Author's note : Holidays are over! The angst is back. I hope you have enjoyed this short breathe!
Thank you to everyone who took the time to comment on the last two chapters! I'm sorry to scratch your nerves the way I do, but I swear I do it for the sake of the plot! I don't torture you for free! Rather, see these intimate interludes between Zuko and Azula as a salary advance!
The last chapter showed that despite her sincere desire to give herself to her brother, Azula's mind is still too damaged by what Ozai did to her for her to fully enjoy these moments. The moment when the game of seduction was reversed and when Zuko became "the dominant" in their lovemakings (by throwing her on her back) triggered a delirious crisis. Azula suffered from a mental dissociation disorder certainly fleeting, but impressive nonetheless for Zuko.
The moment is approaching when Zuko will understand that something very wrong has happened between Azula and Ozai. But you will have to wait a few chapters yet. Azula is determined to hide this secret, no matter what! And Zuko is clearly not ready to face this awful truth. If Ozai really slept with Azula, is Zuko better than his father doing the exact same thing? Admittedly, he'd not be his only crime against morality, but can he decently start a sexual affair with his sister once aware of that?
In the meantime, Azula is still far from completely healed despite the treatment. You'll learn more about this in Chapter 29!
Please, enjoy this new chapter, marked by the return of anguish, despair and fatality!
* This chapter hasn't been proofread yet. You could notice some mistakes. It will be fixed soon thanks to my Bêta reader. I wanted offer you the new chapter anyway. Sorry for the potential errors.
Chapter 28 – Parting roads
"I still don't understand why we have to do this now! It's not even dawn yet, Katara! I've a headache! Suki and I barely slept that night."
"I don't want to know why!" his sister cut him, looking suddenly alarmed, waving both hands in front of her for emphasis. "Besides, if you hadn't emptied two bottles of wine yesterday, your head would be perfectly fine now!"
Sokka grumbled.
"You really don't have one of your hangover magic tricks? You mend bones and raise the dead with your waterbending but you can't fix a simple headache?"
Katara showed him her back, lifted her chin haughtily, and resumed her walk.
"The best remede for what you have now is remorse and pain. They will deter you from doing it again! Suki will be grateful to me!"
Gods! how exasperating she could be! When would Katara stop behaving like their mother? Sokka had hoped that, by becoming a father, his younger sister would stop treating him like a child and understand that he was a responsible grown up.
Well, sure, maybe emptying the former Fire Lord's cellar wasn't the best way to prove it, he thought as he slammed both hands against his aching skull.
"Hurry up, Sokka! We have to bring back enough shells and open them in time for lunch. We have work!"
Katara walked ahead. Her silhouette was reflected on the thin film of water covering the damp sand strewn with small shells, seaweed and pebbles of various hues. Behind them stood the vacation home where everyone was still asleep. Pink and blue clouds streaked the morning sky and albatrosses were hovering quietly overhead, loafer travelers scanning the sea for a prey to swallow. This reminded Sokka that in addition to his headache, he was hungry.
He quickened his pace to catch up with his sister, who was walking in a confident and rapid step.
"Why don't we go to the market to buy what we need?"
"We're not the most discreet group on Ember Island in case you haven't noticed! People recognized us the other day at the beach. We can't risk Zuko and Azula being recognized."
Sokka frowned. Why did all their decisions always revolve around those two? As he was still upset, he changed his method:
"I still don't understand why we have to get up at dawn for this…"
"Because it's at low tide that there are the most shells to collect, you idiot!"
"I thought you were a waterbender!" Can't you lift all that water over there and I just have to pick up all the shells and fish we want? He pointed to the sea whose gentle roar could be heard in the distance.
"Shut up and stop talking nonsense! Even Aang can't just "lift" the sea!"
"I thought it was Zuko and Crazula's turn to be on kitchen chore!"
Katara stopped short and Sokka almost hit her in the back.
"Hey ! Can't you be more caref..."
"Azula had a relapse last night," she announced calmly, without looking back.
"Wh-what? What do you mean when you say a relapse?"
"I don't know exactly what happened, but when we got back with Aang and Toph, we heard screams coming from Azula's room. Zuko was trying to contain her. She was screaming and thrashing around like a maniac."
Sokka froze, momentarily unable to speak. How could it be that...
"So you knew she'd gone crazy again and you still let her sleep under the same roof as us?" he said in a hoarse voice that anger and consternation made unrecognizable.
This time Katara turned and her sapphire eyes shone with an eerie glow. She walked towards him and seized Sokka's hand, whose weak arms hung limply at his side.
"I understand why you say that!" She replied hastily. "But I assure you there was no danger. I soothed her and Zuko gave her her treatment. He and Toph took turns watching over her all night. There was no reason to think that she could have hurt you and Suki."
