A/N: The Following is rated P; for Penultimate.
It contains dialog, where appropriate, from S2E20 "The Crossroads of Destiny."
Reader discretion is advised.
Chapter 16 "The Crossroads"
Summer, year 11 in the reign of Fire-Lord Ozai
Katara was STILL in the city.
As much as Zuko had hoped, and dreaded, that she would simply pack her things and leave Ba Sing Se behind her, she had apparently declined to do so.
Zuko had also discovered that wearing a shocked expression and saying "What are you doing here?" was an unacceptable greeting in her eyes.
The ensuing argument was loud, long and continued all the way from the front of Lady Xian's to Zuko's apartment and within. Neither seemed to notice, or care, that every person they passed stared at them as though they had sprouted wings.
"I already TOLD you!" she shouted as she dropped her basket and spun around to resume glaring at Zuko, "I am NOT running away from your sister, and I am NOT leaving without Appa!"
"Oh, for the love of- Did that cursed creature not FIND you!?" Zuko shouted back, slamming and locking the door behind himself. "Now I've got to flaming well find him all over again!"
"Find him… again?"
"Yes, again, you insufferable woman! Do you have any idea how hard it is to infiltrate a secret underwater base built by earthbenders? I suppose the next time I should just-" he was cut off as Katara hit him with a near-flying tackle and began kissing every square inch of him she could reach.
After a brief moment of confusion, he reciprocated, with gusto.
After the better part of an hour, they found themselves covered in sweat, and not much else, lying in the wreckage of Zuko's bed.
"Wow."
"You always say that," Katara said sounding both tired and exceptionally pleased with herself.
"And I always mean it," he returned.
/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\
Lin Mi was a beautiful woman.
Zuko could appreciate that, on a purely aesthetic level, she was several orders of magnitude above simply pretty. She was a quiet girl, with ivory skin and large dark eyes, and she pulled off what Zuko now thought of as the "Lady Xian" look to a tee. Lately, however, he had found himself with a rather singular preference for dark skin, brown hair, and grey-blue eyes.
Everything else seemed mundane and uninspired by comparison.
General Hida How, a general on the Earth-King's Council of Five, on the other hand, seemed to like Lin Mi quite a lot. Fire-Nation intelligence had had a dossier on the man. He was conservative in the extreme in his tactics and a bit heavy-handed when it came to troop discipline. Also, he was married, a fact that Zuko decided to personally hold against him as he escorted Lin Mi from Lady Xian's Palace to the Earth-King's Palace for a "meeting."
While people in the Fire-Nation had what might be described as a "cavalier" attitude towards sex in general, they had very little sympathy, or mercy, for adultery. Oaths were sacred, and marriage was an oath of fidelity to one's spouse. Even Akodo who, in legend at least, was extremely promiscuous had settled down once he'd gotten married. He may have sired half of the Fire-Nation before that point, but he kept the faith with his wife. Honor demanded nothing less.
So, it was with extreme personal misgivings that Zuko entered the upper ring, holding a parasol over his charge, his other hand gripping the scabbard of his katana.
He had mentioned the assignment to Katara the night previously, in part to warn her to keep the Avatar away from him and, also, as subtly as a man like Zuko could, to waylay any feelings of jealousy or misunderstandings on her part. It would have been just his luck that had he NOT told her, she would have seen him out with the girl and then publicly skinned him alive.
She, in turn, had insisted, rather vehemently and with a sanctimonious sniff as she was want to do, that it was his job and it didn't bother her in the slightest. Despite that sincerity, she had left rather a few more furrows in his back than she normally would have, and then "forgotten" to heal them afterward.
The phrase "marking her territory" never passed Zuko's lips. He was stupid, not suicidal.
The upper ring, which Zuko had only had the opportunity to visit once or twice before this, to visit his uncle's teashop, remained excessively opulent. Beyond ostentatious. Zuko couldn't help but wonder how quickly the nearly starving masses of the lower ring would begin to riot if they had known just where all their taxes were going. Not only was everything beautifully sculpted and inlaid with fine woods and metals, but there was a sense of space here. Being a soldier and a naval officer Zuko understood what a luxury space could be; simple breathing room was sometimes more preferable than an extra month's pay.
