Zuko stood in front of a small metal door, preparing himself for what was to come. The Day of Black Sun was upon them, and even under hundreds of feet of solid rock, Zuko knew that the attack had begun on the city. He could already feel himself weakening as the sun was covered.

He took a calming breath. "I'm ready to face you." Before he could talk himself back out of it, he opened the door revealing a darkened room of stone and at the end was his father protected by several procession guards.

Ozai glanced up from his tea as the door opened. Mildly shocked upon seeing the boy, he set his cup back down. "Prince Zuko, what are you doing here?"

When Zuko didn't answer, and the both of them could feel their firebending dissipate into nothing, Ozai reiterated, "Why are you here?"

Zuko continued to stare forward, remaining completely aware of the swords on his back, just in case. Each of the guards were looking pensive at his presence. "I'm here to tell the truth."

The elder man smirked, "Telling the truth during the middle of an eclipse. This should be interesting." He waved his hand, dismissing the guards, and they all filed out, closing the door behind them.

As soon as the door was shut, he began. "First of all, in Ba Sing Se, it was Azula who took down the Avatar, not me."

"Why would she lie to me about that?"

It was almost a moment of victory for the prince. "Because he's not dead. He was saved by your daughter." He had to swallow the lump forming in his throat the mention of her.

Ozai's composure began to crumble at that. "What?"

He remembered the day he finally found out what Aiko had wondered for so long. Azula had been in the garden when he asked. At the time Zuko had no idea why he needed to know so badly, but now he realized it was guilt. He felt he owed it to his sister. "Why was Aiko never a fugitive? She had no wanted papers," he had asked. He still remembered the anger and anxiety he felt when in the fourteen-year-old's presence.

"Do you really want to know, dear brother? Perhaps, I wanted to protect my twin. Maybe, I was looking out for her." Her façade of a gentle smile melted into a smirk as Zuko stared at her unbelievingly. "Or, maybe, having my face on a wanted poster would be bad for father's publicity. The people didn't know of her, so why make them question my loyalty? If Father knew of your little pet, our perfect society would fall into chaos. No need to bring her into all of this. It wouldn't be what she wanted, would it?"

At the time, he had wanted to believe that her answer had been the former and she was messing with his head. He ignored the nagging feeling until recently. He should have pushed the topic further, because now he knew she told the truth. And, that hurt him.

Zuko wanted to smirk, he wanted to show his father up, but he was fighting himself from simply breaking down. "You know exactly who I'm talking about. The one who disappeared, the one you tried to cover up. Well, she came back, and she helped him survive long enough to be healed. In fact, he's probably leading this invasion. Thanks to Aiko, he could be on his way here right now."

Ozai rose from his seat in a fit of anger and pointed to the door. It was impossible, he refused to believe that she could come back. "Get out! Get out of my sight right now if you know what's good for you!"

"That's another thing. I'm not taking orders from you anymore."

His voice rose to a threatening level. "You will obey me, or this defiant breath will be your last!"

Knowing full well what Ozai could do, even when without his bending, Zuko pulled his swords. "Think again. I am going to speak my mind, and you are going to listen."

Dismayed that he lost control of events, Ozai sat back down.

"For so long, all I wanted was for you to love me, to accept me. I thought it was my honour I wanted, but really, I was just trying to please you." She told me. She said I was blinded by it all. She tried to tell me and it took me until now to figure it out. "You, my father, who banished me just for talking out of turn." He pointed his right sword at the man. "My father, who challenged me, a thirteen-year-old boy, to an Agni Kai. How could you possibly justify a duel with a child?"

Scornful of the way he was being spoken to, Ozai responded. "It was to teach you respect."

"It was cruel! And it was wrong."

Ozai's face twitched distastefully as his anger grew. "Then you have learned nothing!"

In another situation, Zuko might have actually scoffed at the irony of the statement. "No, I learned everything!" Uncle and Aiko were better teachers than you could have ever hoped. If I only I listened. "And I've had to learn it all on my own! Growing up, we were taught that the Fire Nation was the greatest civilization in history and the war was our way of sharing our greatness with the rest of the world. What an amazing lie that was! The people of the world are terrified by the Fire Nation. They don't see our greatness. They hate us! And we deserve it. We've created an era of fear in the world. And if we don't want the world to destroy itself, we need to replace it with an era of peace and kindness."

Ozai only laughed at his foolishness. "Your uncle has gotten to you, hasn't he?"

"Yes." Zuko didn't bother to try stopping the proud smile that formed on his face. "He has." Seeing his father continue to get angrier, he didn't bother to stop. "It doesn't end there, because Aiko did, too. It may have taken me too long, but her experience in the real world far exceeded my own. I learned more from my youngest sibling in less than a year than I did from my own father in thirteen. She may be gone now, but because of her, after I leave here today, I'm gonna free Uncle Iroh from his prison and I'm gonna beg for his forgiveness." He stared down the man who had once meant the world to him, thinking of all the times he had turned down his uncle and he still stood by his side. "He's the one who's been a real father to me."