"I really don't care what she can do to me!" Sokka shouted in anger, so loudly that a group of terns, quietly searching the wet sand with their long beaks, flew away with a frightened rustle of wings. "I'm strong enough to contain her! But how could you knowingly agree to put Suki in danger? She's six months pregnant! What were you thinking about?"
"Sokka, calm down!"
"No, I won't! I'm tired of pretending to treat her like one of us when she's never behaved with us except as an enemy! When she doesn't spend her time throwing mortal lightning at us, she laughs at us and despises us, calls us uneducated peasants and looks at us with disgust in her eyes! And her stupid brother who clings to her as if she were going to fly away and bends to her every whim. All this to ensure himself a warm place in her bed at nightfall!"
"Sokka," Katara exclaimed, visibly shocked. "You don't know what you're saying. Zuko never…" But she paused, turning her head behind, her eyes sweeping the deserted beach. "Did you hear?"
"Did I hear what?" Sokka grumbled. "The only thing I heard is your soft, melodious voice which pierced my eardrums!"
"A voice. I heard someone screaming, or crying. There!"
And she ran off. With an exasperated sigh, he followed her.
They soon came to a pile of rocks, a natural mineral barrier that formed an arc. Listening, Sokka heard a sob too. After exchanging a worried look with his sister, they rushed towards the source of the noise.
It was a young girl with loose black hair falling over her uncontrollably shaking shoulders. She was curled up between the rocks and sobs sometimes burst out between the cries of the birds which were gathering in the sky above them.
"Azula?" Katara muttered before Sokka could react. "What are you doing here?"
The young woman turned her head quickly and stared at them with two amber eyes wide with fear. Blue circles darkened them and her hands were shaking terribly.
"Don't- don't hurt me!"
Then she tried to back up throwing her legs in front of her, sending sand towards their feet. The image was as unexpected as it was pathetic, and Sokka thought he might have felt pity if it had been anyone else.
He watched his sister kneel down to Azula and speak softly to her, one hand resting on her shoulder in a motherly attitude. Sokka, meanwhile, terribly embarrassed, looked around, as if hoping for help, for someone else, anyone but them, who could take care of the mad princess moaning at his feet.
"I don't know why I'm here," Azula finally managed to say, allowing Katara to sit next to her. What time is it?"
"Dawn broke only a few minutes ago. You must have been sleepwalked. Did this already happen to you?"
"N-no. Well, I don't know", she stammered. "Where is Zuzu? I want to see Zuzu."
"We'll bring you back to him," Katara answered firmly, exchanging a look with her brother. "Right, Sokka? Can you get up, Azula?"
"I-I think so."
But when Katara helped her up, the princess cried out and collapsed on her legs. Sitting on the sand, she brought her hands to her ankle.
"You must have sprained your ankle, it's nothing," Katara soothed her, dropping to her knees next to her and examining Azula's joints. "Sokka and I will carry you home where I can examine you."
"Can't you heal her here?" Sokka couldn't help himself, deeply disgusted at the thought of even touching the princess.
"I could, but it would last long and she's freezing. We have to bring her back to Zuko. He must be totally freaked out by now.
"Or else he's warm in her sheets," pointing his chin towards Azula. "Too exhausted by their nooky to hear her wake up!"
"Sokka!" Katara shouted, shocked by his rudeness.
At his feet, Azula glared furiously at him.
"How dare you, you bastard, filthy pervert of a little peasant! I'm going to…"
"That's enough! We're not going to do anything at all," Katara interposed. "We'll all come to our senses and bring you home. Okay?"
The fierce tone of her voice silenced them. Her anger-blackened eyes did the rest. Azula didn't dare to protest and that's what persuaded Sokka to listen to reason.
He bent down to join his hands with Katara's. Together they used their forearms to form a makeshift chair for Azula. Sokka tried not to flinch when Azula slung an arm over his shoulder and sat down painfully on his forearm. She did the same with Katara and they started walking, hampered in their progress by their height difference which made the seat wobbly. Azula had to constantly fidget to keep her balance. A few months ago, Sokka would have been enjoyed this unexpected closeness. Although he had always hated Azula and her shenanigans, he wasn't blind and her charms had not escaped him. But after what that bitch had done to Suki… He would have rather kissed a komodo-rhino!
He was therefore relieved when they saw Toph, Aang and Zuko rushing towards them. Recognizing her brother, Azula gave a strangled moan and literally jumped from her seat. She collapsed on the sand but that didn't ruin her resolve. She stumbled, fell, got up, stumbled again but finally reached her brother's arms who hugged her so tightly that he lifted her off the ground.