But there were no luxuries in the lower ring, they were all here in the upper ring.
Zuko had been instructed to escort the… escort only as far as the first antechamber of the palace, which, had he been interested in how such things were measured in the Earth-Kingdom, was supposed to be a great honor.
But Zuko couldn't help but feel that something was off as he waited for Lin Mi's return. It was something about the way the servants moved; furtively, and just a touch to fast, that sent alarm gongs crashing in his head. Paranoia, deeply ingrained by a childhood in Otosan Uchi and then honed to a razor's edge by nearly six years of exile, ran deep into his bones. He remained slouched against one wall of the room, his senses now on the highest alert.
Those suspicious changed to absolute certainties when Iroh, a large grin his face, entered the antechamber as well. The grin disappeared as he took in Zuko and the façade of doddering old man fell away from him. Eyes narrowed and darting back and forth for potential threats he placed the large box of tea serving accoutrements he had been carrying on the floor to free his hands as Zuko briskly crossed the room to stand next to him.
Back to back, the two ronin surveyed the now empty antechamber warily.
"Escort mission?" Iroh asked quietly.
"Yes uncle. Tea ceremony?"
"For the King no less," Iroh said bitterly. "Coincidence?"
"Unlikely," Zuko rasped.
As though his words had summoned them, a dozen Dai Li agents marched into the room, surrounding them in a wide arc.
"Well, this is interesting," Iroh said softly, then raised his voice and spoke in his usual genial fashion. "Can we help you, gentlemen?"
"Why yes!" an unfortunately familiar voice called from the far end of the room. "It's tea time!"
Shit.
"Hello Azula," Zuko growled, turning to face his smirking sister. "I must say, I never thought I'd see you wearing green."
Azula stopped a good ten paces from the arc of Dai Li agents, clad in a mockup of their uniform, deep green with the light green circle and square of the Earth-King at the center. She'd even eschewed her crown pin for a wide, earth-style, hairpiece.
"Yes, well, I suppose you would know all about women's fashion now, wouldn't you Zuko. Is that part of your new job, making sure the… ladies are taken care of?"
"As opposed to you, who has apparently been living with a bunch of earthbending men? What would father say?"
Azula's smile grew wider. "Pathetic."
"They can't all be winners Azi."
"They ARE an interesting bunch, the Dai Li," Azula said gesturing to the dozen or so men surrounding them. "They're earthbenders, but they have a killer instinct that so firebender. They would like to have a word with you about one of their members who's gone missing."
And… double shit. How long has she been keeping tabs on me?
"Niece, did your brother or I ever tell you how I got the nickname 'The Dragon of the West?'" Iroh said placidly.
"I'm not interested in a lengthy anecdote, Uncle," Azula sneered.
"It's more of a demonstration really." And with little to no warning Iroh roared and bent fire, nearly filling the entire room from floor to ceiling with flames from his mouth. Zuko used the momentary distraction to fling open the doors to the antechamber and cleave through the two Dai Li that were waiting for him behind it. Iroh followed behind him, walking backwards, the massive sustained gout of flame still projecting from his mouth, holding Azula and the bulk of her traitorous Dai Li at bay.
How, in Akodo's sagging left testicle, did she turn the DAI LI of all people? Zuko mused as his blade of flame danced between the Dai Li agents who appeared in front of him, seemingly from nowhere and everywhere at the same time, popping out of walls, the floor, and even the ceiling. I suppose that's my little sister for you. Masterful, yet so very IRRITATING.
At the halfway point of the long entrance hallway Iroh ran out of breath and the raging torrent of flame died away and he sagged forward, panting with effort. Zuko, deep in zanshin, noticed immediately, almost before it happened, and lept backwards throwing his own, admittedly much smaller, gout of flame at their enemies. Their pace now a quarter of what is it was before, they continued to slash, burn, and kill their way towards the palace's front door.
But Iroh was flagging. Using his famous technique had apparently taken a lot out of him and a few shards of stone found their way past his defenses, cutting him. The sight of his uncle, breathing labored, blood trailing down from his face, rocked Zuko's focus, destroying his zanshin.
