."
He placed one of his own hands atop hers and said sincerely, "I know."
"Where is she now?" Mizaki asked, with perfect casualness.
Zuko's grin became a full-on smile as he thought about how close he was. "Ember Island."
A thought occurred, and Mizaki became playfully suspicious as she asked, "You know how they say an army marches on it's stomach?" Zuko nodded, it was common sense really, and she continued, "What do you think a ship sails on?" Turning to exit, she called over her shoulder, "You should get some rest, you look pretty beat. We should be there within two-days time." She went to get started on an impressive breakfast that would get people moving in morning, and Zuko found himself in no short order resting against the hard, steel floor, thinking it was the most comfortable thing he'd ever slept on.