"How are you? Where were you? I was so scared!" he shouted, brushing her hair from her forehead and kissing it several times, much to Sokka's revulsion.
He let his sister explain how they had spotted Azula, totally confused and lost on the beach and vaguely listened to Zuko telling how, upon waking up, he hadn't found Azula lying next to him.
"I woke up one or two hours before dawn. She was still there, sleeping deeply. And when I opened my eyes again at dawn, she – you were gone." He punctuated his sentence with a caress on Azula's head who snuggled a little more against him. The others started talking at once, speculating on what might have happened.
All of a sudden, huge terror seized Sokka.
"Has anyone seen Suki?" he asked, drowning out his friends' voices with his booming one.
"We let her sleep", Toph replied. "Aang was awake and Zuko came to get me. We didn't think of..."
"So that means she's all alone? Nobody went to check on her?" he repeated, in disbelief, screaming now. "He said that crazy bitch woke up before dawn, when I was already up to join Katara! She had all the time she needed to enter our room and hurt Suki!"
"Calm down, Sokka!" Aang interjected, deep concern dancing in his eyes. "I'm sure Azula didn't hurt Suki. We would have heard something."
Next to him, Zuko looked at Sokka and hugged Azula tighter, as if to prevent her from hearing what they had just said. Sokka saw Azula's bronze eye sparkle in her brother's arms and he could have sworn he saw a golden glow full of mischief in it.
As he was about to retort, Katara shouted, pointing at something. Turning around, Sokka recognized Suki who was advancing towards them with a slightly swaying gait because of her prominent belly. He heaved a huge sigh of relief and rushed over to embrace her.
There was a tap on his shoulder and Sokka turned to face Zuko. He'd let go of Azula who was standing a little further away, supported by Aang and Toph and not missing a beat of the scene.
"I think you owe my sister apologies," he grumbled.
"Your sister, as you still have the nerve to call her, almost killed my wife and my unborn child. I've made enough efforts and concession! I refuse to pretend any longer! This weirdo freaks everyone out and doesn't give a damn about us. All she cares about is knowing when you'll finally decide to fuck her, if you haven't already! So as far as I'm concerned, I'll apologize when she finally burns in hell!"
Sokka didn't see Zuko's blow coming. Oddly, he felt nothing but he was surprised by the eerie crack that sounded as the Fire Lord's clenched fist slammed down on his brow bone. The distraught cries of their friends all around them seemed to come from another world. Only the sensation of the wet sand beneath his back made Sokka realize he was down.
A golden sun rose above the horizon that Zuko's head hid from Sokka's sight. The Fire Lord was straddling him and threw his fist on his friend's jaw over and over again.
Blood spurted from his nose and blurred his vision, but he had time to see the halo of fiery flames that surrounded Zuko's fist as he was about to crush it on his face. Then the solar disk appeared entirely, blinding him.
Sokka confusedly understood that someone, Aang presumably, had pushed Zuko away just before he burned his face.
Sokka turned on his side, spitting blood on the soft sand, and all he could see were frantic legs moving and running around, as if their owners were performing one of those folk dances people do in his tribes party.
"Sokka! Honey, are you okay?"
It was the fearful voice of Suki who'd rushed towards him and took his head in her arms.
He heard squalls, the crash of a large quantity of water which falls brutally on the ground and the burning breath of fireballs projected far ahead. And screams. Screams that cannot be identified.
The landscape found its contours again and the curtain opened on a surrealistic scene: Zuko was lying face down on the ground, his wrists trapped by two rocks that someone – Toph? – had squirted out of the sand. Grains of sand were smeared on his cheeks, some crystals embedded in the folds of his scar. An unimaginable hatred lit up his golden eyes and for the first time in years, Sokka saw again the enemy who had hunted them so long.
Right in front of him, stood Azula, disheveled. She clumsily leaned on her good foot. Streamers of electric blue tangled around her wrists and a furious expression twisted her features. Around her could be heard the sound of electricity crackling in the air. She looked terrified and Sokka suddenly feared for all of their lives. He knew from experience that nothing was more dangerous than a scared Azula, unable to control her emotions.
Sokka looked down and saw in horror that Katara was lying on the ground inches away from where Azula was standing. Her lifeless body lay in the sand, a large darker patch spreading around her from the skin of water that had been spilled during her fall.
"Katara!" he shouted, trying to escape his wife's grasp.
"Sokka, look!" Suki cried out, pinning him down.
Sokka obediently looked up and he saw Aang, whose curled up body was levitating high above everyone. His eyes shone with a mighty golden glow that made his irises and pupils invisible. His arrow glittered on his bald head.
The Avatar State! Sokka thought, terrified. He hadn't seen Aang go into a trance since his memorable fight against Ozai. The fact that his friend had gained a foot since that time as well as impressive muscles achieved this striking vision.