"Go, uncle!" Zuko shouted taking a defensive stance as they reached the palace door. "I'll hold them for a moment."
"No, Zuko! You don't need to-" Iroh was cut off as four high walls of stone burst from the floor, surrounding Zuko and separating them.
Zuko moved his arms in a sinuous motion, summoning thunder against the walls, chipping and cracking them. A deafening boom, almost as loud as his thunder, sounded as a slab of stone fell from the ceiling and created a roof for the stone box he was now trapped in.
Changing tactics, Zuko re-summoned his blade of fire and thrust it into the nearest wall, forcing all the chi he could muster into it, trying to turn the stone itself molten.
Suddenly a beam of light struck him in the face as a small window opened in the roof.
"Hi, Zuko!" Ty Lee said cheerfully, waving and beaming down at him.
"Don't do it, Ty," Zuko growled.
She tossed something past him into the dark of the box. "Oh, and Mai says 'Hi' too!" she said chipperly as the window sealed itself.
"Of course she does," Zuko grumbled as the gas bomb, most likely filled with poison, began to hiss behind him. "Fucking Scorpions."
/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\
He awoke, an indeterminate amount of time later, in chains.
Zuko, peering through the fog of something vaguely reminiscent of a hangover, found himself in a library or office of some sort. The walls were covered in bookshelves and large, and somewhat disconcerting, green-hued fireplace roared behind an ornate desk. The fire did little to illuminate the room and covered the parts that it did in the same sickly green light that had been present under Lake Laogai.
He was chained, hand and foot, in a chair before the desk while his sister sat on the other side of it, casually reclined and smiling that nearly sinister smirk she used to wear when she beat him at Pai Sho. And at sparring. And… pretty much everything else, she was better than him at a lot of things.
"EEEEE!" Ty Lee squeaked happily, appearing over Zuko's left shoulder, "You're awake!"
Zuko winced at her high-pitched voice.
"Azula was sooo worried! He thought Mai had made the mix wrong!" Ty Lee said with genuine concern in her voice.
Mai chose this moment to make herself known, shifting slightly as she leaned against one of the bookcase laden walls. She was barely a shadow in the semi-dark of the office, but her eyes were fixed on Zuko, on guard against any possible escape attempt.
"Shut UP, Ty," Azula said with a glare and a sneer. "You and Mai go get ready. I need to have a private word with my dear brother."
Mai silently detached herself from the wall and crossed to the door, passing behind Zuko.
"It's good to see you again too, Mai," Zuko said quietly. She was on his blindside, but he could hear the slight hesitation in her steps. In was minute, and had he not been listening for it he never would have caught it. The door closed behind her, just a little harder than necessary.
"So… what now?" Zuko said in an unintentional echo of the Avatar.
"Now? Now is the end game, Zuko. Now I finally have my victory. I finally beat you," Azula said smiling fiercely.
"…what?" Zuko blinked at her stupidly.
"Now you will acknowledge that I am the greatest. The I am the better of us. That I am the rightful heir to the throne!"
"Don't be ridiculous. Of course you are."
"…what?" now it was Azula's turn to blink stupidly.
"Azi, if you hadn't noticed, I am a maimed ronin who has been exiled for half a decade. I fail to see how-"
"Don't you try and take this away from me Zuko!" she snarled, bursting out of her seat and leaning forward over the desk. "I have captured you, and you will admit that I am worthy of the throne."
"Azula, you were more worthy of throne before you even started your gempukku training."
"Do NOT patronize me, Zuko!"
"I'm not. How could you think I thought you unworthy? Have I ever said that? You're amazing. You were a better firebender than me within hours of learning how."
"But… Father said-" she cut herself off and took on a musing tone. "So, you wouldn't oppose me if I became Fire-Lord?"
"Well I have to admit that the fact that you intend to imprison or kill me means I would naturally have to oppose you," Zuko said dryly, leaning back in his chair as far as his fetters would allow. "But if things were different? Or course not. You're the obvious choice. There's a reason you got political science classes while I was still in remedial firebending."
"You were never in remedial firebending," she said sounding scandalized.