Ozai laughed once more. "Oh that's just beautiful. And, maybe he can pass down to you the ways of tea and failure."

There was a moment in which Zuko expected Aiko to make some sort of witty comment about how Uncle could try, but her brother would never live up to it. His grip on the sword tightened as he tried to regain control. The memory of it all was still burned fresh in his mind.

He would visit her constantly on the boat ride home even though she never woke. He lived in the hope that she would pull through. It had been a full three days before the news came. One of her healers came before him, a solemn look on his face.

He remembered the grief, the burning pain deep within him, before the man had time to say anything. "What happened? Is she okay?" He had pounded the poor, tired man with questions that he could not answer. His silence had been enough. Without hesitation, he ran towards her room. None of the healers stood in his way, as he looked down at the young girl.

Burns mottled her bare stomach and feet. Even then he could tell she wasn't breathing. There was no life. The only bit of relief he felt came from the fact that, though sleep had pained her, she had found peace in death. She looked so relaxed that he had sworn he may have even seen a faint smile in her expression.

He never did find out what they did with her body.

"But, I've come to an even more important decision," he closed his eyes attempting to close out the memory and move forward with what he had planned. This was for her, and he would not break down. Not now. "I'm going to join the Avatar and I'm going to help him defeat you."

Ozai was no fool. He saw the boy's weakness. Poor little Zuko wanted to prove himself. He knew exactly what to do. A sly smirk played his lips. "Really? Since you're a full-blown traitor now and you want me gone, why wait? I'm powerless. You've got your swords. Why don't you do it now?"

"Because I know my own destiny. Taking you down is the Avatar's destiny." Zuko took a moment to put his swords away. "Goodbye."

With his statement of finality, Zuko made to leave, but Ozai wasn't quite finished yet. The boy was more different than he had realized, but there was one weakness that he had foolishly shown. One that he could easily use. The Firelord stood, a controlled anger showing as the Prince made an attempt to leave. "Coward! You think you're brave enough to face me, but you'll only do it during the eclipse. If you have any real courage, you'll stick around until the sun comes out." His anger melted strategically into a knowing smile. "Don't you want to know what happened to your sister?"

Zuko stopped abruptly and turned to face his father and Ozai knew he had the boy under wraps. "What happened that day?"

All emotion left his face as he began to explain. No point in holding back information, the hoy would be dead soon either way. "After you were born, without the spark of a proper firebender, I was disappointed. What would it look like for someone of the royal family to have a nonbender as a firstborn. I wanted to be away with you, but as a her son, your mother reasoned for your life.

"Ill-content with the idea of having no proper bender as a child -- long before we discovered that you were able -- we tried again. What we did not anticipate were twins. One, an obvious prodigy, and another, who seemed just as incapable as you."

Zuko's fist clenched. Not at being called incapable, but having someone who gave her life for the betterment of the world be considered so lowly. Oazi continued, acting oblivious to the boy's temper. "Three years we waited for some sign. Ursa reasoned that if you could show the signs later in life, then so could she. By the girl's third birthday my patience had worn thin. I was going to be away with her one way or another. An assassin was to wait until she was alone with me, and he was to take the girl out on sight."

Enraged at his heartlessness, Zuko lost it. "You were going to kill your own child?! Because she wasn't as good as Azula?"

Ozai's face distorted momentarily. "Do not interrupt me!" He took a short breath and his calm façade returned. "The opportunity never arrived, for mid-day that day, by some intervention unrecognizable, she had disappeared from under the watch of your mother. We hid her existence to deter unwanted questions, but it seems some's curiosity could not be quenched."

Zuko eyes began to water. Even Ozai had no clue as to why his ability to spend an entire childhood with her had been ripped from him. He bit his tongue, hoping the eclipse would soon be over so he could leave behind this wretched place. "So, you know nothing?"

"I did not say that. Your Uncle, after several months of study and a claimed visit to the Spirit World, came to the conclusion that the spirits had intervened in order to save her life -- though he did not seem to know why."

Ozai could finally feel the power of the sun run through him once again. "It seems she got lucky," he stood with a new fire in his eyes. "But you will not be!" Giving hardly a moment for Zuko to react, a bolt of lightning cracked from the Firelord's fingertips.

The young prince was sent several feet back, and in a moment of excitement and terror, he redirected it back towards his father. In the moment of confusion given, Zuko made his escape.

Perhaps, maybe, just maybe, if the spirits saw fit to save her once, they would do it again. That was the hope he would live by for as long as it took.

End.