"Fire Lord Zuko, Princess Azula!"
It wasn't Aang 's voice, but those of a thousand Avatars that all spoke at once through Aang's moving lips. The sound was perfectly frightening.
"By your crimes and your unnatural desires, you are upsetting the balance of this world! I, Avatar Aang and his previous incarnations give you this final warning: leave this place, go to your palace and renounce all bellicose aspiration and all desire for revenge! Otherwise, we will have no choice but to annihilate you!"
Further down on the sand, the lightning that swirled around Azula vanished into thin air and she threw herself on her brother's body, as if to protect him from the Avatar's ire. Her terrified eyes wouldn't let go of Aang whose body relaxed and slowly descended.
His bright eyes closed and he gently fell to the sand on Katara's side.
Sokka stood up despite the blood blurring his vision. Toph and Suki followed suit.
He rushed to the two bodies lying on the ground and took his sister's head on his knees. He shook it gently.
"Katara! Please wake up!" he begged her. "What did you do to her, you filthy crazy bitch? Witch! Monster!"
Zuko had managed to free himself from the restraints that had held his wrists. He was sitting on the sand, as if dumbfounded, and holding his own sister's trembling body against him.
Sokka was about to rush towards them when he heard a dry cough. On his knees, Katara's head lifted a little and she opened her eyes.
"Sokka...are you okay?" Those were the first words she uttered in a weak, trembling voice.
Sokka was so happy to hear it that he hugged her tightly, eliciting a cry of protest from his little sister. The electricity combined with the water must have caused Katara to lose consciousness. But she seemed to be fine. She was already straightening up to bend over Aang.
Trembling with rage, Sokka turned back to Zuko and Azula who were awkwardly getting up, clinging to each other. It looked like they were one and the same person. Their heads touched and their raven-winged hair mingled. Fear and bewilderment could be read in their so similar eyes.
Sokka had a furtive image of this brother and this sister entwined tightly, naked in a bed, and felt nauseous.
Go burn in hell, was the most coherent thought he could formulate.
Meanwhile, Aang had gotten to his feet and had regained his normal, reassuring appearance. Sokka watched him take a few steps forward and face the Fire Lord and the princess, intimidating despite the softness and sorrow in his brown eyes. A long silence enveloped the group, only interrupted by the sound of the waves in the distance and the cries of the birds this pandemonium had driven crazy. They had invaded the sky with their dispersed flight and seemed to call out to each other in the infinity of the blue sky.
The day had totally dawned now.
It was Aang's grief-stricken but solemn voice that broke the silence:
"Fire Lord Zuko, Princess Azula. You made your choice. Our ways part here."
The sun was setting.
Down in their family house, Azula was sleeping. With her consent, as she was very upset, Zuko had made her drink a powerful sleeping drug. She dozed off in his arms and hadn't even stirred an eyelid when he'd left her.
He was now standing on the high cliff overlooking the house. From there, he could take in the whole beach and the ocean that stretched as far as the eye could see. Its silvery surface was sometimes adorned with coppery or golden gleams which dazzled Zuko. Boats were gliding silently on the calm waves.
Between his nervous fingers, Zuko mechanically triturated blades of grass that he had torn from the ground. At his feet, high heathers stirred under the breeze of this mild summer evening. The melancholy of this doomsday landscape overwhelmed Zuko, but it was nothing compared to the despair that crawled through his veins. It was truly a magnificent spectacle. It would have been a perfect place to die, Zuko thought. It would have been so easy to jump off that cliff. One step would have sufficed and all would be forgotten.
But there was Azula. She needed him, as he needed her, at that moment when everyone had definitely turned their backs on him. Zuko was still considering joining her, lying down next to her and waiting for her to wake up. There, in this room where they had sometimes played as children, with only the silent walls of this empty house as witnesses, he could finally love her. He had been thinking about it all along that sad day they had spent huddled together in Azula's bed, unable to talk, or console each other. Yes, why not join her? What else could he possibly lose?
Uncle Iroh's face loomed in his mind. Then those of Kadao and Taïma who would not understand. And the sweet and faithful Ty Lee. What would be the disappointment on their faces when they saw them go home alone! What horrors would they imagine? No. He had no right to do what he so desperately wanted.
And then there had been the terror in Azula's eyes when he'd intended to have sex with her. Those insane words that had passed her trembling lips.
Guilt churned his insides and he thought back to the promise he had made to himself the night before, in the bedroom. He couldn't believe that less than twenty-four hours had passed since then.
I will keep my promise, he told himself. I don't want to hurt more people. I will be her brother. Just her brother.
