Chapter Text
The meeting ended. Zuko felt wrong on the inside. He was trying- he was trying so hard to be a good prince, a good son, but it all felt so wrong.
“Zuko,” Ozai said, softly. Zuko turned, looking up towards his father. Ozai motioned for him to stay put. The generals rose, bowed, and exited.
Zuko waited. Azula had slipped out, Zuko wasn’t quite sure when. They were alone.
Ozai turned fully towards him. “Zuko,” he said, “The former General Iroh will not change his ways. He will not come back to the family. We can’t afford the destruction that would ensue should he escape. It could destroy our country. We have scheduled his execution for one week after the eclipse, along with any other high-ranking prisoners we take.” He set his hand on Zuko’s shoulder. Zuko felt himself stiffen at the contact. “You understand, don’t you?”
Zuko was sitting on the ground, not kneeling. His father’s hand wasn’t burning, it was just there. But his eyes were just as cold as they had been at the Agni Kai. Ozai’s eyes were always cold, even when Zuko was burning. Not like Uncle. Uncle was warm and kind and- No. No Zuko didn’t understand but speaking out against things he didn’t understand never helped anyone. So Zuko nodded, and bowed, and left. He found himself walking. He didn’t know where he was going- but he had to get away somehow.
He came back to himself when he heard Mai call out for him. He was sitting, arms wrapped around his knees, rocking slightly. He wasn’t exactly sure how long he’d been on the palace roof- but based on how dark it was it had been a while.
Mai looked… concerned. Her normal blank expression was there, but there were creases between her eyes, her lips slightly more downturned than usual. The expression wasn’t big, but it was there. She sat down beside him, taking one of his hands in both of hers. The silence wasn’t oppressive, but he could tell she was waiting for him to speak.
“They’re going to kill Uncle,” he said, voice cracking. “They’re going to kill him.”
He looked at Mai, at the alarm on her face, knew he couldn’t let it happen. He’d save Uncle, no matter how much he lost for it.
Father had trusted him. Father trusted him, and Zuko was going to betray him. But it was wrong, so very wrong to kill Uncle.
Uncle was a good person, who helped other people. And Father was trying to burn the world to the ground. Zuko knew people in the earth kingdom, people who would die if Father won. Uncle would stop Ozai. Zuko would be betraying his father. But he couldn’t let Uncle die.
Father deserved to know though, why Zuko was leaving. Zuko would tell him- during the eclipse. When his father couldn’t burn anything. Then he’d free Uncle.
---…---
He wrote a letter to Mai, telling her all that Uncle had done- telling her he couldn’t let Uncle die.
He strapped his dao to his back, placing his crown on Mai’s table along with the note. After today- he would be a prince no longer.
—-...—-
Zuko walked into the underground throne room when the sun went dark. He told his father what he was going to do. His father listened.
He started to walk away- then his father spoke of Mother. Despite himself and the voices screaming at him to move- to leave- Zuko listened. Eight minutes can pass quickly.
Zuko felt fire return- he felt cold. Ozai watched the color drain from his face and stood slowly, lazily. Zuko took a step back, edging towards the door. Ozai stepped forward and flames shot from his palm in a steady stream, superheating the metal of the door. Not quite enough to melt it completely, just enough to trap Zuko in the underground throne room. If he’d had time to think Zuko would have hoped that Ozai hadn’t just melded the door together- if he had, then the Da Li would have to get them out- and asking Azula for anything was like pulling out teeth.
Zuko didn’t have time to think because Ozai was moving, fire roaring from him in a wave. Zuko split it down the middle- dispersing it to either side of himself as Ozai kicked out more flames. Zuko ducked, then slammed a palm forward to send fire back. His fire was pathetic, the weakest he’d produced in years. That did not seem like a good sign.
Ozai smiled. He slowed his barrage. Zuko dodged. He didn’t draw his swords, he needed his hands free to keep the fire away from him. Even with all of Zuko’s skill though, he knew Ozai was playing with him. Zuko was like a mouse-rat that kept running from the weasel-snake, not realizing it was already dead. Zuko felt his breath growing short- with the door closed and his father’s flames eating up the oxygen in the room breathing was difficult.
The guards had returned and tried to enter the fight, to end it. They, apparently, hadn’t noticed that Ozai was enjoying this. It was a game to him. A game that would end with Zuko dead.
Ozai shook his head. “It’s bad form to interrupt and Agni Kai,” He said, and the guards stayed back. If Zuko had been thinking he might have laughed, his father was making a habit of challenging him to duels without his knowledge.
Flames came down, toward his face. Zuko felt a brief moment of panic before he swept them aside. His left leg caught fire as the fire he’d diverted found something to burn. Zuko gasped, leg failing him as he fell to one knee. Of course he fell on the burnt one. It wasn’t near as bad a burn as his face had been- but his mind flashed back all the same.