"Yes, I was. Do you think that father would have let that get out? That his only son, a child of Akodo, was a terrible firebender? It wasn't until I spent that year on the mountain with Uncle that I got anywhere approaching acceptable."
"So… you'd be fine being supplanted by me? Being…"
"What is the point of this Azula? I am ronin. You do not need my approval for anything."
"You… you don't have to be," Azula said quietly, and for the first time in a long time, she looked unsure of herself.
"What did you say?" Zuko breathed, barely above a whisper.
"I didn't… I didn't tell anyone. Not even father," she said, equally quietly.
"You didn't tell…" Zuko was growing concerned. Something was amiss with Azula. As he remembered her, she was normally always so poised, so in control of herself. Now she looked unsure, nervous even, like she had when they had been very young.
"Don't you see? It was the only way Zuko," she said, somehow seeming both condescending and desperate. "Father wanted you brought back in chains. You're too… too… YOU, and I knew you'd never accept that. We'd… we'd have had to… I'd have had to kill you."
"Yes?" Zuko said his concern mounting. "Azi, what are you trying to-"
"I didn't want to!" she snapped, face showing something that, on anyone else, would have been panic. "You're my brother and… and…" suddenly, somehow without seeming to pass through any of the intermediate steps, her face… changed back to self-possessed control. The shift abrupt and jarring. "And if you're dead who am I supposed to take my frustrations out on? There's not a soul in the Fire-Nation that can stand before me, and that's fine, that's expected. But you… you're an Akodo. Beating you means something."
"So, I am to be kept alive as your punching bag?" Zuko said annoyance creeping into his tone.
"No. It's not that, it's… you're just… worthy of being defeated by me, Everyone else is just so trivial by comparison." She seemed to be trying to convince herself as well as him.
"This is pointless," Zuko said. "You know perfectly well I can never come back home. You said so yourself."
"No," she said an odd crooked smile breaking over her face. "You CAN come home! I've taken care of everything." She began to pace restlessly back and forth behind the desk, oddly reminding Zuko of their uncle. "I've been manipulating public sentiment back home, they see you as a noble hero sacrificing everything to fight our greatest enemies. I've got the Dai Li eating out of my hand, they'll help us decapitate the central government here. And when the city is ours-"
"You can't honestly think that the Dai Li will stay loyal to you?"
"Oh, but I can!" Azula said brightly, beginning to ramble. "They've seen what leadership, what true leadership looks like now. That jumped up peasant Long Feng thinks he can double cross me, but he'll find out, oh yes he will. I know which way they'll jump when the flames hit the furnace." Her eyes darted back and forth as she resumed pacing. "After that is the actual conquest of the city. That's where you come in." She looked at Zuko, her face torn between nerves and bitterness. "You… you were always better at military strategy and tactics than I was, all our tutors said so. Certainly, I could beat whatever pathetic earthbenders might resist us, but you… you're the tactician." She crossed around the desk and grabbed Zuko by the shoulders. "It was always meant to be this way Zuko! You at the head of my armies, my Shogun. I'll take care of the delicate tasks, you smash anything that sticks its head out. This is what we were made for Zuko. We're a matched set, a daisho, you the Katana and I the Wakizashi, meant to bring death and destruction to the enemies of the Fire-Nation!"
"And the Avatar?" Zuko said quietly.
"What about him?"
"I am banished from home and my father's sight until I capture the Avatar. A task which I, which both of us, have found to be flatly impossible."
"If the two of us present father with Ba Sing Se, do you really think he will care?"
"I am… unsure."
"Fine," Azula snapped, "then we'll kill him. Kill him together. But you have to help me Zuzu. I can't… I can't do it alone. You saw, back in Tu Zin, that cowardly ashpile just runs away and hides behind his friends."
"That's why we have soldiers, Azula. So that we don't get overwhelmed by superior numbers. 'Even the mountain falls before a million shovels.' If the Dai Li is truly under your sway-"
"It's the girl isn't it?" Azula sneered. "That's why you don't want to fight? Don't think I don't know what you've been up to. Honestly Zuko, a Water-Tribe barbarian?"
Zuko glowered at her.
"Really, I just feel bad for you," Azula said, idly examining her nails. "While you were off risking your life, capturing Dai Li agents and infiltrating secret bases she was running around with her terrorist boyfriend, most likely having a laugh at your expense."