He should have known he couldn't have all of them: his friends and Azula. From the day he had chosen to put his demented little sister in this asylum rather than to prison, a part of him had known that he was sealing his fate. He would inevitably have to make a choice one day. It was a choice he had made once before, in Ba Sing Se. It had been terribly hard. It was so much more now.
The sky unrolled its brazen and incandescent ribbons above the silvery water. Ember Island had never seemed so fittingly named.
Ember Island helps to understand yourself. It will reveal who you really are, the two crazy old ladies who escorted Azula everywhere during her adolescence used to claim.
And who was he deep down? What did the sea discover when it receded? A tyrannical king. An incestuous brother. A pervert who left the palace at night to find a whore in the slums of the city, a vulgar street girl who looked like the sister he had no right to love.
He heard, before seeing it, the small figure that joined him on the cliff. He didn't turn his head to meet her veiled gaze. He simply glanced sideways and saw her profile. Her face was turned towards the sea and Zuko caught the sunlight reflecting in her misty eyes.
"They're all gone," she announced without preamble.
"I know, I saw them," he answered evasively, throwing in front of him some of the blades of grass he was tweaking in his hands. He watched them whirl for a moment in front of him and scatter in the wind.
He had witnessed his friends' departure from afar. His eyes had long followed the little white spot of Appa moving through the air, as graceful as ships on the smooth surface of the sea. He had seen it stand out clearly against the scarlet sky. Then it seemed to flicker away, like the stars in a summer sky, before disappearing altogether, swallowed up by the devouring sea.
"When are you leaving?" he asked Toph.
"I'll take the first boat that leaves at dawn tomorrow," Toph said calmly. "I gathered my things. I will spend the night in one of the fishermen's huts near the seaport."
"You can stay here tonight, if you want," he offered hesitantly, aware of the absurdity of his invitation.
"I would rather not."
A silence.
"Why didn't you go with them?"
"They're going to the South. I'm going home. My students are waiting for me. I've been gone too long."
"I'm sorry it ended like this," he said.
"Me too," she replied, sincere.
Another silence. Zuko fixed his attention on the flight of a group of wild geese which passed quacking in front of the giant disc of the sun.
"I hope you will manage to restore the peace in your country," Toph continued. And after a moment of hesitation: "And that the two of you will be happy."
"I never wanted this," he said, ashamed, lowering his head to his feet.
"I know, Sparky."
"Why doesn't it seem to disgust you as much?"
Zuko had been wondering this for a long time. Despite her reaction when he'd talked about it with her and Aang in the training yard, despite her stubborn and devious personality, Toph inexplicably seemed to have… accepted. Zuko regretted that things had gone so far today. If he hadn't attacked Aang when the latter torn him from Sokka, Katara wouldn't have had to protect him by going after Zuko. And Azula wouldn't have come between them to strike the young woman with the first lightnings she had been able to bend since her accident. Katara could have died by his fault.
Toph had witnessed a similar scene in the palace dungeons. And she had already given him a chance. She had joined Uncle Iroh to lead his investigation and find the people who had tried to assassinate Azula. And she was still there tonight, when everyone had left without a goodbye, with nothing but a promise not to tell anyone about what had happened on that beach.
But it was over. He had gone beyond what Toph could handle. She had come to say goodbye to him. He knew he would never see her again. Not for a long time, at least, he added to himself, unable to imagine a whole life without enjoying his friend's company.
Toph fell silent for a moment, toying with a metal bracelet that she stamped into various shapes. The evening breeze made the locks of her black hair flutter around her slightly domed forehead. After a while she spoke:
"I never felt like I belonged to my family. I didn't feel loved for who I was, only for who I was meant to be: the heiress of the powerful Beifong family. I loved my parents, but they wouldn't let me be... me. I dreamed all my life of being the daughter of hardy peasants who mastered the earth as well as I did. When I met all of you, you, Sparky, were the only one in whom I found a reflection of my situation. You alone had a family that didn't understand you. You were a disappointment to them. But like me, you couldn't give up on them. I admired you, deeply, when you had the courage to turn your back on them. And I admired you even more when you came back to Azula, when she needed you the most, when nothing forced you to do so."
She paused and, using her steel bracelet, she made in her palm, three small figures holding each others hands. Amazed, Zuko saw a tear beading at the edge of her eyelids.
"You don't choose your family," Toph continued. "And I guess you don't always choose who you love either, Zuko. No matter how hard you try...sometimes it's just... there."
Zuko fell silent and as discreetly as possible wiped away the tears that were rolling down his cheeks.
"I think that before returning to my academy, I will pay a little visit to my parents."
"It's a very nice project," Zuko smiled, gently placing a hand on her shoulder. He was glad she didn't try to escape his touch.