Ozai shook his head. “What a disappointment.” He said, “Iroh was supposed to help you make your bending stronger- but I guess it makes sense. He’s a failure, just like you. I was never going to let you save him, and by now he’s probably already dead. I sent guards to deal with him while the eclipse lasted.” He laughed then, a low, amused sound that was so very, very wrong.
Zuko could barely think through the lack of air and the pain- but that cut through. Father had killed Uncle. Father had killed Uncle. Something red and angry and ugly and dark reared its head inside of him.
Ozai raised his hands, moving them in the oh-so-familiar circular motion as lighting crackled between them. Zuko forced himself to his feet as the lightning came. He raised his arm, directing it, in-down- out. Straight towards Ozai. Ozai barely had time to look surprised before it struck him in the chest. He fell, like the burnt and broken remains of one of Azula’s dolls.
Zuko stared. Down at his hands, still tingling from the lightning and trembling from the shock. At his father, lying in a crumpled heap on the ground. Zuko was moving. His burnt leg protested- tried to give out- he didn’t let it. He walked the few feet between him and his father. The guards didn’t stop him- they seemed as shocked as he.
Zuko knelt by his father, two fingers feeling for a pulse. There was none. Ozai’s eyes were wide open in shock and pain. Zuko closed them, gently. He was trembling. Had he meant to kill him? He’d heard that uncle was dead and the lightning... could he have meant to kill his father? Could he have not?
Someone slammed on the door but couldn’t open it. Zuko barely noticed. A guard collapsed. Apparently he wasn’t the only one who thought it was hard to breathe in here.
Finally, one of the walls slid open. Azula stepped inside, as poised as ever. Then she saw father. And Zuko. For a moment, she froze. He saw her mask slip, saw pain and fear and rage in her eyes.
She took a step forward. “What happened?” she asked.
“Agni Kai,” Zuko found his voice rasping out, “Lightning.”
“Hmm.” She said, taking another step forward. Zuko couldn’t find the will to move. “Then I challenge you too. Right now.”
The guards moved further away as she moved. Her kata was perfect, but the flames puttered out just as Zuko’s had moments ago. Her eyes widened and she tried over and over again to get her flames to hit him, burn him. Zuko watched her, and something of her panic deadened his own.
He stood again, stepped forward. She froze, staring up at him as he placed his hands on her shoulders. Her breathing was ragged, which was rather strange- her breathe control had been impeccable for years. “Mine’s doing the same thing,” he said. “I’ll figure out what’s wrong with it. Give me three months.”
She seemed to be searching his face for… something. “You?” she finally asked, “Why would I trust you to find anything?”
“I found the Avatar in three years. Father gave me a lifetime. If anything, I find things ahead of schedule.”
Something she saw must have reassured her for she calmed, mask slipping back into place. “I’ll hold you to that.” She said, “For now, I’m going to take care of the prisoners. You can be Fire Lord until you figure out what’s wrong with our bending. Then we’ll have our Agni Kai.”
She turned, the perfect princess once again, and left the room, her Da Li following. Zuko watched her go. Uncle. He thought suddenly, Uncle.
He was running then, leg protesting every step. But he had to know. Uncle had to be alright, he had to be.
…---…
There were bodies scattered in the hall, some frozen, some burnt, some crushed. Some alive, some dead. Some fire nation- some decidedly not. He needed a healer for the living ones. There was blood. So much blood. Zuko searched through them all. Uncle wasn’t there.
He stared around him. Uncle wasn’t there, but that didn’t mean Uncle was alive. He could be dying. He could be dead. He could be alive but injured and Zuko- wouldn’t know. Uncle wouldn’t try to get word to him, he wouldn’t know that Zuko cared. Zuko found a guard, hiding in an otherwise empty cell and sent him for a healer, then went back to the hall with the bodies.
Someone was coming. He turned- saw Mai. She was holding a crumpled note in her hand. She stared at him, then the destruction around him. “What happened?” she asked.
“Father… Father sent men to kill Uncle. He got out. He’s not here.”
Mai hesitated for a fraction of a second, then grabbed his arm. “Come on,” she said, “We need to get you out of here. If Ozai finds you… you’re dead.”
Zuko didn’t budge. She looked up at him, exasperation and confusion blurring on her normally blank face. “Mai,” he said. “I- I’m Fire Lord now. Azula challenged me but her fire’s broke. I’m Fire Lord. I killed him. He told me he’d killed Uncle and he shot lightning at me and I killed him. I killed him.” He was babbling, and at some point he’d started crying and he shouldn’t cry, he knew that, but he couldn’t seem to stop.
Mai stared at him, shock written across her features. Then she wrapped her arms around him. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered.
Zuko’s walls of shock and denial were breaking down. He couldn’t stop himself from leaning into her embrace and crying harder. The guard returned with the healer, and Zuko finally forced himself to move.
Fire Lord Ozai’s body was cremated that night.
Zuko was crowned Fire Lord the morning of the next day.