Zuko's blood turned cold. "Her… her what?"
"Some colonial rebel. Liked to flood villages full of Fire-Nation citizens. Went by the name 'Jet' I believe. A mass murderer, Zuko," she hissed.
"No," Zuko said, shaking his head. "You're lying. She wouldn't… she wouldn't."
"Don't believe me, hmmm? That's fine, you can ask her yourself. I decided it would be better for you to hear it straight from the whore's mouth, so I left her alive." She gestured at the door. "I'll have my men take you there now, give you some time to think about it." She unlocked the manacles at his feet and pulled him out of the chair. "Just remember brother, I need you, your people need you. We cannot do this without you. You can have everything you want, your title, your home, your honor. All of it can be yours, the world can be ours. If you just remember this; you're an Akodo, and my brother, and a samurai. I know you'll make the right choice."
And just like that, she had restored him, he was a samurai again.
If only everything could be so easy.
/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\
Azula's Dai Li agents escorted him deep into the basement of the palace.
The analytical portion of his mind tried to keep track of the twists and turns, the doors and the guards stationed at each place, he would need to remember them if he was to have any chance of escaping. It was having trouble doing so, however, so loud was the cacophony of the internal battle that raged in the other parts of Zuko's mind.
I TOLD you, a smug voice hissed. Who could ever want someone like you?
It… It's not LIKE that! It CAN'T be like-
Oh? I'm sure Azula just pulled that name out of a hat. Jet and his band of "friends" coincide nicely with those reports Lt Jee used to give you. "Rebel activity related to the flooding of a village, forewarned by a young man in Water-Tribe clothing!"
Yes. ForeWARNED. As in she had nothing to do with it!
But she was THERE. She was WITH them. Who's to say how long they've been planning this?
She… she wouldn't!
You're a fool to discount the possibility. Why else would she tolerate your presence?
Shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up!
"We're here," one of the Dai Li said.
The other uncuffed him while the first bent a large stone out of the wall.
"Your whore is down there," the agent said venomously and pushed Zuko in with his earthbending. Zuko cursed and roared as he tumbled gracelessly down the long tube of stone and landed in a heap.
"Zuko?!" Katara cried, voice loud in the echoing cavern.
Oh, thank you sweet spirits she's alright, Zuko thought as he climbed to his feet. I'm such a fool, there's no way that-
Katara launched herself forward… and slapped him, rocking him back on his heels with the power of the blow.
"Is it true?! Tell me it isn't Zuko! Tell me!"
"Tell… tell you what?" Zuko said, utterly shocked.
"Did you do it? Did you murder a man, in cold blood?"
Azula must have told her. The rational part of him sighed. She always liked to hedge her bets. The larger part of his mind grew cold with a numbing fury.
"And who were YOU with while I was?" he snarled, drawing himself up, looming over her.
She looked flabbergasted. "Who was I with? What does that have to do with-" she cut off, eyes wide, realizing what Zuko was implying. "No. No, it… it wasn't like that Zuko."
"Then what WAS it like?" he snarled through gritted teeth. "Explain it to me. Tell me. Tell me all about your friend Jet, the terrorist."
"Jet was NOT a-"
"Not a what? Not a mass-murderer? Not a psychopath? That bastard tried to kill my uncle and you stand here and try to defend him?"
"You're trying to change the subject. Does what Jet did change the fact that you MURDERED a man?"
"YES!" Zuko roared, practically screaming. "I did what I did for YOU! So I could get you out of this flaming city and we wouldn't be IN this situation right now. Meanwhile, you were off with your terrorist boyfri-"
"For me? You did it for ME?! That's even worse! Now there's blood on my hands as well! He had a family, Zuko. Children that will grow up without a father. You CAN'T keep KILLING people for me!"
"So, it would have been better, more acceptable had I murdered him and everyone else in a two-block radius? Like your boyfriend!"
"Jet was NOT my boyfriend!"
"And yet you sit here and defend him! I have to hear about this from my sister! My sister who has captured you! Do you have any idea what she will DO to you! I told you! I warned you! And you did. Not. LISTEN!"