They fell silent and listened for a moment to the hoarse cry of an albatross hovering above them, as if mocking their misery.
Zuko closed his eyes.
"She must be really pretty," Toph sighed, so quietly he wasn't sure he'd heard correctly.
He answered, even weaker, and the wind seemed to carry away the barely whispered words.
"You have no idea."
Iroh was waiting alone in the luxurious meeting room for Zuko's ministers arrival for a new defense council. On either side of his bald head, two thick locks of silver hair were pulled back and met in a ponytail, as he had failed to hold them in a bun, as tradition dictated. He couldn't help but feeling ridiculous. To top it off, he was sweating profusely in his royal clothes. The certainty that he didn't belong here swooped down on him again; and despite all his worries, he was both impatient and relieved to know that his nephew would soon return to seat on the Throne of Fire. Iroh was too old for that.
He took advantage of being alone to peek furtively at a large mirror hanging on the wall to his left and sighed at the red and gold of his heavy ceremonial robe.
He looked up to observe the walls and ceiling ornaments of which he already knew all the details. Each scroll, each arabesque, each sculpture was like the mocking wink of an old friend. Iroh sometimes had the absurd impression that the walls, like the servants of this palace, laughed at him, read in him like in an open book, and that they knew he wished he were anywhere else. Everywhere, red, black, gold, wherever he looked. Their recurrence seemed to taunt him. Iroh was choking.
The old man had come to conceive a form of irrational revulsion for those solemn shades he had once worn proudly and which now reminded him of the price of his imperialist and military ambitions. The price of his own foolishness.
These colors had once cost him a son. The scarlet red that graced every fabric, every wall, every Fire Nation artifact made his foodie's tongue tinge with the sickening metallic taste of blood.
Lu Ten's blood.
Slipping into his sheets at night was like wallowing in Lu Ten's blood. It was Lu Ten's blood, again, running down his stout frame and giving him shivers every time he donned the Fire Lord robe that Zuko had imposed on him before he left.
They'll never take you seriously wearing those commoner's togs, Uncle. You have to remind them who you are, that you represent me.
Iroh let out a small exclamation of annoyance. Zuko hadn't had the same scruples years before when he'd left his throne to go on adventures with the Avatar and his gang. Iroh had assumed the regency without anyone ever pointing at the color of his outfits. Of course, the context could explain this volte-face. Displaying in these walls, in such troubled times, the brown and green shades that people usally wore in Ba Sing Se could be misinterpreted. However, he couldn't help but notice that Zuko hadn't been so attached to symbols in the past and hardly felt the desperate need to remind the world of his radiance and the extent of his power. Iroh couldn't help but see an ominous sign in it: Azula's mark, lastingly imprinted on her brother's mind, like the cheeky imprint of a mistress's lips on her lover's neck after a torrid night.
Red were those marks, red was the blood, red were the lips of the bewitching Fire Nation princess… Iroh rubbed his forehead. He wondered if the accumulated heat and fatigue of the past few days, the anxiety born of recent events, weren't beginning to make him delirious. Besides, he felt a little feverish.
The Nation had stolen his only child from him.
Was it going to take his nephew as well?
The fire Iroh once saw as the sign of a higher power, now took on the appearance of a devouring monster. Would the ruthless beast that was ravaging everything finish engulfing Zuko, as it had engulfed his brother and niece, consuming their humanity and their reason?
But Iroh feared that it was another kind of flame that had been consuming his nephew for several months. A flame of the most destructive kind, one that devours your heart and mind. It had amber eyes, long smooth hair, thick and black as a moonless night, and irresistible ruby lips.
Iroh would have liked so much to believe in Azula's good faith. But the doubt that had never been silenced in him when it came to his unstable niece had only increased when he had received her letter, three days earlier. The letter in which she asked her uncle to send them an aircraft as soon as possible for an immediate return to the Caldera.
Iroh had been stunned when he recognized the seal on the envelope. He had thought it was a mistake, first. Zuko had insisted on avoiding any contact during their stay on Ember Island, fearing that a malevolent hand intercepted their mail. It was Azula's handwriting though, no doubt about it. Iroh recognized her prose, both measured and authoritative, the skilfully turned sentence, coated with courtesy but which didn't entirely conceal a form of abruptness.
"We need you, uncle", she said in the letter. "Something happened. The Fire Nation is in an even more perilous situation than we thought. The Avatar has turned his back on us and is threatening us. My beloved brother, your nephew, needs all the support: will he have yours?"
Iroh's heart had contracted violently while reading these lines. He had immediately ordered that Kadao be sent to fetch the Fire Lord and the Princess from Ember Island, under strong escort. What could have happened? Had Zuko definitely alienated the Avatar and his friends? It was undoubtedly the worst that could happen, and what he had feared as soon as his obstinate nephew had told him about this stupid vacation plan. Aang's presence was arguably one of the last bulwarks protecting Zuko's power. Without the deterrent presence of the most powerful and respected man in the world, Zuko's enemies would be celebrating.
A situation even more perilous than we thought…
His niece didn't know how much. It was as if trouble had waited for Zuko to leave to descend on the nation. Ever since he sat on the throne, Iroh had faced an incredible number of problems.
Following the directives imposed by his nephew, Iroh hadn't informed him of the rise of the Sons of Agni during the last few days, nor of the heinous way in which they used Tsuneo's son, poor beast of fair who foamed trestles of the city and exhibited his atrocious face to stir up the hatred and anger of the people against his torturers.
From a shameful and well-kept secret, Kojiro had become in a few days the living symbol of the young Fire Lord's tyranny, of his violent and incestuous sister's amorality. The young boy's charred and oozing face was plastered on every city walls. One could see him sometimes writhing in pain in the midst of a deluge of blue flames, sometimes huddled up on a chair, his face hidden in his hands in one corner of the poster, while, in the other corner, the Fire Lord was crowning a young woman with amber eyes and long black hair. In a few days, Kojiro had forged a notoriety that would never cease to trouble Iroh.
The poor skinned face boy had become the favourite kid of the Capital. Faced with popular outcry, the Sages and Iroh had no choice but to announce the holding of a trial against Princess Azula. Iroh had not yet informed his nephew of this decision and dared not imagine what would happen when he had to.
When he wanted to talk to Tsuneo, he found the door closed. The Commander was nowhere to be found. He, and six other Fire Nation Commanders and Admirals. Were these mysterious disappearances Sons of Agni's work? Those dangerous fanatics were suspected of many disappearances and kidnappings. Or was this a sign of some brewing secret action?
The more he thought back to his last meeting with Tsuneo, the more Iroh feared he hadn't been persuasive enough. Perhaps the Sons of Agni had suppressed Tsuneo in order to seize Kojiro? Perhaps the boy had joined them of his own free will?
Distraught, the Sages were convinced that these abductions were the work of Lu Fang and begged Iroh to reconsider the Princess' extradition request. It was perhaps the only solution, they claimed. A bad for a good. It was in the higher interest of the Nation.
The non-aggression pact proposal that Zuko had sent to Kuei some time before Azula's downfall had gone silence was certainly worrying, and the Sages were probably right to be alarmed, but Iroh refused to listen to them. It was the last thing he would ask Zuko. He knew only too well what the reaction of the young sovereign would be.
Other posters similar to the one Iroh had found in Ba Sing Se now adorned panels and walls around the capital. Lu Fang's propaganda style was recognizable, and Iroh wondered if it was possible that Kuei's Minister of War had somehow found a way to get in touch with the Sons of Agni.
The latter seemed better armed, better organized. Their attacks claimed more victims every day. The Sages did not believe it. For them, it was inconceivable that these radical nationalists would consort with the people of Earth. They felt little concern about the Sons of Agni, whom they considered secondary to the threat posed by the weak Kuei and the vindictive Lu Fang.
The Elder weren't the only ones who didn't take these agitators seriously.
Complaints from the families of missing or murdered stettlers multiplied, but few reached the council chambers or Iroh's ears. The old man feared that the fanatics had succeeded in recruiting many members among the army. They covered up the case, and during this time, the fire was spreading. Iroh suspected that a significant part of the Fire Nation elite was secretly favorable to this context, and even welcomed it. Including some of the members of the Fire Sages. Zuko's progressive ideas were far from having been well received. Something like this had to happen someday.
There was a need for clarification. But Iroh had his hands tied, he couldn't make any serious decisions. It was still up to Zuko to take such important resolves. He was the undisputed leader of the armies and only he could order his men to take the threat of the Sons of Agni more seriously and put down the protests that erupted daily in the streets. All were discontent with the crisis management: the settlers as well as the legitimate inhabitants. The two camps clashed sometimes and violent scuffles would oppose the citizens. A young soldier had been found dead the day before. His death was attributed to a group of radicalized settlers who roamed the streets in search of violence. It seemed that the colonists themselves, to whom Zuko had opened the doors wide, were beginning to feel a strong animosity towards their king. On both sides, he was accused of being weak, of doing nothing, of having fled at the worst moment. On this last point, Iroh would have hard time to contradict them.
"I'm worried about Zuko," Azula said in her letter. "The latest events have affected him deeply. If he knows he can count on the unfailing support of his devoted sister, he is highly aware that it will not be enough. He fears that he can no longer trust those he thought were his friends. He fears your rejection. Will you deny him, uncle?"