"Oh I listened! I listened when you said you respected me, when you said you cared for me, when you said I was free to make my own decisions! You don't get to murder people and then say you did it FOR ME!"
"Oh, I see," Zuko hissed. "So, if I said I did it for freedom, like that mad honorless bastard did, I would have been alright? Why does he get a free pass and I-"
"Because I don't love Jet!" Katara screamed.
Sweet spirits she's going to say it! Zuko thought, mouth dropping open. She's actually going to-
Unfortunately, whatever Katara was about to say, or not say, was cut off by an enormous shuddering crash as Iroh and the Avatar came through a rock and crystal wall.
/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\^/\
The boy was taller.
Zuko hadn't really gotten a good, close up, look at him since the North Pole, but he was easily an inch taller than Katara now, a fact that his rational side noted dispassionately as Katara ran to embrace him.
The other ninety percent simply wanted to KILL him.
Zuko barely even registered his uncle striding over to him, a pleased smile on his face. His single yellow eye was locked on the Avatar's grey ones. And the boy stared back.
Glared back in fact.
"Aang! I knew you would come," Katara cried happily, hugging him tightly.
I am going to KILL this little shit.
"Uncle, what are you doing with the Avatar?" Zuko growled.
"Saving you, that's what," Aang said, a hint of bitterness in his voice.
Fire gathered at Zuko's fists as he took an angry step forward.
"Zuko, it's time we talked," Iroh said quickly, stepping in between the two of them. "Go help your other friends," he said turning to Katara and Aang. "We'll catch up with you."
Zuko's wide yellow eye tracked the Avatar as he fled back down the tunnel he had entered through, Katara in tow.
Leaving a stunned Zuko behind, mind now a black and dismal void.
She… she just… she LEFT?
...Fine. That's… just fine. At least she's safe.
"Talk," Zuko said brusquely as he managed to tear his eye away from the tunnel.
"I know this is difficult Zuko, I know your sister has been at you, but… you're not the man you used to be," Iroh said as he gripped Zuko by the shoulders. "You are stronger and wiser and freer than you have ever been, and now you have come to the crossroads of your destiny."
"My destiny?" Zuko had always been told that battle, that victory was his destiny. Victory over the Earth-Kingdom, over anyone that opposed the throne.
"Indeed. It's time for you to choose. It's time for you to choose good."
Zuko stared at his uncle, then slowly, with building force, started laughing. Brittle spikey laughter just on the near side of hysteria. Iroh smiled weakly and in confusion.
"Good? Good? After all we have been through. After all the pain and shame and privation and struggles, your big 'wise-old-man' pitch is to 'choose good?'"
"It's not that funny," Iroh grumbled.
"Oh, but it is! You want to boil the biggest decision I've ever made in my life down to 'choose good.' It's asinine," Zuko finished, his voice quickly losing its mirth and turning into a snarl.
"I think you have overcomplicated things again Zuko," Iroh said, his eyes flashing. "Your destiny-"
"I KNOW MY DESTINY!" Zuko roared.
"It is your OWN destiny, or is it a destiny someone has tried to force upon you?" Iroh said, shouting back
"My destiny is WAR, it always has been!"
"It doesn't have to be! I'm begging you, Zuko! It is time for you to look inward and begin asking yourself the big questions. Who are YOU, and what do YOU want!?"
"It doesn't matter what I want! What matters is… is…"
"Is what? Your duty? Your pride? NO! Zuko please listen to me! You are a good man. You deserve to be happy!"
"I… I…"
"I know you love her! Just… go to her! Go and help the Avat-"
Suddenly the ground shook again, cutting Iroh off. Luminescent green crystals shot out of the ground and imprisoned him as Azula and a pair of Dai Li agents entered through another new hole in the wall.
"The girl?" Azula said addressing Zuko, her voice calm and untroubled.
"Gone. With the Avatar," Zuko said, nodding towards the tunnel in the far wall.
"And you just let them go?" Azula said clucking her tongue in exasperation. "I expected this kind of treachery from Uncle, but you Zuko, Prince Zuko, you're a lot of things, but you're not a traitor. Are you?" She sighed, "it's not too late for your Zuko. You can still redeem yourself."