According to Azula, Zuko was ignorant of this letter. But he, Iroh, he had to know, she said. She had explained how, in a fit of madness, she had attacked Katara. How Aang went into a trance and knocked her and Zuko to the ground, threatening them with retaliation if they didn't bring peace to the world. The details were murky, and Iroh wondered if she was holding them back on purpose to avoid scaring him.
"I know I can count on your discretion," she wrote. "In such troubled times, we can only trust the family. I'm sure you won't contradict me. I know that our relationship has long been strained, but we have something in common: we both love Zuko. I conjure you, for the love of him, to believe me.
You can see the harm I inflict on myself by confessing this to you. Zuko will try to hide the truth from you, or he will distort it to protect me and spare his friends whose interests are always close to his heart. I am sure of it. He won't tell you anything about the extreme aggressiveness I showed in a moment of madness, nor about the great violence the Avatar used against us. If you only knew how sorry I am, uncle! Zuko is so unhappy because of me!
I know what I'm asking you goes against your principles, but I beg you to keep quiet about this sad affair, at least until our return. I'm afraid, if Zuko feels betrayed again, his fiery temper will get the better of his wisdom and he will do something irreparable.
You were able to calm his ardor when, furious at the murder attempt on my person, he was ready to annihilate the Earth Kingdom. Let's not give him another chance to lose his mind. If the Fire Sages were to learn that the Avatar has turned his back on us, they will immediately ask for my head. I don't fear Lu Fang, but I refuse to be the catalyst of Zuko's anger. I will not be the one who diverted him from his beautiful ideals and the humanist values of which he was finally able to convince me.
I'm not asking you to believe me, uncle, when I say that I changed in Zuko's contact. I know I am a lost cause, but I assure you that only my brother's happiness and the interest of the Fire Nation are important to me. A new war would spread chaos and we must use all our energy to avoid it.
Respectfully,
Your niece, Azula."
Reading this letter had thrown Iroh into unimaginable confusion. Even today, he wondered how he was going to welcome his nephew and his niece. Iroh didn't believe for a second Azula's sincerity when she claimed to want to defend Zuko's ideals. But she was not wrong on one point: her brother would not hesitate to declare war to protect her. He had seen it in his golden eyes as he spent his days sitting by Azula's bedside, a suppressed rage darkening his heart and mind, a little more each day.
If Aang hadn't been there and Mai's involvement in Azula's attack hadn't been known, no doubt Zuko would have sent his troops to ravage Ba Sing Se. He was about to summon all his Generals when Iroh had discovered the Fire Lady's probable betrayal.
Iroh was distracted from his thoughts by the entrance of Kando, the treasurer, who was walking towards him with a sheaf of documents under his arm. He was very quickly followed by his colleagues who rushed into the room, one after the other.
When they were all seated around the large table, Iroh invited them to sit down. He pretended to ignore the glances exchanged between some ministers and the smirk that tugged the lips of Tadashi, the Immigration Minister, when his eyes fell on the acting Fire Lord's outfit, stuck in his too tight robe. The weakling man Iroh had known couldn't have better expressed the contempt he felt for the former Crown Prince. Iroh knew that a sgnificant number of generals, political and military leaders had never forgiven how he trampled on his title after Lu Ten's death.
Adopting his most majestic look, Iroh cleared his throat and announced:
"Well, gentlemen, I suggest we start, should we?"
I hope you enjoyed this new chapter. The inevitable has finally happened: Azula and Zuko have pushed Team Avatar's patience way too far and are now well and truly alone.
How do you think they'll react to Gaang's departure?
I wanted Toph to remain more neutral in this affair and I was very attached to this scene with Zuko: the image of these farewells had already been etched in my mind for a long time. I hope you enjoyed reading this scene as much as I enjoyed writing it.
What do you think of Azula's letter to Iroh? I'm curious to know your opinion about this.
In chapters 26 and 27, Azula's attitude may have seemed strange to you, and even a little OOC. I know she may have appeared as a bit silly, overplaying the role of the adoring lover and the co-dependency. Just be aware that it was on purpose, both on Azula's part and mine. The next chapter will shed some light on her intentions. I just remind you of a passage from chapter 24, which you may have forgotten and which took place some time after her awakening, when Azula, still very diminished, was still very mad at Zuko:
"Along the way, Azula decided she couldn't stand all this uncertainty anymore. Time had come for Zuko to prove his loyalty to her and she thought she knew how to get it. But before that, she would have to prove hers to him, regain his trust. As well as that of the yokels he called his friends."
I wanted to remind you of this passage so that you are warned for the next chapter!
Thanks for reading and please, share your thoughts with me!