"The kind of redemption she offers is not for you," Iroh said calmly.
"Why don't you let him decide, Uncle?" Azula said acidly. She took a step closer to Zuko, her voice lowering. "We need you Zuko. I've plotted every move of this day, this glorious day in Fire-Nation history. The only piece left on the board is you. It's all up to you. At the end of this day you can have your honor back. You can have victory. You can have everything you want. Or you can have nothing."
"Zuko, I am begging you," Iroh said quietly. "Look into your heart and see what it is that you truly want."
Zuko was suddenly small again. "Please father, I beg you…" he shuddered.
"You are free to choose, brother," Azula said, dismissing her Dai Li with a wave. "I, at least, will not presume to tell you how to think." She said nothing more as she walked down the tunnel towards the Avatar and her destiny.
"What will you do?" Iroh said quietly after a long minute.
"I… do not know," Zuko said softly. With a gesture he summoned his blade of fire and smashed through the green crystals holding his uncle.
"I'm sorry Zuko. Perhaps this isn't as simple a choice as I hoped it could be for you."
"Nothing in my life is ever simple," Zuko said, mostly to himself, as he started down the tunnel.
Towards his destiny.
A/N:…
CLIFFHAAAAANGGERRRRRR! (/sound on one million guitars playing the same power chord).
Welcome, welcome weary readers. Welcome to chapter penultimate of Book 3! I hope you enjoyed it, despite every and all things good beginning to crumble into dust. What WILL Zuko choose? Guesses are of course welcome, I admit that even I had no idea where I was going to go with this for a long time. I had TWO chapter ones of book 4 even. But that was a long time ago and today this author has not cliffhangered (/echo of previous powerchord) himself.
PENULTIMETA-BITS
Azula always lies: A good friend once told me that a master manipulator only told the lies that you need to believe, and always told you the most convenient truths. Someone who "always" lies is only half of a good a manipulator.
Azula is a master manipulator.
I don't think at any point in the show she actually lies to Zuko. (Feel free to comb through the show again and correct me I won't take offense.) The only lie we actually know about was the one she told her father in season 3 about who killed the Avatar, and that was to HELP Zuko. So THAT is what I base her off of. She is a brilliant manipulator and knows exactly how to push her brother's buttons. Does she need him to come home? Yes. Yes, she does. Because the best manipulations MUST have truth at their center. She is most likely playing up that family and duty angle a bit but still, she isn't lying to Zuko here. She has quite literally driven him here with the express purpose of including him in the conquest of Ba Sing Se. Again, her reasoning is NOT entirely altruistic, but still she does care about her brother which is for her probably her most powerful inner conflict. It doesn't make sense otherwise, would Azula, daddy's girl and heir-apparent to the "might=right" empire o' evil lie to her father and king to help Zuko? Just to fuck with her brother? Azula is NOT that stupid.
Katara's motivations: There had to be a breaking point, there had to be a point where they address that Zuko is a guy who can and WILL kill people to get the things he wants. Make no bones about it, while I have presented this, and previous, chapters in such a way as to lend doubt to Katara's motivations, she DOES love Zuko. And how terrible it must be to be in love with someone so very different, and who can and WILL kill people to help you. She was so very happy that he got Appa. She probably saw it as a step closer to him coming over to her side. But then Azula drops the bomb, and definitely plays it up as well. "So kind of you to let my dear brother do all YOUR dirty work." Azula = master (see above). Is the middle of the crystal caves the BEST time to be having this conversation? Of course not. Is Katara thinking clearly? Of COURSE not. She's terrified, I think Azula has got this shit down to a timer. Cast doubt on boyfriend's moral rectitude; check. Cast aspersions on girlfriend's fidelity; check. Add elements and stir for 15 minutes; CHECK!
I regret nothing!
Thanks again for reading. Remember, I always appreciate feedback positive or negative. (and I get the feeling I about to get some of the latter). Either way, let me know what you think, or if you have questions.
.
.
NEXT WEEK on a very special "Avatar: The Last Dragon"...
…DESTINY.
TUNE IN. Same Zuko time, Same Zuko channel!
Original post date: 25 November 2018
